INTERNET BUSINESS SHOW

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2012-01-10T00:10:00.001-08:00

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Fwd: How to overcome start-ups hurdles and turn your business ideas into realities . . .It is not easy starting off a business, often it takes a lot of courage taking the decision to start. Ask employees contemplating opting for self-employment, they will tell you this. And when you finally take the decision, you must be ready to scale some...

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Entrepreneur Business Opportunity and Market Demand - http://jobportng.blogspot.com/2011...

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MILLION DOLLAR INTERVIEW WITH ADAM KHOO

2009-11-17T04:42:00.000-08:00

Aboutt Adam Khoo
Adam Khoo is an entrepreneur, a best-selling author and a peak performance trainer. A self-made millionaire by the age of 26, he owns and runs three businesses with combined annual sales of $30m. He is the CEO of Adcom Pte Ltd, an advertising agency, the co-founder of Event Gurus Pte Ltd, an event management company and the CEO of Adam Khoo Learning Technologies Group Pte Ltd.

He is also the best-selling author of six books including I Am Gifted, So Are You! that was ranked MPH#1 best-seller in 1998 and 1999. His other books include How to Multiply Your Child’s Intelligence’ & ‘Clueless in Starting a Business.

His book Master Your Mind, Design Your Destiny which was the second highest selling book in Singapore in 2004, was on the best-sellers list for 36 consecutive weeks. His other two books The Secrets Of Self-Made Millionaires and Secrets of Millionaire Investors which have both stayed on the Number One Spot on the Straits Times Best Sellers List for more than 52 weeks. His most
recent book is Nurturing the Winner and Genius in Your Child, launched in April
2008.

Adam holds an honors degree in business administration from the National University of Singapore. As an undergraduate, he was ranked among the top 1% of academic achievers and became a pioneer in the Talent Development
Program, which is the university’s Gifted program.

Over the last 15 years, he has trained over 245,000 students, teachers, professionals, executives and business owners to tap their personal power and achieve excellence in their various fields of endeavor. Some of his corporate clients include Tupperware, Ministry of Defence, American International Assurance, Prudential, Lux Asia, Rolls Royce Marine and many more.

His success and achievements are regularly featured in regional media like the Straits Times, the Business Times, the New Paper, Lianhe Zaobao, Channel News Asia, Channel U, Channel 8, Newsradio 938, The Hindu, The Malaysian Sun and many more.

If you want this report send me a mail at lean-on-me@minister.com

Affiliates, Content Marketing, banners pop-ups and pop-unders.

2009-11-05T02:17:00.000-08:00

Provide a product for re-sale. Make it free, at or near cost.

Commonly referred to as "Affiliate Marketing" this is nothing more than providing a product or service that others can re-sell. People like to make money and there are so many e-Commerce sites that lack quality products.

E-books can be an excellent product.
Example: If you sell tools then you may find that a small set of ebooks on home repair to be a tremendous traffic generator. Give it away to re-sellers and place your URL at the bottom of each page.

E-courses are another excellent example. Email provides a way for you to contact interested parties at virtually no cost.Example: If you sell gardening supplies, running a 5 part email course that teaches how to build a beautiful garden will provide a valuable service that others can sell or give away as an incentive. This can also be an extremely powerful lead generator since you'll establish credibility with these subscribers, not once... but seperate 5 times.

An excellent piece of free software for email courses is our very own Infinite Responder. It's under the GPL so it's completely free! We do offer custom installations for a small one time charge if you're unfamiliar with Unix or MySQL.Infinite Responder: Try it out!

Whatever you choose to create for re-sale, whether you take a percentage of the sale or not, the goal is to use these 3rd party sales to create more traffic. Do something in the product that draws purchasers or downloaders to your site for more information. This can be something as formal as calling those people that purchase via affiliates or something as informal as a free to sell ebook with an ad banner or an "update" reminder that lets people know how to get a current copy of the ebook for free.

You will likely need to market your affiliate marketing program in some fashion. There's a lot of sites you can target, and a lot of ways to do this.

