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Setting up a business is always a challenge. And it is a never-ending process. First, you pool your resources together to jumpstart the business. Then you find clients. And then you keep them to make your business grow.

But sometimes, you need to go out of your existing customers list to fuel up your sales and expand your market. This is where the concept of marketing and promotions comes in. Do you know what’s the cheapest and simplest solution to your business marketing and promotion needs? It’s business cards, brochures, bookmarkers, flyers, and corporate identity stationery – simple items that can create the impact you really want for your business.

These simple items can go a long way to promote your business. No successful businessman goes out of his office without a few business cards sitting in his wallet. You can always meet a client on the street, at the bar, or any social gathering you happen to be at. And if you don’t flash your card to a potential client fast enough, somebody else would.

Your business card should create as good an impact as your business does. Clients always keep well-prepared business cards in the right places. And the others that don’t interest them at all easily get lost. It is important that you take time in making your cards. If you have to use a business card template, make sure that select the one that speaks well of the nature of your business.

The same goes true with any type of advertising material you utilize. The brochures and flyers you give away should be eye-catching enough to make people stop and read it over. Bookmarkers are good reminders of your business. Make sure that you give them to group of people who have uses for them.

Every business should invest on their corporate identity stationery, as it serves as the official paper where quotations, clients’ correspondence, and business proposals are printed. Don’t use plain paper for important documents. You don’t want to make your business look too informal. Besides, a lot of customers may think less about your products or services.

Your choice of business cards, corporate identity stationery, and other promotional materials for your business is crucial. You have to go with the best designs, materials, and concepts all the time. The success of your business depends on it.

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We already know that network marketing is about storytelling, and whoever tells the best story wins the immediate sale, enrollment, and recruit. We’ve talked about the first part of business that’s crucial to success – the opportunity story.

Now, let’s look at how to master your product story.

As you keep being a “product-of-the-product” by using it, retailing it, and forever talking to everyone about it, you automatically and irresistibly sponsor more and better people and show those around you how effortless it is to do the business, so they will automatically and axiomatically do the same or more.

One of the companies that I became the number-one salesperson for and number-one recruiter for sold nutritional products.

They had a product that ended constipation naturally. I had the problem. I knew that most entrepreneurs were stressed out to the max, which resulted in impacted ascending colons.

My product talk was simple, and it worked every time I worked it.

I enthusiastically and expectantly said to my friends, relatives, clients, and everyone I talked to: “May I tell you what happened to me and what I just discovered? Stop me if you don’t want to hear it.” (I think I always got the green light to tell my story.) “I just discovered that if you are having healthy bowel movements, they should be “fluffy floaters that are fawn colored, and about a foot long. At your best and most normal, you have three choo-choo trains of food go into your body per day. The question is do you have three healthy choo-choo trains of waste come out of your body per day? I admit I did not until I discovered this product.”

Then, I shut up. Invariably, they asked what the product was (the company and product no longer exist, unfortunately), and I told them and sold or enrolled them.

I got teased about talking about poop, but people listened to my stories and bought and signed up. I was paid exceedingly well, was gifted with a BMW Z3 the first year and a Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud 3 the second year, and won every international trip that they offered with all expenses paid, living in the best suites and staying in the best cabins on cruise ships. So, I know from experience that it pays and pays and pays to master your opportunity and product talk and combine them together.

It pays and pays and pays to master your opportunity and product talk!

If you stay tuned in, turned on, and motivated by attending seminars, listening to motivational, educational, and inspirational tapes and CDs on your iPod, you will stay on fire. Shut off television and especially the news and newspapers. Your mind needs to be tuned into the channel of uplifting and inspiring possibilities. There is no end to self-improvement, growth, and development. Your excitement and enthusiasm radiate to and through your team.

The story at first can be someone else’s experience or story that you repeat until you have your own that works every time you use it.

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The real challenge is that we have all been incorrectly conditioned and trained to believe that the most important thing in business is the opportunity.

However, if you try to make use of all the opportunities that show up, you lose all focus. By trying to be all things to all people, you end up being nothing to everybody.

