impact4life

Financing Your Business

2010-08-05T06:34:00.000-07:00

Your ability to do accurate costing for your products and services, and then to set proper prices for what you sell, can make all the difference between profits and losses, success and failure. The name of the game is "profit." Everything you do in your business, every number that you calculate and consider every point of focus and concentration must be aimed at generating profits of some kind.

Become a Numbers Person:
Most entrepreneurs are not "numbers" people. They have little patience for the details of financial statements and accounting. In order for you to be successful, you must master the numbers in your business. You can hire bookkeepers, accountants, and financial advisers to help you, but you can never abdicate the responsibility of fully understanding every penny and every dollar that comes in and out of your business.

Determining Your Costs:
Often the person who makes the fewest mistakes in business is the one who succeeds the most. You don't have to be an entrepreneurial genius to be successful. You just have to master what you are doing.
One of the entrepreneurial successes is to offer a high margin product or service of some kind. It is to produce, acquire, sell, or distribute a product or service from which you earn high profits on the sale of each one. In this way, you have a substantial cushion built in to protect you from losses.

Direct Costs:
These are the costs of good sold. If you make a product or buy it from a manufacturer or distributor for $5, including all costs of shipping, transportation, insurance, and delivery, and you sell the product for $10, your cost of goods sold is $5. This is fairly easy to calculate.

Indirect Costs:
These are the costs that are not attributed to all of the products or services that you sell, not any specific ones. Indirect costs can be costs of salaries, rent, telephones, utilities, marketing, advertising, shipping, delivery, and many others.

Fixed Costs:
These are the costs that you incur each month whether or not you sell a single item or generate a single dollar of revenue. Your fixed costs include salaries for your permanent staff, rent, utilities, many operational costs, and the costs for outside services, plus your own personal income from the business.

Variable Costs:
These are the costs that increase or decrease depending on your level of business activity. These costs are incurred only when a sale takes place. They can include costs of good sold, sales commissions, delivery costs, and other costs that can be attributed, directly or indirectly, to the cost of each product or service you sell.

Semi-Variable Costs:
These are costs that are partially fixed and partially variable. They can include part-time labor when you are busier than normal, additional utility, telephone, and mailing costs, and additional costs for outside services.

Sunk Costs:
These are expenses that you have incurred that are gone forever. They can never be recovered. They are like an unattached anchor thrown overboard that sinks to the bottom of the ocean and is irretrievable.

The Seven Methods of Time Power

2009-10-15T01:06:00.000-07:00

There are seven methods that you can use to help develop the habits of time management. The more you think about and practice these methods, the more rapidly you will program yourself to be efficient and highly productive.

First:
Remember that your self-image determines your performance. You always perform on the outside in a matter consistent with the picture you have of yourself on the inside.
Practice visualizing and imagining yourself as you want to be, not as you may have been in the past. You can actually change your self-image permanently by repeatedly visualizing yourself as someone who is highly efficient and effective.

Second:
Remember that it takes about twenty-one days of practice and repetition to form a new habit pattern. It has taken you your entire lifetime to become the person you are today, with the time management habits you have at this moment. It takes time and commitment to change, and for your subconscious mind to accept the new habits.

Third:
Promise yourself that you are going to become excellent at time management. Promise yourself that you are going to be punctual, and that you are going to concentrate on your most important tasks. Then, promise others that you are going to be more effective and efficient in the future.

Fourth:
In developing the habits of time management, start in just one area where poor time management is holding you back. Don't try to change everything at once. Change just one habit or activity where you know that improvement could be very helpful to you.

Fifth:
Launch your new time management habit strongly. Never allow an exception once you have decided that you are going to become excellent in a particular behavior. Never let yourself off the hook.

Sixth:
Use the “trial and success” method rather than the “trial and error” method. The trial and success method requires that you learn how to succeed by failing, and then by learning from your mistakes. Analyze your reasons for poor time management. Ask yourself, “What are the obstacles to my operating more efficiently in this area?” Take some time to reflect on recent behaviors.

Seventh:
You must absolutely believe that you can and will become excellent at time management. The Law of Belief says that “Your beliefs become your realities.” The more intensely you believe that you can and will become excellent at time management, the more rapidly this belief becomes your reality. If you hold to your belief long enough and hard enough, it will eventually materialize as new behaviors with regard to time.

Get Connected to the World

2009-10-09T04:50:00.000-07:00

This is an amazing time to be alive. The technological explosion of the nineties, boiling over into the 21st century, has changed almost every aspect of our lives. On balance, this change has improved our standards of living, extended our expected lifespan, and made our lives easier. But it can still be a little overwhelming at times.

The New Age:
We have moved at incredible speed from the Industrial Age, where you probably started your life, into the Service Age, and through it into the Information Age and the Communication Age. Today, we are surrounded by the world of technology, computers, the Internet and wireless communications. Every advance in technology leads to even greater faster advances in communication until it is almost impossible to keep up.

Computer Skills are Learnable:
If you are not yet computer literate and Internet fluent, make a decision, this very minute that you are going to develop these skills. Look upon modern technology as simply different ways to communicate with other people. Your job is to figure out how to use modern technology to improve the quality of your life in the areas that are important to you.

Just Do It!:
Today, you can get set up with a computer, open an Internet account, and be communicating with your family and friends in a couple of hours. You can create your own email address and then send messages all over the country, and all over the world. You can get in touch with almost anyone in a few seconds, at the touch of a button.

