Business Success | Doing It Right & Doing It Wrong

When I started my first ever business at the age of 8 years old, I accidentally did something totally wrong and something totally right.

It was my idea to rent out, or even sell, the many many paperback story books I had already accumulated from older relatives, second hand shops and jumble sales.

I started well, planning out how to keep track of who had borrowed which book (modelled on the already successful methods employed by my local library – why re-invent the wheel?) and I’d gathered all the necessary equipment, including a John Bull’s Printing Kit to date stamp the books, albeit a touch on the slow side, due to having to manually change the numbers each day!

We even had premises, the under the stairs cupboard was requisitioned, in spite of my fear of the feather duster, but this was not my main concern because I had already decided I wasn’t going to man the shop, my trusty assistant Heather was!

O yes! One of my more clever moves was that I recruited my 6-year old sister, Heather (now an international opera singer and still dining out on the story!) on a payment-by-results basis and the plan was that I was going to go out around the local playgrounds marketing my new book-lending business, while Heather waited patiently under the stairs, reading the merchandise in order to better demonstrate the pleasure to be gained from any loan or purchase.

One of my LEAST clever moves was not doing any market research, particularly NOT finding out whether there was a ravening hungry horde of kids looking for my solution to their problem or challenge….

Because there wasn’t.

I was the only asthmatic, fairy tale crazy, reading-mad child locally – the rest were very busy having fun outdoors and they wanted to read LESS not more!

O dear.  Duh!

I sorry to say that this was only the first of many, many businesses that I started on a whim, on the back of a good idea, that I got going BEFORE I tested the market or found out if there was a demand.

At the Money Gym, we firmly believe that setting up a part time business (NOT a part time job, note!) can be one of the easiest, quickest first steps you can take in increasing your income.

But we want you to do it right, so that you can answer the most important five questions any business owner must know off by heart.

Do you remember those questions from yesterday’s video?

Well the good news is that today’s video will reveal a secret weapon in the armoury of any aspiring business owner or consultant….

Would you like to find out what that secret weapon is?

Well either hit this link and put your name and email in (even if you have done it before, it will take you to the right page)

http://www.themoneygym.com/silverelite

OR

Visit the Money Gym video page if you have bookmarked it before!

And don’t forget to tell us what you think of Money Gym “Video 5 – Footsteps In the Fog” by commenting at the bottom of the page.

Warm regards

Nicola, Judith, Steve & The Money Gym Team

p.s. Every comment could be a link back to your website, remember, and that’s a GOOD THING!

Watch the videos, comment and get your link by putting your name and email in here http://www.themoneygym.com/silverelite

How Can The “Fight Club” Movie Get YOU Moving?

I was going to write and tell you a little story about Video 4 in the Money Gym wealth creation series – because it’s up and ready for you to view.

(It’s called “Signposts In The Fog” and it gets even more specific about how YOU can start to change your financial future in 2010 using Money Gym techniques)

BUT WOW!

One of our subscribers, Matt, joined in the comments at the bottom, under the videos, specifically he joined in a conversation between me and Ray, who is also watching the videos and who is a self-confessed sufferer from procrastination.

I suggested that Ray might just be worried about making the wrong choices and the fear of that was holding him back from getting started.

I asked him, if you had a gun to your head, Ray, right now, if I was standing over you and making you choose, which Lane of the Wealth Highway would you pick to work on first?

(I cover the Four Lanes of The Wealth Highway in today’s Video 4, if you are not familiar with the concept…)

Matt then added his thoughts and put up a link to the most AMAZINGLY powerful video clip from the film “Fight Club” which I had never seen before and which just virtually BLEW ME AWAY!

You just have to go watch it right now!

http://www.TheMoneyGym.com/silverelite – to get immediate access to the page.

(or if you have bookmarked the video page, just go there right now, watch “Signposts In The Fog” and then read the comments and watch the video….like I say, WOW!)

And I want you to think about this…..

If someone was standing over you right now, saying, do something to improve things in your life right now or ……..

What would you do?

What would be the first thing, the best, most effective action, you could take to make things better for yourself, right now?

We all know deep inside, don’t we?

But we don’t do it because it’s easier to carry on as we are!  Old habits, bad habits, die hard.

Because nobody’s standing over us, giving us a stark choice.  Nobody’s doing like the guy in the Fight Club clip.

