Article Directory – Page 3

Why Pay Attention To Bill Bartman

Paying attention to billionaires who build their fortune is a good idea if you are interested in making a lot of money. Bill Bartman is a self made billionaire. Bill earned his money during an economic situation similar to what we are experiencing now.

More about Bill and the lesssons I have learned following him in future articles. For now here is an email I received from Bill. I recommend visiting his website (Click Here) and registering for his newslettters by email including the gifts he mentions in the following

Dear Steve,

You may not know that I have a brand-new book coming out called “Bailout Riches: How Everyday Investors Can Make A Fortune Buying Bad Loans For Pennies on the Dollar”. If I were you, I would NOT buy it until June 2. Let me explain.

bailout riches book cover You see, whenever I do something, I like to do it BIG. In past years I’ve rented 27 Boeing Jumbo Jets to fly 6,000 people to Disney World. I also built the largest–and most ethical–debt collection company on the planet. This time, I want to drive my book to best-seller status.

In order to do that, I want to concentrate sales on a particular day, and that day is Tuesday June 2.

What’s in it for you to buy my book on June 2?

First, about the book. It’s all about how you can not just “survive” this major recession, but how you can truly prosper in it. I explain an opportunity that is likely to come around only once in your lifetime:

–How regular individuals can buy bank debt for mere pennies on the dollar;
–Why you need no prior experience to be able to get in this business;
–How you can buy it using NONE of your own money;
–Exactly how you can collect on that debt (stress-free), or simply have others do it for you.

As you may know, the last time an opportunity came around like this, I went from being bankrupt to becoming a self-made billionaire. This time the opportunity is much bigger. Best of all, in the book I hand YOU the roadmap I never had, so your success can be even faster. Bill Bartmann

=====> Warning <=====

Now don’t get too excited and go out and buy it before June 2! That’s because I have a special bonus package ONLY for people who buy the book on June 2. Not a day earlier, not a day later.

I won’t spill the beans just yet. Let’s just say it will contain more goodies than I put in the book, to give you a real insider’s edge on how to profit from this astonishing opportunity. You can ONLY get the bonuses when you buy my book on Tuesday, June 2 from Amazon.

With the economy as bad as it is today, this book could not be more relevant. It’s tailor made for people with day jobs who want or NEED to start making serious money now.

Bill Bartmann

Action Step

Visiting Bill’s website (Click Here) and register for his newslettter then you will not miss the bonused he mentions in this email to me.

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

Steve Pohlit, The Profit Expert

Is The Law of Attraction The Key To Achieving Business Profit Goals?

Yes! In fact revenue and profit goals are always only achieved with The Law of Attraction.

I can write about my own experiences until I am “blue in the face”…..until “the cows come home” None of that matters. What matters is your experience.

What you focus on expands. You can study how to apply The Law of Attraction in your business or get on the fast track with my help. Actually doing it yourself is more costly when you price your time and calculate the impact on business revenue and profits.

My experience with using the Law of Attraction is extensive. For example,

I continually image and create successful results with my business clients.

With my mastermind partner:

We imaged and created a successful membership site Manifest Mastermind which is based on The Law of Attraction.

We Imaged and created a successful social media marketing business.

There is more. For now, Email Me, Steve Pohlit if :

Your company with revenues exceeding $5 million need help with profitable growth, business turnaround or crisis management.

You would like to discuss how social media marketing can drive targeted traffic to your business. We are very interested in working with companies selling consumer products.

If you are interested in learning more about the Law of Attraction, you are invited to register for our free course at http://manifestmastermind.com I see increasing evidence of The Law of Attraction working perfectly every minute of every day. I encourage you to consider the information from our free course.

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Steve Pohlit, The Profit Expert

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The Key To Business Profits In A Difficult Economy

The phrase “cash is king” is widely recognized because it is true. When you solidify cash flow you solidify your business.

Cash of course can be borrowed. For many companies, traditional sources of financing are nearly non existent. Lines of credit are being tightened and there is little or no room for loan covenants variations. In this and all situations, the sooner management accepts responsibility for the state of their business, the sooner they are in a mindset for moving the business forward. What are the primary options for restructuring a business facing these circumstances? The primary alternatives are:

1. Secure a lending facility from a source that is not a traditional bank.

2. Negotiate a new note with your existing bank – very unlikely right now.

3. File a restructuring plan under Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy code – an action of last resort and very costly.

