Managing Partner Time To Be Great, LLC Global Independent Distributor Healy, Vollara, Xelliss, BEMER Business and Real Estate Coach, Consultant Professional Speaker, Author
Of The Ones You Read, List Three Lessons That You Remember and Are Using From Each
It is not about how much you have read, it is about the quality of your reading and how you remember and use what you have read.
Here Is The List from Success Magazine – A great list by the way. My answers to the questions below.
1. As A Man Thinketh, James Allen
2. Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill
3. Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude, Napoleon Hill
4. How To win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnege
5. The Power of Positive Thinking, Dr. Norman Vincent Peale
6. Man’s Search for Meaning, Victor Frankl
7. Learned Optimism: How To Change Your Mind and Your Life, Martin Seligman
My Answers
I own the first 5 in print and now Kindle
I have read or scanned the first 3 in the last 6 months
I can tell you a great deal about the first 4 and how I use key lessons in my life and business. I speak regularly at The Genius Tour events and incorporate these lesson in my presentations and work with coaching and consulting clients. Please call me and let’s discuss the coaching program that is right for your business. 727-587-7871.
I just purchased 6 and 7. In 2-4 weeks I will be fluently talking about and acting on the major lessons of all 7. Now your turn. I look forward to your comments.
BTW there are many great resources and this is just one source. It is a great start and if you only studied these books and followed the guidance in my book Building Business Profits Fast, I am sure you will being doing just fine.
May Your Success Exceed All Your Most Amazing Expectations
Success
Success is the experiencing of your ever expanding potential and helping others do the same.
Think about that and I will expand upon that in a future article. In the meantime, please click here and register now Even if you cannot join us at one of the cities, there are many benefits for you.
For Your Success,
Steve Pohlit, International Business Turnaround and Real Estate Investment Coach
Author of: Building Business Profits Fast
International Business Turnaround and Development Consulting
Real Estate Investment Consulting
Executive Coach
Sharing the best ideas for achieving success in all areas of your life.
I am a very experienced international real estate investment and business turnaround coach. My success rate is 100% with those people who follow my coaching instructions. This means they take action, they do the homework. In addition to coaching I have my own real estate investment firm and an on line continuity business.
2012 was a very good year for me. My business results were greater than any year since 2007. What was different? I began working with people who coach me. One of my coaches has 9 coaches and I personally know four of them and work with two of the four. Two of the four are coaching me. I pay very close attention to those achieving great success and do what they do.
In addition to working with coaches, I have a very targeted personal and professional self-development program consisting of books, mp3’s, daily inspirational literature and more. You may recall one of more recent articles titled “Success Is An Inside Job”
Energy is required to do all this. My energy is not drained by my profession. I really enjoy most everything I do. In addition, I have exercise regularly, eat mostly organic foods and use the most valuable nutritional supplements that I know of.
My purpose in sharing this with you is for you to know that in our challenging economic and political climate there are a lot of people achieving and exceeding their goals. Most of the people I know are being coached. Do you see the common denominator here?
My highest recommendation is that you begin now to work with a coach. Am I the best coach for you? I don’t know that until I know more about you. Once I do I can determine if we are a good match. If not, I will recommend one or more other great coaches for you to consider.
Steve Pohlit, International Business Turnaround and Real Estate Investment Coach
Business Building Principle 101: Take Very Good Care of the Customers You Have While Marketing For New Ones
I am a frequent traveler and have earned status with United Air. I also have a significant number of points with Continental Air. I have been looking forward to combining all of that into one account. Beyond that I simply want the continual ease of booking reservations and online check in. I particularly enjoy having my boarding pass available on my iPhone when it is not convenient for me to print one out.
Overall United treats me well and they take the opportunity to let passengers know on each flight their advancements and plans for new equipment and technology. With all that marketing promotion I am surprised at how poorly the systems conversion this past weekend was handled. Specifically,
There was not advance communication of this conversion along with contingency plans in the event of any snags.
