My Inspiration

Everything changes when you trade in your desktop for a laptop and your office for a hotel room. Sometimes this is for the better: You're liberated from your cubicle and free to go where your work takes you. But sometimes things change for the worse. Productivity suffers when you're in an unfamiliar place. The way a laptop keyboard cramps your hands is sometimes enough to keep you from getting the job done right. Here are four technology "must-haves" for the mobile office, plus some tools that can boost your productivity while you're away. • The Right Software It isn't just downloading the necessary applications onto your laptop or PDA, it's also knowing whether the programs are suited to a mobile office. Is your email program built for the road or adapted from a bigger application meant for a corporate network? Do the programs work together on your laptop or do they freeze when your processor gets busy? These considerations can become big issues wh...

 Last month, my featured article was about creating a “Stop Doing” list. Hopefully, if you followed my suggestion, you now have a list of tasks that you are looking to delegate away. It seems a natural progression that I now disclose a few simple steps that will ensure your foray into delegation is a success.  1. Choose the right “delegatee”  Review the task and determine what skills are required. Delegation goes much more smoothly if you match the person with the appropriate skill set to the task you have to assign. Now if you don’t have a candidate that has all the skills you are looking for, decide which is the most critical one (analytical ability, attention to detail, communications skills) and make that match.  One of the rewards of delegation is the opportunity to help someone develop and grow. It is unlikely that you will always have a candidate that you can hand off something to and not have to provide some training or coaching. But learning to empower your ...

A lot of people do not realize that entrepreneurs play a big role in our society.   When you put the total number of entrepreneurs together, they count as the biggest financial contributors to our nation’s wealth.  If only politicians would give grants to finance small business start-ups, the economy’s growth could be hastened.   Knowing the obvious financial rewards and the important role to society of business owners, many individuals aspire to be entrepreneurs.  The fact remains, however, that several business start-ups fail and never take-off  from the ground because of one thing : the lack of adequate and sufficient knowledge on how to start a profitable business.  In this article, I will attempt to give practical strategies on how to run a successful business start-up. First: find opportunities in your own backyard. Look at the demand side by observing your neighborhood.  It is good to assess the close-to-home demand...

 Question:  What’s the easiest, cheapest and quickest way to have profitable, productive, and honest employees? Answer:  Hire profitable, productive, honest people! Unfortunately, managers often hire underachievers or losers.  Fortunately, pre-employment tests give managers a simple-to-use, quick, customizable way to hire the best. Only 1 Reason to Screen Applicants The sole reason to assess applicants is to predict – or forecast – how an applicant will behave on-the-job BEFORE you hire the person.  It proves crucial to prediction this before hiring an applicant, rather than finding out the expensive way after you put the person on your payroll. The main methods used to predict if an applicant will succeed on-the-job are Interviews Reference Checks Pre-employment Tests Alarming Research Large-scale research discovered most interviewers and reference checks make lousy predictions of actual on-the-job performance.  Interviews and reference checks often ...

 I'm going to absolutely show you a simple but powerful way to move from where you are now, into a much higher level of success than you've ever dreamed possible. My name is Grey McKenzie and I've been successful in everything I put my hand to once I learned to apply these simple principles and techniques I'm about to share with you. I absolutely guarantee, if you apply what I show you here, you will have more success than you ever dreamed possible. Whether you're a seasoned business veteran, or just starting out in the world, there are proven ways to fast track whatever goals you have. There are certain underlying principles that will absolutely improve your chances of success.  So lets get to it. I can tell you in 5 minutes of being around you if you have what it takes to be a success... I'm not bragging, I'll even show you right now how you can tell yourself if you or someone you know has the potential to be successful. Below, in my opinion, are the two p...

