Marketing for Money

Marketing for Money in Your Business

A month ago a gentleman came to my home to give me a price on three windows. I knew I was going to be conned the second the salesman walked into my home with his briefcase, laptop and pad. I, of course, let him deliver his marketing speech to me and my husband. He told us how Andersen Windows are the best windows in the business and that my current windows looked horrible. He then went on to explain to us that vinyl windows are dated, not economic and just down right bad. He told us that if we decided to purchase his windows, his crew would do an excellent job installing the windows and they would do a thorough cleanup after construction is complete.

After he told us of all this, he quoted us a price of $13,000 for three windows! I could not believe what I was hearing. He pressed on telling us that he was giving us a discount on the windows in addition to another 25% discount “because I can since I’m the boss!” My oh my is this going to get any worse. At that moment, my husband had to leave because he had a previous appointment, but before leaving me with this man my husband informed him that he just doesn’t jump without giving the matter careful and serious thought and consideration. The salesman said that the price would not be valid once he walks out our front door. I really liked the windows and the transformation potential the beauty of the window offered, but I wasn’t willing to be taken advantage of. He then told us that we could get the windows financed and we wouldn’t have to pay a penny until next year. He called his finance company and they approved me right on the spot for the windows. This man was so pushy and adamant about me getting those windows that I knew it was a bad idea for me to even consider purchasing anything from him. I don’t think too many people like pushy sales people…I know I don’t.

Antiquated and Dated

Yesterday, Thursday, July 9th, a young man knocked on my door from a pest control company. He was about 18 years and was going from door-to-door selling this service that promised to kill all the bugs that are hiding in my walls, all the beetles that are lurking outside of my home in addition to the bees and wasps that may have built a nest in the eaves of my home. He told me that the service $105 along with taxes and any other fees associated with it. He told me that he was doing a followup with his customers who live in my development. I kindly asked him who my neighbors were who had acquired his service and he went on to tell me that he didn’t have the list on him. This poor child was out in all that heat and humidity, clothes sopping wet, desperate for a sale. I explained to him that I had an exterminator, but of course he told me that with all the dead beetles outside that if his guy sprayed my home I won’t see any bugs at all. I don’t know how in the world that would be possible when the bugs have been here on this earth long before we got here and will be here long after we are gone. Anyway, this young gentleman seemed really desperate and he gave the same spiel that the Andersen salesman had just given me a month prior. I told him that I needed to think about it and he said he wouldn’t be able to give me the same price of $105 once he walks out the door. Well, five bells rolled around and here he was again, knocking on my front door. I told him that I wasn;t interested and that I would continue using my exterminator with whom I was really pleased. He left my home, head down and highly disappointed. A few minutes later he was knocking on my door again and this time he had something in his hand that looked like a credit card. He told me that he had called his manager who said they would give me 50% off my initial service. I told him that I had done research on the company and I read too many bad reviews and I wasn’t interested for the third time.

Here’s my thought: I know that marketing is a form of lying; this may sound harsh, but it is. If someone is trying to earn my trust and business, I think the best way to accomplish this is to just be honest because most people can see through this marketing tactic that is old, antiquated and outdated. It is dishonest and I don’t like to be conned into purchasing services that are overpriced and the quality low to non-existent. I’m not saying that all companies are this way, but the ones that use this marketing ploy is a complete turn off for me.

Honesty is Always the Best Legacy!

Ladies, if you are a business owner, you can think outside of the box to come up with an honest and great marketing plan that will help to grow your business so that it thrives for as long as you’re in business. Remember to be original, be truthful and be yourself!

Last year, I came in contact with a coach who was constantly calling and sending me emails telling me that she had dropped her price for her coaching services and that her price was going to change after 6 pm that same day. I understand that this is business and for some, this is a way to obtain business. This has never worked for me. I believe in being totally honest. Business is not always about making money, but providing and offering a service or product to those in need to perhaps change their lives or to be a help to make things easier, to flow in their lives is so much more important than making money because I believe giving people what they need blesses them in some way. The coach was calling and emailing me removed me from her friend’s list on Facebook. I was really surprised because I thought to myself that this was very unprofessional, but she had every right to remove me since I did not utilize her services and you know what, I’m glad she removed me because it taught me a very valuable lesson.

While I understand that marketing is important, it’s important to be honest with your customers/clients as well. You will go much further if you’re honest because I believe most people can see through the dishonesty.

Blessings.

Lessons From 7 People Who Got Rich and Famous on Social Media

Social Media

There are plenty of people that get their big break on social media. Some become well known and others strike it rich. There are also the lucky few who achieve both. It’s not surprising when you consider the fact that when you have fame, money-making opportunities also begin presenting themselves.