There is no information that I have found on the combining of frequent flyer accounts.
Saturday when I was trying to simply confirm my Sunday morning flight and retrieve my boarding pass I could not. I read a message to get to the gate early which is not very comforting. I also noticed a number to call for help. I did call and it took 40 minutes for the call to be answered. While on hold I heard more than 20 times a prerecorded message that United was investing 500 million in new equipment. I wanted to scream ..invest a few bucks in people staffing the phones so customers can be helped. Once connected it took another 10 minutes for the issue to be resolved…which thankfully it was. Normally it takes me about 2-5 minutes to log in, check in and confirm my boarding pass so 50 minutes was not fun.
Now that I am able to see my account under the new system I noticed today the payment information and some of my profile information is gone. I have to re-enter it. I noticed there is no evidence of my frequent flyer accounts being merged. There is not communication on these items. In fact there was nothing more than a press release this morning saying this merger was largely successful.
United Airlines Should Fire The Executive Responsible For Customer Relations!
Other business owners use this example of what not to do and more specifically when you have major changes planned over communicate with your customers and set up contingency systems should things not go according to plan. This is fundamental…United Airlines did not ask me in advance. I am telling you now!!
Steve Pohlit is a CPA,MBA and has been the CFO of several major domestic and international companies. Today Steve is an expert international business and real estate investment coach focused on helping companies improve their business performance including growing profits, revenues and customers. For a FREE 6 week mini course where you will receive 10 easy to implement action steps guaranteed to increase business revenue and profits by at least 30% in the next 90 days, please visit www.StevePohlit.com All articles published by Steve unless specifically restricted may be freely published with this resource information.
The message is inspirational. Inspirational material can be very powerful. Each person I coach, uses the accelerated accountability worksheet I have developed for planning weekly optimal performance. This plan is linked to a longer term financial goal that we reverse engineer to what is required today in order to meet and possibly exceed the goal. The first line of the accelerated accountability worksheet is “self development..mindset”. I started with that line for everyone based on my own experience observing my own life when I did this work first and when I didn’t. huge difference.
This video is a call to action and a reminder of being focused. Each of us has different interpretations of what the second half means and what we need to do to win the second half. The teams come out with a plan and adjust the plan based on a continual evaluation of new information. Each one of us can view videos like this one and other resource material and do one of two things:
1. smile and say “that’s nice”
2. develop an action plan on how we can become better in the second half then implement that plan.
I have already picked #2…. and you?
The Fastest and Most Efficient Way For Most People and Companies To Achieve and Exceed Their Goals Is By Working With A Coach
Steve Pohlit is a CPA,MBA and has been the CFO of several major domestic and international companies. Today Steve is an expert business consultant focused on helping companies improve their business performance including growing profits, revenues and customers. For a FREE 6 week mini course where you will receive 10 easy to implement action steps guaranteed to increase business revenue and profits by at least 30% in the next 90 days, please visitwww.StevePohlit.com All articles published by Steve unless specifically restricted may be freely published with this resource information.
Dunkin Donuts wanted to know. To find out they offered to send their customers to Starbucks and paid them to go there and drink and eat. But they also paid Starbuck customers to come to Dunkin Donuts to eat and drink. In exchange, the people involved agreed to answer Dunkin Donut’s questions.
This test was reported by the WSJ and what Dunkin Donuts discovered was that there are very loyal people to both businesses and they are not interested in the competitor. The Starbucks Tribe will continue to go to Starbucks and the Dunkin Donuts tribe will continue to go to Dunkin Donuts. That was the conclusion.
Why did Dunkin Donuts conduct this test? The business of Dunkin Donuts has a strategy of growing and attracting more customers. So they want to know more about what appeals to people. Of course they could have their customers in a data base and communicate with them regularly and offer them incentives for answering survey’s, but that is all the subject of my rant in other articles at www.stevereports.com
Duncan Donuts used a traditional focus group approach. Duncan Donuts is to be commended on testing. They are to be commended on wanting to know what changes, upgrades, new product offerings will appeal to their customer. When you review their history, you may conclude they should have done this more often. The facts are most companies fall into the trap of not reinventing themselves. Why is this important to do? Well, look at Kmart. Do you recall when they were in Chapter 11? How about Delta airlines and General Motors? Do you think Microsoft can be in trouble? What about Google and EBay? Interesting to look at history and then ask the hard questions?
