All Entries Tagged With: "entrepreneur"

The Power of Personal Branding For Entrepreneurs

"People don’t join companies. People join people" are the illustrious words of Michael Dlouhy, founder of Mentoring for Free, an organization that provides entrepreneur ideas for entrepreneurs in the network marketing industry by teaching them the right way to approach their prospects. I agree whole heartedly with these words.  

Network Marketing, or Multi-level Marketing, is among one of the highest trends in the work-at-home industry. Network Marketing allows entrepreneurs to earn an impressive income by building an organization of people. Through network marketing entrepreneurs not only earn income through building an organization of like-minded individuals, but they have the opportunity to promote and sell products for various companies in an effort to be compensated for royalties on the services of those products.

 

No matter how impressive the         compensation plan, it is all about              who is giving the presentation…

Unfortunately, many individuals who are being recruited into companies are being told to sell, sell, sell & recruit, recruit, recruit. Without any prior experience in sales or recruiting, it has become frustrating for newcomers in this industry because of a lack of training. Granted, many companies do provide their organization with a game plan of how to recruit and sale by getting everyone on the weekly conference calls and telling them to make a list of their closest friends and family, give them the sales pitch and "close the sell."

Many of the top notch gurus in the network marketing industry live by the sell, sell, sell & recruit, recruit, recruit rule. Their is such a thing as personal branding or building personal relationships with prospects. The first thing that prospects look for when joining a network marketing company is who is doing the presentation. The prospects will query upon this seemingly insignificant but very substancial question. Which leads back to the first statement in this article:

People don’t companies. People Join People

No matter how impressive the compensation plan, it is all about who is giving the presentation. The compensation plan falls a few points down the list of things that prospects are looking for when joining you. And while the numbers can be very intriguing, the compensation plan is not the ultimate concern. When you first pick up the phone and get acquainted with the prospects, they are subliminally pondering questions such as: Is this someone I like? Can I count on this person? Can I trust this person? Can this person help me to be successful?

Many times network marketing companies will tell all of the newcomers to 3 way their prospects in with the upline due to the lack of experience on the newcomer’s behalf. This is not such a good idea. It has been said that much of the deciding factor for the prospect joining you is your ability to answer their questions personally.

Avenues of Personal Branding

I make mention of MySpace quite a bit in my blogs because I see Myspace as a great way to market yourself. I personally use MySpace and I get a great response from people inquiring about what I do. Often enough, the people I have encountered on MySpace are already in a business and are trying to sell me on something or they are hungry for something and they are looking for tips and ideas on how to become an entrepreneur, which was my inspiration for starting this blog.

Many times I will just ask them personal questions, inquire about their background, or ask what it is they are looking to do in an attempt to determine what to recommend. Ultimately, MySpace is a great networking avenue to communicate with other like minded individuals and build long lasting relationships.

Online blogging is a great resource for putting out information for readers to view what you have to say, but it is also a great avenue for building relationships with your audience. By placing quality content on your site and staying consistent and publishing blogs at least 2-3 per week, you will gain an audience to your blog which will in turn gain you exposure to more prospects looking for something that you have to offer.

Personally I don’t offer my business opportunity on this blog site. I choose to focus solely on publishing quality, helpful content to entrepreneurs who are looking to take their business to another level. In fact, I can’t count the number of responses I get from people who visit my blog site expecting to get a sales pitch or be sold on something. The very response I get is "Why don’t you make mention of your MLM company at all on your blog?" People are literally surprised that I don’t mention a company, a product or a compensation plan of any sort.

I must admit, I do use some form of monetization on my blog but it is very minimum, and my blog content is not centered around those products. I do want to stress that the purpose of my blog site is not to sell individuals on a company but to provide useful information and tools for entrepreneurs.

Remember focusing on building long lasting relationships in your organization is a must. For more tips on how to succeed in your network marketing venue visit JarrodClark.SuccessIn10Steps.com and download the free e-book Success In 10 Steps by Michael Dlouhy.

