In this module, you'll find 5 actionable steps you may be interested in pursuing, all important to consider before jumping into business.
The purpose of these action steps is really to challenge your personal core values and whether you feel you have what it takes to pursue an online business.
There's an epidemic of people hopping from biz op to biz op and buying every book and course on how to be successful in business looking for the "secret formula". There are a lot of amateurs looking to everyone but themselves for their lack of success which is partly when the home business arena has received past negative stigmas. It's easy for the amateur to cry "scam" when a situation presents itself in order to preserve ones pride. It's easier to cry scam than it is to admit they aren't cut out for entrepreneurship.
Amateurs should not be in business. Not everyone is wired for entrepreneurship. Success first comes from within and until an individual realizes this, they won't make it in business no matter what they do.
There is no secret formula. Let's be adults here. Business is business. All business models require hard work and common sense mixed with a tremendous amount of personal development and an unstoppable commitment to one's success. So let's not dance around this truth.
So really, these steps are here as part of laying your cards on the table. It challenges and allows you to think before you act, rather than me marketing to your pocket book on hype and drama. All good business relationships comes from a mutual trust and this is a step towards that good faith trust with you.
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Action Step # 1: Identifying and Defining Your Lifestyle
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Living a life you design is only something that YOU can put a definition to.
You MUST answer the question, “What do you want in life?” It's the very first step in any lifestyle and business planning process.
Think about it. It's common sense, but inasmuch as most people weren't brought up to think that way, it hasn't crossed their mind at all. They assume life is what is by happenstance when in fact, it's been because of a lack of planning and moving toward what they want.
It's not their fault. They developed their belief systems and learned about lack from their parents and teachers who didn't know either. There's a cycle of the blind leading the blind out there and these principles of planning one's life to the extent that's required for success isn't being talked about or taught to small children and nurtured throughout their childhood years.
When you build a house, don’t you first have to draw it out with pencil and paper before you can begin to construct it?
When you plan for a vacation, don’t you first have to know where you’re going?
In the network marketing home based business arena, answering this question becomes your “Why”.
Why do you want to embark on a business endeavor?
What has you in a position that you’re considering home business entrepreneurship?
There MUST be a lifestyle much be bigger than just paying the bills. Here’s why just wanting to pay the bills doesn’t count.
We are humans and therefore are motivated to do things based on our desires to get something for our effort in return.
In network marketing, I promise you there will be times of struggle through the building process, just like there’s always a glitch when you’re building a home. Nobody in their right mind will press through if the end result is to simply pay the bills. That’s no motivation!
So the reasons why you want to not only start a business but to work to build it must mean an awful lot to you It must be worth fighting for and going after with everything you have. Does that make sense?
In the course of your bigger and biggest dreams coming into reality, your bills will automatically get paid. By completing worksheet #1, you will have a better picture of your WHY.
>>> Complete Action Step #1 Worksheet <<<
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Action Step #2: Challenging Your Belief System
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In “The One Minute Millionaire”, by Robert G. Allen and Mark Victor Hansen , they both agree that it only takes one minute to decide to become a millionaire. Not that your idea of lifestyle is having a million dollars, but rather it’s the decision to have what you desire. There’s power in the decision!
If the dream of having a life by design is so appealing, why is it that only about 2% of the world’s population live one?
There are many excuses fronting deep rooted reasons which can be traced back to embedded belief systems from early childhood about why that decision hasn’t been made. More often than not, people are not even aware that they are self sabotaging their success based on their belief system.
In fact, most people will vote “no” to changing their thoughts, actions and behaviors to move toward their dreams, starting a business, learning new skills and whatever else is required because their fear of the uncertainty of risk and failure is too scary. As a result, they will choose unhappiness over those emotions and ultimately get to the end of their life never having accomplished what they wanted.
The good news is this. If one’s current belief system isn’t serving them, they can instantly change their mind about what they belief and adopt a new way of thinking.
Belief systems are the biggest killer of dreams. It’s what takes step #1 above and buries it deep underground where it stays and people arrive safely at their grave never having achieved their potential or purpose.