Just think about it.

http://www.TheMoneyGym.com/silverelite

Go watch the videos.   It’s Sunday – a great day to take some time for you.

Then make that choice.

To your success!

Nicola, Judith, Steve & The Money Gym Team

Headlights In The Fog? That Won’t Work! Try This…

Nicola Cairncross from The Money Gym here, and I’m writing to you today, on 30th December 2009 at the end of what has been one of the most confusing years anyone can remember.

Investment strategies no longer working, rock solid jobs feeling a bit like quicksand, formerly successful businesses going down the tubes……

http://www.TheMoneyGym.com/silverelite

Nobody knows which way to turn, the signposts are gone and we feel like we are feeling our way along in the dark.

What tools can we use to make sure we survive these times?  How do we know what will work?

It’s a bit like………..

You know how, when you are driving along and you hit some fog, you automatically switch on your headlights……..thinking it’s going to make it easier to see?

And it doesn’t?

Even full beam?

The one tool that you would think would work, is actually not working at all, and might be making things worse!

Well, would you like to know which tools – practical and emotional – you REALLY need to use to get out of the fog of your financial overwhelm and worry?

We know, and we want to share some of those with you – right now!

Video 2 in our new Wealth Creation series of streamiing videos is up and online, ready to view.  Just put your name and email in here, to be jumped to the page where you can watch Video 2 and comment!

http://www.TheMoneyGym.com/silverelite

Warm regards

Nicola, Judith & The Money Gym Team

P.S.      Watch our new video to find out just a couple of the tools that REALLY work to help you find your way out of your financial fog …

http://www.TheMoneyGym.com/silverelite

Susan Boyle | Wild Horses | Update

Well, back in April 2009 I wrote about Susan Boyle and her inspiring story. If you have been wondering what Susan Boyle’s been up to, and indeed if she is ok, then here she is in HD singing her new single “Wild Horses” singing on the America’s Got Talent final.  She looks fine!

Britain’s Got Talent | Susan Boyle | Dreamed A Dream (And Achieved It)

I’m always banging on about overnight success taking at least 10 years but Scotland’s own Susan Boyle, who stunned Britain’s Got Talent judges and audiences alike this Saturday, took nearly 47 years to become an overnight success.  Watch this video and enjoy! I’ve been watching it daily and loving it!

There are so MANY wonderful moments in this video – from Ant & Dec’s gleeful little boy expressions, to Simon Cowell’s sigh of happiness – he’s already offered her a record deal apparently.

The media from the UK to Australia are running stories and even my internet marketing maties are Twittering about Susan Boyle from West Lothian Scotland, a collection of little villages apparently!

Here’s a video of Susan singing “Cry Me A River” on a charity CD from 1999.

Other highlights from Saturday include the dance act Flawless and you can watch the YouTube video here >>>

BTW, YouTube disabling the embed function for some of these videos must be losing them market share eh?

Silver, Quicksilver, Silver Elite and The Story Of How It All Began!

This week we have taken a massive leap forward with one of our interim products – designed to fit between Silver and Gold and enhance Silver membership by getting you off to a flying start in the first weeks of your Silver Membership.

We know that people join things with the best intentions of making them work, but then life just gets in the way, so we have created a goal setting and action orientated 12 week coaching programme called Silver Elite.  Working initially with Judith and me, you will come up to speed on how to use our new membership site, you will set some goals for the 12 weeks/90 days, and then be walked through the programme week by week, by online video, and join us for a weekly coaching call, where we will set homework to get you moving.  Judith is the master at running these group coaching programmes and I’m only interested in working with people who want to take action.  No “haven’t done anything this week because…..” excuses in this programme, oh no!

The first invited participants will be those who have been fully paid up members of Silver for three months or more, as of the end of March, or those generous souls who supported our Property Extravaganza by buying multi-tickets.

Then we will probably run the first open programme in September for anyone who wants to play.

The second of our interim new products will be called Money Gym Quicksilver, and will be everything we have, in a box.  Physical product, oh yes!  Bit of a job to pull it all together but I’m working on it – we have SO MUCH CONTENT.  This will be for those who want to rock through Silver in no time flat, rather than waiting for the month by month sequential delivery of the content that the usual Silver programme will enable.  I will also sell it from the stage when I speak, as the audiences at most of the gigs I’ve been doing recently can really relate to CD’s, DVD’s and workbooks.  We have some lovely extras planned for the QuickSilver box too – surprises!

