Business & Money – You Have Your Say!

Business & Money – inextricably linked according to our latest Money Gym survey. 50% of you who responded want a successful business with over 27% of you wanting to run a successful business that you can work on, and travel with, anywhere in the world.

Trailing in way behind was “a million pound property portfolio” desired by just 13.5% of you, with only another 13.5% of you wanting to be debt free. I’ll tackle those two topics later in the week, but I bet the property portfolio would have been higher this time last year!

What is a successful business?

Everyone has a different definition and I think it depends what kind of a life you want. If you want a nice easy quiet life, with lots of time for leisure activities and hobbies, then a nice home-based or lifestyle business would be good for you.  You might want to look at a network marketing opportunity like Avon, Telecom Plus, Virgin Vie or Success University.

Or even something more down to earth and local like a babysitting business, gardening or something where you buy into an existing successful system, like Judith’s Cleaning Biz opportunity.  My friend Kim – a great hairdresser – has made a great business working from home 3 days a week, in her lovely salon, entirely depending on word of mouth referrals and able to pick her kids up from school and knock off early if she wants to.

If you want a bit more excitement then you might want to build a global business with lots of staff and a high-flying lifestyle.  If you want high-flying but no team, then a consultancy business might be for you.

By any definition, a successful business is one that covers all its overheads, pays its taxes, makes enough profit to create a long term financial cushion to be able to ride out peaks and troughs in the market or economy, and pay you a handsome salary AND dividends on top!

When I was in my 20’s and 30’s, I would have defined a successful business as one that paid me enough to pay my household bills, without having to work away from home.  My expectations have been raised quite dramatically since then!  As have my outgoings.  But also my income luckily.

Not without a lot of pain though, due to having NO CLUE about what a successful business looks like, acts like or needed from me.  About 100 books, and at least FIVE business mentors later, I might be getting there.

I think it also depends on your level of corporate or business experience when you start, where you set your expectations, and whether you have read any of the great wealth creation or business books like “Rich Dad Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki or “E-Myth Revisited” by Michael Gerber which are certainly eye-openers.

Working with Judith Morgan, serial successful entrepreneur, and hanging out online with gurus and business coaches like Rich Schefren has changed the way I think about business for ever, too.

There is no right way or wrong way to think about what a successful business means for you, but do try and define it. If you begin with the end in mind, you will find it a lot easier to put the plan in place to achieve that success for you.

Here’s a recording of our weekly live TV show where my guest Sarah (who’s in the startup phase of her business) discuss the challenges and why she’s even bothering!

Businesses seem to go through phases…in the early days it’s all about attracting clients or customers and so many don’t get past that hurdle.

When we then surveyed our mailing list about what was stopping them creating a successful business some interesting answers came up….

Read more..

Yorkshire to the Caribbean

I’m just back from the brilliant Peter Woodhead day with the Money Gym gang in London yesterday, where he showed us not only how to find our future products in the public domain for pennies, but how to create a business from them, even if you dont’ have a website!

The good news is I recorded the whole day and we are going to make it available to you – even if you could not make it.  Watch your email inbox for that info.

Now…while I was there not only were there a few of us talking about our upcoming Money Gym Holiday, but then I got an email from the lovely (and completely nutty looking) Capt’n Lou..who is organising the whole thing.

Are you joining us on the “Marketers Gone Wild” cruise in January?

If so, you need to come and join the community Captain Lou has created for us all (some great pics of previous cruises there!)

http://marketersgonewild.ning.com/

And you then need to join the special Money Gym sub-group (link on the right of screen) so I can keep you up to date with what I’m up to on board.

http://marketersgonewild.ning.com/group/moneygymholidays

Even if you are not coming, but would like to come on holiday with us in the future, join the Ning group and then make me your friend (I have none at the moment, Billy-No-Mates!)

http://marketersgonewild.ning.com/friends/NicolaCairncross

You might also want to join Mike Filsaime’s sub-group so we can keep up to date with what his lot are up to!

http://marketersgonewild.ning.com/group/marketers

I’ve also joined the Social Marketers sub-group too as I’m into Social Marketing in a big way.

EXCURSIONS

We have just had the email about excursions to book – just to let you know we are doing ALL of them!

Well, not the scuba as I’m not that brave yet, but we will be doing the Snuba, and ALL the trips / beach parties!

I’m so excited I could scream!!!!

KEEPING IN TOUCH ON BOARD

I understand that internet access is expensive on board and I’m not sure about mobile phone reception or charges but I’ll figure out a way to keep in touch on board, even if I have to resort to ringing your rooms (v. old school!)

KEEPING YOUR BLOG GOING WHILE YOU ARE AWAY

In the meantime, you might want to follow “wealthcoach” on www.Twitter.com and enable your mobile to send Tweets, and make sure your blog is enabled with either TwitterTools (Wordpress) or look for the Twitter widget on Typepad.  Do the same for Ecademy and Facebook (and MySpace if you have a profile there) and you are all set. That way you can blog from your mobile via text.