Tip:
Be aware that giving something away for free can have a negative impact as a lot of people will only sign up to get the freebie. If you use a freebie as an incentive to join your affiliate program, you'll get a lot of people that sign up with no intention of actually reselling your product.

I have found success by making affiliate programs "by invitation only." Then advertise that invitation process, perhaps with an incentive. This will help to weed out the slackers from your affiliate list and separate you from the "Please please please join me!" crowd.

Whatever you decide to do make sure you consider the costs. If the average affiliate is generating only a few leads per week, and it's costing you thousands to run, it's probably not worth it unless you have a lot of affiliates each generating their share of leads. Personally I find it easier to manage a smaller list of people that generate higher volumes than the other way around. It's just easier to motivate a smaller team. For that reason I suggest regularly pruning the list of inactive affiliates (3 months of zero sales). It'll help clear out the dead wood and make it easier to get an accurate picture of the real situation.

Do more than your average affiliate program.

Things to try:
1. Motivate your affiliate team with a high-quality weekly or monthly newsletter.
2. Provide an affiliate support system.
3. Keep your products updated regularly.
4. Be sure to provide a list of marketing techniques that have been proven to work.

Simply put: make it easy to sell your products. Even if you never see a dime from the products themselves the leads they generate could change your entire business. Take your affiliate marketing seriously and it'll give you serious results.

Provide a free service that's fun or that people need.

Games, dictionaries, anything. If you're always at the computer going "dang, I wish I could..." then chances are someone else is to. If it can be done cheaply, then it'd make an excellent marketing venture. People will visit and pass around your URL if it's free for them to do so. Like always, just make sure that the cost of creating such a campaign is figured appropriately. Remember, you'll probably have to have some kind of marketing campaign for this product or service to get things started. You might be able to tie it into your other marketing or sales efforts if you're lucky, but even then there will be some costs involved. Make sure that sustain this effort long enough generate a positive return on your investment.

Track visitors, add up all of the profit you make in one month from the campaign, figure out an average and then give an estimate for the number of months you'll need to break even. Can you reach that mark? Some careful assumptions here can help you determine if it'll make you money before it even gets started.

The break-even formulas for each product:
1. Number of sales needed = Campaign Cost / (Product Price - Product cost)
2. # months = Campaign Cost / [# sales per month * (Product Price - Product cost)]

Remember that if you have more than 1 product per campaign then the cost can be spread out over the cost of each product. If you've got one product that's more profitable that others then you may want to spread more campaign cost over that product to reach profitability quicker. Of course that's an accounting issue that's best discussed with your accounting department.

Writing news and content

Syndicated content is a growing market on the Internet. More and more people want their articles published. More and more people need quality articles to be published. People have a basic psychological need to understand more about something before they buy it. There is always something related to your industry and your products and services that would make an excellent source of content for your site. Search engines love it and 3rd party syndication sites will publish it for free.Good places to get your articles published:
Go Articles!
Idea Marketers

With a little work you can even get these published in an industry-based magazine. If they have a web site (which they should) then odds are that article will get published there too. Not only will this improve your search engine rank but it can also generate a lot of interested traffic to your site.

you have some news and content the goal is to get it read by as many people as possible. It may take a mini-marketing campaign to do this, but as long as you target people that can help spread your message... the results will be very effective and easily worth the cost.

Purchasing banners, pop-ups and pop-unders.

A banner used to be an 100x60 image at the top or bottom of the page. The size and placement have both changed in recent years, but they're still referred to as banners.

Pop-ups are those annoying little windows that "pop up" whenever you move from page to page. Pop-unders are pop-ups that appear at the bottom of the stack of windows so that they're left sitting there when you close everything else.
Unlike PPC, these options come in a variety of cost structures.
The most common:
Cost per hit.
Cost per click.
Cost per 1000 impressions (Called "CPM").

Infact, there are a dozen different ways. Be sure you fully understand the payment structure, contract terms, etc before you buy any of these.

Many banners are being sold by companies that are little more than scam artists... they put your banner on general portal site and charge you per impression (1 impression means it's been displayed once) regardless of whether it was filtered by the browser or if anyone clicked on it.