To Your Success,

Jarrod Clark

Tips for Starting A New Business

A wise man once said "Perseverance is a great element of success; if you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate you are sure to wake up somebody."

I was having a very intriguing conversation with a close friend today. I will not disclose names as to protect the privacy of the individual but this person was talking about their dream of starting a business. As I was conversing with this friend, I realized the fire and passion that stirs up in an individual when making mention of their dreams and aspirations.

In fact I was so motivated, to say the least, in listening to the passion, drive and determination that was radiating through our conversation that I decided to write an article on this topic. Sometime ago, I learned that there is great power in dreaming big. There is a necessity in having a goal and keeping that flame lit and not letting it fade away.

I have gotten many responses in various venues such as myspace from people who desire to start a business as well. Then it dawn on me, there are so many people who have an entrepreneurial spirit and want to do something passionate outside of a 9-5, but they don’t know how or where to start. Then on the other hand there are some people who with a snap of the finger know exactly what they want to do,  they have the fire and the drive but for them it is a matter of when to start.

I am a firm believer in searching deep down inside and finding out what you like to do. Previously I wrote an article entitled: "Find Your Passion…It Will Change Your Life." In this article I went on to explain the idea of discovering and focusing on your passion and allowing that passion to be a window for success.

Success can be described in many ways. Many would relate success to the idea of being financially independent. Others might  relate it to achieving a goal that may not necessarily be money driven. For many, success can be just the idea of taking one step after another and not stopping until you reach the ultimate goal, (in other words, having many small goals inside of the ultimate goal).

The Ultimate Goal

Personally, I like the big picture, I like being able to envision the ultimate goal. However, I also like setting small achievable goals within the ultimate goal. There is something about having a goal to achieve, it gives you something to look forward to. You should strive to never be complacent always be striving for something better.

The ultimate goal that I’m relating to in this article is the idea of owning a successful business. Although the ultimate goal is to own a successful business indeed, I believe it would be a good idea to set smaller goals within the ultimate goal.

Start Small

Many people who want to own a business may be intimidated by owning a business. It is safe to say that many people believe that owning a business entitles them to take on a big executive type, franchise, CEO type role.

It’s a good idea for aspiring entrepreneurs to map out a plan of the business. For instance, maybe you have discovered a passion in arts and crafts. After discovering that passion and deciding that you would like to expand it to an arts and craft profession, take out the time and map out a plan for that what it is you are looking to achieve.

By asking yourself a few questions you will come up with a well thought out detailed plan for your business. Such questions to ask are:

 

• What is the mission for the business?  
• What are you looking to achieve in your business?
  
• Perhaps you are looking to get into a business of selling arts and crafts, ask yourself what venues am I looking to sell my products in? Do I want to market and sell products online or do I want to go brick and mortar.
  

These are a few questions you want to ask in an attempt to taking the steps to achieve the ultimate goal.

After mapping out a plan for the business it would be a good idea at this point to study ways of putting your collected ideas into action. You can do this by doing a search on how to start a business. For instance, if you are looking to market your arts and craft business online, you may want to do a study on what avenues are available to promote your products. 

A personal business website is a great way to market your products and promote yourself. There are other markets such as ebay and amazon. Many successful entrepreneurs have come about through marketing products through ebay and amazon but you have to keep in mind the cost of selling on ebay verses owning your own website. You might want to do some comparison studies between the two and weigh the options of which would be better, to market on ebay and amazon  or through a website.

Cost of Starting a Business

Another overwhelming factor that plays a part in taking the first step to start a small business is the cost of starting a business. Although it may vary, depending on what type of business you’re looking to start, most entrepreneurs will look to spend anywhere between $1,000 to $5 or $10,000 to start a business, but again you will want to do some studying for yourself to find out what it will cost start your own business. The biggest part in discovering the cost of starting a business is having a detailed plan of what you’re looking to achieve, I can’t stress enough that without a detailed plan it will be hard to come up with an exact estimate.

