Category: Business

  • Addiction Marketing

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    “Addiction Marketing” is a phrase I coined a few years back while waiting in line for my drink at Starbucks. I was observing the mass of people who like lost explorers in the desert rushing for an oasis seemed to be desperate for their daily (if not more frequent) fix of caffeine. It was at that moment that I realized that one of Starbucks key business drivers, if not their most critical business driver, was that Starbucks sells products that cater to peoples addictive tendencies. What Starbucks has done better than many other addictive marketers is that they also make it cool and trendy to succumb to your addiction. In today’s blog post I’ll examine addiction as a key success factor in business.

    When I was in school economics professors would lecture on using supply and demand drivers to create a business advantage…business professors would evangelize the strengths of the recurring value and stability of consumable products…marketing professors would espouse the benefits of relationship marketing, but nowhere do I recall being able to register for a class on addiction. However if you think about “Addiction Marketing” you’ll quickly realize what the “media pushers” on Madison Avenue and the product development and marketing gurus in the corporate world have known for years…all people have their unique set of vulnerabilities that if creatively and effectively exploited will lead to strong sales and powerful brands.

    If you read the business news over the weekend you’ll have noticed that the Indian government is attempting to force Coca Cola and Pepsi to divulge the formulas to their popular beverage products. One of the charges being upheld in the Indian High Court is that Coke and Pepsi products are addictive and unhealthy…Hmmm…Examine the following representative list of successful businesses and/or industries and come to your own conclusions as to whether these businesses or industries prey on the addictions of consumers world-wide to generate their revenue:

    Las Vegas – The tagline “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” caters to virtually every possible addiction under the sun…Sin City lives up to its reputation.

    Tag Body Spray – Tag’s recent commercial campaign has taken the phrase “Sex Sells” to a whole new level…In this campaign all an adolescent male needs to do is to spray himself with the Tag product and he finds himself instantly being attacked by hordes of attractive young women…If you have a teenage son, it would be a safe bet that Tag is his cologne of choice.

    The Beer and Alcohol Industry – You will be hard pressed to find a beer or alcohol company that doesn’t portray consumption of their beverage as the key ingredient to a lifestyle of fast cars, beautiful women, successful careers, etc.

    The Tobacco Industry – The tobacco industry has been publicly hammered for selling products that leverage the addictive effects of Nicotine and even with all the known health hazards smokers face, in many instances the addictive nature of the product is greater than peoples ability to make a logical decision.

    I don’t think anyone will dispute the examples noted in the above list as obviously preying on consumer’s addictive tendencies. However what about the more subtle side of the addiction business? Isn’t Starbucks using the same addictive business tactics as those industries listed above? What about companies in the luxury products sector? Companies that sell high end products and services cater to the elitist attitudes of this segment allowing consumers to make statements about their socioeconomic status based on the products they purchase. Is this not also catering to addictive tendencies?

    OK, now I’ll hit a little closer to home…What about my company’s value proposition? We sell success…Is it not possible to look at success as being an addiction? How about the social networking industry? Are social networkers and bloggers addicted to the interaction, attention, etc. that the new media platform affords? While I could go on, I think my point has been made…I’m certainly not implying that all consumers are addicts, nor am I implying that all companies are “pushers”, but I am pointing out that addiction marketing sells and that many companies use this as a strategic advantage. In fact, I believe the evidence is clear that a business can create a strong strategic advantage in sustainability if they find no ethical flaw in what I’ve coined as “Addiction Marketing”.

    The bottom line is that I love to travel and watch movies and I don’t think it makes me an escapist…I have a penchant for Starbucks (venti caramel frappacinos in particular) and I don’t think I’m a caffeine addict, I appreciate the fine clothes and quality automobiles and I don’t believe that makes me a social elitist. However I have also come to realize that my perceived addictive tendencies are clearly attempting to be preyed upon by creative and intelligent marketing and product development efforts. I’ll leave you with the following questions to ponder:

    What is the difference between pleasure and addiction?

    Do you feel “Addiction Marketing” is ethical?

    Does your company partake in addictive marketing strategies and tactics?

    And, when was the last time you made a purchase based upon your addiction?

