Well, it’s back to school week and it’s been turbulent at Money Gym Towers, as Phoebe heads off to a so-called “better” school, Steyning Grammar.

She was happily not doing very well at her previous school, surrounded by her mates and in particular her best mate K, with her grades going down every quarter despite incentives and penalties.  She also managed to make very good friends with one of the “worst five boys in the school, heading for exclusion” according to her form tutor.  Ho hum. He looked after her, though, in the corridors.

Her father decided enough was enough and diligently hounded the Education Authority to get her into Steyning, though, and I sat by thinking “he’ll never get her in, the waiting list is too long and her record not exactly exemplary” but lo and behold, he did.  The new school is 7 miles and 30 minutes away across country, with two bus changes and a journey of an hour, while the old one was local, one bus ride and 10 minutes in the car.

So tears and tantrums ensued for a few days, while he talked her into trying it, and unfortunately the Open Day did not go well, with a bit of an incident with one of the naughtiest girls in the school putting her off, bigtime.  But her dad does not give up easily, and took her for another visit where the teacher managed to win her around to try it out.

Then a particularly nasty bullying incident, in the last two weeks of term, made her think that, perhaps it would be good to move schools after all.  Her old school handled it well I thought but it wasn’t great timing.  The summer holiday passed, and the excitement of going to France, then buying new school clothes and a handbag particularly, distracted her nicely.

She went in on her first day, as she described it “with a smile and determined to make the best of it” and came out silent, with a face like thunder.  Her friend (vaguely known via her cousin), who we were also giving a lift to, was quiet and unhappy too, having moved from another school too, and who has been put in a class with NOBODY she knew, but Phoebe….well the silence was terrifying.

Hours of tears and pleading followed, as she visited her father, then cried on me, and locked herself away in her bedroom (or mine) to endlessly text her woes to her circle of mates.

This morning she was trying to refuse to go, only the unspoken worry about being grounded (tonight is the monthly under-18 club night in Brighton)

So, how do I feel about all this?  I have to support her father, and we all agree she stands “a better chance in later life” if she goes to Steyning Grammar as it has an excellent reputation.

However, as someone who doesn’t believe in traditional education and even less in a job, or a single path career, I’m ambivalent.

The only things I learned, of use, at school were how to read, and how to type.  And I was downright cold, bored and miserable most of the time.

I was happy for her to go where she was happy-ish, nice and nearby, and to get as many O-levels as she could, then to leave school, take a boring series of jobs just to make her realise how grim it is, then for her to come to me and ask how to start the serious business of making money, probably either online, with her own business or via property.  She’s bright but not academic, artistic and entrepreneurial.

But now we are plunged into a warzone, and I’m not convinced it’s all worth it.

RELOCATION……….

My sister has had her flat in Worthing on the market for sale or rent and had it with a preferred local smaller agent first with absolutely no action whatsoever.  She isn’t so bothered about selling it as the valuations came in at something ridiculous, obviously priced to get the quickest sale (guaranteeing the agent’s commission) instead of what she knows the flat is worth in a normal market.

No action from the first agent on the rentals front either, apart from one woman on housing benefits - not ideal.  They were telling her all the usual “market’s dead”, “nobody’s moving” kind of stories.

Fed up, she called in the big boys, the biggest, most aggressive agent in town, the shark swallowing up the minnows as they go to the wall, and guess what?  Several viewings in the first few days with definite interest already.

Why is this agent thriving while all around him are losing their businesses?
Marketing, marketing, marketing!  There is no getting away from Michael Jones & Co, and love them or hate them, you bloomin’ well know they are there.

They even use email to send you property details and reply promptly to enquiries by email too!

RELOCATION……….

Brett’s here!  The McFall has landed in London from Australia and we are revving up the marketing for our “Money Gym Presents…Brett McFall” workshop on the 20th / 21st September.

Who should come?  Well, I think all of you!!  If only to donate £25 to Great Ormond St Hospital……£25 for two days?  c’mon.  But seriously for a moment…

Every time I go out to talk about Wealth Creation, especially to business people and property investors, the one burning topic that comes up again and again is the internet.  More specifically, how to harness the massive power of the internet and tap into the BILLION or so people online, on broadband RIGHT NOW.

