Bookmark These & Non Negotiables

Recommended because I find what they offer of value and worth a bookmark.

1. Steve Pavlina Self Development
This one is a must see. It's subtitled: Personal Development for Smart People and it is one of the better blogs I've found on the subject. None of the smarmy, touchy-feely crap a lot of personal development sites have nor is it 'I'm the Smart Person & the rest of you are dummies' either. Just articles & challenges to help you make conscious decisions about where you are and take action towards where you want to be.

2. Follow Up Made Easy
If you are looking for a cost effective way to market offline, you can't beat postcards. Most of the time, the postcards you see come in the 'cheap & common' variety. The person who sent it is perceived the same way. That's where this company stepped in to take postcard marketing to a whole new and refreshing level of service. They offer cards that are attractive and colorful for you to send to prospects, clients or special customers that will make your business stand out from the rest.

3. Rocket Spanish
I'm recommending this one because in high school this was the one language that interested me, not French (though they now have both French and German courses). What I like about this is you can take it pretty much anywhere the primary language is Latin based and still be understood. Mauricio is originally from Chile, so you are getting authenticity (authenticity=not a fake) in the quality of the audio. Highly recommended if you need to get up to speed fast.

4. Womans Net
Have you been looking for a site to network with other women? Then you might like what's on offer here. Slowly it's growing and I'm helping to get the word out because I think women just work better when we network in a non-compete environment. Take a look.

That's enough to keep you busy a couple hours. Just getting through Steve's blog will make your blood pressure go up with all the good information you'll get on taking care of you and your business.

Here's a question I'd like you to think about this week: What are your non-negotiables? Uh-oh, Georjina has been drinking too much coffee again. I have but that's not the point! It's just something we all should give some thought. What is it that is a deal breaker for you - in your personal life or your business life?

A deal breaker for me would be repeating to a third party something told to you in confidence. Excuses won't cut it. At that point it's over - no compromise, no my bad and for all intent, you can ES&D (New Yorkers know exactly what that means!) there is nothing further to discuss. Trust is a big non-negotiable for me and maybe for you.

There are many instances when in business we do forget that what we are doing is asking our customers to believe we are who we say we are and therefore trustworthy. But if we market one way and then do business another, essentially we have broken the deal with our customers.

That's it for now and I leave you with this:

Most people struggle with life balance simply because they haven't paid the price to decide what is really important to them.

-Steven Covey

Franchising. A Systematic Business Opportunity

Are you still looking for that "perfect" business opportunity? It may not be perfect but franchising has its supporters and may be what you are looking for. Franchising isn't for everybody but if you would rather have something already in place this is the way to get started.

When we think of 'franchises' most of us know McDonald's or Burger King. If this is your idea of a franchise, you haven't seen where the industry is in 2007! From pyrotechnics to sleep pods, franchising has a whole new face than it did back when you could get into McDonald's for under half a million.

A few of the New School Franchises:
1. 1-800-GOT-JUNK. With a fleet of dump trucks, crew of Junk Hunks (this is what they said, not me) and a sense of humor about hauling away the trash your garbage man won't, this gives a whole new meaning to - Garbage Day.

2. Cereality (312) 893-1234. Remember the cereal commercial with the little boy named Mikey who was busy eating Chex cereal while his know it all sibs questioned it? Well...cereal is back in a big way with this franchise. This franchise takes fast-food off the lunch menu.

3. Metro Naps (212) 239-3344. If naps were your favorite subject in kindergarten and when they started with the power lunch thing in the 80's your mind leaped to power nap - then you'll love this idea. Currently marketed to spas, airports and corporate offices with space age (if you aren't a baby boomer) chairs this is one franchise to watch even if you don't need a nap.

So what is your idea of a perfect franchise? As a Solo Entrepreneur, you must understand yourself first when considering a franchise. How much routine, cookie-cutter, follow these instructions can you take on a daily basis? Many entrepreneurs answer - None!

