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When it comes time to taking action, do you suddenly come up with all the reasons and excuses not to do it, even if you have some great ideas to grow your business.

Break Out of Your Comfort Zone and Break Through in Your Business!

Do you have some great ideas to grow your business,Guest Posting but when it comes time to taking action, you suddenly come up with all the reasons and excuses not to do it? Do you find yourself lit up with a new idea that you can’t wait to implement? But, then your fears come up and you decide you’re not quite ready yet to go forward.

If any of this sounds familiar to you, you’re not alone. I’ve experienced the same thing. Most recently at Ali Brown’s workshop I had some big “aha” moments. I wrote down many new ideas, but when I got back to my office, I began to find excuses to put off taking the plunge and breaking out of my comfort zone. I had thoughts like “what if it doesn’t work, this is too expensive, I don’t have the time.” These are familiar thoughts I’ve had before that have kept me stuck.

What I notice about Ali and other successful entrepreneurs is when they have an idea, they don’t sit on it for months or even years, they get into action and quickly implement it. They have no idea if it’s going to be a success or failure but have the courage to try it out anyway. They have their share of failures, yet they don’t let that stop them.

The one thing most successful entrepreneurs have in common is that when they come up with a good idea, they don’t analyze it to death or wait until it’s perfect, they just do it!

I walked away from the workshop with several great ideas, but a couple of the most valuable “a-ha” moments I had was to “stop waiting until it’s perfect, just do it now!” I also know if I’m left to my own thoughts, I’ll come up with lots of reasons not to do things. So I set up a support structure and will be joining a Mastermind Group that will hold me accountable to doing what I said I would do.

Here’s what I learned about breaking out of my comfort zone:

When you create something bigger in your business, it’s not unusual to think of all the reasons it won’t work.
When those reasons come up not to do it, and those reasons will come up, do it anyway.
Successful entrepreneurs quickly implement ideas.
Create an accountability support structure to keep you in action.
Don’t wait for it to be perfect…just do it now!
If you’re ready to break out of your comfort zone and take your business to the next level, here’s 8 easy steps to help you build your best year ever.

Write down one BIG idea you know you should be working on now. You know it’s the one if you get excited and nervous at the same time.
By fulfilling that idea, write down what will it give you in your life? As you write the details, be as specific and vivid as you can because the more you can see yourself doing it, the more real it becomes for you.
Write all the thoughts you’re having that could keep you from implementing your idea. Then take that piece of paper, rip it into tiny pieces and throw it away! You’re now free to pursue that BIG idea!
Write down the due date you will implement your idea.
Write down the action steps that will help you implement your idea.
Find a colleague or a friend to be your buddy and hold you accountable to implementing your idea?
Work with a coach, or find a group of like-minded entrepreneurs or colleagues and form your own mastermind group. Together you can guide, support and hold each other accountable to implementing the idea.
Now, get your butt into gear and take action, or it’s just another good idea!

Are you making the same mistakes most make when trying to recruit small business owners into Network Marketing? Read on!

Many Network Marketing distributors overlook for some reason the small business owner and professional. They don’t attempt to talk to them about their products and business as many they believe they simply would not be interested. That is no the case with many small business owners. Many are always looking for additional cash flow and ways to create a secondary revenue source.
Small business owners and small business professionals are a Gold Mine in Network Marketing and MLM. They bring to the table many things that the average person does not:

1) They bring A DIFFERENT Perspective to the marketplace and MLM. They understand business,Guest Posting and also how to run one, and have a business attitude when working in the marketplace, not just an employee attitude.

2) They bring EXPERIENCE to the marketplace and MLM that the average person does not have. Experience in running a business, networking, making things happen, and succeeding.

3) They bring DETERMINATION to the marketplace and Network Marketing. They MUST be determined to succeed in their business, and bring the same determination to MLM. Most small business owner and professionals are very FOCUSED on what they are doing, and determined on where they are going.

4) They bring CONTACTS and NETWORKS to the marketplace and MLM. Most business owners belong to state and national associations with other business owners, and thusly, have formed relationships with many other small business owners and professionals, a Gold Mine in MLM.

