Here are 10 gut-check strategies to use to increase your chance of business success and longevity:

1. Build a database of only the hottest prospects and customers already excited to buy from you! (Anyone can get prospects, what you want are people who want to buy!)

2. Increase the amount of money each customer spends with you on every transaction. (Do that with a strategic solution selling approach which I detail in my eBook Small Business Success By Design)

3. Bring your past customers back to purchase from you again and again. (It’s easier to sell to a past customer than it is to find a new one, and it’s far more profitable! 20% of your clients can easily generate 80% of your revenue!)

4. Learn what to say in the first 30 seconds of meeting someone to get them to buy from you. (The best sales pros do this all day long to create lists of loyal customers! You’ll learn the technique, too.)

5. Successfully create a thriving and winning team that grows your business for you! (See my eBook on how to move from the Self employed quadrant to the Business quadrant and enjoy the real fruits of business ownership!)

6. Win the battle with your own inner voice of doubt or fear - to successfully break down the mental roadblocks that keep you from achieving more at the next level. (I blog about the inner self and wisdom on this site).

7. Tap unrealized profits and partnerships from joint ventures and cooperative business. (There’s real power when you leverage the resources of other businesses.)

8. Improve your sales conversions so more prospects say “Yes” to purchasing from you. (Sales calls mean nothing unless you can actually close business and turn them into loyal customers!)

9. Niche Thyself! Become the recognized expert in your niche so people seek you out ready to do business! (Don’t be an ordinary business; stand out as the obvious choice for business so that your name is the only one at the top of a prospect’s mind!)

10. Turn your customers into raving fans! (Your customers are your biggest source of future business. Get them talking about you, and selling you to others!)

Here’s a bonus one…

11. Grow your ability to prosper by continually educating yourself on only the best, most profitable techniques to succeed.

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Before I integrate the idea of how the Toltecs are relevant to business, let me point out that the Toltec way is not a religion. It is a way of life that can dynamically change how we see our world, and ourselves. There are no rules, no doctrines. It is more a path of action offered for your review, and it gives each one of us an opportunity for self-improvement and self-empowerment. Everything I have seen in this approach is also compatible with the wisdom of masters and spiritual paths from all cultures, religions, and philosophies.

The self-empowerment process of the Toltec uses your awareness to discover how you are distorting your situation, perhaps sabotaging it, then deciding if it serves you, and changing it if it does not. Your skills in finding and healing wounds from the past will improve, your relationships will improve, and you will soak in more happiness - isn’t that everyone’s impulse anyway – whether in personal relationships or in business?

For those of you who may be familiar with the works of Carlos Castaneda who wrote in detail about Toltecs of the past - their rituals and power seeking methods of the supernatural - this is not the Toltec way I am describing.

I was led to make a trip to Teotihuacan (simply called “Teo” – a maze of paths and several large pyramids pointed at the sun and moon) by the best selling book – the Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz, MD, himself a Nagual, from a long family lineage of Toltec shamans.

Don Miguel describes a living energy system in the human mind that generates and feeds on fear. This fear is created by our own self rejection - we are conditioned into societal beliefs, domestication of the mind so to speak, from early childhood, that to many of us seems “normal” or goes unnoticed. Our ego mind (“Inner Judge”) creates the fear to keep us protected. It is this FEAR - fear of being accepted, fear of failure, fear of being rejected, etc, that Don Miguel calls the “Parasite” that keeps us from our personal freedom. Through awareness, understanding, and re-conditioning you become the “The Spiritual Warrior.” As the Spiritual Warrior, symbolically you become like the Jaguar, stalking in the jungle of your inner mind, searching out the Parasite, including its fear, judgments and other distortions. The intention is to remove their influence so that you can experience true freedom and happiness. You ultimately choose self acceptance and love over self rejection and fear.

So how does this relate to our business subject? How you relate to yourself in life is how you relate in your business environment. In my business coaching and consulting engagements, FEAR and CYNICISM are the two major OBSTACLES TO SUCCESS I have encountered.

Many of my business clients – some entrepreneurs, some corporate senior managers, take the safe road – either indecision - status quo - out of FEAR of FAILURE. They don’t realize that this fear is coming from the Inner Judge who says “Stay small, don’t risk, don’t change and you will be safe”. Understand that failure is just a component of success. It is there to sharpen some skill or knowledge you simply did not make yourself aware of at that time – an experience to grow from. It is NOT a reflection on your talents, your abilities or your acceptance as a person. Being aware of the ‘failure’ experience and looking at the root cause of your pain are the first steps in the Toltec business – having the courage to change based on that experience, asking questions, forming new strategies, expanding – are the measure of the Toltec Warrior.


Another is a FEAR of MONEY – the fear that money will run out, or that losses will occur if certain actions are taken. Too often, the power of money controls them , failing to ask themselves if what they are doing makes sense for the longevity of the company, rather than living for another day. As they have been domesticated to think that working harder and longer hours each day is the answer, they reinforce this mindset through perceived ‘bad consequences’ and as a result are unable to change. If they took a personal inventory, as the Toltec Warrior would do, to identify this cause, they might say “Does this make sense”? All too often, instead of trusting their inner wisdom, that genius that is unique in all of us, most go with the crowd. They do things because they model behavior on others, whether they are companies or individuals.

As a Toltec master would say - You have been outer directed for so long that being inner directed is a challenge.

