Yes, You Can Make Money Online!

Thrifting/Flipping - Drop Shipping - Retail Arbitrage

Introduction

Yes, I know, there are hundreds or even thousands of "Make Money Online" scams running on the Internet these days. My spam mailbox is full of them everyday because I work online and my contact information is very visible. It's like a magnet for spam. No problem, that's just part of the game and you set up mechanisms to deal with that.

Currently, I am retired after over 35 years in the construction and mechanical trades. One might think that I'm not the ideal candidate for such "techie things" as working online. Don't make that assumption, about yourself or anyone else. Although many might consider me a "hand skills", blue-collar kind of guy, I'm also a Techie. I have been on the Internet since 1999, writing and blogging, mostly for fun.  At the same time, I was reading a lot and honing my skills. Around 2000 – 2001, I actually launched a computer sales and repair business. I had a great source that would custom build computers for me which I would then sell to my clients with very little markup and then provide after the sales service, program installation and training on an hourly basis. As a side job, it did quite well until the bottom fell out of the computer sales market. Even with my great source, I couldn't compete with the prices that people were able to get from offshore manufacturers. I close down the retail sales portion but continued to maintain the service and training side of the business to this day.

In 2012 I actually took the plunge and got my feet wet in the online business world of referral marketing. After a bit of a slow start, I was able to parlay this business opportunity into a $1000 a week proposition. I kept this up for many months and introduced hundreds of other people to the opportunity and train them how to do what I was doing. A lot of money was made by a lot of people. After about six months of working this business, I got bored. One might say I suffered from "Adult Onset ADD" LOL! 

It's sort of been my history to get involved in various enterprises, learn everything I could from the process and then move on to something new. Shiny object syndrome for sure! Not to say this wasn't beneficial or profitable, it was both. I've made a lot of mistakes and failed just like many others. I also made a lot of money along the way. The main difference is I learned from the mistakes and failures and did not repeat them. I also got back up and tried again if I failed. I knew it was doable and possible so I kept at it. I also carefully analyzed the various issues and problems that I had experienced. Ultimately, what eventually came to light was that I was just tired of constantly having to re-create it every day, all over again. When one is involved in an online business, one often finds that success is predicated on being able to "Sponsor" or recruit somebody else into the business and teach them how to do what you are doing.

This is workable but tiring as well as emotionally draining. It gets very old after a while, needing to drag the unwilling and frequently unqualified down the path to success. Frequently, it is not even possible. 
I needed to find something that I could do profitably that didn't require a huge upfront investment, sponsoring, product Auto-Ship programs (MLM's) and the resulting garage full of unusable and unsellable products. I needed a way that I could sell products to somebody that wanted them and then use the money they paid me to then purchase the product and send it to them. No inventory, no stock, no capital investment. Truly a "Shoestring Start up" business.

Recently, I found just such a program, it's called "Drop Shipping" and much to my surprise, it is a fairly common practice. I had just never come across it before. 

Drop Shipping...What is it?

Drop shipping is actually a pretty simple process. Typically when you purchase a product, you either go into the brick-and-mortar store, buy it and take it home with you or you order it online and have it shipped to you. These days, many people are extremely busy with all the various pursuits in their lives including their jobs, their families and other interests. They often find their schedule so full that it is inefficient or in some cases impossible to physically drive to a brick and mortar store to make purchases that they could just as easily make from the comfort of their own home on the computer or from just about anywhere on today's mobile smart devices. Mobile shopping is making huge inroads into the traditional shopping experience.

Platforms like eBay, Amazon, Etsy and dozens, if not hundreds of others have capitalized on this trend.  In the case of Amazon, they are striving for the goal of same-day delivery throughout the continental United States. They are getting very close to achieving this goal by constantly expanding their network of Fulfillment Centers throughout the United States and around the world. With the advent of Amazon Prime, Amazon has locked in a huge customer base of very loyal Amazon Prime shoppers that want what they want and want it quickly. Amazon Prime members qualify for free two-day shipping and that is a huge draw. It is been amply shown that Prime members are willing to pay more, sometimes much more for that fast, two-day shipping and the convenience of having just about anything they desire show up on their doorstep in a day or two.  It may sound counter intuitive to pay more for something but the statistics bear out this trend. Prime members are willing to pay the premium in exchange for the convenience.

So… Back to “What is Drop Shipping?”  Drop Shipping is simply the process of ordering something from an online vendor and having it shipped. But… not necessarily shipped directly to you but shipped instead directly to your customer!  Companies that participate in drop shipping programs will send your purchases anywhere you wish.  Amazon is one of them.  This is the key to one of my businesses. Another key is called "Arbitrage".
  
Definition: 
Arbitrage: Noun, In finance, the simultaneous purchase and sale of the same securities, commodities, or foreign exchange in different markets to profit from unequal prices.

In layman's terms, this means buying a product in one place at a lower price and selling that same product someplace else at a higher price. It's the purest form of "buy low – sell high". In today's vernacular, it is also called "Flipping".
  
One can "flip" almost anything if the pricing conditions are favorable. If I can find a product that is in demand (important aspect) at a favorable price that when sold, after all costs of the transaction are subtracted, I can still make an acceptable return on investment (ROI) I have a potential deal that will generate income for me.

Although simple in concept, there is potential risk in the purest form of arbitrage. If you do arbitrage correctly, per the definition above, you simultaneously by and sell. This means you already have a committed customer at a specified price before you actually buy the product. This is a pretty safe bet but still has some potential risk should the deal fall apart for some reason. 