5) They bring a CREDIBILITY that the average person does not have to the marketplace and MLM. Credibility as an owner, and a professional in the marketplace. This alone is a Gold Mine in Network Marketing.

Business owners and professionals are incredible prospects for MLM, but unfortunately, can be quite difficult to approach, at least from the normal approach of Network Marketers.

How can you then plug into all they can bring to Network Marketing? How can you recruit them, but do it with a very professional approach that they will be curious about, instead of turned off like so many are?

The best way to approach them is in a VERY Professional manner and with a VERY Professional verbiage. You DO NOT approach them like you would your aunt or cousin,or best friend. Many times, with family or friends, we all have a tendency to say too much as we are excited, and want to tell the world about what we are doing.

INFERNO Secret:

The less you say, the more chance you have of getting an appointment, warm market or not.The more professionalism you have, the less negative responses you will get.(CLUE!!!!)

Here are several SCORCHING approaches for the telephone/Face to face for the small business owners.WARM MARKET:

” Hello Ben? This is Mary, and I need your help on something.I am introducing into the business community a new idea that could really impact revenues for small business owners. I would like your input and insights as to how it could be applied to this community.when do you have 10 minutes?”"Hello Ben? This is Mary. Listen, I have run across an idea that I believe can increase revenues for many small businesses in our community.it has tremendous value, and I need your help and input as to how to introduce it into our Locale.when do you have 10 minutes?”

” Hello Ben? This is Mary, and do you feel that increasing revenues in your business would be something that we could spend 10 minutes discussing?”

“Hello Ben? This is Mary.I really need your expertise on something.I have run across a way that small business owners can substantially increase their revenues and am looking for the best way to introduce it into the marketplace.when are you available for about 10 minutes?”

“Hello Ben? I need your help on a project I am getting ready to introduce into the business community. You are very well versed in business, and I want to run an idea past you and you give me your thoughts on the value of it as a secondary revenue stream to small business owners.”

COLD MARKET:

Calling small business owners cold is not easy, but a great excercise for building your skill set. Here is one way we approached thousands of business owners we did not know on the phone, or especially face to face, which worked well for us:

“Hello. My name is Doug, and like you, I am a Business owner in this community. I am simply introducing myself to folks like yourself, and also an idea that has proven to increase revenues substantially for small business owners like you and me. May I drop in for a 5 minute visit this week to simply introduce myself? I would love to meet you and learn more about your business, and share an idea that has proven to increase profitability with many business owners such as your self.”

Also, you can send out a short letter/ email simply saying basically the same thing.Dear Jamie.My name is Doug, and like you, I am a small business owner here in the local business community. The reason for the letter, I have found an idea that can help increaserevenues for small business owners substantially. I simply would love to meet you, learn a little about your business, and share an idea that has helped me. I will be in touch to see when what day would be convenient.

Professionally Yours.

Doug

Follow uo within a couple of days, and see about scheduling a drop in visit.These are just a few of the hundreds of ways you can approach small business professionals in MLM and Network Marketing.

Most family business owners want to keep the family business in the family. This article addresses how life insurance plays an important role in business succession planning.

A key part of estate planning for business owners who want to keep their business in the family is deciding when and to whom to transfer the business. The particular tools and techniques used in a business succession plan will vary based on the goals and objectives of the four groups affected by the plan: the senior generation business owner,Guest Posting the junior generation family members involved in the business, key non-family employees, and family members not involved in the business. It is important to examine how life insurance plays an essential role in the typical family business succession plan.

1. Estate Liquidity

While there is a present lapse in the estate and generation-skipping transfer taxes, it’s likely that Congress will reinstate both taxes (perhaps even retroactively) some time during 2010. If not, on January 1, 2011, the estate tax exemption (which was $3.5 million in 2009) becomes $1 million, and the top estate tax rate (which was 45% in 2009) becomes 55%. However, it is the author’s opinion that the estate tax exemption will be at least $3.5 million once Congress acts.

