Load Up Your “Business Gun” With The Right Ammo

As I’ve mentioned, networking and constantly getting to know new people is absolutely imperative, but those efforts are practically useless if you aren’t set up to develop a chance meeting from a couple minutes chatting to a long term relationship. The ammunition you should have in your “gun” might include anything from professionally designed business cards to a well crafted tag-line. The key is to have it ready and on hand when you meet your next great connection.

A business card is a given but in this day and age you need to hand people more than just a phone number. They will expect an email, a website and other online information. If you haven’t done so already, build a solid online presence, even if it’s just a one page website with basic information and links to other things you or your business are involved in. I also suggest looking into getting a LinkedIn account, creating a Facebook page, starting a Twitter account, or writing a blog. You’ll need to investigate which options will work best for what you’re doing and then spend some time forging them into the ammunition you need.

If it makes sense for your business, consider investing in promotional items. It can be anything from pens, magnets, or small gadgets related to your business that are easy to carry and hand out so people have a reminder of you and what you do. When at shows or conventions, have informational materials ready for those times when you can’t get in much more than your tag-line.

In addition, be ready to give back and help others. The more you assist others in their personal or business goals, the better they will remember you and the more willing they’ll be to assist you in your endeavors. Nothing in your arsenal will have more of an impact than a little gratitude and a positive image. Put this together with a solid on-line presence and plenty of ready contact information and you will have a truly well loaded business gun.

Open Yourself Up to Chance Opportunities

Chance meetings have the most amazing potential for you and your goals but to take advantage of these, as yet, unrevealed prospects you need to get out there and give chance meetings the opportunity to happen. I once made a million dollar profit on an apartment building after receiving a call from a guy I had met briefly only once before. He couldn’t come up with the full down payment for the building and just happened to remember our conversation and so called me to see if I would like to take over the purchasing contract for him. Our meeting was completely unanticipated but turned into a million dollar profit!

What did I do to make this happen? I just put myself out there, willing and actively trying to connect with new people. It’s all about how you present yourself and the words and ideas you put out there that will stick in people’s memory after you’ve parted ways. Be confident, be attentive and let people know what you do. Let them see your passion.

In other words, just leverage yourself, making yourself available to meet new people wherever you are. Use your personality to make an impression and keep a keen ear open whether it’s at a party, a business function, or just standing in line at the grocery store. You never know what it will lead to or how it might help you achieve your goals that much quicker.

Making a Living From Your ‘Gift’

At the big fundraiser my wife and I hosted last week for Utah’s governor, we brought in an entertainer and speaker, Jason Hewlett (see more about Jason at jasonhewlett.com). He has a very unique show he puts on. Through stories, impersonations, songs and more he speaks about how each of us has a particular gift to offer and how he himself turned his talent for entertaining into a gift he shares with the great variety of people he now performs for. Everyone at the fundraiser, including myself, was absolutely wowed by his show. It’s obvious that he not only has a talent for entertainment but a serious passion for it as well.

From a young age, Jason knew what his gift was and carved out a very successful career using it. But most of us aren’t able to identify our talents so easily or we get sidetracked by life’s responsibilities and quickly lose sight of what truly moves us. If that is where you are right now, take a look at Chapter 5 of my book, How To Ignite Your Passion For Living. The Chapter titled “Turning Your Dreams Into Reality” is filled with ideas and exercises to help you discover or rediscover your gift and your passion.

Jason Hewlett took his inclination for humor and entertainment and turned it into inspirational entertainment about his experiences withreaching dreams and goals. No matter what your passion is, you can turn it into a vocation. You can do what you love for a living and love the work you do. Identifying your passion is just the first step but, in the end, it is the most important step you take.

Inject your Life with a Regular Dose of Friends

This week has been a busy one at the Haroldsen house. We hosted a fundraiser for Utah’s governor, Gary Herbert, on Wednesday and what a great time it was. One of the best things about the event was that I was able to spend time with people I not only admire but who are also great friends of mine. Just the sight of good friends does something to boost the spirit and a night like the one we just had, with so many smiling faces around me, was like a big injection of joy.

Keeping yourself surrounded by your friends is about more than just having a good time, it’s essential to our wellbeing. POW survivors consistently talk about how having a buddy to talk to, to lean on, and to share their pain and hope with was one of the top reasons they were able to survive. Being with friends keeps you from feeling isolated, helps you keep life and what is truly important in perspective, bolsters your immune system, reduces stress, and gives you the energy and mood boost to get through demanding times.

I know we get so busy sometimes with work, errands, and family that we just don’t seem to have time to get together with others. But with all the benefits you get from having your friends around, it really should be a top priority. If you haven’t done so recently, gather together with those friends that are a positive and supportive influence and be sure you put regular gathers on your calendar and to do list. You should never be too busy to surround yourself with the very source that will help you climb your mountains and inject the kind of joy into your life that you are working towards.

