Wealth Seeker, Wealth Creator - Start-Up Biz Insights

Breakthroughs And Breakouts - Shifting The Paradigms!

2006-08-28T01:26:00.000-05:00

Time flies, and sometimes it escapes. Nearly two months' time elapsed. The ebb and momentum flow of action and reaction to what's happening and what we're trying to make happen, completing the everyday tasks and raising the excitement levels, making money from five clients and figuring out how to invest the revenues to keep the potential calls and client prospects rolling.

The unexpected always happens when you aren't looking. Can we make excuses for what we didn't see coming but should have? We can but you don't want to hear them. Suffice it to say we haven't matched the cash growth curve I predicted on July 1. Reasons? Read the previous posts and you'll see a lot of them! But I still think we have a chance to make our original dream a reality - even though we're swinging into the dog days of picking up paying clients, because it's always hard to compete with school clothes, Halloween costumes, turkeys and Santa Claus! Still, we can tap into the plans and dreams of those who are looking ahead to 2007 and 2008. There's an election in two months, another one four months after that, and the big one in 2008.

We're at day 59 and about $1,500.00 toward our goal of $1 million net cash by December 31! You can read all the stories of people starting with $500.00 and making $5 million and know that it's possible, but the devil is in the doing. I figured out that we need 1,000 clients averaging $1,500 each for a net of $1 million cash. 100 clients averaging $15,000 each gives us the same number but the carrying costs and expenses are radically different for a $1,500 sale than a $15,000 sale. Can we sell 10,000 of an item at $150 per item? If we could we'd reach the same $1,500,000. The marketing and promotional plans we crafted in July are still on the table now and I know we can execute those plans more efficiently. We're still in the first half; we'll make our adjustments at half-time.

Day 46 - The Word Is Spreading!

2006-08-15T14:23:00.000-05:00

I'm getting a fresh burst of energy! Everyone likes my work and all five of my clients are paying me and recommending me to others. My profit picture is improving: so far I've grossed $1,000 in fees off the original $100 investment. I haven't shared all of the thinking I've been doing about how to drive the project forward because truthfully I'm still figuring a great many of the steps out myself, but two truths that are obvious to me (but not always to everyone else) which were reiterated in an article a friend of mine read to me - you can't make a million dollars working for someone else and you have to pay yourself first before you pay any bills or any other expenses.

All things seem urgent when they aren't - and all things seem important when they aren't. Think about it1 When some money comes your way -whether it's one dollar or ten thousand dollars - what are the first thoughts that come to mind? Be truthful - aren't you immediately thinking, "What can I buy? How can I spend this money?" Those thoughts are the ones that immediately invade your mind - "I've got some money now, how can I spend it?" There are always temptatioons that creep into your conscious and subconscious thoughts that seem to compel you to spend your money on whatever needs or wants appear to be tugging at your mind in the moments right after you get your money.

We're all victims of the subconscious programming that directs us to spend instead of save, to expend instead of conserve. Americans are the world's biggest consumers and not coincidentally the world's worst savers. We save about 4% of our income versus an average 10% for the rest of the world and 20% for the Japanese.

I'm learning how to save and manage my cash flow and reinvest it - in marketing and promotional strategies and tools - to generate a consistently growing long term cash stream.

Day 42 - Expanding Our Client Base!

2006-08-11T22:08:00.000-05:00

42 days gone, 142 days left and counting. Am I having fun? Am I enjoying this trip to the place I said I wanted to go when we started this six-month journey - wealth and independence? My motto always is "If it ain't fun why are you doing it?"

So far, not traveling as fast as I planned, but as Robert Schuller says, "Inch by inch, anything's a cinch." Since our last post, we completed our presentations to all five of the client prospects we acquired through our first mailing. All five prospects are now clients who agreed to hire us to perform our grantwriting/technology/consulting services. We finished a grants proposal for our first client, who paid us our writing fee, which put our business "in the black". Retainer fees from our four additional clients should be in our hands next week. Five clients are great but we need many more to have any chance of making this project work. And we need to bring some fun into the game.

The bottom line of business - make a profit. The real deal in business - make money and have fun.

We're not far enough along where I can say what I want to do for fun to celebrate, but I decided that the journey is important enough to me that we need some milestones to mark so here they are:

10% - $100,000.00
25% - $250,000.00
50% - $500,000.00
75% - $750,000.00
100% - 1,000,000.00

I'm gonna post this bit; I'll be back in a few hours.

Client Number One - Signed, Sealed, Delivered!