And don't assume big name sites are any better. Some of the biggest names on the internet continue to sell useless banners to anyone naive enough to buy them.

Keep in mind that banners and pop-ups are considered annoying intrusions. This means that a lot of effort has gone into creating proxies and software that can filter them. Some people get so fed up with banners that they've created blacklists of people that advertise with them. Be aware of this.

Still, banners and pop-ups can work if they're done correctly. As always you need to carefully track the campaign to make sure that you're getting your money's worth. Don't just settle for traffic or hits, if you're not selling anything due to the banner campaign then don't hesitate to ditch it. Of course like all ad campaigns you need to make sure you've given it a reasonable test period... otherwise you'll never know if it could've been successful or not.

If you know what you're doing, building a campaign with traditional methods can still be very effective. We offer a free consultation to help determine how these can best serve your business. If you lack the expertise, we can help you manage your banner and pop-up campaigns. If you'd like a quote feel free to write us.

Tip:

You can test pop-up and banner ads by using a test compaign on your own site first. Use it to intice traffic from one area of your page, say your main page, to another part like a newsletter subscription.

Do this randomly (PHP works wonders here). Some visitors should get them, some shouldn't. Track the data and compare the 2. This will allow you to refine your strategy first before paying large sums to others.

Also, be careful about what sites your ads are appearing on. If you sell a family-friendly product then getting your ad on an X-rated site would be very bad for your image. Be aware that a lot of sites don't restrict the content of the other banners that show up there. A visitor could see your ad, move off the page, then come back to a completely different banner. If that other advertiser's banner is offensive... it's your image that'll be hurt. Perhaps the biggest trick with banners and pop-ups is to make sure that they're on relevant sites. Just having a pop-up on a big general portal isn't going to help you sell a niche item. It's a lot of wasted bandwidth and a lot of wasted media space... which translates into a lot of wasted dollars.

If you're still having problems with your banner, pop-up or pop-under campaign try changing one of the following:

1. Size. Big, little, standard, non-standard
2. Square, circle, triangle, long rectangle, whatever
3. Placement. Where it's at on the page
4. Text. Is it actually interesting?
5. Images. hat are they? Are they consistent with the text?
6. Download time. Are they hitting the stop button?
7. Location. The site it's on. Is it effective?Form.

Try converting between banners, pop-ups and pop-unders. Sometimes people filter pop-ups but not banners, etc, etc.

Any questions? Contact me today!
Aaron Colman
aaron@ibasics.biz
Phone and fax: 800.314.3430
http://www.ibasics.biz

11 PayPal Alternatives

2009-04-08T03:21:00.000-07:00

Many people think that in order to do business online you need to have an expensive merchant account to have the ability to take payments by credit card from your customers. Nothing could be further from the truth. Merchant accounts can be hard to get and the monthly fees can really add up.

So what's an honest Internet Entrepreneur to do?

The answer for most is Paypal.com. It's easy to set up an account, and fees are low and depend on your monthly sales (for most it will be 2.9% and .30 per transaction). You'll find most Net
users trust and use PayPal for their everyday purchases, so they won't have a problem using
it on your website to purchase from you.

However, relying solely on PayPal.com for your business can be risky. Should you ever lose
your PayPal account or you have it "frozen," your online income will come to a screeching halt.
You need a backup plan; another way to accept payments -- or you'll have to close up shop.
This is the same thing as relying on one stream of income. If you lose your job your only source
of revenue dries up as well. That's why multiple streams are best to keep you in the green.

So who are some of the others? I thought you'd never ask:

1) Bidpay: http://www.BidPay.com

This service is available only for those who buy and sell at online auctions. Buyers use their
credit or debit card to make their purchases from you and BidPay sends you a Western Union
Money Order or the payment is directly deposited into your checking account if you live in the
U.S.

2) CCNow: http://CCNow.com

A shopping cart solution that also allows you to take all major credit cards without a merchant account. They pay you your earnings twice a month and while your money is sitting on account it earns 1.5% APR.

