Insight On Starting And Growing Your Own Business by Host Gator CEO Brent Oxley

Brent Oxley is the CEO and founder of Host Gator. Host Gator is a website and blog hosting company currently located in Texas. I read with fascination his account of starting this business and growing it to 200,000 customers posted to his blog when they reached the milestone of 200,000 customers. Brent is less than 30 years old and describes in detail what he has experienced and endured in growing to the level of success he is experiencing now.

I am a customer and have been very happy with this company for over four years. I did not know this story and do not know Brent personally. However, I can relate to some of his experiences as I started an Internet Service Provider company in 1995. Technology was not as advanced as it is today and I found operating the equipment and technical parts of that business were not where I wanted to spend my time. My focus continues to be on how to use the tools of the Internet to help build business revenue and profits. I am happy Brent loves what he does because his company does an excellent job and I am delighted to be able to rely on the services of Host Gator.

I think that often time, people do not have an appreciation for some of the difficulties entrepreneurs face in growing a business. Brent describes his very well and you will have a good sense of his experiences. However, he and many others work through those challenges with passion for what they are doing which further fuels profitable progress.

This is a reality check for those thinking about starting their own business or taking an existing one to the next level. My advice for anyone looking to go into business or who is already there includes:

Pursue the business because you are passionate about what you do and not because there is an opportunity to make money. When money is the primary factor, being unhappy is often the result.
Know the critical success factors for your business and don’t compromise on the quality of people needed for those areas. For Host Gator, those factors are system reliability and customer support. You will notice how Brent focuses on those two areas.
Know when to bring in more experienced leadership than you have. Look at eBay and Google as an example. In both cases, executive leadership was brought into the business. Revenue and Profits grew exponentially.

Enjoy Brent’s story. Click Here for the original post which is presented in its entirety below

Steve Pohlit

Contact Information

Buseiness Consulting, Executive Coaching
International Business Resources

Social Media Services
New Digital Media, Inc.

727-587-7871
Email

HostGator recently reached 200,000 active customers and we are on pace to break 300,000 within a year.

I remember when I’d be out celebrating if HostGator managed to get two signups in a week. Now, we’re seeing thousands of signups a week. Back in the day, my celebrating consisted of nothing more than dropping the Ramen noodles or the tuna can I had in my hands and grabbing some sushi for an hour before scrambling back to work. At the time, I was a poor college student who invested every penny I had back into the business I was building.

The HostGator.com domain was registered on October 10, 2002 and here are some statistics about how many active customers we’ve had at a few points since then.

2/1/2003: 112 active customers
2/1/2004: 1,031 active customers
2/1/2005: 6,892 active customers
2/1/2006: 21,434 active customers
2/1/2007: 50,213 active customers
2/1/2008: 92,752 active customers
2/1/2009: 157,432 active customers
Today: 200,000+

How HostGator Came To Be:

I’ve been an entrepreneur since I was a kid. In sixth grade, I sold candy at school and had all the kids in my neighborhood working for me. When I was 14, my cousins and I had a business where we sold watermelons from a truck on the side of a road. The deal we offered was simple, but effective: “2 for $5.”

Ain’t no Glory in Selling Watermelons

It wasn’t until I was a sophomore in high school that I got hooked on trying to make money on the Internet. What sucked me in was the paid to surf programs such as AllAdvantage, Bepaid.com, Cashfiesta, and the like. These companies claimed they would pay you to surf the Internet while looking at ads. I created my first website on a service much like GeoCities and was able to generate over 50,000 referrals between all the programs I was enrolled in. One by one, I learned that all of the programs were a scam. I made $65 when I was entitled to over a million.

After the paid to surf venture failed, I decided to create real web sites and sell my own advertising inventory. The network that I created was called The Freak Network and consisted of scfreak.com, dfreak.com, and wcfreak.com, all of which were named after best selling Blizzard Entertainment games (Starcraft, Diablo, and Warcraft, respectively).

My network was making me about $40 a day, which was impressive given that all of my pimple covered friends had to get real jobs and make less money. Everything was going great until the .com bubble bursted and my advertisers began to cheat me out of money. I was left with no choice but to find alternative sources of income and that’s when I had the epiphany to start selling web hosting on the side. My network of websites was receiving tens of thousands of page views per day and I already had the servers, so selling web hosting seemed like the perfect plan. Freakwebhosting.com was born. My plan was to use the traffic from my gaming websites to gain customers.

Freak Web Hosting

I built Freak Web Hosting to just shy of a hundred customers that consisted mostly of gaming sites. The problem was that I wasn’t a system administrator and that I wasn’t that technical. This resulted in poor security which lead to hackings, horrible uptime, and a never ending series of technical issues that kept me from running a successful business. I hated being a webhost at the time! I was able to get the business but no matter how hard I searched I couldn’t find someone to take care of the technical issues at a price I could afford.

I spent years trying to make my network a viable business and another year trying to get my web hosting venture running smoothly . The final straw was when the Data Center claimed that my server was “compromised and outgoing malicious traffic.” To alleviate this problem, they ordered OS reload after reload, which drove me to a point just short of insanity and a state in which I felt life was over. (In hindsight, I believe the datacenter lied to me about the malicious traffic in order to get me to leave due to the amount bandwidth my sites were using. The deal they gave me at the time was too good to be true and that’s exactly what it ended up being.)

I could have kept on fighting, but it would have been a futile effort. I was left with no choice but to scale down operations. I did the right thing by refunding everyone’s last month of hosting and even refunded those that prepaid for a year in advance. At the time there were three annual customers that I didn’t have enough money to repay, so I contacted them to let them know my intentions and eventually paid them back a few months later.

By the time The Freak Network and Freak Web Hosting failed, high school was coming to an end. I didn’t have much time before I would have to decide what to do with my life. I felt like a complete failure and had nothing to show for all my years of work.

I wanted to be a success and make some type of difference in the world and I felt as if I couldn’t accomplish this by going to college. I was very close to joining the army and even went to see a recruiter. I believed that if I joined the army, I’d have purpose in my life and be able to make some type of difference. Just days before enlisting, my dad talked me out of joining the army and helped me get into Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida.

I spent a few months living on campus and attending classes without deviating too much from the life of a regular student. That’s when an old friend contacted me telling me that he started a server company. He knew that if we went into business together I’d have no problem getting the customers. He begged me for a week to get back into hosting and eventually convinced me to partner with him and try hosting again. After failing the first time around, I was against the idea and didn’t want to try again unless I was confident I had someone with technical abilities to keep the servers up and running.

The deal we came to orally was that I’d run my own business and I’d give him half the proceeds for keeping the servers secure and up and running. I quickly revived the old Freakwebhosting.com brand and reached out to all my old customers. I managed to convince a majority of them to sign up very quickly and within days, I was once again a web host and once again in the hosting industry.

It only took a couple of months for reality to set in . Servers began having multi-hour outages on a daily basis as a result of the datacenter going offline. I was bringing the business in while my partner was failing to uphold his end of the bargain. The servers weren’t up and running; they were failing.

I decided to break the partnership and venture off on my own. I ended up purchasing a few servers from Dedicatednow.com and managed to find a system administrator who would help me as I needed and bill me by the hour. The combination of the new Data Center and system administrator made Freak Web Hosting more stable than ever.

With things running so well and the old Freak Website Network being dead, I knew the company needed a new design and a new name. I searched for days and tried hundreds of domain name combinations before I narrowed it down to two names: HostGator and GatorHost. I was torn on which domain to choose. I didn’t know which one sounded better and couldn’t afford both domain names. HostGator may sound like a much better name now, but at the time and without all of our branding, they both sounded the same.

Original Web Site for HostGator

Business was booming and my freshman year of college was coming to an end. By this time, every second of my life was spent in class, doing homework, or taking chats and answering emails on the computer.

I was a 24/7 one-man operation. I was being woken up numerous times a night with phone calls and there wasn’t a single class I would make it through without having to leave at least a few times to take a business call. I knew I was on path to be making more than the average college graduate in about six months. I also knew it would have been impossible to finish another year of college while running HostGator, so I decided to drop out of school and follow my dream of growing HostGator into the world’s largest hosting company.

Understandably, my family and friends were all very much against my decision to dropout. I had many businesses that failed to pan out and the chances of HostGator succeeding were slim. In the end, everyone expressed their thoughts strongly, but supported me in my decision. To me, it was a no-brainer. If things didn’t work out, I’d just go back to school and be miserable. If they worked out, I’d be pursuing my dream.

Things continued to go well for the Gator at the expense of living life, having friends, and never being able to leave the computer. Within minutes of leaving the computer there would always be some type of emergency with a service going offline that would require a restart and I’d have to run back to my computer. More times than not, I’d make it half way to my wherever I was going before getting a phone call or an alert and being forced to turn back to resolve the issue. This was before the iPhone, smartphones, air cards, or any other type of mobile tool. What amazed me is the fact that I was not that technical, but was still able to help most of my customers by simply taking their question and applying common sense or finding a work around.

When HostGator had just started, I hated resellers because they required a large amount of relatively technical service. What’s ironic is that as we grew, I saw how easy it was to obtain reseller customers. Before long, obtaining reseller customers is where most of my focus and advertising money went. Ideal timing allowed us to fill the reseller niche while the competition focused primarily on shared hosting. Today, shared hosting is the source of most of our new business, but we continue to remain the worlds’ largest reseller hosting company.

If a major issue ever came up, I’d be helpless when it came to actually solving the problem. I was at the mercy of an hourly system administrator who usually had something more important to do than fix my servers. In the early days, HostGator was inadequately prepared for drives failures and similar large-scale issues. When one happened, there would usually be data loss and days of little to no sleep while I helped customers recover. I continued life in my apartment prison for another year before the company grew beyond what I could handle myself and I hired my first full time employee, Ben Welch.

Ben would arrive at my house while I was sleeping and immediately get to work taking calls, chats, and tickets. When I woke up, I’d head over to bedroom and get to work with him. At approximately the same time, I hired an Indian outsourced support company. The support volume was more than Ben and me could handle alone and it was impossible for us to man all of the stations all of the time.

I don’t believe in outsourcing, but at that point, outsourcing was the only way I could have 24/7 coverage of email and chat support that I could afford.