There are lessons to be learned from the work done by Duncan Donuts. I remember working with the leaders if The Limited when they were the premier retailer in America. The culture was amazing. New fashion ideas, new store formats, new promotions were always being tested. Merchandise managers were expected to bring their insights of what the competition was doing to the famous weekly Monday meetings where performance was scrutinized. The point is every company has a development history and at a point in time if you become a champion, a challenger emerges. This is the “king of the hill” game and as kid we didn’t know it was a universal law but it seems that it is. Whenever you are winning someone will be out to take your place.
How do you sustain revenue and profit growth long term? How do you do that when as soon as you are on top there is a challenger? In The Profit System I teach how to track information that tells you how you are doing. Initially, the information is developed for you to track actual vs. plan and the plan is your own performance improvement plan. This evolves to where you are confident in your ability to achieve internal targets, then you set your site on local, regional, national or international champions. At that point your goal is to be the champion. By the way The Profit System course is FREE.
Why is that? Why do I offer something that I promote as being so valuable for FREE when I should be selling it for a million dollars or 10 million dollars or more? Simple, I know this works, and as Joel Bauer says (www.joellive.com) my life does not change at all if you use what I teach. But yours is likely to change a lot. If I can be a catalyst of positive change for you and your company, I am delighted to offer these principles and The Profit System to you at no charge.
Wait there is one more thing. There is a major price to pay for using this system. This price is your time, attention and action to implement. My material is FREE. Even if I were to charge $50,000 for the this material and I am considering that, it is a small sum in comparison to the time you and your company will invest to apply the principles of The Profit System. Return on investment is off the charts. So if you want to make a lot more money go to The Profit System and register for the FREE course.
Will Ducan Donuts’ latest testing mean new store formats will be hugely successful? I don’t know but I do know this if they keep monitoring and keep testing they will figure it out. You can also solve the issues facing your business with a rational management system. I have given you one source for a management system roadmap.
About: Steve Pohlit CPA,MBA has been the CFO and COO of major domestic and international companies. Steve has extensive business ownership experience having purchased and started off line and on line businesses.
Steve offers his build business profits expertise to companies and entrepreneurs with business coaching and business consulting. His focus is on building business profits and net asset value at above average rates. Steve incorporates health and wellness plus relationship guidance in his work as they are at the foundation of achieving all goals.
All articles published by Steve unless specifically restricted may be freely published with this resource information.
If you have read it, it is worth reading again and making notes. If you have not read it, you will be well served by reading it. The book “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill is readily available on line. It is priceless.
I am writing formula “Six Ways To Turn Desires Into Gold” as a reminder for myself. I hope you benefit from this formula.
“Every human being who reaches the age of understanding of the purpose of money wishes for it. Wishing will not bring riches. But desiring riches with a state of mind that becomes an obsession, then planning definite ways and means to acquire riches, and backing those plans with persistence which does not recognize failure will bring riches.
The method by which desire for riches can be transmuted into its financial equivalent, consists of six definitive, practical steps:
First: fix in your mind the exact amount of money you desire. It is not sufficient merely to say “I want plenty of money.” Be definitive as to the amount.
Second: determine exactly what you intend to give in return for the money you desire. There is no such thing as something for nothing.
Third: establish a definite date when you intend to possess the money you desire.
Fourth: create a definite plan for carrying out your desire, and begin at once, whether you are ready or not, to put this plan into action.
Fifth: write out a clear concise statement of the amount of money you intend to acquire, name the time limit for it’s acquisition, state what you intend to give in return for the money, and describe clearly the plan though which you intend to accumulate it.
