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We’d all love to make a fabulous living doing what we love to do. And often it’s really possible.

Yet, I was speaking with someone who wanted to make a living as an artist. This isn’t any particular person, because I’ve had this conversation with folks numerous times. And, it’s not always about art. Sometimes it’s about coaching. Sometimes it’s about cooking. Sometimes it’s about walking dogs.

They spoke to me at length about how much they loved doing art, and how it fed their soul, and how important it was to their well-being. Very inspiring stuff, and it felt great. But, when I asked them, “How do you want to help other people with your artwork?” they couldn’t answer me.

“It’s art! It exists for its own sake. It should have value in and of itself.”

This person was right. Art does exist for its own sake. And it does have value in and of itself. But, there is a difference between doing something purely to please yourself, and doing something with a consciousness that you are giving and serving others.

While there are many reasons to start a business, there is only one essential reason that allows it to thrive: helping people with some challenge they are facing. Income in a business only comes from customers. While funding may come from loans, or angel investors, or venture capitalists, eventually the allowance runs dry, as we saw in the 1990’s with the dot-com bust.

Customers only buy when you are helping them with their needs and challenges.

We humans are complex creatures, with many needs and desires that have to be met in order to have a fulfilling life. I’m aware right now of my needs for creativity, truth, fun, adventure, love, intimacy, friendship, community, provision, food, shelter and heat (it’s winter!), contribution, spiritual connection- I could go on and on.

When you’re self-employed, especially when you are in the resource intensive phase of a start-up, it often seems that your business encompasses your whole life. And, this can lead you down a treacherous path of trying to get all of your needs met through your business.

If you try to take care of these kinds of personal needs only through your business, you will probably sink it, because you might unconsciously make decisions to soothe yourself, rather than really serve your business and your customers.

But, if you don’t take care of these very legitimate needs at all, you will be performing a slow form of suicide.

Are you trying to make a business out of a personal need that has nothing to do with your desire to contribute to other’s well-being? Are you neglecting your personal needs and killing yourself, your business, and your family?

Keys to Living the Dream

• If you truly want to make it a business, then you’ll want to focus on these four things:

1. Get crystal clear on the problem you want to solve, and what it’s really like for those who are facing the problem, and apply your creativity in providing a solution.

2. More than just the solution, how will you deliver the solution so that it can be most easily accessed and used by your customers?

3. More than providing and delivering the solution, how will you reach those people so they know the solution exists?

4. More than reaching the people, and providing and delivering the solution, what does your business itself need so that it can continue to do, and improve upon, the first three, so more and more people get help?

• If you aren’t sparked by any of those four things around an activity, you may have something that you prefer to keep as a hobby.

1. A hobby doesn’t necessarily solve problems for others.

2. It’s primarily for you and your enjoyment and growth.

3. It’s less important whether you reach other people, unless you want the social aspect.

Although enjoyment, self-growth, education, and socializing can and should be met through business, the primary enlivening influence in a business is one of service and contribution. And, if you are having trouble sticking with the four business focuses, try this Action Step:

• Identify your needs. Especially ones that aren’t being met.

Marshall Rosenberg, author of Nonviolent Communication, lists many, many universal human needs. The Center for Nonviolent Communication has a list of needs here.

If you can scan through the list and identify any particularly strong needs you have that aren’t being met, you’ll have a clue as to where you might be unconsciously trying to use your business to soothe yourself.

Example: I have a need for creativity, and one way I love to meet that need is in cooking. A day in the kitchen really does it for me. But, I decided long ago that I didn’t want to be a professional chef, and instead treat it as recreation. Very satisfying. When I’m feeling that particular urge for creativity, I don’t try to make my business do back flips, I just take some time off, and spend it in the kitchen. Bon apetit!

Once you begin to meet those unmet needs, look back at the four business focuses, and unleash your creativity. Your business just may end up as a very useful, and thus valuable, work of art.

