Can you believe that 57 million U.S. shoppers have been lured from their comfy beds before daylight to hit the retail stores in hopes of scoring some great deals on everything from electronics and appliances to jewelry, clothes and toys?

Were you one of the ‘Black Friday die hards’ that gave up your yummy Thanksgiving dinner and comfy nap afterwards to wait in line in the rain and cold for hours to be the first in line to get the deep discounts on holiday goodies so you could make your hard earned dollars go further?

Does the whole ‘wait in line for hours in the cold’ for the door busting black Friday deals get your heart pumping? Or like me, do you avoid the retail crowds like the plague?!

Whether you hate the holiday shopping crowds, need to stretch your dollars further or just enjoy sleeping in the day after Thanksgiving rather than fighting the holiday shopping crowds, Apprentice winner Bill Rancic has shared a few tips to help you to safely shop online this season, avoid the holidays crowds AND get a bigger bang for your hard earned buck!

Here are a few hot online shopping recommendations to help you out:

http://www.FatWallet.com – Pays you to shop! They get paid from the retailers for directing traffic to their site and they split that money with you in a cash back reward.

http://www.ShopItToMe.com – Essentially gives you your own personal shopper for free! Complete your shopping profile based on brands, designers, sizes etc. and they alert you when the things you love go on sale.

http://www.RetailMeNot.com – Provides discounts to major retailers! They provide coupons for over 40,000 retail stores. Site users saved over $5.1 million in just one month!

More Holiday Shopping Discounts:

Busy lifestyles and holiday stress can cost you way more than your health! Many of us overlook simple areas you can easily save on your shopping.

Here’s a couple of great examples:

• AAA is not just for changing a flat tire or towing your car. Many retail websites offer discounts from 5 to 30 percent for AAA members. For example, AAA members can save 10% on your purchases from Target.com or BarnesandNoble.com.
• Check the inserts that come in with your credit card statements. Most, like American Express, include great discounts at major online retail stores.
• Don’t forget to check out Amazon.com for prices on your perfect gift. They don’t just
  sell books you know. You can get power tools, toys, games and baby items, kitchen and dining, patio, lawn, garden & sports, electronics, computers and software, jewelry, apparel and shoes, and many other cool presents.

Literally as I was writing this blog post I received an email from Amazon with saving of 25% or more on outdoor power tools.

• Online retailers will be offering great savings and deep discounts on Cyber Monday (the Monday after Black Friday). So if you plan to hit the online shops, make sure you check out your favorite retailers this Monday.

So regardless if you’ve hit the streets today in search for deep holiday shopping discounts and you intend to check the online world to finish up your holiday shopping or if you are going to dive into buying the perfect gifts this season from comfort of your computer, make sure you take a few extra moments to check out some of these great holiday shopping savings tips.

Please share your holiday shopping tips by adding your comments below and be sure to share this link so that more people can take advantage of the quick and easy holiday savings so we can truly enjoy more time with our family and loved ones this holiday season.

Holy cow! Can you believe that there are less than 100 days left In 2009?!!

We are about to enter into the 4th quarter of this year, and Christmas is right around the corner!

Is your business where you thought it would be at this point in 2009?

If you’re like most, your business revenues probably aren’t exactly where you’d like for them to be right now.

And like most entrepreneurs and small business owners, I’m guessing you most likely aren’t clear on what specific actions will help you get back on track and create the momentum that carries you well into 2010.

Over the coming weeks, we’ll be talking about the ‘Leverage Strategies’ that will help you to laser focus into the specific activities that tap into your hidden profit centers (where you are currently leaving money on the table), help you create momentum in your business and capitalize on your existing resources.

‘LEVERAGE STRATEGY’ – STRATEGIC PLANNING

While all the ‘Leverage Strategies’ we’re going to talk about are vitally important to the success and profitability of your business, strategic planning is at the very top of the list.

An effective strategic plan and business plan leverages your resource of time, productivity, efficiency, and your Million Dollar Business Decision Model™ with one of the most powerful business assets at your disposal.

STRATEGIC PLANNING MADE QUICK, EASY AND SIMPLE

Strategic planning usually sounds intriguing and probably something you should be doing but can also have the connotation of being confusing, unclear, elusive and something that is just beyond the grasp of most entrepreneurs and small business owners.

To allow entrepreneurs to experience the power of strategic planning and to:

dramatically simplify this process and maximize the results

to trick the entrepreneurial brain into actually sitting down and creating a plan (most will only do it if tied to a chair and their life depended on it!)

make sure that the integration and completion of a strategic plan is doable for the small business owner

the results of your efforts have significant impact on your bottom line profits

We’ve developed tools and resources that not only make the valuable process of business and strategic planning easy but also fun and entertaining.

POWER PROFIT MONEY GAME™

One of the strategic planning tools designed for small business owners and entrepreneurs is the Power Profit Money Game™.

This business planning tool is one of the pillars in our Power Profit Plan™ and quickly and easily outlines exactly what product and service mix it takes for you to create the Extreme Outcomes you want in your business.

Because the Power Profit Money Game™ seems so simplistic, many people skip this exercise. I would really encourage you not to do that because I have seen businesses built from absolutely nothing to multi-million dollar companies within a few short years by completing an extremely scaled down version of this Power Profit Money Game™ on a weekly basis.