Sixth: read your written statement aloud, twice daily, once just before retiring at night, and once after arising in the morning. As you read – see and feel and believe yourself already in possession of the money.
Action Steps
Get A Business Coach who will help accelerate your realization of goals! If you already have a business with more than 10 employees, Hire A Consultant who is able to work with you part of the time on-site.
Would you like to be in the next group of very successful companies and entrepreneurs?
About: Steve Pohlit CPA,MBA has been the CFO and COO of major domestic and international companies. Steve has extensive business ownership experience having purchased and started off line and on line businesses.
Steve offers his build business profits expertise to companies and entrepreneurs with business coaching and business consulting. His focus is on building business profits and net asset value at above average rates. Steve incorporates health and wellness plus relationship guidance in his work as they are at the foundation of achieving all goals.
All articles published by Steve unless specifically restricted may be freely published with this resource information.
“Being on par in terms of price and quality only gets you in the game. Service wins the game.!” Tony Alexandr
During a recent call that I co-host on a monthly basis with George Ross for a select private group of business owners and entrepreneurs, we discussed how to create the “wow factor” in non-real estate businesses like a convenience store or hardware store. George advised all to focus on the personal touch. Sure appearances and merchandising are important. Getting to know your customer, demonstrating a sincere interest in the person is what keeps people coming back.
I have no favorite stores any longer. I mostly shop on line and even the on line experience is mixed with ease of shopping. I do have a few favorite restaurants and as a business traveler I have a few (very few) favorite hotels. However, nearly every day there is an opportunity for a business to provide memorable service and they do. Trouble is the memories are not very positive in most cases.
Here is a recent example. It happened this morning. Jos A Bank is offering a two day buy 1 get 2 free special. There are a couple items I really like from that store. This is a great opportunity for a deal. However, their on line shopping cart is not working properly for the special. So I called and a pleasant lady helped me by phone. When I received my order confirmation, it was wrong …very obviously wrong since there was only one of an item I order instead of three. I called back to customer service and hopefully the order will be correct now.
Look at all the steps and look at the additional time and look at the impression I have of this business. Now I will shop again when I see a great deal since there are items where I like the fit and quality. Guess what there are many places where I can get the right fit and quality. I am not finding places where I feel I am honored as a customer. See the opportunity?
I know if I were to visit certain specialty stores I would receive personalized attention. However, I do not have the time and neither do a lot of other people. There are a growing number of businesses that promote deals: Groupon , Deal of the Day and many more. Nobody is promoting service…big opportunity.
Speaking of service ….that’s my business. Actually your success is my business.
Action Steps
Get A Business Coach! If you already have a business with more than 10 employees, Hire A Consultant who is able to work with you part of the time on-site.
Would you like to be in the next group of very successful companies and entrepreneurs?
About: Steve Pohlit CPA,MBA has been the CFO and COO of major domestic and international companies. Steve has extensive business ownership experience having purchased and started off line and on line businesses.
Steve offers his build business profits expertise to companies and entrepreneurs with business coaching and business consulting. His focus is on building business profits and net asset value at above average rates. Steve incorporates health and wellness plus relationship guidance in his work as they are at the foundation of achieving all goals.
All articles published by Steve unless specifically restricted may be freely published with this resource information.
Remember, not only did you contribute to Social Security but your employer did too. It totaled 15% of your income before taxes. If you averaged only 30K over your working life, that’s close to $220,500. If you calculate the future value of $4,500 per year (yours & your employer’s contribution) at a simple 5% (less than what the govt. pays on the money that it borrows), after 49 years of working (me) you’d have $892,919.98. If you took out only 3% per year, you receive $26,787.60 per year and it would last better than 30 years, and that’s with no interest paid on that final amount on deposit! If you bought an annuity and it paid 4% per year, you’d have a lifetime income of $2,976.40 per month. The folks in Washington have pulled off a bigger Ponzi scheme than Bernie Madoff ever had.