You learned not to trust your feelings and emotions – now you can un-learn them.

The Toltec path in business is about getting in touch with what is truly real – your inner truth. Your feelings are your truth. Know you are always right for you – there is nothing to defend. You do not have to get it “right” for anyone else. You define what is your truth, not based on beliefs or emotions – but on wisdom that is calling out to you from within. How does this play in the business world? Ultimately a business leader , after weighing all the information presented, will need to rely on his/her intuitive sense, a sense that the decision is based on wisdom, not what all the outside noise may be saying. I learned in business experience to trust my intuitive side for my decisions, especially because it is so critical to put yourself in the mindset of your employees and your clients – what are they perceiving is their problem? How do they view you? How do you engender trust? What are their body motions telling you that their words aren’t?

Another consequence of awareness of these fears, then releasing this behavior, is the fact that you now make room for creativity. Without this reconditioning, the Inner Judge is controlling the patterns of fear to the extent that you are not open to creative impulses. However, by delaying your reaction to negative emotions, you give yourself a chance to think and to ponder a possible different path or decision.

Overcoming cynicism is an equal task to overcoming fear. The Toltecs say - Whenever you judge, you are seeing yourself as the victim. The path to empowerment is the knowledge that we are only self-perceived victims because we have created ourselves in this light. We create our own doubts and cynicism. All of us have doubts. Our doubts often times paralyze us into indecision. “I am not good enough” or “I can’t do this”. Perhaps it is “What if the economy falls as I invest in my company, or I hire new workers?” In order to grow your business, you have to have self growth in this area. Recognizing that all of this is just “busy” talk, an avoidance to the real issues – it goes back to the FEAR of FAILURE, and hence analysis/paralysis. First of all, you can’t forecast the future, you have to know that you have the power to chart your own course, and to have acceptance for what you have decided. I know I have breathed easier when I decided to overcome some cynicism, to move forward with my plans, and to actually visualize the result and obstacles. When you do that, and also imagine the consequences and really feel them - the FEAR of action dissipates.

Lastly, I want to focus on the ramifications of Don Miguel’s The Four Agreements book, his definitions of the Agreements, and its relevance to business:

Agreement 1 – BE IMPECCABLE WITH YOUR WORD
Most importantly, to be impeccable with your word is to never use it against yourself.
Putting yourself down will stop the creative process in your business. With other, speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Your word is your bond – you will create consistency in the delivery of your service or product, and create a trust with your clientele, empowering you to expand. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth.

Agreement 2 – DON’T TAKE ANYTHING PERSONALLY
In business, as a leader, you have to let things roll off your back - nothing others do to you or say to you is because of you. It is their perception or belief. Being attached to your opinion is where freedom is lost. When you are immune to the opinion of others, you can clearly focus on objective – avoiding drama and time spent at the water cooler.

Agreement 3 - DON’T MAKE ASSUMPTIONS
It is critical to your business to communicate with others as clearly as you can with your intentions to avoid misunderstandings. In my eBook, Small Business Success by Design, I talk about the importance of follow-up and verifying the communication links with employees and clients to firm up next steps, actions, or consequences. Also, have the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want from your employees , vendors , and clients. You will see huge strides in your business success when you do this.

Agreement 4 – ALWAYS DO YOUR BEST
You will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.

If you have a small business or are a corporate manager interested in learning more about Toltec wisdom, OR , if you are interested in getting together for a journey to Teo to experience the path of the Toltec , please contact me at
dennisc@emipartners.com

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I have such fond memories of growing up in Bay Ridge - Brooklyn, NY in the 60’s. As a kid, we played stickball with a pensy pinkie that you could buy for 10 cents (for those of you not in my generation – it’s a pink rubber ball we used for baseball – we would lose at least one a day, hitting them through the windows of irritated residents) and enjoyed the magnificent views of Narrows Bay as it linked up with the New York Harbor.

But my fondest memory and perhaps the greatest impact on my childhood was the Presidency of John F. Kennedy (JFK). This had nothing to do with affiliations of political parties – it had everything to do with his leadership style.

Little did I realize it at the time, but JFK would become a pillar in the foundation of my adult life. I guess it started when Mrs. Jacobskind, our fifth grade teacher (we had great visionary teachers in the N.Y. public school system in those days) would wheel in a monstrosity of a cart holding a TV set with rabbit ears so we could watch the goings on at the U.N. and see President Kennedy give his many speeches to the citizens of our country and on the world stage.

Even as a boy, JFK embodied for me what a great leader was made of. What rang through for me was his passion, his vision and his commitment to his goals. My fondest memory was the speech he gave at Rice University, Houston Texas, on September 12^th, 1962, when he delivered his address about the Space program:

“But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas? We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.”

Shrewdly, he used the exploration of space not only for defense and economic reasons, but to UNIFY people. His unifying message is in talking about being the strong leader – that takes the responsibility to get things done even if they are difficult (not because they are easy). Another trait of strong leadership was his inclusiveness of all peoples with different views (His comment – why does Rice play Texas, 2 big football rivals).

So how do these experiences play into the business world with business leadership?

Because great business leaders play the same way in business as they do in life – with passion, commitment, determination, courage, faith; and inspiring and motivating the teams and people around them.

There are a group of great business leaders in the corporate world who have created great companies (I will detail characteristics a bit later) – but let’s look first at what we have been impacted by – corporate greed at the top with egotistical “leaders”.