I had a financial services company that was operating out of Zurich, Switzerland.

Several months after the launch of our business, we got together for a meeting with the principals and the owners, and one of them said, “Well, I’d like to open up the meeting to discuss the possibility of issuing credit cards.”

I looked over and said, “Credit cards? Why would you want to issue credit cards?”

He said, “Well, because we can.”

And I said, “If you say that again, I will walk out of here. Never do anything just because you can.”

I managed to put that idea down, and then somebody else said, “Let’s now talk about establishing a private bank.” I said, “Why would you want to do that?” He said, “Because we can.”

The fact of the matter is that although we are limitless beings with limitless potential and limitless power and the things we can do are completely limitless, the time we have to do these things is not.

Never do something just because you can!

So, by the end of the week we managed to get our focus down to one thing.

Our Chairman looked at everyone and said, “It has become apparent through this week that we have one product to sell. I don’t care if you thought you were in accounting before, I don’t care if you thought you were in human resources, it is now the job of every individual in this company for the next 120 days to sell this product and do nothing else.”

I want you to think about the power of that decision for a moment. If you had only one product to sell, could you learn to sell it well?

If day in and day out, from morning to night, the only thing you did was to make one pitch, would your pitch improve? Would you find a pitch that works?

And it goes even further. If you were a manager and you had people working for you, and the only thing you had to do was manage people who had only one job, which was to sell one product, could you manage that process and do it effectively? The answer is yes; anyone could.

This is what is so important, because in companies you are eventually going to be working with everyday people and average employees. If you become a big company, you can’t have 100,000 outstanding employees, because if you have 100,000 people, they are by definition average.

The net effect of our focus was that 120 days later we had sold $660 million of the product. Focus produced $600 million in sales in 120 days!

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In recent years multiple Eastern European, East Asian and Latin American countries have diversified their economies by planting new forging facilities within their borders. Low labor costs and increasingly friendly international trade relations have resulted in fierce competition for the traditional forging centers in Western Europe and the United States. Despite the lower prices offered, emerging forging markets lack one vital asset, experience.

A problem for purchasing managers now exists when high-quality end-products are demanded or strict delivery schedules must be adhered to. Due to pricing gaps, the abundance of low-cost forging shops led to the closures of experienced forging shops at staggering rates.

The demand for high-quality forged products and the necessity to fulfill inflexible delivery schedules still exists. Firms not willing to sacrifice quality and logistical matters now have fewer options. Purchasing managers must now look for experienced forging shops with production costs comparable to those of emerging markets.

Turkey is a unique find in the forging arena. Its first private forging facility, Çelik Sanayi, was founded in 1959. Many other forging shops were founded thereafter, allowing Turkey to become a top subcontractor for forgings throughout modern history. The nation’s forging sector’s long history places it in a position that rivals Western Europe and the United States. Furthermore, the low cost of production allows its forging facilities to compete with the newly emerging markets. For this reason, multiple forging shops of all sizes thrive in Turkey.

Another unique quality of the Turkish forging industry is its workforce. Turkey’s youth is highly educated, creating a large supply of new Engineers to staff the local forging facilities. Additionally, since Turkish forging companies have existed for nearly 50 years, there are numerous individuals willing to contribute a lifetime of experience.

Along with Turkey’s goal to join the European Union comes the necessity for rapid investments in technological upgrades across the manufacturing sector. Turkish companies are currently experiencing a golden era of upgrades and refurbishments. This allows Turkey-based forging facilities to offer clients the best services through continuously reaching and exceeding the standards required by the most regulated companies in both the EU and the United States.

Turkey’s location also offers a strategic geopolitical advantage. Turkey is in the close proximity of Europe, Asia and the Middle East, allowing for reductions in shipping costs and times. Additionally, Turkey enjoys the benefits of multiple trade agreements between the EU and the United States. For example, the United States has ratified an agreement allowing for no taxes on imported steel products from Turkey. Turkish forging facilities offer the best of both worlds, low prices and superior quality.