Entitlement my ass, I paid cash for my social security insurance!!!! Just because they borrowed the money, doesn’t make my benefits some kind of charity or handout!! Congressional benefits, aka. free health care, outrageous retirement packages, 67 paid holidays, three weeks paid vacation, unlimited paid sick days, now that’s welfare, and they have the nerve to call my retirement entitlements !!!!!!…..scroll down…………..
Emergency Rooms for their general health care -At just one hospital the cost to tax payers totaled over 25 million a year!!!
Someone please tell me what the HELL’s wrong with all the people that run this country!!!!!!
We’re “broke” & can’t help our own Seniors, Veterans, Orphans, Homeless etc.,???????????
In the last months we have provided aid to Haiti, Chile, and Turkey. And now Pakistan home of bin Laden. Literally, BILLIONS of DOLLARS!!!
Our retired seniors living on a ‘fixed income’ receive no aid nor do they get any breaks while our government and religious organizations pour Hundreds of Billions of $$$$$$’s and Tons of Food to Foreign Countries!
They call Social Security and Medicare an entitlement even though most of us have been paying for it all our working lives and now when its time for us to collect, the government is running out of money. Why did the government borrow from it in the first place?
We have hundreds of adoptable children who are shoved aside to make room for the adoption of foreign orphans.
AMERICA: a country where we have homeless without shelter, children going to bed hungry, elderly going without ‘needed’ meds, and mentally ill without treatment -etc,etc.
YET………………….
They have a ‘Benefit’ for the people of Haiti on 12 TV stations, ships and planes lining up with food, water, tents clothes, bedding, doctors and medical supplies.
Imagine if the *GOVERNMENT* gave ‘US’ the same support they give to other countries.
SAD?
YEAH, OK, SO WHEN DO WE GET SICK AND TIRED AND
DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT?????
99% of people won’t take the time or have the interest to forward this.
I’m one of the 1% — I Just Did
——————————————-
Action Steps
Start Paying Attention To Every Elected Official’s Stance On Our Economy and Government.
Advocates of government being the answer should be fired.
Get A Business Coach! If you already have a business with more than 10 employees, Hire A Consultant who is able to work with you part of the time on-site.
Would you like to be in the next group of very successful companies and entrepreneurs?
About: Steve Pohlit CPA,MBA has been the CFO and COO of major domestic and international companies. Steve has extensive business ownership experience having purchased and started off line and on line businesses.
Steve offers his build business profits expertise to companies and entrepreneurs with business coaching and business consulting. His focus is on building business profits and net asset value at above average rates. Steve incorporates health and wellness plus relationship guidance in his work as they are at the foundation of achieving all goals.
All articles published by Steve unless specifically restricted may be freely published with this resource information.
Almost No Money Needed To Start A Profitable Business And Earn $50-$100,000 In Your First Year
There are two industries where you can start making money as an independent contractor and then business owner with almost no money. I use the work almost because you will need a car that runs, buy gas for the car and have a presentable appearance.
Considering these basic requirements, you may need to work for expenses like gas for your car and food while taking the action steps to building your business. One lady who started working with my firm Tampa Capital Partners currently borrows a car and spends maybe $50 per week on fuel and expenses. She is on track to make more than $100,000 this year.
The Top Two Industries For Earning Six Figures From Your New Business In The First Year Starting With Almost No Money
The really good news is these industries are proven to produce the income for people willing to follow the directions. Following the directions means coachable. Don’t worry…it is true I am a business coach and business consultant, there are many people who will help you for no money. You will need to be careful in selecting these people so you are not wasting your time with inaccurate advice.
I encourage you to keep an open mind about the two industries I am writing about. They are:
Real Estate Investing and
Network Marketing or multi-level marketing (MLM).
Right up front there is a disproportionate amount of negative information published about these industries. It is beyond the scope of this article to address those inaccuracies. For now consider the following:
How Do You Get Started With Almost No Money
Network Marketing or MLM
Here is one way and there are others: find a company with a wholesale sales program for a product that retailers would like to sell. Find a distributor of that company who is willing to lend you some sample product and teach you how to approach retailers for selling the product or product line in their stores. When orders are received, the distributor pays you a portion of the profits.