3) DigiBuy: http://www.DigiBuy.com

For those who sell software. Puts you in control of pricing, order forms, and delivery options. Pricing varies with two service levels to choose from. Your earnings are paid to you monthly minus their 13.9% per transaction fee ($3.00 minimum). Digibuy allows you to accept payments by Visa, MasterCard, Amex,Discover or Diners Club.

4) E-junkie : http://www.e-junkie.com/
E-junkie provides shopping cart and buy now buttons to let you sell downloads and tangible goods on your website, eBay, MySpace, Google Base, CraigsList and other websites using PayPal Standard, PayPal Pro, Google Checkout, Authorize.Net, TrialPay, ClickBank and 2CheckOut.

5) 2CheckOut: http://www.2CheckOut.com

It will run you $49.00 to open an account, then it's .45 per sale and 5.5% of the sales amount.
Includes free shopping cart and codes to add to your website. Will also work with your existing
shopping cart if you just need a way to take credit card payments. Can be used for tangible or digital download products. With 2CheckOut, you can take payment from all credit cards and even check and debit card payments.

6) ClickBank: http://www.ClickBank.com

A great service which I've used for years. Good for selling digital products and comes with a built-in affiliate program. You'll have to pay a one time fee of $50.00, then it's only
$1.00 plus 7.5% of each transaction. Allows you to take payments from all credit card types.

7) ShareIt: http://www.ShareIt.com

For selling software and shareware online. Your customers can pay by credit card or debit cards
even checks. Receive your money by check or electronic transfer to your bank account. Fees
are based per transaction with no monthly charges.

ProPay: http://www.ProPay.com

Accept payments by credit card via the web or even by phone. Funds are deposited into your
ProPay account. You can get a ProPay MasterCard to access your funds or transfer your
earnings to your bank account. They have four types of accounts to choose from: Basic, Premium, Premium Plus, Platinum, with annual pricing from $34.95 all the way up to $299.95, depending on the features and type of account you need.

9) Money Bookers: http://moneybookers.com/app/

Money Bookers offers a merchant feature that allows you to create order buttons for your website and be paid by credit card. Fees range from 2% all the way up to 8%, depending on how payments are made. No setup or monthly fees. You can accept payments from over 30 countries. Money can be transferred instantly to your bank account.

10) Alertpay: https://www.alertpay.com/

Alertpay allow you Open an account for free, Send money from 192 countries accept payments by credit card, and a lot more

11) TrialPay :http://www.trialpay.com/
TrialPay is the first payment method that actually increases a customer's willingness to pay. If a customer won't

purchase your product outright, he may be a better customer for another brand. TrialPay lets you leverage the brand recognition of our advertisers (Blockbuster, FTD.com, Gap and The Wall Street Journal, just to name a few) to convert these customers. By matching your customers with their preferred brands, TrialPay turns abandoned carts into conversions.

Don't wait for disaster to strike before opening another web based payment account. Like a "good scout," you want to be prepared in the event you need a backup. You never know what tomorrow will bring so get your house in order now.

10 Ways To Indirectly Get To The Top Of Search Engines

2009-04-08T01:27:00.000-07:00

There are millions of web sites trying to get listed in the top 20 spots of the major search engines. That amounts to a lot of competition! I say if you can't get listed at the top, indirectly get to the top.

How do you do this? Look up the top 20 web sites on the major search engines under the keywords and phrases people would find your web site. The key would be to then advertise on those web sites.

The most expensive way would be to buy ad space on those web sites. If you don't want to spend any money, you could use the ten strategies below.
These strategies may not apply to every web site.

1. Participate on their discussion boards. You could post questions, answer other peoples questions, and join in on conversations. Just include your signature file and link at the end of your messages.

2. Ask the web site owner if they would like a free ebook to giveaway to their visitors. You could have them link to your web site or include your ad in the free ebook.

3. Submit content to their web site. You could write articles for their web site and include your resource box and link at the end of the article. If they publish it, you'll indirectly be at the top of the search engines.