Shop till you Drop:
One of the most exciting uses of the Internet is for shopping. You can check out the price of any product or service for sale anywhere. You can buy at the best price available and have it shipped directly to your home in a couple of days from anywhere. Women especially use the Internet for shopping more and more because it is so easy and convenient.

Get Started Today:
Today, virtually everyone is on the Internet and has an email address. When you make a decision to get connected to the world, you will be amazed at how easy it is to learn, and how much enjoyment and pleasure you will get from it. Just give it a try.

Persist Until You Succeed

2009-09-24T03:39:00.000-07:00

The most important single quality of success is self-discipline. Self-discipline is having the ability within yourself, based on your strength of character and willpower, to do what you should do when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not. Character is the ability to follow through on a resolution after the enthusiasm with which the resolution was made has passed.

Persistence is Self-Discipline in Action:
Perhaps the greatest display of self-discipline is persisting when the going gets tough. Persistence is self-discipline in action. Persistence is the great measure of individual human character. Your persistence is, in fact, the true measure of your belief in yourself and your ability to succeed. Each time that you persist in the face of adversity and disappointment, you build the habit of persistence. You build pride, power, and self-esteem in your character and your personality. You become stronger and more resolute. By persisting, you become more self-disciplined. You develop within yourself the iron quality of success, the one quality that will carry you forward and over any obstacle that life can throw in your path.

Get Going and Keep Going:
Orison Swett Marden wrote in his book, “There are two essential requirements for success. The first is 'go-at-it-iveness' and the second is 'stick-to-it-iveness'” Referring to the quality of persistence he wrote, “There is no failure for the man who realizes his power, who never knows when he is beaten; there is no failure for the determined endeavor, the conquerable will. There is no failure for the man who gets up every time he falls, who rebounds like a rubber ball, who persists when everyone else gives up, who pushes on when everyone else turns back.”

Adversity is What Tests Us:
Throughout history, great thinkers have reflected on this paradox and have concluded that adversity is the test that you must pass on the path to accomplishing anything worthwhile. Herodotus, the Greek philosopher, said, “Adversity has the effect of drawing out strength and qualities of a man that would have lain dormant in its absence.” The very best qualities of strength, courage, character, and persistence are brought out in you when you face your greatest challenges and when you respond to them positively and constructively.

How to Increase your Productivity

2009-09-23T09:49:00.000-07:00

Develop clear goals and write them down.

Because higher productivity begins with clear goals, goal setting is a key component of our coaching program. As you know, a goal must be specific and measurable to be effective in guiding your behavior. It must reflect your beliefs and be within your power to achieve.

Write a clear action plan.
Next, if you want to turbo-charge your productivity, make sure you have a clear, written plan of action. Every minute you spend in careful planning will save you as many as ten minutes in execution.

Set your priorities.
The third step is to prioritize your list. Analyze your list before you take action. Identify and start with the high-value tasks on your list.

Concentrate and eliminate distractions.
In this step, choose a high-value activity or task, start on it immediately, and stay with it until it is done. Focusing single-minded attention on one task allows you to complete it far more quickly than starting and stopping.

Lengthen your workday but increase your time off.
By starting your workday a little earlier, working through lunchtime, and staying a little later, you can become one of the most productive people in your field.

Work harder at what you do.
When you are at work, concentrate on work all the time you are there. Don't squander your time or fall into the habit of treating the workplace as a community where socializing is acceptable.

Pick up the pace.
At work, develop a sense of urgency and maintain a quicker tempo in all your activities. Get on with the job. Dedicate yourself to moving quickly from task to task.

Work smarter.
Focus on the value of the tasks you complete. While the number of hours you put in is important, what matters most is the quality and quantity of results you achieve.

Align your work with your skills.
Skill and experience count. You achieve more in less time when you work on tasks at which you are especially skilled or experienced.

Bunch your tasks.
Group similar activities and do them all at the same time. Making all your calls, completing all your estimates, or preparing all your presentation slides at the same time allows you to develop speed and skill at each activity.

Cut out steps.
Pull several parts of the job together into a single task and eliminate several steps. Where you can, cut lower-value activities completely.

Mastering Meetings with Small Groups..... By Brian Tracy

2009-08-27T07:39:00.001-07:00

Your ability to speak well and persuasively in small meetings can have an extraordinary impact on your life and career. In business, others continually assess and evaluate you. Consciously and subconsciously, they are upgrading or downgrading their opinions of your personality, ability, competence, and level of confidence. For this reason, you must think of business meetings as important events in your career.

Small-Group Meetings are Important
Many of your presentations and speaking engagements will be with smaller groups of people, sometimes as few as one or two others. These meetings, just like a large talk or presentation, must be prepared for and planned with care. How you perform can make or break your career.

Prepare Thoroughly
The starting point of meeting effectiveness is thorough preparation. Preparation is immediately obvious to everyone who attends, as is the failure to prepare. If you are running the meeting, plan it. Prepare an agenda. Select the people whom you are going to invite and inform them of their expected contributions. Organize the meeting as though it were an important part of your business life, because it is.