There is also a variant of this process called "Retail Arbitrage" in which you search for and "source" various products that are on clearance or are significantly marked down at retail. If, after sufficient research to determine that there is actually an untapped market for this product at a favorable price you would purchase a large quantity of this product and then market it yourself to your own customer base. This customer base can be your own website store, or a platform like eBay or Amazon. This variant does require some investment, sometimes a substantial investment, which equals risk. The risk part comes in if your research is faulty or lacking. This is where experience enters the game and only seasoned Arbitrageurs should play. There are many reasons that this particular activity can fail, especially for those inexperienced in this market. 

Here's a real world example; I know a young guy that "discovered" this process/opportunity and decided to go all in without sufficient research. He happened to be a reseller on Amazon and that's where he thought he would sell this product he purchased. Unfortunately, being new to Amazon, he failed to realize that the products he purchased in bulk were restricted on Amazon or part of a category on Amazon that is "gated" and that one must be pre-qualified to list products in. Amazon is funny that way. They can be difficult to deal with and it's their game and you must play by their rules, no exceptions. Fortunately, he was able to offload his inventory on the wild West that is eBay. eBay is much less restrictive although it does still have certain restricted areas. Lesson learned.

The program I'm involved with eliminates even this risk. Your customer purchases the product from you, pays you for it and then, and only then do you actually a go out and purchase that product and have it Drop Shipped directly to them. Your personal money is not at risk. Sweet Deal!

Thrifting & Flipping

Are you a garage sale junkie like me? Do you haunt thrift shops in your area? If you do, "there is gold in them thar hills". 

I'm sure most of you have heard the stories about people finding immensely valuable items at a thrift store, tag sales, library book sales, rummage sales or garage sales for next to nothing. Although rare, it does happen. More commonly you will find arbitrage opportunities. The chance to find that someone's junk that they are happy to get rid of actually has value and a market. I make a lot of money doing exactly this. Saturday mornings are my "sourcing" days for stuff to flip. "Garage Sales for fun and profit".

Sometimes junk is just junk. Doing your research and knowing the junk from the gold is where the flipping opportunities come from.  If you have a careful eye and know your market there is much money to be made.

As a simple example, I came across 4 bankers boxes full of Mikasa China in three discontinued patterns. I bought it all for $25 and have been selling it off, one piece at a time on eBay for a significant markup. As of the time of this writing, I have made back four times my original purchase price and I've only sold about one quarter of the collection. Ultimately, I expect to achieve an ROI of at least 500% on this one garage sale find. 
I track everything I sell on both Amazon and eBay and my average ROI is 85% or better. For my flipping business, I tap into all the sources mentioned in the first paragraph. I love to dig through this old junk just for the fun of it. Now I do it for the fun and the PROFIT!

Pro Tip: Never pass over something just because YOU think it is junk. Do your research and you might be surprised. I certainly was!  Did you know that there is a healthy market for old VHS tapes? Neither did I until I looked. Now, I make a few bucks on every VHS tape that I buy for $.50. Sometimes a lot more than a few bucks. Sometimes it's $20-$50. It's a weird market but why not capitalize on it? One of my favorite finds (and one that confirms that cat people are crazy) was a VHS videotape that was produced strictly to entertain cats while their owners are away from home. Like most, that tape cost me $.50. What almost floored me was that the market price was almost $50!
As mentioned, if you actually want to do well at this game, you need some training.

As the saying goes "Wisdom is learning from OTHER people's mistakes." 

If you really want to know how well any training program is doing, just check out their retention numbers. How many new people remain with the program past the first month? You will find that the attrition rate is ridiculously high on 99% of the programs you will be exposed to. Something on the order of 3% to 4% are actually successful (depending on your definition of Success). A large percentage are just hanging in there and keep paying for the training in the hopes that it will somehow magically work for them but it never does because they are not putting the training into action often as not. The rest just give up and wander away, usually poisoned about ever making any money online. That is the truly unfortunate result of many programs. It's sad.

This is called the EOF / FOF syndrome; Experience of Failure – Fear of Failure.
If you talk to any successful entrepreneur, they will often tell you that when they get involved in something, if they are going to fail, they want to "fail fast", learn from the experience and move on to the next game. They do not, I repeat NOT let a failure knock them down for any length of time. They simply pull up their socks and get back in the game, having learned from the experience.


Dana

Working online-an update

It's been a while since I've posted here so I'll try to update what's been going on in my life, at least the online portion of my life.

I have been very busy for the past few months launching a new income stream. (Multiple income streams is something I've mentioned several times in the past)

In this case, after spending a couple of months working with the DSDomination drop shipping program (linked on the upper right of this blog) and doing pretty well, I stepped up my game and added Amazon FBA to my bag of tricks. FBA stands for "Fulfilled By Amazon" and it simply means that you source products from wherever you wish, box them up and send them into Amazon. Once they hit Amazon, they take care of everything else. You no longer have to worry about shipping individual items creating listings, customer service or any of the time eating activities that you may be suffering from working on eBay. Don't get me wrong, eBay is great for getting rid of your own stuff and for sourcing from Amazon and drop shipping. 

The upside of DS Domination is that it teaches you how to work in the online arena and source and sell products. It's basically the boot camp of this type of retailing. After you've done it for a few months and if you want to up your game and make more money, the next move is to Amazon FBA.