In hindsight, outsourcing was a big mistake. Choosing to outsource our supported resulted in the loss of customers, a damaged reputation, and low caliber support. As soon as we could afford an office, we rented a 1,600 square foot office in Boca Raton, Florida and began replacing our outsourced employees with in-house employees. We learned our lesson with outsourcing and have had 100% in-house support for several years now. There’s absolutely no chance of us switching to outsourced support in the future – it just isn’t worth whatever we’d save in the short run.

When we first moved into our first office, I thought that it was overkill and I wasn’t sure how (or if) we’d ever fill it. In no time, sales and growth caught fire. We had people working in closets, hallways, and I had to share my office with another employee. The office wasn’t that bad of a place, but there was one major problem. We had a single stall co-ed restroom for over 24 employees to share and nobody to clean it. If you had to go, you’d usually end up holding it or driving home.

I continued to wake up numerous times a night to take support calls and contribute to our service and support as much as possible. This took a toll on me, though. At the ripe old age of 22, I began to develop a very serious case of carpel tunnel syndrome. It slowly progressed until I was at the point where tapping any finger on either hand would feel like needles piercing me to the bone. I ended up trying a few alternatives to typing, including holding pencils in the palms of my fists and hiring someone to type and move the mouse for me. Typing with pencils only helped so much and hiring someone to communicate what to do ended up being a nightmare.

Eventually, the pain worsened to the point where it affected everything I did. If I went to a movie, all I could think about was my hands hurting. If I drove home, the pain would be so intolerable that I would have to alternate sitting on my hands so they would fall sleep to allow the pain to temporarily go away. Technology began to improve and I soon learned of Dragon Naturally Speaking speech recognition software. This was a lifesaver for me and while it wasn’t perfect, it did allow me to continue to perform my duties, just less effectively. I ended up using Dragon for a few years before my hands recovered to a point where I’m no longer in pain and I’m able to type without any discomfort. I’m sure if my old lack of sleep and constant typing routine came back, my problems would as well.

Eventually, we ran out of closets in our Boca Raton office and had to find a new location. We were also severely understaffed and couldn’t find the people we needed to keep up with our rapid growth. Boca Raton is where people go to retire not find a job. It’s so bad that the locals would always joke that Boca was “Heaven’s waiting room.”

We initially searched for office space in South Florida, but found the prices to be astronomical for the size we needed to maintain growth. We began looking in Dallas, Texas for a new office and somehow ended up looking in Houston. Soon after, we found and purchased the 30,000 square feet office building that we’re currently located in. The office was perfect for us since 16,000 square feet was available for use and the rest was leased out. We currently occupy around 18,000 square feet of the building and I anticipate that we’ll be filling the rest in a little over a year .

When we first moved into the new building, me and a few other employees took up residency throughout the building. There was very few employees at first and nothing but empty space. Many people that I met had no idea what web hosting was and were convinced that I was a drug dealer. They believed this because I was so young, successful, and living in an empty building with a bunch of young adults in what resembled a frat house. It also didn’t help at the time I had just gotten back from Brazil to open HostGator Brazil.

The Future of HostGator:

I still haven’t reached my goal of HostGator becoming the world’s largest hosting company, but as one of the world’s largest and with how well things have been going, I can definitely see it happening within the next eight years. In order to achieve this, we’ll need to go more mainstream. This includes launching a brand to compete with GoDaddy, more billboards, starting TV commercials, and hiring many, many more high quality employees to continue supporting our customers.

HostGator has been a real blessing in my life and I couldn’t have gotten us to where we are today alone. I owe much of HostGator’s success to our customers as well as to each and every employee who has put their heart and sweat into this company. If it weren’t for all of you, I would most likely have to return to college. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Thank you!

How Can This Be Good: Two More Banks Fail, Bankruptcies At New Highs, Commercial Loans Ready To Implode

If you have followed this blog you know I am a fan of Bill Bartmann. He is a rags to billionaire riches story and most of his wealth came during an economic climate similar but actually less serious than what we are facing today. I follow Bill because he deals in reality and looks for the opportunity in what other see as a disaster.

This email I received from highlights some startling fact about our economy. Personally I some direct experience with our financial institution industry and if anything Bill may be understating the pending failures. As for the opportunity Bill suggests, that is up to you. I am not an affiliate, I am not paid to publish this on my blog, I make no money from sharing this with you. I feel Bill is on the mark and come to your own conclusions.

I have been on several of Bill’s calls and I have studied his book Bailout Riches which I highly recommend if you have an interest in the details of how this works. If you are intrigued you now have the information on the next steps.

Steve Pohlit

Contact Information

Buseiness Consulting, Executive Coaching
International Business Resources

Social Media Services
New Digital Media, Inc.

727-587-7871
Email

On Friday, FDIC shut down two more banks – which will have billions in losses.

The bank failure total for the year is now 95 and includes three of the largest and most troubled — Guaranty Bank in Austin, Colonial Bank in Birmingham and Corus in Chicago.

We project the number will top 1,000 over the next year and a half. The majority of the banks that will fail are Community Banks and Regional Banks where the impact will devastate entire communities. The FDIC is running out of money and will soon have to tap taxpayers – only the second time in the 75 year history of the FDIC that it had to do so.

Personal bankruptcies will hit a record 1.4 million this year.

Business bankruptcies are 250% over their previous high – and rising.

Unemployment is at 9.7 – heading for 10% (Department of Labor says real unemployment rate is 16%).

Credit Card charge-offs are at 10.5% and Moody’s predicts they will go to 12%.

Mortgage foreclosures and “walk-aways” continue at record pace.

Any discussion of the Recession ending and the recovery beginning are based on wishful thinking, while ignoring the brutal facts.

The Commercial Real Estate market is about to implode the same way “sub-prime residential real estate” did two years ago. The economic impact of this implosion will compound every category mentioned above which will result in increased bank failures, increase personal and business bankruptcies, higher unemployment, higher credit card and mortgage default.

Sounds terrible, doesn’t it?

Well, it is terrible – but it is also some of the best news you could ask to hear!

Why? Because the last time I saw this environment, I made $5 billion just picking up the pieces of all those credit defaults and failed banks and by helping good banks dispose of their bad loans.

Now, a $5 billion net worth may sound unbelievable. I assure you it was real and I was not the only person who made a lot of money helping all those consumers put their lives back together and helping the government and the banks solve those problems. That is how big the opportunity was 20 years ago.

Guess what? We are back in that same situation again today! Banks are failing left and right. Bad loans are everywhere you look. The US Treasury and the FDIC are looking for people like you and me to help solve this problem. Just this past week the FDIC closed on the very first tranaction under the Legacy Loan Program. The Legacy Loan Program allows a generous leverage that magnifies the return for the Investor.

This first transaction under the Legacy Loan Program was a pool of residential real estate loans. Now, I have no interest in real estate and neither should you. But, first comes the real estate and then comes everything else and that is where the great opportunities are.

Those of us who participate and take advantage of this program could potentially make millions of dollars. T

he Legacy Loan Program not only makes a tremendous amount of loans available for purchase at a steep discount to true value, they it provides a government funding source.

The Legacy Loan Program is not the end of the good news and the great opportunities. The market is rapidly filling with charged off loans available for purchase at very steep discount from banks that have not failed — banks like Chase, US Bank, Bank of America, Citibank, Wells Fargo and all the other names you have known for years.

Here is your chance to get a piece of the “Bailout!”

Here is your chance to take advantage of what will be a “once in a lifetime opportunity.”

Finally, a Bailout Plan that is aimed at all of us on “Main Street” instead of those fat cats on “Wall Street.”

It gets even better than that. I am offering my students a chance to become a full-fledged business partner with me in this industry. Bill Bartmann

Join me and Larry Genkin, Creator of the Thought Leadership Marketing Methodology, as I explain how we (you and me) can take advantage of this wonderful opportunity.

This one-hour teleseminar is scheduled for 7:00 pm – Central (8:00 pm Eastern, 6:00 pm Mountain, 5:00 pm Pacific) on Wednesday, September 23, 2009.

Click Here to register for this teleseminar.

Please

Click Here to convert the call to your local time zone.

See you then,

Bill Bartmann

How To Fix The WordPress Worm

I dated this post since apparently the worm morphs as technology develops to stop it’s attack. So what is true for today may not be true for tomorrow. Right: the worm is on the loose. I noticed the alerts two days ago and began checking my blogs. This one was already infiltrated.

You can tell if you are diseased because the links don’t work and there is an administrator for your blog that you never added. You can tell when you check in your admin panel and see there is number greater than the admins you have authorized. The article at this link Click Here was helpful to me confirming the problem but I could not duplicate the fix the author was suggestion.

I found this article Click Here and actually it was the key for the solution for me. I did not seem to have the bad permalink code mentioned in article one but the links were a problem. I soon fixed those by defining my original permalink structure and my links started to work.

I called a tech friend of mine and he came over and we ran registry cleanup software and malicious spyware detector programs. He said he nuked all that was there and my system was clear to go. Well admin no 2 was still there, we could see him and part of his name was Obama. I am making not blaming the current person who was elected as President at all. I am just reporting on a portion of the name used by this worm.

So the brain trust problem solvers were stuck. Later I remembered article two above and said I am going to test a reinstall. Now that is totally scary since you are talking about starting with a clean slate – a really clean slate. My slate was never that clean after having been to the confessional as a child many times at the encouragement of my mother “you will go to confession young man or you will not be eating dinner in this house tonight” There were some appealing parts to my mom’s threats.

I selected a throw away blog. One that was a good idea at the time but lost appeal. Kinda like someone you meet at 2AM in the morning. With that blog I tested the nuke and rebuild approach. It worked.

Key Points:

You must use the WordPress backup and export to file features

I verified this worked by creating a duplicate first before nuking the original. You can see the duplicate at http://stevepohlit.com/stevereports.

When you export the content here is what is not included and so you need to have a record of this :

your links

you will find the first post and a duplicate about page is created. You will see them if you look and delete them

If you are using widgets like I am here you need to copy the code for the ones you are using. I mean the ones where you are using ads, facebook widget, twitter widget, rss feed widget etc.

Notice at http://stevepohlit.com/stevereports that there is one widget that is not functional. This is the Google Friend Connect Widget which is site specific. I did not correct this on the duplicate.

Sharing with all my readers the energy of peace, happiness and abundance

Steve Pohlit

Contact Information

Buseiness Consulting, Executive Coaching
International Business Resources

Social Media Services
New Digital Media, Inc.