4. Sell the business: viable if your business is attractive to a strategic buyer. You will need a creative contract if you expect to get much more than having your personal guarantees removed from the debt.

5. Close the business and do something else. You may feel you may want to do that but be careful since if your business assests upon liquidation do not cover the senior debt, your personal assets may be at risk. In this environment institutions are taking homes .

You may be thinking the above is written for a business experiencing losses in market share and profits. Companies with bright pictures being painted are experiencing the impact of banks not lending. The money channeled to banks from the government is not flowing through to companies deserving loans.

For this reason, alternative sourcing of funds is often needed. A lot of time and energy can be spent finding the right deal or you can select a firm with the contacts that will get this done quickly on your behalf.

Last week I was in a meeting discussing options, strategies and pricing for services. It is very common for owners to begin calculation how much money firms make when a deal closes. This money is commonly called success fees. I explained that success fees are in proportion to the solution delivered. The right professional firms have the experience and the contacts to move quickly and get results. How valuable is that when considering the alternatives?

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When Business Sucks, Look In The Mirror

All the solutions are waiting for you to attract them. That’s right and if you disagree, you are correct. What you believe is true for you. For me, I know what I focus on expands. That is The Law of Attraction and it is always working even in business. If you expect problems you will attract problems. If you look outside for the reasons there are issues in your business, then you will always be finding someone or something to blame. All this solutions for your business start with your knowing there is a solution. Consider these examples:

Last week I began working with a rather large business that finds itself in a cash crunch. The first meeting I had with the owners of this business asked the single most important question relative to this situation. “Do you feel this situation can be solved?” Without a consensus yes answer, there would be no reason to continue. We continued.

I called a meeting on the second day right at the beginning of the day with these owners. I asked them to begin focusing on the picture of success. I guided them to shift their thoughts from all the issues that are pressing to the picture of a well coordinated profitable business with plenty of cash. I said to them we would have this meeting every day that I was on sight and I encouraged them to hold the meeting when I was not there. This week I will give more clear directions on imaging specific success for their business.

In business there are three situations: First there is the current situation. Second there is a situation that is more negative than the current situation and if that trend continues it could lead to what people describe as a worst case. Third, there is the going forward picture of what it is that the team of people in the company will create. Of course my work is primarily focused on the third picture. Since I am not able to discern what others are intending, I spend some time on a worse case scenario designed to protect the business should events proceed quickly to the negative. On balance, I usually spend 90% of my time on designing and implementing the going forward plan.

Solutions to business situations vary depending on the conditions being addressed. The second day into this project calls were received that represented huge opportunities. Day three another call came in that also represented a marvelous opportunity. None of these seemed to be in motion until the owners began focusing on success. They are responsible for their business and they are responsible for attracting success. My work is to help them attract success and optimize revenue and profits. I show them how to continue that process once the project they hired me for is complete.

Does their business suck? Well actually it did up until a week ago. The owners are beginning to see they are responsible. They are no longer blaming external people, places and things. Once you accept responsibility that your are the reason for the state of your business, then you can begin to paint a new picture.

I experience more examples of how business sucks in one week that I could possibly write about in a month. I’ll bet you do to and I’ll bet you have a short list of what they could do to improve the situation fast.

Consider this example: in the town of my most recent client referenced above, there is a very nice building exterior that is a home of a restaurant. From all outward appearances, I anticipated a very good dining experience. Inside told a different story. First the atmosphere was very institutional. However, it appeared to be clean. The appearance of the staff was not one where you knew they had much pride in themselves and so they didn’t have pride in servicing customers. I am sure there were exceptions. But I didn’t attract any that evening. The food was not even close to the pictures on the menu. The beer selection was good and it was good.

That is just one example of “When Business Sucks, Look In The Mirror”. Each of the issues described are fixable in a very short period of time. There are so many opportunities in business for “doing it better” without having to spend a lot of money. The solution starts from within. It starts with the mindset “I am responsible for the outcome of my business.”