Consider the Importance of Seating
Arrive early at the meeting so that you can choose your seat with care. If it is your meeting, sit with you back to the wall, facing the entrance so that you have visual command of the room and you can see everyone entering and leaving. When I hold meetings, especially if they are important, I specifically designate where each person is going to sit in the meeting. This ensures that I have the most important people sitting in the most important places.

Be Punctual
Start on time. Assume that the latecomer is not coming, and begin. Thank the participants for coming and give the reason for the meeting. Explain the structure of the meeting and how it will be conducted. Give the end time for the meeting so that everyone knows when it will be over.

Avoid Criticism or Negativity
If you are leading a meeting, you have tremendous power. Everyone looks up to and defers to you as the leader. Everything you say is magnified and multiplied, either in a positive or negative way. When other people are contributing to the meeting, you should nod, smile, and support them.
When you sit opposite a person--across a table or desk, for example--the furniture can act as a physical and psychological barrier to communication. It subconsciously suggests that you are on opposite sides and that your points of view are antagonistic. To resolve this dilemma, one of the best things you can do is ask to sit kitty-corner to the key person. When you sit next to a person rather than opposite him, unseen psychological barriers seem to drop and you communicate with greater warmth and friendliness.

Increase Your Three Types of Energy

2009-07-20T03:58:00.000-07:00

Most successful people can be characterized as having very high levels of energy. Since energy is the fuel with which everything is achieved, there seems to be a direct relationship between energy levels and levels of accomplishment. It is hard to imagine a tired, burned-out person achieving much in life. On the other hand, energetic, positive, forward-moving individuals seem to get and enjoy far more of the things life has to offer than does the average person.

Physical Energy is Basic:
We have been led to believe that there is basically one kind of energy. We supposedly replenish this energy by sleeping at night, and during the day, we use it up again. It is as though we are machines powered by batteries, and each night we recharge our batteries for seven or eight hours. However, there are some problems with this view of energy. The biggest problem is that it does not deal with the fact that there are actually three different kinds of energy, each of which is necessary for maximum performance. The three main forms are physical energy, emotional energy, and mental energy. Each of these energies is different, but they are interrelated, and they depend on each other.

The Sweat of Your Brow:
Physical energy is raw energy, coarse energy, bulk energy, what we call "meat-and-potatoes" energy. Your physical energy is what you use to do physical labor. It is the primary energy applied by men and women who earn their livings by the sweat of their brow.

The Source of Enthusiasm:
The second form of energy is emotional energy. This is the energy of enthusiasm and excitement. This is the energy that lends sparkle to the life of an individual. This is the energy that is necessary for feeling love, happiness, and joy. Largely, it is your emotional energy that makes life enjoyable for you. In fact, almost everything you say and do is determined in some way by an emotion, either positive or negative.

The Requirement for Creativity:
Mental energy is the energy of creativity, of problem solving and decision making. You use mental energy to make sales, write reports and proposals, plan your day and your week, and learn new subjects. Your level of mental energy is a major determinant of the quality of your life.

Conserve Your Best Energies:
The reason why most people fail to realize their potential in life and work is because they burn up their energy at the emotional level, or the physical level; therefore, they have very little energy left over for mental activities. Most people burn up their emotional energy through the expression of negative emotions. Negative emotions are like a fire that burns up their energy so quickly that they have very little left with which to think positively and constructively. In fact, one five-minute uncontrolled outburst of anger can burn up as much energy as an average person would use in eight hours of work.

Your job is to think continually about how you can stay calm and positive, and work smoothly and efficient, so you can have more mental energy to do the things that are most important to you in life.

Dealing With Overwhelm

2009-07-16T04:49:00.000-07:00

Too Much to Do, Too Little Time:
The most common form of stress that managers experience is the feeling of being overwhelmed with far too much to do and having too little time to do it in. In fact, "time poverty" is the biggest single problem facing most managers in America today. We simply do not have enough time to fulfill all our responsibilities. Because of budget limitations, staff cutbacks, downsizing, and competitive pressures, individual managers are forced to take on more and more work, all of which appears to be indispensable to the smooth functioning of our company or department.

Become An Expert:
The solution to this problem of work overload is for you to become an expert on time management. There is probably no other skill that you can learn that will give you a "bigger bang for the buck" than to become extremely knowledgeable and experienced in using time management practices.

Be Open to New Ideas:
The most foolish manager of all is either the manager who feels that he has no time to learn about time management or, even worse, the manager who, while being overwhelmed with work, feels that he already knows all that he needs to know about the subject.

Never Stop Learning:
The fact is that you can study time management and take time management courses for your entire business life and you will still never learn everything you need to know to get the most out of yourself while doing your job in the most efficient way.

The Keys to Time Management:
The two indispensable keys to time management are: 1) the ability to set priorities; and 2) the ability to concentrate single-mindedly on one thing at a time.
Since there is never enough time to do everything that needs to be done, you must be continually setting priorities on your activities. Perhaps the very best question that you can memorize and repeat, over and over, is, "what is the most valuable use of my time right now?"

The Best Question of All:
This question, "what is the most valuable use of my time right now?" will do more to keep you on track, hour by hour, than any other single question in the list of time management strategies.

Start With Your Top Tasks:
The natural tendency for all of us is to major in minors and to give in to the temptation to clear up small things first. After all, small things are easier and they are often more fun than the big, important things that represent the most valuable use of your time.
However, the self-discipline of organizing your work and focusing on your highest value tasks is the starting point of getting your time under control and lowering your stress levels.