Tyco and Enron come to mind, as millions of honest working shareholders put their retirement savings into these companies, believing their hype. And how were they rewarded? CEOs who drew millions in salary but also used corporate funds secretly to buy expensive personal items (yachts and condos) and secretly ‘cooked’ the books to show non existent profit; the most tragic part was witnessing thousands whose life saving were instantly wiped out.

So what does the right business leadership look like?

The right leadership style will build a repeatable and sustainable ethical business model.

They will observe how their target customers perceive their problems and environment; they will envision the solution to that problem in terms of a product or service they will sell. They will then deliver that solution in an innovative way so that the customer views that company as their differentiated solution – every time. The right leader, in a spiritual perspective, is very careful of looking through the eyes, the feelings, the emotions and needs of the customer.

The right business leadership focuses on long term quality service or products, delivered the same way, every time. Predictability engenders trust from customers.

The right leadership sells solutions and products - not by deception or by false claims, but by engendering a partnering relationship built on mutual trust.

Those with the right leadership skills build great teams by creating a context of accountability and responsibility in which all members can ‘play’. Every employee wants to ‘play’, that is; feel that they are part of the business game. If team members can’t play, they will make up their own games (gossip etc) at the water cooler. All should be heard, and the team celebrates all wins.

The right business leadership style weaves a path for advancement for their people - recognizing that expansion in energy is necessary for those who display right-leadership qualities themselves. The right leadership creates new teams for those leaders with expanded responsibilities.

Their leadership style inspires their employees to shift their behavior (to one of accountability and excellence). They remove FEAR from the equation.

Their leadership has humility about them, and is self-effacing. Gargantuan egos that mandate, and do not set an example are definitely an ingredient for mediocrity or company collapse if that leader were to move on.

However, the right leadership is also feverishly driven by the need for results.

The right leadership provides an environment for employees to grow and advance.

The right leadership takes full responsibility when things go wrong, and when things are successful, they look to factors in their employees, other than themselves as the reason for their success.

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Global business exchange has now surpassed politics and government as the primary cohesive (or divisive) force impacting the planet’s well being.

Information and high technology, as well as oil based economy, has created a quantum leap in advances in communication, transportation, information exchange, and in food production and housing – virtually eliminating barriers and boundaries between countries.

Historically, wars were fought based on the need for ideological (fascism, communism, empire building) and cultural (Crusades, Islamic expansion, Manifest Destiny) supremacy – to dominate other countries’ physical resources and to exert its power over their masses. This old energy was, and still is attempting to, consolidate a base of power and dominance – then expanding it.

Today, we are seeing a mixing of the old energies for need for power (i.e. United States hegemony in the Middle East in Iraq, etc for oil) with the new consciousness of business entrepreneurs in small to medium sized businesses to bring a Quantum Shift in how business operates and affects the world today.

This new focus and consciousness about the way business entrepreneurs bring their business leadership to conduct their business, based on customer satisfaction, concern for the environment, creating trust and transparent synergistic dependencies between customers, vendors, and other companies, is helping to forge new rules and laws that can only benefit economically and provide a better quality of life for all of us. This new exchange of energy and ideas is making headway thanks to the glaring examples of a purely greed, corruption and profit oriented focus we have had to suffer through recently (Tyco, Enron, U.S. Debt/sub-prime mortgage fiasco, manipulation of currencies to keep export prices low).

What does this business environment look like today? There is a blend now of a new consciousness with old patterns of doing business; A sense of higher awareness and spirituality along with the traditional business world mindset is taking hold.

This is because the conducting of business is really about people – it is the exchange of energy. For the past twenty years there is evidence of a greater awareness or consciousness due to this global environment, engendering concern for others in major tragedies, even coming together to work past tragic events.

Business entrepreneurs are providing business leadership in expressing this higher consciousness through new business start-ups, and new strategies and policies that benefit people – their employees, their customers, and their vendors.

As a Partner with Ardour Capital Investments in New York, I have seen evidence of this in a number of high technology entrepreneurs who are sensitive to how we impact the environment, and are diligently working on new products and services in alternative and renewable energies to alleviate our dependence on a purely oil dependent economy.

Let’s look at how this energy is exchanged within a business. Energy is exerted through marketing and selling solutions, customers perceiving a need and exercising decisions to buy product, companies engendering trust with quality service, customers responding by conducting business long term with vendors.

There is a major paradigm shift in money exchange as well. Money is energy, being exchanged really as an expression of appreciation for goods or services. Since the Internet, the fact is that money is more digitally exchanged through electronic bank accounts, electronic stock trades, and electronic currency trades – and instantly appears ( or disappears) in your electronic accounts! The ability to trade, to grow, is now unbounded by the old limitations of paper and other barter – thanks to Internet Commerce! Leverage this concept into the way you expand your business.

The New Business Leadership

At the core of the new business entrepreneur is the inherent ability to put themselves in the target market’s shoes – How does the customer perceive their market? How can your new idea for a solution be delivered in an innovative way, so as to be perceived as differentiated by the client?

Once you have that idea, you hold on to that dream. It is a seed to germinate into your new business – holding the DNA to replicate with quality and to be sustainable and grow.

There are so many rising business entrepreneurs with innovative ideas and inventions – solutions to problems. There are innovative services to offer as well.