727-587-7871
Email

Follow Me and I Follow You http://Twitter.com/BuildProfits

FREE Report:
How To Increase Business Profits by 30% or More in 90 Days or Less

Connect with me on Facebook Click Here

About: Steve Pohlit is a CPA,MBA and has been the CFO of several major domestic and international companies. Steve is business owner and an expert business consultant, direct response and social media marketing and social networking security expert . Steve is focused on helping companies improve their business performance. All articles published by Steve unless specifically restricted may be freely published with this resource information.

Comments On The WSJ August Retail Sales

The Headline Reads: Retailers Report Weak Sales For August (Click For The Story) Then highlight is:

“Industrywide, same-store sales fell for a 12th straight month — highlighting the woes retailers have been under as consumer spending continues to decline.”

Then there is discussion as to what will happen this holiday season as well as the impact of the clunker program. This is followed by reports of what key public companies in the retail industry reported. Remember there is a lot that is not reported. Also remember, economic recovery is driven by consumer spending and there is little evidence that is strengthening.

The point made that I commented on was that going forward the monthly same store comparisons will look better because you are comparing against increasingly weak numbers from last year as retailers tanked in the fall of 2008. Here is what I wrote:

The comparison may show less dramatic declines and even a greater number of positive percentages when current year sales are compared against months last year when retailers began to experience sharp declines. Those may be feel good metrics. However, the key is what are the volumes and margins that are planned in connection with an acceptable profit plan and how are actual revenue and profits doing against that?

Typically that information is a bit more difficult to extract. The well run retailers have a profit plan by location that is based on category proformas. The key is to be profitable at each location and in each category within that location. I still see very little advancement in the use of direct response marketing and social media marketing. Tools and technology that have been readily available and proven to work for quite some time.

There is a lot of the “same ol same ol” and that is not going to work in an economic climate likely to be very soft for quite awhile.

Steve Pohlit
http://newdigitalmediainc.com
http://stevepohlit.com

How To Use Social Media To Grow Your Business

How To Use Social Media To Grow Your Business

The tools available to market products and services are numerous. Direct response marketing, Internet marketing, brand awareness campaigns and more are all labels for marketing programs. In every case, the goal is the same…increase revenue and profits.

My experience working with companies to grow profits is extensive. (Click Here for my resume) I have developed my views on marketing from actual experience implementing programs, monitoring the results and continuously testing ideas to improve response rates and profitability. Social media is phrase representing an ever increasing number of places people congregate. Social media marketing is just that..marketing to people using social media sites.

There are a number of credible people holding seminars, selling courses and offering consulting on how to do social media marketing. My recommendation to business is to focus on your business. My company will build your social media network and I will work with you to develop and implement your social media marketing program. These are two very distinctly separate tasks.

How we build a social media network is based on my actual results in developing several of my own business ventures and providing these services to clients. I have personally done the social media work staring February 2008 . Since that time I completed the detailed steps. I will highlight some of them in this article. From this experience I recommend what steps you should leverage to others and the tools I feel are a must have for developing your network. This is for people very serious about using social media as a business building tool.

Key Marketing Principle Reviewed

Marketing is primarily about attracting traffic to your offer and converting that traffic to customers. Many know this. Most ignore it. I never ignore it. For clarification it is not just any traffic but relevant traffic. What does relevant traffic mean? It means people already interested in what it is you have to offer.

The late Gary Halbert said if you are selling hamburgers, he would rather have a starving crowd than all the positioning of signs, building, location and all of the other things we normally address in marketing a physical product like hamburgers. It is every marketer’s dream to have a starving crowd. I am no different. The starving crowd is not right outside my door. I need to find them and so do you.

The Cloud

My view of the cloud is simply an image of all the people using social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, etc. So when I use the phrase the cloud that is what I mean.

The Goal

Return on investment in time and money is the goal. Sure I work on projects and products where I have expertise and interest. Sure I do things out of curiosity without having any monetization objective, but most of what I do is to drive profitable revenue doing business where I have a high personal interest. When I do this well, I am compensated by the marketplace for providing value. For me spending time on what I enjoy is not work. However, unless there is income flow, my enjoyment of a an area of personal interest is going to expire. Having said that I will encourage you to make sure your attention span is long enough to allow your business to develop.

To achieve the monetization goal I am developing as large a portion of the cloud as possible that I can reach. I then continuously send messages intended to invite people I am reaching to consider my offer. Related to this goal is my objective to at also have as many people as possible give me their contact information. That action tells me there is some level of interest in what I am offering. For those experienced marketers reading this I am not sending out selling messages. All of the messages are indirect intended to create an interest in wanting more information. Many flavors of messages are used and I am always developing new ones to test.

The Specifics

The work is done by my company New Digital Media, Inc. I work with all clients directly. When the scope of the work is defined some of the tasks that I previously have done personally are leveraged. The staff working with me is very experienced and they actually develop their own network which I encourage. We share social media network growth tips.

Our primary focus is on growing Twitter and Facebook accounts. Within Facebook we work with clients to grow friends and when friends are at a certain level we build a targeted group. As a group is being built we implement a messaging strategy to the group. We are gradually expanding our focus into several other social media sites. However, for now Twitter and Facebook is out primary focus.

The goal of the network is to drive interested people to a landing page or a product sales page. As appropriate, we advocate the destination to be a blog article. As articles are added they serve as destinations for new messages to the network. In certain cases we will promote a client through our own network which is quite large.

We use a combination of tools to assist us in growing accounts. Most of these tools are used with Twitter. There are no automation tools we use to grow Facebook friends and groups. We use an automation tool to assist us with posting messages to Twitter and Facebook. This tool has the capability to post messages to LinkedIn, MySpace and more. The primary tools we use and recommend if you are doing this work yourself are:

Hummingbird for growing Twiter followers

Tweet Later – message management

Tweep

Instant Capture Pages

Blogs – WordPress format exclusively This Site Shows You How To Set One Up – Free

Autoresponder – Aweber

Web Hosting – Host Gator

Each person in the company uses at least two computers. It is not practical to run our automation tools and do our other work on one machine. This can be done but it will affect productivity by at least 50%.

Effectiveness

The following Twitter accounts were developed in six weeks. digialmediabiz 9735 followers. buildprofits 8694 followers So those are a couple examples of accounts growing.

Size of our total network – very large

On Facebook we grew the group Deliberate Creation to over 2,500 members in three weeks. This happens to be a very niche market and we were very pleased with how rapidly this developed.

Return on Investment – we have numerous success stories for ourselves and for clients. However, it has taken quite awhile to systematize what works. Additionally, we are constantly monitoring the rules of the social media sites as they can change and we want to be in compliance. For these reasons, I highly recommend looking at our company to help you grow your network which allows you to focus on growing your business.

Based on Twitter’s current algorithms we can build an account to 10,000 followers in about two months. Facebook has a limit of 5000 friends and it can take 6 months or longer to hit that level. Remember once built, these assets are in place for multiple purposes.

Personally my network is used to market consulting services, New Digital Media and several other ventures. I noticed the most significant improvement in what we do once I developed a laser beam focus on our objective and finding the right staff. Both are in place. The difference between my company and most of the people who are experienced, is we do it for you and hand over the results. Along the way we teach you so you are in a position to continue the process or have us continue. If you are a large company, I will teach your in-house staff how to do this.

Fees and Referrals

Our fees are quoted for each client. I pay referral fees that average 15% of fees collected. This percentage varies depending on the scope of work performed. Currently we have capacity for a limited number of clients. With the marketing we are now doing to create awareness of our services, the door for new clients may close quickly. If you are thinking about working with us, I suggest you contact me now.

Contact Information

Steve Pohlit, President
New Digital Media, Inc.
727-587-7871
Email

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Obama Asked The Key Healthcare Question By ABC

FINALLY…THE $64,000 QUESTION WAS ASKED…

YESTERDAY ON “ABC-TV” (BETTER KNOWN AS THE ALL BARACK CHANNEL)

DURING THE “NETWORK SPECIAL ON HEALTH CARE“…. OBAMA WAS ASKED:

“MR. PRESIDENT WILL YOU AND YOUR FAMILY GIVE UP YOUR CURRENT HEALTH CARE PROGRAM AND JOIN THE NEW ‘UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE PROGRAM’ THAT THE REST OF US WILL BE ON ????”….. (BET YOU ALREADY KNOW THE ANSWER)…

THERE WAS A STONEY SILENCE AS OBAMA IGNORED THE QUESTION AND CHOSE NOT TO ANSWER IT !!!…

IN ADDITION, A NUMBER OF SENATORS WERE ASKED T HE SAME QUESTION AND THERE RESPONSE WAS…”WE WILL THINK ABOUT IT.”
AND THEY DID. IT WAS ANNOUNCED TODAY ON THE NEWS THAT THE “KENNEDY HEALTH CARE BILL”WAS WRITTEN INTO THE NEW HEALTH CARE REFORM INITIATIVE ENSURING THAT THAT CONGRESS WILL BE 100% EXEMPT !

SO, THIS GREAT NEW HEALTH CARE PLAN THAT IS GOOD FOR YOU AND I… IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR OBAMA, HIS FAMILY OR CONGRESS…??
WE (THE AMERICAN PUBLIC) NEED TO STOP THIS PROPOSED DEBACLE ASAP !!!!… THIS IS TOTALLY WRONG !!!!!

A Great Example Marketing Example From Spam …Swipe This Idea

The subject matter just said Test …This Is Not Spam. Take a minute to read this and then my comments.

Here is the rest of the message :

This is not spam! You signed up from ____________ See end of e-mail for more CANSPAM compliance rules.
Please ignore this message, as it is only a test to see if this autoresponder is back up and running.
We need to notify you that this e-mail may contain advice on money-making methods and other subjects plus may include links to available products and/or from third parties in return for appropriate recompense.

If you cannot unsubscribe, you can always send a letter asking to be unsubscribed to:

P O Box 1078
Stanley, ND 58784

Don’t Know Why, But If You Wish To Leave:
http://amazingautoresponse.com/cgi-bin/r.cgi?s=10438&a=117&k=mEYboFVf9JM

To report sp*m by this member:
Please forward this email to abuse@amazingautoresponse.com or follow the above link for immediate removal.

—————————————————————-

Lessons:

I am not advocating doing this at all even though this email did get through to my main address. Notice the reverse psychology here. …Please ignore. Come on that always works (Note to Self) Then the warning “This may contain advice on making money…” I mean.. how cool is that?