Another upside is that you are not working with your own money if you follow the program. When you list an item on eBay, you don't actually possessed the product at that time so you have not put out any money upfront. When your item sells, the buyer send you money directly into your PayPal account which you then use to go to Amazon and purchase the product and have it shipped to your buyer. It's a great way to shoestring your way into online retailing without having to invest a lot of money.

While it is an awesome program that DS Domination teaches, the downside is that it can be very much of a time sink to keep it going at any significantly profitable level.  It is a constant cycle of searching on Amazon to find products, checking on eBay to see if you can make a profit, creating a listing and then waiting to see if it sells. If it does sell, then you must go back to your source on Amazon and order the product and have it shipped to your eBay customer. You also need to handle your own customer service and the back-and-forth communication's with your buyers if there are any. If you are only selling 10 or 15 items on eBay, it's not that time-consuming. If you only need to make another $100-$300 a month and keep it on a part-time casual basis, this is really all that's needed. If, on the other hand, you actually want or need to create a significant income, eBay becomes a major part of your day and it's not really possible to do this while you're working 40 to 60 hours a week.

The next step is to up your game by starting an Amazon Seller's account. 

There are two types of Amazon Seller accounts; The first one is called "Merchant Fulfilled" and is similar to eBay in that you are doing all of the product handling and shipping and creating your listing on Amazon rather than eBay. There is some benefit to this because Amazon is effectively the world's largest retailer and has a huge following and a tremendous customer base. Potentially, your listing will be seen by a lot more people than if it were just on eBay. Amazon's customers are very loyal and typically will shop at Amazon and not price shop other places. Amazon also has the benefit of their Amazon Prime program which offers free, two-day shipping for Prime members. This is a huge draw and prime members will often pay a higher price for the same item just to get that free two-day shipping.

The next is the Amazon FBA program. FBA stands for Fulfilled By Amazon and this program allows you to send all of your products directly to an Amazon Fulfillment Center where Amazon handles everything for you for a fee.  There are numerous fees involved which ultimately can add up to approximately 1/3 of your sale price. While that may sound like a pretty steep hit to take, if you run the numbers and take into account the amount of time you are saving by not having to deal with your own packing, shipping, and customer service it actually works out pretty well. Add to this the Amazon customers loyalty that draws premium prices and this game can be quite profitable.

If you want more information about this feel free to contact me directly.

If you are interested in getting started just use the link in the upper right-hand corner of this blog under favorite links to jump over to my intro video and sign up page for DS Domination.

Deals-by-Dana on both Amazon and eBay

Make Money Online? Absolutely!!

Can one really make money online?

You absolutely can!  I put money in my bank
every day working online and you can too.

I began my online money making efforts a couple of years ago.  At first, I spent most of my time weeding out the scammers and less than ethical attempts of some to fatten their bank account at the expense of my own.  I fell into the trap of the "amazing magical secret" for only $97 to get started!  It soon became apparent that that was only the tip of the iceberg and that these guys would continue to reach deep into my pockets as often as they could. The $97 was just the beginning.  Upgrade offer after upgrade offer soon followed.

This process actually has a name;  it's called a "Traffic Funnel" and it is designed to take someone from a relatively low cost entry point into higher and higher cost programs.  It's all good though, these things work fine and often the programs are valid and can be amazing money makers.  They also filter out the "tire kickers" from the real players.

The real question is "Are you ready to actually receive this information?"

You see, the thing is, your head has to be in the right place in order to actually "see" the value of one of these programs.  If you are at heart a "wage slave" and consider that having a job, any job, is the best thing going for you, you probably will not be very warm to one of these programs. It would mean that you would have to do something you are not comfortable with.

To actually change your situation in life
you must change You first. 

You are where you are in life because that is where your mental outlook allows you to be and that is where you are most comfortable.  To change things, you need to actually step into your area of uncomfortableness.  To have the things in life that you really want you must be willing to do things that others are not willing to do.

Are you ready to step out of the box?

If you are ready to take a look at a real opportunity that pays you every day straight into your Paypal account or by direct deposit and has NO START UP COST then give me a call at my toll-free number 877-466-8504
or drop me an e-mail at YourGoodMoneyLife@gmail.com

Talk to you soon!
Dana

New Video about Working at Home

A video by me about working from home and putting money in your Bank every day!

 

My contact info:

YourGoodMoneyLife@gmail.com

Toll Free # 877-466-8504

Is Now a Good Time to Start a Business Online?

Is Now a Good Time to Start a Business Online?

Actually, almost anytime is a "good" time to start. Some are better than others.

The OMB, in its Mid-Session Review to Congress released Friday, projects unemployment will drop gradually, to 7.7 percent in 2013, 7.3 percent in 2014, 6.7 percent in 2015, 6.2 percent in 2016, 5.7 percent in 2017 and remaining at 5.4 percent from 2018 to 2022. The national unemployment rate was last at 5.4 percent in May 2008, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. 

 Given this news and the somewhat "wild and woolly" political climate these days, the attractions of an online business are compelling.