Once you have made enough money to become a distributor (usually between $200 and $2,000 then you can develop your business using all the avenues for building profits that you will be taught. MLM companies are often a great resource for learning business, marketing and presentation skills. You will meet great people who are very willing to teach you. One company that is very friendly to wholesaling is Organo Gold. Their product line appeals to everyone and is great for church and charitable fund raisers.
Real Estate Investing
The best way to start in real estate with no money is to work for a real estate investor who will teach you in exchange for the work you do. The work will include networking, sending letters, going to the courthouse, evaluating deals and more. I have developed a special program in the Tampa market to attract people who want to learn. It is called Tampa Capital Partner’s Apprentice Program
Other Ways
I look forward to your comments on other ways to quickly build a successful business with almost no money.
Action Steps
Get A Business Coach! If you already have a business with more than 10 employees, Hire A Consultant who is able to work with you part of the time on-site.
Would you like to be in the next group of millionaires?
About: Steve Pohlit CPA,MBA has been the CFO and COO of major domestic and international companies. Steve has extensive business ownership experience having purchased and started off line and on line businesses.
Steve offers his business building experience to companies and entrepreneurs with business coaching and business consulting. His focus is on building business profits and net asset value at above average rates. Steve incorporates health and wellness plus relationship guidance in his work as they are at the foundation of achieving all goals.
All articles published by Steve unless specifically restricted may be freely published with this resource information.
George Ross, Donald Trump’s right hand man and as seen on TV
Wayne Alyn Root, first very popular as he replaced Jimmy The Greek on TV and is the Vice Presidential Candidate for the Libertarian Party
Joe Sugarman, an icon in direct response marketing industry
Wayne Palmer, financial advisor to Robert Kiyosaki
Bill Glazer, expert on direct marketing, partner with Dan Kennedy and much more
Kent “the shark” Middleton, expert real estate litigation attorney and very open with his advice on how to never need his services.
There is a lot more including mp3’s of conversations with each of these outstanding people at Mega Partnering where you can meet them plus more than 300 successful people who are focused on taking their business to the next level. People who understand it is their network that makes the difference.
Did you know there is a very small difference between those who achieve their goals and those who don’t. Watch this amazing video then come back to the Mega Partnering website ( Click Here) , read about what you will experience. Join me there and if you have any questions my contact information is all over the place including at the end of this article.
Questions about Mega Partnering? Call me…my number follows.
About: Steve Pohlit CPA,MBA has been the CFO and COO of major domestic and international companies. Steve has extensive business ownership experience having purchased and started off line and on line businesses. Steve offers his business building experience to companies and entrepreneurs with business coaching and business consulting. His focus is on building business profits and net asset value at above average rates. All articles published by Steve unless specifically restricted may be freely published with this resource information.
As a business consultant and coach I continue to work with people every week teaching and helping them implement the skills and action steps I know work. My experiences being employed in very successful organizations, consulting with companies across numerous industries as well as running my own businesses have shown me certain fundamentals are pervasive in companies that are successful regardless of size.
The number one attribute that I find in everyone who achieves continually expanding goals is a disciplined focus of their attention on purposeful action. This means that with any goal there are certain steps that are needed if that goal is to be achieved. For example in the real estate investment business where the model is to buy property, add value and resale the property, there needs to be a supply of the right deals, a supply of money for the initial purchase plus renovation and then money from an end use buyer. Intellectually you can understand this formula but to turn the formula into profit there must be action. If you short cut the steps including the analysis there may not be any transactions or if there are, the profit you projected can be elusive.
Name a goal and the steps to achieve that goal can be mapped and once followed the goal will be achieved. This doesn’t mean the exact course is predictable. Taking action on anything is no different that what we experience in say traveling across town or the country. The route is mapped but the experiences can be surprising. When we encounter a delay or cancellation, we move around or through it. Business is no different. Enjoy the process or get out of the game.