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    Source by Mike Myatt

    Views: 0

  • The Stark Difference Between Affiliate Marketing and MLM Marketing

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    If you had the time, would you work in the Network Marketing Industry?

    That’s the one question I like to ask people when they talk with me about needing to earn more money. And depending upon their answer, I like to follow-up by asking, do you know the difference between Affiliate Marketing and MLM Marketing?

    My experience is that they don’t understand the difference between the two business models. And these business models are very different. If people understood the difference. there would be more success and a lot less failure. ‘

    Affiliate Marketing is more like working as a sales representative. You have a position with a business and your job is to promote the product or service and close the sale. A good affiliate marketer is someone who likes to copy, paste, and post ads.

    The MLM business model is much different. It takes real entrepreneurship to become successful. This is not a business model that one can copy, paste, and post and expect any kind of success. MLM or Relationship Marketing as it’s commonly called these days takes a lot of work.

    Listed below are a few of the requirements and skills needed to grow a successful MLM Business.

    First you must be willing to be trained. Each MLM Company has its own policies and procedures manual and no two are exactly alike. So before even beginning your business read over these documents very carefully.

    Second you want to learn as much about the product as possible. You do not want to make the mistake of not knowing the benefits of your products and how they can add value your prospective consumer.

    Third you want to contact your up-line sponsor or if they aren’t available or are new to the business, then find a team leader. You need someone with knowledge to guide and direct you. But more importantly you need to want to learn.

    The criteria for any business regardless if that business operates totally as an off-line business, or an on-line business or as both, you want to know how to recruit people to grow a down-line team.

    MLM business models thrive on growing a good solid down-line. And the down-line must be taught that unless the product sells, then there is no volume.

    In most MLM business models, the down-line volume bonus is where the residual money is being made. So, product sales as well as recruiting new members are absolutely the fuels needed to drive the MLM business model engine.

    I like to think of it this way, the sale of the product is the gasoline for the engine and the recruiting of members is the oil that lubricates the engine and keeps it running smooth.

    If you are interested in working on-line, take the time to study the difference between the two business models, before you take the leap of faith to join. It can mean the difference between success and failure.

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    Source by Patricia A Gaines

    Views: 0

  • A Review of the Protege Financial Multi-Level Marketing Program

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    The company Protege Financial first registered their domain name in June 2006, although this is the first time I’ve heard of this company. They are based out of Valencia, CA. I’m very familiar with that area of Orange County being a Southern California native myself. The main reason this company exists is to provide their clients with investment vehicles that will not go away despite the bad economy.

    The partners that make up this company are Michelle Seward, Scott Foulk and Mark Francovich which claim to have 4 decades of investment and financial know how behind them. The owners also state they launched Protege Financial because they really care about their clients and set this company up with an MLM Compensation Plan to help spread the word across the United States. Apparently they officially just launched July 4th 2009.

    Apparently these 3 partners have already helped thousands of clients. When I visited their website they do have their actual office address, phone and fax number prominently visible on their website, so it appears they are not hiding. One of the main products they offer their clients are “Tax Free Income” vehicles that people can use to help hedge the low wages they could experience when they retire.

    When I visit the Protege Financial website, I don’t see any credential logos like CFP (Certified Financial Planner) or BBB (Better Business Bureau) or anything like that nor any Internet Trust Logos. I’m not a professional Website Designer and I could throw this website up within one night easy. The company that designed their site is based out of Idaho. Also I couldn’t find details on how much reps get paid for referrals or the MLM Compensation Structure.

    In addition, the website just had those generic type paid videos which appear to be a standard voiceover. I’ve heard the same voice on many other voiceovers used for other companies so they don’t sound original or sound like they come from the owners. And no pictures of the owners on the website, not even with their bio statements.

    This being the end of August 2009 and the fact that they launched launched July 4th 2009, I assume this site would have been completed by now. Add this to the fact that it is an investment company to be honest almost terrifies me. Money is hard to come by these days, and on the occasion when I am able to save a grand or so I like to put it in a Mutual Fund setup by my bank which is a major bank in the US.

    Protege Financial does offer a free consultation. When you get to the website, all you need to do is fill out a form and someone will end up calling you back. And if you live in or are visiting Southern California, they have Career Opportunity Meetings every Thursday evening from 7:00 to 9:00pm (as of the time of this writing) Pacific Time.