• There are millions of people looking for an opportunity to supplement their income somehow.  Many are turning to the online arena as a solution.
• A downturn in the economy always puts extra pressure on everyone's finances. They need to generate more cash outside their normal work situation.
• Retirement funds and equity in a home have been severely impacted by the poor economy. Many people have been counting on their retirement funds to support themselves when they stopped working and now those funds are gone or significantly reduced.  Equity in houses has tanked with the real estate market crash.  Many are actually "upside down" and now owe more money than house is worth. What was once an asset has now become a liability.
• Uncertainty in the future due to political issues.  Economies historically stagnate during an election year as everyone waits with baited breath to see who gets elected and what economic policies with be put in place. 
• High speed, broadband Internet connections are becoming ubiquitous. Wireless Internet connections are everywhere. Social, shopping and entertainment is now centered around a computer and/or a mobile device. Having a "presence" online is almost mandatory for a successful business.
• Size does not matter!  With today's technology, a small, one person business with a properly designed website can hardly be distinguished from a mega-corporation .  A package including a "shopping cart" and the ability to accept credit cards makes fulfillment easy.  Many times a "drop ship" system eliminates the need to have a inventory on hand, thus eliminating a expense of the conventional brick-and-mortar establishment.
• Access to a much larger customer base is possible. The limitations (and expense) of a physical walk-in location naturally restricts your customer base to those that can come to your establishment to do business.  Anybody can shop online and never have to even leave the comfort of their home.

This list can be quite extensive and goes on and on.  I will not bore you with all of that now.  Suffice it to say that now is a good time and almost anybody can be involved in an online business program.

Building a Financial Wall - Part III

Part I 

Part II

 

Training fleas - Why you may be having a hard time of it.

If one takes the time to learn about them, fleas are amazing creatures.  They have the ability to jump 200 times the length of their own bodies!  This would be equal to a six-foot tall man jumping 900 feet.

Years ago, circus sideshow's used to have a "trained flea" act.  The interesting part was how the flea trainers trained the fleas.  They would keep the fleas in a big glass jar with a lid on it.  Now this jar was only 10 or 12 inches tall and the fleas could easily jump out if there were no lid.  But strangely enough, after a period of time, being kept in the jar with a lid, trying to jump out and continuously banging their heads on the lid, the fleas gave up.  Now, although they could easily have done so they did not even attempt to jump out even with the lid removed.  They had learned a "life lesson" that trying to jump out of the jar was just a big headache.

The analogy here is that life treats us much the same way.  If one does not take the risk of "banging oneself on the head", one won't get injured.  Stated another way, if one does not take the risk of freeing oneself from one's present situation, one will not feel pain.  Let's face it.... We humans like to avoid pain at any cost.  That includes emotional pain like rejection and failure.  It also includes financial pain like losing money.  And so we train ourselves to stay in emotional and financial bondage (the jar) and never allow ourselves to experience the rewards we could gain by jumping out of that jar.

With focus, dedication, belief, commitment and a willingness to follow a proven path you can achieve your goals in life however you have defined them.

The philosophy is simple--- if you have the desire to succeed, then you will succeed.  Don't over think this concept.  It doesn't mean the road ahead won't have a few potholes or dangerous curves along the way.  What it does mean is that if you are clear and firm in your commitment to your own success, with no if's, ands or buts, you can succeed.

The first thing you must do with this or any business for that matter, is to DECIDE to do it, no matter what you have to do or what you have to learn.
If you don't make this decision first, you will constantly be doubting or questioning yourself.  You will also not attack every problem with a "solve it" mentality.

To quote Yoda from Star Wars - "Do or do not.  There is no try."

 Make a single decision to do it, and a single decision to learn whatever you must to get effective at doing it.

Borrowing from Anthony Robbins, a fantastic motivational speaker:

The past does not equal the future - A past experience of failure can be a strong de-motivator for some people.  They can use the excuse that they tried something once before and failed at it so they never have to try again.

There you go, being that trained flea again!

Decisions shape destiny - You really must decide to do something.  Once you do, half the battle is won a you are on your road to your destiny.

Emotion creates Actions - An unwavering strong desire creates emotion.  Emotion creates attention.  Where you put your attention, you will get action.

Many years ago I was taught the mechanism called "Wish-Want-Need-Got"

• Wishes are part of fairy tales.  Life is not a fairy tale.  Wishing for something won't make it happen.
• Wanting something is a little stronger emotion but it still will not likely accomplish your desires.  As my father used to say "People in hell want ice water."  They are not likely to get it.

• Need - Need is a very powerful Motivator.  You need food, you need a place to live, you need gas for your car, clothes for the kids etc. etc.  Oddly enough, we tend to put in the action necessary to actually get the things we need.  If we need it, we somehow get it.  Turn your wishes into wants then turn your wants into needs and you will do the things necessary to get them. 

It's a fairly simple concept and mechanism but it works.  Effectively, it's a mental exercise that can pay off with huge benefits.

The 6 "needs" that drive us:

1. Certainty - We need to know the rules of the game that we are playing.
2. Uncertainty - Variety - Surprises - As they say "if winning were easy it wouldn't be a race."  Overcoming an unexpected obstacle makes winning that much sweeter.
3. Significance - the need to feel important-special.  If you feel that what you're doing is pretty trivial, it will be all that much easier to quit.
4. Connection - Connect with your clients/customers on an emotional level.  Engage, be real.
5. Growth - Like anything else in nature, if you are not growing you're dying.
6. Contribute beyond yourself.  This is a big one!  If your entire focus is all on you, people will soon recognize that and become rather uncooperative, making your struggle that much more difficult.  If on the other hand you focus on what you can do for them they will be much more open to your ideas.

So how does one focus?  