But to apply the new energy – the Entrepreneur must first conquer the main culprit to both his/her inner and outer success – FEAR. Most entrepreneurs will either suppress it or stunt their growth because of it. Fear of Failure – we don’t realize that Failure is but an awesome energy experience to point us in a different direction – to reflect back to us what we might improve. But all too often in the past, we have let fear – fear of competitors, taxes, litigations, our own perceived LACK of talents/skills/education, or no start-up capital – to defeat ourselves before starting.

Most Entrepreneurs are afraid of Failure – they want it to work the first time every time without pain!!

The answer is really simple. Get out of the old mindset – of fear. What you focus on – expands. Focus on your idea, your concept. Envision - see its solution out there in the marketplace, as if it has already succeeded. Allow it to unfold – give it its freedom it will evolve into things you might not understand today. Then, bringing yourself back to your current situation, begin to visualize the resources you need to succeed. The new Entrepreneur allows higher realms to work with them as part of the process. So take a moment to bless all of the aspects of your business – give gratitude for all the resources you have been given – family and business. Really feel the expression of thanks – it helps to invoke your energies. Bless your creation – for expansion of ideas and processes. This will allow you to expand that energy into others in your business.

As the Entrepreneur, you are envisioning, planning and ready to execute. You realize that your first priority is to lead, inspire, motivate, and also to sell the solution or service. To invoke the new energies and let them expand into your business and marketplace, you must create a context around your business – i.e., HOW you deliver your products and services is more important than the product or service itself.

Why? Because, creating a context for your business invokes the non-physical energies of attraction and expansion to sustain your business and to positively impact your surroundings.

How? First, you must create a context of accountability and respect that flows into all employees, vendors, and customers you have contact with. In my business, I termed it the Code of Honor (detailed in my eBook, Small Business Success by Design), which not only set standards for product or service delivery, but also more importantly, provided a RESPONSIBILITY context within which to operate. This included such points as reinforcing the team concept, communication, etc.

You transform behavior to get RESULTS instead of fear based action.

Other Transformational Behavior

We need to be cognizant of the fact that we are where we should be at the present moment. None of you would be in an opportunity if you didn’t have this energy to make a difference.

Stay focused on your intent; Let go of your attachments to desired outcomes. You are blazing the trail for your employees, customers, as well as other new conscious entrepreneurs you will start to attract. You need to remove the boundaries of limitation to free it to take shape.

Don’t waste time analyzing and writing the perfect Business Plan. Create – then ACT. Getting out there with your product or service will help to validate your strategy and will eliminate costly mistakes. It will also invoke higher energies that will expand your business faster and in ways perhaps you never dreamed. Writing a business plan later as you evolve your business will serve a better purpose of refining your clarity.

Keep in mind that your expanded energy will have to co-exist with the frustrations of the old way of business – financial needs, tax ramifications, worrying about the bottom line, etc. Three aspects to consider here – First, Focus on positive strengths and circumstances. What you focus on expands. Focusing on what is right and on strengths dramatically improves your chances (See Kurt Wright’s book, Breaking the Rules) . Second, humor is critical to your expansion as a business to offset this. This energy provides a creative environment for ideas, growth, and overcoming sticky situations. Third, only focusing on the profit to shareholders, and the ROI will drain your energy and take the joy of creativity out of the equation. Instead of the bottom line focus, apply your energy to the lifeline of your business – focusing on the betterment of your employees, the quality of communication and care for your customers, and in building and maintaining strong relationships with like-minded vendors. This will balance your company and the bottom line should take care of itself!

Your word is gospel, it is your truth. How powerful are words? Words are a communication of energy. Being insincere or conveniently hiding glaring facts generate strong repercussions and negative energy that can doom your company. It is essential in your interactions with clients to communicate truthful energy. Make it a priority to engender trust from your clients. Recognize they have a consciousness – establishing yourself as their partner in their business solution rather than convincing them that you’re great – that they need to buy from you, is the key to expansion.

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For the past weeks, I have spoken about my concerns and the effects of the credit crunch along with a much weakening dollar. All of these factors impact our daily lives as workers, consumers, and caretakers of our families.

But for those with private debt (which would be a majority), these factors loom large on our ability to improve on, or even keep the status quo on our daily existence. I have recently spoken to several local small business owners who are now impacted in their personal lives for loans they have made against their personal equity – in their homes or other assets. Now with an uncertain economy, the ability to repay may impact their ability to hold on to those personal assets. So many are disconcerted, depressed, even panicking.

Debt is deeply ingrained as patterns to keep you hooked into sustaining the financial system so others can benefit, not you ultimately. Trust your wisdom on these happenings. Observe. Trust your sense of disconnection from these old patterns of greed and deception. Question the mass media hype of things like Big Government coming to your aid - “Fed Cuts” solving market problems. These are designed to keep money in the system and money in your bank accounts. Instead, go with what your intuition based thinking tells you. Do you know truth from fiction?

Where are we at Today?

To separate your truth from what is being told to you; let’s look at how well we have been inundated with “easy money”, the ability to live beyond our true means etc. With all this ‘easy’ money, debt grows as if there were no real consequences to borrowing, and no limit to what can be paid back in the future.

I will comment on the American situation because I have lived in it my entire life – so my apologies to Ellie’s foreign readers. But private debt vis a vis banks behaves the same way in every country.

