Unquixotic Enterprise

Rewrite Your Future

2007-12-29T02:07:00.000-07:00

"If coach would've put me in fourth quarter we'd have been state champions, no doubt. No doubt in my mind.

You better believe

things would have

been different.

I'd have gone pro

in a heartbeat.

I'd be makin' millions of dollars and livin' in a big ol' mansion somewhere. You know, soakin' it up in a hot tub with my soul mate.

Kip... Kip, I reckon you know a lot about cyberspace. Y-You ever come across anything like time travel?"

"Easy. I've already looked into it for myself."

"Right on."

Most people have spent at least a small amount of time indulging themselves in the fantasy of going back to formative years such as high school with their present-day knowledge and wisdom, to do things over again, to set the record straight they way they'd really want it. I've already mentioned Groundhog Day in this forum,

and Hollywood has

explored similar themes

with movies like

Never Been Kissed,

The Family Man and

Back to The Future.

Or recently on the small screen, with NBC's Journeyman. Some people might have specific mortifying moments that served as the hinging event that may spawned a number of other subsequent disasters,

or conversely,

that prevented the

spawning of a number

of desirable events,

in the case of Uncle

Rico's infamous high

school football game.

For others, a rewriting of almost every moment would be in order. My life would fall in the latter category. Socially, romantically, academically, physically/athletically, fiscally, spiritually, and talent-wise-- there's not much that couldn't benefit from a serious rewrite effort.

Yes, after some reflection, I realize that I've pretty much been a dork most of my life. (Actually, it's not a huge revelation, I was at least somewhat aware of it most of the time I was going through it.)
But often, until you have the insight of hindsight, you just don't realize how much of a dork you were being.

Now, this post may seem to be a bit off-topic for this blog, but all matters of success, whether it be in a specific business model or otherwise, often come down to one's grasp on their own self-image, their integrity/character, their people skills, and their preparedness and recognition of opportunities when they meet them, so this will all tie together when I'm finished.

The attraction behind the "If-I-knew-then-what-I-know-now" kind of replay lies in a couple of factors-- the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, and the perspective gained from having that chapter of your life already closed. There's a certain sense of detachment and objectivity that you didn't have at the time. Add to that a knowledge of events up to the present (yesterday's future) and you've eliminated any significant risk factors that may have hindered you at the time.

Think about it... with your present understanding of how pathetic and insignificant were the social dramas, the crushes, the fads and the cliques of your high school environment, along with a knowledge of how local and world events would come into play for your particular slice of history, couldn't you so easily step into your high school shoes and take command of the situation like you never would have thought possible at the time? Certainly.

Most people understand, when they are indulging in this sort of revisionist retrospective, that time travel belongs in the realm of books and movies. But there is something constructive to be gained from the mental exercise, regardless.

It may seem contradictory, though... given that insight of how pathetic and insignificant many circumstances of your life then were, why bother going back?

I submit that the reason anyone would entertain such thoughts, however facetiously, is for one reason, whether you realize it or not: Because you lack the same clarity and confidence in your current circumstances.
And the presumption is, using today's knowledge to take control of yesterday's present could dramatically improve yesterday's future (today) and even today's future.

Take a minute and think back to one

of those events that you'd like to

rewrite-- you've probably already had

it in mind as you've been reading...

Maybe it's that football game you should have played in... That significant someone that you never hooked up with (or did and wish you hadn't!)... That prank at Prom you shouldn't have let yourself get talked into playing...
Or maybe like me, you'd need a complete Extreme Makeover, High School Edition.

Whatever it is, visualize yourself going through the process... Imagine your confidence level as you'd do so. Your cool hand in the face of any obstacles or confrontations. How you handle those people who just don't get it, the way you get it. Would you put up with anyone giving you any flak?

Fuggedaboudit!

And the urgency-- the priority you'd put on certain things would totally shift from the haphazard approach you had before. You'd be focused. Relentless, even.

Because you'd know.

Right?

You might not even have to change a lot-- you could keep much of the same basic framework and just upgrade everything that didn't measure up.
It would be your life, only better.

Wouldn't there just be a spark in your eyes, a twinge of excitement in your gut... like you were getting away with something really great, and no one else knew it? Sure, there'd be some unknowns, because you'd be taking yourself into some new territory for an old timeframe, but still... you'd know all the rules, you'd have the perspective, you'd know the future in all the important terms. The new territory, that's where the excitement would really come-- because you know you can't lose! Every obstacle would be just a challenge, a puzzle to solve.

It's that confidence, that attitude that would make all the difference in rewriting your past. After all, Fors juvat audentes, as the Romans would say. (Fortune favors the brave.)

Ah-hah.

Which brings me back to my earlier statement-- that you lack the same clarity and confidence in your current circumstance.

"Well of course," you might say, "if I don't know the future, I can't have the same assurance of things when I don't know what will happen!"

And that's true to a point, but I think ultimately the distinction is only superficial.

How can I say that?

Because I think the way you're handling your present situation is really not much different than the way you handled High School. You don't think so?

Oh sure, you've matured some, gained a little people skills, a little experience, maybe you got some specialized education in college, and went on to get a few successes under your belt. Maybe you've put in your time and worked your way into a respectable job, a stable relationship, maybe even a rugrat or two. But when you strip it all down, I'll bet that you really haven't changed much in how you handle life, and I'll show you why I say that.

Let's go back in your mind to that moment or that set of circumstances in High School that you were going to rewrite, but this time, just let it play out the way it really happened, the whole ugly reality.
How did you deal with people then? Specifically, how did the authority figures in your life make you feel? Parents, coaches, principals, teachers. What about your competitors? Whether in athletics, your social circles, that geeky chess club, or even the other guy that got the girl. How did you react to the pressure?
What about those rediculous pep rallies? The inane homework assignments?
How did you feel about yourself? How engaged were you really with the world and your own destiny?
But you couldn't just quit, I mean it's High School. It's what everyone does! Your whole future was riding on it!
Didn't it sometimes feel like High School was the whole world, the whole universe even, and your lot in life would be forever set by all the people in it, their standards, their opinions, their accomplishments-- like it would forever be the frame for the whole picture of your life?

Whew! Pretty hard for some people to delve back into all that again. But it all seems so silly now, doesn't it? That's why that detachment and objectivity I spoke of earlier is so valuable in our little retrospective.

But I just claimed that today probably isn't all that different for you. How can I say that?

Let's skip up to a little more recent period of your past.
Say, your previous job.
How did your bosses make you feel? How did you deal with them? And what about your co-workers... that jerk that swiped the deal you were trying to close, or got that position you wanted. What about some of those rediculous company meetings, the mind-numbing paperwork?
How did you feel about yourself? How engaged were you really with the world and your own destiny?
But you couldn't just quit every time you felt frustrated, I mean, it was your living. You had bills to pay, mouths to feed.
Didn't it sometimes feel like that job was the whole world, the whole universe even, and your lot in life would be set by all the people in it, their standards, their opinions, their accomplishments... but that's just silly. That was the old job, right? You could tell them all a thing or two now, right?

Hmmm... But isn't there something familiar about all this?

Now the office or work site has changed, the boss and co-workers have changed but underneath...

Oh yes. It's not just the same way your destiny was forged in high school, it's the way you're living now.

So you'd go rewrite yesterday's present with confidence and flair but you won't do the same with today's present? Why not?

Since you didn't take control of yesterday's present to make a better yesterday's future (today), what makes you think handling today's present the same way is going to make you look back on tomorrow's past (today) any more kindly that you're looking at today's past now?

Won't your tomorrow self be laughing just as ruefully about your today self as your today self was just laughing at your High School self?

So... has all this been just a long-winded way of some kind of lame "Carpe Diem" pep talk?

Not exactly.

Because we're in a rare moment of history-- one in which, in economic terms at least, we actually do know the future.

We know that a large percentage of American, even global business will be shifting to the internet, to e-commerce. We know that like previous technologies, e-commerce is following an S-curve of early adoption, critical mass, and rapid growth before maturity. We have economic experts and futurists projecting the internet and e-commerce to have greater impact on history than the industrial revolution.

We know at in roughly the same period of time, that the Baby Boomers, the largest economic force in American history, will reach their peak spending years. We know that as they reach that spending peak and begin to decline, they will shift a great deal of spending to health and wellness as they age.

We know that in previous economic revolutions, there was a shift of wealth from the previous economy's industries to the those who seized on the emerging industries, in spite of great economic insecurity-- even depressions-- which occur in the course of the revolution. (Example: Electricity, the telephone, the automobile, the petroleum industry and radio all reached critical mass and produced great wealth for those at the forefront of those industries in the same period of time that the Great Depression seized the United States.)

We can assume that the old economy (primarily manufacturing) attempts to stay competitive will mean a continuance or incease in companies who outsource or "right-shore" their production. This will continue to strengthen Asian economies and weaken old-economy employers in the US -- regardless of Union attempts to squeeze more from them. Combined with the global nature of the new economy allowing even white-collar jobs to be moved offshore, this will spell continued instability for US employees.

(On a personal note, this blogger has already been affected by these changes -- having my previous employment in a high-tech professional environment replaced by offshore, lower cost counterparts-- whom it was my last responsibility to train before they replaced me.)

We can also reasonably project that as the Baby Boomers cut back, the US economy and the US Government's tax revenue will experience a crunch, while demands on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security increase. It is also reasonable that many of the Boomers will be wanting to unload themselves of real estate in exchange for smaller, warmer, and/or less maintenence-intensive properties (i.e. condos and other retirement properties), adding to the number of properties in the housing market-- thus decreasing the overall value of a key economic indicator.

So we know specific industries will be growing in the future, and certain sectors which will struggle, and that US employment will likely suffer unless/until we adapt to the emerging economy and the economic wake of the Baby Boomers and subsequent smaller generations.

So let's see... in order to rewrite our future today, we need to move towards being involved in the new economy, moving away from dependence on employment. We need to find something that helps us take advantage of the critical mass and rapid growth phase of e-commerce currently underway. (A bonus if we can also tie in health and wellness.)

So what's relation to our High School revisionist fantasies?

It's this: For all those times you've said "If only I would have known then what I know now," this is the time when you can actually do something now for what most people will soon look back and say "If only..."

But in reality, even without the unique glimpse into the future that we have today, if you've had at least one job prior to your present job, you already know your future in the most significant respects. There will always be the coworker that you can't stand but have no choice but to work with until one of you leaves. That dread that falls over you at the end of your weekend. That grip of anxiety when the boss is around. The inane politics that seem all-consuming to those involved at the time. That money squeeze before your next paycheck. The vacation that takes forever to arrive and then is over before you can enjoy it.

And then for one reason or another, the job ends as it always will, you move on. All those things that were so vital in the moment become trivial in retrospect. You run into your old boss sometime later and wonder why they seemed so intimidating at the time.

Nothing like your present situation, of course. (Uh-huh. Who are you fooling?)

The thing is, you and I are where we are now because of the way we we played the game in yesterday's now, and if we are now still playing in the moment instead of playing for the future, tomorrow's now will look remarkable like today's.

So go on... rewrite your future.

QOTD: Security and Opportunity

2007-10-05T12:11:00.000-07:00

Too many people are thinking of security instead of opportunity. They seem more afraid of life than death. - James F. Byrnes

Welcome New Partner Store

2006-08-24T16:22:00.000-07:00

Dell

Not Feeling Entrepreneurial?

2006-07-28T16:45:00.000-07:00

There's nearly 50% odds that the reason is genetic, according to a recent study.

The authors propose several methods by which genetic factors might influence people's tendency to become entrepreneurs. For example, genes may predispose an individual to develop traits such as being sociable and extroverted, which in turn facilitate skills such as salesmanship, which are vital to entrepreneurial success.

In addition, genes have been shown to affect the level of education an individual receives, and more highly educated people are likelier to become entrepreneurs because they are better able to recognize new business opportunities when they arise.

This study shows a clear genetic predisposition toward entrepreneurship and makes it now possible proceed with studies to identify the specific genes involved in being an entrepreneur.

Not that I'm trying to give anyone an excuse to not do something...

As the tagline for Gattaca says, "There Is No Gene For The Human Spirit."

How Walking A Rut Is Digging A Grave

2006-07-28T16:14:00.000-07:00

Working hard and being broke is killing you.

No, this isn't the start of a Quixtar opportunity meeting... It's the findings of two British medical studies.

The first study found that stressed-out workers were twice as likely to suffer from heart disease and diabetes 2. Characteristics of the metabolic syndrome are obesity, insulin intolerance, high blood pressure and high-cholesterol.

The study also sited previous studies that found "a social gradient in work stress and the metabolic syndrome suggesting that the social gradient in the metabolic syndrome and heart disease could in part be explained by greater exposure to work stress among less advantaged social groups."

In other words, the lower you are on the corporate ladder, the greater the risk.

The second study found that people of a lower socio-economic status aged 7 years faster than their better-off counterparts.
The research showed that "the poor have shorter telomeres, the caps on chromosomes that prevent them from fraying, which makes them biologically older than people of the same age in higher social groups."
The study considered and adjusted for factors such as obesity, smoking and exercise.

The hypothesis? "The idea is that psychological stress itself or the loss of control might have a biological impact . . . It might raise levels of oxidative stress in the body and make cells turn over more quickly."

That's comforting.. dying broke AND early.

UPDATE:
In response to my comments regarding sports nutrition products with antioxidents, Rocket raised the comparison to EAS products (which he gets from the retailer GNC.) I indicated that the Trim Advantage meal replacement products from Quixtar were competative to EAS.com prices, both at retail. Rocket requested a price comparison.

Unfortunately, GNC.com doesn't have RTD shakes, just the mix-it-yourself packets, and I can't compare GNC retail store prices at the moment.

I was comparing EAS.com prices... I've just done a comparison of bodybuilding.com prices, for lack of access to a GNC retail store.

Product	Source	Qty	Volume	Total Vol	Retail Price	Price Per Volume	Price Per Use	Price/Volume Equivilent*
Trim Advantage RTD Meal Replacement Shake	quixtar.com	12	11.2 oz	134 oz	29.99	0.2238/oz	2.49	45.65 / 17 oz
EAS Myoplex Original RTD Meal Replacement Shake	bodybuilding.com	12	17 oz	204 oz	35.89	0.1759/oz	2.99	n/a
EAS Myoplex Original RTD Meal Replacement Shake	EAS.com	12	17 oz	204 oz	49.95	0.2448/oz	4.16	n/a
Trim Advantage Meal Replacement Bar	quixtar.com	9	2.1 oz	18.9 oz	$22.60	1.195/oz	2.51	45.53 / 38.1 oz
EAS Myoplex Deluxe Bar	bodybuilding.com	12	3.175 oz	38.1 oz	29.89	0.785/oz	2.49	n/a
EAS Myoplex Deluxe Bar	EAS.com	36	3.175 oz	114.3 oz	107.85	0.944/oz	2.99	n/a

*Price/Volume Equivilent: For items of lesser volume, this represents the price for an equivilent total volume, based on the price per volume.

"If you only knew the freedom"

2006-07-24T17:21:00.000-07:00

Dean Kosage on Time Management:

"im constantly amazed at how much pain and emotional energy leaks are created because of people not planning out thier wks and months at a view . I believe some people fear that planning is going to micro manage them somehow to much . when in fact if done correctly it actualy frees you up. If you dont learn to work when you work / play when you play / and worship when you worship ...it will all just blog you down . So many familys could enjoy life so much more and have family traditions if someone would just lead and help the family get a wkly flow .
Its odd but humans love to work hard , and structure is a good thing as long as you have the ability to create that structure yourself.
If you only knew the freedom of not feeling guilty , and whats sad is some people can only find that place by escaping on the wknds by numbing it through fake highs . Now im all for having fun , as long as its not a way of avoiding pain !
We feel no guilt when we have taken the time to figure out who we are , where we are going , then feel we are on point with our mission statement or purpose ."

The "Cult-like" Culture of...

2006-07-24T17:07:00.000-07:00

IBM? Walt Disney? Wal-Mart? Oh, say it isn't so!

Ron Swift of "Top Achievers" has the scoop on group mentalities molded for mutual success.

Success Breeds Success

2006-07-24T17:02:00.000-07:00

Congrats to OneIBO for continuing momentum in their business and good luck on their ever-closer goal of Eagle.

Confessions of a Non-CORE IBO

2006-07-24T16:37:00.000-07:00

I'll admit it-- I haven't been CORE in at least 3 months. As I indicated in my April Accountability post, life changes have really turned my schedule upside down.

I'll also admit that the counsel of many WWDB leaders to singles that they have an advantage over couples and that they should seize the opportunity while they are still single, is wise counsel indeed. On a similar note, I would surmise that the counsel of Ron Puryear to "dig your well before you're thirsty" is also wise.

I'll admit thirdly that I have gone more than 3 decades of life without effectively learning or practicing time management. It is said regarding both time and money that if you do not learn to control them, they will control you.
I'll further admit that my lack of time management skills is due mostly to a lack of personal discipline. I suspect that most people in American society function on a similar compulsory basis behind their financial and time-management decisions: They move when circumstances have bound them to move, in the direction that circumstances demand.

Fourth, and most controversial, I hereby submit that my contractual relationship with Quixtar currently offers me no greater chances of success than in MLMs like Oasis Lifesciences, Usana, Amway, Shaklee or Nikken. ("Ha!" critics and naysayers the world over exclaim, "He admits it!")

Well yes, I'll stand behind my confession. Quixtar currently offers me no greater chance of success than those other vehicles-- because I'm currently applying equal effort to all of them. (Equal in the sense that zero = zero.)

If there is a "dirty little secret" behind those engaged in Quixtar-affiliated independent businesses, it is that most people who are involved never choose to overcome their bad financial and time-management habits. I know, I know, that's much less scintilating than cult conspiracy theories and "secret" tool money rumors, but well.. it is what it is. (Tin-foil hat wearers should direct their attention to the tall mysterious hairy creature running through the woods to catch a ride on that glowing saucer-like vehicle while the rest of us continue in an adult conversation.)

Ironically, this "dirty little secret" is also had in common with most former-IBOs-turned-critics. To further the irony, these critics are less likely to admit this reality than presently affilliated IBOs who are more or less still positive. In truth, the only difference between myself and a former-IBO-turned-critic is that I admit the lack of achievement is directly tied to my lack of discipline AND since I understand that, I have continued hope because of a belief in my ability to change.

A formerly affiliated critic cannot risk admitting that lack of discipline applied to the Quixtar business plan is responsible for the majority of those who don't acheive an arbitrary pin level because it opens the possibilty of exposing their own shortcomings.

Since my goal is to become financially free, not to be "right", I have no such reservations to admitting my shortcomings.

But I've digressed...

Where was I? Oh yes-- Time management: I still need to master it. Going forward, my efforts will be focused on that, because I understand that with personal discipline in this area will come success in the arena of my choosing.

Life Happens

2006-05-23T10:58:00.000-07:00

Well, life has gotten busy, and I've had little time for business activities, let alone blogging.

Hopefully things are on their way back to (relative) normalcy soon.

Failure A Prerequisite To Success

2006-05-05T12:51:00.000-07:00

Jeff Cornwall of The Entrepreneurial Mind blog has a great post on failure's crucial role in success.