Turkey-based Yapi-Tek Çelik Sanayi A.S. is a manufacturer of custom and mass-produced hot forged steel products and forging dies. Its current production capacity is 20,000 tons per annum. Established in 1959, Yapi-Tek Çelik Sanayi was the first privately-held forging factory in Turkey. Visit www.celiksanayi.com for more information.

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Selling a business takes at minimum several months – and that’s if everything is already in order. Significant planning is involved: You will need to get your financials in order, figure out what your business is worth, evaluate the selling market, and decide whether to use a broker, determine tax liabilities and work with potential buyers.If you’ve spent years building your business, made millions of dollars and want to enjoy retirement, you’re probably in a good position to sell.

However, if you’re burned out, running low on cash or simply bored, keep in mind that selling is not your only option. The Small Business Administration encourages business owners who want out to also consider the following alternatives: franchising, developing a partnership, merging with a similar company, going public, and absentee ownership or partial retirement. 

Valuing your business is an arduous yet necessary task when you decide to sell. There isn’t a single formula that can accurately determine the worth of your business. The best way to know your business valuation is to hire an appraiser, who can work through the technicalities of determining its value. But Chamberlain says this isn’t necessary for many small businesses that have straightforward finances and business strategies. 

Selling a business requires sales skills. Chamberlain says owners of small businesses should develop a business plan to sell to potential buyers. He calls this “your story,” and it includes your business’ financials, sales, the business plan, industry projections, recent improvements and other important aspects of your business. Have you had employees for 20 years? That’s a great selling point. You may also need to explain why you want out if your business is a great investment. For example, Chamberlain says, you can tell a potential buyer that you think the business would thrive with a sales representative, but you couldn’t afford one. 

The great majority of businesses in the United States fall within the category of “Main Street Businesses”. It is a dynamic sector, with much entrepreneurial activity and includes small businesses such as convenience stores, dry cleaners, gas stations, restaurants, service businesses, manufacturing and distribution firms. Each year, thousands of such businesses are bought and sold. For corporate buyers, acquiring an existing business may be the best way to get established in the
US market. Individual buyers may seek to immigrate to the United States through the acquisition of a US business, as allowed by immigration laws. 

Logon to http://www.sunbeltne.com or http://businessesforsale.sunbeltne.com to search businesses for sale and find a right business opportunity for you.

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Government agencies acting as custodians for individual’s and business’s unclaimed money have no incentive, in general, to make it easy for the $ Billions to be found and thus claimed. Following presents many of facts, ways and methods by which the Government agencies employ, as subtle as they may be, to insure that the $ Billions are not easily found and claimed.

*All assets issued or owing by Federal Agencies will not appear in any State unclaimed database. Each Federal Agency maintains its own unclaimed property records, however only approx. 15 Federal Agencies offer online databases for the public to search for unclaimed accounts. And those databases are not easily found nor readily linked to from the Home page.

*Specific assets issued by many State or local governments themselves (State income or property tax refunds, payroll, child support checks, vendors checks or warrants) will NOT show up in State databases because its owner has a specific time frame by which to claim these unclaimed assets or refunds. Once the specific time period has lapsed, these unclaimed assets become the property of the government agency. This is similar to one’s IRS tax refund - one has 3 years to file and claim an IRS refund.

*The dollar amount or value of the unclaimed property is under specific value i.e.) $50 or $100 and the some States do not upload these records into their online database.

*The unclaimed or lost asset is still in its ‘dormancy period’ meaning the asset holder is not yet required to transfer over to the appropriate Government agency. This ‘dormancy period’ varies per property type and per each state’s unclaimed property statutes. The ‘dormancy period’ could be as short as one year and as long as 15 yrs. The average is less than 5 years and being shortened by Government agencies all the time. Those assets in their ‘dormancy period’ are also called “pre-escheat”. An unclaimed asset that is in government custody is called “escheated”.

*Some States will sell escheated securities immediately and credit the owners account; whereas, other States will hold retain the securities, but may not give a dollar value to these (actual value can change daily) in their online database and with a some States the value will be given as $0 or might not be uploaded into in their database for a couple of years.