Business Owners & Property Investors always want to know :-

1.  How to create passive income online to fund more property purchases

2.  How to create extra profit for your bottom line, without adding any overhead and with minimal investment

3.  How to find great tenants or earn money online to make up your rental shortfalls

4.  How to generate leads for your business, rentals or BMV deals, without having to pay £££ for them

5.  How to integrate your business, an online presence and your speaking activities

The rest of you just want to know :-

1.  How to replace their work income so that they can leave their day job

2.  How to use the internet to fill up rentals that holiday home that you thought would pay for itself

3.  How to look after elderly relatives or care for siblings who are struggling financially

4.  How to help your kids to get out of student debt, and create a future for themselves beyond seeking a low paid job (degree or not!)

BUT………..most of all, you say to me …..

“But Nicola, it’s all right for you, you’ve been doing this for YEARS, how do I GET STARTED, I don’t know what to do FIRST !!”

So, because I’m not that great at keeping my internet marketing workshops simple, tending to turn all nerdy and geeky, on the topic, I turned to someone who I have known for years, who has a brilliant track record at teaching BEGINNERS to get started online.

Brett McFall.

I begged him to help me, to help you….I pestered and I plagued him long distance to Australia…and it worked.

http://www.brettmcfalllive.com

He’s in London right now for a couple of more advanced events, which are pretty much sold out anyway AND he’s offered to stay over longer, to do a special TWO DAY event for The Money Gym.

He’s here to TEACH YOU how to get started online.  To give you his system.

http://www.brettmcfalllive.com

Have fun, we always are!

Nicola

Helen Loveless, in The Mail on Sunday reports on the ONLY business sector not suffering from the credit crunch … can you guess what it is?  She says:

(This article is reproduced with kind permission of Mike Southon, international business speaker, weekly columnist for the Financial Times, entrepreneur mentor and co-author with Chris West of “The Beermat Entrepreneur” series of books).

Mike Southon says:  This is my column that will feature in Saturday’s Financial Times, which can be found in the entrepreneurship pages of the Money section. You can also find my columns on the FT web site here )

One of the symptoms of a credit crunch moving seamlessly into a recession is the unfortunate chore of the entrepreneur spending more time with their bank manager.

This might well be to obtain more credit to cope with a short-term cash-flow problem, or to explain the restructuring required to take best advantage of unpredictable market conditions. Whatever the desired outcome, this is unlikely to be a meeting which either party regards with keen anticipation.

The challenge is that the entrepreneur and the bank manager speak two completely different languages. The entrepreneur likes to talk about new ideas and opportunities, about changing the world and making a difference and being recognised in the street. The bank manager is probably under strict instructions from above to reduce the risk in their portfolio of accounts, and can only express this in the language of the spreadsheet and the bottom line.

Meetings between entrepreneurs and banks managers can be tense and sometimes even characterised by strong language. Many years ago in my first start-up our CEO went to open a bank account. He was back very quickly and in a bad mood, so we realised the meeting had not gone well.

In his view, the bank manager was an idiot; he had not understood how clever our CEO was, how we clearly had an unbeatable business proposition and how much money we all were all going to make, including the bank.

Our CEO was ultimately right about this. We did indeed sell the company for a lot of money only five years later. But back on day one we had a small problem; we did not even have a bank account yet.

Understanding finance is one of the toughest challenges for an entrepreneur, especially if they come from a sales or technical background. It is a very large topic with constantly changing rules, and it was a real challenge for Chris West to summarise this into simple terms in Finance on a Beermat.

West worked with finance experts Stephen King and Jeff Macklin, and while there are indeed chapters on double-entry bookkeeping and tax, the book starts with simple and straightforward advice: before you do anything, you should find yourself a Finance Cornerstone.

This is very unlikely to be a full-time employee from day one; most people have a ‘virtual’ Finance Cornerstone, someone who comes perhaps one day a month and puts some order to your receipts and invoices in preparation for submitting your accounts.

But we make an important distinction between an accountant and a Finance Cornerstone.

