Here is one way to end 2008 on the right foot.

Start by finishing unfinished projects.

How does your office or work area look? Is it neat or messy? If it’s messy take some time out to clean it and organize your workspace for 2009.  I admit sometimes mine gets messy and I have to take some time out to clean it.  I use a lot of post-it notes and I have to organize those notes so I don’t loose them.

How about other projects?

Do you have a lot of unfinished projects? Things you started in 2008?  Maybe a web site you started?  Maybe a project around the house?  I have a couple of household projects that are 80% finished. I’m going to take some time out today and tomorrow to finish them up.

One of the things about cleaning up and finishing projects is that it is an emotional relief.  Having all that unfinished stuff is just extra baggage holding you back.  I know with my household projects I’m sensitive to the fact that they aren’t finished.  Sure I have excuses as to why they aren’t but I know it bugs my wife and she can’t do anything about it.  They are my projects.  I’m the one that needs to step up and take action on them.  When I do I will feel better about having accomplished them and I’ll be ready to go into 2009 on the right foot.

How about you?

What projects do you need to finish?

- Ben Fitts

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It’s the end of 2008.  It’s time to think about our business in 2009.

I like to start by looking at my business over the past year.  I take a notebook and sit down and reflect on the past year.  I make a list of the good and the bad.

What didn’t work as well for you this year? What goals didn’t you meet?

It can be easy to dwell on the bad so you want to make sure you take time out to focus on the good as well.  What worked well for you? What did you accomplish?  What did your team accomplish?  What was your growth rate?  How many awesome new people did you meet?

Only after reflecting on the past year can you begin to focus on the new and what you want to accomplish in 2009.

For more about what we want to accomplish in 2009  and how to develop a business plan for next year come back later this week

- Ben Fitts

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Happy Holidays everyone!

I’m taking a few days off to spend time with my family.

I hope you enjoy yourself and take some time off to spend with loved ones.

Have a great Holiday!
Ben & Jen Fitts

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Hi readers,

As we’re finishing up 2008 I’m working on my personal business plan for my business in 2009.  As an upline with thousands of people on my team I’m still not satisified. I know I can still improve and get better.

So I’d like to ask you the readers to help!

What 1 thing could your upline do for you in 2009 to help you grow your business?  What 1 thing do you think will have the most impact on you and your business in 2009?

- Ben

Popularity: 14% [?]

Today I have another great quote from The Slight Edge: Secret to a Successful Life by Jeff Olson.

I’ve said that successful people are willing to do those things unsuccessful people are not. And sometimes those things are uncomfortable.  There is always a price you pay…

Think about this quote.

Successful people do those things unsuccessful people don’t do.  This includes things that are uncomfortable.  They are willing to pay the price. They are willing to feel the pain.  They are willing to get out of their comfort zone.

This can apply to athletes… business people… anyone.

In your business are you willing to get out of your comfort zone?  You might be comfortable marketing online, reading emails, responding to email, etc.  Yet when it comes to picking up the phone and calling people back, are you willing to take that extra step?  You might sometimes have to deal with a “gatekeeper” that is screening calls. It could be a spouse or a personal assistant.  Are you willing to put in that effort?

Remember, you can have a little success on accident. You can get lucky. You can be in the right place at the right time.  However to have long term success you’ve got to make that extra effort.  Are you willing to do that in your business?

- Ben

Popularity: 13% [?]

Hi everyone,

Frequent readers of this blog know that my company was featured in Success from Home magazine in October 2008.  I’ve written about marketing ideas for the magazine several times in the past: See Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

One of the marketing ideas I had was to create a lead capture page offering free copies of Success from Home as a way to generate prospects for my business.  I’d send them the issue featuring my magazine.  I’d be building my “list” and I’d be able to show off the magazine which offers me a ton of credibility.