Some interesting points:

Our culture seems to be drifting into an alarming view of success and
failure. We seek quick or even instant success. I see it in entrepreneurs who
look at their businesses as deals to yield a quick, short-term windfall rather
than as a sustainable source of income and good jobs. We seek our fortunes
through lotteries and lawsuits rather than hard work.
. . .
America has become a society of people who blame everyone and everything else for our own failures.

Read the whole thing.

Star Qualities

2006-05-05T12:42:00.000-07:00

For a much shorter list, here's Entrepreneur's top five traits found in the best salespeople:

1. Focusing on the customer

2. Following through

3. Having the right knowledge

4. Understanding customers' problems

5. Going above and beyond

(Read the whole thing for elaboration on each point.)

Secrets Of Success

2006-05-05T12:03:00.000-07:00

Found this interesting list when cleaning out my IE "Favorites" list... The compiler of the list, Dale Kirby, notes:

"This page is a list of ideas to which various hard-working people have attributed their success. Many of the items were culled from The Secrets of the World's Top Sales Performers by Christine Harvey, but others have come from various interviews, books and articles whose sources I was negligent in noting."

Secrets:

1. A tightly scheduled 12-hour day.
2. Have contacting goals.
3. Systematic communication.
4. Know your subject.
5. Learn from questions you are asked: Don't get caught twice.
6. Always have an active prospect list that you contact regularly.
7. Respond fast.
8. Keep your name in front of the customer.
9. Develop innovative strategies for yourself and your customers.
10. Impressive preparation.
11. Finding a niche.
12. Weekly targets.
13. Show people their strengths.
14. Use 80/20 rule.
15. Each day write down 2 things on the job you did that you enjoyed
or found satisfying.
16. React to problems promptly.
17. Honesty.
18. It's all or nothing for the customer.
19. Thorough planning.
20. Verify key points after meetings in writing.
21. Start meetings with a review.
22. Bring, show or discuss one positive they are not expecting.
23. Tried and true case studies.
24. Develop a system that allows you to find info in 15 seconds.
25. Respect deadlines on promises made.
26. Use flexibility to break into new markets.
27. Perfect your communication.
28. Mentally walk with them.
29. Put features and benefits into layers of pyramid and focus on best layer.
30. Mind-emptying excercises.
31. Structured follow-up
32. See how success works and copy, copy, copy.
33. Don't get tired of service.
34. Flair
35. Anticipate questions and know the answers.
36. Believe in your product.
37. Know exactly where you're going to start the next day.
38. Have high daily targets and when you achieve them--quit.
39. Set up definte rules to get over each hurdle and on to the next.
40. Know competitors products.
41. Create pride of ownership.
42. Have a structured selling answer to "What do you do? & a handout.
43. State your price as a benefit.
44. Answer, "What do you do?"
45. Spend 90% of your time either prospecting or on appointments.
46. Develop solid closing questions.
47. Know your product--shoot the answer.
48. List the benefits of your product.
49. Look as if you've operated the product all your life.
50 Full-scale mock-up. Prototype.
51. Be there when you're needed.
52. Never, ever forget one single thing you've promised to do,
no matter how trivial it seems.
53. Respect the client for what he is and for what he has accomplished in life.
54. Verbalize respect.
55. Reliability, responsiveness, tangibles, assurance, empathy.
56. Know your case and their case.
57. Put enormous thought and energy into reconfiguring your world
so that when emergencies happen you have exactly what you need
to do the job.
58. Know their history when you arrive.
59. Always know and communicate the next step.
60. 3 Steps: Previous, Current, Next.
61. Way of the gull: Work like hell and go after every scrap.
62. Leverage time and effort.
63. Analyze, measure, identify my selling, marketing, advertising and operations.
64. In a minute, describe what it is about your business that gives
greater advantage, greater benefit, and greater result to your client.
65. How can I test one way against another?
66. What is my clear, accurate distinct vision of my business?
67. How many better, other additional ways could I be doing?
68. How can I get the highest and best use of my time and opportunity.
69. Who could recommend me?
70. What do my clients pre-do and post-do that I can leverage.
71. Do one good thing consistently well.
72. If something works, experiment with a copy.
73. Never create the same routine twice.
74. Trial and error but debrief.
75. Rise before dawn.
76. Be willing to be consumed by a task as long as it takes.
77. Practice the basics endlessly.
78. Your core investment must be in understanding your customers.
79. Stress high quality relationships
80. Be a perpetual prospecting machine.
81. Lose the no's.
82. Have a strategic plan and a relentless apllication of the plan.
83. Document everything. Always know what happened.

Move

2006-05-04T23:35:00.000-07:00

Move and show me what you can do
When you step into the circle and shake like we do
Move when you just can't take it
And move if you just feel like breaking it

Can you hear me? Stop, look, listen to my voice,
It was never my choice to feel all alone
This is my home
Back up, you don't know if you've never been here,
You've never been to the place inside, I face my fear
It takes everything I am

[Chorus]
Move and show me what you can do
When you step into the circle and shake like we do
and Move when you just can't take it
And move if you just feel like breaking it

Come near me, stop, look, listen to my voice
If you're making the choice tell all the girls and the boys
Either scream or rejoice
Let's make that noise
Either move or we will all be destroyed
Back up and let go if you've never been here,
You've never been to the place inside, I face my fears,
It takes everything I am

So just
[Chorus]
Move and show me what you can do
When you step into the circle and shake like we do
and Move when you just can't take it
And move if you just feel like breaking it

I come crashing to the floor
And I know there must be more like me
I've seen this all before, I can't carry this anymore, break free
So breath, and leave until the storm is over
'Cause underneath, there's a diamond passing over
So breath, let's leave until the storm is over,
Because I want to take you away

[Chorus]
Move and show me what you can do
When you step into the circle and shake like we do
and Move when you just can't take it
And move if you just feel like breaking

--Thousand Foot Krutch

Blogging and Referral-Based Marketing

2006-05-04T17:26:00.000-07:00

(Just going back over some old posts and reread my original response in comments to the blogger "webchicky" which I highlighted in my "What Went Wrong?" post. I've decided it's worthy of it's own posting, so here it goes...)

Heard of referral-based marketing? No, how about blogging? Same thing. You sign up, then you recruit people to subcribe to your point of view, who hopefully tell other people about it and pretty soon you have a BILLION readers!

The more clever bloggers, of course, incorporate links to services or products that their loyal downlin-- er, I mean, subscriber base can purchase-- these are done via what's called affilliate programs-- a contractual agreement between a referrer and a supplier in which the supplier agrees to pay the referrer a set compensation for purchases from the referrer's subscriber base, who are identified via an ID number or code.

Amazon, Barnes & Noble and many other respectable businesses employ this method. Other bloggers register with an advertising service, such as BlogAds or Google Adsense, wherein the same principle applies-- the referrer drives the traffic of his/her blog subscriber base to the advertisements of various products and services and is paid a set compensation for the click-through rate, by the 3rd party agency (like BlogAds).

Others still employ their blog to raise awareness to their eBay auctions, in which they rely on the infrastructure of an established 3rd party company to facilitate the selling of products and collect a set percentage. Some bloggers, resorting essentially to begging, implement Amazon or Paypal tipjars. Some even sell t-shirts, hats and coffee mugs created by a 3rd-party companyfor their blog, which earns them a certain percentage.

Some, the very most clever, use their blogs to teach other bloggers how to make money from blogging they way they have, using any or all of the above methods. The more people they recruit to be loyal to their site, the more money they make. Is Darren Rowse of problogger a scam artist or cult leader?

No? Why not? His blog has money-making tips all over it, and his blog generates income. Is he, in a sense, recruiting? Certainly. Does he make money from his recruits? Well that's the point, isn't it? How scandalously unethical-- oh wait... he's called a leader, a trendsetter, an entrepreneur! Why is that?

All of this is considered acceptable and unoffensive in the blogosphere-- indeed, nearly every blogger aspires to more traffic (i.e. a bigger subscriber base) to their blog, and if possible, enough compensation from affiliate programs, ads, tip jars or memorabelia on their blogs to pay for the blog hosting and maybe a little spending cash.

In addition, everyone engages in product or service referral, online and offline. Taking a casual scan of webchicky's blog, I see referrals/endorsements for the following:
-4 ft pre-lit artificial tree at Target
-an health and fitness regime involving a gym and vitamins
-Maximillian's Grill & Wine Bar
-518 West restaurant
-Firefox 1.5
-Relpax
-Carolina Hurricanes
-Trans-Siberian Orchestra
-Do Not Call Registry
-MSNBC news
-several Starbucks products

Just taking the first two for example, had webchicky established an Amazon affiliate program and linked to the 4 ft pre-lit artificial tree at their partner store, Target; or had linked to vitamins she is taking for her fitness regime in Amazon's health and beauty section, would anyone regard that link as her engaging in scam-like or cult-like activity? Does her linking to her online business carolinawebdev.com via therogans.com strike anyone as predatory or shamelessly opportunist?

Of course not. That's just business. If people happen to establish a sense of acquaintence or trust with her via her blog and then just happen to find a need for a web developer and enlist her company to fill that need, that's just how business is done. Whether good bloggers or good business persons (Quixtar-supplied or otherwise), they are essentially leveraging the relationships they're building (in the process of providing products or services) in order to influence the behavior of the other person for their own benefit. As long as there's also a legitimate benefit for the other party, this is not unethical.

Hmm. Interesting.

So, the only difference I see here is:

1) webchicky, like most people, engages in product/service referral for other companies but fails to take advantage of existing affiliate programs which would compensate her for activities she is engaging in anyway-- she essentially markets for other companies for free. That is her perogative. Others are a bit more enterprising. That is their perogative.

2) Unlike Amazon's affliliate program, whose compensation plan is only 1-tiered (payment is only made for direct referrals, not referrals of referrals) and often only 1-time (referred customers who return to Amazon for later purchases aren't necessarily credited to the original referrer), Quixtar's affiliate program is infinitely tiered and recurring.

3) Unlike Amazon's affiliate program which accepts virtually any referral link, Quixtar's affiliate program requires personal relationships to precede business transactions, requiring individuals to develop *gasp!* relationship skills and, like, personalities and stuff.

4) Not all persons find such personal development a desirable prerequisite for making money-- although anyone making any sustainable income from any venture online or offline are already engaged in similar personal development activities whether they realize it or not.

5) Not all business owners contracting with Quixtar's affiliate program have quite perfected the necessary skills to engender professionalism and trust in their prospective clients or partners-- apparently the grocery store couple is still in the development phase. I'm sure carolinawebdev.com's very first web project was as exemplary in technological prowess, aesthetic design, navigational efficiency and infrastructurally stability as their most recent project-- wait... no? Hmm. How disgraceful. People shouldn't be allowed to start a business until they have perfected themselves, right? No again? Hmm.

So why all the "cult" and "scam" language?

6) When a person opens a more traditional business, whether online or offline, they have something visible to hide behind-- a store front, a website, a product, a service-- while they gradually develop any skills, personality and self-esteem they may be lacking which are necessary to sustain the business for the long-term. When a person opens an affiliation with Quixtar, whose compensation plan favors those who establish multiple tiers of referrals, that aspect of their business is essentially invisible-- they initially have nothing to show but themselves, nothing to hide behind.
That frankly scares the begeebers out of most people, and in encounters like the amusing scenario webchicky described, this fear is a factor in the behavior of both sides involved. Behavior that is subsequently exhibited in ways that run counter to common business sense until the involved persons get their game together. Does that make this couple scammers or cultists?

No. It makes them a peculiar creature called "human."

Technorati Tags: Home Based Business, Internet Marketing, Internet Business, Quixtar, WWDB, Affiliate Marketing, Problogger, AdSense, BlogAds, Amazon, Private Franchise

April Accountability

2006-05-04T17:02:00.000-07:00

CORE
-STP (qty, goal 10): 0
-Personal Use (scale of 1-10): 8
-Clients (qty, goal 10): 5
-Book reading (scale of 1-10): 2
-Tape/CD habit (scale of 1-10): 7
-Function attendance (scale of 1-10): 10
-Teachable (scale of 1-10): 6
-Accountable (scale of 1-10): 8
-CommuniKate (scale of 1-10): 9

Comments: Improvement in the client area (XS Energy drink is so easy to sell after giving a free sample), but I did poorly with business exposure otherwise. Still lacking in the book-reading area. Still only performing at a Prosumer level.
This is really frustrating to me, as I started the month with a high level of expectation.
Anoniwife is pregnant, which is of course fabulous news-- but the chaos wrought in the most basic elements of our daily schedule (eating, sleeping, housekeeping) due to ~~morning~~ all-day sickness and a hypersensitive nose has definitely been a challenge and a big eye-opener to just how poor my time-management skills are (not to mention an increased appreciation for what a great partner my wife is!)

I think time management is one of the key areas of discipline which keeps most IBOs from succeeding. I must overcome this.

Going forward, I will post my accountability weekly, only I'm going to change up the parameters a bit, more along the lines of the "Business Pulse" section of my last Financials posting.

Technorati Tags: Home Based Business, Internet Marketing, Internet Business, Quixtar, WWDB, Affiliate Marketing, Private Franchise, Prosumer

Quixtar Personal IBO Websites

2006-05-04T11:20:00.000-07:00

Dave Robison has the lowdown on the new free offering for IBOs from Quixtar Corp.: Personal IBO websites.
This is a nice move by Quixtar, one that many have wanted for a long time.

For those IBOs without third party or LOS provided websites, there would an awkward moment for an IBO, after singing the praises of the future of ecommerce, when a prospective partner or client says, "Sounds great, what's your website?"

To which the IBO would be forced to lamely reply, "Uhhh... well my supplier's website is..."

Dave covers the limitations well, so I won't reiterate them, but suffice it to say, I'm very pleased with WWDB's my.biz offering in comparison and find it to be well worth the fee.

Technorati Tags: Home Based Business, Internet Marketing, Internet Business, Quixtar, WWDB, Affiliate Marketing, Private Franchise

Flippers, Bubbles and Boomers

2006-05-02T16:33:00.000-07:00

Real Estate is one of the prime economic indicators for the national economy; and not surprisingly, 46% of U.S. millionaires own investment real estate-- a statistic that "No Money Down" house-flipping infomercials or seminars would be happy to cite. (The survey does not actually state that real estate investment was the means of aquiring the millions, however, just simply that millionaire assets include investment real estate.)

An MSN Real Estate article asserts that "Flipping houses is harder than it looks." Key quotes:

"There is a boatload of competition out there, which means that the obvious deals are gone in a heartbeat. The pros will tell you that they make their money on the front end by buying properties for at least 30% below market value. Finding those houses takes time and once you find them, you'll need to move fast. And no matter what the late-night gurus say about doing this with no money down, it hardly ever works that way. That means you'll need access to cash to do the deal, not to mention the rehab."
"The masses believe in the dream that's been promised to them, that they'll be making a fortune in the next six months . . . They don't have the basic know-how. If it were as easy as they make it seem, 286 million people would be flipping real estate."
"Right now, you have people jumping in on frenzy and it will bankrupt a lot of Joes and Susies who have no business doing this"
Access to large amounts of cash is the hardest part -- and one of the biggest misconceptions -- of the business. . . "If you don't close in 30 days, they keep your money . . . Then you need more cash to carry the house, the insurance, the utilities and the maintenance. You won't get a contractor to renovate a house for no money. People go to trade shows and buy these books and tapes on how to buy a house with no money down. I've never seen someone actually do that."
Another reason that access to cash is so important is that you'll probably need to hold on to the house for at least three months because of Federal Housing Administration (FHA) anti-flipping regulations. Houses sold less than 90 days after they were purchased aren't eligible for FHA mortgage insurance; those sold between 91 and 180 days are OK but require an additional, independent appraisal to make sure the sales price is justified.
What that means for you as the owner is additional carrying costs. Every day you own the house costs you money in interest, utilities, taxes and insurance.

Another MSN Real Estate article that might interest house flippers and ordinary Americans alike: "Housing bubble: Top 30 cities to watch"

It lists 10 U.S. cities where housing appreciation is likely to grow, 10 cities where the housing market is topping off, and 10 cities where the market is likely to decline.

What was interesting to me about this article is not which cities were doing what, but rather how short-term the study was... in analyzing the growth record only the last few years were compared, and in projections, only the next 2-3 years were considered. This is understandable, given the variable nature of the real estate market.

What seems more concerning to me are economic trends like climbing rates of mortgage defaults. Do a Google News search for "foreclosure rates"... scary.

The Housing Bubble Blog is an interesting resource on this topic.

What about a little bit more long-term view? Follow my sidebar link to Harry S. Dent's site and spend some time getting a grasp on his "Key Concepts" section for a nice eye-opener. Keep in mind that he's accurately projected major economic trends for more than 15 years using the methods in his Key Concepts.

I'll try to summarize: Mr. Dent's economic theories rest on one major factor: Demographics. (Technology plays a significant role as well, which I'll come back to.)

In our time, the most significant demographic force is the Baby Boomer generation. Simply put, they have made up the largest economic force in American history, and have exploded every market that they have moved into.

But what goes up must come down. Another first in American history: The Boomers are the first generation who will not be followed by a rising generation larger than itself. Historically, Americans reach their peak spending years at age 46.5, in the height of real estate, automobile and education expenses for a family, as well as invesments towards retirement. This is the spending that drives the economy. (We've been seeing that boom since it started to manifest in the early to mid 1980's.)

But then comes the empty nest, and the clamping down of spending at the onset of retirement.

Let's do a little math. The baby boom started at the end of World War II in 1945 when people made babies in record numbers. Let's add 65 years to that to see when the largest economic force in American history clamps down on the purse strings: 1945 + 65 = 2010.

Four years from now.

Let's do some basic supply-and-demand economics: What happens to a market when there are more buyers than sellers? Price goes up. What happens to a market when there are more sellers than buyers? Price goes down.

Now what happens when the largest economic force in American history suddenly cease to be buyers in virtually every market (except maybe Healthcare) and in many cases (investments and non-retirement real estate) suddenly become sellers?

Depression. That's not my term, that's Harry Dent's projection: a "Deflationary Shakeout, a depression era like the 1930s that will begin between late 2008 and 2010. In the last 80-year cycle, this occurred from 1930 to 1942, says Dent:

"Stock prices fell dramatically, losing 90% of their value, from late 1929 and into 1932. Consumer prices fell equally dramatically from 1930 into 1933. Real estate values plummeted . . . During the Deflationary Shakeout, we see a disinvestment of production facilities and labor that were built up in the race for leadership during the Growth Boom. It is the worst time for employees and most investors." (emphasis mine)

The bright side? In the movie Cinderella Man, there's a scene where the main character, in the middle of the Great Depression, is going to beg for a chance to get money to feed his kids, when he passes a Rolls Royce limousine. It begs the question: when so many were scraping to simply eat, who could afford a Rolls Royce limousine? Those who invested in the Power Wave of their generation, before the Deflationary Shakeout kicked in.

Dent:

"The Power Wave peaks when these innovators enter their 50s and 60s. As they
assume positions of corporate power en masse, they stimulate a revolution in business practices that truly exploits the advantages of the new technologies.
For example, what the assembly line production revolution was to the Henry Ford generation, the Internet marketing revolution is to the baby boom generation today." (emphasis mine)

Rhetorical question: Gee, how ever would the average person be able to take advantage of this "Internet marketing revolution"?