An accountant is essentially reactive; they will do your books and then tell you that you have gone broke. A Finance Cornerstone is pro-active; they tell you in advance that unless you do certain things, you will go broke at some time in the future.

Even if they only come in one day a month, they understand your business and can advise on how to scale up your business when times are good, and how to scale down your business when they are not.

Most importantly, they speak the language of the bank manager, and should always accompany you to any such meetings. The entrepreneur should make some introductory remarks, and then leave the running of the meeting to the Finance Cornerstone. In particular, any promises made about the provision of security or repayment of loans should be made by someone who not only understands the mindset of the bank manager, but who is also more likely to be trusted to keep those promises.

And if circumstances change and repayment terms need to be negotiated, this is best done by a professional, who will present a case that is based on facts rather than emotions. After all, the bank is in the business of lending money with interest, so as long as they think you will not let them down, they are more likely to be sympathetic to your cause.

In my first start-up we were lucky that another of our shareholders, the CEO’s brother, was a vice-president of Goldman Sachs, and thus able to smooth things over with the bank. If you are not in this happy situation, then I recommend one of the organisations that provide virtual Finance Cornerstones, such as King and Macklin’s company FDUK.

Alternatively, you can even ask your bank manager to recommend someone. I am sure they will be delighted to help.

Finance on a Beermat by Chris West, Stephen King and Jeff Macklin is published by Random House Business Books.

Finance on a Beermat (Second edition):
http://tinyurl.com/6jlpxj

Just a quick note as I know you are still in holiday mode (even though the weather is tragic, isn’t it?)

I wanted to share some cool stuff we are doing here at The Money Gym…

1.  Great Fr*ee Video - The Million Dollar Napkin

In the run up to our event with Brett McFall on 20th / 21st September
(http://www.themoneygym.com/brettmcfall) there’s a new video you need to watch if you are into creating an online business.

Popular wisdom says now that, if you don’t have some sort of continuity programme at the back end of your original offer, then you will always be what rich schefren calls an “Internet Opportunist” rather than an “Internet Business”.

We have a membership site, Money Gym Silver, which is where we store our vast amount of wealth creation content and make it easily useable.  This is our continuity model.  Well Ryan Deiss is one of the top gurus on successful membership sites, and I was reallyimpressed by the way he explains his model - on the back of a napkin!  You can watch this fantastic video here http://www.continuityblueprint.com/

2.  Great Fr*ee Audio - The Money Gym Book

I’ve started recording the Money Gym Book as audio “as read by the author” and it’s going pretty well.  You can listen or download the first three chapters “Discovery”, “Beliefs Behaviiours & Attitudes” and “Cashflow” here at http://www.MoneyGymRadio.com - love to see your feedback and comments - just click the “comments” link at the bottom of each chapter on the blog.

3.  ** Summer Special Offer **

Membership Site 30 Day Trial with Loads of Cool Reports & Audio - Just £4.97

My latest mission is to get everyone who is on our mailing list, to try us out in some form or other - even if we practically have to give stuff away.  So if you are on our mailing list and enjoy the blog and the ezine, why not take advantage of our ** Amazing Summer Offer ** at just £4.97?  You will be able to try out the membership site, join our private wealth coaching Google Group (the jewel in our crown apparently) and attend the first Wealth Webinar next week.  If you can’t make it live you can submit your questions via the webinar page, then download the recording afterwards.

http://www.themoneygym.com/offer

I’ll end with one of the wonderful emails we get occasionally - I love people’s stories don’t you?  This is Margaret’s……

The Money Gym - you have the power to change lives! Judith, do you remember Tuesday 22nd March, 2005?  I was just about to pay off my one and only mortgage…And now I find myself with a property portfolio worth close to a million pounds. What does that say about a working-class girl from Queens Park?!

Yes, property is a slumbering giant!  Only yesterday when I was asking my accountant for a recommendation for an IFA or mortgage broker he asked whether I wanted one who sorted out pensions… I somehow managed to refrain from laughing. Why would I want to be paying into a pension when I could pay into a property? OK, I know it’s not quite as black and white as that and some pensions deals are good - especially if you started them 20 years ago!