*Cashier checks, money orders and traveler checks are examples of unclaimed property turned over to the States without names. The holders report the ONLY the check or serial number, date of purchase and amount. Also note, travelers checks typically have a 15 yr. dormancy period most likely due to their strong lobbyist presence. I have seen records listed as a serial # in the Owners Name field! These accounts will likely never be claimed!!

*A few States only list the most recently added unclaimed accounts.

*One must search under a maiden name, various spellings and initials of one’s first name, nicknames and/or possible misspellings of the last name.

*One may need to check all states in which you have resided or worked in, as well as, the State in which a former employer/company is or was headquartered. Per a 1965 Supreme Court ruling Texas vs New Jersey, if the address of the owner of the unclaimed property is unknown or is a foreign country, then the property is transferred to the State in which the holder is incorporated. Start with States such as Connecticut, Delaware, New York and Illinois that are the headquarters for many large publicly traded and financial service companies. IN OTHER WORDS, ONE COULD HAVE AN UNCLAIMED ASSET BEING HELD BY A STATE IN WHICH YOU HAVE NEVER LIVED NOR WORKED!!

*Many States Unclaimed Property Divisions are understaffed and cannot update regularly.

*Two States, namely Indiana and Idaho have passed laws by which assets left unclaimed after a specific number of years in their custody will not longer be claimable by the Owner, but will become the property of the State.

*Tangible items left in an abandoned Safe Deposit Box will, in most States, be auctioned off and the proceeds credited in the owner’s name. The proceeds amount may not be listed in the database until after the auction.

*Since unclaimed assets/money is effectively revenue for the States, if there is a question as to the last known address of the owner, State A maybe challenging or delaying a reciprocal agreement to transfer the asset/money to State B and therefore not list that asset/money in its public online database until the issue is resolved.

*There is no incentive for any Government agency to try to find or to contact individuals who have unclaimed money or property. These funds, for the most part, once received are placed in the Government general fund and spent on roads, schools etc. Fortunately for the Governments, it has been reported that only 30% of all abandoned money transferred or escheated to the Government is EVER claimed and the money is flowing in at an increasing rate each year….In theory, if everyone claimed their money at one time would be comparable to a “Run on the Bank”….many States do not have the cash reserves to meet this obligation.

Authors

Vibhu Bansal & Thomas Tuke are promoters of http://www.FindLostMoney.net that specializes in assisting individuals in locating unclaimed money WITHOUT paying a 20%+ Finder’s fee.

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Does it pay to do more with less and focus more?

Focus is the key to your profits!

Look at one of my favorite examples: Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald’s.

Ray used to get asked, “When are you going to diversify?” He had a great answer for this question: “We will diversify into new businesses other than this one-pattern hamburger shop as soon as all of the restrooms in all of the McDonald’s are all working properly and are cleaned at the same time.”

He would go to a McDonalds every day with his wife, and his wife would come out of the lady’s room and say, “Dear, you can’t diversify yet.”

Speaking of restrooms, the ones in most gas stations are disgusting most of the time.

There was one gas station in Phoenix, Arizona, where the gas was more expensive than anywhere else in town and people were lined up six and eight blocks to get gas.

What was their secret?

The gas company turned around 180 degrees and used the 99/1 percent axiom. All you have to be is 1 percent different and it’s all the difference in the world.

What they did was make the bathrooms three times as big. They made them immaculate, they had art on the walls; they had nice-smelling toilet paper. They had a man on the outside inspect the restrooms after every customer to make sure that when you went in and out, the restroom was always immaculate—both the men’s and the women’s. Everybody went to this station not to get gas, because gas is a commodity, but because it had a clean restroom that was safe for you and your kids. People would line up and pay the most ever for gas. The focus was now on the customer, and a 1% difference changed their results 99%.

A change in focus can always make a difference.

The question is “What is your focus?” in that you have to be challenged to leverage your business 10 times, 100 times, 1,000 times, or a million times. It’s not just Ray Kroc doing McDonald’s; it is you.