Then there is the humor:

Unsubscribe – Send a Letter. …

Don’t know why, but if you wish to leave

My view is I learn a lot from paying attention to spam. First spam mail may have some of the best subject lines. Then there is formatting and other hooks spam uses.

There is another thing I have learned and that is there a lot of people who use blogs like this to teach, who sell programs that teach you how. Have you ever noticed how few promote “do it for you”? Do you know why that is? Well I have my views but what is important is that one of my new services does “do it for you” What is it?

Click over to New Digital Media You will understand what this is doing in about 3 minutes.

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Steve Pohlit, Expert Business Consulting

Email Me, Steve Pohlit to schedule A No Obligation Consultation On Building Your Business Profits.Need more customers? Let’s discuss how to use cutting edge Social Media Marketing in the revenue building cycle of your business to drive your profits sky high. If your company is not growing revenue and profits, if your company is not cash flow positive Click Here for more information about Turnaround Consulting Services for Business In Crisis

Announcing The Services of New Digital Media Click Here

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This Restaurant Industry Headline Is No Surprise

“The Restaurant Industry suffered Its Worst Quarterly Decline In Customer Traffic In 28 years In the Second Quarter 2009”

I love the retail industry and I consider restaurants part of that overall industry. I recognize restaurants are distinguished in the financial press for reporting purposes. I also recognize that if you are a restaurant then you should be studying how you are doing in comparison to others.

The business of retail is so much fun because there is a tremendous amount of valuable information available and generally with the volume of customer traffic, you can test just about anything and receive feedback quickly as to whether it is working or not. In retail the most energy should be devoted to marketing and in all fairness it usually is. No whether that marketing is effective or not is a topic of debate. My view is that it isn’t and the view of the people dong it is that it is.

That brings us back to the overall results reported for the Second Quarter of 2009. I wrote that the decline is written in a headline like it is a surprise. Many may be thinking my view was based on the state of the economy with unemployment still running high and consumer confidence still running low. But actually my view is based on dismal failure of restaurants to pay close attention to the details of what is important to customers.

To support my view, I look at the exceptions. Here is one reported on by Fare Magazine. That exception is Panera Bread. They have not cut prices, they have not gone promotional and the company continues to grow profitably. Click Here for the complete article.

There is always value in studying what is working for others and, for that matter what isn’t. Look within your industry and outside of your industry. I forget what bank was the first, but I remember the story of a bank president looking at the success of drive thru windows in the fast food industry. He tried in banking and it rapidly became very successful.

In any economy there are always companies that do well and those that fail. The ones that do well are those who consistently pay attention to the details important to their customers. This is the value exchange principle. The more value I give you the more you are willing to pay for it.

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WSJ Reports Twitter Success Stories and Misses The Mark

The WSJ reports Moonfruit went from 400 followers to 47,000 followers in about a week using a contest that became popular and viral fast. Other similar success stories were reported. When you read this article Click Here For The Story I suggest you consider the missing link. Now in all fairness the link may not be missing in the examples reported. However, this key success factor was not addressed in the article.

The Missing Link

Think of a funnel. This story is about using the incentive of a contest to reach out into the cloud of a very popular social media site which of course is Twitter. This strategy was very successful in that the number of followers increased rapidly. However, followers have no value unless they are people interested in your offer – the offer for products and services that earns you money.

Followers need to be converted to a contact data base where you have their name and email contact information. That step is moving followers through the marketing funnel. Now that step can be bypassed if a follower goes directly to your offer and buys. At that point you also have their contact information. Again the goal is to develop this contact data base so you can communicate with these people who have said they are interested in who you are and what you offer. That communication then is intended to further cement the relationship and when the person is ready they will buy. You have not idea when they will be ready so building the relationship is the key.

In the current environment there is an opportunity to move people from followers to a contact data base where you can message them and by pass the email system. That option is to move them into a group on Facebook. There is an inherent limitation to that in that Facebook limits group size for sending messages to 5,000 people. Many people are setting up fan pages which do not have the limitations of a group. However, messages to fans currently are not sent to their Facebook inbox which is not as effective as groups.

My advice is to use the assets of social media with the goal of developing your own asset which is your customer list and prospect list. Then there is one more thing: communicate with them.

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Steve Pohlit, Expert Business Consulting

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Alexis Martin Neely: For the Record

Alexis Martin Neely you have accused me of:

Being a scammer

Using my spiritual belief system as a cover for an intended scam

Using my expanded network and business of Manifest Mastermind as a cover for intended scams

Scamming Brian Campbell out of a partnership

Alexis Martin Neely, you represent yourself to be a professional attorney, a lawyer who teaches other lawyers. Every professional attorney I ever worked with has demonstrated they learned proper due diligence before finalizing their position. Had you used even an ounce of your legal training for fact finding in this situation, I am certain you would have concluded your feelings of what you have accused me of to be totally without merit.

The Facts:

This is the link to the report I filed on what Brian Campbell has done. http://manifestmastermindblog.com/2009/07/hackedcomrpromised/

In that report you will see that he hacked into my main email account and deleted four years of personal and business communication. Part of that record was a detailed history of my communication with him regarding situations that as a partner I was not comfortable being associated with. It also contained communication regarding the work I started because of Brian not doing what he promised. Part of that work was the detail related to your account. What was not destroyed are emails to you from another person requesting assistance so we could resume building value for you. We never received the requested information from you so we could continue.

An email that was deleted by Brian but which you have was sent directly to you from me. Of course this one you didn’t reproduce in your article. It is the one where I wrote to you that I would continue working until you told me you have received the value for what you paid.

I am a currently licensed CPA. I have held positions in very large companies with significant fiduciary responsibility. I have the trust of many clients because I earned it for doing what I say and being authentic. I say to you now Alexis Martin Neely all of your accusations are false. I have the facts and those facts are readily available to you or anyone.

I stand by my word and stand firmly in the foundation of Manifest Mastermind. It appears to me that you are not the professional you represent. There is one item where we have no disagreement: what comes around goes around.

In Unity we believe in Oneness and so I do love the essence of God in all life and the essence of God in you.

Steve Pohlit

Google Launching A New Operating System and You Say So!!! I Recommend Paying Very Close Attention

In the same week I received a message on a special report from the Motley Fool on what Microsoft is worried about and a message from Chris Lang on the new Google operating system that looks like will be launched in 2010. Chris does a great job summarizing the major benefits to this and now I understand what Microsoft may be a bit nervous about.

I have not seen Bill Gates or Steve Ballmer discussing this but I am sure they will soon as their shareholders will want to understand their plans considering this move by Google. Just think of this: $200 will operate very fast and efficiently. I wonder what the equipment and chip manufactures think of the pending development?

Watch the video, then pay close attention to my brief closing comments. These points are what you should be doing today to take advantage of what is available right now and to take advantage of this OS when it is released.

Notice how important Chris feels the Google Friend Connect feature is to the Google strategy. If you look to the right you will notice I use the Google Friend Connect application. How do you install this. Well I am happy you asked. It just so happens I did a video on this a while back and here it is. Wait before you watch it, make sure you read every word of this article as I close with some mission critical advice.

Now what is the one common element to all these features and benefits? Have you ever tried using an Google application that you have set up without your Gmail user name and password. Do you think that information might be very important to have very secure? I do and I recently paid a very heavy price for inadequate security and trusting this information to another. You now know what to do.

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How To Use Visualization and The Law of Attraction To Build Business Profits

What does visualization and The Law of Attraction have to do with
Building Business Profits which is the focus of my business consulting
practice.? Visualization of results.

I became aware of all this when I saw this interview of a guy from
Australia that shows the tool he and Frank and many others use
including myself now. You really do have to see this:

Visulization of Success With Mind Movies

You see, he figured out this powerful way to tap into the
Law of Attraction that practically guarantees
you’ll get whatever you want.

And the surprising thing about it is it is SUPER easy to do,
you can start doing it right now…and here’s the really cool
part…

*****************************
He’s GIVING it away! ForFREE
*****************************

He obviously understands abundance, because he’s
practicing it in a very big way here:

Visulization of Success With Mind Movies

So what is it about Aussies anyway? They seem to totally
have this figured out, especially when you consider that
the land down under is where we got…

***********************
The Secret
***********************

I’m sure you’ll agree that was life changing all by itself.

And now, this guy has added another dimension to the
Law of Attraction that ramps up how fast you can manifest
anything you want into your life.

************************************************
This makes the Universe say YES even faster!
************************************************

He even got marketing expert Frank Kern excited about it.
If you haven’t heard of Frank, well, he’s a marketing genius
who makes millions of dollars online. Everything he does
seems to turn to gold.

But he’s not exactly what you’d expect when it comes to using
The Law of Attraction to manifest your goals and desires.

You’ll hear his personal experience with this when you
watch the video:

Visulization of Success With Mind Movies

So, if even HE is doing this, what does that tell you about
how effective this is? Bad news for the naysayers who think
it isn’t for “regular” people, or the Law of Attraction is
some kind of mumbo jumbo.

Only thing is I’m not sure how long this will be available
at NoCost.

So if you’re really serious about increasing your power to
manifest anything you want into your life super fast,
you need to check this out right now:

Visulization of Success With Mind Movies

I’ve already started using this, and I strongly recommend
you do too.

All the best,

Steve

P.S. I’m extremely excited about this, because it could
literally transform your life. So be sure you share your story
with me when you start doing this, OK?

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How Successful Retailers Earn Customer Loyalty

Mark Albright, staff writer for the St. Petersburg Times published an article in the Sunday paper a while back on retailers struggling to win back customers. He does an excellent job at identifying the key issues customers face when shopping in many stores. In summary, customers know what they want from their shopping experience and they don’t get what they want most of the time.

Two charts were provided in the article. One showed that 68.4% of those responding to a recent poll said knowledgeable, helpful, friendly staff was the most important criteria for a positive shopping experience. The other chart reported that 50% of the people surveyed reported retail service has gotten worse.

Shoppers have always wanted a friendly environment with knowledgeable staff. What is most alarming is how poorly retailers continue to meet the expectations of their customers. With almost 70% of the customers ranking knowledgeable, friendly staff as most important, why is it that so many retailers continue to be obsessed with having compelling price? Studies have consistently shown and Mark points this out in his article as well, that less than 10% of the shoppers name price as the most important reason they shop a store.