Some business owners will wait until death to transfer all or most of their business interests to one or more of their children. If the business owner has a taxable estate, life insurance can provide the recipients of the business with the cash necessary to pay estate taxes. Using life insurance to pay estate taxes is particularly useful for business owners because their ownership interests cannot be readily liquidated. The children receiving the business may also need life insurance to pay estate taxes. Usually, the insurance policy will be owned by an irrevocable life insurance trust so that the beneficiaries will receive the death proceeds both income and estate tax-free.

2. Buy-Sell Agreements

A properly designed buy-sell agreement guarantees a market and fair price for a deceased, disabled or withdrawing owner’s business interest. It also ensures control over the business by the surviving or remaining owners and can set the value of the business interest for estate tax purposes. Life insurance is the best way to provide the cash necessary for the business or the surviving owners to purchase a deceased owner’s interest. In many instances, the cash surrender value in a life insurance policy can also be used (tax-free) to help pay for a lifetime purchase of a business owner’s interest.

3. Estate Equalization

A business owner can use life insurance to provide the children who are not involved with the business with “equitable” treatment. Leaving the business to the active children and life insurance to the inactive children equalizes the inheritances among them. In addition, it avoids the need for the active children to purchase the interests of the inactive children, perhaps at a time when the business may be unable to afford it. Depending on the particular facts and circumstances, the insurance may be owned by an irrevocable trust for the benefit of the inactive children, and the insured may be the business owner or the business owner and his or her spouse.

4. Nonqualified Deferred Compensation Plans

A nonqualified deferred compensation (NQDC) plan can be used by a small business to provide members of the senior generation with death, disability, and retirement benefits. A NQDC plan may be particularly useful in situations where the senior members have transitioned the business to the junior members and are no longer receiving compensation. A NQDC plan also ensures that key employees remain with the business during the transition period — a so-called “golden handcuff.” Because life insurance offers tax-deferred cash value growth and tax-free death benefits, it is the most popular vehicle for “informally” funding NQDC plan liabilities.

5. Key-Person Insurance

Many family businesses depend on non-family employees for the company’s continued success. To guard against financial loss due to the absence of a key employee, and to ensure that the business stays in the family, many companies take out “key-person” life insurance, disability insurance, or both.

6. Section 303 Redemptions

Internal Revenue Code Section 303 enables the estate of a business owner to remove cash from a corporation with no tax cost. To be eligible for a Section 303 redemption, the stock’s value must exceed 35% of the shareholder’s estate. Also, the maximum amount that can be redeemed is limited to the amount of the federal estate tax, state death taxes, funeral, and administrative expenses. The corporation can purchase a life insurance policy on the shareholder’s life to ensure that the corporation has sufficient funds with which to accomplish the Section 303 redemption.

7. GRATs

With a Grantor Retained Annuity Trust (GRAT), the grantor transfers a business interest to the child or children active in the business (the “remaindermen”), while retaining the right to receive a fixed annuity from the trust for a stated term of years. The longer the stated term and the larger the annuity, the smaller the taxable gift. At the end of the stated term, the balance of the trust property passes (gift-tax-free) to the remaindermen. The risk with a GRAT is that if the grantor dies during the stated term, all of the assets in the GRAT are included in the grantor’s estate for federal estate tax purposes. But, in such case, by funding an irrevocable life insurance trust for the benefit of the GRAT’s remaindermen, the grantor can leave the business interest to the GRAT’s remaindermen who can then use the life insurance proceeds to pay the federal estate taxes due. Alternatively, a married grantor might qualify the assets in the GRAT for the marital deduction and have an ILIT (for the benefit of the GRAT’s remaindermen) use the life insurance proceeds to purchase the assets from the grantor’s estate.

8. Asset Protection Planning

Businesses assuming the risk of potential environmental contamination (i.e., waste hauling, landfills, chemicals, etc.) are subject to liability under federal and state pollution laws. Moreover, such liability is not limited to the business itself, as the business owners also may he personally liable under such laws. As the business passes to the next generation, so does the potential liability. Life insurance is ideal in this situation. The business owner can establish an irrevocable life insurance trust to run for the maximum period permitted by state law (i.e., at least 90 years in most states and in perpetuity in a handful of states). The trust would provide the business owner’s descendants with income and principal as needed for health, education, maintenance and support. If properly structured, the assets in the trust cannot be reached by the beneficiaries’ creditors, including state and federal environmental agencies.