In operations, I work with companies on fundamentals. In marketing I recommend solutions and have do it for you solutions. The do it for you solutions are particularly valuable in the social media marketing arena. In all cases I stay focused on proven business principles. These are the ones that are ignored the most because the discipline required t0 execute the fundamentals is routine and boring. It just so happens those fundamentals are where the gold is mined.

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Steve Pohlit, The Profit Expert

Designer: Local Business Marketing This program is outstanding because it builds long term relationships and profits.

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Social Media For Building Business Profits: Part 2 The Big Three

Social Media In Plain Terms

Social media as an umbrella phrase includes sites and services that facilitate interactivity and community. In that regard blogs and email marketing are included. In fact both are an integral part of the marketing funnel.

This series is focused on using the newer and emerging services for business development. The big three are YouTube, Facebook and MySpace in that order. Fast risers are Twitter and LinkedIn. Currently if you placed your social media marketing attention just on those, there still would not be enough time in a day to manually optimize the benefit of these sites. To develop and implement a business development campaign in most cases requires an effective system that includes automation and leverage of very specifically defined tasks.

Which Site Is Best For Finding Your Target Audience?

All of them! Look at the numbers. Twitter which has moved into the 47th highest traffic spot according to Alexa as of the date if this article has an estimated 6 million users. If you have a business then your target audience is there. Your audience is also on Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, YouTube and many more sites.

I suggest stop analyzing this until the cows come home and get to work. The key is knowing how to properly use each account and attracting your target audience to your landing page, blog or website. How you use Facebook is going to be different than how you use Twitter etc. All most likely are going to be linked and you will be using one of several applications to update multiple social media accounts through one interface. http://ping.fm is a popular one that works very well.

Twitter

Twitter is particularly unique since each person has 160 characters for a profile biography and is limited to 140 characters per message. It is also unique since according to Alexa most people stay on the first page of tweet flow (message displays). This is a message ticker tape system. The newest message is posted at the top of the page and that pushes the last message on the page off.

Many people focus on growing a large number of followers. The key is followers who are your target audience. So how do you know that? Start with Internet marketing 101 principles which is a clear definition of your target market. Then what are the primary keywords related to your target audience? Using the search function find out who is tweeting about those topic and follow them. You can expand this by following their followers.

Balance Twitter followers and following by going to your View All Following screen and then looking for those people that do not have a direct message link. You can only direct message people if they follow you. If after a few days someone has not followed you and you are attempting to balance the ratio, click delete. There are some people and services that do not follow much at all but their content is valuable. That is your choice.

More Twitter Tips in future additions. For now this will get you started and will help experienced users. Again this is written with the goal of building business revenue and profits using social media.

Marketing

There have been no fundamental changes in the principles of successful marketing. In order to convert targeted traffic into sales there must value and you must effectively communicate the value. Start with your funnel and using Twitter as example. You are forming a relationship with your target audience. Your tweets should have value. If they constantly scream buy this or that, your efforts will be futile and are likely to get you banned.

Next

In the next article in this series I will take a closer look at some of the features, benefits and pitfalls of specific social media sites. In the meantime, every day you spend thinking about this or trying to figure it out on your own, is a day where you are not optimizing your sales that are possible using traffic from social media. I suggest you get started now by emailing me.

Link To Part 1 of This Series

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Social Media for Building Business Profits Part 1

Being on line means you are already using social media sites. The question is should you be using social media as part of your marketing strategy? My experience in developing business with social media being part of the marketing strategy, confirms that social media is a “must have” part of your marketing strategy.

What Is Social Media?

Social media are locations where people build communities based on interest. Just like a physical community where there is a wide range of interests and value systems, you will find diversity in sites categorized as social media. Considering the diversity of interests, it is very important to define the audience you are attracting or your target market.

What Are The Best Social Media Sites For Building Business Revenue and Profits ?

The answer to that question depends on your target audience. For example, if you are an engineering firm, you are more likely to find your target audience on Linked In rather thank on MySpace. However, since MySpace has over 200 million subscribers, your target audience is likely there as well. In this example, LinkedIn may be more suitable for finding your target audience near term but MySpace should not be ignored.

