Experience Passive Income

Put a mental check mark next to each of the following statements that describe you and your business:

• In order to generate income, you need to put in a certain number of hours.

• The more hours you work, the more money you will make.

• Your business makes money only when you are working.

The more check marks you've made, the stronger your connection between time and money is. If you've got a strong time-money link going on in your business, this can actually mean that you end up working a lot harder or longer than you need to for the money that you make.

You've heard the saying "time is money" plenty of times. I'm willing to bet you've said it yourself in the past few weeks. The problem is that as long as you agree with that statement in any way, shape or form, you inhibit your ability to create wealth.

And, if you don't address this, so many of the things you want to achieve will remain out of your reach.

If you are well-versed enough to have spent time thinking about this topic, and already know that you need to break away from the "time is money" attitude, that's good. But it's still not enough. It's not just what you know on the surface, it's about discovering those deeper beliefs that are blocking you from reaching your potential. That is the challenge.

The challenging part is quieting down the voice in your mind that says things like, "It's not supposed to be this easy. You haven't earned it. You don't deserve it. To generate this money, you need to be putting in a certain number of hours." It just keeps telling you that the money that you earn should be proportional to the time that you've put in.

You can only earn passive income, money that you make even when you aren't working, when you dispel this subconscious belief.

And you can only dispel that belief when you begin to have experiences that transition you from trading your time for money to being in a position where money comes in 24/7.

Whether you take a nice break after having a baby, or you're flying on a plane; whether you're sleeping or on holiday, the money keeps coming in.

I first got interested in the concept of passive income back in the early 90's. A boy friend I had at the time was involved in a network marketing organization, and he talked a lot about residual income and passive income.

While I understood this in theory, it took a few years before I got to the point of really experiencing it. There's a big difference between knowing about something in your mind and experiencing the same thing in your body.

If you want to know what it's like to ride a rollercoaster, for example, you can Google "rollercoasters." You can watch videos of rollercoasters from around the world or interview people who have ridden on rollercoasters. You can buy books and study about rollercoasters.

But, you are never going to know what it's like to ride the rollercoaster until you buy a ticket, strap yourself in, close your eyes and just go! You will know what it's like to ride the rollercoaster when you experience it.

That's why it's so important to get you to that point of your first passive sale. Once you've made that first sale - and it might only be a trivial amount - it might only be £50, that's when your life is going to change. Because so much happens inside of you in that instant when you experience it.

Bernadette Doyle is a marketing specialist who helps entrepreneurs become client magnets and attract a steady stream of their ideal clients. She publishes a free, weekly newsletter for trainers, speakers, coaches, consultants, complementary therapists and solo professionals. If you'd like to receive invaluable tips and advice on how to attract clients with ease, register at http://www.clientmagnets.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bernadette_Doyle

Small Business Branding - Things to Consider

Branding is a term often tossed about the business world that describes how customers and other companies view a certain business. There are some consulting companies that do nothing but help other companies develop their brand in order to help a business grow. However, many owners of small businesses are reluctant to invest in any type of formal branding procedures because it may seem like a waste of money, especially if funding is low.

But small business branding does not have to cost a fortune. In fact, every business has a brand, whether they have paid to develop that brand or not. Your brand begins the moment you make your first sale, and you must work diligently to make sure that your company's reputation only gets better from that point on.

Your company's brand is really a broad overview of how others in the marketplace, including your customers and competitors, view your company. Your brand is composed of many factors, including the quality of your products, the level of customer service you provide, your personal qualifications to sell or develop the product and your commitment to bringing additional high quality products to the market. Other factors include your company mission statement and how well you stick to it, along with how you rank next to other companies.

Another contributing factor in your brand is the appearance of your company's logo. Logos are visual representations that are designed to encompass the core essence of your company and set it apart from other companies. The best logos are instantly recognizable and don't require a great deal of customer analysis in order to understand what it means.

If you run an online business, you can learn a lot about how customers view your company by studying your website traffic over a period of time. You can recognize repeat customers and visitors, while running tests to determine if certain sales or products pull more traffic than others. Another way to build customer loyalty and to improve your small business branding is to offer more value for less money than your competitors or even offer heavily discounted or free products and services.