The short answer is I am not concerned about my future as I used to be and right now, whilst waiting for my 5-10 years to pass before the properties ripen for harvest I am playing with the other opportunities that the Money Gym has opened my eyes to…Yes, I’m busy; yes, I’m working but it doesn’t feel like work when I enjoy it so much! It’s only work if it feels like work.  I’m not a ‘lie on the beach’ sort of girl and yes, I could do with a little more flexibility in my holiday schedule but overall, life is a playground for learning new things, touching more lives, making a difference.

And if I’ve learnt so much in the last 3 short years, what is still to come?! Yes, I am enjoying the fruits of these labours but that’s not my primary motivation.  Is your journey allowing you to touch more lives, to make more of a difference, to become more of yourself?

My one plea - Judith, Nicola, friends in the Money Gym - please don’t let me get lazy or complacent!  Onwards & Upwards!!!!

Dr Margaret Collins, Money Gym Coach
Happiness is liking what you do… Freedom is doing

See you in September!

You can do it too, you know!

Warm regards
Nicola

So who moved the Bank Holiday from the traditional last weekend in August to this weekend then?  First I knew about it was when GM.tv started wittering on about DIY for the Bank Holiday!

It’s been a weird week without the kids - this year I’m coping better because I’m getting out and about more - except NOT down the beach obviously!! I’m playing poker live around various venues in Sussex.  For £12 a night, you get two games and your dinner and last night at the Montague was a great night all round, with a fine home-cooked Shepherds Pie with peas (yum) or chicken korma with rice.  It was odd going back there as I spent a large part of my teenage life upstairs in The Montague, they used to run a fantastic soul night there, and co-incidentally, this week on Facebook, I was contacted by Steve MacMahon, an ex-Worthing boy, who is now a DJ in New York, whose very sister used to run that soul night!!

Lee the landlord of The Montague is incredibly entrepreneurial, and is running a great pub there, with “cocktails & karaoke”, comedy and cabaret nights in addition to the biggest Texas Hold’em game in the area, up to four tables now.  There’s two computers with fast internet connection, there are notices on the bar telling us who our barstaff are, and lockers to put your drink in if you need to go outside to smoke (not me!).  Join The Montague’s “University of Poker” (M.U.O.P) Facebook group here http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=23133628865

It’s the last day of the Grand Wealth Giveaway - Kathy very kindly extended the deadline by two days, so if you haven’t downloaded your free gifts - and there is some great property investing stuff in there, Kathy having made her money in real estate, go and get them now, as the offer is closing at midnight tonight.
http://tinyurl.com/wealthgiveaway

As a list building exercise, participating in the Wealth Giveaway was a great event for the Money Gym adding over 300 new people to the Money Gym MVS system.  I’m hoping that many of those are internet marketers who will be interested in re-branding and giving away my free reports on their websites and blog.

I’ve had a frustrating week with technology, but we figured out why the admin area of the blog was running so slow - it was a rogue plugin.  After deactivating them all, then reactivating them one by one, it’s now running along nicely.  Having issues with my podcasts from Hipcast though, as soon as I post one, then go to change the catagory, the player disappears!  I’m going to dig out Mike Stewart’s tutorials on podcasting direct from the blog later today.

New at The Money Gym is a great special offer for just £4.97, where we are bundling a great load of stuff, some audio including the first three chapters of the Money Gym book, as read by the author, four reports, the UK’s first Wealth Conference audio and a 30 day trial of the Money Gym Club site…..and folks are signing up in droves!  You can get your bundle here http://www.themoneygym.com/offer/

As I say, I’ve been recording the Audio version of The Money Gym book - listen to Chapter 1 here at http://www.MoneyGymRadio.com .  I’m a reading kind of gal, but I know 30% of the population like to listen to stuff in the car or while exercising, so I’m working my way through the book, and the audio version will be available by next week as an option.

It’s made me realise that I need to rewrite it and update it - I’ve learned SO MUCH MORE since I wrote it.  I think I will lose the “Day by Day” format too, and make it flow more.  Must talk to Debs and Joe at Bookshaker about a relaunch…..”The Money Gym Revisited” here we come!