At first it looked like this would be really successful.  I almost immediately began to get prospects for my business.  Unfortunately many of them were not qualified.  I ran into quite a few problems:

1. People looking for the magazine featuring their company, not mine.  They thought they could simply request free copies from me.  They didn’t even bother to read the web page that clearly said they were ordering copies of the October 2008 issue featuring my company.
2. People who just wanted to get a free copy of a magazine but weren’t interested in the business.
3. People who were already talking to someone else in my business, but the time my follow up system kicked in they had joined someone else!

As you can see there have been quite a few obstacles.  Several times I’ve run into people that were already talking to someone else in my company.  By the time the magazine and follow up cards reached them… and by the time my email and phone call follow up system is in place they’re signed up.

Not to mention the people who are requesting copies of the magazine from other companies.  Many of them didn’t bother to tell me that. So I wasted $8 on each of those.

Needless to say I have decided to stop leading with free copies of the magazine. I’d rather lead with something else like the free Robert Kiyosaki CD.  That CD is free for me to send them, they just pay for shipping and because I have referred more than 3 people, I’m getting my stuff for free. This helps me qualify the prospect and even if they have another business perhaps they’ll want to join the free Richdad CD through me…

I’m going to keep leading with the free cd for awhile and see if my results get any better than leading with Success from Home magazine.

As always I’ll keep you posted of my success.

- Ben

Popularity: 14% [?]

Hi readers,

Today is December 12th and that means the holidays are right around the corner. Have you sent your Holiday cards yet?

As you may or may not be aware my business is greeting cards.

If you have a last minute need to send out holiday cards (including cards customized with your photos) I can help.  Since we print cards on demand you can pretty much make up your card at the last minute and we can still help you out.

If you need any help getting your cards out just give me a call at: 877-236-3488 in the USA or 860-896-5837.

Or if you want to try it yourself you can go to my web site.  Then click the banner that says “click here to send a free card”.

I don’t normally write about  my business but thought this would be appropriate since some of you may be trying to get your cards done last minute and might need some assistance.

Have a great weekend!

Ben

Popularity: 19% [?]

Are you being held accountable?

Do you have a partner or someone you can trust to help hold you accountable that you are taking action every single day?

By 11 Am today I already had:

• 2 hot new prospects both of which might join today
• 1 new retail customer
• 3 more new prospects who I had sent information to

I have a daily score sheet where I track my activities. I hold myself accountable.

In reality a good day like today would be NO GOOD if I didn’t do my daily actions earlier this week.  It takes consistent daily action and consistent action over time to build a network marketing enterprise.

Life is peaks and valleys. You have good days and bad days, good weeks and bad weeks, good months and bad months.  The idea is to be as consistent as  you can.  Don’t let the bad times get you down and don’t let the good times get you too excited.  It takes consistent action.

It’s just as easy to sponsor 4 people in one week and get excited and pull back on the throttle… as it is to have a bad week and get depressed because you lost a hot prospect.

The key is consistent daily action.  Remember the water hyacinth?

Check out “The Slight Edge” and do a search on this site for similar posts explaining why this is important.

- Ben Fitts

Popularity: 13% [?]

Are you comfortable in your business?

Being comfortable is dangerous. When you’re comfortable you’re probably not being aggressive enough and seeing enough growth in your business.

When you look at people in business and look at their why’s you can sometimes see a why that is strong enough to make someone get out of their comfort zone. Those are the kind of people I’m looking for.

Someone who just lost their job… that can be a powerful why. For me it was. I had just been laid off for the 3rd time and I took a $10,000 pay cut when I took a new job. That was very painful. It was so painful that when I started doing MLM I was willing to go out and do things I wouldn’t have done otherwise. I was willing to be uncomfortable. What do I mean?

Well when I was younger and had a business with my parents my dad wanted me to go out and do flyers. He wanted me to put out flyers at the mall or walmart or where ever. I was afraid too. I didn’t want to do it and I didn’t have enough incentive to so I just didn’t do it. Needless to say that was just a symptom of my overall attitude and that particular business failed, largely due to my fault.