These are some of the many factors that work together to form your small business brand, and it may feel overwhelming to consider improving your brand. The good news is that not all branding development requires a major overhaul of your company. A good place to start refining your brand is with your company mission.

Chances are you started your company because you felt passionate about offering the product or service that your company sells. What makes your product different or better than other similar products out there? What user experience do you offer that sets your company apart form your competitors? Is your company the top performing company in this niche, or quickly gaining ground on the leader?

These are some of the many questions you can consider when it comes to improving your small business branding. Focus on improving and streamlining each aspect of your company's customer experience and you will be on your way to developing a strong and successful brand for your small business.

For further reference, read on small business branding and visit http://www.smallwebusiness.com/. Plus you can learn many great tips for starting a successful small business.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Paulus_Sarwana

Branding Is a Balancing Act

All too often companies find themselves with a brilliant strategy - on paper at least. When they try to implement the strategy, they run into obstacles such as channels, partners, technology, infrastructure, competition, or lack of resources. The reverse is also true. Companies can spend so much time executing that they lose sight of the business objective. They might end up with an awesome website, but no real results.

Effective brands, that is, brands that deliver on their promise and help companies sell more stuff, are those that find the right balance between strategy and tactics, between images and words, between effect and affect. Every brand is made up of several different components: visuals, messages, voice, and personality, for example. Each of these is integrated into specific deliverables like a company logo or tagline or photographic style. The trick is to find the right combination and then apply them consistently throughout everything you do.

It starts with strategy - how will you achieve your objectives? Depending on your brand promise some strategies are going to be more effective than others. For example, you probably won't see Nascar investing in "environmentally-friendly" campaigns; you would expect it from Starbucks. There are lots of different ways to achieve your objectives. Make sure that your strategies align with your brand promise and that you can actually implement them. This is what I call the "duh" test. Run the strategies by a colleague, friend or spouse and see what they think. If they ask you a question and your reaction is "duh"...you might want to rethink the strategy.

Next come the tactics - what exactly will you do to implement the strategy? If your strategy was to grow your market share by expanding into new markets, a tactic might be to partner with a complementary brand in the new market to jump start your brand recognition. This might require a joint email campaign, billboards and local ads on radio and TV. The key is to align the tactics with the strategy so that everything is in support of the brand. Otherwise, you end with a lot of random activities - all of them are probably pretty cool on their own - but together they don't deliver.

To be valuable, strategy must be practical, and tactics must be integrated. With the right balance of strategy and tactics, your brand will grow and so will your business.

ABOUT LAURA LOWELL: Laura has been building brands and businesses for over 20 years. She writes about marketing and branding in her blog "The Rules...According to You" and has been featured on Oprah & Friends, ABC, The Huffington Post, and more. As the President of Impact Marketing Group, she helps entrepreneurs and small businesses build their brands and businesses with consulting, tools and training. Learn more at http://lauralowell.com Laura and her family are currently living in Malaga, Spain. They will return to their home in Los Gatos, CA the summer of 2010. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Laura_Lowell

Your Brand is Being Created With Or Without You

Brands are dynamic. Customers use our products and services. They like or dislike their experience and they say so, publicly. This type of customer engagement directly impacts your brand. In this way, your brand is being created with or without you. You can't control it. What you can control is how you deal with it.

You've probably heard the saying "feedback is a gift". It's also a gift that you can't return or exchange if you don't like it. It's yours to deal with whether you like it or not. Since most brands have some sort of an online presence today, customers have a very public option when providing feedback. They can leave their comments on your 1-800 customer feedback line or send their concerns to some anonymous email. More likely, however, they will post their issues to a website, blog or user group.

When customers provide this type of public, direct feedback, we basically have two options:

1. Engage - and hopefully influence the nature of the discussion

2. Remain passive - and let the discussion continue without us

I encourage companies to engage in the discussion. That's the point of the internet, social media and online communities. We have the capability to have these discussions in real time with many more customers than we could have ever have done in the past.

Yet, there are hundreds of examples where companies have had negative comments appear online about their products and they chose not to engage, or even acknowledge, the feedback.