As part of the run up to the re-launch of the Money Gym Silver Club membership, I’ve been experimenting with some BlogTalkRadio shows.  I’m veering between a “Smashy & Nicey” kind of voice, through to a “late night talk show” voice and it’s a struggle to talk normally.  I’m having an issue with my headset making my voice very quiet too, but I’ll try holding the receiver today (for half an hour?) and see if that helps.  Not quite brave enough to open the lines to phone in’s yet, but there is a chat facility….committed to doing a show every day till the end of next week, then I’ll swap to weekly, probably on a Wednesday at 1pm.  Check it out at
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/TheMoneyGym

The sewing hobby is going well too - I’ve made two linen shirts for me, a pair of gingham short shorts for Phoebe, and cut out two nighties ready to sew this weekend.  I’ve been listening to Frank Kern videos while I’m sewing so it’s not taking me totally away from the computer, but nearly!

I had lunch with Greg Ballard yesterday, and had a good old chinwag, catching up on all the news, and a look round their new offices, which used to be those of my accountant, Mark Nicholson from Spofforths.  It was great to hear that, in spite of the credit crunch, Passive are still picking up lots of great bargains for their clients.

Steve is working his way diligently through John Reese’s Traffic Secrets 2.0 which is excellent and very thorough.  He’s missing the kids but is also getting out and about more with his golf, having bought himself a driver and putter on eBay and a new pair of golf shoes, as the old ones were giving him terrible blisters!

And I’ve been enjoying wandering around the Scienceray blog - check out these AMAZING pics of outer space here http://www.scienceray.com/Astronomy/A-Handpicked-Collection-of-Ultimate-Space-Pictures-3.216589 and look out for the pictures of the planned “doughnut” space station to house the whole human race if we do end up totally destroying the planet, god forbid!

Now, don’t forget to book your tickets for the very exciting two-day “Money Gym Presents….Brett McFall” event on 20th and 21st September - just £25 and all of it (ex the VAT) is going to Great Ormond St Hospital.  It’s the must-attend event for aspiring internet entrepreneurs and We can only fit 300 of you in, and we have 80-odd on our VIP pre-register list, so if all those buy two tickets…..get yours here at http://www.themoneygym.com/brettmcfall

Have fun, we always are!

Nicola

With thanks to Thomas Power of Ecademy for twittering this - the quick 11-step process revealed a very surprising outcome for us at The Money Gym!

“YouNoodle, the online platform for the global entrepreneurial community, today introduced Startup Predictor™, the first technology that analyzes data on early-stage startups and generates a scientific prediction of the companies’ future outcomes, as well as the first standardized score for pre-funded startups.

The first version of Startup Predictor has been made publicly-available and is a free Web-based service that allows entrepreneurs, investors and other startup supporters to enter information about early-stage companies through an online test. Users receive an estimate of the startup company’s valuation in three years, as well as a “YouNoodle Score” — a number similar to a credit rating, based on a 1,000-point scale, that gauges the feasibility and promise of the company’s future.

After taking the free online test, users will also be matched with other YouNoodle members determined by the YouNoodle search engine to be of value to that particular startup company — potential employees, advisors, journalists, service providers, business partners and more.

“This is the first time technology has been used to help manage risk and predict growth for early-stage companies,” says Bob Goodson, CEO and co-founder of YouNoodle. “For more established companies, quantitative, systematic decision-making for investors is standard - using technology-driven credit rating services such as Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s. But until now, no similar system has existed for companies in their earliest stages.”

Startup Predictor uses a sophisticated and patent-pending algorithm that evaluates a number of variables, including backgrounds of the founders and advisors, business concept and team dynamics. Users must input details about key team members or advisors, relationships between team members, current or future products, patentable technology, and any capital invested by the founding team.

To determine the information needed to generate an accurate and reliable score, YouNoodle’s development team studied thousands of current and past startups, using both publicly available and proprietary data, to determine patterns of predictive factors for early-stage companies’ success.

“We learned that a company’s DNA — the fundamental things that can strongly influence its future success — is generally formed in the very first days that the company is in business,” says Kirill Makharinsky, co-founder of YouNoodle, who led the development of the mathematical algorithm behind Startup Predictor. “Our technology analyzes data based on those early days — going back to the pure concept and the bones of the business built by the founders. Our research has proven that the patterns in the data we measure from those days can be surprisingly prophetic about how a company will perform in the future.”