However, it is amazing to think that sites and apps such as YouTube, Instagram, Vine, Tumblr and others have the power to put the spotlight on talent across a variety of different disciplines. As you are about to see, though, success stories are in no short supply.

Related: Why This YouTube Star Spends 2 Hours Daily Reading Audience Comments

Let’s take a look at several different individuals who got rich and/or famous on social media, and what we can learn from them.

1. Susan Boyle
Susan Boyle, Britain’s Got Talent

Susan Boyle

Singer Susan Boyle become a worldwide phenomenon thanks to a YouTube clip that showed her performing “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Miserables on Britain’s Got Talent. This 47-year-old from Scotland became known in Britain after the show aired, but it was the virality of the YouTube video that eventually catapulted her voice across the globe.

Boyle was unemployed when the video was recorded, but record execs everywhere started calling her after seeing the clip. She quickly earned more than $8 million in advertising and recording deals.

The singer is an excellent example of someone who took a chance. She went up on stage, gave it all she had and the judges and the audience couldn’t help but recognize her incredible talent as a vocalist.

If you’d like to learn more about making money on YouTube, take a look at How to Make Money on YouTube: 101 Monetization Tips

2. Brittany Furl, Vine

Brittany Furlan is Vine’s biggest female star, with more than 9 million followers. This aspiring comedian quickly grew in popularity when she started posting six-second comedy sketches on Vine. Last year, this landed her a development deal for a sketch comedy show to be produced by Seth Green.

No matter what your skills and talents are, if opportunities don’t seem to be forthcoming, try packaging and delivering your ideas in a new format. You never know when it might resonate with a new audience.

If you’d like to start making your own Vine videos, take a read through 4 Tips for Making Memorable Vine Videos.

3. Kate Upton
Kate Upton, Sports Illustrated, Youtube

Kate Upton

We all know who Kate Upton is today, but prior to her success with Sports Illustrated, she was struggling to find work. Part of her success today is due in part to a couple of YouTube videos. In particular, there was a video where she was “doing the Dougie” at an L.A. Clippers game. Not only was the video viewed millions of times, it also gained her 170,000 Twitter followers. Today, Upton has no shortage of work.

Are you short on work? Then why not show your talent on YouTube? You might be able to drum up a little bit of engagement.

4. Wedley Estime
Wedley Estime, Dadi Nicolas, Youtube

Wedley Estime/ Dadi Nicolas in jersey

Even athletes have been turning to social media to get more attention from scouts. Football player Wedley Estime decided to create a highlight video showing his skills and post it on YouTube. This video got passed around to recruiters, who started sending in offers. Estime eventually signed with Virginia Tech, and has since changed his name to Dadi Nicolas.

If you just aren’t getting the attention you think you deserve, it may be worthwhile to turn to social media.

Related: 10 New Features YouTube Is Rolling Out for Creators (Hint: 3-D Is Getting More Immersive)

5. Amalia Ulman
Amalia Ulman, Instagram

Amalia Ulman with friends; Dean Kissick and Ed Fornieles

Amalia Ulman was fascinated by pop culture’s obsession with Instagram celebrities. When she decided to become one herself, this well-studied Instagram persona quickly gained nearly 65,000 followers. Prior to that, she had actually spent time studying the language, the hashtags and the selfie styles that the most popular Insta-celebs were using.

The moral of the story here is pretty obvious. If you study those who are popular and duplicate their efforts, you too can become known.

Also see Secrets of Succeeding at Visual Marketing on Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube.

6. Alex Lee
Alex Lee, Target, Twitter

Alex Lee

Is it possible to become famous accidentally? You’d have to ask Alex Lee, who is likely the most unintentional Twitter star of all time.

A teenage girl snapped a photo of Lee while he was working at a Target supermarket. This girl was friends with another girl who had a crush on Lee. Pretty soon, a different Twitter user found this photo on Tumblr and tweeted it out. That’s when the popularity of the photo skyrocketed and got tweeted out more than 800,000 times within a few hours. The hashtag #alexfromtarget then grew to prominence.

Lee was unaware of the trend until after he finished his shift at work. The attention quickly turned creepy, and people started showing up at his job to snap more photos of him. However, it landed him an appearance on The Ellen Show, and he now has roles in a music video as well as a movie. Death threats notwithstanding, this story has a happy ending.

This just goes to show you that you never know what’s going to catch on. Experimentation can lead to success in unlikely places.

Looking to learn more about Tumblr? Here’s an article worth reading: How to Make Money on Tumblr: 25 Proven Tips.