You may be different and your answer is - Some. Then franchising may hold the answers you are looking for.

And for those of you who (like me) would rather eat a maggot than be told what to do - consider this idea of using a franchise: Additional Stream of Income. Here's what I mean.........

Do you do spring cleaning every year? Guess what - hundreds of people do! From cleaning the garage to carpet shampooing, the list gets longer the more you think about it.

Now consider this idea. What if you had a seasonal or sideline business doing carpet cleaning? or Mini Blind cleaning and service? How about carpet & drapery cleaning? Using the theory of synergy (synergy=all these suckers work together), you could have an additional stream of income that pays for itself.

Let's say you are a solo interior decorator. Nearly all homes now have both mini blinds and drapes. Who do they call to have them cleaned? I can bet they aren't taking them down and doing them in the bathtub! Guess what your additional income stream is - Bingo! Mini blind and drapery cleaning services.

This is only one idea. Remember last year I told you about my neighbor with the truck? Guess what I found on my door this past Saturday morning - A bright florescent green flyer! He's taking appointments now for hauling beginning March 15th to April 20th. My appointment is March 25th!

As I've been saying to you all along - whatever you do never, ever get stuck with one-trick-pony! My online business is research and writing about succeeding as a solo entrepreneur - my other specialty is coaching people making major changes in their lives and my sideline business is being developed. Does it take time? What doesn't? It's a matter of choices - you want your life to work on your terms or you allow other things to dictate how you live your life.

No quote today. I want to give you resources to check for franchising. It may not be for you and that's fine too. Remember: take what you can use...leave the rest!

A. Franchise Chat Pretty good place to get an overview of the franchisee's life.

B. Franchise Guide Founded in 1960, they've seen them all come and go. Membership site for franchisors, franchisees and suppliers to the industry.

C. Franchising Get help making the decision on franchising and has information on being a successful franchisee. Has a 2 day conference in Atlanta coming in October.

D. Blue Mau Mau Calls itself Web's #1 Community of Franchisees and Franchise Wannabees. I can believe it! The forum is pretty active and you'll probably learn more than you want to know about franchising by getting involved.

Fail To Plan or Plan To Fail

Just came from posting this same ah-ha over on Affiliate Paper and realized that if anyone should have a plan - it's Solo Entrepreneurs like us!

Mine is simple - one of those calendars that every store and gas station gives away for free in December! It's a gold mine for me. I pencil in what tasks I want to do every day, every month of the year. Yes it may be faster to do it on the computer (I type 50 words a minute) but it gives me the time to really think through the steps needed to reach my monthly objectives. Then at the end of the month and especially at year-end, I can see exactly what worked for me and what didn't.

Here's a few things that seem to work better for me, take what you can use and leave the rest.
1. Skype. This is was one of the smart things I did to date. For $30 a year (yes, a year!) I can call any landline or cell phone in the US and Canada from my computer. As a solo information marketer and life coach, I'm on my computer more than anywhere else. It stops telemarketing crap that I used to get on my landline too. What happened to that 'Do Not Call' list thing a few years ago?!

2. Squidoo. To tell the truth, this was done today and I'll let you all know if it's doing any good. From a report I have - this is the place to put up a one-page website to get traffic to your sites. We'll see...the jury is still out on this one.

3. Wrote one 500 word article that will be submitted to a directory as soon as this post is finished. This may take a while to see any results however it was on my calendar of things to do and that's the important part of having a plan. You know what you need to do and can just do it.

Hopefully the things being shared with you helps in operating your solo business and maybe give you some things to think about.


That's it for now and I leave you with this:

"Yesterday is History; learn from it. Today is the Present; act on it. Tomorrow is the Future; Plan for it"- Herm Brocksmith

More Business Ideas

The new site, Medicinal Herb Content has been redesigned and like anything else on the net - still needs tweaking.

Here are some more business ideas I found looking around in my 'review' folder in my browser. They may not be what interests you but I'm just the messenger, take what you can use and leave the rest.