Mark Silver, founder of Heart of Business, is author of Unveiling the Heart of Your Business: How money, marketing and sales can deepen your heart, heal the world, and still add to your bottom line. Get three free chapters of the book online: http://www.heartofbusiness.com

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As the landscape of the World Wide Web changes at lightning speed, so do many online trends. Communication and the exchange of information have become instantaneous and the rate at which we can find and receive information is incredible. A recent trend that has caught on with online anglers “fishing” for more information is online fishing forums.

There are many websites that offer online fishing forums where anglers can talk and
discuss in an organized environment about the topics that appeal to them most. In
general, online fishing forums have a main posting board where anglers can talk
about general fishing subjects. Then usually there are more specific subjects sub-
topics where specific popular topics can be addressed.

Online fishing photo galleries have become probably one of the most popular topics
on online fishing forums. Now anglers can share a photo of their catch with
thousands of other anglers and it has become a virtual bragging board.

However, the really useful part is that you can see who’s catching what species,
when and where. Before the Internet, finding out that type of information was nearly
impossible. You either had to be physically at the particular location and happen to
know the person or you would have to wait to get to the location to see how the bite
was.

With online fishing forums, you can have an immediate fishing forecast including
the current bite, weather conditions and a sample of what anglers are currently
catching. Also, other benefits are the local tips and information exchanged between
anglers about particular locations or tackle used. It is like a gigantic online tackle
box waiting to be discovered.

There are many great online fishing forums, just browse the internet and you will be
sure to come upon one. Then you too, will be able to join in the fun and talk about
your latest catch.

Author Troy Denson is http://www.BoldWater.com online Fishing Forum administrator. You
can talk online to other anglers about fishing, tips, fishing tackle, marine art, fishing
forecasts and fishing photo galleries at http://www.BoldWater.com/forum

©Troy Denson,
2005

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You received an email from a friend a few months ago with
directions to an up-coming seminar. Now that email is
buried under months of other email messages.

How do you find it?…

Well… You can scroll through all your previous emails
looking for the message…

But there’s an easier way for You!

Email ‘clients’ as they’re called, or programs provide
shortcuts to finding your important email. Each provides
“Advanced Find” methods so you can search by subject,
name, email address of the sender, or by any of your folders
you’ve set up to store your important emails. (i.e. trash, sent,
friends, family, keep, print ), or even by date.

“Wait a minute, while I count my email folders… OK, I’m
back!… Right Now I have 62 file folders for emails I want to
keep for future reference. With all these folders it’s hard to
find any particular email.”

Have you ever had this problem?… If you have… Hold on…
Because, Help for You is right on your computer!

While in your email files, go to Edit or Tools. In one of them,
depending on your email program you’ll see one of the
following:

Find
Search Messages
Find Messages
Messages In This Folder
Advanced search.

It varies whether you’re using Netscape, Eudora, or Outlook
Express… and the version.

Click around until you find the “Search Window.” It will pop
up. You can search different email folders with different
search parameters. It’s a lot easier for you than looking
through your hundreds or thousands of emails for
something that’s important to you.

Here’s some examples of how to find previously sent or
received email messages, using a variety of popular email
software and platform configurations. Check Yours… It can
be your ‘Big Time Saver.’ It’s worth spending a little time
discovering how this works.

Outlook Express 5.02 – Macintosh: Under the “Edit” menu,
drop down to “Find”, or “Advanced Find.” Set up your search
parameters for the email you want to find.

Netscape 7.0 for Windows and Macintosh: Under “Tools” on
the Messenger menu bar, drop down to “Search.” Pick
“Search Messages” from the resulting submenu. A search
window will open. Set up your search requirements for
whatever you remember about the email you want to find.

Netscape 4.7 for Windows and Macintosh: Under “Edit” on
the Messenger menu bar, drop down to and select “Search
Messages.” You’ll see a search window open with pull
down buttons so you can set the search parameters you
want. You can keep adding more search buttons by clicking
on ‘”More.” If you know several things about the email you’re
looking for… You’ll save your time and frustration.

