Steve Pohlit – Page 21

Motivational, Inspirational, Sensual

Turn up the volume and enjoy.

The 5 Finger Plan For Outrageous Business Profits

The 5 Pillars of A Successful Business

What happens when you apply the 80:20 rule to the activities required for any business to operate?

Extraordinary Profits

A Positive, Low Stress Working Environment

Continual Increases In Revenue and Profits At A Rate That Far Outpaces Your Competition

How do you achieve these goals? Well just take a look at how most companies are run and don’t do what they do. People in most companies spend the majority of their time on activities that have little or no impact on building revenue and profits. Let’s review the components of how to solve this.

First there are only five (5) areas of business that need your attention. Hold out your hand and look at your fingers and thumb – 5. Now follow with me on this because I am not in a room with you to reinforce the point. Hold out your hand and assign each of the (5) pillars as follows:

1.Sales – thumb
2.Gross Margin – index finger
3.Expenses – your “flip em” finger
4.Working Capital – next finger
5.Employees – pinky

80% of your time as an owner or CEO should be spent on these 5 pillars and 80% of the 80% should be spent on Sales and Gross Margin – the first two. When you spend the majority of your time on marketing the right balance of products and services that bring you optimum sales volume and gross margin, you can expect:

Recruiting and retaining the best people is easy,
Liquidity is abundant, and
If any area of expense begins to be out of balance, it doesn’t hurt much while you are bringing it back in line.

Recently I met with a friend who has a professional service that has a healthy price point. Consider the economy is reported to be as week as it has been in 10 years, I asked him if he was feeling any impact. He told his next opening was two months out. Then he hired my company to bring him more targeted prospects. He has alway had a marketing focus the entire 15 years I have known him and he business does well every year. Repeat he has a continual focus on the marketing funnel and is working it all the time.

Spend 80% of your time on Sales and Gross Margin. An alternative is to have a credible firm drive targeted prospects to your business.

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

Steve Pohlit
The Profit Expert

Email Steve to schedule A No Obligation Consultation On Building Your Business Profits. Let’s discuss how to use cutting edge Social Media Marketing, Internet Marketing and Direct Response Marketing in the revenue building cycle of your business to drive your profits sky high.

FREE Report:

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

The WSJ Advises Pres. Obama on Using The Strategic Petroleum Reserve

By LIAM DENNING writing for The Wall Street Journal

“Unlike some of the other black holes into which Washington pours money these days, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve’s value is grasped easily. If needed, it could replace about 44% of daily U.S. oil imports for more than five months.”

In summary, Pres. Obama is considering tapping this reserve to stabilize gasoline prices. Liam correctly points out in this article that the use of SPR for managing prices can easily have an effect that is opposite of what is intended.

My comments on this are brief:

Great article Liam!

The operative phrase is “Strategic Petroleum Reserve” The strategy is to protect the best interests of the country in the event of a very unusual emergency. Fluctuating market prices do not fall within that definition.

So now what do you think?

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

Steve Pohlit
The Profit Expert

FREE Report:

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

Mastermind Series Part 2: The “Must Have” For A Successful Business

Every business development article, course, seminar, podcast, video that is on the topic of how to succeed in business starts with this advice:

Define your target audience
Confirm they want what you have to offer
Be certain they have the money to buy what you have to offer

Following that, a meaningful portion of the material proceeds to tell you how to implement those three steps. The remainder of the material then tells you how to attract your target audience to buy from you and how to make a profit doing all of that.

The reason all the training starts with those points is because they are foundation principles. While they are important, there are two attributes that are even more important than the three I have listed. As I considered both it became obvious that the second is impossible without the first being in place. That one has been addressed in detail in a previous article titled: Your Level of Business Success is Linked to One Thing. That on thing is that you must be in alignment with the work you are doing. This article expands on that with additional ideas from Napoleon Hill.

Alignment is not passion. Passion is often temporary. Passion is easy to observe when the business is performing as planned and particularly evident when the business is performing better than planned. Passion often disappears when the routine sets in. In particularly difficult situations, passion can reverse into anger or depression. When you are in alignment with the purpose of your business, you have an awareness understanding and acceptance of business events and cycles. You also have an awareness, understanding and acceptance of life situations not always being that which you prefer.

That knowing results in you staying the course when others may give up. That knowing results in you being confident in the outcome and being able to demonstrate leadership in all situations. That knowing results in you being in harmony with those close to you, employees and others serving your business regardless of the situations.

