Programs

I saw this quote on Lifestream by AW Tozer.
We are in an age of religious complexity. The simplicity which is in Christ is rarely found amoung us. In its stead are programs, methods, organizations, and a world of nervous activities which occupy time and attention but can never satisfy the longing of the heart. -A.W. TOZER-

This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, a free newsletter dedicated to making money, improving health and secrets to success. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.

Why Utilities Are No Longer a Refuge for Safe Investors

By Andrew Gordon

About a month ago, I told subscribers to my INCOME service to sell the Virginia-based utility company Dominion Resources. I got them out with a double-digit profit.

Of all the utilities in the S&P 500, Dominion had the best earnings growth (38.5 percent) last quarter. So why did I tell my readers to get rid of the stock? When I recommended it in mid-2005, electricity consumption was still increasing and regulated rates were providing cover for rising energy costs. But now, that sector is heading in the wrong direction.

Hey, utilities have advantages - like fixed prices, monopoly-like markets, and a consistent revenue stream. But that revenue stream has sprung a few leaks. Listen to CEO Lewis Hay of Florida Power & Light (FPL)...

"A lot of people think demand for electricity is inelastic. It's not. Our customers are cutting back, and they're not paying their bills, either."

The recession has finally caught up to the utilities. As a result, utilities are husbanding their cash along with all the other companies. Georgia Power is cutting back on spending. And in the strongest sign yet that the utility sector is no refuge for investors, two utilities cut their dividends last month: Ameren and Constellation Energy.

Investors made a lot of money shorting banks. I'm not ready to put utilities in the same camp as banking, but the weaker companies in the utility sector definitely present shorting opportunities.

[Ed. Note: Investment expert Andrew Gordon is just one of 14 masters of making money who will be giving you the inside scoop on some very hush-hush secrets for turning a nifty buck in the scary economic times we're all going through right now. Find out how to get your hands on these experts' SAFEST and most PROFITABLE income-generating and entrepreneurial opportunities right here.]

Is this the end of America?
Terence Corcoran writing in the Financial Post is worth reading.

This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, a free newsletter dedicated to making money, improving health and secrets to success. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.

The Law of Forced Efficiency

By Brian Tracy

The law of forced efficiency says: "There is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important thing."

The fact is that the average person today is working at 110-130 percent of capacity. And the jobs and responsibilities just keep piling up. One recent study concluded that the average executive has a backlog of 300-400 hours of reading and projects at home and at the office.

What this means is that you will never be caught up. Get that out of your mind. All you can hope for is to keep on top of your most important responsibilities. The others will just have to wait.

The key question you can ask is: "What is the most valuable use of my time, right now?"

Every hour of every day, there is an answer to this question. Your job is to ask yourself that question, over and over again - and to make sure you're always spending your time working on whatever is most important at that particular moment.

The more accurate your answers to this question, the easier it will be for you to set clear priorities and overcome procrastination.

[Ed. Note: In his book, Eat That Frog!, personal effectiveness expert Brian Tracy shows you how to zero in on the critical tasks and organize each day - you'll not only get more done faster, but you'll also get the right things done! Get your copy and learn how to stop procrastinating right now.]

Law of Attraction

What You Respect You Attract into Your Life
In order to attract money into your life learn to respect it by budgeting.
www.mint.com

If you want to attract a mate into your life, learn to respect the opposite sex.

This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, a free newsletter dedicated to making money, improving health and secrets to success. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.

Are You Gambling With Your Business?

By Rich Schefren

A few months ago, I was in Vegas for a business meeting. And while I was there, I did a little gaming.

Of course, the real fun is watching the people around you. Because there's always that unhappy, stressed-out guy who's not playing for fun. He's playing for profit. He's dreaming of the big score. The one that never comes.

Same goes with the online business world...

I am struck by how so many people approach their business in a manner that seals its fate from the very start. And it's not because of a lack of desire. Or lack of effort. Or even lack of funds.

No. The reason most businesses fail is because of lack of fundamental business-building knowledge.