1. Get a clear and compelling vision of what you want. Maybe you just need an extra $500 a month to make ends meet.  Maybe your need is to build that financial wall around you and your family and actually be free to live your life as you choose.
2. Get a map - I'm not talking about if physical map.  By map I mean a proven path to follow, laid down by somebody who is already followed the path successfully. You may want to call it a business plan.
3. Get a Mentor - This is extremely important.  A Mentor is someone that has been successful in the field that is willing and able to take the time to train you.  If you talk to any successful person, you will likely find that they had a Mentor to guide them, at least when they first started.

 Using MLM or "Network Marketing" To achieve financial success. Building that Financial Wall.

Multilevel marketing or network marketing as it is sometimes called has a proven track record.  It is simply one of the most effective means of moving products to consumers that has ever been devised.  Yes, there have been instances where this business plan has been perverted and used by less than ethical people to scam others out of their money.  This in itself does not invalidate this method of doing business.  As in any other business, there are Jerks out there that can ruin anything.  Have you ever met a crooked businessman?  Does that mean every businessman is crooked?  Does that mean that every business plan is flawed?  I think the answer is no.

This business plan has been around a long long time.  It has been proven to be legal in the Federal court system.  30 years ago, a large multilevel company was sued by the federal government.  The Government tried to assert that multilevel marketing was a "pyramid" scheme and was therefore illegal. The Federal government lost.  After a 3 Year Court battle, the company proved that multilevel marketing was a legal business. Today, this company is still around and is one of the biggest multilevel marketing companies in the world.

The critical point that the entire case turned upon was whether actual products were sold to consumers.  As long as products were moving along the supply chain and made it into the hands of consumers, it was considered a legal business.  

There have been countless businesses over the years that attempted to pervert this network marketing or multilevel marketing concept to their own ends.  Their main focus was on recruiting.  Once someone was recruited into the business (which usually included a large cash outlay), they were trained to attempt to recruit others and only lip service was paid to the fact that there was a product to be sold, if there even were any.  

This is a classic "pyramid scheme" where the people on the top made a boatload of money off the fresh meat that came in on the bottom.  One's only hope for success was to recruit, recruit, recruit and get off the bottom level yourself in the hopes that you could partake in some of the juicy profits that were happening at the top. Just to be clear, these schemes are highly illegal today.

To be totally clear here I must disclose that I have an agenda as it were.  I am involved personally in multilevel marketing with one of the oldest and strongest companies in the world.  Back in the early 80s, I gave Amway a shot.  After three years of effort and a lot of personal growth, I ended up quitting.  

Important to note here, the business didn't fail, I QUIT!  I just couldn't seem to make it happen and I was killing myself trying.  The problem was, at that time, there was no really effective way that I could find to move these very good products into the hands of consumers in enough volume to make a go of it.

So now, 30 years later, the means to reach out to potential consumers has been placed in our hands.  It's called the Internet!  Now I am no longer dependent on where I live, how many friends I have or how many family members I can badger into buying products from me.  Through the use of the Internet, I now have a viable, online business that I run from my home that can effectively reach anyone in the world.  The company I'm working with (not Amway) has been around for over 30 years and has annual sales in excess of $4 billion.  They operate in 84 countries and over the years have produced thousands of millionaires from their pool of distributors.  I intend to be one!  Will you join me?  My mentor and I would be more than happy to teach you how to do this and hold your hand while you take your first steps and for as long as you need it. 

I'm having a blast.  You to deserve to "Fire your Boss" and join me in a business that can produce a long-term, 6 figure residual income that you only have to earn once and it's yours forever.  It even becomes part of your estate and can be willed to your heirs.  Now that's a financial wall!

If you are truly serious, not just curious, would like to make an extra $500 to $2000 a month part time or a 6 figure residual income working full time in your own online business go here:  Your Future

If you are just curious, you're welcome to take a look but contact me when you are serious about your financial future and actually wish to do something about it.

Dana

Building that financial wall - Part 2

Building a financial wall - Part 2

What is a "financial wall"?

A financial wall is a metaphor for a physical wall. A physical wall separates and protects. A financial wall does the same thing. It protects your lifestyle and your family from the vagaries of economic flux. Once it is established, effectively you are insulated from economic changes that would normally affect the typical wage earner.  It is income that is now permanent and ongoing, often called "residual income".

Are you a wage slave?

Myself included, most people find themselves only a few paychecks away from a shopping cart.  Due to the protracted downturn in the economy worldwide, most of us have exhausted any reserves and may have also maxed out any credit lines we may have had.  At this point, there is no safety net!  If you stumble for whatever reason, you can find yourself in pretty dire circumstances.

• Lose your job?
• Suffer a medical condition either short or long term that impact your ability to earn a wage?
• Suffer a vehicle accident that disables your transportation and therefore your ability to get to work?
• Illness or death in the family that requires you to take a protracted period of time off from work?

There are many, many reasons that can adversely impact your ability to make a living and pay your bills. With no financial reserves and no "financial wall" there are not a lot of options.

How does one build a financial wall?

Building a financial wall, in its simplest form, is merely putting in the work needed to create a residual income stream that no longer depends on your physical ability to produce it. For some people, this means "investing".  Investing means taking money that you do have and putting it to work. This can be purchasing Real Estate, rehabbing it and then renting it out or simply "flipping" properties. This particular method is quite popular these days with all of the foreclosed and "distressed" housing available on the market.  Nice work if you can get it but it requires money. Money that most people don't have.

Another way might be investing in the stock or bond market called "equities" or shares of stock.  Obviously, given the current volatile nature of the stock market and the economy, this could quickly turn a millionaire into a "thousandaire". Unless one is highly skilled, is very experienced and has a knowledgeable broker, this is not a great way to go either.