In that short paragraph I listed the more common categories of people that we connect with to accomplish anything in business. At the heart of any business that flourishes for an extended period of time is a Master Mind. Napolean Hill points out that: “Harmony is the nucleus around which the state of mind known as Master Mind must be developed. Without this element of harmony there can be no Master Mind, a truth that cannot be repeated too often.”

In review, a Master Mind is at the heart of every business that successfully progresses for and extended period of time. Harmony is the key ingredient of the Master Mind. When harmony fades the Master Mind is ended. Being in alignment with the purpose of your business starts by having a clear definition of your own purpose. Then you are in a position to evaluate any business or opportunity and know if you are in alignment with it.

Napoleon Hill writes about harmony being present in every successful relationship whether that be business or personal. Now you have insight as to what is the foundation of harmony.

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

Steve Pohlit
The Profit Expert

PS For the first article Titled Mastermind Is Not an Option Please Click Here

FREE Report:

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

Mastermind Series Part 2: The "Must Have" For A Successful Business

Every business development article, course, seminar, podcast, video that is on the topic of how to succeed in business starts with this advice:

Define your target audience
Confirm they want what you have to offer
Be certain they have the money to buy what you have to offer

Napoleon Hill writes about harmony being present in every successful relationship whether that be business or personal. Now you have insight as to what is the foundation of harmony.

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

Steve Pohlit
The Profit Expert

PS For the first article Titled Mastermind Is Not an Option Please Click Here

FREE Report:

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

Marketing Is All About Traffic and Conversion

If you are in a for profit business you must have a continual stream of customers that buy what you offer. If you don’t have that working nothing else matters. Given that, what is your priority? Correct…Marketing!!

There are only three ways to increase revenue:

1. Sell more products or services to an existing customer

2. Sell the same amount of products or services to a customer at a higher price

3. Add more customers

When anyone visits your business that is traffic. When anyone who visits buys your offer that is conversion.

Recently, article posted here have been highlighting social media marketing for business. That arena is increasingly being used to generate traffic. I have helped many companies implement marketing programs that use a combination of tools including: a blog, a website, pay per click advertising, email marketing and more. These are all tools that work when used properly.

The landscape is changing with droves of people pouring into sites like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and more. There are many people who claim to know why social media sites have become so popular but the reasons don’t matter. The facts are that there are huge numbers of people entering these sites and others like them for the first time each week.

Open up a Twitter account at Twitter.com and use the search feature at the bottom of the page and type in the keyword phrase social media. Then begin to click on profiles and discover how many people are referring to themselves as a social media expert.

Key Point: If your primary intent is to do business, having a growing network of connected people on Twitter or anywhere else for that matter means nothing if they are not buying your offer. You have traffic but they are moving on by and the conversion piece of the formula is missing. So when someone calls themselves an expert ask them to show you the profitable business they have developed using social media. Don’t be surprised at the lack of response.

We started from scratch and developed two businesses that are profitable and cash flow positive using only social media. Social media we used includes a blog for each business, and a network we grew on several of the larger social media sites.

There was a lot of work involved in doing this. I know because I did a lot of it and so did my business partner. Brian Campbell is the strategist on the detailed steps needed for this to work. Does this mean we are experts? It means we really have a lot of skills, and now systems, for building meaningful market share in important niche markets.

My Top Two Recommendations for Businesses Wanting To Improve The Effectiveness of Their Marketing

1. Building a contact data base is key. Effectively communicate with that list. This is not new and remains a foundation principle. It is still an alien concept for most companies.

2. Have a find tuned marketing plan, budget and return on investment monitoring in place and reviewed weekly and for some actions, daily. All activity must be focused on building traffic and converting that traffic.

Closing Comments:

The social media landscape is hot and getting hotter. But there are also other proven business development tools including pay per click, email marketing, print media, electronic advertising, trade shows and more. Each must be evaluated and tested in terms of benefit to your business. You can invest your time and that of your employees or outsource a lot of this. If you want fast results, outsource. If you do, again migrate based on priorities and test.

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

Steve Pohlit
The Profit Expert

Email Steve to schedule A No Obligation Consultation On Building Your Business Profits. Let’s discuss how to use cutting edge Social Media Marketing, Internet Marketing and Direct Response Marketing in the revenue building cycle of your business to drive your profits sky high.

FREE Report:

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

Why Social Media Is Important

Let’s look at what people think about most of the time.

We think about doing our work so we make money or in increasing numbers we think about finding work so we make money.

We think about our relationships. Our thoughts may be how loving that relationship is or possibly how troubled we are.

We think about taking care of basic tasks like, eating and taking care of things related to how we live.