Technorati Tags: Home Based Business, Internet Marketing, Internet Business, Quixtar, WWDB, Affiliate Marketing, Private Franchise, Harry Dent

Get Rich Or Die Trying

2006-05-01T15:37:00.000-07:00

A bit off-topic, but I found this Get Rich Or Die Trying blog to be interesting.

Technorati Tags: Home Based Business, Internet Marketing, Internet Business, Affiliate Marketing

Retirement Overconfidence

2006-04-30T15:44:00.000-07:00

The Employee Benefit Research Institute's annual retirement confidence survey, released on 4/4/2006, found that about 68% of workers are confident about having adequate funds for a comfortable retirement. (Perhaps because of their findings that almost half-- 46 percent-- are guessing the amount they need to retire.)

At the same time however, more than 50% of all workers say they've saved less than $25,000 toward retirement, according to the Washington, D.C., based research group. Even among workers 55 and older, more than 40% have retirement savings under $25,000.

Technorati Tags: Home Based Business, Internet Marketing, Internet Business, Quixtar, WWDB, Affiliate Marketing, Private Franchise, Retirement

Thought on Freedom

2006-04-28T11:33:00.000-07:00

Quote I saw on a local business marquee:

"Freedom calls for responsiblity, that's why most men hate it."

There was no source attributed, but I found 2 similar quotes:

"Most people to not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsiblity, and most people are frightened of responsibility."
--Sigmund Freud

"Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it."
--George Bernard Shaw

Either way, it's a thought very reminiscent of some of the thoughts of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe:

"To create something you must be something."

"He only earns his freedom and his life Who takes them every day by storm."

"Everybody wants to be somebody; nobody wants to grow."

"Truth is a torch but a tremendous one. That is why we hurry past it, shielding our eyes, indeed, in fear of getting burned."
Technorati Tags: Home Based Business, Internet Marketing, Internet Business, Quixtar, WWDB, Affiliate Marketing, Private Franchise, Freedom

Nutrilite Powers Asafa Powell, World's Fastest Man

2006-04-25T11:40:00.000-07:00

Powell broke world record for 100-meter sprint in June 2005, three months after adding Nutrilite Double X Multi-Vitamin to his training regimen.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., April 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Nutrilite, a leading global nutritional brand, has signed Asafa Powell, the World Record holder in the 100-meter sprint, as a global brand spokesperson. In the U.S. and Canada, Quixtar Independent Business Owners (IBOs) will be excited to learn their exclusive flagship health brand helped power Asafa's record-breaking run in 2005 and will be certain to cheer him on in future events.

In June, 2005, the then 22-year-old Asafa broke the men's 100-meter world record at a meet in Athens, Greece -- just three months after his brother introduced him to Nutrilite® Double X®. Asafa's brother Donovan, who also was a world-class sprinter, was introduced to Nutrilite by his wife's parents, who are Quixtar IBOs. Appreciating the benefits he received from Double X, Donovan supplied the multivitamin to his younger brother when he complained of low energy levels during his training early in 2005.

"Taking Double X was the only change I made to how I had been training," says Asafa. "After I started taking it, I felt I had more energy to train harder and run faster. I am very careful about what I consume so I appreciate the balanced vitamin and mineral content plus the rich, all-natural plant concentrates in Double X."

(more...)
Technorati Tags: Home Based Business, Internet Marketing, Internet Business, Quixtar, WWDB, Affiliate Marketing, Private Franchise, Nutrilite

The "Apple" Of The Consumer's Eye

2006-04-21T16:51:00.000-07:00

Steve Jobs is one smart man.

The New York Post is reporting that the music industry "may be on the verge of waving the white flag" to Jobs on his demand to keep iTunes songs at 99 cents.

The whole article is interesting reading, but here's why I bring it up on Unquixotic:

Mr. Jobs controls an internet portal.
With that internet portal comes a huge subscriber base, the iTunes consumers.
Music execs since Edison's days have wanted to control every facet of their product in their own interests over (and sometimes in spite of) the interest of their paying consumer. Today, they are still fighting for that same control.
But in this case, Jobs holds the cards... Why? Because his internet portal has the subscriber base. Those subscribers are attracted to the price point and delivery method that Jobs offers via iTunes.
Therefore, if the music execs want the business of Jobs' huge subscriber base, they must do things under the consumers' terms.

One high-level music industry executive, who believes the record industry will ultimately abandon its push for variable pricing, blamed the labels for not standing up to Jobs.

"Where in life does the retailer set the price of the content?" said this person.

This quote shows an obvious lack of understanding that life, with the new economy, has changed.
When does the retailer set the price? Uh, let's see... When a "retailer" is an internet portal that pulls as many as 20.7 million monthly visitors to it?
Or in the case of Wal-Mart, when their buying scale allows them to call the shots, to name their price, not the manufacturer. Again, because they have mastered the ability to pull in a subscriber base whose purchasing clout allows them to do so.

Strategic Marketing:

"Through the ups and downs of the past decade, two trends have grown stronger. Both of these trends will significantly impact the future of marketing. First, consumers are becoming increasingly empowered via the choice, control and convenience the Internet offers. Second, most entertainment and communication devices are becoming digital and connected-either hard-wired or wirelessly-to the Internet. . . Both of these trends will make consumers Gods of all they survey. They will have access to a world of information as well as other consumer insights. . . They will control marketing and, to get their attention, marketers will have to be particularly insightful and innovative. In such a world, only by understanding consumers and giving them something of value-literally paying tribute to the new Gods-will marketers succeed. . . the next era will be all about the Empowered and Connected Consumer."

What does all this have to do with Quixtar?

Oh, you mean Quixtar, the internet portal with a subscriber base that brings 3 times the revenue to Circuit City than any other of some 9,000+ affiliate partners? The same Quixtar that attracted Barnes & Nobles to seek out their partnership, only to become the online book store's top affiliate partner out of some hundreds of others? The Quixtar that had the bargaining power to trade up from Office Max to the larger partner Office Depot at twice the PV/BV kickback percentage? You mean the Quixtar that lets mere consumers become prosumers, earning a kickback on purchases of brands, products and stores that they would have made anyway? (How's that for empowered and connected?) That Quixtar?

Uh, yeah. That one.

Paul Zane Pilzer frequently describes the transition that has been seen for methods of wealth acquisition: from "resource millionaires" to "manufacturing millionaires" to the current trend of "distribution millionaires" as we are seeing with mere "retailers" like iTunes, Walmart, Amazon and yes, even Quixtar.

So what's next? Enhancing distribution to the next level: One-to-one Marketing, or what Pilzer calls "intellectual distribution." The pull that iTunes, Walmart, Amazon have on their subscriber base is almost completely reliant upon price and convenience-- with products that they already know they want.
What about the new products they don't know about? That's where direct selling comes in: "educating consumers about products and services that will improve their lives, but that they either don't yet know about or don't yet know are now affordable."

I won't rehash all of Pilzer's concepts, but they're worth reading to understand the way things are changing and will continue to change.

Suffice it to say, today's Quixtar-affiliated IBO has the ability to harness the same kind of emerging negotiating clout as a Steve Jobs and Wal-Mart are seeing, with the ubiquitous reach and convenience of internet shopping, while providing the one-on-one "high touch" connection with consumers that will win them loyal clients and business partners.

Technorati Tags: Home Based Business, Internet Marketing, Internet Business, Quixtar, WWDB, Affiliate Marketing, Private Franchise, Prosumer, Amazon, iTunes, Walmart

eMarketer: Internet Marketing Up, TV Marketing Down

2006-04-20T11:26:00.000-07:00

eMarketer:

Talk about kicked while you are down. TV execs are being hit from every direction these days.

The audience size at the major networks has been falling steadily for years. Last month Nielsen Media Research revealed that while online advertising spending in the US rose by 23% in 2005, network TV spending fell by 1.5%.

Now a new report from Nielsen indicates that top network shows may actually lose a large part of their viewers during commercial breaks. In other words, advertisers aren't getting the eyeballs they are paying for.

Or in other words, Harry S. Dent and Frank Feather are looking smarter and smarter.

Is it any wonder that 600+ partner stores have aligned themselves with an online shopping portal that has the power to bring purchasers to them?
Is it any wonder why an advertising-dependent TV network like NBC would put out a hit-piece on a business model that cuts their revenue source completely out of the picture?

Technorati Tags: Home Based Business, Internet Marketing, Internet Business, Quixtar, WWDB, Affiliate Marketing, Private Franchise

Internet Plays Larger Role In U.S. Life

2006-04-20T11:09:00.000-07:00

FutureWire blog has a post on a Pew/Internet study which finds an increase in the use of the internet as a "crucial source of information at major moments and milestones" in the lives of Americans. This included a 45% increase in the number who said the internet played a major role as they made major investment or financial decisions.

I found Brian's comments on FutureWire to be most relevent in that light:

"Longtime observers of the Internet are surely not surprised at these findings,
which underscore how the Net is replacing older, smaller networks such as family
and close friends. To than end, an interesting study might be to what degree the
information/support found online was better or worse than that gathered through
more traditional means. On the one hand, access to online communities is
available regardless of one's family status or physical location. But on the
other, community members rarely have a stake in each other's success; it's no
skin off someone's nose if they provide biased, misinformed or misleading
advice."

Technorati Tags: Home Based Business, Internet Marketing, Internet Business, Quixtar, WWDB, Affiliate Marketing, Private Franchise

Blame The Education System?

2006-04-19T13:49:00.000-07:00

Twenty percent of U.S. college students completing 4-year degrees – and 30 percent of students earning 2-year degrees – have only basic quantitative literacy skills, meaning they are unable to estimate if their car has enough gasoline to get to the next gas station or calculate the total cost of ordering office supplies, according to a new national survey by the American Institutes for Research (AIR).

Technorati Tags: Home Based Business, Internet Marketing, Internet Business, Quixtar, WWDB, Affiliate Marketing, Private Franchise

Did Your Boss Mention This?

2006-04-19T13:21:00.000-07:00

In calendar year 2004, the profit-per-employee at U.S. companies was $68,655, up 55 percent from the year before, according to a survey by human capital measurement firm PricewaterhouseCoopers Saratoga.
. . .
PwC Saratoga also found that for every $100 spent on salary and benefits, the average U.S. company enjoyed $42 in profit, double from the year before.

Technorati Tags: Home Based Business, Internet Marketing, Internet Business, Quixtar, WWDB, Affiliate Marketing, Private Franchise

70 Percenters

2006-04-19T13:16:00.000-07:00

According to Money Magazine, 70 percent of American spouses say they argue about money in their marriages.

According to David Bach, 70 percent of Americans continue to live paycheck to paycheck regardless of increasing incomes.

Technorati Tags: Home Based Business, Internet Marketing, Internet Business, Quixtar, WWDB, Affiliate Marketing, Private Franchise

Things that make ya go hmmm..

2006-04-14T18:29:00.000-07:00

Two excellent new posts over at The IBO Chronicles.

Technorati Tags: Home Based Business, Internet Marketing, Internet Business, Quixtar, WWDB, Affiliate Marketing, Private Franchise

Mo' on the Pro

2006-04-14T17:53:00.000-07:00

Looks like a little momentum on the pro-Quixtar blogging front:

Quix Blog (http://quixblog.blogstream.com/)

Blogstar- the Quixtar Blog (http://blogstar-thequixtarblog.blogspot.com/)

(another) Quix Blog (http://quixtar.eponym.com/blog)

Great start, guys and gals! Just stay consistent, positive and accurate-- in your businesses and your blogs!

P.S. Some critic bloggers (who post negative opinions of Quixtar and training/motivation organizations and sprinkle their blogs liberally with keywords that bring attention to searches for those keywords) appear to be a bit disgruntled over an effort of self-driven individual IBO bloggers (who post positive opinions of Quixtar and training/motivation organizations and sprinkle their blogs liberally with keywords that bring attention to searches for those keywords.)

Not surprisingly, these critics consider this activity of their counterparts to be "unethical." Pot, meet kettle. (For the record, I do not consider either of the parties unethical, just opinionated.)

Technorati Tags: Home Based Business, Internet Marketing, Internet Business, Quixtar, WWDB, Affiliate Marketing, Private Franchise

Product Loyalty

2006-04-12T11:08:00.000-07:00

Ford gets it:

Plant manager Rob Webber announced Monday that, starting Feb. 1, the
parking lot may be used only by employees who drive vehicles built by Ford or
one of its subsidiaries.
. . .
Jerry Sullivan, president of United Auto Workers Local 600, which represents about 2,600 workers at the plant, applauded Webber's move.
"Everybody's in this together. (We need) to buy the products we make
and support the company," Sullivan said. "This is a good place to start."

Ford is not alone. In my non-Quixtar income endeavors, I have had exposure to the internal policies of a few major American technology firms. Here are just two examples of similar product loyalty policies from corporations you'd know well if I named them:

Company A manufactures a product that is ubiquitous to the operation of nearly every modern American business. The company has partnerships and other symbiotic relationships with a wide variety of other businesses, organizations and government entities, both local and farflung from the company's headquarters. Company A realizes that many of these partners regularly award contracts for purchases of their competitors' products.

Company A launches an initiative to educate their partners on the value of their own product offerings and request equal consideration in contract bids for purchases going forward.

Several partners rebuff or disregard the initiative. Company A terminates their relationship.

Company B launches a new product line which they market as essential technology for busy, mobile professionals. Company B realizes that none of their customer-facing technology representatives-- who fit their product's target market perfectly-- use their company's own product and therefore are weak in hands-on experience with the product in everyday business activity.
Company B launches an internal program to equip their representatives with the product, which has 2 evident benefits: increased visibility of the devices to their customers, and their personnel's familiarity with the product's capabilities and efficient uses, to better serve customer needs.

Three examples, one common message. Hmm... where have I heard this common-sense business principle before?

"If you owned a Ford Dealership, you wouldn't be seen driving a Chevy..."

Technorati Tags: Home Based Business, Internet Marketing, Internet Business, Quixtar, WWDB, Affiliate Marketing, Private Franchise

This Changes Everything

2006-04-10T11:41:00.000-07:00

Mark April 2006 in your calenders as the beginning of a new era. What I thought was forward-looking just 2 weeks ago looks quaint at best. Any debates that have gone on here are now laughably elementary.

I would attempt to explain what has changed and why, but chances are most readers here won't understand or believe it anyway.

Going forward, posting on topics other than accountability info will be light, as my priorities have shifted dramatically. Based on those, anyone who really cares will start to figure it out eventually.

Technorati Tags: Home Based Business, Internet Marketing, Internet Business, Quixtar, WWDB, Affiliate Marketing, Private Franchise

New Diamonds

2006-04-06T06:45:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to new qualified WWDB Diamonds, Tracey & Kimberly Eaton.

Per the Quixtar wiki, "They achieved Q-12 in 2002, Sapphire in 2003/04, Emerald in 2003/04, and Diamond in 2006. He is downline from Brad Wolgamott."

Technorati Tags: Home Based Business, Internet Marketing, Internet Business, Quixtar, WWDB, Affiliate Marketing, Private Franchise

March Financials

2006-04-06T05:59:00.000-07:00

"Unquixotic Enterprise" March 2006

Personal PV: 83.24
Personal BV: 232.20
Client PV: 48.69
Client BV: 128.51
Total PV: 131.93
Total BV: 360.71

10 Client Rule compliance (10 clients, 50 PV, or $100 sales)
# of clients: 4
PV: 48.96
Retail Sales: $143.02

IGP: $58.75
+Perf Bonus (3% BV): $10.82
=Gross Rev: $69.57

-Opex: $130.16

=Net profit/loss: (60.59)
-------------------------------

Business Pulse:
# of legs: 0
# of Referrals: 14
# of complete STP's width: 1
# of Premier Members: 1
# of SO CDs: 1
# Att last Maj Funct: 1
# Reg next Maj Funct: 2
# total IBOs: 1
# new achievers: 0
------------------------------

Comments: Money, meet Mouth. Heh. Obviously I don't qualify as a performer yet... a wannabe performer at best. But like I said earlier, the more pathetic my business is at the Starting Point, the more dramatic the results will be when I reach my objectives, and the more starkly obvious the correlation between effort and return.
I'll get there... Nowhere to go but up!

Technorati Tags: Home Based Business, Internet Marketing, Internet Business, Quixtar, WWDB, Affiliate Marketing, Private Franchise, Prosumer

March Accountability

2006-04-05T12:20:00.000-07:00

CORE
-STP (qty, goal 10): 1
-Personal Use (scale of 1-10): 8
-Clients (qty, goal 10): 4
-Book reading (scale of 1-10): 2
-Tape/CD habit (scale of 1-10): 6
-Function attendance (scale of 1-10): 10
-Teachable (scale of 1-10): 7
-Accountable (scale of 1-10): 7
-CommuniKate (scale of 1-10): 9

Comments: Obviously I'm still only performing at a Prosumer level. Need to work on my reading, and increase my business exposure, so I can raise my clients to at least 10, get my business profitable and start franchising my business out to others.

Technorati Tags: Home Based Business, Internet Marketing, Internet Business, Quixtar, WWDB, Affiliate Marketing, Private Franchise, Prosumer

Training via Digital Distribution?

2006-04-04T11:17:00.000-07:00

A concept frequently espoused by some critics of Quixtar-affiliated training systems is that of digital distribution of training materials, particularly in regards to audio training. The contention is that, in a digital age, there is no legitimate reason to maintain the old CD distribution method, and that the sole reason for IBO training systems to continue doing so is that tool distribution is the profit center for so-called "kingpin" Diamonds. Proposed methods include website or email distribution of MP3 files via the internet.

Let me say first that there is great merit to the concept of digital distribution of training materials, and I whole-heartedly embrace the concept. As time goes by and digital audio technology becomes more ubiquitous and more accessable to a larger section of the population, migration to a mostly digital distribution system just makes sense. It's frankly inevitable.
There are, however, legitimate needs that currently require some physical tools to continue to be professionally produced (and a system in place to distribute them), and will likely continue to be required in some circumstances. The failure to acknowlege those needs represent a shortsighted, self-serving, consumer mentality approach on the part of the critics, where a longterm, others-serving business mentality is required. (Perhaps this is another case where the experience of mismanagement is driving their judgement.)

The main advantages of digital distribution are that it's 1) Less costly to produce, 2) Less costly to distribute, 3) provides easier, more flexible availability to the tech-savvy end-user.

All significant advantages, right? Ready to make the switchover for your entire organization? WOAH there, cowboy-- before you do that, let's take a look at how you will need to run your business under an all-digital distribution model for training:

First, any current IBOs you have registered who do not have a computer with a broadband internet connection, either a CD burner & CD-R/W-compatible CD player or an iPod AND the knowledge to use all of the above-- well, they're out. Too bad about that volume they were running, but otherwise, you just signed yourself up for a full-time job downloading & burning CDs for all your no- or low-tech IBOs, or tutoring them on buying and using all the equipment to do it themselves.