Calibrated specifically for companies that were founded recently and have not yet received capital investments in its first version, Startup Predictor is the first in a series of decision-making tools YouNoodle plans to introduce for the startup industry, including predictive tools for later-stage companies…..”

READ MORE & FIND OUT HOW MUCH YOUR COMPANY MIGHT BE WORTH >>>

Nicola here….you might have noticed that Judith’s taken over the ezine this month!

She is feeling so passionate about her two pet projects at the moment, so we let her write her heart out this week and I hope she’s feeling much better now.

As Judith has waxed very lyrical, I’m going to keep it short and sweet, as I have a linen shirt to finish.

Just in, this week, the news that the Money Gym / Internet Marketer’s Cruise in the Caribbean in January is filling up fast now, as Mike Filsaime swings into his marketing, after giving all the groups leaders a chance to fill their cabin allocation first. I invited Paulie Sabol (one of Mike’s protégés) and Capt’n Lou, of Little Shop of Cruises, to join me on a webinar to explain why, if you love to learn, and have fun at the same time, and if you want to strike some powerful joint ventures, and make friends for life, you HAVE to come along…..only about 4-5 Money Gym cabins left now! http://www.MoneyGymRadio.com

O yes! The new sewing machine has been given it’s inaugural run on the dining room table which is looking like an East End Sweat Shop, and my much loved and carted round from house to house overlocker has come out of it’s retirement of about 15 years. Due to careful packing, it’s in mint condition and with a bit of a dustoff with a soft paintbrush, it’s ready to overlock and trim seams just like the good old days when I made overpriced waistcoats for Duffer of St George and helped make the suits for The Pasadenas for designer Derek Lilliard.

Not sure if I will need the new shirt yet, as my special outing is hanging in the balance as usual, due to volatility in atmospheric conditions, but there is a music festival on in Shoreham this weekend so it will get used, whatever. Enough fabric left over to make Phoebe a pair of short shorts too, so that’s cool.

This week was monthly stats week and they show improvement all round so THEORETICALLY we just need more warm traffic to make more sales and Steve’s going to be working on that this week as - great excitement in Money Gym Towers - John Reese’s Traffic Secrets 2 system has arrived and is sitting in pride of place on Steve’s desk ready to be worked through systematically over the next few weeks.

Google Website Optimiser is up and working, and our second headline we tested - a throw away one we wrote just to see - is converted to “click to buy” actions 100% better than the original which is a bit of a shock. The second one is less “millionaire” orientated and more “financial freedom” orientated so perhaps it suits a British audience better? We then realised that we needed to test the colours as we had changed it to red/blue rather than red/black, so we are testing the second headline against itself, in the two colourways now.

We are excited to be moving forward with a joint venture with Brett McFall, co-founder of one of my favourite internet events of the year, the World Internet Summit. Just testing interest and getting numbers for potential venues now so if you fancy joining us for two days for just £25, learning the very basics of how to create a successful online business from scratch, visit over here at http://www.themoneygym.com/brettmcfall to get on the priority invite list.

That’s it from me, have fun in the musical sun!

Nicola

There is a movement going on. A major shift in the working behaviour of people all around the world. Some even call it a revolution.

It is a move towards working from home, using The Internet as a means for creating wealth. In many cases, this begins as a supplementary income, a means of topping up a poor salary, or to earn the money required for a holiday or a car.  But as women particularly increasingly decide that they have had enough of doing low paid jobs just to be able to have a family, or new mums (mom’s in the USA!) decide they don’t want to go back to the corporate rat race, they start to look at a home-based business.

And the internet, with it’s low start up costs, is perfect for that.  Increasingly, people are moving home and conducting their online business activities full-time.

But it’s like the wild wild west, in America at the turn of the century….there are many people out there waiting to sell you a useless map of where to find the gold rather than sell you a shovel and some way to figure out the gold for yourself.

Just as many are failing as succeeding.

It seems that an aptitude is needed, some call it a certain mindset, in order to succeed with an online business.  Many people completely underestimate the work involved, the steep learning curve, the ability to keep growing and learning.  And so they give up at the first hurdle because they just don’t know what to expect.

