Property
Commercial
Personal
"Many thanks to the Team at Finance and Mortgage Solutions which helped me to secure my bank loan without any fuss."
“Beware the barrenness of a busy life.” ~ Socrates
What kind of life is this? Where we are constantly chasing more of everything. Paying little or no attention to those people, things and experiences that truly matter, because we are too busy with staying busy? And because we have become the slaves of our work, our urges, and of all those many things we are chasing after? Is that really what success is all about? I doubt that… “Being successful means having a balance of success stories across the many areas of your life. You can’t truly be considered successful in your business life if your home life is in shambles.” ~ Zig Ziglar
We are human BEings, not human DOings. We aren’t meant to DO, and DO, and DO, until there’s no life left in us. We are meant to BE, because that’s what we are, human BEings, not human DOings.
"The Perfect Three." Which I like to call The Art of Learning, Earning and Serving!
Like all great concepts, this is very easy to understand and simple to execute.
The concept of "Learning, Earning and Serving" is simply dividing your time into those three categories. This means that 33 percent of your time is spent learning, 33 percent of your time is spent earning and 33 percent of your time is spent serving.
Learning
When was the last time you learned something new? I mean brand new. So many of us are consumed, with our businesses and family that we stop the learning process. The lack of learning is so bad for our business, our families and our mental health.
It has been proven over and over again. When you stop learning you make less money. When you stop learning, you become less interesting. When you stop learning your health suffers.
Think back to the last time that you learned something brand new. How did you feel? You most likely had a tremendous sense of pride and accomplishment, pretty darn close to euphoric. And, you shared that pride with your colleagues, friends, kids, and spouse.
When we talk about learning, I am referring to learning anything.
Below are some examples of things that I learned this year, and some I plan on learning. I am excited to share with you:
And the beat goes on . . .
Of course; I have attended several conferences this year as well. And have read countless articles and a small number of books. As a matter of fact, I read daily this keeps me loaded with fresh business ideas and improves my vocabulary on a daily basis.
I can honestly say that I am spending 33% of my time learning. Not only does this increase my brainpower and it has been good for my health and my wealth as well.
Earning
We have all been there. Thinking that working like a dog will make us rich and happy.
Well, how's that working out for you?
The reason working countless hours doesn't work is because you burn out, plain and simple. And, once you burn out, you become resentful. Once you become resentful, no one wants to be around you and you end up hating what you are doing.
And if you hate what you do, your customers will notice it, not to mention your colleagues and employees. At this point you can never be successful and happy.
But, if you limited your work to 33 percent instead of 50, 75 or even 100 percent of your time, you work smarter and more efficiently. This also leaves you the time for the two other important categories mentioned, learning and serving.
And, because you are learning and serving, your endorphins are flowing; making it easier to get the job done.
I work with total enjoyment and stop and do another activity whenever I run low on energy, and enthusiasm.
Serving
Call this category whatever you want - serving, giving, volunteering, it does not matter as long as this is the selfless you.
Once I made this a CONSCIOUS part of my being, my entire attitude changed. The things I used to get upset about seemed silly. The materialist items in my life became less important in my life and my family's life.
Once I went far beyond the Thanksgiving food drive and the Christmas clothes drive and really started giving my time, I became a much happier self, a person I am proud to be.
Plus, study after study has shown that random acts of kindness have an intense effect on your well-being. This includes everything from your productivity to limiting your stress levels.
At first, it may be hard to divide your time equally among the three and that's OK. But, I promise you, the sooner you get to the 33/33/33 you will see a difference in your life and your family's life for the better!
1. Develop the right plan for you. Your plan is the one you’ll develop that is unique to you and for you. Each of us is unique and motivated by different factors, and you've got to develop one that is right for you and fits you. Whatever your personality, your strengths and your weaknesses, develop the plan around them. This is not a one-plan-fits-all proposition.
2. Keep a journal. Record the ideas and inspiration that will carry you from where you are to where you want to be. Take notes on the ideas that impact you most. Brainstorm with yourself on where you are going and what you want to do. Record your dreams and ambitions. Your journals are a gathering place for all the valuable information that you will find.