Let’s examine pricing and promotion a bit deeper. The paper that Mark Albright writes for has a daily circulation of about 1 million. On Sunday, like all large metropolitan areas, the paper is thick. Most of it is advertising circulars. Most have between 4 – 20 or more color glossy pages and this format is used by most of the major retail chains. Stores attempt to show items attractive to the largest number of people and offer special buys or sale pricing. The goal is to drive traffic to the stores.

Normally on a store by store basis, retailers are able to tell how effective a particular circular was by measuring customer count (customers that actually buy), average sale and items sold. Most retailers have these statistics, but there is one critical piece of information they do not have. They do not know who it was that purchased something. They do not know their physical address, they do not know their email address and do not know their customer’s phone number. There are exceptions and I will address those shortly. However, in general, large and small retailers spend huge amounts of money on print advertising to drive customers into their stores and they don’t even know who their customer is. Consequently, they are unable to thank the buyers, hear their comments and suggestions and they are not able to personally invite them back.

Even more serious: with the development of preferred buying programs, membership programs like those used by Sam’s Club and Costco and even those retailers that have captured customer information, the way that data is used is pathetic.

Here is a brief summary of the issues so far: consumers want knowledgeable and friendly sales staff and over 90% of them place importance on knowledge and friendliness over price. On the other hand, retailers spend a lot of resources developing promotions based on price to drive traffic to their stores. When the customer gets there, not just the price shopper but the loyal customers as well, the retailer is not properly staffed and the staff that is working is not properly trained and managed. I call this a mismatch in expectations and delivery. The result of that formula is a high rate of retail business failure with stores that fail being replaced by new ones that operate the same way. You know what you get when you keep doing things the same way. What is the solution? Keep reading.

When the subject of price in retailing is mentioned, Wal-Mart’s name always comes up. Here are just a couple of things I noticed about Wal-Mart recently. First they are increasing the number of more upscale items offered. Why are they doing this? It is because they understand that appealing just to the low price crowd long term is a risky business model. No retail chain founded on the low price model has ever survived long term. None. What else have I noticed? The other day I noticed a Wal-Mart banner on the front page of Yahoo.com This particular ad was what is known in the Internet Marketing circles and Direct Response Marketing circles as a lead generation ad. I followed it through and noticed interesting “bribes” to get you to register for on line information. You could even categorize the information you were interested in receiving. Wal-Mart promised to give you advance notice of their best deals for the store closest to you. Notice I said store closest to you. When you entered your information they asked for your zip code so they could match you with relevant regional promotion.

Wal-Mart is taking the lead again in building their customer data base. I don’t think they have taken this to the store level, which where it really needs to be implemented. But they are headed in the right direction.

Do you need to have Wal-Mart’s system to implement a similar program? Last September I was testing the implementation of program with a small retailer in a small market. We used incentives as a motivator to provide their contact information. This program was hugely successful in a short period of time and confirmed the value of capturing the contact information of your customers and communicating with them. That is the first step in bridging the gap between what customers want and what retailers deliver. Note: if you are a grocery store, restaurant, nightclub, shoe repair store, dry cleaner or any business that has customers, this applies to you.

If you are a local or regional chain of stores, outsourcing this customer contact program is the most cost effective approach. If you are not sure that is a true statement Email Me and I will prove it to you. National Chains should outsource this program in the test phase and then it is likely that in-house technology will be needed long term. Regardless, it is easy to build your customer list, easy to communicate with them and this communication builds loyalty and value. This communication process is the critical link that breaks down when this process is managed internally. In summary, outsource this entire program initially; bring the technology piece in house if and when that makes sense but keep the communication program outsourced. Does this sound like Direct Response Marketing 101? Yes ..well that is because it is and you know what…basic blocking and tackling work all the time.

Does all of this solve the problem of bridging the gap of what the customer wants and what the retailer delivers? Absolutely not! All of the fundamentals successful retailers are paying attention to today must continue. Having the right product in the right place at the right time is a good goal. Having staff properly trained and managed is a great goal.

But this is the planet earth folks. When all the best logistical systems and human resource development processes fail .. and they will from time to time, a strong binding relationship with your customer will overcome any isolated execution failures.

Are there any examples of anyone doing this more right than wrong? I remember in 1996 when I was in my second year of operating an Internet Service Provider company that I founded. I was focusing on industries likely to benefit a lot quickly from using the tools of the Internet. One of them was mail order. I knew there would be huge benefits to catalog retailers from using the internet. Of course when I contacted many of them and they had no idea in 1996 what I was talking about. So I let it slide instead of pursuing that idea along with a number of other billion dollar ideas I had in the early days of the commercial Internet.

Today there are numerous examples of catalog retailers doing a great job of communicating with their customer base. Now the big gains are coming from the “brick and mortar” companies who are communicating like catalog retailers. Who are they? Circuit City gets a vote. Circuit City sends me wonderful emails in addition to their weekly print advertising circulars. Wal-Mart used to do a good job now that I am on their list but not any longer. In the catalog retail business, one of the best is Fredericks of Hollywood. There are other catalog retailers that have an effective communication program in place. In fact if you order on line from any catalog company and give them your email address, I would bet you start getting information from them. Even if you don’t order, sign up for some of these lists to see what they send you.

The biggest mistake made by companies that have you in their data base, is dropping your contact information when you have not purchased for awhile. I know of one very popular retailer with a huge mail order division that sends me tons of catalogs but not one email. When asked about this I was told I no longer receive emails because I am not a current buyer. But they continue sending me expensive to print and mail catalogs. Go figure! Recently.

In summary, study the companies that are doing this well. Look at your own business. If you are not sure what I am advising you to do will work, call or email me and let’s “kick it around”. All contact information is at the end of the article.

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Steve Pohlit, Expert Business Consulting

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If Your Twitter Account Has Been Suspended – Read This Now

Sunday, July 5th, 2009: A lot of people with legitimate Twitter accounts are currently suffering from having their accounts suspended (late Sunday afternoon).

It is not TweetLater’s doing or fault. So, please do not submit a TweetLater support request about it.

We just heard back from Twitter via email, and they said : “Spamcloud hit. We’re working on restoring accounts.”

We just need to be patient. The suspended accounts will be restored.

Update: We have no idea exactly what a “spam cloud” means. It is probably Twitter staff lingo for a massive spam attack.

Update: We have seen during previous spam attacks that Twitter tends to shoot first and ask questions later and indiscriminately lay down carpet bombing when their system comes under a spam attack. A lot of innocent-bystander accounts get massacred in the process, which they then have to restore afterwards. This is most likely what has happened again.

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Gangster Government

I hope you understand this is not an Republican vs. Democrat issue. This is our government playing a role where it doesn’t belong and when it does the consequences we experience.

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BONUS

Did you watch the entire video?

You didn’t ? I honor your love for accepting all in this country as is and the direction it is moving.

You did? How cool is that? Did you notice the song at the end of the video. Here is a video of that song. Click Here

DOUBLE BONUS

Did you notice the information on the organziation who published this video? It is from The Kick Them All Out initiative and I am now a card carrying member. Decide how you feel about it and Listen To Your Heart. There are 761 people who have paid attention and pledged to vote so all incumbants are fired.

Independence, Freedom and Peace..This Fourth of July It Is Time To Stand Up

Michael McDonald paused between songs and shared a few things of importance to him. Peace was clearly the energy he was sending during a pause before continuing singing with his powerful voice songs like “What A Fool Believes” and more.

Michael talked about something that I don’t normally think a lot about. That is the VA or Veterans Administration. He expressed his support for the one agency that is established to help those who have given all or a part of their life to protect the freedom of this country. He was specifically talking about the men and women who serve on our front lines. Michael McDonald was also asking all of us to consider what conflicts make sense for us to support and those that don’t. With the next breath he said in effect .. once we as a nation choose to enter a conflict, we are responsible for taking care of those that serve.

Thank you Michael for that reminder. On the Fourth of July and every other day we honor those who serve to preserve our independence, liberty and freedom.

I had not considered the Veterans quite in the context of the purpose of the Veterans Administration. Michael is right and it our responsibility to take care of those who serve in the military. I am talking about the people who serve to protect our country whether we agree with the specific conflict or not. The point is they have left their homes and their lives to protect our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

My view is most people working at a desk job being paid by the working people of this country, through the bureaucracy of the government, are not serving our country by this definition. In fact most are leeching off this country. Yes you read that correctly. Most people working in a government job are leeching off this country. In all fairness they are not waking up in the morning thinking that. Most are intending to do a good job. I am not in any way blaming the workers. We have permitted a system to develop where their job in most cases has nothing to do with foundation principles of the declaration of independence and constitution. Yes most jobs created to protect our right to independence, freedom and peace are unnecessary because we have allowed laws and programs to start and grow that have nothing to do with the role of government.

As a country we have developed a “you take care of it” attitude and elect people who say they will solve those situations in this country we define as problems. But the problems have become worse. The national debt is incomprehensible and just one program, health care, recently proposed by Obama will add an estimated $10 Trillion dollars to the national debt over the next 10 years and not make a dent in the number of uninsured. Obama has led the parade to stimulate the economy with bailout money saying the stimulus package will contain unemployment to 8%. Now after disbursing hundreds of billions, Obama says unemployment will be 10% this year or higher.

There are other forums that examine what this man who is our president is doing and the impact of his leadership in much greater detail. However, this is actually not intended to bash him since every administration particularly since the 1930’s is accountable for implementing policies and programs that have nothing to do with the role of government as defined by the constitution. Most of what we have allowed to evolve under the umbrella of programs, rules, regulations is simply not necessary and stifle freedom and liberty.

Have you thought about the foundation principles that are intended to guide what our government does? Have you evaluated your point of view as to what freedoms you feel you have relinquished by what we have allowed others to do and implement in the spirit of the so called common good? Have you asked yourself what is really necessary to be done by the government? I will be honest in saying I am not totally sure as to what is all necessary so one way of getting to that answer is by asking the question what is not necessary. The following is part of my list based on the foundation principles of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. My list is also based on the foundation principle of individual responsibility.

Programs and Spending That Are Beyond The Scope of The US Government As Defined by The Intention of The United Stated Constitution.
If you are in another country consider how your freedom is affected by the programs implemented by your government.

Social Security: Eliminate it. For most of this country’s history it didn’t exist and it never should have been enacted. There is no basis in the land of freedom that says because I am working I must pay into a fund to fuel the retirement of some else which is what has evolved because my government has taken this money and used it to fund wars and debt. The money deposited into social security is not there. I don’t want anyone to tell me what to do with my money. Why is it that we stand for other people to dictate what we do with our money? We intend to fund a few basic common interest services the first being the protection of independence, freedom and liberty. Along with a few other services for the common good our constitution intended for government to have a limited role in our lives.