The Secret to True Contentment: Work

I know everybody thinks that life is about getting to a place where you don’t have to work, where you can just take it easy and drink cocktails while sitting by the pool but I can tell you from personal experience, that is a road with few rewards. Work—having a job, a business, or personal objectives you are actively striving for—is something you will never want to be without. Work is not just for paying the bills, it is essential to having a fulfilling life.

Studies have shown that people are four times more likely to have a sense of contentment from work than they do from watching TV. That’s a pretty impressive statistic and yet, the majority of people (especially in the good ole U.S. of A.) spend huge amounts of time watching the tube. So why do we choose to watch TV rather than get to work on things that would further our personal and professional goals as well as provide us with more contentment?

It’s because work is hard. Worthwhile and challenging tasks usually take the proverbial blood, sweat, and tears and sometimes end up being a constant uphill struggle. Instinctively, we want to avoid what is difficult and TV can fill our time without taxing our brains or body. But it is the difficult work, the complicated and challenging goals we face in our day job or the effort we put into building a dream, that makes what we accomplish so satisfying. Watching TV, on the other hand, accomplishes little if anything and is not, at the end of the day, very fulfilling.

You probably enjoy games of some sort—tennis, golf, chess, sodoku, etc.—and you play because of the challenge and the way you get lost in it, looking forward to seeing what you can accomplish or motivated by that potential win. Likewise, in your work, if you take time to set difficult and complex goals and totally throw yourself into reaching those objectives, you will find that your contentment and happiness will soar, buoyed by your progress and that potential, if not actualized, win.

Bottom line: set up some very tough challenges for yourself, pushing yourself to do more complex and novel things (whether you’re a millionaire now or still working on it!). It’s the work that will lead you to a richer and more satisfying life and make the down time by the pool much more enjoyable.

It Isn’t Always About the Money

I talk a lot about creating wealth on this blog because, honestly, making better money is a major goal for many people. However, not everyone wants to be wealthy, not monetarily at least. Some people have a different currency they want to invest and see grow.

Take, for instance, Daddy Bruce Randolph, a philanthropist and restaurant owner who, at the age of 60, after many years of hard times and failed businesses, scraped together enough money to open a BBQ joint in Denver. A year after he opened, not that much better off financially, he started serving free Thanksgiving dinners to the down and out in his community, a tradition that would last almost 40 years. He would also give away what he could to help the less fortunate on Christmas, Easter, and even his own birthday. Every year his generous events would get bigger and harder to finance but he’d still keep doing it. It gained him admirers all over the country, many of whom jumped in to keep the charitable events going as they grew well beyond his means. Because of his generosity, he had to live modestly but still, he was happy.

When asked why he gave so generously, Daddy Bruce said, “You can’t beat love. Nothin’ beats love. If you give one thing, you get three things back.” He was, in the truest sense of the phrase, a very successful investor. He invested in what he believed in most and gained the love and appreciation of thousands of grateful Denver citizens as well as the admiration of people from all across the country. Not that he was after the admiration, I’m sure, but if he was getting three times what he gave, he was certainly one of the richest men of his time, living a full, passionate life through bettering the lives of others.

I understand that kind of passion. I may have amassed significant personal wealth but the real joy in it has not been what I can buy but how I can use what I have to help make positive changes in other people’s lives. It’s why I wrote my book “How to Ignite Your Passion for Living”. It doesn’t matter whether your dreams involve increasing your monetary wealth or enriching the lives of others, the key is to live well and let your passion lead you.

The Never Ending Goal: Networking

If you are heading out into the world to make your fortune, build the life of your dreams, or simply become healthier, you probably already realize that it will be easier if you have some help. You have probably already done some networking and have started to surround yourself with supportive, passionate people who motivate you. That’s great. Keep it up. Not just for the time being but always. Expanding your network should not be a short term goal but rather an on-going and constant goal. You will never know just how much help you can get, or how much you can help others, if you aren’t out there meeting new people and exposing yourself to new ideas.

No matter what kind of goal you are working on or how far along you are, there is always someone out there who can make it easier, help you accomplish it quicker, or simply make the process more enjoyable. Networking, at a minimum allows you to expand your circle of supportive friends. It also gives you access to new ideas as well as views that offer insight into yourself and even your goals. Many times, a solution you are searching for comes to you through someone you meet incidentally, someone who has access to the people or resources you need. There are also those serendipitous moments where you end up meeting your next project collaborator, investor, or coach all because you reached out a hand and said hello. Networking is an amazing thing.

What’s more amazing about it is the impact you can have on others. You could be the good friend, solution resource, idea person, instigator of change, or next business partner someone has been looking for. But none of these wonderful things can happen if you don’t get out there and let fate and chance play their part. You don’t need to have a specific idea about who or want you want from your social networking, you just need to go out and see what pops up. The interaction alone will enrich your life. The opportunities you will open yourself up to could be invaluable.