Second, in prospecting, the first question you'll need to ask is not whether they have a need/want/desire in their lives or if they're keeping their options open for opportunity, but whether they already have-- you guessed it, a computer with a broadband internet connection, either a CD burner & CD-R/W-compatible CD player or an iPod AND the knowledge to use all of the above. You'll have to screen prospective business partners based on technology levels first, and on ambition, attitude or desire, second. Otherwise, again, you just signed yourself up for a full-time job producing CDs yourself or tutoring prospects on technology before you can even get to the business plan.

Either way your job is harder: You choose between eliminating a huge percentage of prospects and partners, or compounding the WASTING OF PRODUCTIVE TIME throughout your organization by essentially replacing one existing centralized professional production & distribution system with a compounding number of in-home, unstandardized, amateur CD burning systems. BRILLIANT MOVE!

Third, since most training tools also double as prospecting tools, you will no longer have professionaly produced tools with which to introduce your business model to prospects. After you've SCREENED OUT all the potentially ambitious but unfortunately less tech-savvy prospects, you'll be representing your cutting edge e-commerce business project with... a home-burned, hand-scribbled CD! Woohoo! The only thing that would scream "Professionalism!" louder would to be to wear a checkered faux-suede elbow-patched blazer, striped high-water pants, white tube socks, and taped-up black hornrimmed glasses when you hand them that gem of a CD.

Two questions spring to the prospect's mind-- 1, If they're so cutting edge, why don't they have any professional material? and 2, Do I really want to join a business where I spend all my time burning and scribbling on CD's to hand out to the next guy who's no more impressed than I?

Because, since you will now have to produce those prospecting CDs yourself, you'll still have to spend much of your formerly productive business building time doing exactly that-- downloading, burning and labeling CDs.

Still excited?

I recently showed the plan to a couple who were excited about my business concept but had made a family decision long ago that they would not own a computer or internet connection because of the potential time wasting that would take away from their family time, and because of all the risks the internet presents to families (porn, chatroom liasons, sexual predators, etc.)

I respect that. And since my business model caters to the gamut of technology levels (no-, low-, and high-tech) we can still accomodate them, do one or two sessions to set them up with an e-commerce website to which they can send their clients and prospects, get them printouts of the webtour & training materials, set them up for either automatic product shipments or standard fulfillment, etc., all without them ever owning a computer.

However, under a pure digital distribution model, they can't get the latest training tools. No internet, no email, no computer.
So, in order to accomodate them under that system, *I* would have to spend all my business building time and personal money burning off CD's for them, or worse, take up BOTH my AND their productive time over at my house doing training that can otherwise be done in their car with a CD in their non-productive time. (BTW, compounded ineffeciency...? Not so smart, critics. Don't do me any favors with your next bright idea.)

Also, despite that critic bloggers may be internet and computer savvy themselves, there are still more people in the US who do NOT know how to download and burn MP3 files into an audio CD, than there are people who do. In addition, the digital method, particularly for those on dialup, requires taking productive time that could be spent building a business that is instead spent downloading and burning audio files-- again, no thanks!

Don't get me wrong, I'm flat-out excited about digitally distributed training materials. As I posted earlier, all WWDB IBOs with a my.biz ecommerce website now have a training module within their personal website where downline can access training materials, including printable, downloadable documentation & mp3 audio training, with cross-references to existing CDs for further indepth training.

But I'm also excited that I still have access to those professionaly produced, efficiently distributed, time-saving, economical CDs from WWDB.

I have the best of both worlds.

Technorati Tags: Home Based Business, Internet Marketing, Internet Business, Quixtar, WWDB, Affiliate Marketing, Private Franchise

You Say You Want A Webolution?

2006-04-03T14:00:00.000-07:00

Quixtar-affiliated IBOs using the WWDB system get a jump-start on the e-commerce race this week.

Following their unveiling at World Wide's Spring Leadership seminars, a host of new internet-centric training and prospecting tools have been made available to WWDB IBOs who are subscribed as Premier Members-- enhancing the already substantial value of Premier Membership. The offerings include a web tour for prospects and web training for IBOs. New audio training is available for implimentation of the new tools.

A web tour module will allow IBOs to identify potential business partners, regardless of distance, technology levels or scheduling challenges.

A web training module, complimentary to the web tour, enables IBOs to train their registered business partner IBOs via web & 1-on-1 or conference call phone sessions regardless of distance or technology levels.

Also included in the web training module are "Audio Tools"-- averaging at about 5 minutes each in length, these MP3-format audio training files are by WWDB leaders, related to each topic section of the outline. WWDB CDs are cross-referenced per topic for more in-depth training. (WWDB CDs are priced at as little as $2.50 each, for Premier Member IBOs.)

***

Sidenote: Best-selling Leadership author, speaker and mentor John C. Maxwell is also speaking live in two sessions of each Spring Leadership function location, making himself available for book signing, hand-shaking and picture-taking before and afterwards. Tickets to Maxwell events are normally in the several hundred to thousands of dollars price range; his appearance at the WWDB Spring Leadership functions are at no extra charge.

***
(Editors note: Upon further information, this post has been edited in the interests of clarity and brevity.)

Technorati Tags: Home Based Business, Internet Marketing, Internet Business, Quixtar, WWDB, Affiliate Marketing, Private Franchise, Prosumer, John Maxwell

Product Pickup

2006-03-31T18:41:00.000-07:00

Who offers it?

CompUSA, Albertson's, Amazon (via Circuit City & Borders), Linens 'n Things, Circuit City, Best Buy, Wal-Mart (limited products), PartsAmerica, HP's Snapfish (via Walgreens), and Sears to name a few.

Oh yes, and your friendly neighborhood WWDB IBO affiliated with Quixtar.

Amazon in particular specifically set out to form product pickup agreements with Borders and Circuit City in order to offer the service, and HP did the same for their Snapfish agreement with Walgreens.

Who takes advantage of it?

According to Forrester Research, who considers the practice a trend for "Advanced multichannel retailers," those using the service are NOT Luddites:

"73% are technology optimists, and they spend 44% more online than the
average consumer . . . In-Store Pickup Users Are Savvy Online Buyers"

Technorati Tags: Home Based Business, Internet Marketing, Internet Business, Quixtar, WWDB, Affiliate Marketing, Private Franchise, Prosumer, Amazon

Competence and Profitability

2006-03-30T18:15:00.000-07:00

Andrew Carnegie is widely quoted as saying, "The sole purpose of being in business is to make a profit."

Quixtar critics, particularly Scott Larsen and his intellectual "downline" (those bloggers who faithfully ~~parrot~~ duplicate his website claims) are prone to stating that if one were to succeed in building a successful Quixtar-affiliated business, one would do so on the backs of their own organization, with 90%+ of them losing money. Another favorite quote pertains to Quixtar being a "zero-sum game."

I submit that the methodologies that produce this sort of "analysis" relies on either what I call "Magic Math" or the experience of mismanagement, or both.

Now bear in mind, most critics are former IBOs who (having either fallen back to the job world or taken up MLM-hopping) have embarked on an internet publicity campaign against the Quixtar business model, touting their own experiences as IBOs as their credentials. Some of them, such as ~~Passport~~ ~~Oasis~~ Univera Lifesciences advocate Bo Short, made it all the way up to the Diamond level as an IBO.

One can only assume therefore, that these critics-- relying on their own experience as credentials, remember-- when they are speaking of a business structure that is built on the backs of a 90%+ downline who are losing money, they must be describing their own ill-fated efforts.

If that is the case, bearing in mind the quote from Carnegie, these critics are then individuals who either failed themselves in accomplishing the sole purpose of being in business, or failed to teach their dowline to accomplish the same, or both. Did I mention that this is the experience upon which they are touting their credentials to speak?

But before I delve further into the topic of competence, let me outline the Rules of Magic Math:
(Note: This list is not definitive and is subject to change based on the erm, "creativity" of Magic Math practitioners)

Rule #1: Ignore the IGP
Rule #2: Pad the numbers with non-performers (elaborated here)
Rule #3: Compare earnings of part-time IBOs with hourly rates of full-time employees (where assumptions of hours & performance levels are standardized)
Rule #4: Ignore conventional small business statistics (pretend IBO failure is anomalous.)

Example:

700 "active IBOs" are in an Emerald group. Among the non-platinums, an annual total of $84,000 in bonuses was distributed, which averages out to $120 each per year, or $10/month. (Scandalous! 700 IBOs in an Emeraldship and they are all only making $10/month??)

Ring in once if you notice a Magic Math rule being used here...

RINGY DINGY! Rule #1!

That's right, what's missing here? Why, merely the first of the 10 profits in the compensation plan: The 32% average retail markup, also called the Immediate Gross Profit, or IGP.

To put the scale of this omission in perspective, let's say that these IBOs are actually conventional small business owners with an Executive Business Membership from Costco, which pays back 2% of product purchases with an in-store credit, and they then sell the products at a 32% markup from their independent businesses. What Scott has essentially done is counted only the 2% Costco payback and IGNORED the small business owner's business activity completely! (See why I call it Magic Math? Use it, and the profit dissappears!)

Any system worth it's salt will be teaching an IBO to be their own best RETAIL client along with their 10 other clients (remember the FTC-required 10 Client Rule?) and will be isolating those retail funds into a SEPARATE BANK ACCOUNT (any free personal checking account will do) from which their business is paying the wholesale cost for the products. (Incidentally, this is what the World Wide Group teaches.)

Now, Magic Math Rule #2 is also certainly in play here due to the averaging being employed, as it is literally impossible for one to reach the Emerald level merely having 700 IBOs at 100 PV. Obviously, due to the requirements of the Emerald level, there are 3 Platinums-- interesting that they, being the most profitable of the group have been eliminated from the averaging, but suffice it to say, in this group there is likely a sizable but unknown number of other performers and, per the 80/20 rule, another unknown but likely larger number of non-performers who are doing (and therefore earning) nothing.

Averaging tends to minimize the relationship between performance and reward, but let's assume the worst and say that this really is a group of 696 IBOs (eliminating the 3 Platinums) which are each earning only 100 PV.

100 PV is roughly $280 in wholesale cost, or $369.60 in retail. This produces an IGP of $89.60 per month, making their supposed $10/mo gross profit to be $99.60/mo in actuality! Multiply that by the 696 non-Platinum IBOs, and that becomes an actual gross profit of $831,859.20 between them! Nothing like Magic Math to reduce the actual IBO earnings to nearly a mere 10% of itself! Heh... and Scott wonders why Quixtar Emeralds and above are hesitant to submit their business financials to his Magic Math machine?

I've elaborated already on the principles behind Rule #2 & #3 in my post "Active" IBOs & Their Income, so let me move on to the issue of Competence, which directly deals with Rule #4.

According to the Small Business Administration,

"Over 80 percent of the small businesses surveyed used some kind of credit and had outstanding debt on their books at the end of 1998. The most frequently used kinds of credit were personal and business credit cards, lines of credit, and vehicle loans."

Wow... does that mean that over 80% of American small businesses are not truly profitable? That over 80% of them have operating expenses, overhead, even (*gasp!*) tool, equipment and training costs which are not yet covered by their gross revenue? Say it isn't so! But-- but-- I thought that was unique to lowly Quixtar IBOs?!? Heh...

Just wait, it gets worse:

According to Tim W. Cohn, business analyst of marketingprinciples.com (see his CV here),

"For every small business success story there are nine failures. At least that is what the statistics tell us. After ten years, only one out of every ten small businesses started is still operating. . . What causes small businesses to fail? . . . [I]n reality there is only one reason: Mismanagement. . . The inability to consistently take the appropriate actions to achieve a desired result, is the most common way mismanagement manifests itself."
. . .
"[R]egardless of whether you are a manufacturer or service company, your business will need to produce a minimum of $80,000 of revenue per employee to cover your operational costs and to produce an after tax profit.
Companies that produce over $150,000 in revenue per employee are considered healthy."
--http://www.marketingprinciples.com/articles.asp?cat=418, emphasis mine.

Let's examine the first statement first. 1 out of 10 succeed? Yikes! Anyone who listens to Brad Duncan via a WWDB CD or Major Function will know that in the Private Franchising model, they have found it consistent among all registered IBOs, that 1/3 will quit, 1/3 will consume and watch, and 1/3 will perform. Sounds better than 1 out 0f 10 to me. The best odds of all, of course, belong to the IBO who understands that principle and is willing to put in the numbers to let the 1/3 rule play out to equal 9 growing legs from among (not 19 but) 20 IBOs earning a bonus check. What about those IBOs who don't? Well, they would fall under that category of those who, according to Mr. Cohn, fail to "consistently take the appropriate actions to achieve a desired result."

Now, to the $80,000 in annual gross revenue per employee-- A business owner doing less than that is following a recipe for disaster. It would be fair to catagorize anything less than that as either mismanagement or non-performance. So how does that figure line up in terms of the Quixtar compensation plan? Where is the line between non-performance and profitability?

There are no employees, but there is a couple or single IBO which consists of a single business unit. Let's assume that business unit is the "employee."

Let's also assume that this business unit is doing a 300 PV first circle-- being loyal to their business with personal use, following the FTC required 10 Client rule, and isolating their 32% IGP in a separate account per WWDB teaching (not to mention good tax & accounting practices.)

$25,600 of that $80,000 would the IGP (no Magic Math used here!) leaving $54,400 in actual annual business volume (19,428 PV), or 1619 PV monthly. Hmm... Now, haven't I heard somewhere a number mysteriously similar to 1619 PV?
Oh that's right... WWDB teaches on tapes and in Nuts & Bolts meetings that the profit from the first 1500 PV of your volume will need to be reinvested in order to make your business grow.

So a 300 PV first circle and a total group volume of about 1500 makes you a performer (...and say, isn't that just about what the volume would be for a WWDB Eagle?)

Imagine that! Those worthless "scam" tapes are actually teaching business principles that line up with the advice from a business analysis website ranked in the top 1% of all website traffic by Alexa?

But notice that, per Tim Cohn, it takes nearly twice that $80,000 per employee (or 1,500 PV IBO) to be considered a healthy business. For the sake of simplicity and erring on the side of conservatism, let's say 2500 PV. (Say, doesn't WWDB Estimate the volume of a Double Eagle at around 2500? Amazing how that works!)

So back to our IBO business unit: Using the first 2 steps of the "Me/6/3" hypothetical business model in WWDB's FTC reviewed WSA4400 form, we'll assume that they have 6 registered IBOs, whom they are teaching to duplicate themselves in fulfilling Andrew Carnegie's advice-- each of the six also doing roughly a 300 PV circle, or the remaining 2,200 PV.

At 2,500 PV, our business unit has an IGP from their 300 PV at $268.80. Their bonus check for 7,000 BV makes a $1,260 differential, from which they must pay their 6 IBOs (2200* 2.8 * 6%= 369.60 or /6= 61.60 each) leaving them with $890.40 in bonuses plus their $268.80 IGP, or a monthly gross profit of $1,159/month.

Assuming Scott Larsen's figure of $3,000 average annual operating expense via a Tools System is accurate, that makes a $250/month operating expense, leaving a $909/month net profit. For a mere 2,500 pin. That looks fairly healthy to me!

This is not counting meals, hotel, or travel expenses, but as the H&R Block commercials have diligently reminded us this tax season, these and other things can legally be offset according to the tax laws (consult your accountant or tax preparer.)

But what about our "poor" 6 IBOs at 300 PV? Didn't I say that the claim of downline losing money was due to Magic Math or mismanagement? Let's break down their financials:

Each of the 6 downline IBO business units would have the same $268.80 IGP as our 2,500 pin, plus their $61.60 bonus, with a monthly gross profit of $330.40. Subtract that by Scott Larsen's $250 opex figure and we have a $80.40 net profit, or $964.80/year. That's not a lot, but at least it's a profit.

However, remember that 300 PV is only the first circle. They aren't yet really performers, they're simply being what futurist Alvin Toffler referred to as a "Prosumer"-- a consumer who produces income via their purchases. Like that Executive Business Membership from Costco that I referred to, with the 2% in-store credit kickback-- oh, except that membership has a catch-- a $2,100 minimum monthly purchase or $25,200 annual purchase, and they cap off the reward at $500 a year.

Which makes each of those "poor" 6 IBOs nearly a 200% winner over the best membership that Costco can offer.

Hmm... strange, but this doesn't resemble anything near the frightful figures you'll see on the critic sites. Have I said already that these individuals are touting their former IBO experience as their credentials? Which brings me back to my original conclusion:

Either their numbers are a product of their own mismanagement experiences, or they are ~~lying~~ using Magic Math to make their point.

In either case, why would anyone listen to them?

Technorati Tags: Home Based Business, Internet Marketing, Internet Business, Quixtar, WWDB, Affiliate Marketing, Private Franchise, Prosumer, Costco, Brad Duncan, Scott Larsen

Retail Marketing Audience Shrinking

2006-03-30T07:48:00.000-07:00

Retailers are losing their traditional television audiences to cable, their radio listeners to satellite services and newspaper readers to the Internet. So Vestcom, a company that makes price labels that adorn shelves nationwide is developing a different way to reach shoppers: video monitors attached to store shelves.

"You’re in the store. You’re making a decision and they have the last chance to try to influence you to buy their product," said Tim McKenzie, executive vice president and director of sales and marketing at Vestcom, which produces shelf tags for thousands of stores including Kroger Co., Target Corp. and Walgreen Co.

"It is where the industry is going in terms of trying to redirect advertising dollars to what they call the last three feet of the marketing plan," he said.
. . .
"Consumers are spontaneous and if you can catch their attention, that’s going to increase the chance that they will look at your product," said Jack Taylor, a professor of retailing at Birmingham-Southern College in Alabama.
-- http://business.bostonherald.com/technologyNews/view.bg?articleid=132692

Interesting the lengths marketers have to go to these days. It's like they're literally finding ways to make the products jump up and down, crying out, "Me! ME! Pick me! I'm the best!" as you pass by them on the shelves. The article also mentions that Vestcom last year introduced static colored tags-- these, as well as the video monitors, are essentially an attempt at shelf-side education of products.

No wonder, then, that futurists like Bill Gates, Frank Feather talk about the "high-touch" that future consumers demand and why economist Paul Zane Pilzer predicts that the future belongs to those who can serve in the role of product educators (a function of high-touch). Combine that with loyalty incentives and a range of no-, low-, and high-tech product ordering and delivery options to fit your client, and you've got a winning combination.

Technorati Tags: Home Based Business, Internet Marketing, Internet Business, Quixtar, Bill Gates, Affiliate Marketing, Private Franchise

IBM: Quixtar Most Innovative Client

2006-03-30T07:28:00.000-07:00

IBM Honors Its Most Innovative System i Clients

Winners Deliver Breakthrough Designs in Data Warehousing, High Availability, IT Simplification and Education on the System i Platform

MINNEAPOLIS, MN -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 03/27/2006 -- COMMON -- IBM and COMMON announced the five winners of its annual IT Innovation Awards at the COMMON conference in Minneapolis where thousands of System i users gathered today.

The second annual System i Innovation Awards showcased the achievements of clients who use IBM's "all-in-one," open System i platform to deliver IT innovation. The 2006 award winners were: Elie Tahari, Quixtar, Inc., Transworld Entertainment, Bank of America National Association, Canada Branch and Moraine Valley College.