With my MLM business I immediately went out and did flyers. You know I remembered my dad had told me that it was a good idea and now I wasn’t so uncomfortable any more. I was willing to get out of my comfort zone and go do something more aggressive.

Now days I know flyers aren’t the best way to market but I did figure out a pretty effective way of marketing flyers and even put together a free ebook on how I did it. You can download my free ebook on marketing effectively with flyers.

The point is if you’re willing to get out of your comfort zone, that’s when you’re going to grow. Your business is going to grow and you personally are going to grow. I was just speaking to one of my distributors that is not outgoing. Yet his personally situation has changed (and he got his first good sized check) and now he’s serious. He got laid off recently. So now he’s going to call some leads even though that’s not something he’d normally do. You know what? I’m going to be there for that guy cause that guy is SERIOUS. That’s exactly the kind of people I want on my team. Those willing to get outside of their comfort zone.

Do you have any stories about getting outside your comfort zone?
- Ben Fitts

Popularity: 13% [?]

This is a continuation of a blog post I wrote yesterday about an MLM expert (Kim Klaver) promoting non MLM products. (See the original post here.)

Now here is what you may not understand.

First of all if Kim Klaver is a JV partner for this launch she is making 60% of all initial sales and the recurring on this sale. (Yes this is not only a $47 one time sale but they will also upsell you on a monthly membership.)

Second of all this is a non MLM product. It doesn’t teach you how to sell your MLM products, recruit people, sponsor up, get more traffic to your web site, develop leads, etc.  What it teaches you is how to sell products on Clickbank.

What is Clickbank?  It’s for internet marketers mostly.  If I was selling an ebook or software product I can put it on Clickbank’s marketplace.  Clickbank handles the sale for me and pays me a month or so later.  Clickbank also helps manage my affiliates and their sales and pays my affiliates for me.  Clickbank is a great service, but what does it have to do with MLM?

Nothing.

The Clickbank inner circle is all about teaching people to make money online “selling Clickbank” products. but let me ask you something…

If you want to learn more about building a massive MLM enterprise… Why would I direct your attention to a product that has nothing to do with building an MLM?

This is a mistake I made a few years ago when I was starting this blog. I covered all sorts of topics not just MLM. It was too confusing. There was too much going on.  I was sending out too much information.  I was promoting all my friends products and stuff and some of it was just because they were my friend. Some of my friends would start a joint venture with me on some of my projects.  In exchange they’d want me to help promote their products. Sometimes I’d promote something I wasn’t sure was a good fit just because I felt I had to pay jmy friends back.

This is the mistake Kim Klaver is making now.  She’s gone from being an old fashioned face to face network marketer to become an internet marketer. Now that she’s gotten into the internet marketing world and now she’s trying to do too much.  She’s lost her focus.  AND it doesn’t look good that she’s a joint venture partner making 60% commissions selling you on something that will only distract you from building your MLM business. Again I made this mistake myself.  (see this article from September 2007 where I apologize for my lack of focus)

Let’s put this another way… if you were a real estate sale coach teacing people how to sell real estate… and you suddenly started to pitch people on selling cars… It’d look kind of strange right?  To me that’s what Kim is doing.  She’s an MLM coach who is now pitching people on selling ebooks and stuff through Clickbank which has very little to do with growing an MLM enterprise!

If I was a real estate person taking her training and I started to suddenly try and sell cars, it’d probably effect my real estate business, right? I probably wouldn’t sell many homes because I’d be busy selling cars.  Sure I might learn some sales skills, but at the cost of hurting my primary business.

Kim Klaver. I implore you to regain your focus.  Get back to your roots.  Just because you’ve started to get involved in internet marketing doesn’t mean you should promote every internet marketing deal you see.  If you have to tell people that the sales letter is bad, then it’s probably a good sign that the product isn’t a good fit for you to promote.

Again I relate to this because I found myself making the same mistakes.  So please take this advice with the respect that it is intended.

Kim, I invite your reply.

- Ben Fitts

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