2006-08-05T20:51:00.000-05:00

The "One Million Dollars In 184 Days" Project produced its first paid client Friday. On an initial investment of $100.00, we acquired five (5) client prospects; our first paid client, an Executive Director of one of Chicago's most well known non-profit agencies, hired us to write a proposal design a website, and handle some technology services for her agency. In addition to the retainer she paid us, we may, before the end of the year, receive additional fees that may total as much as five figures, depending on how well we perform our grantwriting services. I hoisted a silent toast to our breakthrough; there's a lot of work to do, but we've taken an important first step.

Here's something very important about what we've accomplished: our venture is now profitably "in the black". I've always believed that no business ever went under that made a profit, even if that profit is only 1% after all taxes and expenses have been paid.

Like many would-be entrepreneurs, I've started new businesses and invested thousands or tens of thousands of dollars into equipment purchases, space rental, advertising and promotion, even staff hires - before I ever even had ONE PAID CLIENT to support my new business. I believe that 80% of all new businesses fail to survive their first three years of operation for one reason - they don't attract enough revenue from paying clients to cover expenses and generate a consistent profit.

The most important document you'll ever create in managing your new business enterprise is something accountants call a "P & L" statement. It's a month-by-month account of your expenses and income. Each month you spend more than you earn, you're in "the red", as accountants describe a business operating at a deficit. Each month your business generates more income than you spend in expenses, you're in "the black", or operating at a profit.

We started in July 2006. So our current P & L would look something like:

July 2006: Startup capital: $100.00
Expenses: $94.00
Income for July: $0.00
Net after expenses: $6.00

August 2006: Cash position at start of month: $6.00
Income from 1st client: $500.00
Expenses: $0.00 so far (no rent, phone, or other overhead expenses)
Net after expenses: $500.00 + $6.00 = $506.00

Today is August 5, so we're 36 days into the "One Million Dollars In 184 Days" project. Our cash position is $506.00. Our business is operating "in the black". Our challenge now: to invest our cash in ways that will grow the business and keep us operating at a profit.

That's Phase 1, Plan B.

Our First Paid Client! It's On Now!

2006-08-03T21:15:00.000-05:00

Now we can have some fun! We got our first paid client - an Executive Director of a not-for-profit agency hired me to develop funding proposals for some new programs she wants to launch! Our presentations with the other four clients we recruited through our mailing and calls seemed to be very well-received! One of them, a pastor brought in to revitalize a small church in a low-income community, wants to hire me for technology services and program development!

The plan: close both deals on Friday, and see what we collect. Then launch Phase 1, Part B our project - earn $1,000,000 cash in 184 days. You're wondering what Part B is? You'll find out Saturday! I'm taking Friday off - it's my son's 3rd birthday!

Day 34: Startup capital: $100.00
Spent: $94.00
Current Balance: $6.00
Potential Income: TBA Saturday!

30 Days Into The Project - Five Prospects, Zero Dollars

2006-07-30T23:02:00.000-05:00

I can believe this is the 30th day of our project - this month's been full of drama and angst; it's felt more like two months than 30 days.

Haven't made much progress in generating new clients and revenues; three calls from the mailing and two prospects gleaned from some Friday followup calls equals a yield of five client prospects and zero revenue dollars for our project's first thirty days.

We launched our new business project with $100.00, whuich forced us to focus on guerilla grind-it-out marketing techniques like a 100-letter mailing, e-mails and phone calls. My criteria for declaring the initial marketing effort success: acquire one paying client from the initial snail mailing, calls and e-mails;. With five prospects identified and scheduled for appointment, we do have a shot at snaring that first paid client.

Looking back on the first 30 days, how can we improve our marketing efforts?

Make sure the snail mailings go out on time.
Create a larger prospect list.
Call more prospects.
Develop a larger targeted e-mail list.
Design paper and electronic newsletters (*.pdf format) for distribution to the e-mail list.
Acquire more startup capital.

Our total results for July 2006:

Day 30: Startup capital: $100.00
Invested: $94.00
Balance: $6.00
Income: $0.00
Calls from mailing: 3
Prospects recruited from phone calls: 2
Total prospects: 5
Presentation appointments: 5

A Broken Bone - An Unbroken Spirit!

2006-07-26T20:06:00.000-05:00

I promised you a follow-up on the results of my July 24th appointments. Well, a broken bone got in the way of those appointments. Not mine, my nearly three year old son's, who suffered a hairline fracture in his upper left leg after his older, three-times-his size brother stepped on his leg during some ill-advised roughhousing.