In summary, whatever you dominant thoughts, dreams, goals, including your business goals…you are able to connect with others using the powerful tools of social media. Most of the social media sites are free to use. However, your most precious commodity is your time. Start or continue your adventure in social media with a clear definition of what you want to accomplish.

Manifest Mastermind, the business I started in 2008 was marketed entirely using social media marketing. You can attract more people to your business or area of interest using social media.

Your Next Steps:

Follow me on Twitter and I will follow you http://twitter.com/SMediaSource

Sending you energy of peace, happiness, prosperity

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

Steve Pohlit

Steve is the Founder of Manifest Mastermind which now includes training on using social media. The Social Media Source is a resource site for growing your network on line to help you achieve your goals in the areas of financial prosperity, health and relationships. Friend Connect Central is you social media hub…the place for connecting your blog or website to the world.

Steve is also the President of International Business Consulting Resources. His firm specializes in guiding companies to rapid increases in revenue and profits with a sustainable growth rate.

FREE Reports:

7 Steps To Manifesting Your Dreams

How To Make More Money With Your Business Now and Long Term

How To Use Social Media Site Twitter To Find A Job

This is a great article on How To Find A Job Using Twitter. With the current environment I wanted my list to be aware of it: The complete article is published at: http://www.lifehack.org/articles/money/taking-your-job-hunt-to-twitter.html

It’s All About the Hashtags

There are three hashtags that can come in handy to someone on a search for a new job. Keeping an eye on #rtjobs, #jobangels and #jobs can give you a look at who’s looking to actively recruit on Twitter. Even recruiters from companies like AT&T have started postingjob listings, often labeling them with #jobs. While #jobs may be the most obvious tag, there’s a reason behind both #jobangels and #rtjobs tag.

JobAngels is a Twitter account dedicated to helping individuals get back to work. Through retweets and reply messages, a number of Twitter users direct JobAngels’ attention to mentions of job listings on Twitter. Those listings are then broadcast to JobAngels’ 700+ followers on Twitter. Using the #jobangels tag provides another layer of tracking, for both individuals passing jobs along to JobAngels, as well as letting them listen in on another layer of the discussion about jobs that are available.

For the most part, #rtjobs seems quite similar to #jobangels. But rather than having one central Twitter account bringing job opportunities together, #rtjobs relies more on Twitter users including the appropriate hashtag in their messages. One Twitter user, Aaron Brazell, has created a site to help organize all the information labeled with #rtjobs. The site is based on the Twitter API, the #rtjobs site brings all #rtjobs tweets together in one place and makes them searchable. It makes using all the information flowing through Twitter that much easier to use — and it can be a much faster way to search through tweets to find a job opportunity than any other approach. You can even follow it through an RSS feeder if you aren’t so inclined to rely on Twitter.

Running a Search or Two

Click Here http://www.lifehack.org/articles/money/taking-your-job-hunt-to-twitter.html

Ask Your Network

Click Here: http://www.lifehack.org/articles/money/taking-your-job-hunt-to-twitter.html

Twitter is a Tool

Click Here : http://www.lifehack.org/articles/money/taking-your-job-hunt-to-twitter.html

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

Steve Pohlit
The Profit Expert

Steve is the Co-Founder of Manifest Mastermind and President of International Business Consulting Resources. His firm specializes in guiding companies to rapid increases in revenue and profits with a sustainable growth rate. FREE Reports:

How To Make More Money With Your Business Now and Long Term

7 Steps To Manifesting Your Dreams

Network with me on Facebook: LinkedIn: Follow me on Twitter

Social Media Blueprint

A panel discussion of Social Media experts formed at a recent JV Alert conference addressed a question on the business of Social Media. A key point made is that Social Media is a tool.

That excellent reminder serves as the starting point for this summary on How To Use Social Media to Start and Grow a Business. Social Media is a general term for community based Internet sites with the biggest ones being Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, and very fast growing ones like Twitter and LinkedIn.

Generally, my first response with a question like “how should I use Social Media?” is “what is it that you want”. My business Manifest Mastermind guides everyone in our free course as well as paying members to begin with a clear definition of what it is that you want and then they are asked why.

Applying this to Social Media and using my own experience as an example, my initial goal was to understand the primary options for Social Media sites. My conclusion was that I could spend my time for entertainment or for developing business. Very soon I further clarified Social Media for me which was that I wanted to know if Social Media was a valid tool for building a profitable business.

Social proof that Social Media is an effective tool for building a business is Manifest Mastermind. The time line from business idea to business launch was four months. This actually could have been shorter if we would have been able to allocate more financial resources to it. We spent a lot of professional time and very little cash in developing this business.