4. Write an excellent article review of their web site, products or services. Then publish the review on your web site. E-mail the web site owner and tell him or her about it. They may link to your web site so their visitors read it.

5. Ask the owner of the web site if they would want to trade advertising. If you don't get as much traffic as they do, you could throw in some extra incentives.

6. Propose a cross promotion deal with the web site. You both could promote each others products or services together in one package deal. This means a mention and link back to your web site.

7. Give the web site a testimonial for their product or service. Include a little text link for your web site with the testimonial. You never know; it could end up on their ad copy.

8. Post your advertisement on their free classified ad section on their web site. You want to be sure you have an attractive headline so they will read your ad.

9. Post your text link on their free-for-all links page. You want to go back and post your link regularly so it stays towards the top.

10. Sign their guest books. You could leave a short compliment about their web site on their guest book. Just include your signature file and link at the end of your message.

About the Author:
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Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy has helped thousands of people in over 200 countries around the world start and run a successful home business. Discover 3 easy steps to start your own home business and subscribe to The Home Biz Guy's Free Home Business Secrets Mini-Course at:
http://www.PlugInProfitSite.com/main-22210/free.html

10 Ways To Keep Visitors At Your Site Longer

2009-04-08T01:20:00.000-07:00

The more time people spend at your web site, the more time you'll have to persuade them to buy your product or service. Below are ten powerful ways to keep visitors at your web site longer.

1. Provide your web site visitors with content they can't read anywhere else. People will stay longer at your web site to read the original content.

2. Remind your web site visitors they can print out your content. They may browse around your online store while it's printing.

3. Offer your web site visitors a freebie if they take the time to fill out your online survey. They'll be at the site longer and might buy something afterwards.

4. Offer your visitors free software that they can download right from your web site. While they are waiting they might read your ad.

5. Provide a huge online directory of information that your visitors could search. The directory must contain information your visitors would want.

6. Make sure all your web pages load fast or your visitors will leave fast. Time is precious; they won't waste it waiting for your site to load.

7. Tell your visitors what's offered at your web site at the very beginning. If people are confused about what's being offered they may leave too early.

8. Publish your web site professionally. People will get turned off and leave if they see a lot of spelling and grammar mistakes.

9. Make your site text easy to read. Most people won't strain their eyes trying to read text that is too small, light or bright.

10. Use headlines and sub headlines all over your your web site that will grab visitors attention. It will attract them to explore your web site longer.

10 Ways To Make Your Ad Command Attention

2009-04-08T01:16:00.000-07:00

1. Place colorful graphs, pie charts and other charts in your ad copy. Use charts that will grab a persons eye and also support your product claims.

2. Highlight buying incentives like free bonuses and money back guarantees. You could place them in boxes or in front of a different colored background.

3. Use short sentences or sentence fragments in the body of your ad copy. A short burst of words can catch a skimmers eye with one quick glance.

4. Highlight all the important keywords and phrases in your ad copy. You could use bolding, underlining and color to highlight the important words.

5. Place attention grabbing pictures above and within your ad copy. A powerful technique is to use before and after pictures of people using your product.

6. Use a headline that catches the attention of your target audience. One of the most effective ways is to use a free offer as your headline.

7. Make your ad's keywords and phrases standout by enlarging the text. This technique works wonders with headlines and sub headlines.

8. Make your products list of benefits and features stand out by using a symbol in front of each of them. The symbol could be a dash, solid circle, star, etc.

9. Use sub headlines to break up your ad copy and to capture a skimmers eye. You could make them even more powerful by highlighting them with color.

10. Use attention grabbing adjectives to describe your product. For example sizzling, incredible, high power, ultramodern, killer, eye popping, etc.

10 Ways To Promote Your Web Site While Doing Non Business Tasks

2009-04-08T01:13:00.000-07:00

1. Have a bumper sticker printed up with your web site address and other business information. Place it on the bumper of your car. People will see it when you're driving.

2. Have some t-shirts made with your web site address and other business information. Your family or friends could wear them almost anywhere.