We set up profiles for our businesses and our client companies on most major social media sites. We give each site the focus warranted by the target market. When you are attracting targeted prospective customers, you are then working consistent with your profit goals.

Ultimately you must be able to convert that traffic to profitable revenue. Conversion has nothing to do with social media and everything to do with follow up systems. In other words, conversion has everything to do with your sales funnel.

The Social Media Funnel

I started using the word cloud to describe the population of people using social media. I have seen other people use that term as well and feel it is a good description. Tools within each social media site are used to attract people from the cloud to your group, following, blog, landing page or some other feature specifically associated with your offer. However, drawing people to from the social media cloud is not the place to begin conversion. That is the place to begin building a relationship.

The Social Media Cloud to Customer Process

There is no one program for bringing people to your business which is where you have an opportunity to market your offer. Each social media site operates differently. We have spent thousand of hours testing various ways to use the major social media sites. We have a very good understanding of what works from the results we achieve.

We also have confirmed that there is significant time involved in setting this up properly and executing the daily tasks required to build and grow an effective network. The time is significant even with an effective process of in place of focusing on the most efficient tasks and using the leverage of automation and delegation. In addition, the landscape is dynamic which means that you must be alert for social media site changes that affect processes in place.

The time and processes required to build and maintain an effective network for attracting targeted people to your conversion cycle from the social media cloud is extensive. If you are intent on doing this yourself then focus your attention on two or three main sites. Realistically since building a social media network means doing certain tasks daily, focusing on more than two or three sites without an entire department or outsourcing this work is impractical.

The Benefits of Social Media Marketing

The first benefit of social media marketing is that the cloud is huge so your customers are there. Next, the more consistent you are in building your network, the easier it becomes to grow your network since there is a viral aspect. We see evidence of people building rather large followings and groups and enjoying the esteem that comes with the related popularity. That is certain one valid goal.

Our goal is monetization of the value we offer. We are a business and to remain in business, we must make a profit. The level of business success is measured by revenue and profit trends. For clients, we hold ourselves accountable for delivering a 100% return on investment in 30 to 90 days.

To be a client you must have a business that has a sales conversion cycle that is already working for a clearly defined target market. To achieve those results we measure and track all data from the network developed from the cloud all the way through conversion into a sale. Analysis is key if your focus is making money.

Foundation for Success

I have written articles about this, conducted training about this and led client projects focused on this. The this I am referring to is build traffic and convert it. With the numerous social media marketing opportunities, it is easy to take your eye of the ball of sales. When a customer says I’ll take it, that is a very valuable event. You then are responsible for delivering the value of what the customer has purchased and having in place the right customer service support structure for what you are selling.

If there are weaknesses in what you sell and in your support network, all the work you do in social media, Internet marketing, PPC, direct mail, direct sales and more is largely wasted. On the flip side of that, if the revenue cycle of your business is solid you will achieve a high return on you marketing dollar investment.

Next

In the next article in this series we will take a closer look at some of the features, benefits and pitfalls of specific social media sites. In the meantime, every day you spend thinking about this or trying to figure it out on your own, is a day where you are not optimizing your sales that are possible with social media. We suggest you get started now.

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The WSJ Reports On McDonalds. My Report On The Key Success Factors

McDonald’s is doing well in the current economic climate as reported by the WSJ and a lot of credit is given to the leadership of Ralph Averez, President. Readers have a number of reactions to this story including some not so flattering.

However the are a number of principles being followed by Mr. Alverez that are well worth paying attention to. These include:

“I love numbers,” Mr. Alvarez says. “I think data used well really tells a story.” He acts to create a continually improving story. For example, modifying menu offering and prices almost in real time. That is a great lesson.

He uses a baseball cap and sunglasses to disguise himself when visiting stores and testing food and service against the standards. There are two lessons here: one stay close to your customer’s experience and two, for awhile people who wear ballcaps and sunglasses and look like Mr. Alverez in disguise, may get outstanding service. 🙂

You don’t win and maintain customer loyalty by cutting the size of the serving. You eliminate all unnecessary costs and them some and keep focusing on increasing the value of the customer’s experience.