So I had to take my 35-month old son to the emergency room on Monday after listening to him howl in pain all of late Sunday night and early Monday morning. When the incident happened, the first thing he said to me as he crawled from his room to ours was, "Daddy, my leg is broken." I told him, "No, Xavier, it's not broken." But an emergency room visit and three x-rays confirmed that he had a fracture in his upper left leg. They fitted him with a plaster cast Monday afternoon; from my observation, he's a bit pissed at losing a lot of his mobility but otherwise seems to be taking, rather better than I would have, the prospect of having a cast on his leg through his birthday August 4 and for the next four (4) to six (6) weeks.

So I had to reschedule those appointments for next Monday. Fortunately, my client prospects understood and had no problem with the rescheduling. And we got another call from our mailing, and I was able to arrange an appointment for next Monday for this third prospect.

I've decided to spend Friday and the weekend making some follow-up calls to the propsects we targeted with our mailing. Perhaps our followup efforts will generate some new appointments. Tomorrow and Friday, I'll share some other blogging resources I've found. Monday, we'll keep our appointments and let you know what happened.

Our First Two Client Prospects = Potential Income From The Project

2006-07-22T19:09:00.000-05:00

If we were talking about the shuttle launch, we'd say, "We have liftoff!" At the Indy 500, the announcer shouts over the roar of the engines, "The race is underway." My favorite horseracing announcer used to scream as the horses lurch from the starting gate, "And they're off!"

On day 20 of our project to generate $1 million cash in 184 days, we finally got two calls from our first mailing of 100 packages. A pastor from a Southside Chicago church and the executive director of a small not-for-profit organization called, referenced the mailing and asked us about the services we offer. After a brief chat, each invited me to make an appointment to meet in person to discuss in detail the services we can offer. So we've achieved two small victories - a response to the mailing and an invitation to schedule a face-to-face meeting.

I did some research on direct marketing response rates and learned that 2 responses out of 100 mailings is about average. Of course, generating a phone call is only step one; the object is to convert a prospect into a paying client. I know that people spend money with people they like and trust, and that the face to face meeting will be the key to closing the sale, to establishing trust and the feeling in each of these prospects that I can offer them something of value.

Because I've had a lot of experience in "pitching" services to clients, I know that for most small clients, price becomes the key factor in whether or not they hire me and pay me a retainer. My goal is to propose a fee for my services that I consider fair and reasonable. I don't pitch "lowball" fees any more because I discovered that, besides leaving me feeling cheated and dissatisfied when I offer a fee that is less than what I feel should be charged for the work, if clients perceive your fee as being too low, they will be suspicious of your competence and ability to deliver on the services you offer.

I also resolved for myself that any client who won't pay me a retainer (at least 50% of any fee we negotiate), isn't serious about hiring me. Especially in the services consulting field, I've learned that a client demosntrates how impressed they are with your services, prior track record, presentation, and value as a professional services provider by whether or not they agree to seal the deal with a letter of understanding and a retainer payment. My experiences have demonstrated that serious clients will always sign a letter of understanding and pay you a retainer.

So we've got two potential clients and two appointments on Monday. We'll let you know what happens.

Day 20 - $0.00 Income
Two responses to the mailing.
Day 21 - $0.00 Income
Two appointments set with prospects for July 24, 2006.

Do We Have Our First Client?

2006-07-21T07:49:00.000-05:00

We received two calls yesterday (July 20th) from our mailing. The follow-up happens today! Let's see what happens.

Day 19 And Counting - Eliminating The "Famine" Periods!

2006-07-19T20:32:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow will be 20 days into the project, and we haven't acquired a single client from our first mailing. I'm not really nervous or disappointed in our progress so far; if you've been following the blog, you know that we didn't really get our mailing out until a few days ago; illness and family matters interfered with the smooth launch of the project. All of my entrepreneurial life, I've experienced many periods of the proverbial "feast or famine." One reason I am excited about launching this project is that with the success of the project I hope to finally eliminate those "famine" periods.

When I was by myself of course I could handle the "down" times of the entrepreneurial life more easily (or at least I thought I was handling those valleys - as I look back they probably were harder on me than I admitted at those times). Now, with a 3-year old, 8 year old and 10 year old asking for dollars every minute and bills hitting the mailbox on a monthly basis, those short money periods hit especially hard.

I believe that on December 31, 2006, when I count up the cash totals from our six-month project, one by-product of its success is that we'll kiss those "famine" periods goodbye.

100 Clients From Newspapers, Magazines And Directories!

2006-07-18T20:16:00.000-05:00

I've reviewed the past 20 years of my business life, and one truth jumps out: the more clients you have and potential clients you are attracting, the more successful your business operations are and will be. A simplistic truth but one that the vast majority of would-be entrepreneurs I've ever known don't seem to accept.

