I know I can do it!

 

Entrepreneurship is already a hard road not only for most but for all people that try to travel down it. I am not talking about the money-making part of entrepreneurship but the part of staying in and making the grind. Most people that join the entrepreneur lifestyle love the make your own hours part of it. But when it comes down to the part of working harder than you ever have to get your business going and making your brand, peoples confidence starts to waver. This is when confidence comes into play, knowing that you can do it will win or lose this fight is for the better

lifestyle.

Knowing that at the end of the day you know how to relax and enjoy time just being you and spend time with your family this will relax your mind, so you can stay focused. Do not worry though if you do need to take a small break from the life, it does not mean you gave up on your dreams but more of you lost your focus and need to obtain it again. How do you keep at a steady pace without burning yourself out you ask? Well keep reading...

Here are some tips to help you with that:

1.       Your time is valuable - It is said that people can only focus for a total of 6 hours per day, also people work better outside of their office. So, think to yourself, where do you focus better? Is it the park, coffee shop, or at your desk at home? Know your place and allocate your true grind work for that place so you can truly focus.

2.       Your mind is the most invaluable tool you have – Have you ever thought of your mind as a muscle? Just like your body when you go to the gym, your muscles need to be exercised and put to work to grow stronger. So, try this with your mind, if you are having a difficult time staying focused on your task then let’s do some mind exercises. Start with a small task and disconnect from everything else, not unplug but disconnect so you can stay focused on the task at hand. For those who don’t know disconnect is just silencing your phone and going to “your place” so you can focus. Unplugging is unplugging everything that could take your focus as in the tv, turn phone off, have family leave house or you leave house, etc. That is what I do every time I want to stay focused, I start with silencing my phone then putting on some music that I can think with. Everyone is different, but the idea is all the same!

3.       Difficult tasks go first! – We all know that most of us will do the simple task first, so we can feel like we accomplished something for the day. Then we save the most difficult task for last, but by the time that we get to that task we are already tired and done for the day. Then we stop during the difficult task to call it a day. So, what if we switched the order of those tasks? What would happen then is we complete the difficult task then the rest is downhill from there!

Hopefully these tips will help you further your work and help you stay focused on your tasks. Now you know how to stay focused so you can better your work, which will better your confidence as well! See how that happens? Everything is built off one another and will become a more streamlined system once you have your cycle finetuned and working best for you and your lifestyle.

The last thing I want to bring up is when you have your complex tasks and your simple tasks. Know how to separate the two, the more complex tasks are tasks that you yourself need to stay focused on and can take hours to complete.

The simple tasks are tasks that you can automate in your business. Automating these tasks will not only complete the tasks but also save you time to maximize your time that you can focus on the more complex tasks. The simple tasks can be everything from sending emails, making follow up calls, online marketing, and online branding. These are only a few of the simple tasks that most entrepreneurs complete daily. If you want to know a better way how to complete these tasks, I highly recommend you look at a couple of these programs to help you.

I am only speaking about these programs because I use them on a weekly basis as well, and I feel that they are a crucial part of my business now to simplify my day and increase the time I spend on completing all my tasks. For sending emails as in starting your sales funnel I use is GetResponse, yes, they have a free version if you are asking yourself that question. Get Response is great with returning all follow up emails, sales funnel emails, newsletter email campaigns, and have some more in-depth campaigns as well that could help you as well! For online marketing and online branding, I use is  Revive Social, this program assists in posting social media content to any page that you have on there. They even give some great free WordPress themes as well, and has a few tools that can assist you in building a stronger online following as well.

From their selections of having either full automation, some automation, or none at all. This gives you the options of how you want your online presence and brand to be built. This will be able to help you in your ever growing to do list, and the amount of time that it takes a person to post and deliver content to their audience takes crucial time that could be spent elsewhere. Last but never least you want to know how to help your business in returning phone calls. If your business does not have it already, you need this and that is a CRM system (Client Retention Management).