3. Reflect. Create time for reflection—a time to go back over, to study again the things you've learned and the things you've done each day. Take a few minutes at the end of each day and go back over the day—who'd you talk to, who'd you see, what did they say, what happened, how'd you feel, what went on? A day is a piece of the mosaic of your life.
4. Set goals. Your plan is the roadmap for how you are going to get to your goals, so you have to have them. Setting goals is the greatest influence on a person's future and the greatest force that will pull a person in the direction that they want to go. But the future must be planned, well designed, to exert a force that pulls you towards the promise of what can be.
5. Act on your plan. What separates the successful from the unsuccessful so many times is that the successful simply do it. They take action. They aren't necessarily smarter than others; they just work the plan. All disciplines affect each other…. Everything affects everything. That's why the smallest action is important—because the value and benefits that you receive from that one little action will inspire you to do the next one and the next one. So step out and take action on your plan because if the plan is good, then the results can be miraculous.
Perhaps, in the past, your goal has been to get out of debt, but you’ve never quite been able to do it. The problem may be that you’re “not consciously convinced that the goal is the right thing,” Locke says.
Think about it: Do you have any reservations that could be holding you back? Maybe you’re afraid that, once you pay down your debt, you won’t know which money goal to prioritize next. Or perhaps you fear that since you’ve already made the mistake of getting into a lot of debt once, you’re just going to do it again.
If you can pinpoint the emotional obstacles that stand between you and your dreams, you’ll have a much better chance of knocking them down.
When you’re working toward a money goal, says Dr. Julia Bayuk, assistant professor of marketing at the University of Delaware’s Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics, it’s important to think about how you might get tripped up—and then create a repeatable “if/then” plan of attack for yourself.
Do you have any reservations that could be holding you back? Maybe you’re afraid that, once you pay down your debt, you won’t know which money goal to prioritize next.
For example, if your financial resolution is to spend less on food, you might think, “If my friends invite me to an expensive restaurant, then I will suggest a cheaper option to them instead.”
According to Bayuk, “the idea is to automate the process so that you always respond in a preset way when presented with a particular scenario.”
With this strategy in place, you’ll be less inclined to fret over what to do when you’re put on the spot—and you’ll be more likely to stick to your money resolutions.
Allow me to introduce my NEW Five D Formula . . .
Determine, Ditch, Delegate, Duplicate and Dominate
When you start to evaluate every project or task that you THINK has to be done and done by you every day, you will soon find that the task should follow this process.
Step #1) Determine: Very often we just "do" instead of methodically thinking about the task at hand. That is why the first step is to "determine". Determine if this is something that has to be done at all, done by you or done by someone else.
Move to step #2 . . .
Step #2) Ditch: Working moms - more than any other subset of people - have the hardest time with simply saying "no." Most are unable or unwilling to say that a task is not important enough 
for their time or anyone else's. Look: we all have the same 24 hours in a day - no more, no less. So why is it that we sometimes feel that we should accomplish 28 hours' worth of tasks in a single day?
In order to turn down a task, just ask yourself the following question: "What will the result be if nothing is done about this project?" This makes your decision very easy. And when you are completely honest with yourself, you will find that 20% to 30% of the things you spend time on don't need to be done at all!
Move to step #3 . . .
Step # 3) Delegate: You have determined that there are tasks that you can ditch and of course others that must get done. But so many do not have to be done by you. The art of delegating relies on finding the right person whose strengths are YOUR weaknesses. You need to do what you do best and not spend time and energy on tasks that you are not particularly good at or that don't excite you. Your time and energy should be spent on your natural gifts, things that are innate and that you love doing.
You should apply this rule at home and at the office. For example, I'm not particularly good at building websites; this is something I delegate to team members. At home, I don't enjoy cleaning my house. This is a task I delegate to a cleaning woman who comes to my home and - believe it or not - loves to clean.
Because I do not spend my time on tasks like these, I get to devote that time to tasks that play to my strengths. At the office, my strengths are marketing and content creation. At home, one of my strengths is helping my kids with their homework. These are things that I am very good at and I love doing.
Move to step #4 . . .
Step # 4) Duplicate: Now you are doing great. You have determined what really needs to get done. You have ditched tasks. You have delegated tasks. But now you know something has to get done and you know it need to be done by someone like you - but you still have that pesky time crunch.