3. Have some ball caps made with your web site address and other business information. Wear them to keep the sun out of your eyes and promote your business at the same time.

4. Have some business cards printed up with your web site address and other business information. Pass them out to people you meet or that might be interested in your business.

5. Have a magnetic sign made with your web site address and other business information. Place it on your car door or roof when you are traveling.

6. Have some flyers printed out with your web site address and other business information. Keep a few with you to hang on bulletin boards you see.

7. Have some jackets printed with your web site address and other business information. Give
them away to family and friends. When it's too cold for t-shirts, you can wear jackets.

8. Have some duffle bags made with your web site address and other business information. Give them to family and friends as gifts or use them when you travel.

9. Have some pens imprinted with your web site address and other business information. When you are done filling out your check or signing receipts leave it there for the next person to use or keep.

10. Have some mugs imprinted with your web site address and other business information. Use them when you have company or give them away to
friends and family as gifts.

10 Ways To Propel Visitors To Your Order Page

2009-04-08T01:09:00.000-07:00

1. Write your ad copy like you're talking directly to your visitors. Use the words "you", "your", and "you're" a lot in your ad copy.

2. Visit business discussion boards regularly. You could discover helpful advice, online resources and give your own two cents worth.

3. Gain free advertising by listing your business info in your chat room profile. Most chat rooms allow this, but check their rules to be sure.

4. Let people know about your affiliate program. Submit it to numerous affiliate program directories, announce it in your e-zine, put it in your sig file, etc.

5. Tell your visitors exactly what you want them to do at your web site. You may want them to order products, subscribe to your ezine, etc.

6. Focus your site on your visitor's desires, not on yourself. They want to know what's in it for them, not that you won an award for your business.

7. Try not to get caught up in loading your site with technological gizmos and gadgets. Concentrate on your words, they will do the actual selling.

8. Create your own ad copy; don't copy the basic run of the mill ad copy. Don't be afraid of trying
something different to increase your sales.

9. Change you ads regularly. Your prospects can get bored seeing the same ad all the time. They
usually see the ad 7 times before they actually buy.

10. Lower your negative word of mouth marketing. You'll always have customers that are dissatisfied. Try to please them as much as possible.

10 Ways To Sell Your Products Faster

2009-04-08T01:03:00.000-07:00

1. Give people a deadline to order. Tell people if they order by Jan 28, 2000 they will get a discount or free bonuses. This will create an urgency so they don't put off buying.

2. Offer people a money back guarantee. The longer the guarantee the more effective it will be. It could be a 30 day, 60 day, 1 year, or lifetime guarantee.

3. Offer a free on-site repair service for products you sell. This is convenient for people because they won't have to send it away for repair and they won't have to be without the product for a long period of time.

4. Publish testimonials on your ad copy. They will give your business credibility and you'll gain peoples trust. It's important to include the persons full name and location with the testimonial.

5. Give people free bonuses when they order your product or service. The free bonuses could be books, jewelry, reports, newsletters, etc.

6. Allow people to make money reselling the product or service. Tell people they can join your affiliate program, if they order. You could pay them per sale, per click, per referral, etc.

7. Offer free 24 hour help with all products you sell. Allow customers to ask you questions by e-mail, by toll free phone, by free fax, etc.

8. Provide free shipping with all orders. If you can't afford it, you could offer free shipping on orders over a specific dollar amount.

9. Give away a free sample of your product. You will gain people's trust when you allow them to try out a free sample of your product. If they like it they won't hesitate buying it.

10. Offer a buy one get one free deal. If you sell more than one product this type of deal works great. People will feel they are getting more for their money and order quicker.

About the Author:
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10 Ways To Suck Up Orders Quicker Than A Super Vacuum

2009-04-08T00:54:00.000-07:00

1. Increase the number of visitors that revisit your web site by publishing a free course right on your site. Just release a new lesson once a week.

2. Make sure your graphics load correctly on your web site. Broken graphics will make your business look very unprofessional.

3. Avoid using scrolling marquees on your web site. They take the attention away from your ad copy and make your web page load slower.