Becoming A Master of Persuasion------By: Brian Tracy

2009-06-30T01:28:00.000-07:00

Persuasion power can help you get more of the things you want faster than anything else you do. It can mean the difference between success and failure. It can guarantee your progress and enable you to use all of your other skills and abilities at the very highest level. Your persuasion power will earn you the support of others.

You Have Two Choices:

There are always two choices: either you can persuade others to help you or you can be persuaded to help them. It is one or the other. Most people are not aware that every human interaction involves a complex process of persuasion and influence. And being unaware, they are usually the ones being persuaded to help others rather than the ones who are doing the persuading.

The Key to Persuasion:

The key to persuasion is motivation. Every human action is motivated by something. Your job is to find out what motivates other people and then to provide that motivation.People have two major motivations: the desire for gain and the fear of loss. The desire for gain motivates people to want more of the things they value in life. They want more money, more success, more health, more influence, more respect, more love and more happiness.Human wants are limited only by individual imagination. No matter how much a person has, he or she still wants more and more. When you can show a person how he or she can get more of the things he or she wants by helping you achieve your goals, you can motivate them to act in your behalf.

A Presidential Insight:

President Eisenhower once said that, "Persuasion is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do, and to like it." You need always to be thinking about how you can get people to want to do the things that you need them to do to attain your objectives.

The Fear of Loss:

People are also motivated to act by the fear of loss. This fear, in all its various forms, is often stronger than the desire for gain. People fear financial loss, loss of health, anger or disapproval of others, loss of the love of someone and the loss of anything they have worked hard to accomplish. They fear change, risk and uncertainty because these threaten them with potential losses.

Use Dual Motivation:

Whenever you can show a person that, by doing what you want them to do, they can avoid a loss of some kind, you can influence them to take a particular action. The very best appeals are those where you offer an opportunity to gain and an opportunity to avoid loss at the same time.

Selling to Today's Customers

2009-06-25T03:27:00.000-07:00

What is selling? In its simplest terms, selling is the process of helping a person to conclude that your product or service is of greater value to him than the price you are asking for.

How Markets Work

Our market society is based on the principles of freedom and mutual benefit. Each party to a transaction only enters into it when he feels that he will be better off as a result of the transaction than he would be without it.

The Three Options

In a free market, the customer always has three options with any purchase decision. First, the customer can buy your product or service. Second, the customer can buy the product or service from someone else. Third, the customer can decide to buy nothing at all.

Convincing the Customer

For the customer to buy your particular product or service, he or she must be convinced that it is not only the best choice available but he must also be persuaded that there is no better way for him to spend the equivalent amount of money. Your job as a salesperson is to convince the customer that all these conditions exist and then to elicit a commitment from him to take action on your offer.

Customize Your Sales Presentation

The field of professional selling has changed dramatically since World War II. In a way, selling methodologies are merely responses to customer requirements. At one time, customers were relatively unsophisticated and poorly informed about their choices. Salespeople catered to this customer with carefully planned and memorized sales presentations, loads of enthusiasm and a bag full of techniques designed to crush resistance and get the order at virtually any cost.

Treat Them With Respect

But the customer of the 1950s has matured into the customer of the 21st century. Customers are now more intelligent and knowledgeable than ever before. They are experienced buyers and they have interacted with hundreds of salespeople. They are extremely sophisticated and aware of the incredible variety of products and services that are available to them, as well as their relative strengths and weaknesses of those products. Many of them are smarter and better educated than most salespeople and they are far more careful about making a buying decision of any kind.

The Need For Speed

In addition, they are overwhelmed with work and under-supplied with time. Because of the rapidly increasing pace of change, down-sizing, restructuring and the competitive pressures surrounding them, customers today are harried and hassled. They are swamped with responsibilities, impatient, suspicious, critical, demanding, and spoiled. To sell to today's customer requires a higher caliber of sales professional than has ever before been required. And it is only going to become tougher and more complicated in the months and years ahead.

Strategic Thinking By: Brian Tracy

2009-06-17T05:32:00.000-07:00

The Quality of Thoughtfulness:
The ability to think and plan strategically is perhaps the most important single skill of the effective executive. In a longitudinal study of leaders who, in retrospect, made the best and most effective decisions, the single quality that stood out from all others was the quality of "thoughtfulness."
Thoughtfulness may be defined as a careful concern for the secondary consequences of each decision and each action. This is the essence of strategic thinking.

Your Most Powerful Tool:
The most powerful tool that you as an executive have to bring to bear on your work is your mind - your thinking ability. Everything you do that sharpens and hones your ability to think with greater clarity before acting, will benefit you and help you to move upward and onward more rapidly in your career.

Use a Two Pronged Approach:
The best way to approach strategic thinking is two pronged. This means to work simultaneously on the personal and the corporate.
Increase Your "Return On Energy":
In personal terms, strategic planning is an exercise in increasing "return on energy." Your greatest single asset is your earning ability. And your earning ability is nothing more than the total of the mental, emotional and physical energies that you can apply toward getting valuable results for yourself and your company.

Anything that you can do to increase your return on energy invested will increase your overall levels of effectiveness and contribution in every area of your life, especially, and most importantly in your work.

THE POWER OF THOUGHTS.

2009-06-15T02:28:00.000-07:00

What are thoughts?

