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Monday Morning Motivators – February 18, 2007
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Enjoy your java with an eclectic collection of tips and ideas to use today and to get energized for the week ahead. Subscribing and unsubscribing at http://www.mondaymorningmotivators.com/
"What's terrible is to pretend that the second-rate is first-rate.
-- Doris Lessing
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Table of Contents
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1. Top 10 Reasons to Start Your Own Business – Linda Fayerweather
2. Let Yourself Shine! - Rebecca Booth
3. Turn your Goals into Intentions. – Pat Altvater
4. Giving Back to the People & the Community – Paula Frazier
5. To Do This Week
6. Fine Print
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1. Top 10 Reasons to Start Your Own Business
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Many of you reading this weekly ezine have already started your own business and are well aware of the trials, tribulations and bliss of being in business. Since the media has become purveyors of negativity, I thought a little levity on a Monday was in order.
Top 10 Reasons to Start a Business:
10. You have more money than you need.
9. You have more time than you need.
8. You have no social life.
7. You sleep only 5 hours per day.
6. You plan to retire after you die.
5. You hate to vacation.
4. You love having multiple deadlines.
3. Your investment portfolio is too large.
2. Your significant other has a great job.
1. You are better looking than Bill Gates and will look great on the cover of News Magazines.
Truth be told, most of us who start a business love it and are looking for ways to make more than a living while creating raving fans of customers.
Copyright 2008 Linda Fayerweather
Helping businesses find the profitable route to success
Changing Lanes LLC
http://www.changinglanes.biz/
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2. Let Yourself Shine!
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People like to do business with people they know and trust. But people LOVE to do business with someone who is passionate about what they do for a living. Not only do they listen to you more closely; your ability to verbalize the benefit of what you do helps you to establish important relationships. Here are some ways you can make sure that you shine:
1) Be genuine – allow your true self to come through in business conversations. Present your knowledge and expertise without boasting.
2) Redefine rejection as a learning process. Pat Altvater and I had the privilege of seeing Jack Canfield a few weeks ago. While I walked away with a million new ideas, it was this one that has changed my thinking forever: SW, SW, SW & SW = Some Will; Some Won’t; So What? & Someone’s Waiting.
3) Demonstrate an understanding of others’ problems. While you may be talking to the head honcho of a Fortune 100 firm, don’t let that intimidate you – recognize that you do indeed have the experience and know-how to contribute to their success.
Ask about the obstacles they face and provide solutions.
Copyright 2008 Rebecca Booth
Marketing Goddess
Imagine That!
419-855-3399
http://www.rebeccaboothmarketinggoddess.com/
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3. Turn your Goals into Intentions.
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The quickest way to achieve your goals is to turn them into intentions. An intention is a goal that you are 100% sure with every fiber of your being that you will achieve. This gives you an additional boost to attract solutions and opportunities into your business and life without having to know the HOW!
Take a goal you’ve already set for 2008 (you have written goals, right?), declare your intention, and expect the unexpected. Here’s how. If your goal is to increase your sales by 50% in 2008, restate your goal as “I intend on increasing sales by 50% in 2008.” Write this intention down, reread it every day and keep your belief level at 100%. You have just opened yourself up to receive new ideas, opportunities, connections, customers, referral sources, and anything else that can help you move closer to your goal from unexpected sources.
Pat Altvater
Licensed and Certified Strategic Attraction Coach
Certified Law of Attraction Practitioner
http://www.transformationsinstitute.com/
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4. Giving Back to the People & the Community That Give to You
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Business professionals that are highly successful in their referral marketing efforts are very deliberate about doing the right things at the right time with the right people. We are acutely aware of one of our most limited resources – time. Volunteering is one of the tactics we can make use of that allows us to “give and gain” at the same time.
This week I had the opportunity to volunteer for an organization that helps introduce the importance of workplace ethics to high school students throughout southwestern Virginia. Local business leaders spent half a day with juniors and seniors discussing a variety of difficult workplace scenarios and the importance of employing six pillars of character to help make moral and ethical choices in each situation:
Trustworthiness
Respect
Responsibility
Fairness
Caring
Citizenship
BNI is an international organization with well over 100,000 members. We are able to provide a safe haven that helps our members develop long term referral relationships through a Code of Ethics that include six similar agreements. It wasn’t an accident that Valley Character was an ideal fit for me. It took effort to find the perfect place to volunteer my time that actually complimented my area of expertise and my businesses’ mission.
You can also increase your networking opportunities by inviting other people in your networks to volunteer with you. Remember, your first priority is to honor the event! Simply agree that you’ll actively listen for one another. When you find yourself standing in the middle of a referral, make an introduction…at the appropriate time in the appropriate way.
Here are some things to keep in mind to help you strategically give back to the people in your networks and to the community that gives to you through volunteering:
1. Be sure that you support the organization’s mission.
2. Look for ways that you can help that are within your area of expertise.
3. Investigate the assignment and establish limitations before you commit.
4. Make sure you know your contact’s level of participation.
5. Invite others to take part and make purposeful introductions for each other.
Paula Frazier is a Master Trainer for Referral Institute and an Executive Director for BNI, the world’s leading business networking organization. To learn more about referral marketing tactics visit http://www.referralinstitutevirginia.com/ and http://www.bniswva.com/ .
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5. To Do This Week
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Since it is President’s day in the USA, thank a President! Maybe your own company’s.