Eudora 5.1.1 for Windows: Under “Edit” on the Eudora menu
bar, drop down to “Find” and select “Find Messages” from
the resulting submenu. Enter your search information.

Eudora 5.1.1 for Macintosh OS 9 and OS X: Under the
“Special” menu, drop down to “Find” and select “Search”
from the resulting submenu.

Apple’s Mail program for Macintosh OS X: Under the “Edit”
menu, drop down to “Find” and select “Find Messages” from
the resulting submenu.

You may want to spend some time working with this…
Because it can be Your Big Time Saver when you need to
find your most important email.

Bill Parks… Computer Consultant, specializing in Filemaker
Pro database design. Publisher of “Information Age
Products Ezine” and “Bill’s Business Boosters Ezine.”
http://www.Build-UR-Business.com

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Demand for notebooks is soaring at present. This battery shortage predicament is not going to aide the situation either. Laptop Computers have been an evolving market year on year for a number of years now and it looks set to continue. The funny thing is that even when you get the latest thing out it’ll soon be out of date.

Gaming laptops are one of the sectors that have seen an increase. These notebooks are also in value because of the stiff competition faced from cheap laptops. I feel laptops are a excellent choice for playing games. Maybe not exactly for the extreme but they’re great for the majority of us. Even more impressive these days I feel is how sleek the cases are getting especially when you think about much performance is in them. Even though speed has greatly advanced and the designs are streamline, honestly speed will and should always trail behind desktops. It will be fascinating to see what gaming portables come out in the future and how portable they can manufacture them.

I feel desire for custom laptops will always be here. Sometimes with bigger brands the reliability of the main components is not upto scratch. With that in perspective you normally get to configure the processor, ram, hard disk and os. Prebuilt laptop computers are manufactured for consumers who have common requirements and that is probably not you right? Custom built laptops serve everyone whatever their exact requirements. I feel one also gets increased customer service when buying a custom laptop. The fact that there is choice and competition makes its very viable.

The outlook of upcoming portables seems exciting. The latest trend along with those discussed seems to be low priced ultra mobile laptops. A number of similar devices have already been launched at an ashtonishing pace. Big screen and extrodinarily lightweight, that is what people should love. I reckon you could say these laptops are already out there if you are inclined to pay the cash. It would not shock me to see ultra light gaming laptops in the next 4 years time. New notebooks are seen every couple of months and I’m sure the next couple of months already holds a lot of promise for us techies.

I think these gaming laptops are really good http://www.rizeon.com/gaming_laptops/page.php

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The correct word for baldness is alopecia. The most common type of hair loss is male pattern baldness and targets typically over a quarter of gents and ladies. This sort of baldness is ordinarily permanent.

Permanent hair loss comes in a variety of forms. Male pattern baldness may start to show in the incredibly early stage of a blokes life, with hair loss beginning as quickly as eighteen years old. The typical first signs will probably include loss of hair around the crown of the scalp and also at the hairline above the forehead. The result will often be partial or full baldness.

Lady pattern baldness is similar to male pattern baldness resulting in permanent hair follicle loss and baldness. This sort of hair loss and baldness is regularly developed after a girl gives birth. The chemical imbalance creates hair loss although girls do not generally experience complete hair loss.

The last sort of permanent hair loss is by Cicatricial. This starts when inflammation in the scalp causes scarring of the scalp and the hair follicles fall out forever. The gentleman will lose hair in different parts of the scalp, or even spread all over the scalp. If you need help with hair loss please visit Advanced Hair Studio today.

With forever hair loss the spectacular solution for numerous people will probably be to try a hair studio in order to gain back hair regrowth.

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Great 21st birthday unique gift ideas are a symbol of credit of an acquired goal in life. Not only cultural but societal as well. 21st birthday is a high point birthday celebrated extensively in the 21st century, and is measured to be one of the most important times in a person’s life. 18 is legal by law but Twenty-one is considered a legal adult. Searching for 21st Birthday Present Ideas is easy when you know the right place to look in.