So how do you get past that? Well, it's not an easy fix. But first, you need to follow these four simple steps:

* Establish your vision and create a strategy to achieve that vision. Transform yourself from an opportunity seeker (bad) to an entrepreneur (good).

* Develop products and services that will help you achieve your vision - instead of spending thousands of dollars on products that will collect dust on the shelf.

* Do everything in your power to manage your time better. Implement systems and processes that add more productive hours to your day.

* Finally, always remember that, in order to build a successful business, you need two critical things: scalability (the ability to grow with your needs) and leverage (the ability to do more with less).

[Ed. Note: Get a proven blueprint for starting and growing a business in Michael Masterson's bestselling book Ready, Fire, Aim: Zero to $100 Million in No Time Flat. Pick up your copy here.

Rich Schefren - one of the world's best small-business strategists - knows a thing or two about what it takes to be successful. The businesses he coaches have done over $500 million every year - piling up more than $1 billion in sales every two years. Visit his blog to learn how to streamline your business while skyrocketing profits.]

Savings

Would someone please tell me when it became a sin to save? I keep hearing these “experts” telling me to stop saving. How can I build for the future if I stop saving. There is a wonderful little book called “The 10% solution” by Marc Allen. Allen lays out a two part tithe to create a better world. Your first is to give 10% of your income to a charity. Give to a charity that you believe in. Your second 10% would be your saving for the future. By following this program the United States would become a better place. The final factor that needs to be done is the closure of the Federal Reserve. Allow the free market to determine money. Keep the government out of the money business for it is one kings and bankers manipulate. Bind the bankers to gold.

The monetary policy of the Federal Reserve artificially lowered interest rates to below market rates causing this debt bubble. If the free market would have been allowed to happen interest rates would have gone up encouraging people to save for the future. As the amount of savings increase interest rates drop. This drop in interest rates encourage business to borrow and invest in capital goods allowing the increase in production. This cycle is the free markets answer to the boom bust cycle.

This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, a free newsletter dedicated to making money, improving health and secrets to success. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.

Notes From Nicaragua: How an Hour Slave Can Have a Very Good Income

By Michael Masterson

I fell asleep during the plane ride to Nicaragua, and woke up with a stiff neck that just wouldn't go away. Yesterday, CO mentioned that he knew a good massage therapist at a local surf camp. Today, he showed up with Flavia at his side. "She was free now," he said, "so I figured I'd grab her."

Flavia is a pretty young woman with an easy smile and an unfamiliar accent. As she began adroitly mobilizing the muscles around my neck and back, she told me something about her life and work.

She grew up in Madrid, and then fell in love with a surfer from Argentina. They moved to the Basque country "so he could be near his beloved ocean," and now spend half their time there and the other half at the surf camp here in Nicaragua. The actual schedule of their lives was determined not by their children's schooling, as it was for K and me, but by Neptune's whim. "So long as the swells are good, we stay," she said. "When there are no more good waves, we go."

They have two children, a three-year old and an infant of seven months. "I have been thinking about how to educate them," she told me. "They are young now, but in a few years I will have to make a decision. A friend of mine is home-schooling her children, and she's doing a good job of it. But that's not what I want for my kids."

So Flavia is talking to people and searching the Internet for answers, while she supplements her husband's modest salary as a surf guide by charging between $35 and $55 an hour for her very good handiwork.

Flavia is one of dozens of surf spouses I've met since our Rancho Santana community became a Mecca for international surfers. They have all impressed me with their willingness to mix marriage, children, and the nomadic life they have committed themselves to.

While Flavia continued to work on my aching muscles, I looked out the window. It was another spectacular day, all right. The color of the sky. The shape of the mountains. The pulsing, pounding of the ocean. Who can say she hasn't chosen the best possible life for herself? She spends her time in two very beautiful places. She has two healthy children and (I am told) a very nice, easygoing husband.