When I grew up in the 60’s, there was a spirit embodied by leaders such as John F. Kennedy that Americans could work within a framework of innovation with trust and honesty. I truly considered it the ‘richest nation on earth’, a country that could make a difference with other proud nations. The sad reality is that the American people today are living on borrowed money fostered by greed – this is our programming in a heavily debt oriented society.

There is not one sector in the U.S. that has shown any measure of refrain. Government, corporate, and consumer debt are all at record levels. Private debt, which is debt from a private entity, such as a bank, has skyrocketed in the last three decades alone.

The Real Facts

Here are a few tidbits gleaned from the Mother Jones magazine article on U.S. Debt:

In 1970, 51% of Americans had a credit card, compared with 93% today. The average cardholder has 7 cards.

Americans owe $850 billion in credit card debt. The world’s 54 poorest countries owe $412 billion in foreign debt.

A “preferred customer,” according to one MasterCard vice president, is someone with a “taste for credit” who’s “willing to make minimum monthly payments—forever.”

60% of Americans have been in credit card debt for more than a year.

The average U.S. household owes $9,659 on its credit cards.

If you owed that much on a card with a 14% APR (the average interest rate) and made 2% monthly payments, it would take you more than 6 years to pay off—and you’d pay $4,922 in interest.

1/3 of Americans claim they pay off their credit card bills in full every month.

Inside the credit card industry, these customers are known as “30-day wonders” or “deadbeats.”

The average American household spends 14% of its disposable income paying off debts. It puts negative 0.5% into savings.

Last year, banks sent out 8 billion credit card applications, a 30% increase since 2005. Credit card companies spend an average of $58 to sign up a new customer.

Credit card companies earned $90.1 billion in interest last year. They earned $55.2 billion in fees.

So we see that the U.S. is more leveraged by private debt than ever before. According to the Family Income Report, we have the lowest rate of saving since 1929, the year of the Great Depression.

A Coming Depression?

I have spoken for several weeks on factors that could produce a Perfect Storm – of the financial crisis kind. With the credit bubble, real estate bubble, weakening value of currency, and declining buying power of the U.S. consumer, we also have DEBT problems of the magnitude that were present in the Great Depression.

If a Recession or even a Depression begins, it will be more difficult for households to come out unscathed, and much more difficult for people to recover.

What Can We Do?

The first should be obvious - do everything you can to minizimize your debt. There are many web sites that can help you do that as a strategy (“Google” on ‘minimize your debt’). You may want to re-think assets as a way to eliminate the debt and start cleanly.

Now, I am not an investment advisor and this article is not investment advice, but commentary only. I can only lay out some of the opportunities that exist in today’s market that might be worth your time to investigate.

If it is true that financial markets liquidate, and real estate is already liquidating, then a simple strategy is to be liquid.

Muse on whether the following might resonate: it might not be so bad to park some cash, perhaps some of it in foreign currencies that are strong and stable (Swiss?).

Here are some other tips from Chris Laird of Prudent Squirrel :

*When the US real estate market (and the other real estate bubbles everywhere) drops by perhaps half or more in 2 or 3 years, consider buying property again. The same holds for stocks.

*Suppose that you like ABC stock. After the stock declines, you can buy back into ABC for perhaps half what it is now. I All stocks will go down if there is a world recession. Maybe gold stocks would do well after the initial stock drops.

*But, in any case, consider that many stock indexes are at all time highs, and a major correction is due anyway. If the market is bear, then being liquid is a risk free strategy.
In any case, you don’t have to get rid of all stocks or such. But you could move a portion to cash and see what happens. You might be happy having done that.

*One thing about the USD and stock markets is that they can both still hang in there for a while. But the odds appear to be well in favor of major stock corrections emerging this year anyway.

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Understandably, in the early stages, many small businesses will be more than happy to chase or even react to, the latest opportunities that seem to come before them. Put into context, it is actually a “fight or flight” syndrome in business – don’t pass up the revenue stream – you need cash flow. The result is that you develop or inherently have, competencies possibly in several areas – and you use that to follow up on any and all opportunities that come your way. I did it when I started my IT services company.

But this is operating in a short sighted, reactionary mode. Sure, growing your business by doing what comes your way is probably instinctual, and perhaps necessary – but only in the early stages. But I call this ‘shotgun marketing’, and inevitably, you will miss the revenue target necessary to stay in business.

To be a proactive business, with longevity as a focus, you must sit down with your team and ask the hard questions.

Say you have competence in several areas – in my own technology services company, we were competent in several sectors with several skill sets on several computer systems.

First and very critical to your existence – you must sit down with your team and ask:

How does my customer perceive their problems?

How can I serve this customer so that they see me as their solution?

Without even comparing ourselves to the competition, How can we differentiate our product or service so that the customer thinks of us every time?

To really create long term viability for success, you must start out by understanding what you can be the BEST in the world at. Just because you may have several competencies, it doesn’t necessarily follow that you will be the best in the world at it. Conversely, you may not now be doing what you are the best in the world at!

This exercise requires the commitment of the entire management team, and time, as well as regrouping continually to check your direction.

Jim Collins, researcher and consultant who wrote the best seller Good To Great, says he observed the great companies not only defining what they could be the best in the world at, but also identified passion and a well defined economic denominator as the 3 criteria for transitioning from a good to great company. I highly recommend Jim Collins and Good to Great.