Yet another way is to get all entrepreneurial and start your own business. This particular avenue is quite popular these days.  In many cases it's a last-ditch effort by an out of work professional to salvage something from their corporate experience. In some cases it's a dream they've always had to be in business for themselves and to "fire their boss".

If you have a useful skill or trade, why not turn it into a business? This can be a great idea if......... and it's a big if, if you actually do your due diligence and find out what it really takes to start and operate this kind of the business until it becomes profitable.  Statistically most new businesses fail within the first two years.  The most common reason is lack of capital to keep it afloat until it starts making money and secondly, lack of knowledge on the part of the business owner on how to actually run the business.

The second part, lack of knowledge, can be overcome by plugging into a pre-established business system such as a franchise.  Here, the business plan and all of the operating steps have already been worked out.  You just need to add money, sometimes lots of it.  These days, it costs something like $1 million to open a McDonald's or other big-name franchise.  Smaller franchises like a UPS store or other small business still run into the many thousands of dollars start up costs.  That option is off the table if you don't have that money.

How about an online business that can be started for little or no start up costs? These do exist (I'm running one right now) and the start up costs can be $500 or less. The main drawback to these is that there are literally hundreds of thousands of "opportunities" on the Internet. Unfortunately, a high percentage of them are scams and the only one that makes money is the scammer.

In my experience trying to "get in on the bottom floor of the latest hot thing" is usually doomed to failure.  A true "bottom floor" opportunity is rarely offered over the Internet to the general masses.  If it is a new, groundbreaking technology or idea, they will get their funding through Venture Capitalist investment companies. The latest million-dollar idea is not going to be handed to an average Joe for only $49.95 start up costs. Get over it!

All of this being said, there are genuine and viable business opportunities on the Internet.  Multilevel marketing is one of them.  This tried and true business model has been around for a long time and it works. It provides everything one needs to get actual business started.

• Low initial start up costs typically.
• A proven, duplicatable business plan.
• Mentors/trainers to help you get started.
• A solid, proven product line that people want to buy.
• A proven track record of success for many an "average Joe" making it work for them.

As mentioned in a previous article  Starting your own business - Are you the reason it didn't work? the primary reason these types of businesses fail is not because the business model or the products were bad, it's because you didn't do it properly.  You didn't change you!  What you've been doing up to this point in your life is the reason you are where you are in life financially or otherwise. If you are not willing to change, willing to learn new things, willing to be teachable and willing to duplicate a proven system you will likely fail. If on the other hand you're willing to take an honest look at where you are right now and make a decision to change, these multilevel businesses have a proven track record of success. Are you willing to change? Are you willing to accept guidance from somebody who is actually done it? Are you ready to fire your boss?

If you wish further information on a more personal level about this area please feel free to contact me through the comments section.
If you are truly serious about firing your boss, just go here>Your Future

Going into business for yourself.  How realistic is this and what are the pitfalls?

With the World's economy, including that of the United States in somewhat of a shambles, many long-term unemployed are exploring options.  These options may include retraining such as going back to school and finishing that degree they started 10 years ago or seeking specific training and/or certification in a specialized field.  Another option is to fire up one's entrepreneurial efforts and start their own business.  In previous articles I have briefly explored some of the pluses and minuses of pursuing some of these options.  Today, I wish to expand a bit on that topic.

"Brick-and-mortar" or online?

Having actually operated businesses in both venues (and still do), I have a few thoughts on the subject.

Starting up your own business can be challenging.  Doing so in a physical location has its inherent limitations and extra expenses.  A physical location, traditionally called a brick and mortar business referring to the fact that there is a physical structure at a fixed location, is by its very nature  very locally oriented.  One's customer base tends to be people that visit your storefront and make physical cash and carry purchases.  This often brings with it the need to interact with the local political entity and it's many rules and regulations such as parking requirements, ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) accessibility, liability and other insurances for the physical property and its contents etc., etc. If one is selling a physical product, there is also the logistics of stocking product, moving product and displaying product to deal with.  All of this can require a considerable expenditure of money before the doors even open and one customer even sets foot in your business.  This may be one of the contributing factors to the statistical fact that most new startup businesses fail within the first two years.  These failures are typically attributed to two things; lack of capital and a lack of knowledge.  Getting a business off the ground on a shoestring is almost impossible to do.  Believe me, I've tried and failed more than once! 

On the other hand, a "virtual" business, operated online, often eliminates many of the start up hurdles and cost one encounters with a fixed location.  Since one is not typically delivering a product to a customer at the business location, things such as parking and ADA access and business licenses are not an issue.  An offsetting factor can be shipping and handling of the physical product and getting it to your customers.  This can involve some considerable expense should you choose to handle this yourself. 

This aspect of selling products can also be handled in a better way.  It's called "drop shipping" in which someone else actually warehouses, handles and ships the product to your customers for you.  One can simply offer the product or service online through a website with a shopping cart and then automatically forward the orders to the "fulfillment center" to take care of the physical aspects of getting a product to the customers. 

There are innumerable variations and combinations of these schemes.  There are many "turnkey" options available to open a store.  Amazon and eBay come to mind.  Both of these retailing giants offer one the ability to open your own branded store and host it within their overall system and website.  Since this is a turnkey package deal, one does not even need to actually create one's own website.  It's all included in the package.

Are you a business owner or are you owned by the business?

What is the difference between an entrepreneur and a business owner? 