    I noticed a testimonials section on the Protege Financial website. It had 7 testimonials with just two initials under each name. Finally the company offers a free eBook just by filling out your Name, Email, City and State. This eBook is supposed to educate you on the basic types of Investment Vehicles that are out there.

    I’m not accusing this company of being a scam. They could very well be experienced financial planners with little experience on establishing credibility on the internet with trust logos, pictures of themselves, write-ups of successful reps in their company, etc.. But this is even more important in Network Marketing. I would be extremely cautious here. If anyone has had any experiences, good or bad with this company, we would like to hear about them and you can post your comments on our blog.

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    Source by Brian Garvin

    Views: 0

  • How Car Salesmen Can Get Unlimited Free Auto Sales Leads Fast

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    It is not that hard to get unlimited free automotive leads if you do it the right way and know what you are doing. With hundreds of millions of Google searches for cars and trucks every month, you now have the ability to quickly and easily make contact with many prospects.

    Get Your Information Out There

    You can reach thousands of prospects each month if you put your contact information in front of them when they are searching for a motor vehicle to buy. This means you have to find a way to get your contact information shown on the pages where they are looking, instead of your competitors’ information. When they see your name instead of theirs they will call you or stop by and see you instead of the competition.

    Due to search engine changes in 2011, you can now dominate your local search market for new and used cars and trucks. This is because Google and others now give search engine results based on local markets and local geographical areas. This is good for smaller local companies. It means you now have a way to be #1 online in your market.

    How To Get A #1 Ranking

    To get the #1 ranking in Google and all the other search engines means you must have a plan to get your name and contact information listed in so many places that Google can’t ignore you. Every time your name shows up somewhere online it is a vote for you to be #1, and the car dealer with the most votes will be ranked #1. We do this through a program of internet domination that includes every type of website you can think of, including blogs, forums, other local websites, business directories, articles, press releases, twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.

    Once we do this, then Google starts noticing and believes you have a good website and a good car dealership because you are being mentioned so often in so many different places. How many other web cites and references it takes all depends on how competitive your market is.

    If you are trying to be #1 for all the search terms for new and used cars in a large city it will take more time and more work than a small city. With our domination system we have found we can get a car dealer to #1 even in a large city eventually.

    Your Window Of Opportunity

    What is in your favor right now is the fact that most of your competitors don’t know about all the changes in local search rankings. This gives you a window of opportunity to be ranked #1 now pretty quickly, at least in your own city.

    We have found that with the right help from an expert you can shoot to the top of not just Google but all the other search engines as well, including YouTube and other Google-owned websites. The problem is that many internet marketing firms are still using methods that worked a year or two ago but don’t work anymore. To get to #1 in your market means getting leads from many different websites, forums, directories and blogs, not just Google.

    Massive Online Presence

    The approach that works for local internet domination is to have a massive online presence, and to accomplish that we invented something called The Massive Lead Machine for automobile sales. This not only gets you top ranked it also gives you an ongoing, unlimited amount of free car leads from the internet. The Massive Lead Machine succeeds in positioning your business name and contact information in thousands of internet locations so that people online looking for vehicles will always be seeing your name and so will call you or stop by for a test drive.

    Positive Online Reviews

    Not only that, we have also created a system to get your business a lot of positive online reviews and a lot of favorable comments in discussion websites. This creates the most valuable form of advertising – word of mouth advertising. And this not only works better than expensive paid ads, but it is also free once you have a Massive Lead Machine working for you generating unlimited internet leads.

    Dominate Your Market

    All of this online publicity and word of mouth advertising, along with links, reviews, citations and top search engine rankings, will allow you to truly dominate your local market for auto and truck sales.

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    Source by Leo J. Vidal

    Views: 0

  • Fast Business Loans – 3 Strategies to the Right Choice

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    Entrepreneurs and business people alike are finding themselves in need of a fast business loan to help shore up working capital as the economy continues to falter. While a loan at a commercial bank may be an option for some, there are a number of factors that prohibit businesses from going this direction for their capital funding needs. Chief among them is the low approval rate and lengthy application process. While these loans may have the best rates and terms, many businesses find themselves with urgent capital needs.