That's why I like the client-acquisition mentality this project allows me to promote - and why I think that the techniques we'll put into action for acquiring and capturing the attention and buisness of clients are the key to why we'll reach our goal in December 2006.

I've been building a contact list of potential clients by picking up local community newswpapers, shoppers, business cards and community business directories. I consider new business owners a particularly fertile client source. I learned that new business owners who create a business under an assumed name must advertise the new business name and their ownership in the business classified ad section. So from a classified listing placed by a new business owner, I can get the legal business name, legal owner's name, business address and owner's address - absolutely free! Wow!

Building The Client List - Tips And Strategies

2006-07-17T05:05:00.000-05:00

A client that pays you for what you do or sell - the paying client is the engine that drives any successful business enterprise. A painful lesson I've learned - clients that don't pay aren't clients, they are liabilities that will kill your spirit and sink your business aspirations.

How can we identify, entice and capture clients that can and will pay us for our services or products? In launching my project, I know I have to use what Jay Conrad Levinson calls Guerilla Marketing strategies to build my client base, since I don't have any money yet to create or purchase newspaper ad space or tv/radio time.

I'm studying Levinson's Guerilla Marketing book and website. Seth Godin is a marketing guru who seems to be well-regarded, so I'm reading his blog. Shel Horowitz (Frugal Marketing) and Robert Allen (Multiple Streams Of Income) are two other sources from which I'm culling tips and strategies. I want to learn as many helpful ideas as I can.

More on our client list development in the next post.

Hooking Up New Blog Promotional Tools!

2006-07-16T22:39:00.000-05:00

Every day you learn something new. I read an article on blogging by Brent Leary in the Black Pages Monthly Newspaper and picked up info on two excellent blog marketing tools: Feedblitz and Feedburner. One tool allows subscribers to receive your new blog posts automatically through their e-mail addresses; the other turns your blog into an online feed that can contain your blog posts, photos and other add-ins, allows you to track your blog visitors and does a great deal more.

I've had this blog over five years now; when I originally started it on Blogger, I posted entries sporadically, which I hear is true of most bloggers because I really didn't understand what a blog was and how I could use it effectively as a communications tool and journal. As a columnist, I've written thousands of words intended for a one-way communcation between myself and an audience I thought would be interested in what I wrote. Now I see that a blog can be much more effective communications tool than a column can ever be, because through a blog, you can create an interactive communications link between yourself and a much wider audience than could ever be reached with a column in one or even one hundred newspapers. Through these new promotional tools, I can share my ideas, tips and strategies and people can comment, send me feedback and ideas that enrich me and hopefully everyone who follows my blog.

My project is providing me an opportunity to do with this blog what I always wanted to do with my columns: create a dialogue about business development, wealth creation and success that can really have a far-ranging impact.

Day 16 total: $0.00 income so far.

Day 12, 13, 14, 15 - Mailing Materials Are Finished!

2006-07-15T20:05:00.000-05:00

I finally finished the five flyers for the mailout. I'm mailing the flyer package to a list of 100 targeted clients. The five flyers describe grantwriting, business plan writing, investment packages, organizational development, and business/not-for-profit startup.

I chose these services because they reflect my work of the past 15 years. Since about 1991, I've completed tasks reflecting those services for hundreds of individuals starting for-profit and/or not-for-profit business enterprises. I'm planning to offer those services through new info channels and promote them differently than in past years. I believe that the new promotional strategies and tools I've found and will use (strategies and tools that are available to anyone, by the way) will drive revenues and profits to levels that for me are unprecedented. As I work through the new strategies, I'll share some insights with you.

Alex Tew says that to achieve great success, you have to create and own a totally new idea or concept that no one else has thought of. Doing so worked for him. I think you can also put a new marketing twist on tried and true concepts.

Tew was a natural marketer and promoter who compartmentalized a unqiue view of a webpage and sold it to others. Most of us aren't natively blessed with those skills. But many of us do conjure up uniquely beneficial insights that only we can see. Those insights emerge when we break out of our comfortable secure thoughts and start "thinking outside the box". Andcthey become financially beneficial when we expand our sphere of influence to others who can recognize our "out of the box" insights and how they add value to their lives or activities. Unfortunately we live in fear of being unique and different. Too many of us want comfortable conformity.

Farrah Gray, the 21 year old Reallionaire, says that "comfort is the enemy of greatness." At 6 years old, he learned how to overcome the complacency that he saw ensnaring people in mediocre, desperate lives. How did he achieve the financial plateaus few others even envision? He made a decision and a choice. He allowed himself to think outside the box and visualize the improbable as possible. As an eight-year old entreprenreur, he printed up and distributed cards that described himself as a "21st century CEO." By the time he was 12, he had a Wall Street Office, and he was a millionaire before his 15th birthday. Today at 22, he wears $1,500 suits and $1,600 watches. He believed that anything is possible and then went out and actualized his beliefs.