7. Nash Grier
Nash Grier, Vine

Nash Grier

Nash Grier found his popularity on Vine with silly, humorous, spontaneous, almost Jackass style six-second loops. Though he may not be a household name, girls ages 12 to 20 know who he is, and simply can’t get enough of him. Grier currently has nearly 12 million followers on Vine. His other numbers aren’t bad either: he has nearly 8 million followers on Instagram, more than 4 million subscribers on YouTube and 4.7 million followers on Twitter.

Grier also gets a cool $25,000 to $100,000 whenever he plugs products in his six-second clips.

Looks may not be everything, but they certainly seem to help with some social celebrities.

Final thoughts
In addition to the sites already mentioned, it is also possible to earn money on Facebook. Regardless of what social network you turn to, there are opportunities to be had.

Duplicating the successes of those mentioned here could prove challenging, but we could all be making a modest income from social media with a little effort.

Take some time to study 15 Inspiring Entrepreneurs Who Earn Income on Social Media, and find the drive and motivation within you to be a go-getter.

Challenges and Obstacles

In business, just as in life, there will be challenges you will have to face and giants you will have to knock down. The good thing about challenges is that they can make you think outside of your comfort zone. Challenges can make you think outside of the box which I consider to be a blessing because it can take your business to new and higher heights.

Obstacles

Obstacles are giants that you have to knock down from time-to-time that can be the very thing that will make you step back and perhaps even throw in the towel concerning your business, but this doesn’t have to happen. Obstacles can also be the faith-deepening, faith-building component that can change the course of your business creating in you a whole new way of thinking adding a whole new element to your business that you’ve never thought of before. This is when thinking outside of the box comes into the bigger picture of your business. When you find yourself faced with challenges and obstacles that you’re just not sure how to deal with, how do you proceed? What is the best way to handle these unforeseen giants? What are some of the questions that you ask yourself? Do you say, “What am I going to do now?” “How am I going to get over this?” “How am I going to handle this?” “What lesson have I learned from this?”

As a Christian woman entrepreneur I have been faced with many obstacles. At first I became so discouraged that I was ready to just walk away and say, I simply cannot do this, but my passion for design, and my gifts from God would not allow me to; no, this was not an option for me. There were days when I was so down that I thought to myself, “It’s me. I’m not an entrepreneur. I don’t have what it takes to make it as a business owner. This feeling lasted for far too long even though I was still plugging away at building my business. I even thought of getting a job outside of my home, but that thought vanished quickly because I knew deep in my heart that if I worked for someone else there would be no one that I would ever get to use my God-given gifts and that hurt my heart. It also put a level of fear in me because I knew what working in corporate America was like and I didn’t want to limit using my gifts, talents, skills and awesome abilities and I didn’t deserve to have a cap on my salary. No, I’m way too talented for that.

What I Did Next

In constantly trying to build my design business and trying to knock down those stubborn giants, I found the one thing, the very thing that lifted me up, helped me to build a sustainable foundation for my business, a rock solid path, that couldn’t be knocked down by any obstacle, or pulled from under me, was the deepening of my faith. Yes, faith. I learned quickly that my faith in God was the key to knocking down all those giants that kept trying to get in my way. The fear giant, the no confidence giant, the persecuting giant, the hardship giant and every other giant that kept trying to block my path and my entrepreneurial journey had to flee and with all my faith, and I do mean all my faith in God, it has helped me to soar as I spread my wings and took flight on my amazing entrepreneurial journey. It has been a journey of gratefulness, lessons, hope, joy, laughter, tears, understanding, patience, wisdom, prudence and even peace.

Thinking Positively

Faith has even given me a whole new way of thinking. Speaking positive, life changing affirmations has sweetened my entrepreneurial journey and believe me, it can do the same for you.

If you’re forced to deal with challenges and obstacles in your business from time-to-time, the one thing that I can say for sure to help you to knock down those giants is to deepen your faith in God. Remember, you are never ever alone in business. God is right there with you helping you, encouraging you, enlightening you, and motivating you and most of all loving you. Give Him glory. Thank Him for your business endeavors, your dreams and your goals. Deepen your faith in God and every single time an obstacle tries to knock you down, remember your faith will knock them down.

Staying Focused Through Your Faith

Faith

Growing up, faith is the one word I never heard, never knew the meaning of nor did I understand its’ importance and the life-changing positive impact it could have on my life.

When I first discovered my gifts that God had given me, I became passionate about using them because I loved and appreciated the wonderful blessings God was gracious enough to bestow upon me. Thank You, Father. I love You, too.