 We've all made bad decisions in the past. Don't you just hate to hear "I told you so" from your friends and family? Or, maybe you catch yourself saying "If only I'd have..."? Personally, I'm one of those people who prefers to learn from someone else's mistakes.  If you're at all like me, and you have thought about doing a 1031 exchange into a tenant in common (TIC) property, take note. You can avoid making the 3 Major Mistakes that others wished they knew before leaping from the frying pan into the fire! Before I let you in on the secrets, let me briefly explain what a 1031 exchange into a tenant in common property is. It's a fairly well-kept secret in and of itself. A 1031 exchange is when an investment property owner sells his current property and exchanges it for a "like-kind" property of equal or greater value. By doing so, he defers the payment of capital gains tax and the consequences of recaptured depreciation. By exchan...

 Tips for First Time Home Buyers #1 Don't be too quick!  Avoid giving out your personal information like Social Security number, date of birth etc. at every website that asks for it. This is the single biggest mistake I've seen made. Some first time home buyers in their zeal to get started do this.  The problem is this, many sites will require this information before they'll give you any details. They start out with a simple, name and address screen, then lead into screens that ask for more personal details.  At all costs, hold off giving out this private information. You will have to at some point in time. But, not until you've learned about the mortgage process should you do this. What happens when you fill in the forms online? Your e-mail box will be flooded with loan offers.  Many places tout they'll have 4 lenders or even more give you quotes. Guess what? Nearly every one of these lenders are going to run a credit report. If you have numerous inquires in yo...

 1. Find a need!  Is there a market niche for your particular product or service? Does the world, or even your community, need what you have to offer? Only by sampling and testing will you be able to determine this with any degree of certainty, but we will be covering this as we go along in greater detail. The most important aspect would be to determine a Unique Selling Proposition for your product or service. Too many business owners are just trying to be me-too companies. You cannot be just like the next guy and expect to prosper in this volatile economy.  One of the most important things I learned from my Dad was, there are really only two things to consider, and next to them everything else is minor. Those two things are: (1) What do you really want? And just as, and perhaps even more important, (2) Are you willing to do whatever it takes to achieve it?  What do you really, really want from this endeavor? What is your ultimate goal? Are you willing to do whatever...

 The average consumer is inundated with sales pitches. So if you’re selling a product or service to today’s ad weary consumer, if you want your sales letters to get results, you’ll need a step-by-step plan that breaks down the barriers to buying. A plan that bypasses the head and goes right for the heart.  If the heart’s in it, the brain will follow. Buying anything is largely emotional.  Whether it’s paper clips or plain paper copiers, emotions lead the purchase.  Facts, specs and the like are simply used to justify the decision, once made.  Which means that everything about your sales letter, every sentence, every phrase must appeal to your customer’s emotions. What emotions? The simple truth is, there are only two emotions that really motivate people: The promise of gain or the fear of loss--with the fear of loss being the stronger. Example: Given the choice of headlines: “Save money in legal fees.”  Or  “How to keep from being sued.” The latter wil...

 Back from a nice week in Devon, doing nothing except walk on the moors and lazing about. Couple of calls to the office – “Anything good happening?” “Well, it’s good you aren’t here” – and that’s about it. Didn’t even bother to travel 30 miles to take up the offer of a free lunch at Cornwall’s most famous seafood restaurant though, as this was compensation for a lunch I had there last year that pole axed me for three days with food poisoning, my non-attendance wasn’t 100% sloth related.  Arrived to find an article - “How to Write a Job Ad” – left open on my desk (rather pointedly, I thought) which was vaguely thought provoking, though things like “most are full of corporate puff and management-speak…fail to give detailed information…generally don’t get the people you want” were a bit too sweeping for me (and I hate all sweeping statements).  Copy can be quite emotive, not least because it’s the one area of advertising that anyone can do – we don’t all know the media, we c...

 Every week I receive a couple of emails from people seeking advice on how to get into freelance copywriting. While there’s no simple answer, and no answer which applies to everyone, there are a few tips which I believe will help most people make the move into freelance copywriting, and survive the first few months at least. 1) Invest in a website The best place for any freelance advertising copywriter or website copywriter to start is to fork out for a website. A website is invaluable because when you cold call and email prospects, you’ll need to direct them somewhere that gives them more information. Keep your website simple, include a portfolio page, add any samples of any sort of copywriting you've done, talk about the places you've worked, the clients you’ve written for, and include any testimonials you’ve received. Make sure you include your address and contact details as well, so people don't think you're a fly-by-night operation. Of course, it doesn't hurt t...