• Thoughts are imaginations but they are more than imaginations.

• Mental perceptions.•

The way we perceive things, people, situations, environments and ideas.

• Our interpretation of conditions and interactions.

Thoughts are pictures from the mind, which can either be constructive or destructive.

Thoughts are more than imaginations as some think it is. Your thoughts may be holding you in bondage today or as a result of your thoughts, you may be experiencing a glorious liberty today.

Until you change a man's thinking (mindset/orientation), you can not change him or his estate. Romans12:2. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.The quickest way to affect or influence your thoughts is through sight.

You've got to see something; you can't take or have what you cannot see.

Joshua: 6 vs. 1-2. Now Jericho was straitly shut up because of the children of Israel: none went out, and none came in. 2And the LORD said unto Joshua, "See", I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valour.

It’s not coincidental that God told Joshua to see; he was not blind but He told him to see! Meaning, he had to see it, he had to see the "done deal", he had to see and relate with Jericho as a city whose king and mighty men were already captured by them! He had to do that with the power of thoughts to back it up.

God couldn't change Abram's situation until he could see and comprehend what God had planned for him. One day, God told him, "I have given you the south, the north, the east, the west. As far as your eyes can see”. Genesis 13:14 -15.

Thoughts are pictures of the mind.

Genesis 15:2-6. God told Abraham, count the stars because you going to give birth to stars they are not going to be ordinary people. Then for the first time, Abraham got the picture of what God was saying; he saw it! God can only do for you what you see.

"The extent of your vision is the boundary of you possession". That's why He gave to you a mind. You have to think. You can discipline your mind, you can determine which thoughts to have and believe. That's the difference between the one who turns out as a drug addict and the one who turns into a businessman.

Think about that farmer that comes to his garden and thought, 'I like it because I have tomatoes' and everything grows and he leaves the weeds to grow. You have to decide to mount guard over your mind. Don’t let every thought come in. DON’T ACCEPT EVERY THOUGHT THAT COMES INTO YOUR MIND.

The thoughts you choose to allow, that's what will affect you. It doesn't matter what happens to you or what situation you find yourself, you have a choice to remain there or to come out of it.

You must choose the way your thoughts should go. You create your thoughts, "for as he thinketh in his heart so is he". Proverbs 23 vs. 7.You are exactly what your thoughts created. Your thoughts can either keep you poor or lead you in the way of prosperity!It doesn’t matter what situation you find yourself, you have to make a choice to come out of the situation. No, don't stay there! We are talking about thoughts. Think, think!

The Law of Saving

2009-06-12T07:03:00.000-07:00

Financial freedom comes to the person who saves ten percent or more of his income throughout his lifetime.
One of the smartest things that you can ever do for yourself is to develop the habit of saving part of your salary, every single paycheck. Individuals, families and even societies are stable and prosperous to the degree to which they have high savings rates. Savings today are what guarantee the security and the possibilities of tomorrow.

Start With Yourself:
The first corollary of the Law of Saving comes from the book The Richest Man in Babylon by George Classon. It is to "Pay yourself first."
Begin today to save ten percent of your earnings, off the top, and never touch it. This is your fund for long-term financial accumulation and you never use it for any other reason except to assure your financial future.

Develop New Habits Regarding Money:
The remarkable thing is that when you pay yourself first, and force yourself to live on the other ninety percent, you will soon become accustomed to it. You are a creature of habit. When you regularly put away ten percent of your earnings, you soon become comfortable living on the other ninety percent. Many people start by saving ten percent of their income and then graduate to saving fifteen percent, twenty percent, and even more. And their financial lives change dramatically as a result. So will yours.

Take Every Advantage:
The second corollary of the Law of Saving says, "Take advantage of tax deferred savings and investment plans." Because of high and even multiple tax rates, money that is saved or invested without being taxed accumulates at a rate of 30% to 40% faster than money that is subject to taxation. Self-made millionaires, according to Dr Thomas Stanley's book The Millionaire Next Door, are almost obsessive about accumulating their funds in assets such as real estate, self owned businesses and equities that increase in value without triggering tax liabilities.

Action Exercises:

Here are two things you can do to apply this law immediately:
First, begin today to put away ten percent of your earnings. Set up a special account for this purpose and treat your contributions to this account with the same respect that you do your rent or mortgage payments each month.

Second, become a lifelong student of money. Read the best books, take courses and subscribe to the most helpful magazines. Know what you are doing so you can always make intelligent decisions when you invest your funds.

Partnering For Profit

2009-06-12T02:05:00.000-07:00

The way you can stand out from your competitors is for you to position your self as a business part ner, always looking for ways to improve your customer's business.

Help Your Customer's Business:

When you deal with a business person, you can be sure of one thing: that person thinks about his business day and night. It is very close to him. It is dear to his heart. And if you come in and talk to him and ask him questions about his business, looking for ways to help him run his business better, the customer is going to warm up to you and want to be associated with you and your company.

Differentiate Your self from Your Competitors:

As a part ner, you should always be looking to help your customer to cut costs and improve results in his or her area of responsibility. You should look for ways to help your customer in non-business areas as well. You should position your self as someone who cares more about the success of your customer than anything else, even more than you care about selling your product or service. This approach to partnering in profit with your customer is a key way to differentiate your self and to keep your customer for the indefinite future.