Focus

Starting my entrepreneurial journey, God had equipped me with all the tools I would need to reach my destiny; His word, His principles, His promises, my gifts, skill set, knowledge, talent, wisdom, abilities, goals, dreams, visions and inspiration. When I tell you that I have truly been blessed to be able to create from scratch (self-taught) a portfolio of unique and brilliant designs I have been blessed beyond belief and I enjoy it more than I could ever explain. With all that God has given me, the way that He expresses His love to me through the gifts He’s blessed me with I still fell short of His glory. I was like an emotional roller coaster that was up and down.

For some strange reason I just could not stay focused on my business. My mind was, as I like to say, all over the map, which simply meant that achieving my goals would be harder than it ever had to be. Here I am blessed beyond belief with multiple gifts, highly talented in so many different areas of my life with the amazing ability to easily create my own wealth with the power God had given me and yet I’m not able to scale, leverage and grow my design business?

Why? Why am I sabatoging my own business. Why is it that I can’t take my business to the highest level possible that my passion and smart work deserved. I put in countless hours creating and designing my unique collection of masterpieces. My light work designs were in a class all alone and yet they weren’t moving like I had dreamed, prayed and hoped that they would. Reason being, I just could not focus on my design business. The only thing I seemed to be able to focus on was making new designs.

Cultivating my Passion with Faith and Focus

Designing was my passion and I just wanted to cultivate my passion for others. It was easy for me to sit down and create something breath-taking. I also thoroughly enjoyed website creation. Designing my own logos and headers for all of my businesses was sheer joy for me. It gave me a true sense of peace and joy, almost like buying and wrapping Christmas gifts for my family. After the building of my websites the thrill and excitement always seemed to fizzle out. The thrill stopped right after I completed my websites. I immediately lost interest and focus on what I was doing, on the business I was desperately trying to build. I had veered off from the path of my amazing journey ready to begin a new adventure that I already knew would end before it had a chance to live, breathe and thrive.

It seemed like every other month another brilliant mind blowing business was being presented to me, but instead of incorporating these gems into my present businesses as they pertained to my businesses, I would purchase the domain name, write the content, create the designs in an attempt to brand another new business model. This was no way to do business especially since everything was relative.

The reason that I creating this map and traveling from point A to point Z was because I focusing on all the wrong things. I knew my businesses had the potential to be a blessing to a multitude of people, like sand on the beach and I knew that Cyndi’s Light Work Designs could solve problems for people in more ways than one; at least this is what my heart was and is still telling me today and in all honesty I knew that my design business could make me a lot of money, but I was too busy going from one business to the next instead of just focusing on one business and growing it. I was literally wearing my mind out. Why, why, why???

Incredibly talented and gifted, as many women are, I didn’t know how to put the pieces of the puzzle together for my business. Yes, I had all the tools that God had gifted me, but I was lost. Yes, I was lost and I knew that I had to do something as time was not waiting for me. Either I was going to focus and work like I did when I worked in corporate America or I was never ever going to find my way. After careful thought I knew that I had to pray and ask God for His guidance for my business. He had given me everything I needed, but it was all me. My faith was as deep as the deepest ocean, but I wasn’t applying it to every aspect of my business. For me to focus on my business I had to use my faith and using my faith comes from God and His word. When I think about having faith in God it is then that I begin to focus on the all the things that He was lovingly instructing me to do. I have to admit that there are always other things going on in and around my life, but I decided that I was not going to use that as an excuse, no, not when my God is much bigger than any obstacle or giant I had to face.

Time to Shift

There was a shift in the way that I began to think. I now think about how God expects me to run a highly successful and thriving design business that my customers would also love and appreciate as well. Here is how I began to focus on my achieving success for my business:

I bought several notebooks that I like to call journals.
I began writing a to-do-list every single night Monday to Saturday. I now adhere to it.
I write down all my goals right before praying prayers of thanksgiving.
I include my goals and dreams in my prayers always giving God thanks for His Holy Spirit speaking to my heart and for giving me the gift of dreams and goals.
I look forward to working on and achieving my goals by staying focused, with thanksgiving, on my business ventures.
As I accomplish each goal, even if it is only one for that day, I strike it out and put the date and time next to it. This keeps me highly motivated as well.
I surrender my life to God and commit myself to Him.
I also ask God to speak clearly to my heart because I need clarity.

Okay, the above list is what I started doing to help me to stay focused on leveraging my business and I am thankful because this is the brilliant plan that works great for me and I’m so sure that it can work phenomenally well for you.

So every evening I write down all my goals for the next day, I pray and then I go to sleep. My mornings are usually busy and consists of an early rise to spend time with God reading, studying and meditating upon His awesomeness, lifting Him up through prayer with a sincere and thankful heart, mind, soul and spirit. All of my challenges then begin at 10 a.m. which is the start of my business day! For me, it is vital that I keep my notebook filled and visible to serve as a reminder to always pen my goals directly into my to do list every night. I cannot stress this enough. I keep my notebook on my desk which is right next to my bed because this is where peace abounds, calm exists and rests deep within my spirit.