 Anyone who’s ever tried marketing IT products or services knows that it’s a specialist field. Your customers in the IT industry have very unique and specific requirements, and that means you do too. In order to write compelling copy around your offering, you need a copywriter with a solid understanding of the IT world – someone who’s not afraid to call themselves an “IT Copywriter”.  So how do you know when you’ve found an IT copywriter? And – more importantly – how do you know what to expect from them? The following 10 tips will give you a good understanding of the qualities to look for – the things that make a copywriter an IT copywriter.  1) IT background Perhaps the most beneficial quality in an IT copywriter is a solid background of some sort in the IT industry. If your copywriter shares an understanding of your domain, you’ll spend far less time explaining the benefits of your product or service. Remember the last time you watched someone glaze over as you waxed ly...

 From the perspective of a business owner, webmaster, or marketing manager, the change exhibited by the Internet is profoundly exciting, yet profoundly disturbing. The information (and misinformation and disinformation) it offers, the business benefits it promises, and the rules it is governed by change at such a rapid rate that it’s almost impossible to keep up. These changes have led to a growing appreciation of the value of quality web copy. This appreciation has, in turn, led to an influx of opportunistic ‘copywriters’ promoting themselves as website copywriters or SEO copywriters. Don’t get me wrong, there are quite a few excellent SEO copywriters out there, and you should definitely shop around. The purpose of this article isn’t to scare you; it’s to help you find the SEO copywriter who’ll deliver honest service and excellent results. So with that in mind, take a look at the following ten tips. These are the things you have a right to expect from anyone wearing a name badge t...

 We all learned how to write in school, but in advertising, there are some simple techniques that experienced writers use to convey messages with greater impact and brevity.  Without being too tutorial, you’ll find these 9 tips quite handy when writing your next sales letter, brochure or web page. Avoid the wimpy verbs—is and be. These “do-little” verbs only occupy space and state that something exists.  So don’t write “There is one simple omission that can transform a sentence from boring to brilliant.”  Do write “One simple omission can transform a sentence from boring to brilliant.” Similarly, avoid “We will be running the new program from our Dallas office.”  Instead, opt for “We will run the new program from our Dallas office.”  Place the longest item at the end of a series.  Start with the simple and work toward the complex.  It’s less confusing and makes a more memorable ending to the sentence.  If you have a series like “He was always...

 I am about to share with you 8 quick ideas and suggestions to dramatically help you improve your copywriting skills as you get going.  You can use these tips when it comes to creating offers, E-mails and sales letters that grab people’s attention. So without further ado, here they are! Number one:  Always write your sales letter with the individual in mind. Whenever you’re writing a sales letter or an E-mail, you want to write that E-mail or sales letter as though you were talking to one person. Number two:  Pull them in with the first line.  You’ve got to create interest with the reader, the very first line that they read. Number three:  Use bullets.  People like to scan, they like to quickly read things as fast as they can, and using bullets makes that whole process a heck of a lot easier. So use them. Number four:   Just let it flow.  When you’re starting to write a letter, it is very difficult to just start from top to bottom and wr...

 => Step #1 - WHO DO YOU THINK YOU`RE TALKING TO? Before you sit down to write your email sales letter, you`ve got to determine exactly who your audience is. This is a master key to getting results from email marketing. Ask yourself these questions: - What do your prospects/customers want? - What frustrates your prospects/customers most? - Who else is selling something similar to you? - Why should your prospects/customers believe you? - Why should prospects/customers respond to you instead of someone else? - What kind of appeals will your target market respond to? => Step #2 - A GREAT SUBJECT IS YOUR OBJECT Before an email can generate results, recipients need to open it. But what can you do to spark their interest and get their interest "motor" revved up? Your SUBJECT LINE is the key. There are four types of email formulas you can use as a guide in crafting your email. Each has a different PSYCHOLOGICAL APPEAL that works like magic on consumers. Here are some examples:...