The Real Costs of Your Investments

How often do investors think about what is involved in their investments besides money? If you’re handing your money over to a stock broker, the time it takes to invest is small but you also take on significant risk. In real estate investing, there’s both money and time involved in getting it into shape to sell or rent. In a small business investment, the common approach is to put in as little money as possible but all your free time. So considering everything, what investment makes the most sense?

The answer lies primarily in the risk level of the investment and how much your time is worth. For instance, investing through a broker takes little time but the pay back is either very uncertain or very small. Small businesses often take years to turn a profit and your time investment, which may seem cheap or free initially, can be very expensive if you consider how much you could have made working more hours or a second job. Just think, if you could have gotten $25/hour working a second job, then that 20 hours a week you spent over 6 months getting the business up and running cost you $12,500 in lost income! How long will it take you to recover that investment through your business?

In real estate, you invest both a significant amount of time and, sometimes, money (see last week’s post and page 184 in my book “How to Ignite Your Passion for Living” on how to get others to fund your investments) but the outcome is far less risky. The added bonus is that real estate will not continue to suck your time the way a small business often does, and the returns will inevitably be greater and more secure than stocks. This is why I really encourage you to look at real estate if financial freedom is a primary goal of yours.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t open that storefront you’ve been dreaming about or support your favorite budding green business with a capital investment—there are many factors beyond time and money to consider when deciding what investment is right for you—but just don’t pour your all your time and money into something that is not going to help you reach your financial goals in the near future. Keep an eye on the big picture. Because after you make your first million in real estate, you can pay someone to do all the hard work to get that business off the ground or invest in whatever you like. That’s the beauty of financial freedom.

Getting into the Real Estate Game with the “Hansen Model”

Last week I talked about the 10% method for building the capital you need to get into what is today’s top investment opportunity—real estate. The only issue with the 10% method is that it will take some time to pull enough from your paycheck to have the seed money for your first real estate investment. So how can you take advantage of the great opportunities out there right now?

Simple. You have other people put the money in for you.

The best “super leverage” method I’ve seen is what I call the “Hansen model” after a particularly ingenious investor by the name of Dell Loy Hansen. You can read about Dell and his method in detail starting on page 184 of my book How to Ignite Your Passion for Living, but I’ll give you the gist of it here.

To start, you need a few people looking to invest in a safe, reliable project that will give them a regular and consistent return. Get them to collectively fund a down payment of 20% or more on the property you want to purchase and promise a reasonable return–say a 10% APR, an amount that is presently 500% higher than the best CD can offer. If you can put in some of your own money as well, it makes the investors feel much more secure as you’re backing your confidence in the investment’s potential by also putting your money at risk.

Then when you flip that house or rent those office spaces, get the best return possible and get the money back to your investors with a higher than expected rate of return. When they see that you not only lived up to but exceeded their return expectations, you will have created a enthusiastic group of investors for future projects as well as getting wonderful word of mouth that could bring even more money flocking to you.

There are plenty of people out there right now who have cash to invest but don’t want to bank on the unpredictable stock market and aren’t getting anywhere with the meager CD returns. So start working on cultivating those investor relationships and get access to the “leverage” you need to gain financial freedom sooner than you thought possible.

Starting Your Wise Investment Journey

The recession is still being felt in many parts of the country and the depressing talk about how bad things are continues. Real estate prices are still depressed, interest rates are still uncommonly low, and jobs are still on the scarce side, but those indicators aren’t actually signs of doom and gloom, they are shining signs of opportunity. It is unlikely that you will see better deals on real estate or find lower interest rates on loans in your lifetime and if you are stuck in a job you aren’t happy with because you can’t find a new one, start your journey to financial freedom by investing now and investing wisely.

Of course, the first question you are asking yourself is, where do I find the money to invest? The common belief is that you need to be making big bucks in order to have extra money to invest. But the fact is, it doesn’t matter how much you make. All you need is a plan and a little discipline.

If you have ever had a big jump in salary you may have been amazed 6 months into getting those fat paychecks that you were not able to save any more money than before. That’s because we tend to spend at our income level or beyond it so if you make more, you feel like you can, or even should, spend more. Nicer dinners, more expensive clothes, a few more nights out, a pricier car or vacation and the “extra” money you are making is gone. So how do you get around this tendency?

You can do this by putting away 10% of every paycheck—automatically, without exception, every pay day–then pay yourself (i.e. pay your bills as well as earmarking money for essentials like groceries and gas) before spending on any non-essentials. This will keep you within budget and on track to gathering a sizeable sum that you can then invest and start making even more money from. In today’s economy, real estate is an accessible and wise investment opportunity that you should really be taking advantage of. And starting with this smart savings tactic will get you there far sooner than you think.

You can read more about the potential of real estate investments on pg 191 of How to Ignite Your Passion for Living as well as on page 31 of Waking Up The Financial Genius Inside You (write me directly to order this book for just the cost of shipping).

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