Day 12, 13, 14, 15 Totals: No income to report yet. We'll see you tomorrow with the latest updates and insights.

Sickness Stopped The Show - But We're Back On Track!

2006-07-11T10:08:00.000-05:00

Unexpected sudden illness can knock you out and make you realize how important your health really is. I caught a nasty bug on Friday which had me vomiting, feeling chills and fever at the same time (a strange sensation). I didn't touch the computer for four days. I finally started feeling a bit better Monday night.

Today is Tuesday, the 11th, and I'm back at it and, after reading that Kyle McDonald, the guy who set out to trade a red paperclip for a house, actually succeeded, more determined than ever to make this project work.

Here's where we are:

Starting Cash Bank: $100.00
Start Date: July 1, 2006
Spent: $50.00 - Design/Printing Of Flyers
$39.00 - Stamps
$5.00 - 100 envelopes
Balance: $6.00 Cash Income: $0.00
Day 7: Balance: $6.00
Day 8: Balance: $6.00
Day 9: Balance: $6.00
Day 10: Balance: $6.00

Day 5, 6 and 7 - Still In The Prep Stage

2006-07-07T22:06:00.000-05:00

I'm keeping up my posting schedule more efficiently than I ever have and I think the project is motivating me to maintain an up-to-date chronicle. I'll be able to look back on my postings as a written record of what took place - a diary of activities.

Days 5, 6 and 7 feel full and rushed because of many different family duties that eat time and challenge my concentration. But there are lessons for me to learn about time management and prioritizing my activities. So these responsibilities bring valuable insights as well.

I'm still working on the five (5) flyers for the mailout. I'll review my e-mail addresses and select the first hundred targeted addresses. I've looked at some e-mail management programs; Worldcast from Fairlogic is a very powerful e-mail program with an automatic e-mail verification feature. Topica, Yahoo Groups, MSN Groups and ICQ all offer e-mail discussion lists.

I have a web hosting service through which I can send out e-mail announcements using PHPList. I want to be able to just send out a bunch of e-mail messages but in this era of cracking down on spam I've got to look at a double opt-in process. Constant Contact and GOT Corporation offer e-mail management packages; I see a lot of businesses using Constant Contact.

My phone situation is interesting. I've got access to free Skype, Gizmoproject and LycosPhone inbound calling numbers as well as an inbound number from K7 that works along with two other sites I've signed up for: Podomatic and Youtube.

I've also signed up with Ourmedia.org to host some audio/video podcasts I'm preparing. I can call out on LycosPhone for 1 cent a minute and I've got access to Yahoo, MSN Messenger, and ICQ outbound calling. So I can make and receive many calls for a nominal fee. I loaded up ACT 2000, the old sales contact management software some months ago - I've got thousands of corporate and faith-based names and addresses and thousands of addresses on paper labels.

So I think I've got the tools and resources to stretch my initial $100.00 investment for maximum impact.

Daily totals:

Day 5: $100.00
Spent: $94.00
Income: $0.00

Day 6: $100.00
Spent: $94.00
Income: $0.00
Balance: $6.00

Day 7: No change so far.

Day 3 and 4: Off For The Holiday!

2006-07-05T10:23:00.001-05:00

Did you enjoy your Fourth of July holiday? I had a good time playing a bit of softball (actually umpiring a pickup game with my kids and their cousins), eating some barbecue and snatching some R & R. Today, it's back to work on the project - finalizing the design of the flyers, narrowing the target mailing list to the first 100 potential clients, and reviewing our e-mail lists. We've installed Quicken and set it up to manage the cash expenditures and revenues from our venture.

As part of the project, we will set up ten web domains as mini-websites and service resources for our clients; we haven't generated enough cash yet to pay for the domains, but the domains opne of three priority purchases; the other two are a new cell phone and voice mail number for receiving calls.

Day 3 and 4 totals:

Cash Position: $100.00 on July 1, 2006
Spent: Flyer design and printing: $50.00
100 stamps: $39.00
100 envelopes: $5.00
Cash balance: $ 6.00

Letters will be mailed by July 7. We're launching an e-mail campaign to 100 selected e-mail addresses; the e-mails will contain an attached *.pdf file of one of the flyers we designed. We'll

The goal: recruit and acquire the first ten paid clients for our new venture.