I’ll be looking at texting pics into my Flickr account too if it’s not too expensive, and linking that up with Twitter, like Stephen Fry is doing while he travels round Africa recording his next series (you can follow “stephenfry” on Twitter to keep up to date with him).

OK, that’s it for today.  If you really can’t bear it, just visit http://www.themoneygym.com/holidays to see if there are ANY cabins available still.

Don’t think so, but you might be lucky with a cancellation!

Cheers
Nicola

Fully Financed Deposit Anyone? Government Practically Gives You Yours!

There has never been a better time to buy property, using more alternative methods, if you are flexible and have some nerve.  And I’m not talking about risk here, but the nerve to look and then take action outside the box.

In addition to the excellent model of securing your next home for todays lower prices on an option to buy in the future, while living in said future home and having your rent deducted from the eventual purchase price (aka rent to own or rent2own) you now have another very attractive alternative.

We have recently heard about a brilliant – and not very well publicised yet – scheme that the government have launched, to help first time buyers get onto the housing ladder – totally different from shared ownership schemes and which means that you can CHOOSE the property you want to live in, and then get help to buy it  Anywhere!

Open Market HomeBuy is a low-cost government-backed home-ownership programme that aims to help people to secure 100% funding of the value of their first home. It is a flexible equity loan scheme designed to help households earning up to a maximum household income of £60,000 a year to buy their own homes on the open market.

There are two Open Market HomeBuy products, which are designed specifically to help local authority and housing association tenants, key workers and others who are not able to afford to buy a suitable home in an area where they live or work without assistance.

Both products are available throughout England and have been designed to suit a wide range of personal circumstances.

MyChoiceHomeBuy / Ownhome

Ownhome is provided by a partnership between Places for People and the Co-operative Bank and is part-funded by the Government. Places for People is an equity loan provider in its own right.

Key features of Open Market HomeBuy

• You can choose between two distinct products, MyChoiceHomeBuy and Ownhome;
• You can borrow between 15% and 50% of the value of the property at a low, or no, interest rate;
• If you qualify for a mortgage of £110,000, for example, you could potentially purchase a property worth up to the current national house price average of £220,000;
• If you took up MyChoiceHomeBuy, you could get your conventional mortgage from a range of lenders; and
• If you opted for the Ownhome product, you would have a five-year interest-free period on your equity loan.

For both products, when repaying the equity loans, you would have to share any increase in the property’s value with the equity loan provider.

READ MORE HERE >>>

There are private initiatives doing a similar thing, and there is a company in Manchester, established 16 years ago, who offer a similar service to first time buyers, except that the interest amount paid on the deposit loaned is EVEN LESS!

And they offer a similar service to investors.

Why would they do that, and how do they make their money, I can hear you ask?

I’m like you – I ALWAYS want to know how folks make their profit and once I do, I feel a whole lot more comfortable.

By buying large job lots of property, wholesale, from the banks and building societies where they are repossessing, and then selling onto investors at a profit – but still essentially at wholesale prices.  That’s how.

Find out more about that here >>>

Exciting time ahead in property methinks.

Hot News | 12hr Wealth-A-Thon | Sat 3rd Jan

I’ve just gone live on MoneyGym.tv to announce the launch of our marketing campaign for Money Gym Gold Wealth Coaching Programme.

You can view the short video here >>>

December and January are traditionally very busy months for us at The Money Gym, as we assess and welcome new Money Gym Gold clients.  Must be all those New Year Resolutions floating about!

This year is our biggest ever launch programme including:

1.  Nicola hosting a 12-hour Wealth-A-Thon live on MoneyGym.tv with hot seat wealth coaching & guests

2.  A big affiliate / joint venture partner build up, during December with free giveaways and webinars

3.  Nicola will be “leaking” – for 12 hours only – one of the hottest & newly re-written chapters of The Money Gym book – the property chapter!

4.  Money Gym TV will be soon be going live three days a week, at 1pm on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays – where ever Nicola may be!

We are open to ideas so if you would like to get involved with this launch just take a couple of minutes to do the following

1. Visit the info page for Money Gym Gold to familiarise yourself with this ground-breaking programme

2. Click the link in the box top right there to become one of our affiliates

3. Then come back and comment using the link above this post, getting yourself a link from our website to your website at the same time!

Cheers!

The Money Gym Team

Big Shout Out To Jason Moffatt & Ryan

You may notice that the blog’s looking a bit different….

I was taking a break from a major article and mooching around Jason Moffatt’s blog at http://www.jasonmoffatt.com/ which is always good and I noticed that he had a new blog for the more business / marketing orienated  stuff.

I clicked over to http://www.ProfitMoffatt.com and noticed a ustream tv show box in the corner.

I was just saying to Steve that we need to find a blog theme that will take our ustream tv show stream in the corner, when lo and behold, Jason’s stream went live!

Very exciting when that happens!