    Consequently, many lenders have entered the marketplace that purport to be “fast business loans”. It is important that all business owners take a very sober and honest appraisal of these types of loans in order to make a decision that will positively affect the outcome of their business.

    1.)Read the Fine Print- Any lender that is claiming to offer “instant business loans” should be viewed with skepticism. Most of these lenders may be traditional “payday” type lenders or signature loan lenders that are trying to capture some of the business market. Usually the loan amounts are very small, often under $5000, and the interest rates and fees may be exorbitant. Never pay a fee upfront to apply for any loan, online or off.

    2.)What is the Loan Purpose?– It may seem obvious, but any business looking for a quick business loan may not be actually considering this question other than “paying a past due bill” or something like that. If the loan is not being used to generate additional revenue, or consolidate bills that will open up additional cash flow, a business person should strongly consider against it, even if they do have an over due bill. Moving debt from one lender to another, often at higher interest rates is a dangerous shell game for any business.

    3.)What is the interest/factor rate?– This one simple fact usually holds up in all forms of lending. The faster you get the money, the more you are going to pay for it. The reason is simple. True dedicated underwriting which helps a lender understand their risk and set the interest rate for the loan accordingly requires documents from the prospective borrower. If a lender is going to forgo this and underwrite the loan purely on electronically available means, it usually means you will be paying a very high interest rate to compensate the lender for this additional risk. Luckily there are options now that can get loan fundings to business owners in 7 to 10 days without paying extremely high interest rates.

    The bottom line for a those seeking fast business loans is, do not let your sense of urgency override good judgment and common sense. Take the time to understand all the terms correctly, and keep asking questions until you get an answer. The consequences may be disastrous for your business and business lenders do not necessarily have your best interest in mind.

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    Source by Neal Coxworth

    Views: 0

  • E-Mini Trading: The Ambush Trade

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    When e-mini trading, the Ambush trade can be a power tool in your arsenal of trading. It’s a Fibonacci trade, which certainly is not my favorite, but has a surprising level of success. This trade set-up, which occurs frequently, take some time and practice to recognize, but learning it can put valuable ticks on the positive side of your trading ledger.

    A quick note on trades utilizing Fibonacci number is in order here. I have no belief that Fib numbers hold any particular value in e-mini trading, but enough people believe in Fibonacci magic to make this trade a virtual self-fulfilling prophecy. I trade what works, regardless of my personal beliefs. Since enough e-mini traders have a high level of belief in Fibonacci trading, I will happily join in their fun.

    There are several ways to trade the Ambush trade, with some individuals believing that the entire range of the day is in order. These traders plot the usual Fibonacci numbers in the usual manner, only using the entire day’s range as their basis. Personally, I have found this trading methodology to be less successful than mine; I generally look to find a substantial move in the day’s trading and apply Fib retracements to that individual move. I have listened to numerous discussions on this topic some pro some negative; but for me, spotting a significant move and trading the Ambush on that move has been most successful.

    So what is the Ambush trade?

    As I mentioned previously, I generally notice a significant move in the day’s trading action and apply a set of Fibonacci retracement from the beginning of the move to the conclusion of the move. Essentially I am measuring the level of retracement of the initial move. The area I am interested is the 50% retracement to the 61.2 level of retracement. The area between these two plots is called the Ambush zone. I might add that the number 50 is not a Fib number but it gets thrown into the mix for reasons I don’t fully understand.

    Some aggressive traders automatically take a trade at a predetermined level in the ambush zone; say, at 50%. I personally don’t use this method, as I generally wait for the market to begin to change directions before entering this trade. It’s an odd trade for those who are not accustomed to observing this trade, as it seems you are taking a trade “out of the blue” in a relatively strong retracement against the trend. But Fib traders are well aware of the Ambush trade and are generally waiting patiently for the retracement to hit the Ambush zone. Then they take action, and trade in the direction opposite the retracement and in the direction of the original trend. I can generally get 12+ ticks out of this trade; but do not let it run, as the price action often resumes in the direction of the retracement. This is not a trade to get greedy on, get your ticks and get out at the first sign of movement opposite the direction of your trade.