For me, all these things make an enormous difference in how I now run my business. Writing a daily to do list helps to keep me focused and truly motivated because it helps me to envision accomplishing my goals, building my business and seeing my business thrive in ways I could never imagine.

Written by Cynthia G. Boyer

How to Make Money from Home

How to Make Money Working from Home in Comfort

Women are brilliant beings. They possess the uncanny ability to start, grow and do amazing things and making money is no different.

Entrepreneurs are those brilliant people who have the awesome ability to make money through and by their thought process. Entrepreneurs truly have the midas touch. And while money is not always at the helm or the reason for starting a business, it does come into the scope of being a business owner. Let’s face it and let’s be honest, making money is primarily the reason most people start their own businesses amongst other things.

I believe that if you start a business doing something that you absolutely love you will enjoy phenomenal success in every aspect of your business which can be from helping people solve problems or selling a product to make people’s lives a whole lot easier. When your heart and mind are focused on being a help to people because it is what you love to do, then you can best believe that the money will come.

Why You Should Work for You!

There are many lucrative businesses in the work-from-home arena moms and women have started simply because more and more women want to work for themselves. They want to have and enjoy the freedom that comes from being an entrepreneur along with the flexibility it gives them. Women want to be in control of their own money. They want to make their own money without ever having to worry about their salaries being capped because someone tells them that their skill set is only worth $30,000 a year. Let’s see now, $30,000 a year is the minimal salary that you can receive for getting out of your bed 5 days a week, driving to work, working 8 hours a day, limited to using your gifts, talents, skills and abilities, being somewhat stressed if not a whole lot stressed, dealing with office politics, getting an annual raise of 1% year after year. I can understand and this may make sense for a whole lot of people who may not know anything any differently, but for the women entrepreneur who has been equipped with a brilliant mind, beyond gifted, super talented, highly skilled and clothed with great abilities, this is not the answer to living a rich lifestyle and not just rich in terms of money being rich in being fulfilled overall. For the amazing entrepreneur this is not an option because entrepreneurs have the magnificence to build an awesome and highly successful and profitable work from business. Entrepreneurs possess the knowledge, wisdom, understanding and patience that comes from the fire that burns deep within that cannot be extinguished ever.

I am reminded of this whenever I think of WordPress. My goodness, WordPress is probably one of the most complicated website platforms I have ever tried to use or so I thought until I was able to master this brilliant work of art. It was like a light popped on and I was hooked. I had tried building several of my websites using WordPress. I designed my own headers/banners and buttons for my website which was easy to install, but when it came to static pages, plugins, settings, menus and widgets, forget it, I was lost. I would then shut down my websites and head on over to Weebly which was super easy to use, but I wasn’t crazy about their templates so here I go again, right back to WordPress. WordPress wouldn’t let me rest. I’d go back again and again until one day, it all just came to me. It all flowed and I’ve been using WordPress every since. I had this passion, this burning inside that wouldn’t let me rest and I’m glad because I enjoy being challenged and learning new and great things. WordPress is a lesson all by itself. If you ever decide to try it you will see what I mean and if you’re already using WordPress then you may know what I’m talking about.

How to Make Money from Home Typing and Transcribing

If you’re on an entrepreneurial journey and you’re searching for that terrific work from home business that you can work anytime you want and enjoy all the freedom and have all the flexibility you want and/or need, then a secretarial or typing business may be the perfect work from home business for you. If you can type 30 wpm (words per minute) and you enjoy typing or perhaps transcribing this is a fantastic way to make a lot of money working from home.

When I first started working from home, I started my own typing and transcribing business. I was typing dissertations for grad students in addition to resumes, cover letters, follow-up letters and more. I also incorporated transcribing into my business, medical transcription to be exact. I typed for gastroenterology and hematology/oncology departments at the local hospital near my home. I transcribed medical reports, pre-op notes and more. I also had a certificate in medical terminology which helped in transcribing medical reports because you must know how to spell all those medical terms that doctors use. I found it to be really easy for me because I enjoyed it, for a short while at least. If you can type and you have a computer, a fax, typing paper and a telephone you could open the doors to your own typing business right this very moment. All you need is a flier, run it off and make about 100 copies and post them on college campuses, libraries, in your neighborhood or anywhere people frequent on a daily basis. You can easily charge $25-40 an hour for typing and transcribing. I have a book of marketing tools that have proved to be a great success for my typing business. You can get it here if you decide you want to start your own typing business.