By focusing and knowing what you can be the best at, target a niche - niche marketing. A niche marketing strategy is a small group of referencable customers in a specifically targeted market. Most businesses try to avoid this, as it puts them in uncharted territory. Instead they want to follow up on all opportunities as I described before. All successful companies “niche” themselves. Before Microsoft became its huge diverse self, it actually positioned itself first as an operating system vendor.

This creates the “big fish” in the “small pond” scenario. You know are the subject matter expert and deliver targeted solutions in this area.

Also critical to this approach is to “Move the Free Line”. It is the key to differentiation. By educating your client or consumer with information and knowledge transfer of how your service or product works, how they can solve their problem, or even information on the segment in which they operate in, creates a partner relationship that will lead to up-sell opportunities.

Another strategy is to differentiate yourself from the competition. No, the client does not make a decision by comparing how you may be the “leading” so and so vs. your competitor. Make it personal – moving the free line is one example. But also show them how you can help their problem. You see, it’s not about you and the competition, its about the client’s business problem and intended solution. Show them how to solve their problem, through demonstration, or case studies of other client. Make the client care about you – about calling you first!

Then create a repetitive recurring model that delivers the same quality of differentiation, the same way, every time.

Also, begin to identify the solution or product you have in that niche with writing up case studies of key performance indicators. This will begin to identify you as an expert in that field.

And you don’t have to go head to head with the big guys because you are first operating in that small pond. However, the big guys will see you as a complement to their solution or product, because they are operating now in many ponds and will look at a partnering solution, or possibly merger to reach or to satisfy more of their customer!!

This strategy will begin to move you into a mainstream market over time and done strategically. We will discuss this in other blogs.

Can’t find what you Want? Try GOOGLE !

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The mainstream media is full of stories about the Federal Reserve cutting rates, but the bigger story is the fall of the dollar below the accepted index standard of 80 , which was barely mentioned!

It’s critical to understand the ramifications of the U.S. Dollar value in our global economy, since it affects your ability to carry on business transactions; much of the problem is tied to the credit crisis and trade crisis I discussed in a previous blog.

The dollar has taken a pounding since the Fed slashed its benchmark rates on Tuesday by half a percentage point to 4.75 percent.

The deep US rate cut has raised concerns about whether it can ease the credit squeeze.

According to one analyst at Sumitomo Mitsui Bank: “Appetite for the dollar is weakening due to receding hopes that rate cuts can resolve the credit crunch”.

I watched the Fed chairman Ben Bernanke makes his testimony at a Congressional hearing on the Fed decision. I noticed a distinct sense of fear and anxiety while he was discussing the Economy. He said that the US economy and markets had reacted to a wave of foreclosures in the US sub prime, or high-risk, mortgage sector in a manner that has “far exceeded even the most pessimistic estimates.”

As I pointed out last week, more homeowners face difficulties making payments on adjustable rate mortgages that are being reset with higher interest rates.

The expectation of bigger interest rates cuts in the US is now having a huge affect on

global currencies.

The US Dollar is weakening relative to other currencies in the world.

Why is this important?

Because there is a delicate balance of currency values which determines the global trade in the world. To illustrate, China’s booming economy is based on its export of manufactured goods - mainly to the U.S. So, U.S. dollars are spent on Chinese goods in places like Wal-Mart. The Chinese are paid in U.S. Dollars. Because so much money changes hands internationally, the U.S. and Chinese agreed to set (’peg’) their currency, the YUAN, to the U.S. dollar’s value. Without this, their exports would become more expensive to buy! In addition, they have to invest in our currency to keep the machine going.

The Chinese have bought $800 billion of our treasuries!

The Japanese have bought over $3 Trillion!!!

Why would a foreign government buy so much of our currency?

TO KEEP THE VALUE OF OUR DOLLAR HIGH SO WE CAN CONTINUE TO BUY THEIR EXPORTS!!

This setup can only work if the dollar stays high relative to the economy. What we see now is a credit crisis (also trade deficits) that is touching the ability of the dollar to stay above an established index (over 80, relative to other currencies).This has been a sort of benchmark for the economic order of things since 2002, a low. With the current credit crisis, China has an ongoing conflict with the US regarding the Yuan, which is now trading higher relative to the dollar. The Chinese have threatened to dump USD reserves if the US pressures China further on trade issues. If that were to happen, we would be obligated to repay this debt, our dollar value would fall perhaps 40%!

What does it matter if the index stays below 80. If you were the Chinese, Japanese, Korean or other central banks, would you buy an asset in dollars if you fear the dollar will lose 40% of its value in a few months? In reality, there is nothing “safe” about a Treasury in which you can lose that much of your principal - it’s a lousy investment!

We are increasingly seeing the weakness of the dollar now relative to other currencies.

Yesterday, for the first time in many years, the Canadian Dollar is on a par with the U.S. Dollar.

Russia is in the process of building the strength of the Ruble into a super resource currency, and is getting rich selling resources and oil with record prices in these.

And take a look at this comment on the strengthening Euro:

“It is all about dollar weakness and Euro strength this morning again, with Euro/dollar touching a new record high of 1.4120,” said Audrey Childe-Freeman, economist with the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce in London.

The Euro is gaining status as an “alternative Reserve Currency” for the world banks - as there is concern the USD is losing its advantages. The OPEC oil exporters threaten to use Euro as a standard, sidestepping the U.S. Dollar. Again, as I spoke about, this is due to the weakening US economy and huge trade and fiscal deficits and record debt. Also included is declining US interest rates which will reduce the interest rate premium US bonds have enjoyed, and supported the USD.