As her family ages and expands, she will face some problems, though - and many of them will be connected to their lifestyle. She is already thinking about one of them: her children's schooling. But there will be others. Where, for example, will the money come from to buy a car that doesn't stall each time it attempts a hill ... to pay for doctors, dentists, and medicine ... and for a house (or two) that they can call their own?

What can Flavia do now to prepare for her future? A lot - starting with making full use of her existing resources.

As a massage therapist, she has a financially valuable skill that she has mastered. It won't earn her $100 an hour in Nicaragua, but if she learns something about business and marketing, she could certainly do better than the $45 an hour she's currently averaging.

Another resource that Flavia has is her attitude. She is naturally energetic, optimistic, and enthusiastic. These are qualities that make people happy to do business with her. If she could learn to sell her services as well as she sells herself in person, she could take a big, financial leap forward.

Finally, there's that very nice, easygoing husband. Nice, easygoing people aren't always the best money makers, but they are very compatible companions to those who are. If Flavia turns her part-time gig into a profitable business some day, her husband - if he is willing to stay home and take care of the kids - will make her responsibilities that much easier to manage.

Those are three very useful resources. To take full advantage of them and secure a financially comfortable life for her family, Flavia needs to establish and follow a specific plan of action.

Here's my suggestion - and this plan should work for lots of people with paid-by-the-hour skills:

First, she needs to understand the basic economics of her situation.

As a professional who charges by the hour, Flavia's wealth potential is limited by her time. To boost her income, she can do two things:

1. She can charge more per hour.

2. She can work more hours.

Her average hourly rate of about $45 an hour is pretty respectable here in Nicaragua, a country where the cost of living is so low. But if Flavia works only 10 or 12 hours a week - which is what she is doing now - she can make only about $25,000 a year.

That's enough to feed and clothe her family, but it won't pay for private schools, better cars, and the travel expenses involved in catching the next big wave.

My recommendation is for her to try to get her average hourly income up to $60 an hour. Also, to double the hours she is working and, depending on how things go in the future, double them again.

Flavia can increase her hourly income by developing more private clients in Rancho Santana and other nearby upscale communities. She won't be able to make more than $35 an hour at the surf camp where she and her husband are based - but that's okay, since she doesn't do enough business there to worry about.

To maximize her productivity, she should advertise her services at the surf camp, but limit her hours. Surfers generally aren't interested in massage treatments until after sunset and sometimes in the middle of the day. She can figure out which hours are best, and then post them. That way, she can keep the surf camp management happy without curtailing her outside work with more affluent customers.

She can easily boost her rate on the outside by leaving the $55 an hour as a one-time rate and charging $60 an hour thereafter. Once clients see how good and knowledgeable she is, they won't quibble about the extra $5.

She should also sell products to them. People who travel overseas often forget to bring their favorite skin and hair products with them. Having been relaxed into submission for an hour, Flavia wouldn't have to sell very hard to boost her hourly income to, say, $70 on a net (after cost of product) basis.

If she continued to work 10 hours a week at the surf camp and added a solid 10 additional hours outside the camp, she would be earning just over $1,000 a week (10 hours times $35 and 10 hours times $70). That amounts to over $50,000 a year.

If Flavia could eventually book 40 hours a week outside the surf camp (at $60 an hour), she could afford to quit the camp and locate her family elsewhere. Or, better yet, she could make a deal with the surf camp management to supply them with therapists at, say, $30 an hour. She would train and supervise them, and make for herself a third to a half of what they bring in.

If she did all that, she could be making $120,000 a year plus another $15,000 or $20,000 a year from the surf camp.

Massaging people for 40 hours a week isn't easy. Unless you develop techniques to prevent it, the stress on your own joints will eventually break you down. (Thai massage specialists, I've been told, employ such techniques and often work 40-plus hours a week with no problem.) So that's something Flavia can do right away in anticipation of full-time work: Change some of her techniques (less hand manipulation and more use of elbows, forearms, and feet) so she can work more hours.