"System i clients consistently strive to be innovative. It is that spirit at the core of the System i platform -- driving business value and efficiency while delivering outstanding availability and automation," said Mark Shearer, IBM System i general manager. "We are pleased to recognize the outstanding achievements of our clients who have found new and exciting ways to build upon the System i's innovative technology to deliver even greater value to their customers."
. . .
-- Quixtar, Inc., a leading online retailer of health and beauty products, developed a high-availability back-up system that enabled it to achieve high availability for its business applications while meeting customer demand. Quixtar consolidated its environment onto two System i 570s located five miles apart that use Lakeview MIMIX for object and data replication between the systems. Quixtar also relies on IBM WebSphere MQ to relocate inquiries from its Web site so they can be processed by the backup system during peak hours, eliminating downtime. The company received the Innovation Award in the Business Resiliency category.
. . .
"We introduced the System i Innovation Awards one year ago to recognize, showcase and share best practices among the System i community," said Beverly Russell, COMMON board president. "This year we were impressed by the more than 50 nominations we received and the innovation that was executed on the System i platform by all of the nominees and finalists."

The winners and finalists, honored this evening at an awards ceremony hosted by Mark Shearer, IBM System i general manager, and Beverly Russell, COMMON board president, were chosen by a panel of 25 judges that included IT-industry leaders, analysts, and IBM and COMMON executives. Current IBM System i customers could be nominated by an IBM Business Partner, IBM employee or themselves. Winners represent the United States, Canada and New Zealand.

http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release_html_b1?release_id=114887

Technorati Tags: Home Based Business, Internet Marketing, Internet Business, Quixtar, IBM, Affiliate Marketing, Private Franchise

Opportunity

2006-03-29T12:15:00.000-07:00

This I beheld, or dreamed it in a dream: —
There spread a cloud of dust along a plain;
And underneath the cloud, or in it, raged
A furious battle, and men yelled, and swords
Shocked upon swords and shields. A prince’s banner
Wavered, then staggered backward, hemmed by foes.

A craven hung along the battle’s edge,
And thought, “Had I a sword of keener steel —
That blue blade that the king’s son bears, — but this
Blunt thing!” — he snapt and flung it from his hand,
And lowering crept away and left the field.

Then came the king’s son, wounded, sore bestead,
And weaponless, and saw the broken sword,
Hilt-buried in the dry and trodden sand,
And ran and snatched it, and with battle-shout
Lifted afresh, he hewed his enemy down,
And saved a great cause that heroic day.
--Edward Rowland Sill

Which are you: The craven, or the prince?

Another IBO Blogger

2006-03-29T08:50:00.000-07:00

A blog I hadn't noticed before, which has apparently been around for some time, but is self-admittedly not frequent in posting. (Understandable.)

Top Achievers in the Quixtar Business

"This Quixtar related blog wishes to analyze and develop an honest perspective on Leadership as it applies to the top achievers in the Quixtar business. This is the quest of an IBO who wants a totally unbaised, objective, fair, relevant, non-agenda oriented, grass roots level, spontaneous expression of voices of tens of thousands of IBOs who are pursuing the Quixtar Business for their own objectives."

Technorati Tags: Home Based Business, Internet Marketing, Internet Business, Quixtar, Affiliate Marketing, Private Franchise

How Bo Short Once Was Lost (But Now He's Found.)

2006-03-28T18:45:00.000-07:00

Or

"What's Good For The Goose...?"

If Robert "Bo" Short could be said to be known for one thing, it would probably be the "problem" he set out to fix when he, formerly a Quixtar Diamond, left Quixtar to form his own direct sales company, Passport.
The problem, as Bo saw it (and as he eagerly broadcast on Dateline NBC) was that there was "another business" offered through the Quixtar Diamonds' Lines Of Sponsorship (LOS) - the sales of instructional & motivational products and services.

As we established in a previous post, the ability of an individual to assemble a large, multilayered organization of volunteers is a highly valued skill in every significant aspect of life-- business, politics, religion, etc... By the nature of the Quixtar compensation plan, a Diamond must develop and execute that very skill in the process of qualifying for the Diamond level.

Since the qualification for a Diamond is to have mentored 6 individuals to the point of each simultaneously distributing 7500 points of volume (roughly $21,000 worth of products) monthly, this is not only a leadership skill, but a marketing skill as well, because the qualifying Diamond AND the 6 "legs" or individual business groups are each qualified strictly by the measure of the 7500 points of product volume sales.
As I expressed in that post, imagine the potential if these individuals (Diamonds), having developed the skill of assembling large organizations of volunteer entrepreneurs, actually introduced products and services into the organization. Well, technically, that's the whole point of the Quixtar business model, isn't it? Except the products and services from the supplier Quixtar actually came first, else there would have been no reason to create an organization.

So there's a Diamond, there's an organization built by the Diamond, and there's a Supplier (Quixtar) with a range of a couple million plus products & services.

Or more simply: Leader, Organization, Supplier "A", Products & Services "A"

Now, the part that Bo Short seems to have objected to is that Leader, having already established Organization to distribute Products & Services "A" from Supplier "A", goes on to introduce Products & Services "B" from Supplier "B", being instructional and motivational products and services from a supplier in which Leader has ownership.

Assuming that purchase of Products and Services "B" from Supplier "B" is optional, and that Organization is aware of their optional nature (as is the case if the BSMAA has been read and signed) then I must respectfully disagree on principle with Bo Short's objection.

I do not see which part is objectionable...

Is it the introduction of a new Products & Services "B" from new Supplier "B" which is different than the primary Products "A" and suppliers "A" that Organization originally contracted to distribute?
Or is it that Leader has ownership in Supplier from which Organization gets Products & Services?

I cannot object to either, based on Free Market principles. While Organization consists of independent entrepreneurs, they are also essentially a subscriber base or consumer base which Leader has established. Isn't it then the right and discretion of Leader to be able to introduce additional Products & Services or additional Suppliers? Isn't it an object of entrepreneurship to "see a need and fill it?"

Of course, I would advocate very firmly for transparency and ethical practices in this process. And let it not be forgotten that the whole purpose of offering such products is to ultimately enhance the opportunity for even the newest IBO. I would also advocate strongly for giving the IBO/consumer as many choices as possible (including the option to also profit from Products & Services "B"). And after all, isn't it ultimately the consumer which determines which Products & Services, or which Suppliers will succeed? Isn't the vote made with the dollars of the consumer?

(An ideal situation would be for the IBO/consumer to have multiple choices even within a particular Product & Service line from a particular Supplier, as is exemplified very honorably by the WWDB system, which offers choices such as retail vs. wholesale pricing on Tools (CDs/DVDs/Literature), competitive book prices in comparison to Partner Store Barnes & Noble, pricing of services by tiers of service levels to fit a range of budgets, and value bundles of Products & Services-- such as offering eoffice, a my.biz website, and benefits like free guest tickets to major functions, all together with wholesale pricing on tools, via Premier Membership.)

So anyway, at the point of Leader Bo Short quitting Quixtar to form Passport and organize distributors (Organization), it seems he was essentially saying "No!" to the concept of offering a greater range of Products & Services, and Suppliers, to Organization. Again, I must respectfully disagree with Mr. Short's decision at that time-- I heartily endorse the Free Market principle of giving your consumer base (Organization) the widest range of choices as possible and let them determine what will fail or succeed.

But Bo Short, apparently then lost on a key concept of the Free Market, felt otherwise.

What is quite clear, however, is that Bo Short did NOT object to the concept of Leader having ownership in a Supplier through which Products & Services are distributed to Organization, as evidenced by his founding of the Passport company. Based on Free Market principles, I cannot slight Mr. Short in this... After all, he has demonstrated his leadership skills by developing his Organization, and I heartily applaud his entrepreneurial spirit by introducing Products & Services through a Supplier in which he has ownership. He saw a need and filled it. He deserves the fruits of his labor.

I am quite pleased to discover though, that Mr. Short has once again found himself in regards to the other key Free Market principles.

You see, Bo Short (Leader) having already established Organization (Passport distributors) to distribute Products & Services "A" (Passport's Product & Service offerings) from Supplier "A" (Passport company), went on to introduce Products & Services "B" from Supplier "B", being Oasis Lifesciences Product & Service offerings from Oasis/Univera).
Not only were Products & Services "B" and Supplier "B" NOT the Products & Services or Supplier that Leader's Organization originally contracted to distribute, but the entire compensation plan the Organization was operating under was dissolved in favor of the compensation plan from the new Supplier "B". Wow-- that's a pretty dramatic development.

But again, I must heartily uphold the Passport leadership's right to do so under Free Market principles, and I find it fairly reassuring for the distributors' sakes that the new Oasis/Univera supplier at least gave them the diversity of another couple hundred product options. And I find it quite honorable of them to still make the original Passport products available for personal and customer use, as well as giving a significant price break to distributors.

However, given Mr. Short's original objection, and then observing this development, which he is "thrilled about," I find myself quite puzzled on what this whole exercise has been all about. I don't see a significant difference in business practices-- Bo Short has simply returned to some of the same Free Market principles which many Quixtar Diamonds also follow. I congratulate him on this. But that leaves me wondering-- exactly what was at the root of his original objection? Let me restate the situation again to see if I can understand:

Quixtar Diamonds (Leader) establish Organization through which Products & Services "A" are made available via Supplier "A". Leader also introduces Products & Services "B" to Organization, via Supplier "B", in which Leader has ownership.

(Bo Short doesn't profit from Products & Services "B" and objects.)

Bo Short (Leader) establishes Organization, through which Products & Services "A" are made available via Supplier "A", in which Leader has ownership. Leader also introduces Products & Services "B" to Organization, via Supplier "B".

(Bo Short profits both from Products & Services "A" and "B" and doesn't object.)

Ohhh... so that is what sets them apart.

Now, the purpose of this illustration is not to criticize Bo Short, the Passport team (including my esteemed occasional reader/commenter and Passport President, Ty Tribble) or the Oasis/Univera Lifesciences opportunity. Rather, I have affirmed the right and merit of each party in pursuing Free Market principles. However, I encourage them to affirm the right and merit of Quixtar-affiliated IBOs and organizations doing the same as themselves.

I'm simply putting into perspective their criticisms of Quixtar IBOs in relation to their own actions. Since the same Free Market principles are in play in each case-- their objections therefore lacking in substance-- their own interests should be quite apparent.

Technorati Tags: Home Based Business, Internet Marketing, Internet Business, Quixtar, WWDB, Affiliate Marketing, Oasis Lifesciences, Private Franchise

IBO Blogger update

2006-03-27T18:15:00.000-07:00

The "Instant Franchise" blogger Michael has changed his focus and his address. His new blog is http://www.businessopportunityworld.com/. (I'm changing my link accordingly)

Looks good so far, best of luck with it!

Technorati Tags: Home Based Business, Internet Marketing, Internet Business, Quixtar, WWDB, Affiliate Marketing, private franchise

The Flawed Logic of Tool Sales Criticism

2006-03-27T12:01:00.000-07:00

"There's no real money in Quixtar, just an elite group of 'kingpins' making all their money from IBOs with tool sales."

I've just paraphrased one of the most common criticisms you'll see leveled by internet sites critical of the opportunity side of the internet shopping portal Quixtar.com.

Given a reasonable application of logic, at least two flaws should quickly be apparent in this criticism.

1) How did these "kingpins" initially become so supposedly influental if the business model doesn't allow anyone to make any "real" money? What, were these happless IBOs so impressed with the would-be kingpin's collection of, say, monopoly money perhaps, that the IBOs sold all they had to purchase their tapes of how to acquire large quantities of monopoly money themselves?

Of course I'm fighting a losing battle with that line of questioning, as Quixtar critics are loathe to admit the prospect of actually making money utilizing a company which pays hundreds of millions in bonus money annually, because the subsequent examination of those earnings threaten to reveal the (*gasp!*) inherent relationship between effort and return.

So let's set aside those apparently inconsequential few hundred million dollars of annual bonus money (closing our eyes and repeating the shrill "$115 gross per year!" mantra) and pretend, as the critics do, that there is actually no money to be made.

If the critics are to be believed then, all it takes to succeed in the "dark underbelly" of the Quixtar business, regardless of your actual product sales volume, is to create your own system of how to be successful and Automagically! you make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on tapes and function sales.

Uhhh... only one problem with that-- Who ya gonna sell them to? Just how did these non-money-making "kingpins" get so successful at selling tools?

"Well," the critic may reply, "first they created this vast, multi-layered organization of followers. Then," whispers the critic, pausing for dramatic effect, "they sell tapes to them!" (queue climactic music here: Dun-Dun-DUNN!!)

Wait-- you're telling me these people succeeded in creating a vast multi-layered organization of loyal volunteers consisting of thousands of families? That's amazing!

"Yes!" cries the critic breathlessly, "Then they sell tapes to them!" (repeat climactic music here: Dun-Dun-DUN!!! Overlay sound of woman screaming for extra dramatic effect.)

Wait, wait.. please tell me-- how did they manage to succeed in creating this vast multi-layered organization of loyal volunteers consisting of thousands of families?

". . ."

Pardon?

"Um, well," mumbles the critic, "I guess that's what the tapes are about-- how they did that."

Uh-HUH.

So let me get this straight-- no ability to build a vast multi-layered organization of aspiring entrepreneurial families in the thousands means no one to sell tapes to? But with the ability to build that kind of organization, their people are willing to buy their tapes... Shocker.

You've stumbled onto a big mystery there, critic-- what would compell people belonging to a vast organization to buy tapes from the founders of that organization-- about how to build a vast organization? Hmmm...

Gas Station Employee: I'm picking up your sarcasm.
Richard Hayden: Well, I should hope so, because I'm laying it on pretty thick.
-- Tommy Boy

Just taking alone the ability to organize large volunteer organizations of people, this is a highly valued skill-- not only in business but in religious and political circles as well. Take for example, the money paid to the founders of Hotmail when Microsoft purchased the free email service. Microsoft certainly could have written their own web-based email system. But what they really wanted was the Hotmail subscriber base-- the large volunteer organization of people. For their ability to organize that subscriber base, the Hotmail founders were paid some $400 Million.

And golly gee whillikers, Wally, imagine the potential if someone actually introduced products and services through those people... wouldn't that really be giving them the business?

Heh...

2) Is there something morally or ethically wrong, for a person who has succeeded in a particular accomplishment, to make money from information that reveals details about their accomplishment?

Recognize any of these names?

Steven R. Covey - Carleton Sheets - Oprah Winfrey - John C. Maxwell - Bill Clinton - Lance Armstrong - Bill Phillips - Richard Nixon - Hugh Hewitt - Oliver North - Malcom Gladwell - Jimmy Carter - Frank Feather - Robert Kyosaki - Hillary Clinton - Dale Carnegie - Victor Frankl - Suze Orman - Glenn Reynolds - Benjamin Franklin - Peter Lynch - Harry S. Dent - Helen Keller - Bruce Berman - Anthony Robbins - Martha Stewart - Donald Trump - Darren Rowse

What do all of these people have in common? This is just a small selection of people who have all published information about their experiences, accomplishments, or expertise. And got paid for it. Heck, even Donald Trump's Apprentices are doing it. And even if the accomplishment is dubious (think John Wayne Bobbitt or William Hung) often the biggest question about the event is who gets to buy the book/recording/movie rights to the story. Even lowly bloggers are getting lucrative book deals these days.

According to the logic of Quixtar critics, none of these people behaved ethically or morally in doing so! (Granted, some of them may have acted unethically/immorally in other aspects, but that's unrelated to them getting published.)

By some obscure, twisted leap of reasoning, these critics infer that the rules for the rest of the world should not apply to individuals who happen to be affiliated with the Quixtar internet portal. On the other hand, it's perfectly ethical and reasonable to publish information detailing how money is made through internet portals like Yahoo, eBay and Amazon-- am I missing something here?

To take their disingenuity one step further, some post information regarding free conference call training sessions by career MLM trainers like Jeffery Combs, Todd Falcone and Dani Johnson, giving the appearence of contrast between a free conference call and the "expensive" Quixtar-related tools systems-- without bothering to mention that these individuals also sell sets of CDs & videos, and charge hundreds to thousands of dollars for seminars and personal coaching-- I thought these critics objected to that sort of thing?

Now, some may take this second point as some sort of admission that the purpose of systems such as World Wide Dream Builders is to make money selling tools. It would take thickheaded obstinence or a flagrant lack of intellectual honesty to ignore my first point, sarcasm notwithstanding, and pretend that this is what I am saying, or to state in the face of multi-million dollar bonus payment statistics, that there is no money to be made utilizing the Quixtar internet portal.

In my last post, I established that, as Quixtar Emerald and above income levels are the real-world equivelent of corporate upper management to executive income levels, it is not reasonable to expect to attain an executive-level income without executive-level performance and leadership. I also established that to excel in any endeaver, there are foundational principles that must be applied. The methodology for applying those principles can be standardized into a system.

Systems designed to help one take advantage of the methodology needed to excel in a particular business model are not a new phenomenon. Quixtar critics, however, expect you do be dumb enough to believe that they are.

Or in the case of some, they expect you to be dumb enough to swallow that line and yet turn around and subscribe to their business model and system.

Technorati Tags: Home Based Business, Internet Marketing, Internet Business, Quixtar, WWDB, Affiliate Marketing, Yahoo, eBay, Amazon, private franchise, Trump, Apprentice

Why CORE?

2006-03-24T18:00:00.000-07:00

When I was first introduced to Private Franchising, I really had no interest in the business itself. I made the effort of seeing the business plan and listening to some tapes specifically as a pre-calculated token gesture of "giving it a fair shot" before I turned my would-be sponsor down. Only one problem-- the leadership of World Wide simply made too much sense, and their values, their principles, their family lives, and yes, even their lifestyle, was everything I had wanted in life-- but never knew existed all together in one package, or that it could happen on purpose. I became associated with World Wide Group because I wanted the mentoring and leadership they offered... It just so happened that I had to register into this crazy business model to take advantage of it. (Over time, obviously, that has changed for me, or I wouldn't be here.)

To be completely candid, my lack of interest in the business model was grounded in my weakness in dealing with people, which specifically stemmed from my lack of self esteem. (I had been on an entertainment-related career path which, assuming I could have broken in, would have allowed me to take advantage of a talent which comes fairly easy to me, is an enjoyable escape, is technically possible to succeed in without a particular degree or certification, and best of all, I believed would not require me to develop strong people skills.)

Nevertheless, after having been exposed to the World Wide system for only a short time, I began to wonder if perhaps I might be capable of seeing success with the business model. I decided to attempt to share the business model with an acquaintance, a co-worker of mine at the manufacturing plant I was then working at.
This co-worker and I had established a routine of asking "What's new?" to each other at the beginning of the work week. So I resolved to expose Private Franchising to this co-worker for my "What's new?" that week.

I did so well explaining myself that my co-worker thought I was talking about a new party drug I had discovered! That may say more about his mindset at the time than my business and communication skills (not to mention my poor abilities for screening prospects) but a true story nonetheless.

Obviously not everyone coming into this industry is in as great a need for personal development as I was 10 years ago. (Frankly, it would be hard to find many as pathetic as I was.) Those who can make it on their own, or feel they can, bravo. More power to you!

But look, let's be real here: If one aspires to an income level of a Emerald or Diamond or above, they are aspiring to the equivalent of a corporate upper-management to executive level income and responsibility (albeit with a fraction of the time commitment level.)
That being the case, one with such aspirations needs to get honest and ask themselves: Am I leading and performing at an upper-management or executive level?