And probably the most impact on global trade is now the increasing strength of the YEN, Japan’s currency. Most of us have never heard of the “Yen Carry Trade”. Why should we be concerned? The yen carry trade has supported U.S. equity and lending markets for over 15 years on a large scale. The interest rates in Japan have been about 1% forever; investors and the like borrow money in Yen to finance purchases of bonds, treasuries, and derivatives in other currencies. For instance, borrow large amounts of cash in Japan at 1% interest rates; then invest the borrowed funds in U.S. Treasuries paying 4.5%, or leverage the money into derivatives or equities purchased on margin. This only works if the index ratio to the dollar stays at about 115. When the interest rates and value of the Yen go up (and dollar is going down such as now), this affects the ability for all those debts to be repaid. The index ration is heading south of 113. This requires selling of equities, derivatives and bonds from what was originally borrowed in yen. So the Japanese bank is intervening to keep the ratio of the U.S. Dollar to the Yen steady, no small feat.

WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN TO US?

A major change may for the world economy, trade balances, and just about everything economic. The whole system has been based on a relatively strong USD. If this were a human body in critical care, I would liken these events to taking off the life supports. The Fed cut was nothing more than a pain killer to delaying the inevitable.

I will discuss proactive strategies to investing in GOLD and alternative currencies (i.e., Euro) to protect your portfolio, which we will investigate in future posts…

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To achieve financial freedom, you will have to think like a millionaire. Becoming a millionaire is not so much a culmination of a series of the right opportunities and the right timing, but being the right person with the right mindset in taking the right steps to financial freedom. If you are going to move to a higher level of life, you have to be willing to let go of old limited ways of thinking about money, how to manage money, and adopt new ones. How to become a millionaire then? You can recondition self limiting views of money and wealth first of all. Realize that money is simply a result. Money doesn’t define you, your power generates money. By power I mean really living in your natural state of abundance. You as a human being are capable of attaining what you truly desire. Everyone has access to attaining the wealth they want, if their motivation for acquiring money or success is not rooted in non supportive behavior and thoughts. It is a matter of conditioning this feeling of abundance and creative power, as well as learning from others – how to manage money, learning steps to financial freedom from other successful entrepreneurs. You can become the millionaire next door!

Begin by learn from the ones who are more successful than you – they certainly have defined the steps to financial freedom and how to manage money. For more detail on the millionaire mind set and how to think like a millionaire, I highly recommend the following link: Secrets of the Millionaire Mind

For me, developing that millionaire mindset meant starting with building and operating a business that produces recurring revenue based on a sustainable model – it is one of the most predictable means towards building asset appreciation – your nest egg. I was then able to build my ‘retirement’ assets from the profit of my company sale into a retirement nest egg, my golden goose. However these are only the first steps to financial freedom. To achieve financial freedom, you must also be able to mange money. What follows are manage money tips, passive income strategies, and how to utilize investment income.

Managing your Money is a different skill set than making it

After selling my businesses, I did not have a disciplined mindset for managing my funds, other than to say, I needed to quickly find investment vehicles. I was naïve in retrospect, believing all I had to do was to invest in some other opportunities similar to the businesses I had launched, sit back for few years, and reap a multiple valuation again. It doesn’t happen that way! Economic factors, ego, and perhaps impulsivity contributed to my first real setbacks as an entrepreneur. I went through a re-education process about finances. Get educated and be aware of your surroundings, keep current (more on that later). This led me to investigate passive income opportunities.

Passive Income – Key to Financial Freedom

Passive income allows you to create several different income streams that generate you cash while you sleep, play, or work. These are the other “geese”, businesses producing investment income streams for you. My problem with the first strategy I implemented after I had built my retirement assets was to rely on that main asset pool to make my long term investments from. Investment income is recurring revenue and is your key to wealth.

First, a word of caution. Have the courage to explore opportunities. Trust your intuition. If it smells like a dead fish, it probably is. Don’t let others convince you otherwise. Always educate yourself on the opportunity, its marketplace and potential risks. Once you feel you have made a good decision, complete what you start. The problem comes in the habit – most failures come when you fail to finish what you start, walking away from investments because you do not have your energy invested in them, or are not sure of the outcome because you have no control.

It is not the intention of this blog to neither recommend or advise on any of these opportunities, nor go into detail on the following examples. However, in my quest for financial freedom, I have engaged myself in studying many areas, participating in numerous seminars, and meeting other investors. I have without a doubt, met multimillionaires ( and a billionaire or two) in all of the categories below, but like anything else, these opportunities always open the door for aggressive individuals (polite for quasi scam artists), who make more money from selling their strategies than they did implementing them . Do your homework. If interested, I list a few resources on this blog under resources. These include:

· Infopreneur – This is an entrepreneur who disseminates information. Leverage your experience into mentoring others and/or disseminating information of your experiences through Webinars, Radio, creating articles (Ezines, Blogging, and writing eBooks for Sale). Your experience is valuable. Share it through innovative ways which will produce recurring revenue for you. Investigate the Internet to create revenue through Internet Marketing such as selling other professionals’ products. Evaluate Google AdSense and Click Bank products as well. These can all produce recurring revenue after they are set up and maintained effectively.