Practice the Reciprocity Principle:

There is a principle of reciprocity in business that is very powerful. It is simply this: If you do something nice for someone else, they will feel obligated to do something nice for you. You should be looking for opportunities to go the extra mile, to do more than you are paid for, to put in more than you take out. By extending your self, you improve your positioning in the customer's mind and increasingly differentiate yourself and your company from your competitors who are after the same business. If you do this long enough and strong enough, you will eventually develop the partnership to the point where your competitors don't have a chance against you.

Personal Skills you'll need to improve perfomance

2009-06-09T03:31:00.000-07:00

Do you know that employers are looking for workers who have that special something: the skills, tendencies and attributes that help to keep productivity and profits up. Yes all of them are; no employer wants to waste funds in paying an employee that is not adding to the bottom line of the organization. The higher your skills, the more competitive you become at the market place. You decide where you work, you choose the company you want to work with- it all depends on you skills.

Below are a list of the skills that will make you top your colleagues at the work place.

Carefulness: Do you have a tendency to think and plan carefully before acting? This helps with reducing the chance for costly errors, as well as keeping a steady workflow going.

Cooperation: Willingness to engage in interpersonal work situations is very important in the workplace.

Creativity: You've heard of "thinking outside the box"? Employers want innovative people who bring a fresh perspective.

Discipline: This includes the ability to keep on task and complete projects without becoming distracted or bored.

Drive: Businesses want employees who have high aspiration levels and work hard to achieve goals.Good attitude: This has been shown to predict counterproductive work behaviors, job performance and theft.

Goodwill: This is a tendency to believe others are well-intentioned.Influence: Groups need strong leaders to guide the way.

Influence includes a tendency to positively impact social situations by speaking your mind and becoming a group leader.
Optimism: A positive attitude goes a long way toward productivity.

Order: "Where did I put that?" A tendency to be well organized helps employees to work without major distractions or "roadblocks."

Safe work behaviors: Employers want people who avoid work-related accidents and unnecessary risk-taking in a work environment.

Savvy: This isn't just about job knowledge, but knowledge of coworkers and the working environment. It includes a tendency to read other people's motives from observed behavior and use this information to guide one's thinking and action.

Sociability: How much you enjoy interacting with coworkers affects how well you work with them.

Stability: This means a tendency to maintain composure and rationality in stressful work situations.

Vigor: This is a tendency to keep a rapid tempo and keep busy.

Books for the week

2009-06-08T05:15:00.000-07:00

"There is only one way to succeed at anything and that is to give everything."
-- Vince Lombardi, American Football Coach

Below is a list of books I'll recommend us this week. We'll do a review of one of the books next week. I encourage us to read at least one of them.
The books will help you in working towards achieving your goal in life.

Enjoy them!

Time Tactics of Very Successful People by B. Eugene Griessman
Who Moved My Cheese by Dr. Spencer Johnson
Time Power by Brain Tracy

Developing A Great Character

2009-06-03T03:37:00.001-07:00

Being the Best In Every Area:
What is character? Your character is the degree to which you live your life consistent with high, life-enhancing values. A person who lacks character is one who compromises on higher order values in favor of lower order expedience, or who has no values at all. Your adherence to what you believe to be right and true is the real measure of the person you have become to this moment.

Define What "Excellence" Means to You:
Let us say that one of your values is "excellence." Your definition of excellence could be, "Excellence means that I set the highest standards for myself in everything I do. I do my very best in every situation and under all circumstances. I constantly strive to be better in my work, and as a person in my relationships. I recognize that excellence is a life-long journey and I work every day to become better and better in everything I do."

Organize Your Actions:
With a definition like this, you have a clear organizing principle for your actions. You have set a standard by which you can evaluate your behavior. You have created a framework within which you can make decisions. You have a measuring rod against which you can compare yourself in everything you do. You can continually grade your activities in terms of "more" or "less." You have a clear target to aim at and organize your work around.

Decide What You Want for Your Family:
It's the same with each of your other values. If your value is your family, you could define this as, "The needs of my family take precedence over all other concerns. Whenever I have to choose between the happiness, health and well being of a member of my family, and any other interest, my family will always come first."

Keep Focused:
From that moment onward, it becomes easier for you to choose. Your family comes first. Until you have fully satisfied the needs of your family, no other time requirement will side track you into a lower value activity.

Shape Your Own Character:
The wonderful thing about values clarification is that it enables you to take charge of developing and shaping your own character. When your values and goals, your inner life and your outer life, are in complete alignment, you feel terrific about yourself. You enjoy high self-esteem. Your self-confidence soars.When you achieve complete congruence between your values and your goals, like a hand in a glove, you feel strong, happy, healthy and fully integrated as a person. You develop a kind of courage that makes you completely unafraid to make decisions and take action. Your whole life improves when you begin living your life by the values that you most admire.

Moving Upward and Onward....... Brain Tracy

2009-06-01T05:33:00.000-07:00

Don't Sell Yourself Short:
It's not what you have but what you do with what you have that will determine your success or failure. Abraham Maslow, the great psychologist said that the story of the human race is the story of people selling themselves short. He said people have a tendency to settle for far less from life than they are truly capable of. Many people are spinning their wheels in careers where they should be moving rapidly onward and upward. Here's how you can put your career on the fast track.