Belief systems are extraordinarily powerful. You are and have what you believe. Henry Ford said, “If you think you can, you’re right. If you think you can’t, you’re right.” Either way, whatever you believe is the way it is.
Dreams of you pursuing an e-lifestyle will be manifested into reality or put to death by belief systems. Yours must align with your e-lifestyle blueprint or you won’t make it. The two are bonded together.
Toddlers play with toys, use their creative imaginations to be whoever they want to be and believe they can take on the world. They see themselves being anyone or anything they want to be. Ask any toddler what they want to be when they grow up and they’ll tell you. Astonishingly enough, if you try to convince them otherwise, they won’t believe you in the slightest. In fact, they won’t give your negative interjection another thought.
So what happened along the way to adult hood? One word . . .adults.
Adults spoke words at them, into their surroundings and into their lives day in and day out, week after week, month after month, and year after year. Well-meaning parents and teachers are the biggest culprits of belief system embedment in youth. Words were spoken into their lives. Situations then proved to be true of what adults had said. And somewhere along the way of growing up, lifelong belief systems were established. These belief systems were taken into young adult life where they find themselves sounding just like their parents…..
“We can’t afford that.”
“Money doesn’t grow on trees.”
“Do you think I’m an ATM machine?”
“Rich people are evil.”
And, have you witnessed your parents or other adult influencers:
-Stock up on sale items?
-Wrap up the smallest of leftovers from a restaurant to take home?
-Slide an apple or biscuits into their pocket from a buffet dinner, even the little packets of jelly and honey?
-Tell you to order your food based on the something priced on the dollar menu?
-Eat nasty generic brand foods because the name brands were 15 cents more?
What messages were they sending you? The message is there is great scarcity in life so you better sneak and snatch whatever you can otherwise you may go hungry. There isn’t enough money to buy jam, butter and laundry soap. There’s no money to enjoy pleasures of great food prepared for your enjoyment. You are surrounded by lack and poverty and accept it as that's just the way life is for you.
Children hear these statements and witness adult behavior day in and day out. They see the lack unfold before their eyes within their homes. They are witness to arguments about money which sometimes leads to the total breakdown of families, divorce, abuse, and their belief systems are further embedded.
These once creative, excited, strong and resilient children come to believe that struggle, lack, fear and insecurity is just how it is. Somewhere they lose their childlike faith and their dreams are flushed down the toilet. And that accept it all as truth.
Worse yet, some children have had words spoken directly into their lives that they don’t measure up and they’ll never amount to anything.
No matter how children are brought up, isn’t the common message of poverty still the same when society and culture tells them the only way to live is through studying hard, getting a college degree and working for someone else their whole life? Then, at 65 or so, they can retire on 25% of what they’ve been bringing home for 40 years.
Are you kidding me?! Yet as a society we accept that. We are groomed from early childhood to be good employees and that our value is based on our hourly wage. Tragic!
Imagine how different our world would be if children grew up in schools where besides reading, writing and math were taught, it was mandated they learn the principals of visualization and dreaming, creating, goal setting, entrepreneurship, investing, money management, and the like. Powerful, huh?
But back to reality. If you don’t believe you can succeed, you won’t. This is why you MUST challenge your belief system about the whole idea of living an e-lifestyle.
>>> Complete Action Step #2 Worksheet <<<
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Step 3: Commitment – a Promise to Yourself to Win
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If you ask true entrepreneurs, they’ll tell you their freedom is worth the journey. Regardless of what they went through to get there… they'd do it all over again in a heartbeat.
Most people will say they want a lifestyle change and even begin the journey but disappear and quit after a couple weeks, months or even a couple of years. How bad did they really want it? Rather than trouble shooting their lack of success, they quit (evidence of lack of personal development, inaction based on fear, not getting to live events and networking,etc.). True entrepreneurs will trouble shoot and tweak until they get it right. The key word here is "UNTIL". Failure is not an option.
Actions speak louder than words!