In most cases this sort of "head in the sand" approach doesn't work out very well for the companies involved. They appear aloof, disconnected and uncaring. Customers post comments on corporate blogs and social media sites, and the damage is done. Companies then spend a ton of money and time trying to "manage their online reputation" - which usually means feeding good content into these sites in order to push the negative stuff off the first few pages of search results.

While this may work in some cases, it seems to be that it is a lot more effective, not to mention efficient, to just engage in the conversation to begin with! Here are some ideas to help you proactively manage your brand online:

Pay attention: create Google alerts for your company name, brand names, etc. Monitor where you brand is being mentioned and in what context. It's next to impossible to influence how the brand is being represented if you don't know where you're being mentioned.

Be active: identify the key places where your brand is being mentioned and get involved. Participate in discussions relevant to your brand but not where you are directly mentioned. You will get insights into the tone of the conversations and understand more how to position your brand appropriately.

Acknowledge feedback: when someone posts something negative, acknowledge their issue. Let them know you heard what they were saying. Explain your response, but don't try and justify your position, as you will only serve to annoy them further.

ABOUT LAURA LOWELL: Laura has been building brands and businesses for over 20 years. She writes about marketing and branding in her blog "The Rules...According to You" and has been featured on Oprah & Friends, ABC, The Huffington Post, and more. As the President of Impact Marketing Group, she helps entrepreneurs and small businesses build their brands and businesses with consulting, tools and training. Learn more at http://lauralowell.com

Laura and her family are currently living in Malaga, Spain. They will return to their home in Los Gatos, CA the summer of 2010.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Laura_Lowell

Keep Your Guests' Business by Giving Them Custom Beach Towels

The resort and hotel business is a competitive industry and in today's economy many people are cutting back on extra spending such as unnecessary trip. They are also being much more selective with the places they choose to do business with. Things like superior service, extra amenities, and physical location can be what catches potential customer's eyes and gets them to consider staying with you. With so many options available to your prospective customers, it doesn't hurt to add a little more incentive for them to choose your business and out sell your competitors.

Promotional items can give you the advantage you need to obtain consistent business and keep customers loyal to you. Why are these types of items such a benefit to most companies? It is simple. People love the idea of a free gift. When they receive a gift for choosing your business, they feel special and see their purchase or money spent as more of a value. There are many types of items you can use to accomplish this feeling and increase business. Choose something that your customers can use and that will serve as a reminder of the great service they received and how fun their stay was. This will help encourage them to come back and see you again.

One product that can serve this purpose very well in the lodging business is custom beach towels. These are an item your customers can use during their stay and then take home with them to use over and over again. You can either leave them on the bed or some other appropriate place for them with a thank you card or hand them out when guests check in. They can also be given as a parting gift at the end of the guests stay. How you provide them to your customers is completely up to you and there are many unique and interesting ways to do so.

Since you are in the lodging business, giving custom beach towels to your customers provide another advantage to your company. It means that your guests are less likely to steal towels. This is a common problem at resorts and hotels that are in primary vacation areas. People want to take a free item with them to serve as a souvenir and reminder of their trip. Often hotel towels are plush and enticing. By giving your guests a personal towel with your name and company logo on it, you can drastically decrease or possibly prevent this from happening at your business. As a result, you get to save money and reduce overhead costs.

Your customers will be very happy to receive this special souvenir and useful gift. They will be more likely to continue giving your business and recommend you to people they know. This means your reputation will spread by positive word of mouth and you will be first on people's minds when it comes to finding a place to stay. Stay one step ahead of your competitors and keep people coming back by giving them this great gift of appreciation for their business. The effort will not be left unnoticed.