    In summary, I have described a very popular trade among experienced traders based upon Fibonacci retracements. This trade is relatively consistent so I look for it throughout the course of the day. Don’t try to eek every tick out of this trade, and exit at the first sign of the trade moving against your position.

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    Source by David S. Adams

    Views: 0

  • How to Make Money Online: A Beginners Guide to Earn From Home

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    How To Make Money Online

    Making money online is NOT EASY at all. But it’s NOT THAT DIFFICULT too, if you are following a proper path. Without these following three things making money online will always remain a dream for you:-

    • Hard work
    • Perseverance
    • Patience

    If you think you have got the above mentioned three things, then let’s jump right into the topic.

    Below are some of the most authentic and legit ways to make money online

    Freelancing

    What is Freelancing?

    If you are into making money online, you must have heard the term Freelancing. But what does it really mean? Freelancing means working on a contract basis rather than on a regular basis for a company or organization and getting paid for hour of work, days of work or per project.

    YouTube

    Now a day You-tube is booming like anything. More and more people are coming to YouTube to find a solution to their problem, to learn something new and to entertain themselves. With this increasing popularity YouTube is also becoming a money making machine for content creators. Yes! In case you don’t know you can earn a decent amount of money by creating YouTube videos. Although YouTube videos don’t pay by themselves, you can make money by placing Google AdSense ads on your videos (of course there are other ways to make money on YouTube but for now we will stick to Google AdSense). The more views and clicks your ads get the more money you will make.

    Blogging

    Blogging basically means writing posts on any niches on the internet, which are updated frequently. You can write on different niches which include but not limited to personal journals, News, Technology, Health and Fitness, Gaming, Parenting or any other topic you are interested in.

    Affiliate Marketing

    These days almost every product is available online, whether it is as small as a needle or as big as a car, everything is available online. And people are inclining more and more towards buying products from online stores may be because of the easy accessibility of products and convenient home delivery system.

    These online stores need to advertise their products in some way and affiliate marketing is one of the many ways they promote their products. So affiliate marketing is a form of advertisement in which the affiliate (in this case you) promotes the products from different online store in his/her blog or website through a unique link (generally referred as affiliate link). The affiliate gets a commission when someone buys a product through that link then (generally some percentage of the price of the purchased product).

    Almost every big online store has an affiliate program which you can join to promote their products in your website and get a commission in return if someone buys from your affiliate link.

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    Source by Manas Ranjan Meher

    Views: 0

  • Internal Customer Service: Guidelines for Suppliers and Contractors

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    Change management and organization development experts talk about ‘creating alignment’ – aligning organizational strategy with daily business needs. And a big part of this is creating alignment between customer needs and employee actions as customer service providers. But we also have to take note of internal customers – those people within the organization that service us – as internal customers and who we service as internal customers. “There is a remarkably close and consistent link between how internal customers are treated and how external customers perceive the quality of your organization’s services. It is almost impossible to provide good external service if your organization is not providing good internal service.” R. Zemke and K. Anderson, Delivering Knock Your Socks Off Service, 1981.

    And it’s not just about internal customers within the walls of your organization, it’s also about those arms-length internal customers and customer service providers – suppliers and contractors – those people who either supply your organization directly or come into contact with your external customers, directly, as your representative. These suppliers and contractors should be considered an integral part of your organization and the service they provide should be measured as accurately and frequently as you measure the service level you provide.

    To my mind, servicing others, whether internal or external (customer, supplier, colleague, peer, supervisor, contractor), should reflect the values of your organization and the process to retain the best customers – again, whether internal or external – can be applied across any of these groups. Suppliers and contractors should be selected and retained based on their commitment to servicing your customers – and your employees – as you require them to be serviced. Although you do not ‘own’ these suppliers and contractors, you have the right to demand the equivalent level of service you provide to your customers. When selecting your suppliers and contractors, or measuring the ones you currently are associated with, the following guidelines may help ensure that internal service meets the standard.

    Recruit suppliers and contractors as you would your employees.