I choose to look at, the business start up cost as an investment. For instance, buying a home is one of the greatest investments you can make because of equity that can be built from it. $1,000 or $10,000 is a lot of money I would agree, but it is a worthwhile investment because one the benefits of starting a small business is your ability to earn a 100% return on your investment. There are many government grants for starting a new small business or business loans in which you can apply for but make sure you study up on the right type of grant or loan because there are many scams out there.

Taking the First Step

As I mentioned earlier, there are some people who want to own a business but don’t know what they want to do, but on the other hand there are others who know exactly what they want to do but for them its a matter of when to start.

I know it takes time in getting the funds of starting a business, but the first step to achieving the goal isn’t in paying the business cost and opening the doors of your business, the first step is in developing a business plan. You will be surprised at the encouragement you feel once you get plan mapped out on paper. Once you see the overview of your business on paper you will feel the sudden urge to take the next step in getting your business started. By doing this you will be on your way to the success that you’ve always yearned for.

To your success,

Jarrod Clark

Persistence Is The Key, Remember your “Why”

Two to three weeks is what it takes to make or break a habit, they say. What happens when the excitement dies down. It’s so easy to get caught in the excitement of a new business. As an entrepreneur, I have to stay in my zone and not let the excitement of the business die down. As anything that we put our minds to do gets old, so will owning a business. Many business owners will get discouraged, at first, when they don’t see the profits coming in.

One thing that is key for many entrepreneurs is write down your "Why" when making the decision to start your own business. Could it be financial security? Could it be to have more free time? Whatever your reason for seeking out entrepreneurship, take out the time to write down your why. Having your why is essential because it is so encouraging to go back and look at your reason for starting your business venture.

It is important to remain encouraged and be persistent. One of my favorite saying is consistency creates results. It take more than two or three weeks of doing something to see results. I would relate owning your own business to making a decision to have a child. When you have a child you have to take so much into consideration. You have to ask yourself, am I ready? Am I at a place in my life where I can devote a lot of time and attention to this business? Am I ready to make financial investments into this business?

 If you have to follow-up on your customer base or prospect be diligent and following up with them consistently. Have a set plan every day of what you will be doing and how long you will be doing it. Although, in network marketing for instance, many things happen spontaneously. You will get calls from your prospects or your customers and sometimes you have to stop and take the call. It’s important to keep in mind to have a set plan for your time. Being organized and managing your time well will cut down on much of the stress of business operation.

Many entrepreneurs will realize the responsibility of owning a business only once they get well into the business and will become overwhelmed. I am here to encourage you to be persistent. Keep your why in a place where you can easily access it. After looking over your why you will be reminded of why you made the decision to start your business venture. Do not allow your efforts to get laxed. Make a conscious decision to work diligently in every area and avenue of your business and keep in mind the goal that you are trying to achieve. By keeping a good mind set and staying positive you will see much progress and then will you achieve your ultimate goal.

To your success,

Jarrod Clark

Why Should You Host Your Blog?

I have had a couple scares with my blog and I know the horrible feeling of loosing all of the blogs. Fortunately for me, the point at where I lost my blogs, I was within only the first month of starting my blog, so I didn’t loose much but the feeling was nonetheless very uneasy. The fault was none other than my own, due to an attempt to upgrade my blog site. I apparently tampered with some of the configurations in the control panel of my blog hosting site. In other words I’ve done something that I shouldn’t have done.

This blog is a spin off from a previous blog post of mine, "The Benefit of Backing Up Your Blog." In the risk of sounding redundant, I will skip the whole reprimand about how you should save a back-up copy of all your blog posts. Although it’s a good idea, I will not elaborate on that idea. I will allow you to take a look at that blog post to get an understanding on why you should back-up your blog and the benefit of doing so.

It was from this mistake that I learned to seek guidance next time I make an attempt to upgrade my blog. I realize that the learning process of developing a blog is in experimenting and trying things out. All of the changes that are done to my blog are done by me, I don’t have a webmaster.

That said, WordPress is a very safe and convenient resource for blogging. And hosting your WordPress blog is the best thing that you can do. If I can use an analogy to describe the importance of hosting your blog site, I would say that the difference between hosting your blog and using a non-hosted blog is the difference between owning an insured restaurant verses owning an un-insured restaurant.