So what does all of this have to do with Fast Start To Success With The Accelerated Accountability Program? I will use a recent example with a lady who I coached in front of a live audience at a JT Foxx 360 Millionaire event. Her mission was to become a successful real estate investor and she had done a great job of clearly defining her income goals and time line for earning that income. I challenged her on the amount and time line as they seemed somewhat aggressive considering her experience. However, she supported the amount and timing very well so they remained in tact.
Next I asked her how much time she had to devote to her business and she replied at least 50 hours. Given that I then asked her if she was committed to following the action steps necessary for her to take to achieve a successful transaction in 90 days or less. She said she was. With that response we were now able to move to the next phase which was to detail the steps she needed to take on a daily basis to achieve her goal.
These steps need to be planned by day so it is important to use an Excel spreadsheet or its equivalent for tracking your time. For example, one of the steps is to contact people who may be a source of real estate deal transactions. That amount of time planned for that step will be more in the early part of the 90 day time line as deal flow is key to beginning the process of finding a transaction that will meet your profit goal.
The idea is to have this activity and time plan at the beginning of each week and to track your actual time spent and results of your actions. The accountability part is that this schedule is shared with your coach and if you are not using a coach, it can be shared with a business partner, spouse or a friend. Knowing someone else will be reviewing this information is a powerful motivator to keep your commitments. This is intended to be a valuable tool and not a restraint on your life. The idea is to track chunks of time and evaluate the results. So if you are making calls and having meetings what are the results? You are either making progress or not. If not, how you are implementing your action plan needs to be modified.
I consistently teach The Gold Formula. The gold is in the variance and this applies to anything you intend to accomplish. There cannot be a variance calculation without a plan. Once you have a plan you can compare that to what actually happened and most of the time there will be a variance. The variance will be positive or negative. When positive, keep doing more of it and when negative, make some adjustments.
Will the lady achieve her 90 day goal? It is early in the process and we will know in less than three months. Maybe your goal is to start a business, expand your business, find a new job or a job. Maybe your goal is to be in a relationship or improve your health. Whatever your goal, once clearly defined you can use what I just described to achieve it. Now you know. Now go do it.
About: Steve Pohlit CPA,MBA has been the CFO and COO of major domestic and international companies. Steve has extensive business ownership experience having purchased and started off line and on line businesses. Steve offers his business building experience to companies and entrepreneurs with business coaching and business consulting. His focus is on building business profits and net asset value at above average rates. All articles published by Steve unless specifically restricted may be freely published with this resource information.
The media and government is taking the predictable “finger pointing” route in connection with the BP oil spill. Screaming someone is surely to blame attracts attention to the publications and politicians screaming the loudest. Fingers point to BP and Obama.
BP accepts responsibility and has allocated $20 billion for the cleanup. Citizens and politicians say Obama isn’t acting fast enough. Obama apologizes to no one, blames the MMS (Minerals Management Service) and appoints Michael Bromwich as its new head.
What if this ecological disaster is actually no one’s fault. There is that strong possibility. Recognize that in spite of everyone’s best efforts, sometimes things fail. Consider this excerpt from an article by Carl Hoffman explaining what most likely happened:
“No oil company wants to have a blowout and these companies spend vast sums of money and expertise to ensure that they never happen. But happen they do. If this was a blowout, it’s the first deep-water one in the Gulf of Mexico that I can think of. And for that to happen requires the perfect storm of scenarios.”
I totally support an independent investigation to confirm what really happened. There are two possible outcomes of such an investigation. First, all practical steps were taken to prevent this event and it still happened. Second, preventive measures were known and not implemented.
In the first case, we learn and get better. In the second case, there would be a violation of fiduciary responsibility and appropriate measures taken.
