Are You A Potential Millionaire?

September 23, 2007

Do you want to discover whether you have millionaire potential? Well, I accidentally stumbled upon these quizzes on the BBC website yesterday. They only take a few minutes to complete and they’re a lot of fun - Are You a Potential Millionaire 1? and Are You A Potential Millionaire 2?

Why not try them, and share how you get on in the comments section? Apparently I have millionaire potential, although I’m not sure how accurate the results are. At the end of test 2, they give you a list of characteristics shared by millionaires, and I did share each one.

But the funny thing is, potential millionaires share the same favourite foods - roast beef or roast lamb. Now, this surprised me, as my favourite is roast beef. But, surely not all potential millionaires are so boring that they all like the same food? And there’s bound to be vegetarians who are millionaires too.

Try it out for yourself and let me know what you think.

Posted by cathlawson | Filed Under Inspiration and Motivation | 14 Comments

How Can Death Help Your Business?

September 22, 2007

Death is probably one of my biggest motivators. The reason is simple. You never know when it’s going to happen, but you do know that when it does, any plans you had for the future will be gone.

Did you ever wonder what people regret most, when they’re lying on their deathbeds? Elizabeth Kubler-Ross knew the answer. She worked with dying patients for many years, and wrote several books on the subject.

Her most inspirational book was Life Lessons. And in it she said that most patients she cared for, when they were on their deathbeds, did not regret the things they had done. In fact, they regretted all the things they hadn’t done.

And you’ll probably realise, there is a huge benefit to knowing this. Is there something you’ve always wanted to do, but you’ve been too afraid? Perhaps you’ve wanted to go into business for yourself full-time, but you keep putting it off until a better time.

The trouble is, a better time may never come. So, don’t keep putting off the things you really want to do, or you may never get round to them. And you don’t want to be lying on your deathbed regretting the things you didn’t do.

Posted by cathlawson | Filed Under Inspiration and Motivation | 10 Comments

Lazy B…..ds and the Truth About Luck In Business

September 21, 2007

Over the years I’ve noticed a strange connection between luck and business. It seems the harder you work at making your business successful, the luckier you get. But, it doesn’t happen over night.

Now, I’m not saying that no luck is involved at all. After all, where you are born is definitely down to luck, as is where and how you die. But, you can influence a lot of the luck you have in between times. And if you were born in a relatively safe country, with all your basic needs taken care of, you have a huge advantage - you’re lucky already.

Yet a lot of people don’t seem to believe this link between luck and hard work. I was reading a guest post on Shoemoney - Want to Succeed? Then Get Off Your Ass and Work by Rebecca Kelley, and many of the commentors complained that they had worked hard, they just hadn’t been as lucky as others.

Well, for all you none believers, here’s a few pointers that will make you luckier, and they work:

1) Do something you enjoy and believe in. There’s so many great businesses you can get involved in that it would be idiotic to sell something you didn’t like. Or worse still, something that didn’t even work.

2) Avoid anyone who is negative towards you and your business, or business in general. If you have friends who are negative all the time, ditch them. If you’re married to the wrong person - divorce them. And, if you have staff who are constantly negative - sack them before their attitude infests your business.

3) Work hard, then push yourself even harder. And don’t expect to get a medal for it. In the first few years, if working through the nights and weekends is what it takes to grow your business do it. And if you don’t like it, go and do something you do like instead.

4) A lot of people will tell you to work smarter not harder. And this will come eventually, once you’ve made 101 mistakes while working harder. And if you’ve read “The 4 Hour Work Week” and think I’m lying - read it again and find the part where it says that you will have to work hard to begin with.

5) Learn as much as you can about business. Take courses and read about your industry, sales and marketing, management,finance and anything else you need to know to grow a successful business. Never stop learning, and don’t spend half your day in forums listening to a……s who claim to know how to make you rich overnight. Spending a huge amount of time in forums is not “working” and it’s certainly not a productive way to learn.

6) Network smartly, both online and offline. Believe it or not, there’s a direct connection between putting yourself out there, and being in the right place at the right time. But don’t spend half your working week networking and attending every single event possible.

7) Remember - networking isn’t selling. There is nothing worse than meeting people at a networking event who do nothing more than give you a massive sales pitch for their business. Get to know people, and don’t think about what you can get out of the relationship. Concentrate on what you can do to help others first.

Provide what customers are looking for, but don’t expect them to know you exist. Market your business aggressively and keep marketing, even when you begin to get busy. To begin with, choose half a dozen marketing strategies that are free or cheap, and make yourself a weekly plan. If you don’t know much about marketing - get yourself a good book. And if it’s online marketing you’re interested in, consider a good online marketing course like this one.

9) Don’t let money be your only motivator. After several years, I still get more satisfaction from getting great testimonials and referals from customers because I know we’ve made someone happy. And believe it or not, if you make people happy the money will follow. Check out this great post by Randy Brown, who “got lucky” after providing a service that people wanted.

10) Expect to fall down a lot. And keep picking yourself up and learn from your mistakes. Realise that you’ll probably make massive mistakes - you may even go bankrupt, or have so many problems that you feel that a nervous breakdown is imminent. Don’t look at these as a sign of failure and stick two fingers up at anyone else who suggests they are. People who don’t try never fail, but they don’t succeed either.

And remember this. People who seem to have had a lot of luck probably spent many years trying before they got their “big break”. You can be like them one day, if you keep trying no matter what happens, and never ever ever give up.

Posted by cathlawson | Filed Under Mistakes, Planning | 20 Comments

7 Ways For You To Make More Money In 7 Days

September 20, 2007

You don’t always need to go out and find more customers to make more money. Here are 7 ways that you can make more money in 7 days:

1. Sell add ons when your customer is still in buying mode

www.GoDaddy.com do this well. Just before check out they offer you the chance to buy more items.

2. Offer specials

Encourage customers to buy more with special offers, such as two for the price of three.

3. Offer a special, or bonus to existing customers

Offering specials to customers who have bought from you previously will encourage them to come back and buy more. Remember it costs you less to sell to them than it is to find new customers anyway.

4. Offer a monthly subscription package

Offering a monthly subscription or an incentive to book ahead, is a great way to get customers to buy more. Plus, you get cash up front, meaning you have more to spend on marketing. Some hairdressers do this - eg - pay for your next six appointments in advance and the sixth one is free.

5. Don’t assume that your customers are aware of all the products or services that you offer.

You’d be surprised at how many of your customers don’t know about all your products and services. And if they don’t know, they may go and buy from a competitor. Keep them informed of all new products, services and offers etc, by mail or email. Some businesses always do this by phone. One of our suppliers calls us fortnightly to see if we’ve ran out of key items and she also tells us about any special offers they are running.

6. Upsell

When the customer is about to purchase, offer a superior, more expensive product as an alternative.

7. Allow free upgrades.

For example, if a customer has bought an information product from you, offer to refund the cost of the information product, if they upgrade to a more expensive course on the same subject.

These are all simple ideas, but they’ll only work if you put them into practice. If you’re serious about making more money, take one, and do it right away.

Posted by cathlawson | Filed Under Marketing | 4 Comments

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