I see these two working very much in conjunction with each other, and with the existing Silver membership, and will help to move folks on, from the ebook, getting them started with our support on their wealth creation activities, with a view to moving onto Gold, to work with a coach one-to-one.  The investment in both will be right smack bang between Silver and Gold and instalments will be available of course.

We are now starting to move all the existing paying members of http://www.themoneygymclub.com over to http://www.themoneygym.com/blog where all the content is now complete and ready to access in the same way.  If you have not had an email from Steve about this, can you contact him with your name, email address and your membership level.

I’m off to the Rick Otton two-day bootcamp in London’s Earls Court this weekend, with Judith, and I’m really looking forward to it.  Around 35 Money Gym bods will be there and Rick’s high energy style will make it a fun two days.

I need to get some advice about my ads, as my little ad in the Worthing Herald just isn’t cuttin it, although it brought in quite a few enquiries from motivated sellers last year.  I’m experimenting with Google Adwords and a mighty £2 a day budget, but I just can’t seem to get the traffic!  Trying an InfoMillionaire trick now, that replaces the first line of my Adwords Ad with whatever the searcher typed in.  I’ll keep you updated on progress.

Really need to do some flyering in Worthing and Shoreham, which would involve 37,000 leaflets and cost over £300, perhaps I should buddy up with another business to do this?  I want to get some feedback from the weekend about which flyers are working already though.

Having said all that, apparently people are struggling suddenly to find sellers motivated enough to do “below market value” deals and that seems to be because of two factors:

1. Mortgages are at an all time low in terms of monthly costs – Judith’s just been told that one of her’s has dropped to £0.08 a month – yes you read that right!  Interest only mortgages are on the floor and if you have been listening to the Money Gym about swapping to an interest only mortgage, and not locking yourself into a fixed rate for too long if you are an investor….. you will be getting letters like Judith’s hopefully!
2. Many investors are starting to come back into the market, often with cash to buy so bypassing the need for a mortgage, figuring that it’s bottoming out now.  Even my best friend’s boyfriend is starting to look around now and he’s been very pessimistic for ages about prices going lower.  He wants a flat in South London for around £250,000 if you have one, by the way!

So Rent2Own is a great second strategy for property investors, as it enables them to buy those properties where the owner is unable to drop the price, but is desperate to move on and get on with their life.

I’ve just been watching my “Quick 10 Minutes” from the stage at the Property Extravaganza (and having a little boo again at what a wonderful day it was).  I’ve just bounced into Steve’s room saying “we must put this video on the page where folks can get a trial membership of Silver for 30 days!” as it just sums it all up really.

You can watch it here

And then join Money Gym Silver here

For just £27.50 a month and lock that membership in at that investment – I’m not kidding in the video, we ARE putting the membership up at some point in the not too distant future.

Have fun, we always do.

Nicola

Movies, Mummys, Membership Magic, Motivation

I’m in a movie!  How exciting!  I had completely forgotten about it!  Yes, I know, how can you forget that you are in a movie?  Well, I did, honest.

It’s called The Change Series (#ChangeSeries on Twitter) and it’s launching online next week.  We are all hoping it will go viral like The Secret did.  Produced by a real live TV producer Steve McNamee in collaboration with Fitness Guru Scott Tousignant.   Another great thing that came out of the Marketer’s Cruise, the benefits of going on that just roll on and on.

One of our other Money Gym clients and cruisers is in it too, Jane Lewis and she looks great.  I look tired and fat, with a lazy eye, but I don’t talk too much rubbish so I’m happy!

Off to London tomorrow at o’dark ridiculous for my first day with a new software company who are bringing me in as an online marketing advisor.  Great product which has pretty much sold itself on referrals in it’s home country, but they need some help launching it here.  We have aleady identified some fantastic long tail key words that there is a healthy demand for, and not much competition, and we’ll be looking at the next steps tomorrow.

The Property Extravaganza is rolling along relentlessly – I think we will hit the halfway sold out mark over the weekend, so get your ticket now here.  Some great audio interviews up there to listen to gratis, and I turned the first 20 minutes of Anthony North, from the Big Issue, into a couple of videos for YouTube.