You just need to choose one thing that you are going to do better than anybody else on the planet. You and everyone in your business are going to be completely focused on just one thing.

I have a good friend who moves big money in the venture capital space and he tells me that focus is the only reliable indicator of future profitability. The company that knows what business it is in and devotes more resources to that area than anyone else will have the highest profitability.

Focus is the only reliable predictor of future profitability!

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What is the traditional approach for trying to get focused in business? It is the Pareto principle, commonly called the 80/20 rule, meaning that 20 percent of the effort or activity is always responsible for 80 percent of the results.

It’s absolutely ludicrous and out of date. Pareto’s not around anymore. The principle has already been updated once, by Dr. Edwards Deming. He took a little company called Toyota and made it into the world’s biggest auto company. Deming said it’s 85/15.

But we think there’s another upgrade to that. We think we need to take it to 99/1.

A 1 percent focus will produce 99 percent of the results.

You know, the beautiful thing about focusing on 1 percent with 99 percent results is that you can take 99 percent of your time off!

An article in the Harvard Business Review stated that 10 percent of the managers these researchers had studied over several years across the world were driving 90 percent of the results at their organizations.

These are the managers who understand the principle and have focus!

These managers were focused and had the energy to see their projects through to completion.

Just think of the impact. If you could double 10 percent of the managers to 20 percent, what could you do to your productivity? If you could take it to 30 percent, 40 percent, or 50 percent, think what you could do inside your organization.

The concept is simple: You get more by doing less.

No Distractions
One thing is critical to achieving focus in your life. You must protect yourself from distractions.

You must protect yourself from distractions

One of the most powerful things I did in my life was move to Singapore. I moved to Singapore because it is one of the few places in the world where I don’t have a company.

Arranging the move was a really amazing process. I met with local lawyers. I said, “I want to move to Singapore.” They said, “No problem.” I said, “I need to get a visa.” “No problem.” I said, “Here’s the thing: I don’t want to work in Singapore.” They said, “That’s a big problem. There aren’t any visas for just being here.” So we set up a company to sponsor my visa.

But by living in a place where I have no companies and no office, I am free from everyday business distractions. So I can focus on the things that are actually going to have a big WOW impact at the end of the year.

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In my experience with building businesses, I know that within days, literally, of starting a business that business starts to lose focus. I’ve learned through all the years of creating more than 35 companies and working in 35 countries that focus is the only challenge in business.

What you focus on is an “incision from your decision.” It subtracts you from everything else.

When you’re in focus, you’re like a 100 percent effective laser beam.

When you’re out of focus and disparate, you’re ambient and useless.

Focus is about doing one thing supremely well!

When I was 16 years old, Ed Sullivan brought the Beatles out, and I wanted to be a Beatle too. I decided to form a band. I called our group “The Messengers” in my mind. I called Gary Youngberg, and he immediately became our lead guitarist. I learned bass guitar right away. We went out and got a great drummer. We got all the people we needed. We focused the group. In two weeks we were up and running.

The next focus was on getting places to play. We went from success to success, and all of us had enough money to go to college. Now some of us blew it a little before then, because we bought cars, a motorcycle, and nice clothes. But, we were focused.

“We are the band, we are the cool guys, we are it.”

We are talking about focus in business. There is busy-ness (not useful), and then there is business.

What I see in so many organizations is people on cell phones going to meetings, running here, running there, and putting in long hours. They’re busy. They are generating lots of activity, but they don’t focus on one thing or two things or three things that are core to achieving the goals of their companies.

The interesting thing is that if you go out and survey employees in various companies, less than 40 percent of the employees in a business know what is truly important to be done inside that organization.

The same thing applies to the Company itself. Focus is the key to victory.

In the airline business, for example, all the airlines try to compete in the same way. Whatever industry you are in, there will be three or four or five things that are the basis of competition in an industry, but if you can get focused on one thing that nobody else is doing, you can become number one literally overnight.

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Without goals you won’t know where you’re going – and you won’t know whether you’re getting there.  Without goals, you won’t succeed.  It’s that simple.