If and when Flavia got tired of spending 40 hours a week working with her hands (and arms and feet), she could expand the little business she would already have going with the surf camp. By taking advantage of the low wage scale in Nicaragua (as she should, because it's good for the economy), she could get all the help she wants to work for her for $4 an hour. (That's four times the rate a gardener makes here.) By charging her clients - local spas, hotels, and communities - a fixed fee of, say, $20 an hour for the therapists, the management, and the accounting, she could have herself a high profit margin.

The key to making all this happen, of course, is marketing. Flavia must add that second financially valuable skill to the one she already knows.

This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, a free newsletter dedicated to making money, improving health and secrets to success. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.

Free Content at Your Fingertips
by Jason Holland (03/9/2009)

Looking for material that you can use for your e-books and other information products? There are countless resources for finding content that’s in the public domain. By that, I mean content that was never copyrighted… or that was copyrighted but the copyright expired. You can repackage and republish that stuff to your heart’s content, without the author’s permission. And you don’t have to pay him or her a cent.

Do a quick Google search for “books public domain,” and you’ll find tons of possibilities. But as veteran copywriter and marketing expert Bob Bly points out, there is an “analog” method for finding public domain works too. And this one can be even better, because it allows you to thumb through the material to make sure it suits your needs.

Bob’s recommendation is to check out used bookstores for old books in your niche. Books published prior to 1963 that have not had their copyrights renewed are fair game, and you are free to do with them as you wish. (Check the U.S. Copyright Office records first - www.copyright.gov/records/ - to be sure.)

[Ed. Note: Award-winning copywriter and marketing consultant Bob Bly will show you how to secure your financial future with an Internet business at Early to Rise's upcoming Selling on the Internet Conference in New York City. It's a crash course in Internet entrepreneurship taught solely by Bob (www.bly.com)..To learn more, go here.

Dusty old bookstores can be a fun way to find public domain works. But if you're not a bookworm, why not let a couple of "pros" who have made $500K+ repurposing old books into new products show you their hassle-free, online system?]

Online Enterprise Rent a Car

1. What has Enterprise’s management done to implement and execute the strategy? What policies, practices, support systems, and management approaches underlie Enterprise’s strategy execution efforts?

As a Best Cost Provider Enterprise had consistently maintained high standards for customer service while providing a low cost to customers. The company has expanded into six business segments. Customers urged Enterprise to enter the on-airport market and the company had to change the customer focus to service more business people who wanted the focus upon a quick transaction. Enterprise's high standard of customer service also led to the development of the ESQi. The ESQi is used to tie employee promotion and compensation to customer satisfaction.

Enterprise also focuses on a strong entrepreneurial spirit at the local level. It achieves this by "hiring well educated, competitive and social individuals with strong work ethics." The company developed a training program "virtual MBA" to train new employees. The company also uses a strong incentive program to encourage employees.

2. What accounts for Enterprise’s success over the past 20 years? Is it a great strategy, superb strategy implementation and execution, great leadership, or uncommonly good luck?

I think the development of the strong mission statement that is consistently taught and enforced has helped the company maintain the company's success. The company uses tools such as ESQi to enforce the demand for high standards for customer service. The company has listened to customers and allowed innovations to occur at the local level and than expanded the best ideas company wide. This would all boil down to great leadership. Jack Taylor and son has provided visionary leadership in the company.

3. What recommendations would you make to Andy Taylor to best position Enterprise for continued success?
In a nation where customer service is something to be cherished I would maintain continued high standards of customer service. Other rent-a-car companies may offer lower price but great customer service is hard to find and always remembered by consumers.

Foreign Policy

Have you ever noticed how foreign policy remains constant between presidents?

Obama is following the same policies that King George followed. The American people have continually elected madmen to lead this country. I follow the last good president we had was Grover Cleveland. He vetoed 200 spending bills. That is my kind of president.

Our nation is being driven into hell by these people. I see inflation like nothing this nation has ever seen. I guess it is time to start trusting Father to take care of me. It is easy to say but a little harder to live it. Father reveal you love to me. Reveal yourself to me today.