So what do you do?
Well have you ever wished you had a clone? I sure used to! Now I have several. Being able to make more money and have more free time comes down to doubling, tripling, and quadrupling your output without YOU doing the actual work.
The reason so many people don't duplicate is because they don't understand the correct way to do so. Most people think, "I will never find anyone as good as I am." Here is the beautiful part - you don't have to.
You see, you must simply find different people who can do specific tasks as well as you can. So perhaps you need to find three or four people.
These people need to share some of your qualities. You need to check your ego at the door and strive to find people who have the ability to be as good as and even better than you are.
So if you write all of your promotional copy, make all the affiliate deals, and develop all your products, you need to find three duplicates: One person to write the copy better than you do now while maintaining your voice and style. One person to cultivate new affiliate deals. This person should have your vivacious personality and be extremely outgoing (if these are your personality traits). And one person to develop products - someone who has even bigger ideas and the ability to get the products completed faster.
Move to step #5
Step #5) Dominate: This is where you come in. Because of the prior 4 steps, you are left with fewer tasks to handle yourself. This means you can move the quality line from good to great.
You now have the time, energy and focus to dominate any tasks that you handle!
These are five simple things that you can implement TODAY.
But they only work if you do them and do them right.
It is a proven, easy-to-implement technique you can use to create a happier, more productive, more blended (and richer!) life for yourself.
1) Instead of checking your messages and email early in the day, take the first 60-90 minutes and create a routine or ritual to make yourself strong and healthy.
When you first wake up, you’re the most sensitive and impressionable. It’s the time when you have just slept, disconnected, and relaxed the most.
If you will intentionally use the first part of the day to get a bit of exercise, eat a super healthy first meal, and quiet your mind… you’ll see a vision for what is IMPORTANT to do that day.
2) When you start your work day, invest at least the first couple of hours working on ONLY those things that are the “high value” activities… those things that pay you back big returns now and in the future.
In a business, the areas that typically bring the biggest, fastest returns are your marketing... and working to improve your product or service.
But these two activities usually get pushed down the list, as there are messages to reply to and people who want your attention.
If you can organize your day instead… so you invest those first couple of “fresh” work hours into the activities that make you the most money, the game changes.
And it changes fast.
::: Sounds Easy, Right? :::
So those are the 2 ways to increase your productivity. They make sense, right?
And they sound pretty easy, don’t they?
by Tracey Sandilands, Demand Media
Cold calling involves calling on potential customers to generate sales leads without an introduction or appointment, and it remains an important way for salespeople to generate business leads. In the age of the Internet, much cold calling takes place online, instead of calling on potential customers in person or by telephone. As the main business-oriented social media platform available, LinkedIn gives business people at all levels the opportunity to promote their products or services and find and network with potential customers in a professional environment.
Finding Prospects
Before you call on a prospect, qualify him by finding out his name and position, and identify whether he might be in the market for your product or service. Salespeople who cold call in person use distinctive methods to get this information, ranging from checking marketing materials, directories or the prospect’s website to making friends with the receptionist. LinkedIn’s advantage is that it provides many of the prospect’s details in one place that is searchable based on keywords. Some disadvantages are that only potential customers who have a LinkedIn profile will emerge in the search results, and you may need a paid subscription to enable you to connect.
Geographical Locations
While geographical distances carry much less importance than they used to, most small businesses focus their sales efforts on their geographical area simply because it’s more accessible. An online channel such as LinkedIn has few location constraints, however, and you can find information about potential customers in your city or town as easily as those in another part of the country. Physical cold calling may carry more of a personal touch, while using LinkedIn increases the pool of sales prospects available to your business and gives you access to free market research information.
Making Contact
Making contact with the right person is often the most difficult part of cold calling. On LinkedIn, however, most members joined specifically for business purposes. Their interests typically include finding products and services, promoting their own businesses or networking with like-minded people. Many join LinkedIn discussion groups to share and increase their knowledge of particular topics. By joining groups with a focus on your type of business, you can contact people who have similar interests. This also helps you establish an authoritative presence on LinkedIn, which could benefit your prospecting in a way that cold calling doesn’t offer.