4. Make your web site writing exciting to read. You can use emotional words, descriptive adjectives, highlight keywords with color, etc.

5. Remember to reach out and touch your visitors offline. When your visitors give you offline contact information use it to send them some direct mail.

6. Use guest books to improve your web site. Your visitors will leave good and bad comments. Review the comments and use them to improve your site.

7. Regularly check and resubmit your web site's search engine rankings. They can drop very quickly because of all the competition.

8. Divide your price over a period of time to make it sound less. Offer a payment plan or show the per day price. For example, "Only 33 cents per day!"

9. Promote your products within the content of your web site. If you write and offer free articles tie in a mention of the product or service you're selling.

10. Update the content on your web site regularly. You'll want to add new content and update the old content.

About the Author:
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Ten Steps to Finding Your Mentor by Pat Williams with Jim Denney

2009-03-20T06:18:00.000-07:00

Are you looking for a mentor – someone who will build a relationship with you, someone to teach and advise you and enable you to become a wise and effective human being? Here are ten steps to finding that person:
Look at the People You Know
Look around at the people in your personal and professional life. Is there someone you admire? Someone you would like to emulate in some way? Someone who has the wisdom you need?

Consider People You’ve Never Met
Research the top individuals in the businesses, organizations and trace associations of your chosen field. Find out as much as you can about them. Identify those individuals whose values and accomplishments you most admire.

Select a Mentor Who is a Good Role Model
Look for someone who is not only famous or successful, but who has a reputation for character and solid principles. Look for someone you can admire and respect as well as emulate.

Select a Mentor Who is a Good Listener
The best mentor is one who gets to know you – your skills and strengths and weaknesses, your individual personality and your aspirations. A good mentor should not serve as a lecturer, but as a sounding board who will help you with your struggles and help you to clarify your principles and beliefs.

Select a Mentor Who Levels With You
A good mentor doesn’t just encourage you, but will also tell you the blunt truth when you are moving in the wrong direction. It is also a good sign if your mentor is candid and open about his or her own life. Anyone who has accomplished great things has made mistakes along the way and will share those experiences freely so that you can learn from them.

Look for Someone Who is Unlike You in Some Important Way
Our tendency is to gravitate toward those with whom we have a lot in common. But in seeking out a mentor, it is wise to seek out people who have strengths that we lack. For example, if you are a shy and introverted person, seek out someone who is bold and gregarious. Instead of pairing up with someone who will reinforce your weaknesses, find someone who will challenge you to acquire new strengths.

Be Open to Finding a Mentor in Unlikely Places
We tend to think of a mentor or teacher as someone with gray hair and a well-lined face. Not necessarily! A mentor could be anyone who has something to teach you and could be the same age or even younger than you. A mentor could be someone of lower rank and social standing than you.

If the Person Doesn’t Know You, Approach That Person with a Brief Letter of Introduction
You might say, “I have followed your achievements in the field of ______ and I eagerly read your book on ______. Like you, I am very concerned about the issue of _____ and I hope to make a contribution in these areas myself someday. I am looking for a mentoring relationship, and I would be grateful if you could spare thirty minutes to discuss such a possibility with me.”

Make Personal Contact
Don’t be shy. Ask, “Would you be willing to mentor me?” You may think you are imposing on that person, but I have found that most people who have achieved a place of accomplishment in life are eager to share their wisdom, experience and knowledge with others. When you ask someone to be your mentor, you are truly offering them high praise.

Remember, You Are Never too Old to be Mentored

I have reached a point where I know I have a lot of knowledge and experience to offer others – but I still have a lot to learn! That’s why, despite my age and gray hair, I still seek out people to mentor me – people like Rich DeVos!

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Pat Williams is senior vice president of the Orlando Magic and the father of nineteen children, including fourteen adopted from four foreign countries. Williams has written more than 30 books, including How to be Like Mike, How to be like Jesus and How to be Like Women of Influence.