The gift presented on this day is a symbol of love, and conveys your good wishes and blessings for a bright future of the 21 year old. Gifts should be in accordance with the tastes and spirit of the birthday girl or boy. Next are some gift ideas for the 21st birthday:

Gold Watch

If your financial plan authorizes, you can gift the birthday chico or chica a gold watch with his or her name and date of birth carved on it.

Silver Jewelry

You can get him or her passes to their first silver jewelry magic gig. It is a great gift idea, natural and more accessible than anything its equal.

A Sports Gift Gala

21st birthday calls for carnival and nothing can be more exciting than a sport presents birthday party. Most households are many opportunities for sports gift love.

DVD Collections and Electronic Gadgets

The 21st birthday marks the commencement of early life transition and a time of great responsibilities. Therefore, the gift item to be had on this day should be extraordinary. Use your originality to give tailored or motivating presents as well.

Celebration of life is great to celebrated and wise to do so. To be savored, life is. It is and will always be a time of rumination of what was and a intuition into what will be. The receiving friend will think fondly on the one that gives such 21st birthday presents. Click here to visit our website.

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Zambia is a magnificent country, the open fields buzzing with wild dogs and one of the lowest population ratios in the universe. Southern Africa comes with some of the nicest natural terrain in Africa, the appealing blend of beautiful fields, forests and swamps makes the total land come to life. Not only will you be delighted at the surroundings, one will additionally be marvelled at the marvellous lakes and waterfalls. A real heaven on earth. Go on an African safaris with Kaingo.

In Zambia you will be able to enjoy the greatest waterfall of all, the Victoria Falls. This pleasing waterfall has been a place for lots of wildlife with lots of big cats and elephants coming to bathe in the clear waters that run here. Also make sure one see the snakes & hippos on the Zambezi River, & don’t forget to bring a guide as the river can be a bit unpredictable. you yourself may furthermore wish to take a photography tour in South Luangwa National Park and get near with the diverse wildlife. On a photography tour one will view tigers and particularly rare wild dogs. If one are lucky enough one shall view a heard of elephants with their young. The facility to be so close with these pretty animals is amazing.

Places to stay in South Africa will range from five star hotels right through to huts without any TV. Whichever accommodation type you select one can be sure of a stunning time.

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How many times have you felt the need to bash up someone and found yourself helpless? How many times have you felt like screaming at your boss but had to restrain yourself? How many times you wanted to punch a bully but could not?

Not any more if you follow this little advice.

When you are angry with someone, do not fight or confront the person. As soon as you feel the anger, take yourself in a quiet place. Preferably sit down on a chair. Take a few deep breaths. Imagine that the person you want to give out to or thrash up, is standing in front of you. Then deal with the person in the same manner as your feelings dictate. If you want to bash them up, do so. If you want to scream at them, do so. If you want to punch that person, do so. Carry on doing the activity in your mind, till you notice your anger calming down. When you are satisfied, you can stop and then open the eyes.

I have been using this exercise for last many years with my patients. It does not require confronting the person. You get the tension and anger out of your system. The other party never needs to know how angry you felt about them. It does not spoil your relationship with the person.

Pradeep K Chadha is a psychiatrist who has developed his own innovative methods to deal with depression. He is the author of The Stress Barrier-Nature’s Way to Overcoming Stress, published by Backhall Publishing, Dublin. He practises in Dublin, Ireland.
His website address is: http://www.drpkchadha.com

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You already registered as a member of company, lets call it Ding Duck, and they market. They are a Network Marketing company and you have this idea that you will reach the level of Young Millionaire in one year. So today is April 15, 2005 and
by April 15, 2006 you will be a Young Millionaire in Ding Duck earning $4000 per month ($48,000 per year).

Great goal! How do you do it???

It is very tough to get a handle of what it is like to be a Young Millionaire, earning $4000 per month, with a downline of 1000 people
when you are brand new with a downline of zero and not even one
prospect yet. So lets break it down and find out what it means to
become a qualified sponsor.