For the complete article Click Here.

My comments posted to this article on the site of the WSJ are republished now:

This is an excellent presentation by Janet Adamy. I really appreciate the statement “I love numbers,” Mr. Alvarez says. “I think data used well really tells a story.” He acts to create a continually improving story. That is a great lesson.

There is a huge opportunity for McDonald’s and others in using social media to increase sales and profits. I suspect that the large companies will turn to their marketing executives who will turn to their ad agencies and say let’s invest in social media. I recommend new thinking as social media is new landscape.

Steve Pohlit
http://stevereports.com

One reader suggests McDonald’s has got it all right. I think they are not in step with on line social media treads. This represents a huge opportunity for them.

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Steve Pohlit
The Profit Expert

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

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Motivational, Inspirational, Sensual

Turn up the volume and enjoy.

The 5 Finger Plan For Outrageous Business Profits

The 5 Pillars of A Successful Business

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

Extraordinary Profits

A Positive, Low Stress Working Environment

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Steve Pohlit
The Profit Expert

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Social Media Blueprint

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

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

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

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

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

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

Social Media Blueprint:

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

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

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

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

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

Next Steps:

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

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

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Steve Pohlit
The Profit Expert

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

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

7 Steps To Manifesting Your Dreams

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Job Loss, 7-Eleven Layoffs, Incentive Compensation

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Business and Economic Mastermind Offers Solutions

I have been intently studying Mastermind Power as it is a major component of a business I launched recently. The following story seems to be about how a mastermind generated the ideas that brought the US out of the Depression in the 1930’s. It is far more than that story. See if you don’t agree.

I have read Think and Grow Rich and I am still reading it. I am paying more attention to it than ever. I didn’t know that Napoleon Hill was asked by the President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt to help the country in crisis.

Is the United States and world economy in a crisis? I think the mood is negative and that is my concern. Notice Napoleon Hill says that he wrote Think and Grow Rich to keep is mind positive with chaos all around him.

History can have great lessons if we pay attention. Key lesson, form you mastermind group. If you need a place to start you are welcome at Manifest Mastermind.

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Steve Pohlit
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Your Level of Business Success Is Directly Linked To One Thing

When asked: what is the number one key success factor for business success? The responses often are:

A hungrey market with money
Cash
An effective business plan
Management control system
Experienced leadership
etc.

There are many factors that contribute to a thriving business over time. I have led business consulting clients through all the primary steps necessary to operate a successful business. Even after sometimes many months of work with very clear guidance, I have observed intelligent, experienced business people miss the profit mark and in some cases destroy what should be a successful business.

Personally, I have experienced successes and failures. Successes were not always sustained and failures were swift. In evaluating my own experiences and those of many other companies where I have had direct contact as an auditor with Arthur Andersen, CFO of several very large companies, business consultant to companies ranging from small to large or as an entrepreneur, I discovered the key.

This key is present in every success story and absent in most failures. This key is the part of the reason for the idea of Manifest Mastermind . Together with my business partner Manifest Mastermind was launched a week ago. The first step we guide members to completing in the Manifest Mastermind process is having a clear definintion of what you want. I know a lot of life coaches and consultants start with that. Keep reading.

Most people when asked what they want start with a list that includes, more money, a new car, better home, financial freedom, improved relationships, vibrant health and so on. But when challenged as to why they want the things they describe, the list sometimes changes. On the topic of money, business people think in terms of revenue and profit milestones. I have started nearly every consulting engagement with establishing a clear definition of the revenue and profit goals for the next year. But there is more to it.

While I am certainly not ignoring monetary and other metrics, I have expanded my focus on what it is the business leadership really wants. Here is the key that I feel is most important:

Are you in alignment with the purpose of your business?

If your goal is money, you may realize your goal and not be happy. So what is the point of the money? Or maybe your goal is money but the demands weakens your health. So what’s the point of the money? It is very clear that money, relationships and health are all interrelated. If one is out of balance the other suffers. Alignment is the key.