    You should be seeking out the best person for the job, the high performer who will be able to deliver on your business expectations and drive up results for your company. Why not utilize some of the recruiting tools you use when conducting a search for an employee? Think about it. You will be paying this supplier or contractor to perform services for you or your customers so you should expect them to be of the calibre you expect from a new employee. Consider requesting a resume of their qualifications and experience, customers they have serviced, certifications that may be required, and if available, customer testimonials. Interview them in a similar fashion to the way in which you interview for employees. Check their references and make sure you put in place a contractual arrangement that clearly documents what you expect from them and what they can expect from you (this is just another version of position profiles and expectations for the role).

    In these cases, you are seeking high performers capable of servicing both your customers and your employees. And you have a responsibility to provide them with the information, resources and possibly, tools, they will need to service both these groups accurately and professionally.

    Provide clear expectations of performance.

    Even if your suppliers and contractors have worked with your organization for a long period of time, it is critical to periodically review your expectations of their role and how you expect them to service your customers. Customers are retained because they have developed a good relationship with their supplier and any contractor or supplier who is dealing with your customer directly, is seen by the customer to be an employee of your company, and hence; representing your company.

    When I was a general manager for an energy distribution company, one of our contractor service technicians accidentally cut the customer’s phone line. The first issue for the customer was, of course, the cut phone line and the inconvenience associated. The second issue was that the contractor apologized but told the customer he would have to call our company to secure satisfaction regarding the cost and inconvenience of having the line repaired. The third issue was the response the customer received from the Branch Manager when he called our company office to complain. He was told we were not responsible since it was a contractor that had cut the line! Yes, I too, was shocked when the customer got through to me to complain and told me what the Branch Manager had said. Even more distressing was the fact that the Branch Manager defended his position when I called him about the complaint!

    No doubt we did not clearly identify to our contractor our customer service expectations. To me, they were simple. Apologize to the customer, call our office immediately to request a solution and then work with the customer to get the solution implemented. Simple to me but certainly not to our contractor or, I quickly discovered, to my Branch Manager.

    So my next step was to build a contractor customer service agreement and develop a customer service training program to implement with both our employees and our contractors. We then implemented it across my region. We still had customer service issues with both our contractors and our employees, periodically,but this was a great first step.

    Conduct frequent performance reviews.

    Providing your suppliers and contractors with regular, specific feedback will not only give you confidence that they are meeting your needs but will also provide opportunities for them to discuss any customer service challenges, issues, or problems with you before they result in lost customers. These regular reviews should be part of the contract between you and the contractor and they should be implemented on schedule. During these reviews you should include their primary employee contacts to ensure all partners are clear about the issues and able to participate in developing the solutions. This secures commitment to the solutions.

    Reward and recognize customer service excellence.

    At a minimum, providing them with a reference signifies that you are pleased with their customer service performance. But, without a doubt, the best reward for suppliers and contractors is securing more work from you.

    Following these guidelines will go a long way to ensuring alignment between your company, your employees and your suppliers and contractors – to the business goals and strategy. All sectors can then be focused on delivering the expected level of customer service to the customer base you want to retain.

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    Source by Donna Stevenson

    Views: 0

  • Minimalist Cooking – Kick the Marketer Out of the Kitchen

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    Minimalist cooking is about simplicity. It is about reducing everything from ingredient lists, shopping trips, anxiety, social fears and more.It is about not letting these tyrannies and the greatest overarching tyrant of all, the marketer, from sucking the lifeblood out of something that should be life affirming, a source of great fulfillment and above all else fun. Remember that it is the marketer who tells you that you have to be the provider of perfection at the dinner table otherwise you are a bad parent, a failure, someone who should be shunned by strangers and disowned by your children. Haven’t got that expensive spice in the rack? Well, you’ll just have to lose a couple of hours driving to the store, guzzling gas, polluting the planet, raising your blood pressure and exhausting yourself to the point where you will enjoy neither the cooking, the eating or the socializing that should all be the highlights of a day. Alright, that was a little over the top but the point is important. We really do need to get out from under the Marketer, he is not our friend.

    Banishing the marketer leaves room for all sorts of other stuff, exciting stuff like your own thoughts and decisions. The marketer would have told you that you had to have a rice cooker because that is the only way to cook rice and, more importantly, that your social group would have regarded you as an abject failure if you didn’t have one. Now you can make a decision firmly based in logic. Marketers hate logic. Are you going to be cooking rice more than once a week? If so a rice cooker would be a good purchase, once a year and it would be best to muddle through with a saucepan. It is not complicated. Incidentally, if some in your social group does regard you as an abject failure for sticking with the saucepan it is probably time to subject them to the process described.