· Real Estate – Again, use your judgment here in evaluating potential ‘scam’ artists who profess to have the unique ‘get rich quick’ scheme. Also become expert in understanding market trends before you invest. But the upside potential of doing your research is a passive income stream which can facilitate your retirement. For example, build a portfolio of residential homes you have purchased under market value, with little to no investment for repairs, and then use a property manager to collect rent payments. This produces cash flow. When you decide to draw your equity from these homes, you now have added to your golden goose. You may decide in a given market, to look at commercial real estate for cash flow in rents as well.

· Licensing – This is for the forward thinking business (or individual) that may now have an innovative product or service (even a personal invention) that needs a market. Remember, an idea is just an idea until you market it, and people perceive its value. Securing licensing agreements with other firms to help you sell your product or idea, or to acquire some other product to assist the sale of your product can be very financially rewarding. It could be a long term strategy for creating marketing for a product or service, OR it can be a short term process for entrepreneurs to get visible, get out into the marketplace with a new product. For example, a small creative idea such as a caricature of an animal figure may result in a company such as Disney licensing the art to sell in all of its retail products. You may find yourself getting residual checks, or royalties paid for each product sold with your work of art on it. There are literally hundreds of areas where individuals earn recurring royalty checks for something they have created.

· Business partnering deals – This is an interesting topic, because it could have huge upside. I met an entrepreneur whose net worth was $9 billion – from facilitating several business deals between different parties (businesses and individuals) in transactions! The key here is to have a keen insight into how you can capitalize on an opportunity you might have the vision to see that no one else is viewing the same way. These are usually overlooked or hidden opportunities for a product or service. Look for areas in which these opportunities could provide specific performance improvements that could be measured. Leverage yourself as the person who controls the ‘deal’. I have seen several examples, in business, where at first glance, there seems to be no money making opportunity. I was told about one individual who was a client of a data research company who had tracked detailed information on a certain segment of customers. When this individual realized she could leverage that information to sell it to a specific large retailer, she created discussions between the retailer and the data research company. She facilitated the discussions and the closing of a revenue sharing agreement which eventually produced hundreds of thousands of dollars in recurring income for her. She did this by getting the right to be paid per transaction, per month. It was pennies on the transaction, but there were large volumes of transactions!

· Network Marketing – I know what you’re thinking (MLM scams?). No, there is actually a serious passive income opportunity in investing in quality products and services for distribution through a network marketing approach (such as quality wellness products which are in high demand). The key here is not to gather family and friends in selling out of your home, but to use your leadership skills to build a team (quality downline) and communicate and manage the process. The key strategy – to get a large group of people to do a few simple actions over a consistent period of time! The downside – it is about a 1-2 year process in developing the business to where it can really produce; however, the smart entrepreneurs are making $30k per month doing these businesses. Once they are set up, they require less input form you as you wait on commission checks.

In the next several weeks, I will write more in detail about each of these opportunities.

You may be an early stage or growth small business searching for investment capital. If you have not heard the adage “proven” teams with “proven” technology in a “proven” market get ready for the difficult challenge of identifying your company as one in order to approach venture capital firms for private equity venture capital funding, or VC funding. The problem is, when you are starting out, or even if you have been in business a short time, the Catch-22 principle applies. In other words, your intended outcome is to raise investment capital to produce revenue, and the venture capital firms (VCs) are using revenue criteria to qualify you in order to raise capital!

Preparing and presenting to venture capital firms , in what we call road shows, and the due diligence that ensues, take a tremendous toll out of senior management, and their direct reports, often times taking their eye off the daily operations. In all cases of the effort to raise capital, you will find a transition to short term thinking, decreasing revenues, and more operational problems resulting. And the chances of securing VC funding may seem analogous to playing to the odds of leaving Las Vegas with a fortune.

However, understanding the expectations of venture capital firms will go a long way towards creating a cogent strategy. One of the advantages of securing VC funding will be to force you to validate the authenticity of your business, to articulate your plan and to understand your desired objectives.

I have been working with venture capital firms for several years in my current investment banking role of due diligence and capital raise for energy technology companies, and there are specific criteria which serve to weed out the 99.9% of business plans that come across their desks everyday.

In reviewing a business plan, a majority of venture capital firms will look to add value (in terms of advisory or management expertise) to the small business under consideration in addition to capital. First, most of the larger, established venture capital firms will make a quick determination whether your operation represents a validated business model that can demonstrate a reasonable chance of achieving $100+ million annual turnover within 3 years; whether through organic growth and/or acquisitions. Here are some key attributes VCs look for in investing in businesses are:

1. OPERATOR –The small business owner and/or members of his executive team have a previous successful track record in small business development and profitability; Executive leadership has a strategic plan ; can envision , see the patterns, establish the order, and can clearly articulate the plan ; they can navigate beyond the technology; an absolute killer team that possesses the skills, passion and connectivity in their industry to execute the business plan and meet the priorities of all their stakeholders and most importantly, you have chemistry with them.

2. INTEL – The entrepreneur has established connectivity in their industry; they have a clear identification of customer’s pain; there is a clear identification of competition; they must be able to identify and detail - barriers to entry; What is their Product/Service similar to?

3. UNFAIR ADVANTAGE – there must be a clear identification of the customer’s pain (fulfilling a perceived need in a customer segment and understanding how the customer needs it to look and a