Day 3 - $100.00 Invested, No Income Yet

2006-07-03T21:16:00.000-05:00

It's the holiday and a slow day. Still trying to get to the writeup and layout of the flyers for the mailing package. I'm working on getting Quicken up for tracking cash flow. We need to identify client candidates for the mailing.

Day 3: $100.00 Total
Day 3 Total Allocation: $94.00
Day 3 Income: $0.00

Day 1 and Day 2 - First Two Days Of The Project

2006-07-02T04:17:00.000-05:00

I missed posting on July 1, not intentionally because I had every intention of posting but the day's distractions caught up with me. These distractions made me reflect on just how hard it is to focus a singular concentration on a goal when you have family matters tugging at you like shopping for food, kids begging for your attention, (I took my son to the park today and played a little softball - lots of fun with him learning to swing a bat for the first time!), your wife staring at you and demanding her time as well.

But one reason I'm doing this is for them and I don't think that the everyday minutiate of family life should or will prevent me from accomplishing my goal or chronicling the journey in these posts.

I did do some things today. I found my starting $100.00 and also discovered that I have Quicken and Microsoft Money on the new computer a friend donated to use on a community project (yes, there are people out there who still do those things, and I thank God for VP, you know who you are). I accidentally deleted the software and had to reinstall it, and the reinstall took about 30 minutes. But I'm finalizing the setup now. I first used the DOS version of Quicken a decade ago to create a balance sheet for a non-profit agency I'd started. For my money, it still beats the hell out of Microsoft's offering, so I'm using Quicken for tracking all the income and expenditures.

I'll open a bank account for the cash I'm accumulating as soon as I collect enough revenues from my initial promotional efforts. Since nearly all the banks offer online account management that links transaction data to Quicken, I can handle the cash management chores much more easily than would have been possible even two years ago.

My stategy for leveraging this initial cash bank of $100.00 is this - use the cash to create a wide-ranging promotional strategy that allows me to promote myself and the services I will be offering in as many ways as the $100.00 will allow. Ultimately, a successful business depends on attracting and converting paying customers; sounds simple and obvious, but it's amazing how few business people really zero in on this truism. How many new entrepreneurs have you watched spend thousands of dollars on computers, furniture, office space, even staff, before they've earned the first dollar in revenue from a paying customer?

The mistake I think many new business people make is confusing the steps of physically setting up a new business with the fact of being in business. You are in business when you are generating a positive cash flow (profits) from customers paying you for the products and services you offer. The less you invest in non-revenue-producing startup expenses the more of your startup cash you can invest in the #1 task of operating and managing a new enterprise - customer acquisition.

That's why I'm investing my $100.00 like this:
Design and printing of 1000 promotional flyers - $50.00 ($25.00 for the design time and $25.00 for making copies at Office Depot/Staples)
100 stamps #@ .39 each - $39.00

I need a business phone number for calls, a mailing address, and a fax number. I already have several e-mail addresses, an Internet connection, and two computers - a laptop computer and desktop computer.

My wife is calling me. I'll be back in a few.

Ten Minutes To Launch Of The Million Dollars In 184 Days Project

2006-06-30T23:56:00.000-05:00

Less than ten minutes to project launch. It's on. Wish us luck. Let's see if we end up with a million dollars on December 31, 2006.

48 Hour Countdown: 2 Days To Project Launch: $1 Million In 184 Days

2006-06-28T19:28:00.001-05:00

I haven't posted in a couple weeks (which, thankfully, is shorter time between posts than the two years between posts in 2004). I'm starting the countdown to the kickoff of my project to generate $1 million cash in 184 days (am I tipping the IRS off to something big? Naw, I'm not doing anything but reaching for the American dream, and if I make it, the feds will benefit - and maybe they'll finally do something useful with my tax dollars!)

Saturday's the launch, and here's how we'll chronicle the 184 days:

Starting amount: $100.00

We'll post each day's starting cash bank and ending cash balance by 9:00 p.m. each night on the blog.

Of course, we'll record each day's revenues and expenditures.

We'll use Quicken for tracking our transactions - income and expenses.

Up to the first $100,000.00 cash revenues, we'll handle the bookkeeping. At $100,000.00, we'll turn the cash management chores over to a CPA who will handle the recordkeeping the rest of the way to the $1 million.

Our CPA will prepare and manage all the records - clients, income, expenses, and net cash totals, and prepare monthly balance sheets.

At the end of the 184 days, on News Year's Eve - December 31, 2006 - our CPA will close and reconcile the books and we'll report a total - whatever amount is in our main account ledger, whether it's $1.00 or hopefully $1 million.

We won't post every detail of every transaction, but we'll feature some of the more interesting strategies we use to generate our daily cash totals. Remember we're starting a business that has one goal - to generate $1 million cash within 184 days (6 calendar months).