Welfare, Medicaid, Medicare and all social welfare programs: The same as social security. Cut them right now. Yes right now. Our government was not formed for the purpose of creating and administering these programs. Am I insensitive to the needs of others. Not at all. As a brief story, I was in an accident with my father when I was very young. He made very little money and it was about 2 months before he could return to work. We were both in the hospital for weeks. There were no government programs, there was no health care. Me, my dad and my family made it through this. Was that period a challenge? Of course but I developed the appreciation for the neighbors and strangers who knew we needed help. Does this mean there should be no system to help those who clearly cannot be helped by friends, family and community. No it does not but as soon as we say there is an exception, politicians take it and expand it.

Rules and regulations: Since when does the constitution of the United States have anything to do with rules on smoking, seat belts, prescription medication, infant seats in cars on airplanes, handicapped friendly bathrooms everywhere, and more. Get rid of the rules. If I choose to not wear a seat belt and I am hurt in an accident let my insurance company say we are not paying your medical bills since you were not wearing a seat belt. If a restaurant chooses to allow smoking, I can go to it or go to one that is non- smoking. Do you see the importance of this? It is not about the seat belts or the smoking or the drugs. It is about freedom of choice and I don’t need anyone to make my mind up for me.

Non-Citizens In the US – open the boarders but don’t ask me to fund your schooling or guarantee your children the right to be admitted to the schools I have paid to be built and staffed. I don’t have to support you,although that may be my choice. I don’t expect from you any special considerations and don’t expect any from me. You can become part of the community and the school system when you are a citizen. No I am not agreeing to make everything multi-lingual. We didn’t print everything in German, Polish, Russian and more during the period when people from many nations came to this country and there is no reason to do it now. See the above comments on social welfare and do you think that some of the incentive for coming to this country would be removed when you remove the social programs?

Legalize drugs ... all of them. I have no interest in taking any drug currently classified as illegal. If you want them, that is your business and as long as you harm no one else do what you want. Laws do not change a person’s actions and we are spending billions in an effort to control a situation that is not controllable.

Gun control… none. End of discussion. We have a right to have arms as spelled out in the Constitution. This is not about how you feel about guns. This is about life , liberty and the pursuit of happiness. There are 18 proposed bills being circulated in Congress right now intended to compromise our Second Amendment right. I say anyone associated with any bill intended to compromise the rights under our constitution be required to move out of this country to another place more in alignment with their values. I choose to live in the country because I align with the rights of our constitution.

Other Country Situations: There are brilliant people all over the world. I support a very strong national defense and then keep our nose out of other people’s business. At those times it is clear other people’s agenda is to compromise our freedom and peace we do whatever is necessary. Stop funding other people’s agenda. Did you know that Nigeria is first on the happiness index and the US is 46th out of 50 countries studied. Now what makes you think anyone else is seriously interested in our agenda for them.

Taxes: simplify simplify simplify….a national sales tax to fund defense, our interstate commerce system and our Judicial system is about it. Regarding the judicial system at the Federal level, that process needs to be held accountable for upholding the values of our constitution and if individual justices do not do that in the opinion of the clear majority of the population they will be removed. Yes we need a system that allows for the people to determine the composition of the Supreme Court and not the bureaucratic process intended to accomplish the agenda for what someone else believes is the common good. Yes we need a system that does not guarantee a job for life when appointed to the Supreme Court.

Airport security- Do you have any idea how ridiculous this is? I am totally in favor of profiling. I am totally in favor intelligent security. Watch the first Dirty Harry movie ” if you see a guy running down the alley with a ______ and a butcher knife you know he was not out collecting for the Salvation Army.” Enough said. If you don’t prefer that example, do you remember Flight 93? People are capable of being responsible for their own protection. The violations of individual rights here are off the charts. Teach the passengers to pay attention and do whatever it takes. Will there be mistakes? There are huge mistakes now and the system is stupid.

Department of Justice – totally out of control. Look at how stupid it is to lock up brilliant minds who have perpetrated millions and billions of dollars from people. Here is the deal: Have an apartment complex in the most economically challenged section of the country and make them pay $50,000 a month for a room. Then mandate they use their mind and talent to legitimately make and pay back double or triple what was lost. Michael Millikan was convicted, went to prison. He now is paying major taxes based on the value he is creating since being free. Look at what could have been paid had he been simply told …go to work pay it back and by the way, if you don’t work it the right way we will put you in the place where we send people who kill, rape and more. Your choice.

The Fourth of July: God Bless America The Land of the Free

All I am talking about is freedom as I see it. I certainly have just touched on the surface of my views as to some of the structural issues. Don’t define my freedom and I surely will not define yours. Don’t interfere with my life and I won’t be interfering with yours. Obama, as for you and all the other people in office with the intention of sucking freedom and liberty out of us, I intend for you to have another job having nothing to do with my life and and the lives of anyone else.

Obama, I don’t like your misrepresentations about authenticity and transparency. I don’t like your socialistic agenda. A free market economy has built in checks and balances. Respectfully, you or any other government office holder has no business being involved with General Motor. AIG , or any other business that is failing. If that means the country enters a recession or a depression, those are the cycles of life. The structural solution is a consistent adherence to foundational principles. Those principles without any doubt are clearly spelled out in our Declaration of Independence.

I pay attention to the conditions that our founding leaders experienced that led to the Declaration of Independence and the formation of the United States Constitution. I stand up and say to you I am for the principles of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is time for a new structure that is in alignment with those principles.

What am I going to do? First I am beginning to challenge people’s complacency. Second I am going to start paying much closer attention to how elected officials are voting. I will participate in every election and vote no for anyone proposing solutions that are outside the scope of government.

My name is Steve Pohlit and I stand for Independence, Freedom and Peace. Now what do you stand for?

The Three Billionaire Attitudes of Bill Bartmann: First: Be Able To Recognize Opportunities

This is about an amazing opportunity and it is not about Bill Bartmann’s buy bad loan portfolio strategy detailed in Buyout Riches. That is the topic of separate articles.

Of course I know this is an amazing opportunity because I have been working with this situation for over three months. I know the markets, the business, the customers, the key people who will implement the solution that I crafted.

Personally, I would write the check for this entire deal like yesterday. I know there one or more resources who will recognize this a jump on it. What is it?

This is a family owned business that is 107 years old. The company has developed a product line in a specialty niche of a much larger market. However the market segment for this niche is estimated to be about a billion dollars in the US alone. Now I know this word …billion… is used a lot and soon we won’t pay attention unless the headline has trillion in it. Think I am kidding.

Today the WSJ released a report that Michael Jackson has sold 2.3 million albums in four days since his death. The reaction is ..so! We are conditioned by so many numbers many have no meaning. Back to the 107 year old company:

They contacted me in March and said they needed help. I don’t have much time to tell all the details right now so let’s “cut to the chase” I quickly determined that this business had experienced a series of unique events that drained them of cash. But unlike nearly every other business I had seen, this company has what every business would die for. This company has a large hungrey crowd for their product and the revenue and gross margins from this business are very very strong.

So most people cannot understand how this picture can turn to where a receiver is appointed by the courts and the company is targeted to be liquidated. With the help of Bill Bartmann I have a fairly good understanding. More importantly, using my radar and following Bill’s advice of being able to recognize opportunities, I see the upside here and it is very significant. Let me repeat this …the upside is very significant and I see minimal downside.

If you want to know more and if you are able to act fast and if writing a check for $50k or $1.5 mil. does not cause your heart to skip a beat, contact me for all the details. Don’t email me, call me at 727-587-7871. That is my direct line but you most likely will need to leave a message and I will get back to you fast.

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Bill Bartmann Is The Billionaire Business Coach

BILL BARTMANN
Listen to BILL in a FREE TELESEMINAR
JUNE 29th at 8PM Eastern

The Billionaire Business Coach
Win big in a down economy

Bill is the MASTER at creating wealth in a down economy (or any economical situation for that matter). He knows how to win big even when the economy is screaming you can’t. You may have seen Bill on the cover of Inc. Magazine as the “Billionaire Nobody Knows”, or watched him recently on major network TV. Bill’s in the news daily because his book, “Bailout Riches”, is creating a real stir. It’s about how you can benefit–directly and fast–from the government bailout.

Click Here To Register This FREE Teleseminar.

Note: Bill’s new book offers great insight on how our financial system is operating today. I purposely avoided using the word working. Part of what Bill has taught me was used in writing the article Financial Crisis, Turnaround Consulting which is in direct response to a person experiencing a financial crisis.

Bill Bartmann is the “Billionaire Business Coach”. He is the only self-made billionaire who has devoted his life exclusively to teaching others. Bill is the leading authority on entrepreneurship in America. He has created seven successful businesses in seven different industries. Including a $3.5 billion, 3900 employee international company that he started from his kitchen table with a $13,000 loan. He has been named National Entrepreneur Of the Year by NASDAQ, USA Today, Merrill Lynch and the Kauffman Foundation. His companies have been named by Inc. Magazine as one of the 500 Fastest Growing Companies In America – four years in a row. He has been awarded a permanent place in the Smithsonian Institutes Museum of American History and awarded the American Academy of Achievement’s Golden Plate Award as one of the Outstanding Achievers of the 21st Century.

Millions of people have seen Bill on ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX News, CNN and CNBC. Bill’s expertise has been featured on Sheppard Smith, Neil Cavuto and Donny Deutsch. He has been profiled in Forbes, Fortune, Inc., Bloomberg, Business Week, New Yorker, People, Wall Street Journal, U.S. News & World Report and USA Today.

Click Here To Register This FREE Teleseminar.

Did you know that Bill issues a FREE newsletter frequently and conducts on line training through his Billionaire University? Want to know more about Bill Bartman and see him on video explaining more about his background and keys to success? If you don’t know his story, this is well worth a few minutes of your time.

Visit Bill Bartman’s Billionaire University …Just Click Here.

Steve
http://stevereports.com

BTW my social network is now large. If you have a product or service you would like to market, you are welcome to contact me.

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USA Today Reports on How Businesses Use Twitter To Communicate With Cusotomers Plus My Published Comments

USA Today published an accurate article today based on my experience. This article is on how an increasing number of companies are using Twitter to communicate with customers. I am connected with a number of the companies referenced in the article and have seen how they are using Twitter and other social media sites. Like the USA today I think they have it more right than wrong. I also know the vast majority of businesses have no idea what social media is or how to use it.