Unless the answer can be a resounding and unequivocal YES (and have fruit to show for it) then one needs to either re-adjust their expectations or re-adjust their performance. Or, I suppose, take the easy road and blame their lack of performance on some exterior circumstance or person.

I'm here because I evaluated my performance, my attitude, my knowledge and told myself, Look, if you're not going to position yourself to get mentored into an executive mindset and performance level, you're just dreaming, pal. You're just tilting at windmills. (Hence the Cervantes reference in this blog's title-- the wordplay with my supplier's name was just serendipitous.)

So how does one raise up to an executive level of performance? Do executives, for example, go bargain-basement hunting on eBay or tape-swap sites for 5-year old information on their industry? Hey, if this was the 70's, leading on 5-yr old data might have worked for just about any industry. Heck, it might have even got you through in the 90's when people were just starting to use that "InterWeb thing."
Welcome to the 21st century, people.

You expect an executive-level income with a Wal-Mart consumer mentality?
Oh gee, I have to buy CD's? (Tax deductible business expenses, by the way, and good for getting across the info to your prospects and downline that you're already going to screw up enough with help the first hundred times anyway, never mind trying it all on your own.) Oh gee, I have to travel to a function? CEO's from leading industries pay thousands, hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars on a regular basis for industry intelligence, marketing strategy, and leadership mentoring provided by the likes of John C. Maxwell & Frank Feather (both of whom have spoken at WWDB major functions for no extra charge, incidentally)... Yet you're trying to tell me a dusty cassette tape from the 80's on eBay is going to cut it? Please.

So back to my question-- if one is not currently on track for an executive level of performance, how does one get there? Every endeavor has a specific set of fundamental practices that one must engage in, if one wants to succeed or excel in that endeavor. The specifics vary, but the underlying principles are the same.
Whether the endeavor is ballroom dancing, practicing medicine, creating comic books, developing web applications, playing football, private franchising, or Olympic speed skating, here are a few fundamental principles that apply:

- Knowledge: you must gain and/or be in the process of obtaining knowledge of the field
- Personal belief: you must have and/or be developing a confidence in your own ability to perform and excel in that field
- Practice: you must be continually doing the actions that define your field, developing and honing your skills
- Discipline: you must be persistent and consistent in all of the above
- Accountability: Performance that is measured and reported increases more consistently than performance which is not.
- Mentorship/coaching: You cannot become greater than your current self by employing the same knowledge, perspective, and practices as you have previously used and expect to get a different result. Mentorship helps you exceed what can be accomplished on your own.
- Communication: Mentoring, accountability, and knowledge gaining are impossible without it.

For business in general, the methodology by which these principles are employed may vary, but the principles themselves do not. Methodology which has been standardized is called a system. The classic example of a system in Public Franchising is Hamburger University for McDonald's. In Private Franchising under the WWDB system, the methodology by which these fundamental principles are employed are called the CORE steps. Below are the steps and the principles applied therein:

1- Show The Plan (expose the business model, share the dream - practice, discipline, knowledge, personal belief)
2- Personal Use (develop product knowledge & business loyalty - practice, discipline, knowledge, personal belief)
3- Retail Clients (establish a "store" worth duplicating - practice, discipline, personal belief)
4- read books (develop leadership, business knowledge, self-esteem, people skills, etc. - discipline, knowledge, personal belief)
5- listen to CD's (general and industry-specific business knowledge & technique - personal belief, discipline, knowledge, mentorship)
6- attend functions (general and industry-specific business knowledge, leadership & technique - mentorship, personal belief, knowledge)
7- be teachable (mentorship, knowledge)
8- be accountable (accountability, mentorship, personal belief)
9- CommuniKate unified messaging - (communication, mentorship, accountability)

A common criticism heard about the CORE steps is that they are specifically designed to profit those in the mentorship role. (Such allegations have been made in comments on this blog.) The implication is that a required cost or investment for these steps is unethical or unnecessary. Another assertion is that, aside from the question of profits from a tool system, is that these systems just don't work. But most tellingly, the same underlying principles, even much of the methodology, is encouraged by the affiliations of some of the same critics:

1. I will work my Oasis Business ______ hours per week. (STP/Retail/Be Accountable)
2. I can invest $______ in my business per month or reinvest ________% back into my business monthly. (*gasp!* it costs money to run a business?? there's overhead?? expenses?? reinvestment?? Outrageous! Unethical! Heh...)
3. I will gift ______ people per day until I have 20 solid Customers/Associates on 100 BV Convenience Plan. (STP/Retail)
4. I will utilize the Oasis Marketing Tools in my business weekly. - Ageless Living Magazine - Product Brochures - Ageless Success Program (ASP) - DVDs - CDs (Heh... these are free, right??) (Books/CDs)
5. I will attend and leverage all Team and Corporate Events weekly. - Conference Calls - Local ASP - Regional Events - Fly Ins - National Convention (free too?) (Functions/CommuniKate/Be teachable)
6. I will contact my sponsor _________________ to keep in touch and keep my sponsor updated on my progress. (Oasis leadership recommends talking with your sponsor several times a week.) (CommuniKate/Be Accountable/Be teachable)
7. I have personally enrolled in the Convenience Plan (I will become a product of the product and I will continually expand my product usage.) I will order 100 to 200 BV personally each month. (Personal Use)
8. I will add 3-Way calling to my home & cellular plans. (CommuniKate)
9. I have set up my web site with my sponsor. (Retail)
10. I will listen to the compensation plan overview. (CDs/Functions)

(source: http://www.oasisoffice.com/_Library/librdoc/ASPbook.pdf - my comments in italics, CORE equivalent in bold.)

It's apparent then, that the real issue with such criticism is NOT whether such methodology works, or whether it does/should cost to employ it, but a preference on which vehicle the methodology is being employed. That's a debate out of scope for this blog, but suffice it to say that obviously, one who has a vested interest on the success of a particular vehicle is going to downplay the same methodologies when applied to another vehicle.

So we've established that executive mindset and performance is required for executive results; that in order to excel in an endeavor, a consistent set of principles must be applied; than in the endeavor of Private Franchising, those principles are applied via a methodology called CORE; that even competing business models apply the same principles via similar methodologies; and that there is an investment of time, money and effort is required.

So be willing to pay the price. But since all of those are precious commodities, be smart... take advantage of the experience of those who have gone before and found the best known methods of applying the principles that lead to success in your endeavor.

Technorati Tags: Home Based Business, Internet Marketing, Internet Business, Quixtar, WWDB, Oasis Lifesciences, Affiliate Marketing, private franchise

Church of the Customer Blog

2006-03-23T13:59:00.000-07:00

Great blog about word of mouth, customer evangelism and citizen marketers.

Technorati Tags: Home Based Business, Internet Marketing, Internet Business, Affiliate Marketing

Personal Shoppers & Affiliate Marketing

2006-03-06T12:25:00.000-07:00

Recently I overheard one co-worker telling another about what she considered to be a unique business model. The concept was web portal of sorts which has a relationship with a variety of well-known e-commerce sites and offers a free personalized shopping service for customers. It is free to customers because the money for providing the service is made from a percentage of every purchase being paid from the respective partner. Some of the Merchant Partners for this portal are Cooking.com, Red Envelope, Baby Universe, Hickory Farms, Blue Nile, Omaha Steaks, Sharper Image, etc.

This co-worker breathlessly described the virtues of this site, shared the web address, and encouraged the other to check it out.

Sound familiar?

Despite what you might be thinking, my co-worker is not an IBO, and the web address does not begin with 'Q'. And my co-worker, like most people, was doing for free what most companies are now paying good money for: word-of-mouth or affiliate advertising.

My co-worker is right in a sense-- the website, PersonalShopper.com, does have some innovative aspects to it. However, most of the innovation has to do with the technology on the backend. The company has secured an arrangement with their various merchant partners to be provided a feed of product and pricing data, which they then use as the database of products against which the preferences of their customers are filtered. The site will also store birthdays and events for which it will send email reminders (for gift shopping, naturally!) The automation is impressive. And I'm sure it's a good money-maker for the company's founder.

Essentially, however, the business model is an affiliate marketer website with a useful, highly personalized value-added service which it uses to incentivize customers to purchase through them (i.e. the customized filter through which it offers product suggestions.)

Interestingly, in my research of Personal Shopper Inc., I discovered that an earlier iteration of the business model (then doing business under the name AvenueMe) included an incentive program in which Members could refer other customers and receive a kickback for the referal purchases in the form of an "in-store" credit. The program appears to be absent on the current website. (Unless the company was able to negotiate a larger percentage than the average 5-7% that the same merchant partners offer in their affilate programs, I'm guessing the margins would be too thin to turn around and offer essentially their own affiliate program.)

It may be understandable why I was intrigued upon overhearing my co-worker's description of the business model. The similarities are obvious-- web portal, affiliate marketing, personalized service, kickbacks from merchant partners. There's a significant advantage, of course, in the margins Quixtar is able to secure with their partners due to the subscriber base they bring to the bargaining table, and consequently the payout percentages merely start in the single-digit range in which most affiliate programs are capped.

As an IBO using the private franchise model, you are providing free (or better!) highly-personalized shopping services for your clients. Granted, it's not automated to the level of the comparison... but smart IBOs can take advantage of many tools in behalf of their clients and prosumers: Ditto Delivery for automated personalized delivery service, using the information collected from a 10x10x10 session to sequentially offer samples of products they've indicated interest in, even collect birthdates of loved ones and use the Shop.com event reminder service (to help in their gift shopping, naturally!) And of course, there's the personalizing of gifts & incentives when loyal clients and prosumers reach their point goals.

And who knows? There's one more highly personalized service they just may want you to provide in time: mentoring them in the pursuit of their own dreams and life goals... No affilate marketer website in the world can provide that.

Technorati Tags: Home Based Business, Internet Marketing, Internet Business, Quixtar, Affiliate Marketing, private franchise

Starting Point

2006-03-03T06:00:00.000-07:00

(Well, it's a bit late, but here's the snapshot I promised.)

History:

I registered in early 1996 as what's now known as a Prosumer (wholesale customer/small business) with the intention of upgrading to business builder IBO "when I knew enough" (read: when I grew a spine). Understanding the potential of the business to be greater than my intended career track, and understanding that I lacked the experience, the preparation & the maturity to run a business, and since no one else I knew (including instructors at my college) had a track record to prove they possessed what I lacked, and understanding that multiple years in the WWDB system was more economical than one year in college, I quit college, got the best-paying job I felt I could obtain at the time, and plugged myself into the WWDB training/mentoring system.
In the 9+ years that followed, I have increased my job income 250%, travelled to multiple international destinations, increased my knowledge of business, leadership & people skills, and most importantly, courted and married a beautiful, intelligent, ambitious woman who had inadvertantly succeeded in intimidating all of her previous suitors-- I cannot point to any other factors in my life that could be credited for the increase of confidence and wisdom that allowed me to accomplish the above.

Oh yes, and in the last year, I've actually begun business-building activities.

Now, last year's business efforts were, I will admit, quite pathetic. I've shown a whopping 7 business plans prior to this year, and out of that, generated 2 wholesale clients (family to whom I sell at no markup), 2 retail clients, and of course, my own household as a Prosumer.
The return was proportionally pathetic-- My gross income was less than my expenses. Fortunately however, the American tax code favors business owners, and it appears that I will have nearly all of those expenses returned to me in the form of a tax refund (another reason why critics shrieking about the $115/mo gross profits are being misleading.) Counting my tax refund, last year was essentially a wash-- neither profit nor loss.

Present:

So for the starting point of this blog, it's practically a clean slate-- last year was a wash, I have yet to sponsor anyone, and have only qualified for bonus checks on personal volume.

Critical readers may be amused by this disclosure, but the irony is that the more pathetic my business is at the starting point, the more dramatic the results will be when I reach my objectives, and the more starkly obvious the correlation between effort and return. Yes, that same dreaded proportional effort-return relationship that the intellectually dishonest are loathe to concede, particularly in regards to this industry.

Given this disclosure, one may fairly question why anyone should listen to me. Obviously, you shouldn't. I have no track record. I am currently operating only on theory. I am only as reliable as your local business college professor (if they had demonstrated knowledge on running a successful business, would they be teaching for a living?)

If, in the course of this project, I demonstrate an ability to create a profitable business, I will have proved the theory in a transparent manner. Further, doing so under the advice of, and utilizing the tools available from the WWDB system will have proved the utility of that system.

Otherwise, until the project is complete, the purpose of this blog is strictly for tracking my own personal accountability to my business, and posting related personal observations.

Technorati Tags: Home Based Business, Internet Marketing, Internet Business, Quixtar, WWDB, private franchise

"Active" IBOs & Their Income

2006-02-21T06:35:00.000-07:00

In my last post, I compared the cost of business education through the WWDB mentoring system vs. the education costs of some random career paths available on a part-time basis online via randomly selected universities.

I received the following comment from reader Ty Tribble (former IBO, currently in a business model designed specifically to compete against Quixtar affiliated IBOs):

Are you going to compare average incomes of WWDB vs a college graduate of these establishments next?

I'm guessing, no.

I could use the Quixtar compensation plan to calculate the income of a specific business structure as easily as any person, but I do not have access to financial detail of all WWDB private businesses. Since both the goals and the structure of each business vary per independent business owner, it is difficult to average income the way one can with a full time employment salary of a specific vocation. Pulling arbitrary business structures out of my hat would likely suit neither of us...
Nor would comparing that arbitrary business structure to the national average salary listed for an intermediate programmer ($57,817 per salary.com)
Because in doing so, there's an unstated assumption applied here: That possessing one of these degrees earns a person a certain income per year in a specific field. Actually, the assumption runs deeper than that-- It assumes that a person who had invested in the education examples given succeeded in meeting the following criteria:

- Applied and was accepted in a position for the field of their degree
- Maintained a work habit necessary to retain their employment
- Ability to work continues uninterrupted by injury, illness or death
- Employer continues intent and ability to retain employee

The reason it's important to specify those criteria is because, in order to be intellectually honest in our comparison, we must apply the same criteria to the results of both types of training I've sampled. (I'm operating under the highest assumption that intellectually honest query is the pure intent behind Ty's question, regardless of his affiliations).
So, how supportable are the above assumptions?

Continuing with the field of choice selected as an example in my previous post (Computer Science) let's look at some statistics:

This study tracks those with a bachelor's degree in, among others, Computer Science, who graduated in 1992-93 and followed up on their employment status in 1997.

Within the study period, 3 percent had sought higher education (i.e. incurred additional training expenses) so we're down to 97% without even looking at the criteria above. Actually, that's the highest percentage who did not seek further education compared to other fields of study, so the selected field is one of the most conservative examples available verses other fields.
So, now to the criteria: Only 57.9% of the remaining 97% ended up working in their field of study, or 56.2% of the total. I'll be generous and also include the 12.9% working in engineering/software engineers/architecture, which brings us up to 70.8% of 97%, or a total 68.7%. So between 56.2% to 68.7% are actually earning a wage in the field of their study. Not bad, but certainly not a guarantee.
What about unemployment rates? 39.4% of the 97% of computer science degree holders had experienced unemployment since graduation. The study doesn't break the unemployment down by field of work, but I don't think it's too far of a stretch to assume that this average would make only 60.6% of the 56.2% to 68.7% who did not experience unemployment.

That cuts it down to only 34.1% to 41.6% of computer science graduates that we can say with any confidence that are earning the average $57,817 salary listed above.

Remember that the Computer Science degree holders fared among the best of their fellow bachelors degree holders (Humanities degree holders, my condolences.) Note that this is non-renewable (non-residual) income requiring the repetition of full-time effort yearly in order for the salary to continue yearly. Keep in mind also, this study was done in the economic buildup before the tech market correction of 2000-2001 and before IT Services related jobs began to be outsourced to India and other Southeast Asian countries in significant numbers.

Now, the FTC-reviewed figure you'll hear quoted in a WWDB business plan for a Founders Platinum-- qualified 12 out of 12 months-- is $60,000 residual. I don't know what figures have been reviewed for other organizations.
I'm sure, however, that Ty is clever enough to know the FTC reviewed documents regarding the Independent Business Ownership Plan and is prepared to cite them against any figures I might name otherwise. But there's an inherent leap (or should I say, derailing) of logic therein which does not apply the same criteria as I've applied above. So let me discuss the statistics of which Ty, as a frequenter of critic sites, is likely already aware.

Critics are quite gleeful to quote these statistics (commenters have done so on this blog in previous posts) but what they fail to disclose is the criteria behind the statistics.

Why do they fail to disclose them? Why does their interest in disclosure only go so far?

Let's look at those criteria, and perhaps their reasons will become clear. (Source: WSA4400 10.11.04)

-One out of every 218 "Active" IBOs qualified actually achieved 7500 PV (required for the level known as Platinum) in at least one month of the year surveyed.

That equates to 0.46% or less than 1/2 a percent. Sounds pretty bad at first glance, doesn't it? "Wow Anon," you may be saying, "34.1 to 41.6% sure sounds better than 0.46%! I'd better go with a computer science degree!"
I'd be inclined to agree with you IF an "Active" programmer was defined by the same criteria as an "Active" IBO.

So what was the activity level of these 218 IBOs which only produced one (1) solitary 7500 PV achiever from among them?

Based on the independent survey, these were IBOs who:
- attempted to make a retail sale (regardless of success or failure for that sale)
- OR presented the Independent Business Ownership Plan (regardless of whether that plan resulted in sponsorship)
- OR received bonus money,
- OR attended a company or IBO meeting
in the year surveyed.

This is certainly NOT the same criteria as applied to the computer science degree holder above. So let's level the criteria, shall we?
Let's assume our computer science degree-holding programmer is an independent contractor who:

- attempted to write a piece of code for a client (regardless of whether the code worked)
- OR pitched their services to a prospective client (regardless of whether the pitch resulted in an awarded contract)
- OR received any payment for programming services
- OR attended an industry-related meeting
and they only had to do any ONE of the above once within a year's time to be considered "active."

Under those criteria, what are the percentage chances that our "active" computer programmer is earning $57,817? Better than 1:218 odds? I don't see any justification for that expectation.
Now the reason I assumed our subject was a contractor should be obvious-- in a full-time employment situation, our subject would not be employed long under those criteria. Our subject would more likely be fiddling with code at a hobby level in their free time aside from their full-time service industry or laborer job (in which 2.2% and 3.3% of our computer science bachelors degree holders ended up employed, respectively.)

See how worthless those statistics are, once the criteria is revealed?

Why wouldn't critics disclose that fact? Hmm.. Perhaps intellectual honesty is not their goal after all? (I'm shocked, utterly shocked.) Perhaps they realize that full disclosure would engage common sense on the part of the reader. Common sense is not compatible with the aims of shameless invective.

Is it clear now why the Average Monthly Gross Income for "Active" IBOs in the survey period was $115? Could we state with any certainty that our "Active" Programmer under the same criteria would gross more than $115/month? Hardly.