I got chatting to the bloke in the tv (surreal) via their live chat link, whose name turned out to be Ryan, Jason’s support guy, about how they had done that (made a link to the pop up chat window, and Ryan kindly helped me out with some advice.

In return I advised him to make Jason get him a chair and table as he seemed to be sitting on the floor, but Ryan says he likes it there!

I’m a bit worried about his posture though!  He is young yet….

Anyway the upshot is that we have had to change the blog template to get the Live TV box in the corner of ours!

…and “Down Days”

On Monday I went to bed at 7.30pm in the evening.  I felt down, very down, which is very unusual for me.  I’m usually the eternal optimist and quite jolly – to the point of being quite annoying.

The worst bit was that it was poker night at the Crown & Anchor and I haven’t been for weeks.  I was really looking forward to it but I just felt awful.

I went upstairs to get ready to go, looked out the window at the pouring rain, looked in the mirror, thought about putting make up on, ironing a shirt, doing my hair and felt so tired and overwhelmed, I got undressed and got into bed instead.

What triggered this down mood, apart from the perceived mountain to climb to make myself look half presentable?

Sewing my coat up started it.

My beloved black velvet coat has a split in the seam.  I had three choices.  Wear it as is, sew it up, or bin it and buy a new one.

Option 3 was not an option at 7pm on a Monday night.

I can’t wear stuff once it’s dirty or torn, so Option 2 was out too.  So I got my needle and thread out and started to repair the coat.

It’s a black coat with black thread in the needle, and I sat under a lamp with the overhead light on.  And I still struggled to sew it – to see it even.

That is one of the first unmissable signs that I’m getting older.  And I felt it.

Then when I went upstairs and looked in the mirror and thought, hair, ironing, makeup, running out of time to get ready…………oh my god, it’s all too much.

So I went to bed.  And while I was lying there, too overwhelmed to even read my book, I started thinking about getting older and then I started to think about running out of time.

To do what? you might ask.

Actually, to help you. I’m running out of time to help you.

I’m also running out of time to help all those people on the news and the TV that are struggling with the credit crunch, the forthcoming recession, making more money, working in jobs they hate, who want to start a business but don’t know how, or think they can’t, all those families with small kids who are hurting because of the rises in interest rates, the fuel bills going up by 400%, the food bills meaning that people can’t eat well.

A basic right, in my opinion – eating well.

So I lay there, feeling overwhelmed with how much I still have to do, and how little time I have left.

And thought to myself in a Scarlett O’Hara kind of way “just go to sleep Nicola, because tomorrow is another day”.

So I did, and so it was.

And, as is the way with these things, I woke up with a brilliant idea, for how to reach more of you, with the Money Gym message.

And luckily for me, with the energy to put that idea into action.

Brace yourself, the Money Gym is a’coming.

Ask Nicola About Money Live Today!

Here’s last week’s show archived for you – below! It will go live at 3pm on Wednesdays when we start broadcasting the next show.

And if you click the “comments” link below, you can ask your wealth creation questions for the next show in advance.

Live Streaming by Ustream.TV

Up Days….

Marvellous post over at Judith’s blog…..an “up” day for sure!

“You just plod along, don’t you. Minding your own business, taking care of business, helping people, collecting in the money, nose to the grindstone, laughing, crying, coping, managing, intending, visualising, counting your blessings, feeding the cat, sorting out the drains, zapping tolerations, helping people, allowing help, getting folks out of bad debt and into good, worrying about family and being the best you can be, whilst fighting the demons, battling the traffic and the traffic wardens. Such is daily life.

And then, extraordinarily, out of the blue, something wonderful happens and all the more delightful for being totally unexpected……..”

READ MORE HERE >>>

Classic Mini Cooper Moments

We had some fun with my flipvideo and Sarah’s new classic mini cooper sports the other day…we are looking to attract traffic from YouTube to her new membership site at http://www.classicminiclub.co.uk

Funky Brit Furniture Design In SL

Starting a business in Second Life is hard work initially but then the potential to create an ongoing passive income is very exciting. The virtual world offers the same opportunities for business success as RL (real life) and the key to success in any world is marketing, marketing, marketing.

You can’t be a secret and still become a success so it’s a great place to cut your marketing chops.  Lots of lovely marketing tools which give you great ideas for marketing a real world business and it’s all about building a community around your business.

Examples of shops in SL that have done that brilliantly is Redgrave (H’s favourite) and Analog Dog Hair.

Hermione Watanabe likes to think of herself as a bit of a style spotter and when she came across Nesta Zerbino’s amazing furniture designs she immediately offered her space in the sky above her house, to set up a new shop [NZ Feather Designs NZ] and to help her market it, using Web 2.0 techniques.

First up a video on YouTube, then a set of photos on Flickr, all with a live SLurl attached so that those of you with SL installed can TP right on over.  http://slurl.com/secondlife/clone/117/144/401

Why not create an account in SL (it’s free) at www.SecondLife.com and pop over and have a look yourself at Crone, 117,144,401

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