I think it is important to establish some credibility when publishing a point of view on social media. I have included here my comments that you will find connected with the USA today article.

Click Here For The Full Article. My comments that are published there also follow:

———————————–

My experience with social media started about 14 months ago with Facebook and extended to Twitter and others about 6 months later. My sole purpose was to understand how to use social media for effective marketing. Effective marketing is building trust, authenticity and transparency.

This article is right on siting a number of companies effectively using Twitter and other social media services. Twitter is a very effective service for me as it is an integral part of building several businesses. Manifest Mastermind, http://manifestmastermind.com has been build entirely using social media. A recent large business consulting project is a direct result of using social media. My consulting practice is presented on a blog and includes YouTube video at http://irconsultinginc.com

There is work involved in all of this and the work needs to support a strategy. I feel the people who question the usefulness of the tools don’t understand them and don’t do the work.

Steve
http://stevereports.com

BTW my social network is now large. If you have a product or service you would like to market, you are welcome to contact me.

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Email Me, Steve Pohlit to schedule A No Obligation Consultation On Building Your Business Profits.Need more customers? Let’s discuss how to use cutting edge Social Media Marketing in the revenue building cycle of your business to drive your profits sky high. If your company is not growing revenue and profits, if your company is not cash flow positive Click Here for more information about Turnaround Consulting Services for Business In Crisis

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Financial Crisis, Turnaround Consulting

An independent business owner contacted me after reading several of my articles on business turnaround consulting and business process improvement consulting. She asked if I could help her. I asked if she would write me note about her situation. The following is her message:

Steve,

I decided to get in touch with you because I am very close to running out of cash. I don’t know how I will pay on my loan payments next month because at the moment I don’t have any funds for that.

I feel like I am really close to generating positive cash flow with my business but I am still stressed about how I will pay on all accounts/loans that I am responsible for. I feel like I just need to buy myself more time.

I am doing my best to maintain my positive attitude, faith, and belief but I am scared. I’ve applied for additional credit cards but have been denied. As a result, I’ve started to search for a job, which I know is taking my focus off of where it is I want to go.

Financially, I’ve never been where I am at the moment.

If you can help, I am grateful. Even if you are unable to, I am still grateful.

Thank you,

————————————————–

I asked her permission to publish this on my blog as I have actually been planning to write an article about what many people are experiencing for a variety of reasons. Full disclosure: I am a business turnaround and business process improvement expert. I am not a personal financial planner, personal bankruptcy lawyer, personal financial counselor. My experience in this area are very direct and from the streets. If you would like additional support for what I about to tell you, read Bill Bartman’s book “Bailout Riches”.

Notice some very important words in this lady’s description of her situation: faith, belief, scared, “I am responsible”. So my response is written for those who have similar feelings.

About Being Scared:

This is natural particularly since this is the first time she has found herself in this situation. The key is to acknowledge that and just move outside of yourself and observe it. This takes some practice but it can be done. Realistically, we become scared of losing our life, our “stuff”, a place to live and starving. In the worst case scenarios a woman will be not homeless. Nobody will starve to death and stuff can be replaced when the economic situation turns around. In my belief system I have learned how not to fear death. Once you no longer fear death then there is really nothing else to fear. On that topic “Home With God” by Neale Donald Walsch is a great read.

Now I know writing about fear and being scared does not make it go away. You can release these emotions. In fact you must release these emotions or you will have difficulty moving forward which is really what your intending to do. Now for the art of the practical of why you can expect:

I am going to assume she is fairly current on her payments and realizes that will change next month. My advice is to stay focused on immediate needs only while continuing to solidify cash flow from her business. Immediate needs are food, utilities and those service needed for her business. These generally include Internet service and phone service. TV service is not an essential. Car insurance is. The key is to evaluate true essential spending.

For now paying credit card debt and mortgage payments are also not essential. If you are a renter, you may have less time in your place than if you have a mortgage.

Going Forward

This lady mentioned feeling like her business is close to cash flowing. I recommend anyone who has a business ask someone else with business experience for a realistic evaluation of that feeling. This is the number one item I work on in a business turnaround after addressing immediate cash management issues. With the confidence of how a liquidity crisis turns around you can navigate any obstacles. Now if you don’t have that confidence then you should begin pursuing plan B. She mentions looking for a job. That may not be her first choice but it may be a realistic stepping stone until she can turn her business cash flow positive. That is for her to decide.

What To Expect From Credit Card Companies and Banks

The reality is you will get a lot of phone calls. Most of these calls will be made by a computer. So it is a great idea to have a caller id phone that you can put on silence or vibrate. You don’t want to answer a call unless you know the caller and you want to talk to them. The natural inclination is to want to talk to the representative on the phone. I don’t recommend wasting your time doing that until you can tell them you have restored your ability to pay.

Credit card companies will threaten to file suit. They won’t. Read Bartman’s book. You can become delinquent more than 90 days if it takes that long to restore cash flow. Close to the 90 day mark they will be willing to cut all kinds of deals with you. If you take one of them know that they will not reactivate your card. I know the credit card companies will accept settlement at 50% of the amount due and take that over 3-5 monthly payments. They do not want you to know that. And as soon as I write that I am sure someone will say there are even better deals than that.

I am not advocating not paying what you owe. However, the credit card companies have no problems charging very high default rates and late fees. Your responsibility is to position yourself to go forward.

Get used to the phone ringing and don’t take it personal. First a computer is dialing and then at some point when you decide to talk with someone because you have a proposed solution then recognize they are not your enemy or your friend. They are simply doing their job.

You can expect the calls to start at 8AM and end at 9PM Monday through Saturday and noon until about 8PM on Sunday.

Mortgage or Rent

Because mortgages go through a foreclosure process it can take quite some time from start to finish. Rent on the other hand is a bit more dicey depending on the market you live in. The meltdown leading to the high foreclosure rate has driven up demand for rental units. So you could be facing a situation of eviction 60 days or so past the due date.

Generally if you are able to pay a portion of what is due that will buy some time. Mortgages move from the normal mortgage service department to a foreclosure processing department. Expect notice of intent to foreclose and calls. Don’t panic you have time. But keep moving on you go forward plan. Foreclosures and evictions do happen.

Brief Summary

What I have tried to do is paint the picture of what you can expect. There are variations of course and timing can vary depending on the credit card company and bank. Ultimately you have a lot of room to negotiate just about everything related to debt. Utilities no since they will just cut you off. But debt yes. However, in order to negotiate you must have something to negotiate with. You ultimately have to have a source of cash flow to negotiate.

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Busting Loose From The Business Game

In 2006, author Bob Scheinfeld published a book titled: Busting Loose From The Money Game. I purchased the book based on the recommendation from another admired author and read it once over the course of about a week. I then went back and read it more closely, made notes, highlighted sections in yellow. In short I really studied this book.

I had not been exposed to most of the information in that book to that point. I was very skeptical even after studying it in-depth. This was because the concepts were so different from anything I had imagined. However, I found a part of me saying it made a lot of sense.

Over the subsequent three years, I have learned that Busting Loose From The Money Game was based on what is known by scientists as the discipline of Quantum Physics. During this time the movie The Secret was released. There has been a growing awareness of The Law of Attraction. Quantum Physics supports The Law of Attraction.

Here is a real life example from personal experience. If you have followed the articles published in this blog you know I have a lot of very valuable business experience. I use this experience to help companies improve their business performance and in some cases help them if they find themselves in a difficult situation (business turnaround consulting).

When I was near graduating from college I decided that I wanted to be a CPA and work with one of the Big 8 (at the time) firms. I visualized that experience as best I could, I interviewed with a few firms and I was not hired…then. I ultimately relaxed that idea, but I did become a CPA and also went on to earn my MBA. Both were credentials I decided I wanted to have because one day I wanted an executive position and be in the board room running a large business. I felt those credential would help.

I was relentless on that idea. I felt certain it would happen. Nine years after I was not offered a job with one of the Big 8, the number one firm in the world hired me . I went on to have a marvelous experience there for 10 years. I left and went right to being a senior executive of a $360 million company. I was in the board room with several other senior people running that company. There is a lot more to this story including some of the near total disasters I experienced but the point is I attracted that which I was focused on consciously or otherwise. That is The Law of Attraction. “Like attracts like”.

Today in business and in all areas of my life I am continually creating the picture that I want to have appear. Now if you asked my most recent client how that turned out they would say not very well. I would say one chapter is closed and another is beginning. Soon I will prepare another article on change and surprises. For now I say to you, The Law of Attraction works perfectly all the time. The problem comes in when the outcome isn’t like we thought it would be. Sometimes the outcome is much better and sometimes it isn’t.

In the situation I just finished, the bank decided it was in their best interest to liquidate the company. There is no way on this planet in my lifetime I thought I would understand the bank’s position given the alternative solutions presented to them. However, Bill Bartman’s latest book “Bailout Riches” offers answers. Do you see I was asking questions and I attracted answers. Not only that, but I attracted an opportunity to profit from the current conditions should I pursue what Bill suggests. I don’t think I will but you can.

I love understanding and increasing my connections with that which I intend to attract. I love sharing what my experiences and insight on these topics. Nearly a year ago I had an idea of how I could blend my passion for The Law of Attraction with my experience and skill set in business and particularly the consulting arena. Shortly thereafter, a number of things began to fall in place and today I have along with my business partner have growing business based on The Law of Attraction. That business is Manifest Mastermind. What is most important I work on what I love and some people like it enough to stay as paying members. How cool is that?

My purpose has been to give you a glimpse as to why I immediately purchased Bob Scheinfeld’s latest book: “Busting Loose From The Business Game” I have not read it as I just order it today. I encourage you to order it and for transparency purposes I am not an affiliate and Bob hasn’t asked me to write this and certainly hasn’t paid me any money to do so. For the record I am not opposed to being paid :).

I know this book will have as much influence on me as the first one I read and I am excited about all the possibilities.

Here is the link and if you decide to order, please tell Bob that you heard about it from Steve Pohlit.
<http://www.bustingloosefromthebusinessgame.com/opportunity.html>

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Freedom, Liberty

I have been experiencing accelerated energy toward the foundation principles of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness – the original value system of the United States. I also feel, more and more people are refocusing on these values as our government continues grow and spend money irresponsibly.