Achieving that goal, while it sounds ambitious, is, as we'll show you, eminently achievable, but requires planning, innovative and timely execution of targeted money making strategies, and a focus on finding and satisfying the customers we solicit who come to do business with us. After all, it's their belief and investment in the products and services we offer that will determine how successful our venture becomes.

Tomorrow: one day before the launch of our project, we'll share some simple yet effective marketing strategies that are FREE TO YOU, but are powerful revenue generators. Hey, we're starting with $100.00, so every penny has to work as hard as a dollar. See you tomorrow with the first of 184 days of tips, strategies, success stories, and a countdown to $1 million cash in 184 days.

Identify Your Skills, Talents And Believe In Yourself!

2006-06-10T18:16:00.000-05:00

"I'd like to go into business for myself but what could I do that someone else would buy?" Because I hear this statement from dozens of people every week. I've decided to explore two key issues: One, how to identify your marketable talents. And two, why it's important to develop positive self-belief.

I'm constantly amazed at how often I hear people say they work on jobs they do not like and make salaries with which they're not satisfied. When I suggest that they identify their real skills and interests - the activities that excite their passions - and focus their daily activities on finding jobs or starting businesses that will make their skills pay off, they stare at me with blank expression; as if to say working at what one likes is a blasphemy instead of a blessing.

The truth is every one of us has a talent or skill we enjoy, have mastered, and are renowned for among friends and relatives. Whether it's singing, writing, cooking, repairing cars, organizing parties, even babysitting, we use these talents or skills everyday. These same skills are your most valued assets and the keys to your success as a self-employed person.

Therefore, an individual who wants to go into business should begin by taking a daily activities inventory. Consider how you spend your time everyday. Are your daily activities consistent with your interests, goals and aspirations?

For example, do you like to type? Start a secretarial service! Are your friends always asking you to bring that favorite pie or dish to the family picnic? Why not consider starting a catering service? Do you receive a constant string of compliments for your fashion flair, color sense or custom designs? Maybe your future is as a fashion designer or image consultant.

To create your own job, you have to look at yourself as a collection of skills and talents that have value to yourself and others. Take note of the traits that others notice about you and comment on (either in admiration or envy). In the process of identifying your skills and talents, rank them in terms of your interest in them and their perceived value. Eventually, you will discover the assets that comprise your personal platform for supporting the business or job that can secure your economic future.

One saying we use at Self Employment Leadership Forum, Inc. (SELF) is "Before You Can Believe It, You've Got To Believe It." This means that before you can sell anything to anyone else or achieve any kind of success, you first have to sell it to and believe in yourself. A disturbing insight is how hard it is for people to see value in themselves and, therefore, their skills and talents. Ironically, in self-evaluation, people often devalue their own skills and talents, while others recognize, covet and even envy these attributes.

One student in our workshop, Denise Cribbs, related how at least 25 people had at one time or another asked her to bake a cake or prepare a meal for a church social or other event. Those people were acknowledging her cooking talents, offering, in most cases, to pay her. Yet Cribbs talked herself out of taking advantage of this economic opportunity, saying, "Cooking? No one would pay me to do that." Most of you will recognize this scenario of self-doubt and personal devaluation.

In another case, there's the late Azell Mance, a self-employed businessman fo 33 years, who created a second career for himself by writing and marketing a new book, "How To Buy A Car Without Getting Cheated". Mance managed to get the book into select Chicago Walgreens Drug Stores and bookstores and had inquiries about the book from as far away as California and Canada. He accomplished this despite the fact that he'd never written a book before in his life, and he published the book himself without support from a publishing house.

Mance's story illustrtes that he possesses two valuable attributes: an unquenchable belief in himself and the drive to turn his self-belief into profits. The seeds of success are within you and your belief in self. Jesse Jackson said, "Your attitude determines the altitude your aptitude will carry you to." To find your millions, you have to learn that you can achieve anything you believe you can.

Entrepreneurship Your Dream? Part Two

2006-06-10T17:28:00.000-05:00

The Success Manifesto. Seven Concepts To Contemplate.

Our seven-part "Success Manifesto" sums up the attitude and course of action we believe you must take if you want to achieve the success you've always fantasized you wanted.

1. "You can be no more than what you choose to be...and no less than what you believe you are." A famous novelist once wrote, "We are the authors of our own lives." Only YOU can determine what you are and where you go. You make that determination with every act of your life, even if you don't act, because not to decide is, in fact, to decide...to do nothing.