Be the Best At What You Do:
Which leads us to the next point. If you want to reach the stars in your career, you have to become excellent at what you do. You have to pay any price, go any distance, spend any amount of time necessary to "be the best." Extraordinary rewards only go for extraordinary performance; average rewards for average performance; below average rewards, insecurity and failure for below average performance. And here's a vital key, you are being paid today exactly what you're worth - no more, no less. If you want to earn more, you must increase your worth, your value to others.

The Key to Motivation:
The reason why choosing the right career, why doing what you love to do is so important, is because unless you really care about your work, you will never be motivated to persist at it until you become excellent. And until you become excellent at what you're doing, you can't move ahead.

The Key to Peak Performance:
The antidote to these fears is the development of courage, character and self-esteem. The opposite of fear is actually love, self-love and self-respect. Acting with courage in a fearful situation is simply a technique that boosts our regard for ourselves to such a degree that our fears subside and lose their ability to effect our behavior and our decisions.

A Quick Guide to Public Speaking .....Dayo Olomu

2009-05-27T08:52:00.000-07:00

"I have a dream..." Who can forget those immortal words spoken by Martin Luther King, Jr. on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. on August 28, 1963. Dr. King managed to influence millions of people and change a nation, not because he was rich, or in a position of power, but because he was an effective public speaker. Dr. King and other highly influential people before him, like Winston Churchill, Mahatma Gandhi and Abraham Lincoln, just to name a few, mastered the art of public speaking and earned their place in history.

Mastering the art of public speaking may not make you world famous, but it will most certainly help you to succeed in anything you do.In just about every well-paid position, some form of public speaking is required whether it be presenting to the board of directors, giving a group sales presentation, speaking to a committee, or just a group of peers.

The large majority of people are either terrified or just very uncomfortable with public speaking. This means the high paying jobs and the advancements are left for people like us who know that we can become effective public speakers if we put our minds to it. Better yet, we can even learn to enjoy it. So let's jump right into my quick guide to public speaking.There are three general styles of speeches: impromptu, manuscript, and extemporaneous.

In an impromptu speech, you have little to no time to prepare. For example, your boss asks you, on the spot, to bring the rest of the team up to date on what you have been working on the last week. If possible, it is best to gracefully excuse yourself for a few minutes and jot down a few key points. Then, you can be sure to cover the important points without making it sound as if you have nothing to share.

The second type of speech is a manuscript speech, which is written like a manuscript and meant to be delivered word for word. This is fine for public figures where every word uttered is vital, but when it comes to building a connection with the listeners, an extemporaneous speech is the best way to go.

This kind of speech uses ideas to trigger thoughts rather than exact words. Knowing the material well will allow you to present a speech in a way that best keeps the listener's attention while allowing you to make changes based on the response of the listeners. Both the extemporaneous and manuscript styles have their own benefits so choose the style that best fits your content and your personality. Impromptu speeches should be left for impromptu situations only.If you remember just one thing about public speaking remember this: have a point. All too often speakers stand up in front of an audience and blabber out one long stream of consciousness.

Since we are masters at goal setting by now, consider your point the goal of your speech. Do you want to influence your audience? Do you want to sell them something? Do you just want to entertain them? Know your goal and build your speech around it. Here are some other suggestions that I have found to be key elements of any successful speech or presentation.

• Have an introduction, body, and conclusion. Follow the age-old advice, "Tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you told them." Most people find writing the body first is most helpful, then either the introduction or the conclusion.

• Prepare. You cannot "over prepare". The better you know the material the more confident you will be when presenting and the more flowing the speech will sound. Videotape or record yourself if possible, or at least rehearse by watching yourself in a mirror. When you are delivering your speech live, the same adrenaline that makes you nervous also helps you think better and find the right words to make your speech sound fluent.

• Vary the pace. Vary the pace at which you deliver the speech. Slow down, then speed up. This will keep the listener's attention. Be careful not to talk too slowly or too quickly.

• Have good eye contact. If you have been taught to look over the heads of those you are speaking to, forget it. Good eye contact means making a connection with your audience by looking them straight in the eyes. If the audience is small enough, try to make it a point to make eye contact with everyone.

• Use note cards not notepads. Notepads are bulky, noisy, and most of all, distracting. Use note cards or notes on card stock for extemporaneous speeches. Never be afraid to use notes—even the best speakers rely on notes to ensure they communicate the points efficiently and effectively.

• Anticipate questions. Take the time to think about any question a listener may ask and formulate a positive answer that supports your presentation. It is OK to say you do not know the answer and tell the person you will get back to them if needed. The "I don't know" or "I can't say" answers are most effective when followed by "but I'll tell you what I do know..."

• Try to keep your speech under 20 minutes. Several studies have shown that 20 minutes is about the maximum amount of time listeners can stay attentive, after that, the attention levels begin to drop. Speaking is more stimulating than listening so although you may be excited to talk for longer, the chances are your listeners are ready for a break.

• Establish credibility. Who are you to speak about the subject on which you are speaking? Why should your audience listen to you? Establish your credibility by sharing your credentials with the listeners in a tactful way. For example, "When I was President of XYZ Corporation...", not "I was once the President of XYZ Corporation."

• Have a strong introduction and a strong conclusion. The introduction should be used to gain the attention of the listeners and persuade them to listen to your entire presentation. You are essentially selling them on why they should listen. Be sure you address their needs and not yours. The conclusion should consist of a powerful statement, quotation, anecdote, or other attention grabber. Never end a speech with, "that's all".

