October 20, 2008

Your Reputation Is Key to Your Success... Take One Step
Closer to Your Dreams... Balance Patience and Action...
$160,000 You Didn't Know About?... and More.

** Your Reputation Is Key to Your Success
By Adrian Newman, co-founder of the WLI

If you are in business or considering starting one, you might not have thought about the silent killer: a bad reputation. You probably don't think that your reputation has anything to do with your success, but believe me, it does.

Think about how many times you have heard a friend or colleague talk about the horrible service they received from a local mechanic. Chances are that opinion stuck in your mind and you probably won't be taking your car there in the future.Have you ever decided to eat at a restaurant simply because a friend said the service was great? I do all the time. So it works both ways. Your business reputation could make or break your success whether you like it or not.

In order to keep your reputation blemish-free, you need to first work on letting your business community get to know you. Attend a charity/community event and meet people. If customers put a face to a business, they are more likely to try it out, particularly if you are professional and seem concerned about the well-being of their city.

If you are involved in an Internet-based business, make sure that you are providing customers with the exact product or service that you have promised them. If not, your name could very well be dragged through the "Internet mud."

Try to provide convenience to your customers as much as you can. So provide them with reasonable hours to do business and, if they have a request, make a conscious effort to fill it. Above all, be honest with your customers. If you have a sale starting next week and a customer buys an item that would have been on sale, inform them that they will pay less next week. You're not losing out on money; you are gaining a return customer.

Customers need to be able to trust you. No one is going to do business with someone they don't trust. Make sure that you are pricing competitively and giving the customers the respect that they deserve. Be helpful and courteous in your customer service and go above and beyond the call of duty. Believe me; going that extra mile could benefit you greatly.

I have perfected an easy exercise that can help you remove the barriers to your success and overcome those feelings of fear, boredom or dissatisfaction that keep you from moving forward.

As I have discovered, procrastination is actually rooted in the fear of not achieving success. Overcoming procrastination and becoming more decisive in your thoughts and actions will not only boost your confidence, but it will also bring you even closer to achieving your goals.

Time and time again, psychological studies have shown us that there is a direct correlation between focus and flow to success. It has been scientifically proven that when you understand exactly what needs to be done — and you have consciously acknowledged the payoffs of achieving your goals sooner rather than later — you will be able to focus your complete attention on living your life well.

Another essential concept in living a life free of procrastination is letting go of your reservations. Is someone watching you jog around the block for the first time? Don't assume that they are thinking negative thoughts about you. In fact, when you are making a positive change in your life, it shows. If you exude confidence about what you are doing, others will pick up on it and respond positively in kind.

My next-door neighbor recently told me that seeing me running every morning has inspired him to start exercising again. He hasn't noticed that my form isn't perfect or that my shoes are wearing out, and he hasn't noticed that I am passed on a daily basis by about a half-dozen other faster runners. He admires my passion for my running and that I get up and go whether it's raining outside or it's a beautiful, sunny day. My get-up-and-go attitude is what inspires him, not my technique or how many miles I run.

On the other hand, for almost a decade, another one of my friends has said that he is going to start running. He has listened to me talk about the benefits of my morning run and he keeps saying that he wants to do the same thing in his life. However, he still hasn't even put on his running shoes, let alone started jogging.

To him — and to you — I offer the following guidance. If you make a commitment to these strategies today — I mean a real concerted effort — then you'll never let your procrastination or fears stand in the way of your success ever again.

Here are five ways to stop putting off your success:

1) Set your own performance goals. At the same time, remember that change takes time. If you are undertaking anything for the first time, go easy on yourself and learn to reset the parameters for success every time you try. Like a scientist, you have to keep experimenting, tallying your results, and trying! Establish a new set of goals and rules with each attempt. If you set your sights too high, you may procrastinate on your long-term tasks, so as to pursue more immediate payoffs.

2) Reward yourself. Just like my son embraced the task of getting the grades that would get him into the school he wanted, you, too, must reward your hard work and your commitment to your goals. Everything you do must be done for your own sake, first and foremost.

3) Stop being afraid: get out there and make the rest of your life something spectacular. Start living the life of your dreams today. Don't put off your own happiness for another minute!

4) Stop thinking that your future is out of your control. When working to achieve your goals, sometimes the unexpected will happen. As a person who approaches challenges with a passionate and scientific approach, however, your belief in yourself will give you a strong foundation in successful problem solving.

5) Don't let the negative attitudes of society hold you back. A friend of mine, Kevin, who is an MD, rejected the thoughts of others who thought that his dream of becoming a doctor was too big. If you live your life based on other people's expectations, you'll never get what you want. Individually, these ideas will get you moving in the right direction. Together, they will keep you headed squarely on the path toward a new life that is fulfilling, challenging, and custom-made for you.

** Balance Patience and Action
By John Hurd, Chief Wealth Researcher

In times of tough economic instability, it is important to do two things. The first is to take action and make sure you control your money, not the other way around. The second thing is to know how to weather the storm and be patient.

How can you do both of these things when at first they appear to be a contradiction? How can you take action while still being patient? Well, it is possible, and the people who come out on top after this mess clears are going to be the ones who can do both of these things at the same time.

First, patience must be had. Your investments may have a chance to recover, but they won't if you get too anxious and start moving things around too fast.

This is also true when running a business. Be patient with your customers. They are going to be just as cautious about spending money as you are. Help them make the right decisions and focus on a long-term relationship. Just because someone buys something at a sale price, doesn't mean they won't come back. Stress the importance of your product or service and be sure to create ways of staying in contact with your customers.

Contacting customers can take some time. Whether you send out e-mail notices or have a printed newsletter, this contact must be maintained for future success.

Now, while you're patiently dealing with your customers, you also want to take action. Follow the news daily and talk to your customers. Find out what their biggest concerns are and try to tailor your product or service towards these.

That could mean introducing or possibly cutting back on some things in order to focus on these main concerns. While every situation may be different, there still exists a solution to most problems you could encounter.

Over the next few months, it's going to be more important than ever before to continue making smart decisions without falling to the temptation to panic, and then possibly losing even more.

It's quite possible you could have a rather large sum of money sitting in a bank somewhere without you even knowing. In fact, one person in Nebraska has $160,000 sitting in an account that he probably doesn't know he has...or if he does, he has long forgotten about it.

As you're reading this, the Treasurer of Nebraska is likely making his way door to door delivering checks to the quarter-million residents of his state that currently have unclaimed funds. Old saving accounts, checking accounts, retirement savings and other accounts people have forgotten about over time, have inherited, or have been paying into without even knowing it are filled with money waiting to be claimed by
owners.

However, unlike the lucky residents of Nebraska, it's likely your state Treasurer won't be knocking on your door with an unexpected and pleasant surprise. If you want to know if you've got money sitting in an unclaimed account right now, contact the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators at www.unclaimed.org.

OK, so you're probably pretty sure that if you had some extra money sitting in an account right now, you'd know about it. Well, the fact is that, as much as we think we know where all our money is, there is a good chance there might be some out there we've totally forgotten about.
 
Perhaps you had a bank account as child that you never closed when you got older that's been accumulating interest for the past 40 or 50 years. Maybe your great grandmother who passed on 20 years ago left you an inheritance in an account somewhere, but you lost touch with the executor of her estate years before she died.

The fact is that these types of situations happen much more than we think. After all, there are over quarter-million unclaimed accounts in Nebraska alone — a state with a population of under two million!