Getting Introductions
It’s all about who you know. While many business people are open to meeting with a salesperson who makes cold calls, others refuse to do so without an introduction or referral. Your call or visit becomes a lost opportunity, when you might have had success if you knew you had contacts in common. LinkedIn makes it possible to find out if you have mutual connections and, if so, to use the platform to request an introduction. This increases your chances of establishing a business relationship with your prospect; at the very least, it usually results in expanding your network. This lays the foundation for connecting with your new contact’s network too.
This can take anywhere between a few weeks to a few months depending on you as a trainer and the candidate.
Now imagine that this person learns the tips and tricks and goes away to start their own business or it just doesn’t work out between you. Then you have to go through the whole process again.
Who has the time for all this?
This is why you need to have systems, processes and procedures documented as a manual for your business. Once you have created the document, you can then hand over the document to the new person as a part of your on-boarding process. This is how the big companies do it – but in this case, remember, it saves you a lot of hours for any number of future assistants.
It may seem daunting to create this manual, but here are some easy steps to get that manual written.
Part 1: documenting systems
Systems include your aggregator software and any other software you may use in your business. Most aggregators generally run training sessions for their software and you can get your assistant to attend to this. A good example of other software is Google Apps. Google and most big software companies will have online/offline training and you should definitely make use of this.
Part 2: documenting processes and procedures
Every business has a way of doing things. You may not realise it, but it is all in your head. If you want someone to learn your way, then you have to document it.
Step 1 – make note of processes and procedures: You can either do it yourself or get your existing assistant to do this step. Let the recorder on your phone become your best friend.
Here are some processes and procedures you should be recording – audio, video and written content.
Once your recording is available, you can then get this transcribed into a document.
Step 2 - Outsource tasks: If the last sentence sounds like Greek to you, don’t sweat. Most brokers try to do all things themselves. You only have 24 hours, and as you get busy you need to prioritise.
So here is the secret. Hire a virtual assistant online on websites like Odesk and Elance to perform tasks like data transcription, creation of manual, editing and so on. This can cost you as low as $6 an hour. Once your voice recording has been transcribed, you can tidy it up using an editor found online and you have your manual ready.
Initially, it may take time to get this done. But once you have it ready, remember that you may never have to spend another hour trying to train a new assistant. If systems and processes can be documented, it will save a lot of time for brokers.
Obu Ramaraj, chief executive, Smart Money Solutions
Obu Ramaraj, also known as ‘The Mortgage Angel’, is a director, blogger and speaker. She is the chief executive of Smart Money Solutions, a mortgage broking firm helping female professionals with their home loans. Obu is also the author of the new book Smart Women, Smart Home loans ($19.99). For more information visit www.smartmoneysolutions.com.au or https://www.facebook.com/smartloanbroker, or email obu.ramaraj@smartmoneysolutions.com.au
How to be the effective leader your team needs
Are you leading your employees to the best of your ability? Brian Tracy, speaker and top-selling author, shares four essential actions for leaders who want to bring their team to success.
For motivational and effective leadership, a leader must:
In summary, here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action in your work:
First, hold regular meetings with your staff and tell them everything that is going on. Invite their comments, questions and concerns. Make everybody feel as if he or she was an insider in the organization.
Second, continually look for opportunities to give positive feedback, praise and encouragement. People need praise and encouragement like roses need rain and sunshine. Take very opportunity to make people feel better about themselves and their work.
Employees have basic needs—and encouraging them will up their performance.
What all managers and CEOs should fix, stat (or risk having a bad reputation and a toxic work environment)
We all know you. Our hearts beat fast and our palms get sweaty when we hear your chair squeak and your door creak open. Because we know the next thing we’ll hear is footsteps. What we don’t know is where they’ll stop—we just hope it’s not at our desk.
Who are you? A horrible boss. But you don’t want to be someone everyone fears, disrespects or distrusts. So how do you change it? Step one is to be aware of the things pegging you as not-so-awesome.
We asked the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) to tell us their thoughts on what makes for a terrible leader:
Staff can tell when you’re not being completely honest with them. There’s rarely a reason not to be entirely transparent with your team, especially at a young, growing company. Your team will appreciate understanding exactly where the company stands. This will help everyone come together as a team, focused on the problems that need solving for the long-term benefit of the company. Lack of transparency can result in a lack of trust.