Nicola Cairncross, founder of The Money Gym is regarded as a bit of an internet marketing expert - whether you want to take your existing real-world business online, or create an income online from a hobby or a passion.

She says “Something all online successes have in common is Viral Marketing. This phenomenon thrives on The Internet. In previous worlds it was known as word-of-mouth marketing, or growth by recommendation.”
But whatever we call it, The Internet has taken this form of growth to a new dimension by lubricating the means of pass-on.

All too often, Internet Marketers imagine they have got the next YouTube or Facebook, but because they have omitted some valuable viral marketing principals in their business plan, they fail.

So how can you learn what these principals are, and how can you be sure to include them in the plans for your online venture?

Well - it is possible to read about viral marketing, and there are numerous sites and services for applying the viral factor to your business. But to really understand it, and be sure of using it well, there is The Freedom Class.

This is a live laptop seminar held over a weekend at exclusive venues around the world, by Tim Brocklehurst, a recognized expert in the field.

In two days, delegates of these Freedom Classes - including Nicola & Steve and many Money Gym clients, learned and put into action, a complete business plan so that they can move forwards with a virally-growing business, and experience what it means to have exponential growth.

For full details of The Freedom Class go to this link:

http://www.tinyurl.com/actonfreedom

We have discovered an amazing new toy / tool this week and it’s called the Google Website Optimiser.

Now those webmeisters amongst you will already know of this wondrous machine, but most ordinary folks won’t…..or won’t have realised how easy it is to use!

Or what a huge effect you can have on sales, tweaking and tweaking and improving by tiny amounts, multiplying the effect, until you have the best possible performing sales page.  A super-model of a sales page in fact.

This is called the Butterfly Effect and is described by Wikipedia as “The butterfly effect is a phrase that encapsulates the more technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory. Small variations of the initial condition of a dynamical system may produce large variations in the long term behavior of the system”

Mike Filsaime first use this phrase with respect to internet marketing, in his famous “Butterfly Marketing Report” which i have just re-read for the second time and made loads of notes from.
[Read more →]

We have been covering the Top 5 Mistakes most self-employed people and business make, when trying to make moneyl

If you have missed any of these emails, you can read Business Mistakes 1-5 at the blog at http://www.TheMoneyGym.com/blog - just search using the little search box and the key words “business mistakes”. You will also find related articles suggested by the software.

What were those Top 5 Mistakes?

1. We are unclear about what we offer
2. We are unclear about who we are offering it to
3. We keep ourselves a secret
4. We imagine we are doing things when we are actually just thinking about it
5. We don’t believe we are worth it (and often undercharge!)

So our final mistake is to secretly feel that we are not worth paying for our product or service, or certainly not worth charging enough.

Actually it’s a bit more fundatmental than that…we often don’t have a clue about what we should be charging, in order to make a great living, let alone whether we feel comfortable about charging that amount.

We often just price our product or service around the lowest level that our competitors are - and we have no idea if THEY are making any money!!

I have created a report called “Fee Setting For Lone Rangers” which I was going to drop in here but it’s too long.

If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s well worth downloading, as it will help you work out what to charge.

http://www.themoneygymmvs.com/mvs

(Login, or register to create a free account here)

Then, of course, the issue is around whether you think you are worth it.

Similarly, my free report “Natural Marketing For Lone Rangers” addresses the real world sales and marketing challenges, while my “Business Success 21st Century Style” report addresses online marketing and how to do that easily and inexpensively.

Feel free to download those too from

http://www.themoneygymmvs.com/mvs - login to your account and scroll down the homepage to find them.

YOUR 3 ACTION STEPS:

1. Read the rest of the “Mistakes” this week

2. Do a quick search using the box - top right - on “business success”

3. Join The Money Gym Silver Membership or come along to our one of our excellent “Money Gym Presents…..” workshops in Central London.

THEN WE CAN HELP YOU TO:

1. Work out what you are worth and who can afford you

2. Help you reach those people

3. Deal with an issues that come up for you, when charging what you need to charge, to make a great life

Sound good?

Great!

See you there!

Nicola