Entrepreneur -

A definition: a person who organizes and manages any enterprise, especially a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk.

This standard dictionary definition does not really paint an accurate picture in my view.  The same definition could be used for "business owner" as well since they perform the same functions.  In my view, a true entrepreneur is already looking at the endgame when they start the business.  They have an "exit strategy".  Few modern entrepreneurs have the intention of starting a business and then dying in the traces 30 years down the road.  They are not following their fathers business model.  They have a game plan which includes researching their markets, nailing down proper funding, "single handing" the functions of the business as they work out the kinks and then gradually passing off control (called delegation) to someone else and then stepping away and starting the process again. 

Some of the most successful business people one hears about these days are essentially "serial entrepreneurs". They have started businesses, gotten them running smoothly and then moved onto a new game.  The whole point from the beginning was to get the business going and train someone to take over.  Success is a journey, not necessarily something one achieves and then stops.

If one becomes bogged down in the everyday minutia of running the business and trying to micromanage every aspect, the business owns you!  If your business plan did not include replacing yourself, you have essentially just paid a lot of money for a job.  Was that your intention?

Leveraging time

What the heck does that mean?  By applying the concept of leverage to business and career success, you can, with a little thought, accomplish very much more than you can without it. Without leverage, you may work very hard, but your rewards are limited by the hours you put in. With leverage, you can break this connection and, in time, achieve very much more.

Time Leverage

Using the leverage of time is the most fundamental strategy for success. There are only so many hours in a day that you can work. If you use only your own time, you can achieve only so much. If you leverage other people's time, you can increase productivity to an extraordinary extent.

To leverage YOUR OWN time.

    Practice effective time management. Eliminate unnecessary activities, and focus your effort on the things that really matter.
    As part of this, learn how to prioritize, so that you focus your energy on the activities that give the greatest return for the time invested.
    Use goal setting to think about what matters to you in the long term, set clear targets, and motivate yourself to achieve those targets.

To leverage other people's time.

    Learn how to delegate work to other people.
    Train and empower others (through team building).
    Bring in experts and consultants to cover skill or knowledge gaps.
    Outsource non-core tasks to people with the experience to do them more efficiently.

Providing that you do things properly, the time and money that you invest in leveraging other people's time is usually well spent. Remember, though, that you'll almost always have to "pay" up front in some way in order to reap the longer-term benefits of using leverage.

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Starting Your Own Business. Are you the reason it didn't work?

Nothing will change until YOU change.

It has been said many times over; "Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is a workable definition for insanity."

Nothing will change in your life until you make a decision to change yourself and do something differently than what you have been doing. You are where you are in your life because that's where the things you have done and the decisions you have made have put you.  

Are you broke?  Do you have a job but hate it?  Are you unemployed?  Are you driving the car you want to drive or living in the house you want to live in?  Are you saving money for retirement?  Fairly simple questions aren't they?  For most people, the answer is NO!  The real question that needs to be asked is "Why am I in this position?"

 Excuses-Excuses-Excuses

Yes, yes, we have all heard all the excuses.  "I need a better education."  "It's the economy!"  "My boss hates me!"  "It takes too much money to start my own business."  "I've thought about starting my own business but all my friends said that I couldn't do it."  I could fill pages and pages with the excuses I have heard.  When push comes to shove, they are just that, EXCUSES!  

It's only human nature to try to blame something or someone else when things go wrong.  Remember, when you point a finger at something else, there are three fingers pointing back at you!  Majority Rules!  You, my friend, are the real problem.  You can't fix a car with broken tools.  You can't fix your life if you are broken.  So the first place to start fixing your life is fixing yourself.

If you don't fix yourself, nothing will change.

 Self-evaluation is often uncomfortable. People around you, and life in general, do a fine job at beating us down.  Why should we participate by doing it to ourselves?  Because if you don't, nothing will change!  When it comes down to it, YOU are the central figure in your life.  What you do affects every thing else in your life. It's not being selfish or self-centered to focus on yourself and what you are doing.  It's survival!  If you don't survive well, others that are connected to you will not survive well either.  Be it coworkers, your family, your friends or just people in general, if you are doing poorly it impacts everyone else in some way. On the other hand, if you are successful and thriving, it benefits those around you.  

When you are doing well, you are upbeat and excited about life.  The people that you come in contact with can be positively effected by this. If you have money to spend, it benefits the businesses you patronize and the economy in general.  Being upbeat and excited is like a beacon on a dark night.  It draws people to you and lifts their spirits. It provides people with an example that one can win at life.  Wouldn't you like to be that example?  You can be!

Okay I'm ready - How do I start?

 

The first thing you should do is to look at where you really are.  Strip away the social veneer and really look at where you are in your life.  This establishes a starting point so to speak.  Without a starting point to measure against, how would one know if any progress is being made?

The next thing is to decide where you would like to be.  Call it a target or a goal.  Whatever it is, it's something you want to move toward.  Don't be overly concerned at this point about how you're going to achieve that goal or target.  That part will be discussed a little further on.

 

 

Wish - Want - Need - Got

 

Consider this concept: 

Wish; This is something you would "sort of like to have."  It would be nice, but it is unlikely you will put in the effort needed to get it.  As my father used to say "If wishes were horses, beggars would ride."

Want; This is something you would really like to have. This might be attainable but it's going to take some work.

Need;  A "Need" is something you are much more likely to put in the effort to attain.  "I need to eat" or "I need to put gas in my car or I won't make it to work" or "I need to pay my rent or I will be living on the street."  