First, you look up in your company literature and find out the average
Young Millionaire sponsors 36 people and earns $48,000 per year.

OK, now you have something to work with. In one year you have to
sponsor 36 people to hit that “average” mark. Now, I don’t know about
you but I can only do one thing at a time. That means I need to know
what I need to do today so I can reach my goal one year from now.
Here we go.

First, to sponsor 36 people in a year you would, on average, have to
sponsor 3 people per month. OK, step one done. Now you know on a
monthly basis what you need to accomplish.

Second, how do you sponsor 3 people per month. If you use the average
figure that for every 3 full presentations you give, you will sponsor
one of them; you will need to give 9 full presentations per month.

OK, that is easy, you just need to find 9 people each month who are
*seriously* interested in what you have to offer. These are people
who pass through the first stage of the whole process, your approach.

Third, to give 9 presentations per month you need to find 9 people
who are:

1. Wanting to start a home based business
2. Want more time freedom to spend with the kids
3. Want financial freedom
4. Fed up with their current situation in life
5. (You fill in a reason, there are 100’s of reasons why people are interested in Network Marketing and your opportunity.)

Again, the averages say to find one person who is seriously interested
you need to approach 5 people. That is 45 people you need to approach
per month. If you work 5 days a week that works out to be 2 or 3
people per day. Great, now you know what you have to do each and
every day to reach your goal of being a Young Millionaire in
one year.

(Here is where you find out if you are treating this like a business
or like a hobby. If you are approaching several people per day and
giving 2 or 3 presentations per week, its a business for you. If you
are approaching one or 2 people per week or only working one day per
week then its a hobby.)

What do I mean when I say, “2 or 3 approaches per day.” An approach
is when you share a little information with a lot of people. This
can either be a business card you give to the (gas station attendant,
waitress, guy in the elevator, etc) that has a strong call to action
statement with your voicemail number that has a 3 minute recorded
“tickler” message on it. An intro tape about your opportunity, or a
product brochure given to a co-worker, or a letter to somebody you
haven’t seen for awhile, or any other way you can give somebody a
little information and have the people who are interested raise
their hand and say, “Hey Bob this sounds like something I would like
to know more about.”

Now when they do this, they say they are interested, you share A LOT
of information with a few people. You give them a full presentation,
or do a 3-way call with a member of your upline who is already a
Young Millionaire, or get them on a conference call.

I am sure there are some real go-getters out there that are thinking,
“I want to be a Young Millionaire in 6 months, not a year.” No
problem, just take everything and double it. Now you need to approach
4 or 6 people per day to give 18 presentations per month (at least
4 per week) and sign up 6 people per month for a total of 36 people
in 6 months.

Every company has their own way of doing things, just use the
principles I taught you to break down your big goal into an action
plan full of smaller, daily steps. Then share this with every person
you bring into the business so they know how to reach their goals.

Target it, stay focus to your goal and kept promoting are keys to make success in network marketing.

Deny Hariyanto is a member of Elite Team Indonesia. Elite Team was found by Anne Ahira.She is offering 30 Days of FREE Training for people who are serious about wanting to build a better financial future for themselves. If you are interested in getting Anne’s FREE Training simply visit http://www.freedomforfinance.com

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In the last article we talked about why informational products are the best type of products to sell online. An informational product can be a digital book (known as an e-book), a digital report or a white paper, a piece of software, audio or video files, a web site, an ezine (electronic magazine), or a newsletter.

Any product that’s informational, instructional, or educational in nature can be considered an info product.

If you missed the last article you might want to un-line your birdcage long enough to read it first so that you have a thorough understanding of what we’ll be discussing this week, which is how to create your own info product.

As covered in detail last article, here are a few of the reasons why information is the best product to sell online:

It’s fast to create, fast to market

There’s no inventory to stock

The startup costs are low

You can automate the sales and delivery process

There are no shipping and handling charges

One of the best things about information products is that you don’t need a product designer or a manufacturing plant to crank out the goods. You also don’t have to spend months and months doing product development.