2. "Each step on the road to success is a process of self-understanding...and a realization of self-worth." Successful people will tell you that achieving goals begins when you understand your fears...and confront them. Once they recognized that they were ususally better than they thought they were, and could accomplish more than they thought they could, they began to move ahead. So can you.

3. "Success is a habit...just like failure. Success is the habit of doing the right thing. Failure is the habit of doing the easy thing." Success is not easy to achieve. That's why so few people achieve it. Hard work, discipline, sacrifice...these traits are the habits of people who succeed.

4. "To be it and achieve it, you've got to believe it," James Allen said."Thoughts are things. As a man thinketh, so he is." If you can't visualize yourself as being successful, you will undoubtedly become what you visualize...a failure. So changing your thinking is key to changing your life.

5. "A dream without a plan is just a fantasy." Wally Famous Amos, the cookie millionaire, said, "Where do you start (in becoming successful)? Start right where you are." That's the first step. The second step is to create a plan to move beyond that point.

6. If you want to change your life, the place to start is with yourself. The saying goes, "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always be where you've always been." You need to reprogram your life, replace old patterns with new expectations.

7. "Association creates assimilation - if you want to learn to fly like an eagle, you've got to stay away from crows!" Negative thinking grows like weeds in an untended field. Banish those people in your life that starve your self-confidence and feed your self-doubt.

Starting a business takes more than wishing, hoping, dreaming and praying. The Bible teaches us that God helps those who help themselves. You can wish and hope for your life to be what you want it to be, or you can commit to a plan to make your dreams happen.

Entrepreneurship Your Dream? Stop Fantasizing And Start Doing!

2006-06-10T14:48:00.000-05:00

REPRINTED FROM AFRIQUE NEWSMAGAZINE - 1993

Part 1: A Dream Without A Plan Is Just A Fantasy.(tm)

Most you know our signature saying at S.E.L.F., Inc. is "a dream without a plan is just a fantasy(tm)." This saying grew out of our esperience with hundreds of people who say they dream of success in their own businesses. However, we've learned that most people's hopes never progress beyond the daydreaming stage. Why? It's found that fear and a tendency to cling to familiar yet unfulfilling ways of living are crutches people lean on, sabotaging their own ambitions.

Previously, we've talked about practical methods of starting your own business. Yet there are many of you who still refuse to believe in your ability to put these simple methods to work.

The Capacity To Dream

The capacity to dream, to visualize an alternative reality, is a talent unique to man. Dreams, it has been said, are where ideas and desires begin and man has always been driven by them. Our awareness and evaluation of who and where we are and the perceived shortcomings of our current lifestyles, compel us to dream about being more, achieving more, being in better positions than we perceive we are at the moment.

We live our lives by the saying, "the grass is always greener on the other side," as so many of us wish we were somewhere else, doing something else or living a life we perceive to be more fulfilling and successful.

Nonetheless, most of us still live in dungeons of unrealized aspirations and frustrations, paralyzed into inaction by fears and doubts about our capacity to change our lives.

So we continue to do what we have always done, living our lives in the old comfortable, familiar patterns. We succumb to our own insecurities. We allow the skepticism of friends and family to crush our ambitions, because so many of us measure our own self-worth by what other people think of us. We succumb to the pressure to conform to the common denominator at which everyone else exists because it's easier, even if we admit to ourselves that place is not really where we want to be.

If It Is To Be, It's Up To Me.

It is our own self-perception and indecision, then, that has determined where we are now, and the eventual course of our lives. If we refuse to take action to make our lives better, it's not someone else's fault, it's our own fault for allowing our insecurities to take control. As Rev. Robert Schuller often says, "If it is to be, it's up to me."

Believing In The Dream

2006-06-09T19:58:00.000-05:00

If you've been an entrepreneur for any length of time you've likely had the conversation with someone: "When are you going to get the big break?" What that person (usually a spouse or other family member) is really asking is: "When are you going to make some real money? You've been pursuing this entrepreneurial dream for.." "..years and you still haven't made that million dollars you say you're going to make. What's the problem?"

I said I was going to stop dealing with those questions because in one way there's no point in talking with someone who is trapped in the myopia of low expectations but that's not true of everyone, I've come to realize. Some people just don't or can't see it because they exist in a world where limitless possibilities are a pipedream. They can't see themselves having the opportunity or ability to put themselves in the position to own a successful business, purchase a big home, buy that flashy luxury car.

I've been reading some of my old columns from the 1990s. Thirteen years ago, I think I was somewhat more willing to address the issues and doubts of people who didn't believe in the dream. I'm trying to find that energy again. So until I do, I'll be posting some of my old columns and sharing with those of you who weren't readers in the 1990s the thoughts and ideas that I shared with aspiring entrepreneurs in those days.