Talking of videos, I’ve made available a 22 minute segment of our Membership Club Magic workshop day, where I show the delegates how to monetise their membership sites, but the principles hold true for any website.  You can get to that video via the webinar signup page and it’s the page after the webinar page.

We have nearly finished the migration of our content onto our own new membership site, and now to move the members!  Then to create a membership site to stor the Membership Club Magic content and provide the marketing front end for the product – are we in danger of disappearing up our own proverbials?

I provided a review for a great new book called “SuperMummy : The Ultimate Mumpreneur Guide To Online Business Success” and it’s launched today on Amazon.

Mel McGee, author of “Supermummy: The Ultimate Mumpreneur’s Guide To Online Business Success” is officially launching her new book on Amazon.co.uk today and is giving away fantastic bonuses, including the complete “Mum Power Business Building Course” and lifetime membership at her site to celebrate.  Read more on the blog here >>>

It’s the second month of coaching Debbie Winterbourne, winner of “Gold For Christmas” competition and I’m enjoying it thoroughly.  She’s bright, motivated, and the owner of a lovely training & meeting room venue in the Euston area, called Quantum House, which you can hire for just £200 a day.  We are going to make some major changes to the website but in the meantime, here’s a picture of the main workshop space.

There is so much potential for her to make serious money with this place, then roll it out around London certainly.  Lucky for Debbie I used to run an empty space in Mayfair called The Music Room and so have loads of ideas….I’m trying not to overwhelm her at the moment LOL

Debbie is motivated for sure, she’s taking action on just about every suggestion I’m making and that makes my heart sing.  Because at the end of the day, it’s only Debbie that can do it for Debbie.  Someone left a message on my Twitter timeline saying “Can you make me a millionaire Nicola?”  and I had to reply “No, but you can!”.  Just about sums it up really.

And I’ve booked some recurring appointments in my Outlook to go to the gym, otherwise I never get around to it.  Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday mornings.

Always last on the list me!  But Mother’s Day coming up is reminding me to look after myself a bit better.

Have fun, we always do.

Nicola

Dawn, Daniel, Trades Descriptions & Direct Talking

A very early start on Saturday, to fly to Manchester to spend the day with an early client of The Money Gym, reviewing his business and investments and planning the next year for him. He’s asked me to meet up once a quarter as he finds a coaching relationship very motivating! Now this man does not need motivating, let me tell you, but I’ve decided he’s an entrepreneurial personality type so he thinks while he talks. And he values having someone objective to talk to! We definately came out of that day with a focused “to do” list for each of his “Lanes of the Wealth Highway”.

A lovely meal with my client and then I waved him off and had an early night at the rather nice Radisson SAS hotel, which was full of well behaved football supporters rather than hunky tough soldiers. Trades descriptions act, anyone?

Then to the Tower Thistle to speak for WIN Investing’s “Build Your Wealth” event. Very strange day, as while the response was very positive, nobody took me up on my offer, whereas with much smaller crowds in London, they’ve been beating my door down. Lots of sidling up and trying to get my private contact details as well, which was very odd.

A lovely lunch with Daniel Priestly of Triumphant Events, who I’ve heard a lot about but never met before. He caught the end of my talk and was intrigued, and I loved his presentation on Wealth Dynamics profiling, which of course we are big fans of at The Money Gym. Judith and I are Creator/Star/Mechanics (no!) and Steve is a Lord/Accumulator/Mechanic. Any Deal Makers or Supporters out there?

Then off to Manchester Airport which I always find most entertaining, where I got chatted up by a barrister en route for somewhere else. It took me a while to realise it was happening, as I’m a very friendly and outgoing type generally, but by the third compliment in thirty minutes (vivacious, lovely eyes, nice coat, warm personality etc etc) I was starting to twig. Ooo-er, what to do? Being a wimp, I couldn’t say “no” outright when he asked for my number but I figured if I took his, then at least I would be able to screen the calls. The man has a live-in lover for heavens sake, where do guys like that get off? He probably reads this ezine by now, my profile not being exactly low key, online, so, if you do, you were very nice but I’m not interested in breaking up homes OR playing second fiddle. Don’t you watch “Mistresses” – it ALWAYS ends in tears.