Now Is the Time

If you want to work from home and make a lot of money doing something you enjoy doing, then it’s time to think about making your goals and dreams come to full circle so that you can start using your God-given gifts in a way that pleases God and fulfills your life. So why not give yourself the gift of entrepreneurial ship. You have it so why not use it. It will change your life. Now is the time.

Written by Cynthia G. Boyer

Called to Be Me

I wasn’t called to go to college to earn a Bachelor’s Degree or Master’s. I was called to use my God-given gifts and I use them prudently and passionately.

How to Stay Focused in Business

Focus, Focus, Focus

For most entrepreneurs, coming up with a brilliant, executable idea is easy. The hard part is staying focused on it long enough to actually see it through to fruition.

Sound familiar?

That’s why the power of focus is so crucial. I like the definition I heard podcaster John Lee Dumas of Entrepreneur on Fire give, using every letter of the word focus: “Follow one course until success.”

So what’s one thing that you want to really accomplish this year? I challenge you to focus on it until you complete it. Don’t be distracted by the many shiny objects that will inevitably pop up throughout your journey to finish what you’ve started.

Here are four principles to help keep you on track:

Related: 5 Ways to Sustain a Long-Term Career Focus

Staying Focused on Your Business

1. Focus on your priorities.

Do first things first. Map out your day the night before. If you don’t have a clear goal for your day, you will pilfer your time and not accomplish what you set out to do.

Motivational speaker Zig Ziglar said, “Lack of direction, not lack of time is the problem. We all have 24 hours in a day.” Focus on the benefits of sticking to your set course.

2. Focus on the end results.

If the one goal you set will take the entire year to accomplish, don’t get tired half way and give up. Keep reminding yourself why achieving this goal will make your life better.

“Whatever your goal for this year, you can get there — if you’re willing to do the work,” Oprah wrote in her magazine.

3. Focus on the present.

Zig Ziglar also said, “Yesterday ended last night. Today is a brand new day and it’s yours.”

Even if you get off track from pursuing your goal, remember that tomorrow is another day.

Don’t get stuck on the trivial or mundane — or yesterday. Jump back on the horse and give things your best shot the next day. Focus on the positive things that you can do in the future, not on what you failed to do yesterday.

4. Focus on strengths.

Everyone has some things he or she is good as well as things he or she is not so good at. Make sure the goal you set is something you can realistically accomplish and preferably something you are good at or can become proficient in over time.

Mozart, Beethoven and other musical geniuses developed their skills through practice and sheer dedication to their craft.

If you want to achieve similar results, you must have laserlike focus.

Written by Meiko Patton

How to Make $1,000 Or More Per Hour

Want to Make $1,000 per hour?

No, you don’t need to go to law school or become a doctor. In fact, you can start making $1,000 an hour or more right now.

This is not an article about some new multilevel marketing company or passive income stream. You can achieve these results in your current business, knowing what you already know.

And best of all — you can make this money consistently.

I recently listened to 80/20 Sales and Marketing by Perry Marshall on Audible. Like these books I mentioned a few weeks ago, 80/20 Sales and Marketing is changing how I think about business. (Whether you are in sales and marketing or not, pick up a copy of this book today. Trust me.)

In the book, Marshall explains how in a typical day, a person does numerous tasks that are worth just a few dollars per hour, and a few small tasks that are worth much more.

How much is an hour worth?

Nearly every task on earth could be outsourced, for a price. If you want to get ridiculous, you could even hire a butler to pick you out of bed, carry you to the bathroom, and brush your teeth for you. While I don’t recommend this, let’s expand on this topic.

If you are mowing your lawn for one hour, how much are you earning during that time? You could have paid the neighbor’s kid $10 for that work, but instead you did it yourself. You earned $10 for that work.

Look at you, big-shot entrepreneur! You should be proud.

Now, maybe you already hire a kid to mow your lawn. But what about checking your email? Your Facebook? How much is that worth?

You could probably get that done for around $10 an hour also. Maybe less.

OK, Brandon, I get it: outsource more. But how does that help me earn $1,000 an hour?

Hold your horses, we’re getting there.

Just as there are certain tasks during the day that are worth very little, there are other tasks that are worth more. For example, hiring new employees.

If you are the CEO of your company, you are likely still hiring your own employees, sifting resumes, doing interviews and making offers. But how much is that task worth, per hour? What would a competent person charge to do such a task for you: $30 to $50 an hour?

Let’s be excessive and pretend we all live in San Francisco. A good HR person might cost you $100 per hour. So by doing all the work of hiring new employees, you are making a whopping $100 an hour. Look at you, hot shot! Your parents would be proud.

But I’m not done yet.