It’s All About Trust

2009-03-20T06:04:00.000-07:00

Ron and Cristy Varela, owners of Ron E. Varela Company Inc. an excavating and grading company.
Video of their story

"Originally we were doing two or three million dollars a year, and it grew up to five and seven or ten million dollars." "We ended up growing that company into eventually a 30 million dollar a year company, had up to 150 employees."

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Two kids meet at 14. They fall in love. The girl gets pregnant, and at sixteen they marry because they want to keep their baby.

But that is chapter one of the story of Ron and Cristy Varela of Varela Companies, the umbrella corporation for a multi-million dollar business.

When Ron and Cristy first married, Ron moved from job to job. Beginning with valet parking outside of Disneyland in their home state of California, Ron moved to a pizza place, which gave way to a yogurt company, then orange juice, and the list goes on. What they all had in common was Ron’s determination to provide for his new family—and that each one paid a little more than the last one.

“Cristy was nervous about all the different jobs I had,” remembers Ron, “but they always seemed to be better than the last one.”

Ron’s fortunes began to change when he convinced a trucking company to take him on, even though he couldn’t drive a truck.

“He would show that he could do the work,” says Cristy,

“He was able to learn almost anything he ever tried to do. And he did it well.”

Driving a truck led to buying one of his own, a short-lived ownership because the company went bankrupt.

A setback in some people’s eyes, but for Ron it was an opportunity to get an eagle’s eye view of the construction business that had caught his attention.

“I learned all the different phases of the business. I thought I would give it a try. I’ve always had big vision. I just figured I could do it.”

Ron started his own excavation and grading company. Cristy helped out from a home office.

“We’ve always worked well together, and I was able to work and take care of the kids,” says Cristy.

“We ended up growing that company into a thirty million dollar a year company,” says Ron. “We had up to 150 employees and a lot of equipment. It got to where we thought we were invincible. I was staying out late and drinking with our friends and having too much fun.”

Drinking became trouble for Ron, and his family. “I hated his drinking,” says Cristy. His children (now two of them) noticed how Ron would change when he drank, becoming more tough and stubborn.

Nothing could have prepared Ron and his family for what was to come.

First, his business hit a major roadblock when a landslide destroyed part of a highway one of Ron’s companies was tied up with. Business ground to a halt, and Ron ended up in a lengthy court battle that he settled eventually, but in the process lost much of his net worth.

“It seemed like everything around him was falling apart,” remembers his daughter Jennifer.

The worse was yet to come.

Ron refused to give up his car keys after drinking too much at a party. He fell asleep at the wheel and woke up in jail. It was a real wake-up call for Ron.

”It was a pretty tough moment, but a good moment for us, because I think that was the turning point,” says son Jason.

The family started to attend church together.

“We started to realize that we had to have faith and trust,” says Ron.

The self-made millionaire says:

“We just realized that we can’t to it all ourselves. When you start to have faith, you realize that it’s not all about you. You start treating people the way you would like to be treated.”

A breast cancer scare for Cristy solidified their new-found faith.

“For some reason, I had a peace about everything that I can’t explain, and I know that comes from God.”

Jason and Jennifer noticed the difference in their parents, especially what they describe as a “softening” in their father.

“You learn your priorities,” says Ron. “You put the Lord first.”

Business became reprioritized as the Varela's sought to live out their faith in every part of their lives.

“I think before it was how many toys you could have. It changed our priorities about material things. We have now had the opportunity to give back,” says Ron.

Jennifer says she sees

“a new success in his life. We see people that are in need, and we want to help.”

Ron and Cristy Varela say that their secret to success is pretty simple; it is the time-tested combination of

“hard work and perseverance.” And it is “mostly because God has given us the courage to go forward,” says Cristy. “We trust each other. And we trust Him.”

Have you ever tried doing business according to the Bible? Why not ask Jesus for help? If you do not know Jesus, we encourage you to pray the following:

Lord Jesus, I want to know You personally. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life and receive You as my Savior and Lord. Thank You for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Take control of my life. Make me be the person You want me to be.

Is it the desire of your heart to make this prayer yours?

If yes, pray now and according to his promise, Jesus Christ will come into your life.