If your restaurant burns down overnight the insurance will pay to have it rebuilt, however if you own an un-insured restaurant, which most restaurant owners are too smart not to have insurance, the cost of the rebuilding will be your out of pocket expense, thats if you decide to rebuild.

There are many people who own free, non-hosted, blog sites and there are some very successful non-hosted blogs with very worthwhile content on them. Blogger.com is free to sign up, however Blogger.com is an example of a non-hosted site. It doesn’t allow outside hosting capabilities. There are many stories of people who have had there content taken down by the Blogger.com due to unknown reasons. This is where the benefit of hosting your blog comes in hand.

WordPress is free to use as well and it allows you to sign up for free. However, the great thing about WordPress is that it allows external hosting capabilities.  By personally hosting your blog through an external hosting site, you have total control over your blog. Where as with blogger for instance, the company has the option of removing your blogs at their discretion. When you host your own WordPress blog, you have total control of your blogs, WordPress can’t remove content from an external hosted blog.

I will say this in Blogger’s defense, there have been many successful blogs that have come about through Blogger. Many blogs have been in existence for many years now through Blogger. Blogger won’t remove your blog for no reason, they have terms and conditions that they have to abide by. If you breach the terms and conditions they will remove your blog site. If you own a blog through Blogger, make sure you read the terms and conditions and make sure you are abiding by them.

I would encourage you that if you are into serious blogging, it is a good idea to host your blog site. It gives you the assurance and total control of the existence of your blogs. I personally use Hostgator to host my blog and I pay about $7.98 per month and it is well worth it. I simply view it as as added insurance for my blog. To find a list of web hosting sites go to webhostingfever.com.

To Your Success,

Jarrod Clark

Writer’s Block Anyone?

Formulating a topic for today’s article isn’t easy and it isn’t a come by night thing. Many writers will tell you it’s not easy to just sit down at your PC and start typing award winning articles. In fact as a beginning blogger topics can seem redundant.

Yes it is true that even some of the greatest article writers have the case of writer’s block. However, many of the greatest writers have taken out time in the beginning to discipline themselves to write everyday about anything. As an aspiring blogger, I can voucher for the fact that beginning stages can be difficult when it comes to forking up the topics that will feed your audience and make a difference in their lives. It has been said that if you do at least some writing everyday you will improve the right side of your brain, also known as the creative part. It doesn’t have to be a full blown out article and it doesn’t have to be perfect. I’ve learn that if you try to produce a perfect article on the first draft you will only frustrate yourself and it doesn’t help your creativity.

 Just Write

 When you sit down and write, do just that… WRITE! It doesn’t have to be formatted correctly or it doesn’t have to have to perfect structure. You might even have grammatical errors and spelling mistakes, don’t focus on those, yet just write about a main idea and focus on that idea. I am a musician and I remember the days when I first started playing drums, it wasn’t something that I learned over night. Making music, or any other craft for that matter, is a skill that has to be practiced. It takes time to improve on your craft.

 It’s A Craft Too…

That said, blogging is something that requires practice. Writing is a craft such as being a musician, painting masterpieces or anything that takes skill. It takes practice and diligence to become a pro blogger. Mozart was a great genius and composer but nonetheless, for the genius that he was, he didn’t become the skilled musician that he was overnight, it took practice, discipline and diligence to achieve that level of success.

 

 

I want to encourage you and to take out sometime to write just a little everyday. Don’t feel like you have to finished the article, you can write a half article if that’s all you can fork up, just write something. Don’t attempt to publish your first draft. Come back the next day and try to improve on that first draft. As the day progresses, write down blogging topics that come to your mind. It doesn’t have to be all business oriented it could be personal topics, topics centered around politics anything. When as you get better at blogging about anything, your creativity will open up with content and topics in ways you never deemed possible.

To your success,

Jarrod Clark

MySpace Entrepreneurs Growing Their Friends List