9. Private Annuities and SCINs

With a private annuity, the business owner (the annuitant) sells the business interest to the child or children active in the business (the purchaser) for an unsecured promise to make periodic payments to the business owner for the rest of his/her life (a single life annuity) or for the life of the business owner and his or her spouse (a joint and survivor annuity). Because the private annuity is a sale and not a gift, it allows the business owner to remove the business interest from his or her estate without incurring gift or estate tax. The child or children purchasing the business interest can fund an irrevocable life insurance trust for his/her/their family’s benefit in order to have the cash to continue to pay the annuity should he/she/they predecease the business owner. Conversely, the business owner can fund an irrevocable life insurance trust for his/her family’s benefit as a hedge against the business owner’s premature death. In either case, the amount of life insurance needed would be based on the present value of the future annuity payments.

When a business owner decides to sell the business to a child in installments, the promissory note may be a self-canceling installment note (SCIN). With a SCIN, upon the seller’s death, all remaining payments under the note are canceled, similar to a private annuity. The purchaser must pay a “premium” for this cancellation feature, either by a higher interest rate or a higher purchase price. Like a private annuity, a SCIN avoids estate and gift taxes. Unlike a private annuity, a SCIN allows the seller a security interest in the transferred business. When using a SCIN, just as with a private annuity, the business owner can fund an irrevocable life insurance trust for his or her family’s benefit as protection against the business owner’s premature death. Conversely, the purchaser can fund an irrevocable life insurance trust for the benefit of his/her family so that they will have the cash to continue to pay the SCIN should the purchaser predecease the seller.

10. Family Bank

When the decision is made to leave the business to both active and inactive children, it is usually advisable to leave only the active children with voting interests in the business. In addition, “put” and “call” agreements should be entered into. Usually, a put option requires the business to purchase all or a portion of the inactive children’s interest in the business upon a set price and terms. Without a put option, there may be no practical way for an inactive child to benefit from owning the business interest unless the business is sold. On the other hand, a call option allows the active children (or the business itself) to purchase the business interests of the inactive children upon a set price and terms. Without a call option, there may be no effective way for the active children to avoid conflicts that can occur between the active children who are receiving salaries and bonuses, and the inactive children who are not. By having the active children own life insurance on a senior family member’s life, a “bank” is created to provide the funds to satisfy any such puts and calls. Usually, the policy will be owned outside of the business entity, such as in a trust for the benefit of the active children, or by a limited liability company owned by the active children.

Succession planning seeks to help a business owner confronting many issues. There is no “one size fits all” approach to keeping the family business in the family. The tools and techniques best suited to a particular business are fact-specific. Life insurance plays an important role in helping a business survive and thrive as it moves from one generation to the next.

Title: How to Turn an Idea into $100,000 Author: Kathleen … … Word Count: … © 2004 by Kathleen GageWeb address: … … Guid

Title: How to Turn an Idea into $100,000
Author: Kathleen Gage
Email: [email protected]
Word Count: 667
Copyright © 2004 by Kathleen Gage
Web address: www.kathleengage.com

Publishing Guidelines: You may publish my article in your newsletter,Guest Posting on your website or in your print publication provided you include the resource box at the end. Notification would be appreciated but is not required.

How to Turn an Idea Into $100,000
By Kathleen Gage

Do you ever wonder why some people seem to get all the lucky breaks in business while others struggle to barely get by? They seem to be in the right place at the right time.

Fact is, maybe they’re not at the right place at the right time; maybe they just know how to make things “happen.”

As a business advisor I often see people begin and end a business before they have given it a chance to grow. For some reason, they seem to think that all they have to do is have a product or service to sell and the rest magically takes care of itself.

Nothing could be further from the truth. For any business to succeed there are steps that must be taken.

Success in business is actually quite simple. Not always easy, but it is simple.