When possible I would advise others to outsource more but we proved that a business could be successfuly launced with very little money.

Social Media Blueprint:

This is a top level summary of the Social Media Blueprint I recommend. This is based on my actual experience with Manifest Mastermind:

1. Have a clear definition of what you want and why. Are you using Social Media for business or pleasure? If you intend to use Social Media sites for developing business there will and should be pleasure because Social Media is about developing relationships with people interested in who you are and what you are doing.

2. Identify what Social Media sites are best for your business. Actually this is fairly easy with the top three sites for business being Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. There are an ever increasing list of social media sites. Start with the ones that have the market. LinkedIn is growing fast and can be another one that is important for you going forward.

3. Form relationships with those most likely interested in that what you are doing. I am sure you have heard the advice to define your target market. This is no different. How do you find your market on Social Media sites? There are several ways. A primary one is doing research on: who is talking about your business topic (Twitter); who is joining groups related to your business (Facebook); and, who is adding video content related to your business (YouTube). I advise a filtering approach. Invite people into your world and then invite them into a network focused on your niche business.

4. Ultimately you must capture those with an interest into your own list. We use traditional Internet Marketing guidance on bringing people to our list and then offering value to demonstate why they benefit from spending money with us.

Next Steps:

Manifest Mastermind’s business purpose is to help others create their own success stories. Success stories happen in the areas where people are clearly focused on a prioritized list of their own dreams. Dreams fall into three main categories: financial, health and relationships. They are never mutually exclusive. Our guidance is based on The Law of Attraction and the Mastermind Principle. Guidance is developed with experts advising us on particular topics.

We are expanding our reach in Social Media and we are soon launching our small group mastermind program. Every business model on line and off is based on one foundation principle: traffic and conversion. We are extending our traffic building model beyond Social Media. However, Social Media remains an integral part of our business development strategy.

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

Steve Pohlit
The Profit Expert

How To Make More Money With Your Business Now and Long Term

7 Steps To Manifesting Your Dreams

Network with me on Facebook: LinkedIn: Follow me on Twitter

Job Loss, 7-Eleven Layoffs, Incentive Compensation

Today another announcement regarding layoffs. This one in particular caught my attention for several reasons. First 7-Eleven’s press release disclosed it was cutting 10% of it’s non-store staff. It also disclosed it was suspending certain benefit contributions and it’s incentive compensation program.

Before continuing, please note I am not in any way associated with 7-Eleven. If I were the content would have been different.

In general, anytime I read about infrastructure layoffs, the ones at the support level, or enterprise level as it it sometimes called, I question, how these positions were justified in the first place. Every support position should be essential for the business and in retail there is trememdous leverage. Consequently I wonder what management was thinking when they allowed staff to grow by 200 extra people.

I wonder what percentage of the annual payroll cost was cut. That number is not necessarily and most likely not 10%. The operative question is what is 7-Eleven’s, or any company’s support structure cost target, as a percentage of projected related revenue? The related question is how is that going to be calibrated given revenues that could very well be lower than projected? At what point are support structure costs fixed given the size of the customer base? What is the strategy for increasing customer loyalty and revenue?

These and other related questions don’t seem to be answered in press releases or related public disclosures very well. They should be for public companies and any private companies where they are benefiting from community tax incentives while such insanity continues.

Now that I am warmed up, let’s look at the point on incentive compensation. I don’t know how a company can take away a properly structured incentive compensation program. In fact, the reverse of this decision should be implemented. Nearly everyone in the business should be on a pay for perfomance program. Incentive compensaton should be the catalyst for …well profitable performance.

In summary, the principle is you are in business to make a profit and and people who work in the business should be rewarded for their contribution to that profit performance. With some exceptions, everyone’s compensation can be tied to performance. In my experience with hundreds of companies, this is a hot topic that gets nods of approval and gets dropped like a hot potato as soon as possible. Why is that? Everyone feels they want the guaranteed income. As we have seen… there are no guranatees.

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

Steve Pohlit
www.StevePohlit.com
www.ManifestMastermind.com

Network with me on Facebook: LinkedIn: Follow me on Twitter

Steve is the President of International Business Consulting Resources. His firm specializes in guiding companies to rapid increases in revenue and profits with a sustainable growth rate. Don’t miss my FREE Report: How To Make More Money With Your Business Now and Long Term

This report may be freely distributed without restrictions with the original content including this resource box remaining unchanged. Author: Steve Pohlit, Business Consulting Services, Executive Coaching, please visit www.stevepohlit.com