My Contact Form. If you are going to do an email newsletter you will need that all important 'sign-up' form on your site. There's a couple ways to do it and if you're comfortable coding websites, then this is a service you may want to check out. They take the manual labor out of creating contact and feedback forms, those pesky 'don't want to format right' questionnaires and a couple other little gadgets you may want to use on your site.

Conquer Your Niche. Doing any kind of marketing online isn't done in a vacuum...even if it is just you! This forum I may have already told you about but it's important that I repeat it again. Make a few mistakes as possible - and learn from someone else's sounds like a great idea to me.

The next two resources I have for you can be done in just about any country you happen to be in or if you've about had it with doing anything online. Plus, and this is a biggie that caught my attention immediately - either one can be done part-time and still make some decent money! Get good at it and before you know it you could be making crazy money from anywhere your mood takes you.

Document Translator. English may be nice for us folks who it is a first language, but if it's your second or third language - help the rest of us! This service claims to offer a premium human translation service with 21,471 native-language translators in 1,171 language combinations. If you are fluent in any language including English, no matter where you picked up the second language from - then hustle your butt on over there and see if it's right for you.

Office Cleaning. This may sound like something you want to hire someone to do, not do yourself and that just might be why you want to take a look at what this guy has to offer.

Sam Rodman is out of Cape Coral FL and has been cleaning-up doing office cleaning...and wrote a manual on how to do it. He gives you forms to estimate jobs to bid on and the manual takes you step-by-step through the process!

Think about it this way: Do you have friends or teenagers? How's your people skills? How many people do you know who might like to earn a little 'something-something' in the evenings or on the weekends to supplement their incomes? If they can push a vacuum and wipe down a desk, you have the staff you need!

That's it for now and I leave you with this

"Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat."- Sun Tzu

Offline & Profitable

Flea Markets. Noo, not those places where everything appears to have come from the city dump! I'm talking about indoor, year-around, permanent selling venues that are making some Solo Entrepreneurs upwards of $50,000 a year part-time! Interested? You should be because if all you have been doing is looking for 'internet' gold, you've been missing some serious cash flow.

Here we go:
1. Start with the Flea Market Guide - You can find this information out for your self by spending a few weeks or months visiting the flea markets in your area, but why bother doing it the hard way? Starting out you don't know what you don't know - learn the details and put your own brain to work on making it happen for you. This is a great place to start, especially for you California folks. Get the insider information on who, what, where and how much to get this little side hustle going in just about any community in the world.

2. Rather read about it first before you pop for a $30 subscription? Then you'll like this quick-read book Selling At Flea-Markets. It's not going to give you too many specifics like the subscription above, but you'll have enough to make a decision whether this is something to dig a bit deeper into.

3. Here's another title for getting some background on this lucrative little hustle - Insiders Secrets To Flea Market Profits. Learn to make profits instead of a wasted trip from someone who has done what you want to do. Do you know what the Five most common mistakes are when selling at flea-markets and how to avoid them? I didn't either when I did my first trek as a 'seller'....talk about screwing up big time! Anyway, do as I say - definitely not as I did!


As a Solo, you and I have a unique advantage for those times when we need down-time or when our internet ventures suffer from the Summer Vacation - Email Bounce blues: We can have fun doing something totally different than our 'normal' business and still make a decent bit of income at the same time.

Here's an idea that may work in your area if there are lots of RV's. This should get your juices going if you have run out of local doo-dads to sell at Flea-Markets or want to start with something a bit more lucrative (lucrative = crazy money).

4. Chatteling It has nothing to do with selling lame cattle - it's crazy money on steroids! Chatteling is the buying and selling of personal and/or corporate property for profits. It differs from Flea-Market selling because of where you get products and how you sell them. Briefly here's how it works:

Here in the Pacific Freezing West - people buy and use their RV's for maybe 2 summers, then put a'For Sale on them. I've watched prices fall in December by over 75% of what was being asked for in September.