What about the tasks during your day that are worth much more. I’m talking about those special moments when you make a huge sale, land a big client, install a new product or reach 50,000 people on a podcast.

Those moments are worth much more. Those moments, even if they last only a few minutes, can be worth $1,000 an hour or more.

Related: The One Productivity Hack Every Entrepreneur Needs to Incorporate

Consistency is key.
Let me ask you a few questions:

How much time today did you spend doing tasks that were $10-per-hour tasks?
How much time did you spend doing $100-per-hour tasks?
How much time did you spend doing $1,000-per-hour tasks?
My guess is you probably spent a lot more time doing $10-an-hour work than $1,000-an-hour work. In fact, I’d guess you are spending 99 percent of your time doing the former and just 1 percent doing the latter.

But what if you could spend more time doing $1,000-per-hour work and less time doing $10-per-hour work?

You can!

I know what the naysayers are thinking right now: “In order to have those $1,000-per-hour moments, you have to spend a lot of time on the $10-per-hour administration tasks.”

True.

However, do you need to spend that time on the $10-per-hour tasks? Can you train someone else to do all those tasks for you? Why can’t they do the windup and you throw the pitch?

Everyone can earn $1,000 an hour. Even a fast food employee has tasks that, if only for a few seconds, are worth $1,000 per hour. The key is in consistency, and increasing those moments in your day.

The more time you can spend doing $1,000-per-hour tasks the more money you, and your business, will make. It truly is as simple as that.

If you currently spend 30 minutes per day doing $1,000-per-hour tasks and the other seven and a half hours doing $10-per-hour tasks, you are bringing in $575 per day for your business. But if you spent two hours per day doing $1,000-per-hour tasks, and six hours doing $10-per-hour tasks, you are bringing in $2,060 per day for your business.

Do you see the power in this?

The best part isn’t even the money, it’s time. What would be better? Spending 12 hours per day doing $10-per-hour work or one hour per day doing $1,000-per-hour work?

Exactly.

Take a minute right now and write down what tasks in your business are worth $1,000 per hour? What tasks are worth $100 per hour? What tasks are worth $10 per hour?

Start outsourcing the $10-per-hour jobs out today, followed by the $100-per-hour jobs.

Watch how fast your business explodes.

Brandon Turner
Real Estate Investor and VP of Growth at BiggerPockets.com
Brandon Turner is a real estate entrepreneur and the VP of Growth at BiggerPockets.com, one of the web’s largest real estate investing community. He is also the author of The Book on Investing in Real Estate with No (and Low) Money Down and several other books. Buying his first home at the age of 21, Turner quickly grew his real estate portfolio to over 40 units using a variety of creative finance methods. He and his wife Heather live in Grays Harbor, Wash.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/245311

Never Give Up

Never Give Up and Never Stop Doing What You Are Doing!

When I started Cyndi’s Light Work Designs my goal was to have my own line of t-shirts and other various items that people love to buy and use; coffee mugs, tote bags, key chains and more.

Pressing For the Mark

Having done what I thought was all my homework on how to make this happen, I found it to be extremely difficult because I was traveling all alone on a road leading nowhere or so I thought. I was ready to give up more times than I care to admit. I tried every avenue, every platform searching for that star that had my name on it. I deeply became discouraged and was ready to give up on my dreams and on ever accomplishing all my goals. I didn’t realize how easy it was. I made it much more difficult than it had to be which was why I was ready to give up. My husband kept saying you have to keep plugging away; somebody, the right person is going to see your designs. I believed it and continued pressing on.

I, Woman, Aspire

With each new day I was making more and more designs; Scriptures on the Table, Praise Him, Personalized Keepsakes and more. I was amazed at the unique beauty in each one of my one-of-a-kind masterpieces even if I say so myself. My girlfriend told me that I had enough designs and that I needed to take the next step. For some reason I could not stop designing. Every time the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart I was in my studio creating more and more masterpieces. This, for me, was the peace in my day. Designing was the hope that would inspire me. It was the joy that encompassed every inch of Cynthia G. Boyer. I love to design. It is, I do believe, one of my callings. Every week I was coming up with a new topic for my designs. I was making things that I thought would bless women, children and people in general.

The Great MindShift

In addition to designing a new collection of light work designs every week, I was writing; writing to accompany my new portfolio of designs. To give them more of a purpose; to give them life and to give them meaning. God has truly and deeply blessed me to build this business and I was determined to help it to bless people, to serve a need and I finally realized that this could only happen if I did things differently, but more importantly I had to shift my mind to thinking and speaking greatness over my business. I didn’t have to stop doing what I was doing. I didn’t have to give up. I just needed to think positive thoughts and be grateful to God for giving me this amazing business in the first place. Just because I thought people weren’t seeing my designs didn’t mean that I had to give up. No, I had to shift my mind into thinking positive thoughts about my business.