Michael Israel is one person who energizes the feelings of compassion, care and patriotism. Michael is awesome as this video shows.

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The Value Chain or Optimizing Profitable Revenue

Andrew Chen published an article titled Creating Value vs. Optimizing Revenue. Here is the link to his article.

http://andrewchenblog.com/2009/06/10/creating-value-versus-optimizing-revenue/

First I want to draw attention to his conclusion: “No matter what your product is, the only way to make money long-term is to make a lot of people happy, and then getting some % of the value you created back, in return. The right strategy to build a long-term sustainable business is to build long-term sustainable value. No amount of viral tricks or optimization will allow you to escape that truth!”

Here are my thoughts resulting from my own experience. Long term sustainable value is an academic dream. Value right now is what is important and if you provide value right now and you continually do that day after day, guess what? Your business ends up providing long term value. When developing the revenue model of your business strategy you must focus on the profit formula that works right now!

The “right now” profit formula delivers value to your target audience at a price that makes you money. If it doesn’t deliver them value and you profit right now you will lose the customer and lose your business. It is that simple.

Andrew goes a bit esoteric for me in his presentation on landing pages, optimization and more. I like to keep things a bit more straight forward. If you are using on line traffic conversion techniques (and I am sure you are) the ultimate optimization is where what you say catches the attention of your target audience and that interest is converted to an action. That acton is simply “I want what you are offering” This applies to the sale of socks or business development consulting services which is one of my offers. There are no exceptions. Ladies and gentlemen business is all about building traffic to your business or landing page and converting that traffic to profitable customers. That’s it.

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IR Consulting, Inc.

Email Me, Steve Pohlit to schedule A No Obligation Consultation On Building Your Business Profits. Need more customers? Let’s discuss how to use cutting edge Social Media Marketing in the revenue building cycle of your business to drive your profits sky high. If your company is not growing revenue and profits, if your company is not cash flow positive Click Here for more information about Turnaround Consulting Services for Business In Crisis

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Newt Gingrich Writes: Once, We Would Have Called It A Scandal

In my business development consulting practice I encounter situations where filing for reorganization with protection of Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code (Federal Law) seems to be an option. Consequently I follow with interest some of the more high profile cases. I am amazed at the application of this Federal Law. I was thinking it seems the rules are at times re-written for the convenience of special interests.

This email from Newt is a great report on the recent bankruptcies of Chrysler and GM. This is well worth paying attention to since the issues are not about Chrysler and GM, it is about the breakdown in our political and judicial system.
Newt’s entire email follows. Thank you Newt Gingrich.

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Email Me, Steve Pohlit to schedule A No Obligation ConsultationOn Building Your Business Profits. Need more customers? Let’s discuss how to use cutting edge Social Media Marketing in the revenue building cycle of your business to drive your profits sky high. If your company is not growing revenue and profits, if your company is not cash flow positive Click Here for more information about Turnaround Consulting Services for Business In Crisis

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Once, We Would Have Called It a Scandal

by Newt Gingrich

There was a time when we would have called it a scandal.

In 1921, oil tycoon Harry Sinclair gave several prize head of cattle and around $269,000 to President Harding’s Secretary of the Interior, Albert Fall.

In return, Sinclair got the exclusive rights to drill in an oil field in Wyoming. Sinclair’s no-bid contract became the Teapot Dome scandal, the most notorious example of political corruption in America prior to Watergate.

Between 2000 and 2008, the United Auto Workers (UAW) union gave $23,675,562 to the Democratic Party and its candidates.

In 2008 alone, the UAW gave $4,161,567 to the Democratic Party, including Barack Obama.

In return, the UAW received 55 percent of Chrysler and 17.5 percent of GM, plus billions of dollars.

But nobody’s calling this a scandal. It’s time we start.

2000-2008 UAW Giving: $23.7 million to Democrats. $193,540 to Republicans

The almost $24,000,000 the UAW has given to Democrats since 2000 compares with the $193,540 the union has given to Republicans.

In the 2008 presidential election, President Obama was by far the biggest recipient of UAW contributions, raking in $27,340 compared to the $10,600 given to Hillary Clinton, the No. 2 recipient of UAW money.

And so it was no surprise to the cynical Washington political class when the payback began with the Chrysler bankruptcy.

In a rigged proceeding in which the federal government disregarded bankruptcy law in favor of the political outcome it desired, the Chrysler bankruptcy laid the predicate for the much larger General Motors bankruptcy to come. Against law and precedent, the unions were moved to the front of the line when it came to who would benefit from the bankruptcy.

The Obama Treasury Department strong-armed Chrysler’s creditors into a deal in which the UAW was given 55 percent ownership of the company while Chrysler’s secured creditors – investors who would have received priority in a non-political bankruptcy proceeding – were left with just 29 cents on the dollar.

On Monday, the Supreme Court Delayed the
Completion of the Chrysler Bankruptcy

Some of these secured creditors, led by a group of Indiana retirement funds, are fighting back. They’ve charged in court that the Chrysler bankruptcy violated the bankruptcy laws and violated their rights as senior lenders.

On Monday, the Supreme Court put a hold on the Chrysler bankruptcy to hear their case.

We don’t yet know which way the high court will rule, or if it will rule at all. But we do know what’s at stake. Indiana State Treasurer Richard Mourdock put it well:

“The issue of secured creditors’ rights is bigger than Chrysler. It’s an essential foundation of our capital markets. And fundamentally, this is about the law.”

“Never Has an American Union Done So Well At
the Expense of Shareholders and Creditors”

But the Chrysler bankruptcy was just prelude to the Obama-Administration-brokered General Motors bankruptcy deal announced last week.

The GM deal is yet another example of rank, taxpayer-financed political favoritism.

Once again, the big losers are GM’s bondholders, who include substitute teachers in Florida and retired tool and dye supervisors in Michigan. They hold $27 billion in GM debt but are receiving a 10 percent stake in the new company.

In contrast, the UAW, which is owed about $20 billion from GM, is walking away with 17.5 percent of the company and a cool $9 billion in cash.

According to one analysis, while the bondholders will be lucky if they recover 15 cents on the dollar, the UAW can expect to recover up to 60 to 70 cents on the dollar – four to five times what the bondholders will receive.

As Barron’s Magazine wrote, “Never has an American union done so well at the expense of shareholders and creditors”.

“At a Time When Some American Workers are Facing Stiff Pay Cuts, UAW Workers Gave Up Their Customary Paid Holiday on Easter Monday”

Of course, the Obama Administration has assured us that the United Auto Workers has made “substantial concessions” as part of the bankruptcies that have literally saved the union from extinction.

But as no less than the Washington Post put it, the “union concessions were ‘painful’ only by the peculiar standards of Big Three labor relations: At a time when some American workers are facing stiff pay cuts, UAW workers gave up their customary paid holiday on Easter Monday and their right to overtime pay after less than 40 hours per week. They still get health benefits that are far better than those received by many American families upon whose tax money GM jobs now depend.”

Union members also preserved their right to have six unexcused absences from work before they can even be considered to be fired.

Can you feel the pain?

The Unions Have Been Rewarded With
Ongoing Subsidization by the Taxpayers

It is a sign of the degree to which raw politics has dominated its handling of Chrysler and General Motors that the Obama Administration has a 31-year-old who has not yet graduated from law school determining the fate of two multi-billion dollar companies.

For their political support of the Democratic Party, the auto unions have been rewarded, not just with ownership stakes in two giant companies, but with ongoing protection and subsidization by the U.S. taxpayers.

The President has said repeatedly that he wants to get out of the auto business as soon as possible. But does anyone seriously believe that he would accept an arrangement in which GM becomes profitable at the expense of the union and its gold-plated benefits?

Having spent $50 billion to “save” GM and the UAW, does anyone really believe that the Obama Administration will now allow economics and not politics to dictate its future decisions?

In the GM and Chrysler bankruptcies, the Obama Administration has trampled on the rule of law.

It is using the taxpayers’ money to pay back a political group for its political contributions.

There was a time when we would have called that a scandal.

Your friend,

Newt Gingrich

The US Govt. Agrees To Accept $68 Billion Pay Down of TARP Money.

The Treasury should be standing there with “arms wide open” to accept any of the TARP money a bank wants to pay back. Our government charter does not extend to the bailout of private enterprise entities, bank, automotive company or any other. However, we have allowed it and now that the funds have been disbursed, every effort should be made to get them back. That may be the intent of our Treasury but it doesn’t feel that way based on the way it is reported. (link to WSJ article below)

Related point: I am working a business turnaround situation with a client whose bank is a TARP bank. You would never know the bank has accepted money intended on helping business move forward. We have a valid business moving forward plan where the bank does not even have to advance any more funds. However the cooperation of the bank is required. They have chosen not to cooperate. I am told by other professionals working with companies and with TARP money banks that the attitude from the banks of not really helping is pervasive.

So the we allow the government to bail out these banks and the money is not being used to really help the economy. Amazing.

Sharing with all my readers the energy of peace, happiness and abundance

Steve Pohlit, Expert Business Consulting

IR Consulting, Inc.

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Here is today’s Wall Street Journal Article.

News Alert
from The Wall Street Journal
—————————-
Sponsored by NASDAQ OMX
—————————-

The Treasury Department said it will allow 10 of the nation’s largest banks to repay $68 billion in government bailout money.

The Treasury says the banks will be allowed to repay the money they received from the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program funds. The banks have been eager to get out of the TARP program to escape government restrictions such as caps on executive compensation.

The Treasury Department did not name the banks involved, but Morgan Stanley said it is repaying $10 billion in TARP capital.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124455528999797923.html#mod=djemalertNEWS

2000-2008 UAW Giving: $23.7 million to Democrats. $193,540 to Republicans

On Monday, the Supreme Court Delayed the Completion of the Chrysler Bankruptcy

“Never Has an American Union Done So Well At the Expense of Shareholders and Creditors”

“At a Time When Some American Workers are Facing Stiff Pay Cuts, UAW Workers Gave Up Their Customary Paid Holiday on Easter Monday”

The Unions Have Been Rewarded With Ongoing Subsidization by the Taxpayers

On Monday, the Supreme Court Delayed the
Completion of the Chrysler Bankruptcy

“Never Has an American Union Done So Well At
the Expense of Shareholders and Creditors”

The Unions Have Been Rewarded With
Ongoing Subsidization by the Taxpayers