If you want an e-lifestyle and it truly means something to you, you will gladly pay the price to achieve it. For some it comes easier than others but all those who stay on the forward path will arrive. And, it doesn't have to take forever to achieve. Many are able to step into it in 6 months… others a year… for most however, it's 2-3 years.
But here's the thing. 2-3 years are going to pass anyway. What better way to spend your time but back in school, so to speak, to learn how to create an e-lifestyle? The sooner you begin, the sooner you can have.
So what does “being committed” look like in terms of building an e-lifestyle?
Nothing as costly, study intensive or drawn out as becoming a doctor, lawyer, scientist, or dolphin trainer, that’s for sure! Those careers require a 6-figure education and years of study.
Seriously, here’s what’s required in terms of commitment: It’s simple.
Personal Development. Your success will only manifest in relation to how you grow on the inside. You will be required to work harder on yourself than your business. No secret here.
Time each week to build your business. If you seriously seek to live the e-lifestyle, you must invest sweat equity into it. Some entrepreneurs learn and implement at a faster rate than others so time is relative in terms of “how long it will take”. That will be up to you but regardless of the time, you’re willing to do the distance.
Become a master marketer. Learn some technical and personal branding skillsets. You are entering a new career. Anytime you embark on something new, you can expect a learning curve. So take the next several months and couple of years to become good in your new field. There are skillsets to learn. It's not about being lucky… it's about rolling up your sleeves and taking an interest in learning what you need to learn to accomplish the task.
Get to events and seminars. Building an e-lifestyle can be an isolating endeavor. You’re at your home with no fellow entrepreneurs sitting around your table brainstorming, masterminding and sharing. There’s no ‘water cooler’ experience which one normally gets working a job. Getting to events and seminars gives you the chance to connect and network, gain insight and rejuvenate. I recommend you get to an event at least 2-3 times a year.
Be Willing to Enjoy the journey. Learn what you must with a grateful and cheerful heart understanding that what you’re learning is providing a ticket for you to write your own paychecks. Have a light heart, laugh at yourself, and don’t take everything so seriously. You will fail forward, that’s part of the journey.
“Do or Do Not. There is no try.” Are you going to ‘try’ entrepreneurship, I would really wonder how serious you were about pursuing your passion for lifestyle freedom. If that’s what you’re thinking, don’t start.
Take creating your e-lifestyle as serious business. I don’t think you’d go to your bank and ask for a $60K loan and say “I’d like to try and see what I can do with a new fitness business and if I’m not getting results in a 2-6 months, heck, even a year, I’ll walk away.” NO! Take your business seriously and it will reward you! If you are going to start your business and stay with it no matter how long it takes, you’re going to do great.
Commitment is where the rubber meets the road. You could purchase thousands of dollars worth of study materials, events and seminars, private business coaches, but until you bring a commitment for the long term to implement and do what it takes, you’re not going to go anywhere out business.
>>> Complete Action Step #3 Worksheet <<<
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Step 4: Assessing Your Current Budget – Cutting the Fat
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If your goal is to live an e-lifestyle, it's important to know where any holes are in your boat financially to free up cash flow and also to get a snapshot of exactly what you need to be able to put the first phase into place.
The first phase would be to get you home from from the office.
For many of you, this isn't going to apply. This will be helpful to those individuals who are serious about turning their life around and creating significant income through business but perhaps have less income to work with than other entrepreneurs. If this is you, this exercise will prove to be enlightening and encouraging if you’ll really do it.
This will do a couple of things.
1) Identify where your business start up and advertising dollars can come from.
2) Show you that you really are not that far from being able to work from home.
3) Give you a real life gauge to work from in terms of what you need to do to be in a position to walk away from your job.
What this entails is simply making a list of where your money goes every month. Don’t assume you know because in actuality, you probably don’t. Your month is made of many moments where spending a dollar here and there are completely insignificant to such a degree that you don’t give it any weight or another thought. After all, it was just a dollar… or just $4. No biggie, right? Wrong!
Financially supporting unhealthy habits, abundant weekend entertainment, buying stuff you don’t need or care about are often the very things that keep people in the poor house. It’s self-sabotaging. But with a plan of action, that dollar becomes very significant. In paid advertising, that $1 can mean several people seeing your ad.