Making Plans To Prosper My Business

I also knew I had to come with a plan to grow my business and growing my business meant marketing my business which would in turn help me to explode my business. After many years of researching and researching it was time to stop messing around and just do it!

Starting Over

I revamped my entire design business. I kept my name, Cyndi’s Light Work Designs, because I love the name and all my customers liked it as well as did my family. My name was out there in the world wide web. My name had been established and I didn’t think it was necessary to change it. I just needed to grow my business. I needed to be more serious than I had ever been before. If I was going to be an entrepreneur I knew I had to get moving and stop the feeling of wanting to throw in the towel.

Writing, Speaking and Believing in Positive Affirmations

Now, there were days when I still felt a little discouraged, but when I shifted my mind once and for all, which wasn’t an easy process, everything changed. I decided to write my own affirmations. I knew that if I was going to soar in my design business I had to encourage myself first and then speak encouragement over every goal, over every aspiration, over every desire, over every dream, over every endeavor along with having mountain moving faith in God in addition to trusting and believing that things in my business would change. The very second that I began speaking affirmations into my life every day, can you believe that I was getting design work the same day that I shifted my mind. I was elated and could not believe that it was just that simple to prosper my business. Cyndi’s Light Work Designs is a real and breathing business that is alive and well because I never gave up. I never stopped doing what I love to do.

Be Encouraged!

I encourage you to never give up and to keep doing what you’re doing even if you don’t see any progress, please keep pressing on and moving forward in your business especially if you are operating from the gifts you’ve been given.

Cynthia G. Boyer

5 Ways to Aggressively Grow Your Newsletter Subscribers

Email is one of the most effective forms of digital marketing and an essential component of every campaign. A great way to build your email list is to offer a newsletter.

Simply placing an opt-in form on your website isn’t enough to build a large subscriber list. Sure, you will get the occasional subscriber here and there, but if you want to aggressively grow your list consider these five options.

1. Include an opt-in form after each blog post.

By placing an opt-in form at the bottom of each blog post you are catching the visitor at the perfect time — right after they finish reading your content. If your content provided value the visitor will be more willing to hand over his or her email address to continue engaging with your brand.

If your website is built using WordPress there are several free plugins that allow you to create several customizable styles of opt-in forms and integrate them with your email marketing service. Optin Forms and WP Conversion Boxes are two great options.

2. Promote your newsletter via social media.

Every business should have a social media presence, and this is a great audience to attract newsletter subscribers from. Is every single follower and fan that is socially connected to your business already subscribed to your newsletter? That is highly unlikely, making this an easy way to add new subscribers.

If someone has “Liked” your Facebook page or is following your Twitter account then there is already an established relationship. They are obviously interested in your brand, so encourage them to join your newsletter by sending out frequent posts welcoming them to subscribe by highlighting the benefits of your newsletter.

3. Run contests and giveaways.

What is one thing the majority of people can’t pass up? Something for free. It doesn’t even have to be some outrageous giveaway in terms of monetary value. In fact, your own products or service is often the best giveaway.

Create a contest and offer a free trial, free service or free product — and to be entered into the contest require that the individual subscribes to your newsletter and shares the contest on Twitter or Facebook. So you gain a new subscriber and you also get additional exposure across social media, which can potentially attract more subscribers and more social promoters. The right contest can become viral quickly, delivering a huge influx of email subscribers.

4. Use an exit-intent pop-up offer.

There will be some people that just don’t complete your website forms, even if they are placed right after your blog content. While aggressive, an exit pop up can help convert traffic into blog subscribers. Rather than using a pop up that fires when the page loads or after a specific period of time, opt for one that uses exit intent technology, only displaying when it detects that the visitor is about to leave.

Bounce Exchange, the pioneer of converting abandoning traffic, is behind some of the most aggressive and successful exit conversion campaigns. In fact, I have witnessed enough successful campaigns run by Bounce Exchange that my company, Market Domination Media, has engaged it to create and manage campaigns designed to increase our newsletter subscribers.

5. Create Twitter lead generation cards.

This is one of my favorite ways to build highly targeted email lists for our clients. Twitter lead generation cards allow you to create an offer and collect email addresses in a single click. What’s the best part? You know the email address is valid because Twitter passes the email address that the user has confirmed and uses in his or her profile.

Twitter ads have incredible targeting options, which allows you to only present your newsletter offer to prospects that match your target criteria. You have to pay for each email collected, but for businesses that really want to grow their subscriber list fast this is a great option.