    Now, try this process with the stuff that currently takes up shelf and cabinet space in your kitchen. Do you really use that pasta strainer often enough to justify the space it takes up? Do you need fifteen saucepans and five frying pans? or a tool for every single kitchen related task that you may or may not do in your lifetime? Throw the excess out. On second thoughts don’t throw it out, give the rice cooker to your friend who does cook rice everyday and take the rest to the local thrift store. 

    Now, extend this process to your cooking ingredients and you are well on the way to having a minimalist kitchen. Kick out the marketer and the rest will follow. Space will appear in your kitchen as if by magic but perhaps more importantly a space will be created inside your head for you to fill as you please. 

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    Source by Steve A Wolfe

    Views: 0

  • Teaching Entrepreneurship To Children: Should We Do It?

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    Should we be teaching entrepreneurship to children? When you were a child did you ever have a stand where you sold soft drinks like sodas? Did you ever offer cakes and candy to other students at school in order to make some money?

    Not everybody is bitten by the entrepreneurial bug when they are kids however. I truly believe that it’s vital teaching entrepreneurship to children. The harsh realities of entering into the workforce in a difficult economy presents a lot of challenges. The alternative of being an entrepreneur and working for yourself is something that should be explained to children and young people.

    Making then Aware of an Alternative

    The main thing working against our children having an entrepreneurial mindset is our education system. With only a few exceptions, most of the teaching we get from the time we are in kindergarten to the day we graduate from college is…

    * Make sure you get a good education

    * Study hard and graduate with your degree

    * Get a wonderful job with great additional benefits and you’re set for life!

    There are a number of issues with this.

    There is absolutely nothing wrong with working and getting a good job with for a terrific company. A lot of people end up doing this and a some enjoy it and make a huge contribution to their company.

    The real truth is that there is a HUGE portion of people who are not pleased with their jobs and are in fact totally dissatisfied. This can be due to the fact that they either do not like the work they do, who they actually work with or they may not get paid enough being just one paycheck away from being broke.

    The Second problem is that it is very RARE in these modern times to find anybody that works at one specific job for more than 3 to 5 years. Switching between jobs regularly has actually become the “brand-new standard”.

    That’s why it’s so essential in teaching entrepreneurship to children and revealing to them that there is an option to having to go out into the workforce to make a living. Would it not make more sense to instruct children about entrepreneurship and show them a that there is a very real alternative to living a life in the corporate world.

    Teaching them about things like beginning their own home-business… particularly an online business. We have to remember that the younger generation now invest most of their time online nowadays. So,when they are young, why not instruct them about how to make money with a medium like the internet that they are so comfortable using.

    Keeping it Real

    Understanding that children these days can truly benefit from finding out how to begin their own business, how do we begin teaching them about it?

    I think it’s extremely important to set the right expectations early on. Having your own business can be an amazing experience, however children should be taught that it does also include hard work and dedication. This is something that children (and adults) in some cases choose to skip over.

    The reality is beginning an online business has the possibility to make you a lot more money than most everyday jobs.

    It’s essential to offer children choices. Make them understand the benefits and challenges of working in the “Rat Race” and the alternative of working for themselves in their own business.

    To be really practical we have to remember that children will regularly want to select the most simple and “Safest” method rather than something that might present a greater challenge and require a little additional effort even though in the long-term they could be much better off.

    Keep Their Dreams Alive

    The last thing to keep in mind is to be supportive of children who wish to start their own company. You see most children still have dreams and goals when they are young.

    As time goes and life presents some obstacles to their dreams in various forms, children then start to lower their goals and become more willing to settle for mediocrity. That is unless they have someone to look up to and admire and to learn from. Be the kind of individual who motivates and supports those children to dream big and work hard to realise their ambitions.

    With it becoming harder to find a good job nowadays, young children (and lots of grownups) need to be aware of the option of a home based business as a vehicle to achieve their dreams and objectives. Teaching entrepreneurship to children and assisting them in preserving their dreams can help pave a path on their journey to financial freedom and a life filled with passion.

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    Source by Merv Stevens

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