Don’t let it’s simplicity fool you into overlooking the extreme value this tool will provide you in helping you prioritize your business activities, pinpoint the exact money making actions it will take you to reach your Extreme Outcomes and to provide you with a step by step plan for building your business.

And what’s really cool about the Power Profit Money Game™ is that:

It will take you less than 20 minutes to complete

It will provide you with a complete visual representation of your business and exactly what it takes you to achieve your Extreme Outcomes

It’s actually a fun and entertaining exercise that you’ll want to do every week

But don’t take my word for it…experience it for yourself! Join us and play the Power Profit Money Game™ for yourself – at absolutely no cost!

The next game is on Monday, October 5, 2009, at 1:30 pm ET. So hurry on over, register for the free class, grab your Power Profit Money Game™ Quick Start Guide and get ready for fun and immediate clarity on exactly what you need to do to exceed your 4th quarter Extreme Income Targets!
You can register at this link: http://www.extremeresultsnow.com/moneygame

Oh, and don’t forget, here is your coupon code to get play your game for free:
Money930. Just enter it in the coupon code box during your game registration and it will zero out the cost!

We look forward to ‘seeing’ you there!

The US Labor Day Holiday, celebrated the first Monday in September, started in 1882 with America’s first Labor Day parade in New York City.

While Labor Day celebrates the contributions that workers have made to the strength, prosperity and well being of America, most of us associate the Labor Day Holiday with summers ‘last hurray’ and is a time for picnics, cookouts, sporting events, leisure and spending time with family and friends.

And in some areas that haven’t already started the new school year in August, Labor Day also signifies ‘back to school’.

Interestingly enough, along with kids going back to school, also comes a renewal of commitment to re-focus on whatever we had slacked off on during the sun and fun of summer.

As you get re-focused on your business now that the kids will be back in school, it’s a great time to also consider how you can have more of the Labor Day holiday celebration in your life throughout the entire year.

You can quick and easily add more time for family and friends and more profits to your bottom line by integrating the ‘Leverage’ Strategy – ‘Profit Value of Your Time’ which allows you to more efficiently and effectively leverage your personal assets of time and productivity.

HOW MUCH TIME DO YOU WASTE?

To effectively integrate the Profit Value of Your Time Leverage Strategy, you must first ask yourself the question, ‘how much time do you waste during an average workday – not throughout your entire day but just during the time you have designated to work’?

And by wasting time I mean:

• How much time have you spent looking for a document on your computer and had to end up re-creating it because you couldn’t find it?
• How much time do you waste each day looking for things – important papers, bills you have the money to pay but can’t find, phone numbers, names and addresses of potential clients and JV Partners, resources or cool, must have tools you’ve written on the back of an envelope or deposit slip, etc.?
• How much time do you waste rearranging the paper clips in avoidance of something you’re afraid of, don’t know how to do, etc. such as picking up the phone to call a prospect, or connect with a potential JV partner?
• How much time have you spent staring at your computer screen wondering what you really needed to focus on but didn’t really know where to start or what was the most important, money making activity to start with?
• How much time do you waste starting a task, then looking for something to complete that task, and then as you are looking something else catches your interest.  Then you realize that you had forgotten to do something else and get distracted by that and never get back to the original task you were working on?
• How much time do you waste procrastinating on the next step of monetizing a project or marketing strategy because you don’t know what to do next or you don’t know where to find the perfect resource.
• How much time do you spend on Twitter and Facebook, justifying to yourself that you are actually marketing your business – but not really understanding how to generate your own leads with social media?

Would you say you waste 10 minutes during a business work day on these activities (or others), 20 minutes, or even 30 minutes?  How about more than 30 minutes of each business workday?

Most entrepreneurs and small business owners do!

Do the math:

Let’s be ultra conservative and assume you only waste 20 minutes each business day.

That would be a total of 7,300 minutes or 121.6 hours each year…

What could you do with an extra 121 hours?

• Take a vacation
• Spend more time with family and friends
• Spend more time on the golf course or at the spa
• Develop an additional product, service or passive revenue stream to your business…

If your billable rate was $100 per hour, that adds up to $12,167 per year of lost revenue – money you are leaving on the table…money that isn’t in your bank account!

Increase it to 30 minutes of wasted time each day and you can add an extra $18,250 to your annual bank account – all without working any additional hours!

That’s a pretty significant addition to your bottom line profits and a perfect example of the tremendous power of leverage!

          ACTION STEPS:

Complete the ‘Profit Value of Your Time Leverage Strategy’ exercise:

1. Determine the amount of time you waste or that you are unproductive during an average day
2. Multiply those minutes by 365 days (for the total time amount of minutes you waste each year)
3. Divide that number by 60 minutes (for the total number of hours you waste annually)
4. Multiply the total number of hours you waste annually by your hourly billable rate or the dollar value of the clients you would be able to gain if you spent that wasted time securing new clients.
5. Decide how you’re going to use your extra time!

So what are your thoughts?  Care to share how much money you can add to your bottom line profits?  Please join in the conversation and share your thoughts and the amount of money you can easily add to your bottom line business profits!