Goals are like building blocks:  extremely short-term goals support other short-term goals, and short-term goals Without goals you won’t know where you’re going – and you won’t know whether you’re getting there. support mid-term and long-range goals.  To determine your short-term goals, you’ll have to determine your long-term goals first.

Let’s say your goal is to own $10 million in real estate in twenty years.  Great!  Now you have to get there.  You can break that goal down into manageable chunks:

* After five years:  own $1 million in real estate.
* After ten years:  own $3 million in real estate.
* After fifteen years:  own $7 million in real estate.
* After twenty years:  own $10 million in real estate.

Now you can break that down further:

* After one year:  own two properties worth $175,000.
* After two years:  own four properties worth $350,000.
* After three years:  own six properties worth $550,000.
* Etc.

If you keep breaking your goals down into more and more manageable chunks, what seems like an insurmountable task – owning $10 million in real estate – can actually be quite achievable.  And if it feels manageable, you’ll have more confidence, and you’ll be more likely to stay on the path to your dreams.

For instance, let’s say you currently don’t own your own home – say you own no real estate at all.  But, based on the above goal breakdown, your goal for your first year is to own two properties worth $175,000.  How will you get there?  Here’s how you could break it down:

Goal:  Own Two Properties Worth $175,000 in One Year
Month 1
Week 1: Meet with at least two lenders to determine if I qualify for financing.  If I don’t, focus on seller-financed properties, see if relatives will co-sign on loans, and identify other creative financing possibilities by the end of the week.

Meet with and interview at least three real estate agents to find an agent you’re comfortable with, and who has the kind of expertise you’re looking for.

Look at newspaper listings, internet listings, and local real estate agency, pre foreclosure home advertisements for at least thirty minutes every day to get a sense of available properties and the local market.

Week 2: Choose an agent and make appointments to see at least four properties that fit your needs and financial situation.

Plan to generate as much capital for a down payment as you can:  sell assets, shift money out of stocks or other investments (if necessary).

Call sellers offering owner financing, make appointments to inspect appropriate properties.

Week 3: Determine if any available properties are suitable for you; if so, assess their value and make an offer.  Negotiate as necessary.

Find a good real estate attorney to handle your real estate affairs.

Week 4: Finalize contract (if negotiations are successful); if not, continue inspecting at least four properties per week.  If successful, begin process of finalizing transaction; in the meantime, continue inspecting at least two properties per week for future investments.

…

Week 26:  Make offer on second property…..Etc.

If you work backwards from the creation of long-term goals to mid-term and short-term goals, you’ll create an action plan that will allow you to reach your dreams in short sales or otherwise.  It’s not hard to do, and it can be really fun – simply think as big as you like, and then work backwards to decide what you’ll need to do to make your dreams happen.  Don’t start from where you are today; start from where you want to be, and work backwards to today.

To make your own goal worksheet, simply take a pad of paper and put your long-term goal at the top.  Then, in outline form, break down the intermediate steps you’ll need to achieve them.  Under those steps, break down the tasks further.  When you’re done you should have short-term goals you wish to reach that are no longer than one week in duration – if you allow yourself too much time, you’re more likely to put them off.

Once a goal or task is complete, check it off your list.  You’ll enjoy the sense of accomplishment, and you’ll stay on track with your action plans.

Remember, you can revise your action plans at any time.  If you find an investment that’s too good to pass up, you might change your short-term goals.  Just make sure you don’t change your goals or your action plans due to inactivity – you’ll never reach your dreams if you don’t take action on a consistent basis.  It will take work and effort, but you can do it.  Thousands of people are successful real estate investors – there’s no reason you can’t be, too.

He is the founder of The Wealth College Inc, which develops comprehensive, systematic approaches to securing financial freedom through real estate investment.

Mark offers a FREE audio CD on “Building Wealth Through Real Estate” by logging onto www.therealestateinvestortoday.com. He also offers a series of 52 “Short Sale and Pre-foreclosure Tips That Will Make Your Pockets FAT!” absolutely FREE-of-charge by logging onto www.shortsaleexpert.net

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