Do you know anyone who really does not like their job? They are making money but how is their life and what effect does this have on their health and those around them? What effect does this have on their spouse, partner, children?

Do you know anyone who is not making money and struggling financially? That is a tough situation and most people in that situation have a single minded purpose which is to make money without regard to how happy they will be when the money is flowing. If they pursue just the money then often end up in the same pattern.

If you are in a less than successful pattern, it is wise to move out of that pattern. It starts with awareness, definition of purpose and associating with like minded people and masterminding for goal achievement. That is what I have found to be true for me and others joining the Manifest Mastermind process.

You are invited to our free course and most welcome. Click Here

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

Steve Pohlit,
The Profit Expert
www.StevePohlit.com

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

PS. My doors are open for new clients and referrals are well compensated.

Valuable Job Search Guide Found on Mashable.com

In doing research for my current business development project which will demonstrate the power of social media I discovered what seems to be a really cool tip for those looking for a job. I found this tip on the very popular blog Mashable and here it is from Eric Pender

I have actually used Google Reader to help me find job leads.

I go to Craigslist and perform a query in the jobs section for specific keywords that target the kinds of jobs I’m looking for (I search for search engine optimization jobs, but you can really use this for anything). Then, I take the URL that comes from my search query and plug it into Google Reader. Anytime that a new job posting comes up for that keyword, it comes into my reader feed. When I was looking for jobs and saw an interesting listing come across my feed, I was the first one to apply for it. This strategy landed me many calls, and one of them ended up resulting in my current place of employment.

To Follow The Business Development Project Using Social Media connect with the following:

On Facebook
http://steve.facebook.com
http://groups.to/manifest

On Twitter
http://twitter.com/stevepohlit
http://twitter.com/manifestmmind

Interesting facts: 500 new friends were added to our Facebook group in 4 days. 0-1,000 followers were added on Twitter in 4 days.

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

Steve Pohlit,
The Profit Expert
www.StevePohlit.com

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

PS. My doors are open for new clients and referrals are well compensated.

WordPress Blogging Is A Foundation Marketing Tool: Backup Your Content

There are four foundation tools every business should be using as part of their marketeing strategy. These are listed on my site www.stevepohlit.com I have also written detailed articles about these foundation tools. For example Click Here for an article on how blogs and video help your internet site search engine ranking. You sould be subscribed to Steve Reports for tons of information I publish that will help your business grow profitable revenue.

For your convenience the foundation tools are:

A currently updated website, keyword optimized and with contact information capture script with linked to an autoresponder.
A blog that is regularly updated with relevant information and links to your website. You blog should also have contact information capture script linked to your autoresponder. Register at http://bloggingforprofits.biz for free instuctional videos on how to do this. Here is my introductory video on Blogging For Profits again for your convenience
Use short videos that you produce, topic and keyword specific that you post to your blog. Select ones should be posted to your website. Register at http://youtubemastery.net for more than 20 videos that teach you how to do this for free.
Enhance the relationships with your customers and prospect list with email communication. Use off line actions including; meetings, phone calls, post cards and letters. This is why you want to capture the contact information of visitors to your website and blog.

Of course there is more and that is covered in the marketing module of my business consulting practice. My contact information follows this article.

BACKUP YOUR CONTENT

By now most people are aware of how to backup websites and most autoresponder companies provide an easy to use download feature for you customer database. My preferred autoresponder service is Aweber Click Here

It seems most people are not thinking about all the content they add to their blogs and the backup of a blog is differenet than a website. WordPress Blogs, and I believe most other formats, run by adding your content to a database. WordPress based blogs all use MySQL database technology. Sounds “Twilight Zone” but it isn’t except for you are not able to simply backup your files like you are able to do with a website. You must backup the database.

Sounds scary? It isn’t. Watch the video I prepared on this topic and I suggest you believe me when I say: “if I can do this …you can do this”. Of couse if you don’t want to do any of this and have someone do it for you, I am ready to help. For the video on how to back up you WordPress Blog Please Click Here.

Sending all my readers the energy of wellness, peace and abundance

Steve Pohlit,
The Profit Expert
www.StevePohlit.com

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

PS. My doors are open for new clients and referrals are well compensated.