—Mitch Gordon, Go Overseas
Listening to all employees as often as possible is so important to building a loyal and faithful team. Everyone needs to be part of the process and bigger picture. Interacting and listening to your team is something that is too often forgotten by CEOs, with the hustle and bustle of job and travel schedules. It shouldn’t be.
—Jason Grill, JGrill Media | Sock 101
I didn’t realize how toxic this behavior was until it was pointed out to me. Your employees should never feel like they’re pitching you in a way that makes you (as the CEO) think you’re spinning the gold. Understanding a good idea, helping to develop it and providing strong praise and credit where due is incredibly important.
—Jeff McGregor, Dash
CEOs should be careful not to value experience over potential. Some of our best employees haven’t been the most experienced. What they do have is something that’s impossible to train or develop—it’s a fire in their bellies to deliver world-class products to our clients. You can’t teach that.
—Chris Cancialosi, GothamCulture
The best leaders are ones who accept blame when things go wrong and give credit to their team when things go right. In order to be a true visionary leader, you need to let go of your ego and focus on your people because without them you would be nowhere.
—Nick Friedman, College Hunks Hauling Junk
I asked a fellow entrepreneur about his weekend plans a few weeks ago. His answer: “I work all weekend.” I understand the ownership and passion that comes with running a business, but you have to set the example for your team, have other interests and learn how to take a break. Otherwise everyone will assume they have to work that much and burnout of the entire team is inevitable (and a toxic culture will follow).
—Susan LaMotte, Exaqueo
Leaders must understand the problems their team faces, and then begin doing anything to remove barriers to entry so their team can do the best job possible. In my experience, these barriers include a lack of resources, a lack of direction and a lack of culture.
—Adam Root, Hiplogiq
Educating and creating a growth plan for your employees is one of the things that should never be ignored but often slips through the cracks. Having a growth and education path not only increases employee retention but makes for a smarter and hungrier team. If you think about it in reverse, can you afford for your team not to learn or grow? Imagine if your marketing team was doing the same things they are now in four or five years.
—Sujan Patel, When I Work
Modern leaders must be absolutely tenacious in getting the results they desire—from themselves, their organization, their team, even their customers. Get rid of overly conservative notions. You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take. If you don’t take that risk, you’ll never know what that opportunity would be. You’ll never have to say “would’ve, could’ve, should’ve.” Use your guts, and in my experience and in the end, everything works out well.
—Scott Petinga, The Scott Petinga Group
Spreading any sort of negative gossip about others sends a signal that it’s not safe to be around that person. Trust is immediately shattered, and people fear that what they are saying may be shared behind their backs. Leaders who either gossip or don’t take measures to eradicate it are harming more than just company morale. They are impeding the flow of honest feedback and communication throughout the organization.
—David Hassell, 15Five
CEOs tend to map out ideas in our heads but don’t share the process. Then, when the team starts making suggestions that you’ve already eliminated through thoughtful internal deliberation, they get angry. But no one knows you’ve already done that—so both sides get frustrated. My co-founder would tell me this all the time, so I started writing ideas and plans out to make sure my process and conclusion are easy to understand.
—Benish Shah, Before the Label
It’s crucial as a CEO to be open-minded and listen to feedback and ideas from others. Being closed-minded and unwilling to change your perspective will cause issues with both your employees and the success of your business.
—Josh Weiss, Bluegala
Take responsibility for any of your team’s failures. At the end of the day, you ultimately hold all the responsibility anyway, so let your team know you understand that things didn’t work out the way they should have. Then propose solutions instead of assigning blame.
—Lane Campbell, Syntress SCDT
I have often been blamed for sounding like a broken record but it is a record that my staff, clients and vendors know and can count on. Too often I see CEOs who are inconsistent and change their minds, which leads to confusion and mixed signals among everyone around them. Sticking to your guns and accepting the fate (even if it’s bad!) will lead to opportunities to continue learning while building trust in others.
—Kim Kaupe, ZinePak
Successful startups grow rapidly. CEOs who fail to keep up risk being clueless, close-minded and arrogant. A lack of knowledge leads to indecision and fear and can cause employees to quickly lose trust in their leader.
—Neil Thanedour