In conclusion, we have no statistics for IBOs which applied the same criteria as would be expected for full-time salaried employees of specific vocations. If there were statistics based upon criteria which required even a quarter of the activity level of full-time salaried employment, we would have something more comparable to work with. However, since salaried employment does not allow the flexibility of a Quixtar-affiliated independent business, we also have no statistics for salaries of specific vocations which apply the same criteria as "Active" IBOs.
Thirdly, we have no statistics which apply based on LOS affiliation, so we cannot say with any certainty whether the income of WWDB IBOs specifically are within the same average as the above-noted worthless "Active" IBO statistic.

So the short answer to Ty's comment is no... I won't engage in speculation of figures for which neither of us have meaningful statistics.

But thanks for playing.

Technorati Tags: Home Based Business, Internet Marketing, Internet Business, Quixtar, WWDB, private franchise

WWDB Tools System & Online Universities comparison

2006-02-14T16:42:00.000-07:00

A cost comparison of training systems which can be done in one's discretionary time, ostensibly for the purpose of improving one's lifestyle.
(Note: I've chosen the below online universities and degree programs mostly at random-- based simply on my awareness of them.)

Average yearly investment:

WWDB tools system:

Annual renewal $35
Standing Order:
6/mo x $2.5 x 11 mo = $165
Specialty (Profiles of Success/DVD):
4 X $10 = $40
Extra CD/wk: 4/mo X $2.5 X 12 = $120
WWDB premier membership & my.biz website
$41/mo X 12 = $492
CommuniKate unified messaging system:
$32 X 12 mo = $384
Major Functions:
Dream Night - $65
Spring Leadership - $125
Family Reunion - $250
Free Enterprise - $100
Regional:
$7 X 3 sessions X 4 mo = $84
Local/Organizational/SLM:
$7 X 4 mo = $28
Misc Supplies:
PFR & WSA4400 sheets - $10
Books - $120
Recorders, batteries, tapes - $50
Pens & Notepads - $20

Unlike the programs below, this program can be pursued (and it is recommended that it is pursued) in tandem with business development activities, so that the profit and tax deductions from the enterprise can absorb the costs.

Total: $2088/year (not counting gas/food expenses)

Update: The IBO Chronicles has a similar cost breakdown for the BWW system here.

University of Phoenix Online
Bachelor of Science in Information Technology (http://www.uopxonline.com/BS_Information_Technology.asp)
60 credits x $475/credit

up to 27 credits per year (http://www.uopxonline.com/FAQs.asp) - average time of program completion, 2 - 3 years.

Total: $12,825/yr (not including textbooks, supplies, or gas/food expenses)

Westwood College Online (http://www.westwoodonline.edu/admissions/tuition-and-fees.asp)
1/2 time student
$299 – $424 per credit hour (I'll avg to $361.50)
(6 - 8.5 credit hours)
There is an online laboratory fee ($30 per credit hour) that can vary by term and is added to the student’s account.

Associates - Software Engineering: (http://www.westwoodonline.edu/pdf/2006_wol_catalog.pdf)
106.5 credit hours x $391.50

Total: $41,694.75 for 20 months (not including textbooks, supplies, or gas/food expenses)

Technorati Tags: Home Based Business, Internet Marketing, Internet Business, Quixtar, WWDB, private franchise

FranklinCovey > Handheld Sweepstakes

2006-02-08T11:54:00.000-07:00

Franklin Covery is running a sweepstates for Palm handheld and Franklin Covey software. Enter Handheld Sweepstakes once daily until Feb 16th.

While you're there, click on "email sign-up" and get free weekly motivational quotes.

Leadership Wired

2006-02-08T06:51:00.000-07:00

If you haven't done so already, subscribe now to John C. Maxwell's Leadership Wired newsletter.

Those of you who have attended World Wide's Spring Leadership functions in the past have already had the pleasure of hearing Dr. Maxwell speak multiple times without paying his regular $800-$1300 per-person seminar fees-- which Maxwell has attributed to his belief in the added value that World Wide as an organization provides to people, and to his relationship with WWG founder, Ron Puryear. Some of you, like myself, have even been the beneficiary of Maxwell's tireless multiple-hour book signing sessions.

As a cutting-edge entrepreneur, best-selling author, and dynamic speaker, Dr. John C. Maxwell has cultivated an extensive following among the most highly respected and influential business leaders across the globe.

Here's the blurb for the newsletter from Maxwell's site, maximumimpact:

Delivered to your inbox twice each month, every issue
of Leadership Wired contains an article from best-selling leadership and
teamwork author, John C. Maxwell. In addition, you'll have access to interviews
of the most influential leaders in society. Leadership Wired also reviews newly
released leadership titles, and offers leadership nuggets from a variety of
noteworthy experts.
Leadership Wired is designed to assist you in honing
your personal leadership skills and provides you with cutting-edge ideas and
information as you develop those around you. This valuable tool comes absolutely
free of charge. Subscribe today to begin receiving leadership at your
fingertips!

Google Spamming

2006-02-06T18:06:00.000-07:00

Well, I regret to inform any IBOs reading this site that I have come across information online that has reversed my opinion on a company I once regarded highly, which I once considered to have outstanding products (even if they seemed a bit pricy at first glance).

As background, I should explain that I first came to be involved with this company and it's products through a friend of mine at work. Apparently, his parents were selling the product out of their garage. After meeting the parents, and trying out the product, I was convinced of it's value and made a commitment to it.

I had been very happy using the product for nearly a year now, and have been speaking highly of it and recommending it to all I knew during that time.

What a fool I've been.

Apparently this company has committed the internet sin of engineering web pages to (*gasp!*) influence their visibility in search results of the popular search engine Google. For a company to endeavor that their products and services be regarded in a positive light is quite frankly beyond the pale.

This, based on Quixtar critics' logic, has convinced me that this incident by this company is proof that the company's business model is a scam, that their products are over-rated and over-priced, and that countless unethical salesman affiliated with the company really have tirelessly attempted to get people "into one of those things." Obviously, the webpage engineering is just an attempt to obscure these unseemly details about the company to the unknowing internet surfer. Proof that it has never been a reputable company.

It's a crying shame, and I hate to be the one to break this news to my fellow... BMW drivers.

Heh.

(Transparency disclaimer: Although the author is in no way affiliated with BMW Germany or its American counterpart, he does drive one of their products and finds it neither over-priced nor over-rated. Despite the incident linked above, he will continue to enjoy the product without apologies. Yes, the author has no shame.)

Technorati Tags: Home Based Business, Internet Marketing, Internet Business, Quixtar, Google

Groundhog Day

2006-02-03T17:55:00.000-07:00

Groundhog Day

Last night to celebrate Groundhog Day, my wife and I watched the Harold Ramis movie, Groundhog Day. (what else?)
If you haven't seen it, I recommend it-- it's one of the most inspirational comedy films of our time. Wikipedia has a good plot summary (Spoiler Warning!) but the theme I'd like to focus on is illustrated in a scene early in the film when Phil (played brilliantly by Bill Murray) begins to realize the implications of being stuck in a time loop.

While this story's plot is about this day that keeps repeating for Phil, this story on a deeper level explores what it means to be stuck in life, using the mechanism of the main character in a time loop.

He says to one of the blue-collar locals he's getting drunk with, "What would you do if you were stuck in one day and nothing you did mattered?"

The man replies, "That about sums it up (my life) for me."

A funny, observant line. Like the humor in most well-done comedies, it's rings true to how many people feel about their lives at least some of the time.

Phil decides to drive his drunk friends home, when the question arises, "What if there was no tomorrow?"

The answer, of course, is that Phil could do anything he wanted. And he does. "I am not going to play by their rules any longer," he declares as he goes for a drunk-driving spree. At first, Phil uses the situation to magnify all the worst parts of his character-- lust, greed, gluttony. Eventually, the indulgences bore him and he sets his sights on Rita, his producer. But none of the tricks he had plyed to bed the local women work on her, and as he falls genuinely in love with her, he comes to realize that the reason is character: "I could never love someone like you."

He recognizes himself for what he is, and fears he will never realize the love he feels for Rita. "...I don't deserve someone like you, but if I ever could, I swear I would love you for the rest of my life."

After going through a self-pitiful suicidal phase, Phil embarks on a journey of personal development: He studies piano, classic literature and poetry, masters ice sculpture. He begins to use his (by now) nearly omniscient knowledge of the town on that day to serve others: Catching a boy falling out of a tree, fixing the flat tire of an elderly woman, saving a man choking on his steak in a restaurant, buying the entire spectrum of product offerings from a former high-school acquaintence turned insurance salesman, giving all his money to a old street beggar and later trying repeatedly (though unsuccessfully) to prevent the old man's death at the end of each iteration of the day. As the film nears resolution, Phil has learned to truly love himself, his (albeit repetative) life, the people of Punxsutawney and becomes a genuinely attractive person through the process. Everyone who comes to know him, loves him. Including Rita. And upon his successful transformation-- he has gone from being what National Review's Jonah Goldberg calls "a thoroughly postmodern man: arrogant, world-weary, and contemptuous without cause" to a caring, selfless, charismatic person-- the spell is broken, the time loop ends, and he is able to move on with his life.

The brilliance of the film is the clever illustration of one of the laws which govern success: Becoming a great person requires placing the interest of others ahead of one's own. It's the great irony of life, and it applies in all areas, including business. John C. Maxwell defines charisma through the illustration that, when you walk into a room, your focus is on other people and adding value to them.

There's some other great insights that can be gained from the movie, though. After the movie, my wife asked me: If that were you in Phil's place, what would you do? What kind of things would you spend your time doing? I expected this question because I had pondered it myself at some length after my first time seeing the film.

My first inclination was that, were I placed in a similar time-loop situation, having the ability to act without apparent consequence, I would likely go through many of the same phases that Phil did, to a lesser degree. I began to list the things I would do or develop within myself... Then I realized that if you broke this question down to it's essence, it becomes a very familiar question to many Independant Business Owners (IBOs): If time and money were no object, what would you do with your life?
Or as an IBO might ask a prospect to itemize on a 3x5 card in a 2-Step, What are the things that you absolutely have to do, have or accomplish in your life before you die?

I encourage you to go through this exercise yourself if you haven't before, or recently. Whatever you come up with is your "Why." And whatever vehicle you choose to best address your "Why," you will never find satisfaction in life unless/until you are at least actively making progress towards the accomplishment of those things.

And here's where the second insight comes in: Absent the advantage of a fictional 10-year timeloop, what is stopping you from accomplishing these things? Why can't you start working toward those things now?

The answer is the same as the real reason most IBO's don't build a big business, and the same reason Phil had gone his whole life previously without making those changes: Because there's nothing forcing you to do it.

Or, more accurately, in both Phil's case and your own, nothing had yet driven home the realization that the actions, habits and attitudes that make up character must change in order to be and have the things in life that make one truly happy.

In reality, you and I will never have an actual Groundhog Day in Phil's sense-- and yet...

To return to Phil's drinking buddy in the bowling alley, on a certain level, Groundhog Day is the story of our lives. More likely than not, you knew yesterday what time you would be getting up today. Where did you go today, and what did you do? For most working adults, isn't it essentially the same thing you did the previous day? Same stuff, different day, right? Aren't you, like Phil, tired of playing by "their" rules?

So the date on Phil's calendar never changed and that time loop gave him effectual immortality. So the things he did had no apparent consequence. Otherwise, though, are we really that different from him? Don't we often feel that many of the struggles we go through are of no consequence? And yet...

There did turn out to be one thing that persisted, one consequence: Since he retained his memories from the previous iterations of the day, the consequence of his struggles was his character change, and it was ultimately his character change which made the difference.

And HOW did he do it? Slowly, painfully, one "day" at a time. By maximizing his time outside of his daily obligation (his morning broadcast from Gobbler's Knob, i.e his job). By focusing on the most important activities (thereby replacing the irrelevant or unconstructive activities). By being on purpose. We are no different.

Today is Groundhog Day. Every day.

What are you going to do with it?

CALLING, THE lyrics

Housekeeping

2006-02-01T00:01:00.000-07:00

Hatred is something peculiar. You will always find it strongest and most
violent where there is the lowest degree of culture.
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

[sarcasm]
Due to the high level of maturity and respect shown by critical commenters lately,
[/sarcasm] I am now moderating the comments. I had hoped not to, as intellectual honesty thrives better in an open exchange. Apparently the critics are not up such high standards as, oh, basic civility.

And people accuse IBOs of poor behavior? You guys make Monty Python's Frenchmen look dignified and polite. (Now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!)

What's It All About?

2006-01-21T14:47:00.000-07:00

I suppose this is the post with which I should have started this blog.

The intended audience of this blog is really myself, and it's main role will be for personal accountability and motivation, with my thoughts on various topics now and again as they come up. If you're reading it, you are welcome to continue if you're so inclined.

To be more specific, what I have in mind is a IBO version of JohnStoneFitness. For those not familiar with the site, in January of 2003, John Stone, who had been athletic most of his young life, had gotten less active with married life and had become disgusted with his physical condition. He committed himself to a fitness regimine, of which he began posting daily, along with a photo of himself. Over time, with persistant and consistant adherence to his fitness plan, he literally transformed. His site now offers an animated image which compiles all his daily photos, and the transformation is nothing short of amazing and inspiring.

As an aside, now that he has a proven track record of achievement, people frequent the site for fitness information and that "subscriber base" has generated enough traffic to drive towards suppliers of fitness equipment and nutritional products, which he has contracted with to (*gasp!*) sell from his site. According to Quixtar critics' logic, it should not be ethical for him to profit from the wisdom of his personal expertise and it apparently calls into question whether he's really physically fit or if he's "just making money from the flow of info and tools" for fitness training. (Interestingly enough, John has received critics on his site who question both the legitimacy of his fitness-- i.e. steroid accusations-- and his sales of products. I guess for every accomplished person there's 20 people ready to throw stones at that person.) Heh... but I digress.

His original motive was not to hawk food supplements and weights... it was to become physically fit, and making his goals and progress known to the world was his personal motivation to continue, knowing that others would be watching and commenting.

Likewise, my motive for this site is not to hawk products, tools or opportunity. It is to keep myself accountable and motivated by tracking my progress via a publicly visible medium. As the saying goes, the secret to one's future lies in their daily habits. So I will be posting my daily adherence (or lack thereof) to the 9 CORE steps as prescribed by World Wide DreamBuilders. Due to the nature of the steps, not all 9 steps are able to be accomplished every day, so I will do a weekly and monthly review as well.

Unlike John Stone, I obviously cannot mark my progress with a daily photo. With a business, the measuring stick is profit. The logical key criteria for measuring profit with this business model seem to be revenue, expenses, time investment, and Out-Of-Pocket Expenses, i.e. expenses that must come from the IBO's personal budget rather than his/her business revenue-- this seems to be of key interest to both IBO and critic (not to mention my wife.)

Some critics contend that as an IBO franchises or duplicates themselves to sponsor other IBOs, these criteria should be extended to account for all time, all expenses, and all revenue incurred by all sponsored IBOs to be an accurate picture of how efficient or profitable their business is. This is a clever but inherently fallacious argument, because of the independent nature of each business, regardless of their Line Of Sponsorship (LOS) affiliation.
To use the familiar analogy, an IBO's role is like a McDonald's franchisee, with regards to his/her own "store" (the "first circle" of personal use, retail clients, and wholesale clients under 100 PV) and the accounting of revenue, expenses and time are appropriate specific to those aspects. However, in his/her role related to any IBO(s) sponsored they are operating as a franchisor, and the accounting thereof should be measured like McDonald's Corp would: When is that last time you saw the payroll expenses for thousands of teenage cashiers and fry machine operators show up on McDonald's Corp quarterly reports? You haven't, because those are expenses for each individual franchisee.
Nice try though... Thank you, drive through.

So, like any business, I will account for my monthly, quarterly, and annual financials. Those familiar with running a business understand that financials are generally jealously guarded, except for publicly traded companies for whom disclosure is required for transparency toward their investors-- and even then, disclosure outside of any circumstance other than quarterly/annual reports is rare.

This otherwise wholesale security risk on my part is understandably the reason for my anonymity. Otherwise, if this were to be just an IBO rantblog, I would not have bothered.
(For those who seem to value disclosure of identity so much, I invite you to provide on-going full financial disclosure of your endeavor(s), at which point I will consider disclosing my identity. Heh-- I won't hold my breath...)

I suppose it may have occured to some by now that this will effectively provide a real-world example of the return on investment (ROI) of time, money and tools possible for an independant business owner affiliated with Quixtar and World Wide Dreambuilders.
Two caveats: First, it should be obvious that the investment is necessary before the return, and that the return is proportional to the investment. My hypothesis is that over time, this blog will demonstrate that principle. Second, in order to fairly and accurately gauge that ROI, a present snapshot of my business will be necessary. Unfortunately, I've run out of time, and as this post is rather long already, the snapshot will have to wait for another post. The sort of accountability regime I've layed out here will take a bit more organization than I've previously had, so I won't start the daily accounting until I'm organizationally prepared to do so consistantly.

As a bit of blog housekeeping details, I do enjoy intellectually honest and mature discussion, so I will leave comments open. However, I reserve the right to edit or delete comments based on my own discretionary criteria of propriety. But I will not likely have the time or inclination for editing unless you are being blatently offensive, hostile or moronic. Any free time spent blogging is obviously taking away from other activities, so don't expect indepth exchanges from me, as my purpose in blogging is not debate or discussion.

Technorati Tags: Home Based Business, Internet Marketing, Internet Business, Quixtar, WWDB, private franchise

Blips On The Radar

2006-01-19T13:45:00.000-07:00

It's come to my attention... that I've come to your attention.

For Dave (on the Road), I appreciate the feedback.. your blog was inspiration for mine. For Dave (and for Ty "Passport" Tribble in comments) there's a specific purpose in my anonymity, with which I would not have bothered otherwise (I'm quite comfortable blogging my own thoughts as myself) and that purpose may be more obvious as I get more than 4.5 posts under my belt. It appears that The IBO Chronicles (HT: Dave) are on a similar vein as what I intend to pursue-- perhaps we both made the same New Years' Resolution.
For "Mikey" (in Dave's comments) it's not clear to me which blog/site you are associated with, so I can't say whether I've been there or not... but being an IBO, I am certainly pro-IBO-- or rather, I'm in support of IBOs who are diligently, professionally working to build an honest, ethical, profitable business in a manner that is consistant with the way conventional business is done (except of course, that the model itself and corresponding compensation plan is unconventional-- in a good way, of course.)

Cheers.

Technorati Tags: Home Based Business, Internet Marketing, Internet Business, Quixtar, WWDB

What Went Wrong?

2006-01-12T18:00:00.000-07:00

Good Evening, I'm Anon Ibo.
In this edition of UE, we bring you an investigation of what happens when a good business model goes bad in the hands of the wrong independent Business Owner (or IBO).

One of the biggest points of criticism or skepticism towards unconventional business models is that those who engage in them conduct themselves in a flaky, goofy, unprofessional or even an outright deceptive manner. Unfortunately this is the nature of more accessible business models, and the good and the ethical have to work that much harder to rise above the stigma. Conventional business is often prohibitive in its requirements of licensing, fees, specialized education, excessive startup capital, etc. Hence the lowering of the entry level in unconventional business models to make it more accessible to the average person.

While this should be considered a positive, to those on the receiving end of an experience with untrained or unethical business owners don't regard it so highly.