• Have a second conclusion prepared. After a speech or a presentation usually comes a question and answer period. Once the questions stop coming, it is best to end on a strong note. This is a great time to get your "last word" in.

• Act on every opportunity you can to speak. Anxiety of speaking is best subsided by experience. Also, volunteering to be the one who gives the speech will get you noticed and you will stand out as the leader. Join your local Toastmasters club (toastmasters.org) for some really great practice.It has been said that most people fear public speaking more than death itself. While this does not mean people would rather be dead than speak in public, as some authors may suggest, it does illustrate why communication of ideas through public speaking is often avoided by professionals.

Those who make it a point to embrace public speaking will have a major advantage over their coworkers and/or competitors. Who knows, the next time an author writes about great public speakers, your name can be on that list!

I like this book!

2009-05-22T06:24:00.000-07:00

I just read a book that got me thinking. The book came in handy when I needed it.
I got the book through a friend who sells books- different kinds of books bibe, business books, motivational books, you name it.

Though I've heard about this book long time ago, I didnt really fancy it or so I thought. Maybe because it looked small, its not massive and al that.

Anyway lets not talk about why I didnt want to read the book, lets deliberate on the now. I mean after reading and digesting the content of the bestseller that looks like a story book.
I got a new perspective about life, a new thinking that has propelled me to take a hold of the Boy's Scout's moto- Be prepared!

This book talks about me, you, your friends, my friends, Colleagues at work, siblings etc. It buttresses the life of anyone you can think about. Its a book that jump starts you as you read. You begin to fix yourself into a particular character and do same for people you know.

WHO MOVED MY CHEESE? by Dr. Spencer Johnson
I just finished reading this book not too long ago and was blessed by it. The book came at a time when change was an issue in my office and I am glad I came across this precious book.
Who Moved My Cheese is a simple story of four creatures- Two Mice and Two little people. The Mice "Sniff and Scurry", "Hem and Ham" the littlepeople. They all ran through a maze in search of cheese to nourish their body and make them happy.

Sniff and Scurry behaved like the mice they were using their simple brains and instincts for their search while Ham and Hem did not disappoint the humans- complex brains with many beliefs and emotions.

Three Skills to Improve Conversation

2009-05-22T06:03:00.000-07:00

One key to becoming a great conversationalist is to pause before replying. A short pause, of three to five seconds, is a very classy thing to do in a conversation. When you pause, you accomplish three goals simultaneously.

The Benefits of Pausing:
First, you avoid running the risk of interrupting if the other person is just catching his or her breath before continuing. Second, you show the other person that you are giving careful consideration to his or her words by not jumping in with your own comments at the earliest opportunity. The third benefit of pausing is that you will actually hear the other person better. His or her words will soak into a deeper level of your mind and you will understand what he or she is saying with greater clarity. By pausing, you mark yourself as a brilliant conversationalist.

Ask Questions:
Another way to become a great conversationalist is to question for clarification. Never assume that you understand what the person is saying or trying to say. Instead, ask, "How do you mean, exactly?"
This is the most powerful question I've ever learned for controlling a conversation. It is almost impossible not to answer. When you ask, "How do you mean?" the other person cannot stop himself or herself from answering more extensively. You can then follow up with other open-ended questions and keep the conversation rolling along.

Paraphrase the Speaker's Words:
The third way to become a great conversationalist is to paraphrase the speaker's words in your own words. After you've nodded and smiled, you can then say, "Let me see if I've got this right. What you're saying is . . ."

Demonstrate Attentiveness:
By paraphrasing the speaker's words, you demonstrate in no uncertain terms that you are genuinely paying attention and making every effort to understand his or her thoughts or feelings. And the wonderful thing is, when you practice effective listening, other people will begin to find you fascinating. They will want to be around you. They will feel relaxed and happy in your presence.

Listening Builds Trust:
The reason why listening is such a powerful tool in developing the art and skill of conversation is because listening builds trust. The more you listen to another person, the more he or she trusts you and believes in you. Listening also builds self-esteem. When you listen attentively to another person, his or her self-esteem will naturally increase.

Listening Develops Discipline:
Finally, listening builds self-discipline in the listener. Because your mind can process words at 500-600 words per minute, and we can only talk at about 150 words per minute, it takes a real effort to keep your attention focused on another person?s words. If you do not practice self-discipline in conversation, your mind will wander in a hundred different directions. The more you work at paying close attention to what the other person is saying, the more self-disciplined you will become. In other words, by learning to listen well, you actually develop your own character and your own personality.

Welcome on Board

2009-05-21T05:23:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

This is to welcome you to my blog -Impact4life.
You may wonder why impact4life?
This is my own way of passing on the barton/ the tourch.
We learn everyday in different ways.
Most times people try to keep to themselves what they have learnt either through a book they read, through messages they listened to or through conversations.

I want to share all I've learnt from both young and old, from great minds, gurus in their fields and even those that are not yet or may not be celebrated.I want to pass on the inspirations I'v got from books written by great authors etc.

But you know what? I cant do it alone, you have ideas and thoughts that you can share with everyone out there.--- So your imput in making this dream a success is welcomed.
Lets impact our world and generation!

Ann.