Mirror Mirror On the Wall, Who's the Fairest of Them All?
© 2002 Elena Fawkner
This week's article is prompted by an experience during the
week. I was working with a woman, approaching retirement but
without the financial resources to retire, who was looking to
make some changes in her life. She was focused and determined
and she had a plan of action.
Then a well-meaning "friend" talked her out of it. The change in
tone in her emails from hopeful, optimistic determination to
resignation and disappointment was palpable. I am convinced that
if this woman had followed her OWN heart and head rather than
allowing her "friend" to clip her wings, she would have achieved
everything she desired. This week's article is for all the
Margarets out there.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
How do you create wealth? Wealth is created by:
=> Finding a product or service that a lot of people want and
need.
=> Getting repeat business out of it.
=> Choosing that product or service by looking at trends and
staying ahead of them.
=> Employing others so you get more done.
=> Employing and training others effectively.
=> Not training competitors but retaining leaders in your
organization by offering them the same opportunities for growth
as you enjoy.
[Source: "Brilliant Compensation" video by Tim Sales and Dr.
Charles King, Professor of Marketing at the University of
Chicago. Link at the end of this article.]
A PRODUCT OR SERVICE THAT A LOT OF PEOPLE WANT OR NEED
There's no point pursuing a business selling a product or service
for which there isn't a market - a HUGE market.
What's the biggest market of them all? Baby boomers.
Baby boomers are all people born from 1946 through 1974. They
total 76 million people in the United States and 2 billion people
worldwide. As at today, they're the people aged between 38 and
56.
As you'll see when you watch the video, every 8 seconds for the
next 16 years, someone will turn 56 years old. What does this
mean for you? It means don't go after the 38 year olds, go after
the 56 year olds. You have a full 16 years to go after 56 year
old people looking for your products or services.
REPEAT BUSINESS = CONSUMABLE PRODUCTS/SERVICES
Your product or service must be unique and it must be
consumable. If it's not unique you have to compete on price and
convenience. If it IS unique, your market comes looking for YOU.
If your product is not consumable, you're out of business until
your next sale. A successful business requires REPEAT sales of
consumable products. This way, you're earning multiple
commissions on a single initial effort.
STAYING AHEAD OF TRENDS
Having identified the baby boomer market as THE market to target,
when choosing your product or service, in addition to being
unique and consumable, it should be one that your average 58 year
old is in the market for.
The top five:
1. Health
2. Looking younger
3. Retirement issues
4. Security and money
5. Efficiencies - things that make life easier.
EMPLOYING OTHERS TO GET MORE DONE
There are three basic ways of earning money:
1. Work for someone else.
2. Be a professional - doctor, attorney, accountant, engineer.
3. Own your own business.
In the case of 1. and 2., you exchange your expertise for
someone's else's money. Unfortunately, however, your capacity to
earn is limited by the number of hours in the day. No matter how
hard you work, there will only ever be 24 hours in a day.
In the case of 3., if you do it all yourself, you still run out
of time and talent. To break through the time/talent barrier,
you MUST employ others, thereby leveraging off the efforts of
your employees. That's the key to wealth.
In theory, that is. Only thing is, it's very difficult to
achieve leverage through employees because no employee will ever
work as hard in your business as you do because they don't have
an ownership interest in it.
To achieve true leverage, everyone in your organization must have
the same potential for growth as you yourself enjoy.
EMPLOYING AND TRAINING OTHERS EFFECTIVELY
To enjoy true leverage, the people in your organization must be
productive. You develop productive people by training them
effectively, by teaching them how to do what you do so they can
turn around and create the same results for themselves. It means
investing your time in training people so that they hopefully
become at least as successful as you are.
EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR GROWTH
In order to avoid cannibalizing your business by training leaders
only to have them leave your organization to set up in
competition for themselves, they must have the same opportunity
for growth staying in your organization as they would if they left it.
There's only one way of doing business that meets all these
criteria for wealth generation.
Network marketing.
Despite any preconceptions you may have, the fact remains that
network marketing is the fairest business model of them all.
Why? Because only with network marketing can the member of the
organization that creates the larger or more productive
organization be compensated commensurately even if that means he
or she earns more than those higher up the ladder.
Unlike the traditional hierarchy of an organization of which you
are an employee, you know the one - you do all the work and your
boss does nothing yet he gets all the rewards - in network
marketing it doesn't matter how much money your sponsor earns, if
you're more productive, you earn more. And because your sponsor
benefits from your success in terms of commissions based on your
productivity, it's in your sponsor's interest to help you be as
successful as possible, just as it's in your best interests to
help those in your organization be as successful as they can
possibly be. Win win.
===
"It's always wise to raise questions about the most obvious and
simple assumptions": C. West Churchman.
===
Do yourself a favor. If you've got it in your head that there's
something illegitimate about network marketing, invest a half
hour or so of your time in a bit of education. Watch the
Brilliant Compensation video and make up your OWN mind. DON'T
let other people, no matter how well- intentioned, deprive you of
your freedom to choose what's in YOUR best interests. Sure,
armed with the FACTS, as opposed to other people's OPINIONS, you
may still decide, for your *own* reasons, that network marketing
is not for you. Fine! But a little bit of independent thought
may just open up a whole new world of opportunity.
Elena Fawkner is editor of A Home-Based Business Online ...
practical ideas, resources and strategies for your home-based or
online business. http://www.ahbbo.com
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