Case in point:
In our ultra-in depth research for the creation of this blog, we came across Webchicky's weblog rant on what she calls "Quixtar Quacks". (Nice alliteration in the title, incidentally, and "quack" fits nicely in "poultry" theme of her blog... but I digress.)
Her description of the encounter is probably illustrative of a typical person's reaction and is interesting to read from that standpoint.

But for those of us who are engaged in a similar enterprise, what is more interesting is the lessons that can be learned from deconstructing this encounter, with the purpose of avoiding such encounters ourselves.

So let's go to Chuck and Bob for the replay and analysis. Chuck?

---
Chuck: Thanks, Anon. Bob and I are here in the setting of a North Carolina grocery store, the fish department, on a November Sunday evening. Bob, your thoughts on choice of the venue?
Bob: Well Chuck, this kind of public arena can be a tricky if not handled carefully. A lot depends on the reasons for the choice of venue, the intent of the business owner, and whether their people skills are such that will enable them to establish a legitimate friendship or sense of connection, however fledgling.
Chuck: Tricky indeed, Bob. You said a lot depends on the reasons for the choice of venue and the intent of the business owner, can you elaborate on that for our audience?
Bob: Well, quite simply, it's whether they chose this arena specifically for the activity known as "Prospecting," that is, going to a highly populated area for the purpose of finding potential prospects for business partners or clients; or whether they are just going about their lives as they would normally do, and just being more friendly and aware of others than the average person, with the mindset of finding a need their business can fill in the lives of those they meet.
Chuck: That's an important distinction, because it sounds like two different IBOs could engage in very similar activities yet have totally different result in the minds of the people they engage with.
Bob: Right Chuck, that's why rookie or unethical players often get this wrong.
Chuck: And speaking of our players, let's introduce them. Bob, do we know their names?
Bob: Our sources didn't provide names, Chuck, but the subjects are described as a "young couple (dressed nicely, very pleasant and polite)." Let's call them Joe & Mary to give them names.
Chuck: Well, it sounds like a good enough first impression. Bob, do you have any feedback at this pre-game phase?
Bob: The overall first impression is good, and I gotta say, Chuck, my hat's off to this couple for making the effort. This is an intimidating undertaking by any standards, and the average person wouldn't go far enough out of their comfort zone on a volunteer basis to do it.
Chuck: Good point.
Bob: On the other hand, our sources in retrospect couldn't recall Joe & Mary having a shopping basket or any grocery items. That doesn't bode well.
Chuck: No indeed, Bob. Of course, in this game, much of the outcome depends on the potential prospect right?
Bob: That's right, Chuck, hence the saying that you can't say the wrong thing to the right person and you can't say the right thing to the wrong person.
Chuck: And what about in this case? Are they the "right" persons?
Bob: It's hard to say, Chuck; there's mixed signals. The potential* prospects are Stacey (Webchicky) & Mike (husband). Both employed in industries with burgeoning technologies (wireless, web development), so not only are they comfortable with online and mobile business transactions, they're also entrepreneurial, picking up extra work outside their regular jobs, including their own web development/consulting business. Mike is excited about his prospects after getting his MBA in 2007, and from his blog, seems concerned about the costs of commuting and gas. Both are interested in personal fitness, particularly Stacey, who works with a personal trainer, takes vitamins, and keeps herself accountable to her goals weekly on her blog.
Chuck: And we know enough about Stacey in particular to say that she shows a lot of positive qualities that make a good entrepreneur: Goal setting, accountability, evaluation, and re-setting; a commitment to personal development; a willingness to be trained and mentored--
Bob: And most obviously, her and her husband already have an entrepreneurial venture going.
Chuck: And as you know Bob, it's often the busiest people who already out accomplishing a lot who have the time management skills to succeed in an additional endeavor.
Bob: Right.
Chuck: So there are apparently a lot of potential upsides for this couple, what are the liabilities?
Bob: Well Chuck, Mike & Stacey are coming into this game already with an unfavorable impression of Quixtar--
Chuck: Excuse me Bob, but let me clarify-- Quixtar is essentially just a supplier, isn't it?
Bob: That's right.
Chuck: So when you say they have an unfavorable impression of Quixtar, it's unlikely that they've ever had interactions with the contracting company, the supplier itself, right?
Bob: That's right Chuck, what people usually actually mean when they say they have a bad impression is that they've had encounters with individuals-- independent business owners contracted with the supplier, and for whatever reason, that encounter doesn't go well. So yes, it would be more accurate to say they've had unfavorable encounters with persons who all happen to contract with the same company.
Chuck: Most people have a horror story about a dentist, but they don't swear off dentistry altogether.
Bob: Exactly.
Chuck: OK, so in Mike & Stacey's case, what do we know about these previous experiences?
Bob: Our sources indicate that there have been family members--
Chuck: And as the saying goes, "No man is a prophet in his own town."
Bob: Right, especially not with his own family. What we often see with rookie players is that they get trained to present a professional image of their business--
Chuck: Which is common sense to do for any business--
Bob: Yes, every good business person will do it. Even with the business Mike and Stacey run, you don't see any indication from their business website that it's any less than a full-fledged web development, design and consulting firm.
Chuck: As it should be, if they want to attract any business.
Bob: Right, but what happens is, with a web-powered home-based business model where the actual business is fairly invisible, particularly for a rookie, if they try too hard to present a professional image to their family, who already know them well and don't visibly see anything different, it's not going to make sense to them and the first impression is that their family member got roped into something goofy and possibly fraudulent.
Chuck: Not to mention the feeling of the friend or family member abusing the relationship for their own advantage.
Bob: Again, that depends on the approach. As the saying goes, "Find a need and fill it." If a business person can't genuinely show the value of their products or services to convince that family member that they have a need to buy it, they have no right to expect the family member to support their business. The same applies to the opportunity aspect of the business model.
Chuck: Well, and that really applies to any potential client or partner, doesn't it?
Bob: Yes, but with close friends and family, the relationship is already established, and the participation of friends and family are often taken for granted, which causes the bad feelings. Establishing a need is key in this game, which we will see.
Chuck: Now what's this about their run-ins with fellow church members? Stacey's comments seem to indicate she's particularly negative towards that.
Bob: First of all, any person conducting an honest business in an ethical manner should have no qualms about sharing a worthwhile product, service or opportunity to anyone. Secondly, the business model is structured so that one must first help others make a profit before making a profit themselves, and most religions already teach that we are to help and uplift one another, put others before ourselves, etc.
Chuck: So there's no conflict of interest there. On the other hand, talking business in the meeting house on a worship day; using church membership directories as a prospecting resource; or inferring a greater religious or spiritual duty or mission is somehow dependent on their involvement is crossing the line to impropriety.
Bob: Definitely.
Chuck: What about the comparison to lotteries or pyramid schemes?
Bob: Well, we don't have time for a point-by-point discussion here, but to put it briefly, these are uninformed mischaracterizations, really a misunderstanding or ignorance of the actual business model. The fact that no money is made from simply registering another person and no money is made unless an actual product or service is moved negates the lottery or "get-rich-quick" mentality. And the fact that no referral fees are paid to a sponsor or "upline" unless they help their registered business partners actually move a significant volume of product invalidates any "pyramid" comparison.
Chuck: Unlike a corporate or government job, where someone else has to quit, get fired or die in order for someone else to advance to their position.
Bob: Especially at the higher management and executive levels where the opportunities are significantly more narrow than the wide entry-level spots at the base.
Chuck: If you want to talk triangular shapes, one doesn't need to look further than a corporate or government structure.
Bob: Indeed.
Chuck: So with our potential prospects, it looks like there's some positive characteristics, some compatible interests, and some bad experiences and perceptions. Definitely a mixed bag. Our subjects Joe & Mary have their work cut out for them.
Bob: The concept of finding a need and filling it will be key here, Chuck. Let's move go to the game and see how they perform.
Chuck: Here's the kickoff with our subject making an icebreaker: Our ambitious couple asks Mike and Stacey something to the effect of, "Hey, have you bought fish here before?" Bob, how's this for an icebreaker?
Bob: Chuck, the icebreaker is never an easy thing to do and make it seem natural. Unfortunately, whether you're a single person looking for a date or a business person looking for a lead, when it comes to expanding your circle of influence, there's really no way around it. You've got to get to know people you don't yet know, and communication is the only way to start that. Icebreakers are never going to be profound, just functional. Any icebreaker that gets a polite conversation started is good enough, but obviously the more natural the better. This one isn't really natural.
Chuck: I'd guess it's easier to start a conversation in, say, the checkout line than the fish section.
Bob: That would be more natural. Again, anything that one does while just going through your life normally with an extra awareness of others and an extra effort to be friendly with others is going to be more natural.
Chuck: Looks like our potential prospects have a sense that it isn't natural, but they're politely going along with it. Good for them.
Bob: Chuck, IBM salesmen historically were taught the concept of "Ladder-Building" in sales and relationship studies; and good business-building practices still rely on the same principles: for each effort a business person makes in attempt to establish a rapport with a potential client, the client self-screens their qualification as a client by whether or not they respond in kind to the effort.
Chuck: I say hello, they say hello back? That kind of thing?
Bob: Exactly, and the completion of each exchange by both parties is considered adding another "rung" of a ladder. The studies showed that only after several successful exchanges-- say, 5 or 6 "rungs"-- does a potential client feel enough trust or connection to consider entering a business relationship.
Chuck: OK, then, following the icebreaker comes an introduction-- our subjects are exchanging names and handshakes, and Mike & Stacey reciprocate.
Bob: That's 2 "rungs" on the ladder.
Chuck: Next up, Joe asks what Mike & Stacey do for a living. Mike reciprocates with an answer about their web/programming.
Bob: Chuck, that's a third "rung", but here's where the trouble starts: Joe volunteers information about his own business.
Chuck: What happened to building a ladder?
Bob: Apparently Joe's abandoned any more relationship building to get out his message.
Chuck: What happened to establishing a need?
Bob: It looks like Joe is only thinking about his own needs, Chuck.
Chuck: This is not looking good. Let's see if Joe can pull his act back together.
Bob: Mike isn't responding to Joe's need--
Chuck: And why should he?
Bob: ...he's backing off with the classic "No Time" objection, citing his impending MBA studies as the reason.
Chuck: Still no more "rungs" built. Is there a good response to the "No Time" objection?
Bob: Chuck, the "No Time" objection can only be dealt with if you've already helped establish a need, want or desire, and then it's possible to help the person realign their time management with their new priorities. Joe hasn't even established a need yet.
Chuck: Uh-oh, this looks like a foul-- Joe seems to have insinuated that Mike's MBA plans are a waste of time and that he should be working for himself.
Bob: Unbelievable! There should be penalty flags all over for this move, Chuck. One of the major rules for dealing with people is to never criticize or condemn. Second, he's continued to put HIS need for new business contacts first without finding out any of Mike's needs.
Chuck: ...Or that Mike already has some side projects of his own and probably understands the benefits of self-employment. Talk about a desperate play-- He's actually trying to convince Mike that Joe's needs should be his? Where's his professionalism?
Bob: It appears shot at this point, Chuck. I can't imagine making a recovery at this point.
Chuck: Looks like you're right, Bob... Mike & Stacey are awkwardly ending the conversation... can't blame them for not giving their number-- they're making a break for it.
Bob: But that's not the end of it-- Stacey is blogs the encounter, giving more ammunition for skeptics and critics worldwide.
Chuck: Oh! That's gotta hurt! It's a lose/lose situation all around. Bob, what might Joe have done instead?
Bob: First of all Chuck, Joe loses a lot of credibility by jumping in to volunteer what he does for a living if it's not asked-- it makes him look needy. Let the potential client ask-- if they don't ask, you haven't given them enough reason to care what you do. Second, as I said, one of the prime rules for dealing with people is to never criticize or condemn. In fact, sincere praise goes a lot further with people. Always leave people better than how you found them, whether they fit with what you're doing in life or not.
Chuck: That's not just good business advice, that's good life advice.
Bob: Right-- So no matter what people have going in life, find something about it to genuinely complement them on.
Chuck: Something like, "Wow, you must be pretty sharp to work in a competitive field like that"...?
Bob: Yes, or something like, "That's really a growing field, things must be going great for you." And if there's going to be anything negative said about Mike or Stacy's work/life situation, let them voice it, not you. If they don't voice it, either they don't recognize a need for opportunity now, or you haven't built enough legitimate trust for them to open up to you about it.
Chuck: So Joe fumbled that play in more ways than one.
Bob: He definitely has, Chuck.
Chuck: Bob, assuming Joe & Mary had better training, better people skills, how might this encounter have played gone differently? Best case scenario.
Bob: That's hard to say Chuck, but if they could have built a relationship with Mike & Stacey enough to learn their needs and interests, I can see a few potential needs that could have been filled. With their active lifestyle and love for coffee, a few free samples of XS Energy Drink flavors might have convinced them to switch their daily habit of choice for something that still tastes great but has no sugar, no or low carbs, low calories and a more natural boost of energy than high levels of sugar and caffeine. Not to mention the world's original multivitamin/multimineral food supplement, the great tasting low carb protein bars and shakes, and well-balanced meal replacement and energy bars.
Chuck: And as you know Bob, Health/Nutrition and Beauty is a key high profitability area for those contracted with Quixtar, being independently ranked as the #1 online seller in that category.
Bob: Not to mention Mike's concern with commuting costs-- Many people find the Freedom Fuel Additive to be no cost after calculating the improved gas mileage and the savings from being able to downgrade to a lower octane fuel often makes the Additive more than pay for itself.
Chuck: So there's quite a few products whose value becomes obvious from the first use... combine that with Joe's ability to provide incentives for ongoing loyalty, and that would have made both Joe & Mary and Mike & Stacey a winner here.
Bob: And the only question would have been whether Mike & Stacey wanted to pay retail and have it delivered; or pay wholesale and qualify for potential manufacturer kickbacks-- and referral fees if they talked their products up the way they already do with movies, restaurants and coffee stands.
Chuck: Not to mention savings from Partner Stores they probably already frequent.
Bob: Right. It's a shame, but it looks like Joe blew it for both parties.
Chuck: A shame indeed, and you witnessed it right here on UE. Back to you, Anon.
---

Thank you Chuck. Well there you have it: great potential foiled by what appears to be bad people skills and an overriding concern for self above others.

Of course, no coverage would be complete without the post-game interviews: Look for our interaction with Stacey in the comments section of her blog post, under the commenter alias nonsequitur. Our offices were unable to contact the unidentified Joe & Mary for their side of the story, but we hope that our broadcast will help you, our audience, from becoming like them.

For UE, this is Anon Ibo... signing out.

Until next time, make it practical and profitable, and most of all, make it real.

Technorati Tags: Home Based Business, Internet Marketing, Internet Business, Quixtar, WWDB, private franchise

VCs & IBOs

2006-01-11T17:15:00.000-07:00

Good evening. I'm Anon Ibo, and this is UE.

In reading the advice of Venture Capitalist (VC) David Cowen on writing a business plan, a few insights occurred to us in the UE newsroom:

First, it's interesting-- but not surprising-- that the World Wide DreamBuilders "Private Franchise" Review (PFR) sheet, along with the FTC reviewed financial sheet WSA4400, contains the important elements Mr. Cowen has advised, and mostly in similar sequence. . . It's almost like they know what they are doing!

Second, the act of presenting your business plan to a prospective partner is not unlike presenting to a VC-- after all, a VC is going to shoulder a great deal of the risk and essentially become a partner. For a prospective partner in a private franchise, what you're really presenting is their potential future business, based on your own and the track record of your upline mentoring team. As such, they will be shouldering a great deal of the time and effort capital, as well as the modest upstart capital that will be required to build their business.

Thirdly, however, most prospective partners do not think like a VC, or even a business owner (they think how they've been trained to think: a dutiful employee/consumer.)
While a VC has learned to instinctively look for the best long-term Return On Investment (ROI) and can be convinced to go out on a limb if the potential looks good enough, the average employee/consumer has learned to pay the cheapest price and get the quickest, most consistent (read: secure) paycheck.

Independent Business Owners (IBOs) are often criticized for doing what's often called "dream building" with a prospective partner. The inferrence is that, since the potential income has not been created, it does not exist, therefore they selling an nonexistent result, i.e. running a scam. Heck, even the act of pitching a business is considered by many critics as a negative.

For this display of blatant ignorance of business, IBOs must forgive their critics-- Pitching a business plan is a common activity for business owners, and projecting a future ROI is done in any good business plan.

The distinction an IBO must make with an untrained prospective partner is to help them translate how that ROI would impact their lives. Frankly, the employee/consumer mentality of most prospective partners has trained them to not expect much from their lives at all. A VC has no problem visualizing how the ROI of a good upstart will impact their lifestyle... they already live a sampling of it, know they want more of it, and associate regularly with the jet-set crowd living it. The average employee/consumer, on the other hand, doesn't have the budget for the economy fare of a commercial flight without significant advanced notice. So the dream-building doesn't function to immediately benefit the IBO who is "selling the dream"... it's to help overcome the self-image barriers of the prospective partner.

On the flip-side, the IBO does have a sponsoring role towards the prospective partner, so s/he must also think like a VC:
Specifically, you as an IBO may also be investing time and effort and potentially some money into this prospective partner's business, so you need to ensure that they are a fit.

Anyone you have to "talk into" participation will likely need a refill on their "talk into" every time activity is needed. If their self-esteem is too low, even if you can get them to comprehend and accept the potential of your business model, you may end up constantly propping up their self-esteem to get them to undertake any activity on their own behalf.

One of the real reasons for the criticism a private franchise model receives is actually due to the self image of the former-IBO-turned-critic who got him/her self "talked into" participation despite their own self-esteem issues, who then proceeded to find other non-threatening self-esteem-deficient individuals to "talk into" participation and then didn't have enough morale props to go around to their team because they needed all the props for themselves.

Since you must help partners generate an income before you receive your own ROI, both of you may be getting a much better ROI if you sponsor low self-esteem prospects as a Pro-Sumer rather than a business builder-- chances are they will settle into a Pro-Sumer or below level of activity anyway.

In summary, with the WWDB PFR and WSA4400, you have a business plan worth pitching to any competent VC. Keep in mind that your prospective partner is like a VC-- they'll need to know what the potential ROI is and why they should invest in it. But since they won't likely think like a VC, you'll need to translate that ROI into lifestyle so they can visualize it strongly enough to put down the clicker and get off the couch for something more significant than their next "cold one". Finally, you must think like a VC in ensuring a good ROI for you and them, by positioning prospective partners/clients in an activity level and role that their self-esteem will support.

That's all our time for tonight. For UE, this is Anon Ibo, signing out.

Until next time, make it practical and profitable, and most of all, make it real.

Technorati Tags: Home Based Business, Internet Marketing, Internet Business, Quixtar, WWDB, private franchise

Constructive, Informed, Experienced Advice?

2005-12-21T15:19:00.000-07:00

Whoda thunk that it actually exists on the web for unconventional marketers?

Dave's Domain

Technorati Tags: Home Based Business, Internet Marketing, Internet Business

Start Something

2005-12-16T17:34:00.000-07:00

You know you want a better life. You know you have the means to do it.

It's time to act.

Set your goals, make a plan, and get after it.

What are you waiting for?