Talking of possibly ending in tears, check out my article on business and taking responsibility for your money, as nobody cares as much about your cash as you do. It’s a theme that Judith and I are very keen to make sure you are aware of, as the news gets grimmer and grimmer on the TV. It’s not just about jobs being in the firing line, but businesses too. And that may have a knock on effect on your earnings, your savings and your investments. Not to doom-monger but to encourage you to be aware, be pro-active and make plans for a different world than it was last year!

Back to work and it’s all been about the Property Extravaganza Day this week, with bookings pouring in. We are nearly half sold out so if you are thinking of coming along, book your place at http://www.themoneygym.com/events/property – it’s only £25, all going to the Big Issue after we pay the VAT, and eight great speakers. Loads of lovely networking and re-charging your wealth creation batteries.

This week, Judith and I interviewed the very lively Anthony North, who is the Head Fundraiser for The Big Issue, and an entertaining and moving hour it was too! I broadcast the interview on BlogTalkRadio, I’m going to podcast via the blog here on iTunes. You can listen to Anthony’s story here

I did a quick look on YouTube to see if the Big Issue had much up there already – perhaps their own channel, as they do Big Issue tours and events. Not a sausage on YouTube except some piss-taking videos of Big Issue vendors doing their best to bring a bit of Christmas cheer to their selling activities.

So I’m given myself the rather tedious job of breaking the interview down into six x ten minute segments, and getting it up on YouTube as video too. If Anthony gives me the go-ahead, I’ll create The Big Issue their own channel, so they can add our videos and those of some of the bands who have been on their tour.

While there I found an interesting video of Big Issue founder John Bird, talking about Ethical Business at the British Library and you can view that here >>>

And then I did a search on Google for John Bird and found this interesting article where John says the only solution to the homeless problem is to ……lock up the homeless!

I’m amazed at how this whole Big Issue thing is touching me actually, must be a “there but for the grace of god, go I” element creeping in. There have been many times in my life when I needed to move and have been housed by family and friends and I couldn’t help thinking yesterday, when listening to Anthony’s passion for his job, what would I have done without anyone to help and support me?

Off to London Friday ready for the next Membership Club Magic “Bonus” Workshop. All the people who signed up in September at Brett’s event are coming and the new people who signed up via the free online webinar presentation or via the Build Your Wealth events. Old friends, some not seen since 2003, and lots of new ones – marvellous.

Now, we are starting to think about taking on an intern for 6 months to a year. This would be someone, probably a college leaver or gap year person, who wants to learn how to become an internet marketer, run an online business, organise and host real world events, and discover how to develop information and software products. There would be no pay, for the internship, but all expenses covered, and the chance of a job with us, or someone we know at the end of it. I don’t think you would need to live near Sussex, as we could work remotely most of the time but the South East would probably save you some travelling.

Skills would include a thorough knowledge and use of the online world, for example, use of Bebo, MySpace or Facebook a must, and if they can use spreadsheets and type fast with good English, that would be a great advantage. Self starter, goes without saying, and outgoing with an eye for detail. Must be willing to learn HTML, blogging, shopping carts, autoresponders etc.

More to follow, as we thrash out the details, so watch your email. This is how Steve found out I was looking for someone to run the hotel, so you never know…

As he always says, he rues the day he opened that email, but he’s still here so… LOL

Nicola & Nelson Going Wild

Just a hint of a video camera and we are right there, us Star Personality Profiles…..Nelson tells the Internet Marketer’s what he loved best about the Caribbean cruise and it’s not what you might think….  Secure one of the cabins for next year for a deposit of just $250 at http://www.themoneygym.com/holidays

Find more videos like this on Marketers Cruise Community

The Money Gym Gold Winner Is…

….being announced during my 12-hour Wealth-A-Thon TV show tomorrow Saturday 3rd January on http://www.TheMoneyGym.tv.  Later today (Friday) I will announce the schedule for the show but you can bet I will be springing a surprise on you – love surprises!  Join me from 8am to 8pm and bring your burning wealth creation questions about how to make money and create passive income streams from property, internet, business or the stockmarket.  Quick reminder: Midnight on 3rd Jan is the last chance to secure a Money Gym Gold place for 2009 at 2008 membership fees, saving you £1200, and securing you the Membership Site Bootcamp Bonus worth £1750.  Visit Money Gym Gold for more info >>>

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