A great one to start with is Agile CRM, they have sales funnels and call funnels built into the software which is very helpful. They even have a chart that you can put your prospects in and move them along the chart depending on the level they are on in the process. These are programs that I use and have tested over the years to better my own businesses. There is a difference between a business owner and an entrepreneur, a business owner owns a business and goes through their day. But an entrepreneur is exactly that, not only a business owner but an innovative person that runs their business but always looks for a way to better their business and their sales funnel. Which one are you? Remember you want to spend as much time as possible on production, the better your business does the higher your confidence grows.

Everything is tied together like a circle of life so save your time, focus on your tasks, and watch your business grow!!

I Want To Be Successful!!

So we are joined back together after a much-needed break on my part, I hope everyone is finding their week to be a great one. Today we are going to speak on what is entrepreneurship and how we can succeed at it. Entrepreneurship is the activity of setting up a business or businesses, taking on financial risks in the hope of profit. That is

the hope and dream that we all have, is that our business will be needed as much as we hope and believe it is and that we can make money with it. Entrepreneurial opportunities can range from many different things, from real estate by being a realtor, home inspector, handyman, and many other choices.

To other industries from legal, finance, product supply, or the good old school way of running a brick and mortar store. My favorite part of being an entrepreneur is the history of entrepreneurship. Now if you have listened to our podcast which can be found as What Benefits You podcast and that just so happens to be a up and coming business podcasts as well. I have said on there many times that in the 1930’s 90% of the population in our country were entrepreneurs! With only 10% working for the bigger corporations. When World War 2 came around everyone was either on the frontline fighting or in the factories working.

This changed our country to rely more on the bigger corporations which made them thrive in our time of need. When the war was over our country never made it back to its entrepreneur roots. Our country is now 10% entrepreneurs and 90% working for the bigger corporations. The great thing about being an entrepreneur is that you can do this at any age and no one can say you are too young to make money. Which gave way for the time of the youth entrepreneurship, there are kids that are younger than 18 years old that are making more money than their parents combined!

They do this because they are using their strengths on the computer and internet which bred the web entrepreneur. They are not limited by city or state limits, not even

limited to their own country! This makes our world that much smaller when it comes to business and increases the income you can make by three to four times at the minimum! If the web is not your strong suit that is okay, that is why they make classes for this.

----àCheck out this great website building class by Ed2go right here!!

Everything starts with knowing the basics about the internet and putting your company out there, so you can build a brand. Easiest way to put your company out there is……...social media! Social media has given us some pretty successful entrepreneurs, they made it big from the reasons I gave you (no limits on who they can sell to). So, start out small, build a Facebook business page for your business first. Then build your website to build your brand up (hint: Linking your website to your social media pages as in Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit boost your websites SEO Search Engine Optimization and will put you in front of more people) People got to know that you even exist before you plan to take the industry by storm.

This will give you a quick start on how to start your business. Remember that this process takes time and it is a rare occasion when someone makes it big overnight, but if it was easy than everyone would be doing it. This is also a reason why it is easier to start a business in something that you are passionate about. Now let’s look at the part of the entrepreneur definition “taking on financial risks in hope for profit”. This is always the

hard part about being an entrepreneur, it is also the part of running your own business that will break your spirits and send you back to a 9 to 5 job. Now before you find this demoralizing, do not worry!!

There are many entrepreneurs that still work a 9 to 5 job while they are starting their own business. This is a very smart idea! Need me to repeat? This is a very smart idea!!! The first three years of a new business is the hardest to make it through and that is ok. Some businesses make it big before the three-year mark and that is cool too. But what people are wanting to see is some security before they feel right about leaving the security blanket of a 9 to 5 behind.

So, this is what you do, work your 9 to 5 and put in some extra hours after your “day job” to put in the grind on your own business. After you have stocked up some cash and you are seeing a frequent cash flow from your business. Then and only then is the time you think about leaving your 9 to 5 to go work full time with your business, this will make you a successful entrepreneur. Do not forget that your business will require to have some money spent on it (Don’t worry it’s a tax write off) to get off the ground. Whether it is on marketing, self-development, product research, or many more selections.

You are not a big conglomerate that already has a brand built, you must build yours
and even if you are one of the big guys in the business they still build their branding campaigns. Hints why they love the Super Bowl commercials and spend billions on marketing every year.

---à Check out this class by Ed2go on how to build a small business!