Related to investigations, I am wondering what information on preventive measures was provided at the Board of Director’s level at BP. This is a public company and Boards have very clear responsibility for asking the tough questions and getting answers. At the government level, appointing a new head of the MMS now is interesting. Obama failed to act following two scathing reports on the MMS by the Inspector General in recent years (See full article by the The Washington Post ) What if the MMS was operating as intended? Would the BP Oil Spill have been prevented?
I am a major advocate of a system of accountability in business and government. The media is accountable for accurate reporting. Citizens are accountable for holding government responsible for upholding the values of our constitution. All of us are owed accurate information as to what happened and what steps are being taken now to minimize the risk. The problem with the finger pointing culture is that the truth can be obscured or even ignored. That would be the ultimate disaster.
Steve Pohlit
Business Consulting, Executive Coach
Turnaround/Crisis Management
Temporary CEO, CFO, Controller Services International Business Resources
About: Steve Pohlit CPA,MBA has been the CFO and COO of major domestic and international companies. Steve has extensive business ownership experience having purchased and started off line and on line businesses. Steve offers his business building experience to companies and entrepreneurs with business coaching and business consulting. His focus is on building business profits and net asset value at above average rates. All articles published by Steve unless specifically restricted may be freely published with this resource information.
I have been testing a simplified tool for moving business forward fast and it is working very well. I use it and all of my clients are using this. It is easy to describe and free.
This tool is linked to the business evaluation and resulting business planning process that are the front end steps of every coaching and consulting client. In summary we arrive at a very clear definition of the client’s business and target market. Now if your reaction to that first step is that everyone in business knows the definition of their business and target market, then next time you have a chance ask them and ask them to explain it in less than 30 seconds.
That one exercise usually takes most people between 2 and 8 hours to master and some actually never get it as they really cannot decide what business they are in. There are clients where I have had to define their business, target market and business goals otherwise we would not have been able to move forward. Regarding business goals, I am mostly interested in measurable goals starting with financial performance and liquidity optimization. Once there is agreement on the financial targets then we can move to the next steps which are designed to define the key actions that are needed to achieve the financial goals.
The end game of all this is the tool that is the topic of this article. Using a Google Doc which can be shared, a Top 5 doc is created. The top part is labeled “Todays Date Top 5” This list the five most important things that need to be accomplished today in order to achieve the financial target. The profit goals you have set this year are met or not by what you act on today. Those five action steps should be ones directed on completing profitable transactions that will achieve your profit plan.
I have been using the Top 5 System for about 2 months now and having all my clients implement it as the results are so powerful. There are two reasons for these successes: First the Top 5 System means you are focused on precisely what is most important. Second I am now implementing an accountability process where each client is required to share their top five with a person they are working with who could be their business partner, spouse or another in the business. They are also required to share their daily Top Five with me while the coaching or consulting engagement is active.
The following video demonstrated the basics of getting started. The video starts right in at the screed for setting up a Google Gmail account. The start page can be found at mail.google.com
Steve Pohlit
Managing Director
Top 1 Coaching, Consulting
JT Foxx Organization
Business Consulting, Executive Coach
Turnaround/Crisis Management
Temporary CEO, CFO, Controller Services International Business Resources
About: Steve Pohlit is a CPA,MBA and has been the CFO of several major domestic and international companies. Steve is The Managing Director of Top 1 Coaching/Consulting of The JT Foxx Organization. He is an expert business coach and consultant focused on building massive business profits and net asset value. He is very experienced with Internet marketing and social media marketing. All articles published by Steve unless specifically restricted may be freely published with this resource information.
“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.
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:
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.
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.
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 !!!!!
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:
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.
Sharing with all my readers the energy of peace, happiness and abundance
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
Sharing with all my readers the energy of peace, happiness and abundance
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
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.
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:
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:
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:
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?
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.
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.
Butthis 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.
Sharing with all my readers the energy of peace, happiness and abundance
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
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
Help Others by Adding To This Article Using The Comment Section
Sharing with all my readers the energy of peace, happiness and abundance
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
How 