In fact if truth be told, it's the wasteful spending that people are not thinking about that would be their fortune if they were take that same money and investing it. People blow their wealth creation money all day long.
Most are amazed when they actually keep track of all their expenses and seeing that clear picture at the end of the month on where the money went.
Your commitment to your success will not be hindered by your current cash flow or lack thereof. With online marketing there are free ways to advertise but they do take longer to manifest results. Your paid advertising will serve you better, however, not having an advertising budget is a cop out for not getting started.
Additionally, your commitment may take you down a road where you have to "give up" or 'sacrifice" in one area to gain your time and financial freedom on the other end.
Examples of where you may have to sacrifice for the short term
- Decide you don't need new clothes right now.
- Decide you don't need to eat out but rather throw together a casserole for $5.
- Decide you don't need all the soda pop and junk food (great time to get in shape at the same you're creating your e-lifestyle)
- Decide you don't need to go to the movies but rather rent a movie for a buck and pop your own popcorn.
- Decide you don't need your nails and pedicures outsourced, do it yourself
- Decide to pack your lunch and head to work rather than eat out everyday.
- Decide to make your own coffee and treat yourself to Starbucks once on the weekend instead of 2 times a day.
Add up all the money you're spending on these things and look at what you have now to invest in yourself and your business.
The question comes down to how bad do you want to change your life? If you want start up money or money for paid advertising, or you want to outsource much of your business because time is your enemy right now, what are you willing to give up so you can gain control of your life?
Here’s the thing about e-lifestyle. You don’t have to be a millionaire to enjoy all the benefits of a beautiful lifestyle. For many people, generating $50K a year online will bring them home. For others that may be $60K. And increasing that income to $100k – $120K will give them the ability to take their lifestyle to the next level adding in travel, fine dining, a new car, and some of the delights in life.
>>> Complete Action Step #4 Worksheet <<<
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Step 5: Choosing the Path to your e-Lifestyle
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What path are you going to take to get you to your e-lifestyle?
Here you come to a crossroads that only you can choose as being right for you.
Right now you’re at Point A and you want to get to Point B which is your promise land of time and financial freedom.
In The One Minute Millionaire, Allen and Hansen have this to say about The Mountain Range of Wealth in deciding what vehicle you will choose:
- Investments: Accumulating shares of stocks, bonds, CD’s
- Real Estate: Owning properties
- Business: Marketing products, services, or ideas
- Internet: Expanding possibilities
Since the focus in this mini guide is on creating an e-lifestyle, then the vehicle of choice would be home business entrepreneurship harnessing the power of internet and leveraging the efforts of other high quality people.
Allen and Hansen further state:
You still need to invest your excess cash in the stock market or other forms of passive investment. Certainly, you will need to buy some real estate along the way—and if you can buy it at wholesale prices instead of retail, it can make a huge difference.
For now, just be aware of the four major mountains. Make an initial “gut” decision to choose one mountain—something that you sense is going to be your primary investment vehicle. Suppose you were enrolled in a University of Money. Which of the four mountains would be your “major”? Which would be your “minor”? Which mountain interests you the most? Which one scares you the most?
Imagine yourself in conversation five years from now. Try these words on for size:
“I made my millions in real estate.”
“I made my millions by investing in the stock market.”
“I made my millions in business.”
“I made my millions on the internet.”
There are many ways to build an online empire utilizing multiple streams of income. Here are a few:
• Creating your own products and services (generally info products helping others to succeed)
• Affiliate marketing – marketing products and services that others need (picks and shovels)
• Network Marketing and Direct Sales (the product and service itself)
• Coaching (teaching one on one, the "how to")
You may be interested in one or some of these and in fact, they naturally compliment one another. For example, in network marketing, you will be referring affiliate products to others such as tools and resources (picks and shovels) for building an online business. Further, as you become more and more involved with team building, you may jump into coaching services and the creation of products.
Just be careful of not loosing the time freedom you are seeking.