These are the types of classes you need to look for and yes, I have taken a few of them myself to build the businesses I have today. Remember why you are here and building your business. Remember that you are a part of an elite few in our country that dreams about bigger and better things. You want more with your life than just the monotonous 9 to 5 grind.

---àDon’t like classes? Want to read instead? Here is a great book by the Making Everything Easier collection that will get you started!

So, congratulations, you have made the first step into a brighter future

Here’s to you and your thriving business!!

7 Wonders of Entrepreneurship

Everyone always wants to work for themselves, waking up when you want, and working minimal but making the maximum. It is a pipedream that some people do not know the full range of how much work it requires to be an entrepreneur. What it takes to own your own business and make your quality of life even better while doing this. Well you are not the only person that has these questions so here are seven key points that you will have to put into your journey. If you can do this, you will see less bumpy roads off the get go, so let’s get started.

1)      Competition

Yes, competition is awesome to have not only to give people multiple options but this will keep yourself in check as well. Because let’s face it…..most people do not enjoy being a loser. If you do enjoy being a loser, well you need to relook at starting your own business and if that is the best option for you. Even though a great competition is great for business, a key part of this is do not compete with others. But to compete with yourself, who cares what someone else does. How does that help you at all? Compete with yourself, you did 20 deals last month then do 30 this month. If you beat others in the competition then great but that should not be your priority. Beat your records, achieve the goals that you have with business!

2)      Self-Development

This is something I see over and over again that people lack on. People think that they do not have to learn anything because that are not in school. That is a poor attitude and your business will suffer because of it. You need to check out education classes, second languages, developing your business and personal mind. That is why I put education classes posted on my blog, just to put the option out there for people to learn even more. If it is not a class that interests you then click through the sites that they do have, who knows you might find one that you have been looking for to learn about. Why pay another person to do something that you are more than capable of doing yourself? If you do not have time do that activity, then that is fine to pay someone else. But build your mind and you will see your business thrive from that additional knowledge. There are also industries out there that require people to get additional educational courses to be completed to keep the license for that industry active. I find this to be a great benefit not only to the industry but that’s like force feeding vegetables to a child. Even though they do not like it and is hard to eat with little flavor you know it is best for them, just like the additional educational courses. Always remember to continue to learn!!

3)      Accountability

Talk about a hot topic! How many times have you heard a person say at a job, that’s not my job! Talk about an annoyance! This is something that we should instill into our children as a parent and this is something that someone should have when they are in the professional business world as well. If you screw up you need to own up to it! If you do not then you never learn from your mistakes. Yeah mistakes are costly at times and yes, the truth does hurt as well but toughen up cupcake! You need to own that mistake and learn from it. We are stronger with our mistakes and even the best person in history has messed up at least once, but they learned from it. This is the same when it comes to business and entrepreneurship, think about it yourself. Did that business development course make you a better person? Did that investment into ABC company that took a loss help you learn a lesson? Yes, some things hurt more than others, and I am not talking about a physical hurt but a hurt to our pride. This can hurt more than a physical pain at times. But physical or psychological we need to learn from our mistakes in the same matter and take accountability for them. Own up to your mistakes, because they are all worth it if you learned from them!

4)      Deeds not Words!!

Wow! Does this one remind you of anyone in your business? Does this remind you of an employee you have? You will never fall short of the people that will talk all day about how they would have done something! You will never run out of the all-knowing gurus that have a solution for something you are in the process of completing. I call them bench racers, because no matter how far you are into your project they will talk about it all day long about how they would do it. But when it comes to putting the rubber to the road, they have no application plan set forth. I remember when I was in my motorcycle accident, there was the guy listening then said…….I would have jumped off the bike at the last second……….I looked at him and said, have you been in an accident before? Are you trained in being a ninja? Of course, the second question was more sarcastic then the first but neither question he could say he has done. So, I told him to shut it! LOL! That is not business but it is the same idea, you will always see a person saying what they would have done in a situation that you are in. But know that you are putting your words into action, not them! So be proud of you attempting to complete that project because I will always strike out swinging instead of strike out looking!! Because at least you can say you tried at least, and didn’t just watch life pass you by!