It's amazing how it works.  Needs some how get accomplished.  Wishes and Wants are less likely to happen.

So what's the message here?  Turning your wishes and wants into needs.  It's a "mental" adjustment, that's all.  It's as simple as that, turn your wishes and wants into needs.  When you turn them into needs, you'll figure out how to get them. 

"Dream Building"

The goals or targets that you set should be real to you.  They should be something that you really need.  

Go-ahead, start dreaming.  But don't just do it in your head.  Make it real, write it down on paper, start collecting pictures of the things you really want.  Make a craft project out of it if you will.  Get yourself a poster board and start cutting pictures out of magazines and sticking them on the board.  Find pictures of the exact car that you would really like to be driving.  Pictures of vacation spots you would like to go to.  Pictures of the house you would like to live in.  Pictures of anything you want.  Be detailed and definite.  If you want a red BMW of a certain model, find that exact picture.  Remember, these are your "wants" that you're going to be turning into needs.  A picture of something "sort of like" the thing you want is not good enough.  It needs to be the exact same thing to work its magic.  

So..... where are we now?  By doing a sincere and honest self-evaluation, we have established our starting point. (Call it "Point A".)

By doing some dream building and then making those dreams real to you by finding the pictures of those exact things, (call this point B) you have now established the parameters of your journey.  Now you know where you are and where you're going.  Next comes the road map.  

To be continued..........

Where is the employment and business growth?

Which industries are growing and which are shrinking?

 Due to various factors, some industries grow while others shrink. This is important for those still in school and contemplating a career.  Training to be a buggy whip artisan these days does not hold much promise!

I recently read an article on LinkedIn that had a great graphic representing the industries that are growing or shrinking.

Quite enlightening!  Many of the solid, tired and true areas are shrinking. MY belief is that is somewhat due to the aging population. The areas of Health Care, Wellness and other related industries are projecting pretty strong growth.

What is to be learned from this?  If you are looking for employment, training for a future career or looking to move out of one of the more traditional, but shrinking industries, this is where you should be looking.

I myself have launched an online business in the Wellness field and it's growing rapidly. Proof in the pudding so to speak!

My Adventures in the On-line Marketing games

Recently, I have been exploring several opportunities in the online business area. There are thousands of these available.  In fact, it you happen to put in an email address asking for more information, you will get deluged with hundreds of offers by email and phone.  If you do request more info, be prepared to some heavy traffic. 

Given this result, I would strongly suggest that you create a new email address specifically for this type of activity. Grab a new gmail, Yahoo, or other email address.  These are free and you can have as many as three gmail addresses that you can be signed into at the same time.  Just enable multiple login feature.

With the high unemployment rampant in this this and other countries, many are turning to home based businesses as a solution.  Thousands are making it work.  Unfortunately, millions more are getting scammed out of money they can little afford to loose.  Sorting out the real deals from the scams is tough.

Scams, Scams and more Scams!

There is no end to the amount of scams you will be exposed to if you choose to pursue this course of action.  There ARE good, workable online businesses out there but they are often masked by the "noise" that the scammers make.  Strident claims of "instant money for no work" are just blatantly stupid. If you fall for one, you will be sucked into the downward spiral to oblivion where all stupid people eventually end up. You can make money but you have to throw your ethics out the window and sink to the level of the scammers and become one of them yourself. Do you really want to go there?

The usual mechanism is to sign up "for free" and then get pounded by relentless "up-sell" and promotion to sign on to yet another tie-in offer to make even more money. The more money part is for THEM, not you, unfortunately. 

I recently stuck my toe into the water as an experiment on one "opportunity" that looked interesting and doable.  By the time I had had enough of the increasingly strident demands that I step up to the next level of the program "where the real money was" I had spent about 30 minutes wading through pages and pages of their "long form sales letter" pitch.  The capper was when I was going to be forced sign up for yet another "affiliate marketing" tie-in program that I had absolutely no interest in doing, in order to continue.  At this point I stopped and sent a request for my money back, including a rather scathing comment about there deceptive practices.  They quickly refunded my money ($19.95) so that at least was a good mark in their favor.  I sort of expected that this test was going to go this way so I was not really surprised that it did.

So, what is a person to do?

There are good programs out there, I'm running at lest two of them right now and I am making money.  Yes, there was some minimal investment to really make it work. There really is "No Free Lunch" and sometimes one needs to fuel the fire a bit to get it going. Ultimately, I got an ROI (in a pretty short time actually) that was many times my initial investment. WIN!  It's not a lot of money but a few hundred dollars a week is nothing to sneeze at in these tough times.  For some, it's the difference between paying a bill or talking to the bill collectors. If you are just sitting around at home being depressed because you are unemployed, its worth a shot. A little money is much better than NO money. Just be careful and read all the fine print and look out for the "gotchas" buried way in the back or the Terms of Service etc.

Be Careful!

Do a search on "home based business scams" and you will be surprised. In my research I ran across a few sites that "rated" home based businesses.  The one I discusses above was top rated on one of them yet turned out to be pretty scammy itself.  I strongly suspect that at least some of the "rating" sites are scams themselves that are simply set up to mask the scammers.  Like many "review" sites, the reviewers are paid to write positive reviews.  What value does that type of review have? NONE in my view. This even happens on well known sites like CNET for computer and technology products and software.

The bottom line is that one can make money on the internet, millions do every day. If you are careful and do your due diligence and research before plunking down your money or signing up, you can find one that works for you.