Custom beach towels are very handy promotional gifts that can help customers choose you over your competitors. When you offer an item like this, guests feel like their business is valued and appreciated. Not only will they be happy during their stay but they will have something to take home and remember you by for future trips. As an extra bonus, your guest will be less likely to steal towels or other items which means less hassles for your employees and no loss of money for your company. To find more innovative ways to build your brand though promotional items, promotional pens, promotional bags, business gifts, trade show giveaways and other promotional products, visit USImprints.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Delina_R._Cunningham

Promotional Notepads - Spread Your Business Name Far and Wide

It is said that writing is one of the hobbies that preoccupy men, although some may be hesitant to admit it. This belief needs no scientific study to affirm it. All that is needed is a cursory look at a typical day in any person's life. That person may be a student, an office worker, a doctor or nurse at a hospital, a construction worker, or a simple housewife. When there comes a time when they need to badly remember something, there is a great chance that they will write it down. And unless technology has leapt too far forward, anyone planning to write something will need a pen and a paper. This is just one instance that makes promotional notepads a great investment when there is a need to introduce a product or business all over the place.

Advantages of Using Promotional Notepads

Advertising is just one of the many facets in doing business. But even if it is just one of the elements in conducting business, it is also one of the most expensive. As a matter of fact, companies do spend a large share of their budget for advertising purposes. Consequently, consumers have to pay more for the product because some of it goes to the advertising of the product in the first place. This is why a lot of companies are looking for means to minimize their advertising expenses and using promotional notepads is just one of the many things that can help them in this case.

Typical promotional notepads measure only about 5 inches by 3 inches. There are some notepads may be even smaller. This small size of the notepad means that one can bring it anywhere. One may stuff it to one's pocket or place in a purse and take it out whenever there is a need to write something. Convenience therefore is one essential element of promotional notepads that makes them an excellent advertising medium.

Perhaps the greatest advantage that using promotional notepads brings is that in terms of spending on the part of the company, only a small amount has to be allotted for the purpose so this allows the company to save a lot. Moreover, being usable and essential, promotional notepads will help the company to become endeared to the people. Promotional notepads therefore is one great way to advertise without causing products and services to be costly.

Matthew Zande is an advertising and marketing expert. He is widely knowledgeable about promotional products, corporate gifts, and the like for which people have the need or want to possess. There are so many products that fill the gap between "wanting" and "needing," and people should be aware of the many choices they have when it comes to merchandising items. Finding the right product for the right interest is the key to the world of merchandising, and his articles help shed some much-needed light on what products work for what people.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Matthew_Zande

Using a Business Broker Vs A Real Estate Agent

The process of selling a business is typically much different than selling a house or other type of real property. The differences are quite deep and it takes a thorough understanding of the nuances of selling businesses to be successful at it. That being said, many people are still unaware of the differences between a business broker compared to a real estate agent. This article will explore some of those differences.

Unique skill-set required to sell a business
If you wish to sell a business then dealing with a professional that has the skill to do so is the best course of action to take. Successful business brokers must be knowledgeable about how to value a business. This requires a level of acumen in valuation principles, financial statement analysis, taxation implications, inventory and goodwill issues, and so on.

Real estate valuation is a different process altogether. There is usually good comparable market data available whereas with small private businesses, there is not.

Multiple Representation
Most business brokers in Canada work under the banner of multiple representation. This means that they represent the buyer and the seller in the transaction. This is done for a number of reasons, the most common being that since selling a business is so specialized a field that a qualified business broker has better success at consummating a deal if he or she worked both ends of it.

Marketing a business for sale
To successfully sell a company, it requires a robust network of potential buyers and influencers such as accountants, lawyers, wealth managers, bankers and others to draw from. Often, it takes the fullest effort possible on behalf of a business intermediary in order to put a deal together. Because of this, usually professionals that are specialized in the field of business brokerage are best equipped to market and find buyers for a small business for sale.

Business brokerage not geographic-centric
The field of real estate is often specialized by professionals who specialize in a specific territory or geographic location. For instance, a good real estate agent may know a town or neighbourhood quite well. Conversely, in the field of business brokerage, a business broker may specialize in a price range or industry such as manufacturing or distribution and not be confined necessarily to a tight geography in which to operate in.

The process of selling a company usually does require the services of a business intermediary that is specialized in the field and the profession is remarkably quite different than the process of selling real estate.

If you are looking at buying or selling a business in Toronto in Ontario, Canada there are some issues that business brokers Toronto may be able to assist you with.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=A._Brown