5)      Mental Resiliency

Yep, this one will touch some hearts out there. You can go straight up coo coo for cocoa puffs when running your own business. When you are trying to better yourself in anyways, there is always that added stress that is calculated in your new formula. But know that you are strong, you are better than most, you are shooting for greatness! 90% of the population in the United States work nine to five jobs alone, only 10% have went the entrepreneur route! You are a part of that 10% and you are trying to better yourself so be proud! By the way there is nothing wrong with working a “normal” job while starting your entrepreneur lifestyle. That is called bills! Everyone has bills and a lot of people that want to start their own business or have a new project have families. People still have to eat so never look at someone less for working both at the same time. I would look at them in even more awe because they are now hustlers! They are working a “normal” job and building a business at the same time! That is called motivation and drive, so be proud of it!!

6)      Ducks of a Feather

Now if you do not know this old saying then sorry, you will know it by the end of this section. You want to surround yourself with people you want to be like, people that have the same mindset as you. You never hear about a person becoming an intuitive brilliant self-made millionaire by playing at the arcade all day, do you? Although I am pretty sure they don’t call it an arcade anymore…..Ducks of a feather flock together! You surround yourself with bench racers then you will find yourself bench racing as well. Put that rubber to the road and surround yourself with other motivated individuals that work just as hard or even harder than you do. Then that will start a healthy competition as well! Be proud of what you do and what you accomplish, this will show others what kind of duck you are and will help showing you who is like you as well. So be yourself, be proud of your goals and dreams, let others know what you want to do. Others can help putting you in check as well, to keep up that motivation you want to drive you. So, surround yourself with likeminded individuals!

7)      Forgive but never forget!

Yes, yes, I know people are going to read into this more than they need to. But in business you need to forgive quickly, it does not pay to hold grudges. Also, yes you will run into people consistently if you stay in the same industry you are in. So, do not burn bridges either! Forgive quickly but as we said before about accountability, learn from your mistakes! This will push your drive even further and your journey will be a long and lucrative one! Help others in business and see how you can help them get to their goals! You would be surprised what happens, haven’t you ever heard of karma? In the business world karma does come back and you do not want it to be negative when it does. Forgive others quickly and get back to earning money or producing business that starts the process of making money! A negative outlook on the day in anyway will only bring you down and ruin your day then it will ruin your production for the day and hurt the bottom line for your business.

Hopefully you were able to put some of these points into your daily business so you can better your outlook on your day. Grow your bottom line and continue to push, this is the 7 Wonders of Entrepreneurship and you are on a great journey to better yourself. Congratulations to taking the first step to your dreams! Check out our podcast that is listed on the right column as well and if you have any questions or want to show how this blog has helped you in your business please post below in the comments. I love hearing from people and how it has affected them. Make this day a great one and keep up the hustle everyone!!

Season 1 Episode 19 Marketing Automation

As we debate and conversate over the Marketing Automation that takes a significant role in today's business world. We are honored to have back on the show Justen Merc and Kim Richards Waisome!! As they bring their expertise to the table, we also throw in some great tunes as always! This is a episode that effects us all from Real Estate, Finance, Insurance, Estate and divorce attorneys alike. We would run out of room if we stated every person this episode can help in building retention to your business! Make sure you check out this show and leave us a great review everyone. 

We have a new podcast episode ready for your listening pleasure!

Season 1 Episode 18 Rain comes and goes

Another great episode of What Benefits You podcast in season 1 episode 18 Rain comes and goes! This episode is going to start your Friday off right everyone! So check it out with Anica McKesey out of the Inland Empire in California and Rose Tausaga out of San Diego! Our guest speakers are giving some great tips when it comes to property and casualty insurance and the Real Estate industry of Cali which is King! Rose is a hustler when it comes to her industry by helping her clients find a home that is perfect for them. With Anica adding that personal touch for her clients to protect them and their way of life! So you want to learn some great stuff on your Friday and listen to some great tunes while stuck in traffic, preparing dinner, or just enjoying the day! This is definitely the episode you want to check out everyone! Leave us a great review and don't forget to check out our blog on Sunday where we will be releasing the names of our guest speakers for Monday's episode! 