As the top rated home-based business in the state of Utah for 2004 I speak from experience. My success is a direct result of the actions I have taken on a daily basis.

My success is also a result of having some great mentors over the years. Mentors who were willing to share time and knowledge in order that I could grow my business.

My choice with the information that was shared was to either use it or not. Fortunately, in many cases I listened and applied what was recommended.

On the other hand, I often had people who served as a warning of what not to do in business. People who struggled day in and day out and yet, were more than willing to tell others how to succeed in business.

To me they are as much of a benefit to the growth of my business as those who serve as a model. I was able to look at them and see what I didn’t want. I could also see that in many cases they wanted instant success without the effort.

One of the greatest lessons I have learned from my mentors is to explore ideas I get. Not just explore, but have a plan of action and a systematic approach to implementing the idea. And to trust my instinct. And be willing to take risks. It has been said, “With risk comes reward.”

Granted, not all my ideas have been wildly successful. As a matter of fact, some downright “failed.” And yet, out of every failure was the seed to another idea that held the possibility of success.

Regardless of the type of business you are in, you can achieve a high level of success. It’s a matter of your level of commitment and having a vision of what you want to achieve.

Such was the case with an idea I came up with a little over a year ago. Although I had some of those “warning” folks tell me it could never work, I chose to listen to those who have been successful in idea implementation and explore where the idea could take me. Thank goodness I followed my instinct and implemented the idea. That one idea has made me over $100,000.

The really amazing thing is that out of that one idea have come others. An offshoot idea is a FR*EE report in which I outline step-by-step what the idea was and how it generated the revenues.

If you would like to get your own copy of my report entitled, “Learn How One Salt Lake City Based Business Consultant Made Over 100k from One Idea” go to www.kathleengage.com to receive it. If learning how a home based business owner did this is not important then don’t. Either way, the choice is yours.

Stick with what you know and you may find the keys to your home based business idea where you least expect it.

When you are looking for inspiration,Guest Posting you are probably going to be willing to try anything in order to get ahead. There are many times when you are looking for a great idea that can be all that you think it is going to be and more, and there are many times when you might find that great idea in the strangest of places. If you are looking for a home based business idea, you are certainly not alone. There are many people who are looking for the home based business idea and there are many people that might find the home based business idea where they least expect it.

Stick With What You know

The key to finding a home based business idea that meets your needs is to sticking with what you know. You are going to want to be sure that you are focusing on the things that you are already good at. The best thing that you can do to help yourself find a home based business idea that really meets your needs is to take a look at two different factors. The first thing that you want to look at is what you are already good at. This can be a combination of things, but you need to look at the things that you already do in your life that you are good at. If this is something that you are currently doing for a job, then great, because the best home based business idea can come out of something that you are already doing to make money. However, it is just as often the case that you aren’t doing something that you are good at in your job. In fact, many people spend time at work doing things that they aren’t good at. So if you aren’t good at your job, or if the thing that you are good at isn’t your job, remember to focus on what you are good at.

The second thing that you should focus on when you are looking to find a home based business idea is something that you like to do. Now, this might be the same thing that you have already found that you are good at, but it might be also something like a hobby or something that you consider fun to do in your spare time. No matter what it is, you have to find something that is fun for you, something that you would do if you weren’t going to get paid at all.

This is because the best home based business idea is to combine something that is fun for you with something that you are good at. So, when you have your thing that you are good at, and your thing that you find fun, you can brain storm the different home based business ideas that you get when you put the two together.

Have Fun

The most important thing that you have to keep in mind when you are thinking about the various home based business ideas that you are going to have is that you have to be able to have fun with what you do. The people who are going to be the happiest people are those that can say they truly love what they do. This is true no matter if what you have is a home based business idea or simply an idea for a career change. You have to be sure that you can be happy with what you have chosen to do in your life. If you find a home based business idea that doesn’t sound like it is going to be fun, you shouldn’t try it, because when it comes right down to it, a home business is actually a lot of work, so it had better be something that you find interesting, something that is fun, and something that is going to help you make the money that you want to make in your life.