If you have a computer and a word processing program you have everything you need to create a best-selling info product in a very short amount of time.

Great, you say, but I’m no writer. How the heck can I get into the information business? The good news is you don’t have to be a great writer to create a great info product. If you don’t have the ability to create the product yourself there are several avenues you can take to info product success.

Co-author with a writer

In my opinion, expert knowledge is much harder to come by than great writing skills. If you are an expert on a subject that people will pay to learn about, you just need a good writer to take your expert knowledge and put it in a saleable form.

I know many subject matter experts who can’t write their names in the snow and many excellent writers who don’t have the expert knowledge required to create an informational product that will sell. Co-authoring can be a match made in Heaven if an equitable co-authoring arrangement can be made. Co-authoring means that you both get credit for creating the product and share in the revenues.

If you are an expert on a topic, but not a writer, find a writer to co-author the project with you. Conversely, if you’re a writer without specific knowledge, find a subject matter expert and partner with them to create the product.

Hire a ghost writer

A ghost writer is someone who will write the ebook for you anonymously, with the writing credits going solely to you. You supply the expertise and guidance and the ghost writer puts it in a readable format. You can hire ghost writers on an hourly basis or for a flat fee, depending on the scope of the project.

There is no shame in using a ghost writer to put your thoughts to digital paper. You don’t really think all those pro athletes and Hollywood actresses can write 300 page books now, do you?

Publish a directory

Can’t think of a subject that you’re qualified to write about? Try compiling a directory. A directory is nothing more than a listing of specialized information that you target market to a particular segment of the buying public. For example, my company publishes a dropship and wholesale industry directory that is a listing of company names, addresses, phone numbers, and website addresses. I simply have someone research the industry and compile their findings in a directory format, package it nicely, and sell it online for $27.

Sign on with an affiliate program and sell their info products

There are thousands of companies that sell informational products and most have affiliate programs that you can sign on with. Becoming an affiliate basically means you become a reseller of the company’s products. You promote the product, you make the sale, the company delivers the product, and you earn a commission.

The key to creating a successful info product is this: the information must be worth far more than the price of the ebook itself. If you’re charging $27 for your product, it must give the buyer many times that price in perceived value.

I asked info product expert Jim Edwards, co-Author of “How To Write and Publish Your Own eBook in as little a 7 Days” for his advice on how to create a killer info product.

Here are Jim’s Top 5 Tips:

Niche It – Make sure you are targeting a highly defined niche audience… don’t try to sell to everyone. You can get a lot more money showing life insurance agents how to find more customers to buy $250,000 policies than you can trying to sell a product on generic sales skills improvement.

Hit Their Pain – Make sure your info product hits a painful problem that members of your target audience will do just about ANYTHING to solve. The more intense the pain, the more they’re willing to pay to get rid of it.

Give Them A Taste – Give people a taste of what you offer in your info-product by giving them a sample. Just like the wholesale clubs get you to buy tater-tots in a 50 lb. bag by giving you one to try, you can induce people to buy your information by letting them read the first chapter or listen to the first few minutes of an audio.

Entertain Them – People hate to be bored. Increase the power of your product by adding humor, drama and other entertainment elements that make them want more and more. This will not only help with future sales to satisfied customers, it will also keep your refunds down and increase word of mouth advertising.

Keep it Evergreen – Don’t make the mistake of creating a product that hits a fad or a fleeting market. Create info-products that can be updated with very little effort. This allows you to create a product once and keep the sales rolling in for years (literally) to come!

Small Business Q&A is written by veteran entrepreneur
and syndicated columnist, Tim Knox.
Tim’s latest books include “Small Business Success Secrets”
and “The 30 Day Blueprint For Success!”
Related Links:
http://www.smallbusinessqa.com
http://www.dropshipwholesale.net

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