We have a new podcast episode ready for your listening pleasure!

Season 1 Episode 17 Chasing the Dream

This episode is going to be a great one, we went ahead and added more music in to kick off this Monday great. Also we have two amazing guest speakers Kim Waisome out of Virginia Beach, Virginia and Amanda Asquith from New South Wales yep that's right everyone we have Australia in this show!! So make sure you take some great notes Kim will be giving us some great advice on the Health and Wellness industry. While Amanda speaks to us about the strength of great writing skills and how they have helped her in the film and theatre industry. Enjoy the show everyone!

We have a new podcast episode ready for your listening pleasure!

The American Hustle

As we stated on our podcast this is the blog that is going to either wake up business professionals or just strengthen something they already know about the industry they are a part of. Have you looked at your day and wonder how do I ever get all this stuff done? Knowing that you are going a hundred miles an hour all day, all week, all month long. Not knowing how long you will be able to do it but you are putting people to shame with your workload that you are able to get done. But then you start slowing down after doing this for months and months on end.

This is now called the burnout and you have officially messed up your consistency of your business. This is something that we all go through when we are trying to make changes in our business. You are a goal driven individual and a hustler in your industry. But there are always things we can do to perfect our day and push even more work than we are doing now. Yes, I know you have an idea of what I am talking about but if you do not then obviously you need to listen to Episode 16 from Friday.

This will update you in what we are talking about, so make sure you either listen to it now or after you get done reading this article. Business Automation is what we are talking about today and how you can increase your workload in your daily business. I use email automation in the Finance and Insurance industry. If you are in sales you can start a drip campaign when it comes to getting a sales funnel to find your prospective clients that match your niche much easier than sending emails one at a time. This will free up your time so you can enjoy more of your day yet still get the same amount of work done that you were doing before.

There are multiple ways to free up the time in your day so you can increase time allotted towards increasing the bottom line for your business. This comes into the next step of us increasing our business and our way of life due to the higher earnings. This is something everyone should be doing so if you are not online yet, you are way behind the curve. We have seen in our economy and the business world of our country that numerous companies are either slowly dying or have already died due to not getting into the online market. If you do not sell a product then still have an online website to increase the influence you have in your industry.

If you do not know how to make your own website there are classes on the internet that you can take to learn how to make a successful online website for your business. This changes business night and day to the competition, it also makes your company look more professional then the company that does not have any online presence. Social media is also a great influence and shows that you are trying to make a difference in your industry and community. Websites are so cheap and do not require you to pay someone thousands of dollars to have it completed for you. On top of having an online website, you want to make sure your website is being found by the market you want to be in front of.

So, you will need to build the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for your site. There are companies and classes out there for everything you need, all you have to do is look. These are all services that a person will charge you for when they create a website for you. The great part that you can see is when you create your own website you will know that you love it and your idea has come to life. There are many people out there that do not have that creative skill and that is okay but you might have it and just do not know it.

There is always other people like myself that I do not like to spend money that I do not have to. I would rather save the money and spend it on something I truly do not know and I will then have the expendable funds to be able to spend it on there because I did not spend frugally on other things that I did not know and just wanted to be lazy. These items will boost your business and be able to bring a great automation to your business as well. We can go on forever with the numerous automations that are coming out for the professional and personal daily activities. By having a correct time management schedule set in place, you will impress yourself with how much work you will be able to get done.

As seen in the article Why time management is important, we see numerous ways on how our day will be increased in production and success in our lives. Try it out and see how much production you can get done without having to free up time in your day just to do it. From your prospect emails to your social media posts about holidays, campaign marketing, etc. I see getting your name out there especially as a small business owner, entrepreneur, professional in general. Branding is everything, so if you can get your name out there in front of as many people as possible then you are doing a great job.

Now take that branding of your company and mix it with an email drip campaign this equals success by freeing up some time you can focus on other things, like closing business and making the company money. Our world is an ever changing one and by keeping up to date with industry and the fast-paced production you can confirm your spot in that industry you love so much in the future. Comment below with your ideas on automation in the business world, how have you seen it change your day?