Don't think there's a big RV market? Guess again. On February 5th as I write this, here's what I found by doing arv forums search on Google: Results 1 - 10 of about 1,990,000 for 'rv forums'.
The numbers for just one forum I went to, RV Forums there are 5066 topics covered and over 30,000 posts! There's money laying on the ground and somebody has to pick it up!

So how do you learn more about this Chatteling thing? Would I leave you hanging? Ok, this time I won't! You can find out more about it
on this forum or go here and buy the book Chatteling. Either way, this one is on my bookshelf for the summer.

That's it for now and I leave you with this:

"Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there."
--Will Rogers

Change Happens

Well we're on the new Blogger and it is a bit disconcerting for me today (disconcerting = pissing me off). Then again, it's a new experience and I'm always up for an adventure...so here goes.

Wordtracker now has a free stand alone version that is really more like the old Overture used to be. If you're doing any keyword research online, then you know what I'm talking about...if you have been just throwing stuff out there and hoping for the best - ignore this post at your own peril.

Wordtracker is the 'old dog' when it comes to keyword research, but it's an 'experienced old dog'. Keywords are those things people online use to find sites that have what they are looking for. Let's say you want to find "forums". You go to your favorite search engine and type in the word 'forum'....the word 'forum' is a keyword. Broad, but you get the general idea.

Here's the link to the Wordtracker tool.

Gotta go figure out this new thing....wish me luck or don't!

Resources You Might Have Missed

Starting a new website, especially a membership site is not an easy task. Of course you all know me - it wasn't the site...it was the computer crash & freezing butt in January that did it!

While snuffling and whining about my system going down (down means something was eating Windows XP2), I made a list of everything on my system so my wonderful tech guys could restore as much as possible...at least save some. This is my mini-list of where I've been online with commentary. Hey! It wouldn't be me to be politically correct - you'd think I'm lying.

1. Skype. Neat little service that I'm sure most of you have at least downloaded the software for. My tech friend in Orlando called me using his and it was crystal clear reception. Across the country it appears to work great. Go give it a try.

2. Your Squeeze Page. You know how important it is to build a list of targeted prospects for your business, even if your business services are only offered off-line. If you've used Yahoo or some other local marketing only service, this may be of interest. Go give it a try.

3. Warrior Forum. Want to learn what works and what's suspect online? Then register here! It's an education and it will take you some time to absorb it all...don't try in one sitting. Warning don't even think you'll get away with spamming this forum - they'll boot you out on your ass so fast you'll get road rash! Go learn something!

4. Shout Boxes. This is one I'm going to try here soon - be afraid...be very afraid. This service allows you to put those little boxes on your site for your visitors to leave comments. I like the idea of getting direct feedback from you folks and you really want to find out who is visiting your site. Interesting what people think your business is supposed to be...you'll be surprised to find out. Go give it a try.

5. Baby Boomer People Meet Ok, so I'm strange. This is a great place to just meet someone online who isn't into hip-hop, ass-dragging pants and can speak in a complete sentence. Go give it a try.

6. Solo-E.com This one I've been a quiet member of for about 6 months. It is for Solo Entrepreneurs and has a great selection of resources that are made for us. They offer quite an array (big word = variety) of just the things we need to work solo. Finally, someone else gets it! Do This Today!

What I'm reading this week:
Negotiate To Win by Jim Thomas. What caught my attention was the title. Negotiate...it brings up a lot of images that Jim clarifies. One point he makes and that I've found true... Many of us have not been exposed to the haggling, back and forth that negotiating requires. Win-Win was the big thing back in the '80's but no one told you how to go about getting to that illustrious state without giving away the store! Jim's humor is...well, how can I say this - corny, however he makes negotiating simple and with a little practice, easy for many of us.

Look for more resources later next week and I leave you with this:

Some people dream of success... while others wake up and work hard at it. -author unknown