As a consultant, I’ve deliberately avoided making too big a deal about this recession we find ourselves in because.

First it doesn’t help a great deal to dwell upon problems when really you ought to be thinking about solutions; and secondly, you’re probably hearing plenty about it from everyone else.

I’ve been getting a lot of emails and calls from business owners who are having an extremely bad time of things at the moment. Everyone, it seems, is asking the same question: “can you help me survive the recession?”

Hmm. Well, first thing I’ll say is this is a hell of a time to ask. The time to be looking for new business is when you’re busy, not when things are rapidly going creek-wise and paddleless. But, there’s no point in worrying about what you can’t change. You can’t change the wind, but you can change the set of your sail. The economy is like it IS, so deal with it in that way.

So, let’s do what I always find it’s best to do with any threat and that’s to face it squarely: there is some pretty bad stuff going on all over the world right now, the economy is dire, it’s probably going to get worse, and just what can we do about it?

Well, let me ruffle a few feathers and annoy a lot of people by saying right upfront I actually don’t believe it needs to be that much of a big deal for us. There are some very powerful things we can do to not just survive this recession but actually to thrive and come out the other side in an even better position than we were going into it. But, does it mean we can just carry on doing things the same old way we’re doing them now and perhaps have been doing them for many years?

No, it doesn’t.

We’ve had it pretty easy until recently, and we could afford to be complacent about marketing and getting new business through the door.
But now things have changed, and if you don’t change with them, then you’re going to have a rough time of it, even to the extent you might go out of business.

So we need to ask ourselves some pretty tough questions: exactly what challenges are we facing? What can we do about them? And how can we still think ‘big’ and grow our businesses and grow our profits, regardless of what’s going on around us?

First, look back over the last few downturns we’ve weathered, and notice something interesting. Notice while there were a lot of businesses struggling, and indeed there were a lot of businesses actually going out of business… there were a few, perhaps 1% or 2% which did very well indeed. Believe me, this wasn’t down to luck.

Here’s the question: what did they do differently?

The answer may surprise you. Because you’re going to find the biggest single factor determining your success or failure in the recession is your attitude, or ‘mindset’. The most important thing these successful business owners did was decide not to knuckle under to the recession. They decided to succeed, instead.

Now, this might sound like a bunch of hippy, New Age woo-woo rubbish, but it’s not. I’m not talking about affirmations or ‘The Secret’ or anything like that at all. If you want to read a highly entertaining and deeply insightful bit of real scientific research on this, I recommend Richard Wiseman’s ‘The Luck Factor’.

Basically, good and bad things happen to us all in roughly equal measure, and the difference between so-called ‘lucky’ and ‘unlucky’ people isn’t what happens to them so much as what they pay attention to and remember. If I can sum it up, I’d say ‘you get more of what you focus on’. See, when you’re surrounded by bad news in the papers and on the television, when almost every conversation you have revolves around the dreadful state of the economy, something happens to you: you inevitably get drawn into all the negativity and unconsciously accept all this doom and gloom as being an unavoidable truth.

Consequently, most business owners are approaching this recession with the view they’re going to ‘just hang on’ and weather the storm. I tell you now: if that’s you, then that’s the BEST you can hope for. We rarely exceed our goals and expectations. As the old saying goes, ‘if you want to hit an eagle, aim for the moon; aim for the eagle and you’ll hit a rock’.

So, the very first thing you need to be thinking about is setting some ambitious and positive goals (and remember I am not taking about tree-hugging here), and so instead of thinking in terms of just ‘hanging on’, think in terms of doubling or tripling your profits in the next 12 months. OK, so you might not actually hit that particular moon, but you will no doubt bag a few eagles in the process.

Once you set this goal for yourself, your brain, which has evolved to be an incredibly powerful pattern-matching and goal-seeking piece of equipment, will start looking for ways to achieve what you want.

OK, once you’ve set your goal, what now? What about those opportunities I mentioned? Well, the chief one is linked to what I just shared with you about people’s expectations.

Your competitors are worrying and fretting and setting their sights on just ‘getting by’. That means their actions and strategies are all aimed at just ‘getting by’. And that’s the best they can hope to achieve. But really, the customers out there still buying are just as scared by this recession as everyone else, and they want to be buying from someone bold and confident.

They want leadership and certainty. If you have set ambitious goals and are acting congruently with your words, then that’s what you offer them. Following on from this, you’ll notice in their fear and panic, most of your competitors will have curtailed their marketing and dropped their prices.

This is great news for you. First, because low price is almost never what really interests us; and secondly, if they aren’t marketing and you are, then you appear to be the only game in town.

Of course, now’s the time people start to complain and whine about how ‘expensive’ marketing is. Fooey. Not so. Some of the best and most effective marketing you can do is completely free, or as close to free as makes no difference. And don’t make the mistake of thinking in this case ‘free’ means ‘cheap and nasty’.

Think on it: how much does a recommendation from a friend cost, and how effective is it? You see my point, yes?

You may have noticed clients have changed their habits a little, but that’s OK. I’ve noticed it in my own business for sure: more clients than ever, but the jobs tend to be smaller and my clients more frantic.

That’s not my ideal situation, but it’s easy enough to cope with and cash flow has increased quite nicely, even though I’ve substantially raised my fees (because I get results and people are happy to pay whatever I ask - there’s a lesson in there for every business).

In short: I’m busier now than I’ve ever been.

So, pull your chin out of your chest, straighten your back and get out there and GET MARKETING!

Jon McCulloch is the hottest marketing sensation in the UK and Ireland and is now taking the US by storm. Discover how YOU can turn the current downturn and recession to your advantage with 9 simple but highly effective strategies: www.RecessionIsOpportunity.com

Social Business Networks inexpensively interconnect professionals online, in particular, independent entrepreneurs and smaller companies. Social Business Networks also give you the opportunity to showcase your experience and achievements within your network. If you are an entrepreneur or small business owner, you need to be literate in the current world of social networking profiles, tools, and online connections to stay competitive and promote your business.

Participating in social networking is an often-overlooked small business marketing tool. In the real world, our networks are hidden. Social networking sites solve this problem by letting you see who your friends and connections know, who your friends, friends know and so on. You then are free to contact anyone that interests you by inviting them to join your own social network.

If you are looking to expand your contact base, LinkedIn and Facebook are two of the more popular services that facilitate business-oriented connections. Facebook showed a 270 percent increase in visitors in 2007 over the year before according to comScore, a leader in measuring the digital world. Ecademy and Xing are also popular business networking sites.

Here are 5 quick tips to successful social business networking:

1. Take the time to learn how to properly use the business social networking site that you join. Most social networking sites offer online tutorials. Many sites allow you to post your own user generated content in the form of blogs, pictures, slide shows and videos. Many users do not use the social networking sites to their fullest potential by taking advantage of these features.

2. Don’t let your ego take over and join in the race to build up a massive list of contacts to show off your “social power.” If you have more than 500 “friends,” take the time out to sort through these “friends” to be aware of the people you may be attracting to your network.

3. Build and manage your online reputation. According to a report on MSN, several companies are now using the “friends” on an applicant’s social-networking page as references. Not only are they looking at your page on sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn, they may also take the next step in contacting your friends. The old days of a page with three references and three phone numbers on it that you controlled are over. With social business networking, you open up your rolodex for the whole world to see.

4. Be professional. Type your posts, e-mails, comments or chats in a professional manner and do not use internet slang such as “lol”, “omg”, etc. Type your email, comments or chat messages as if you were standing in front of the person speaking face-to-face. Let’s face it; this could be your first impression with a potential client or HR recruiter.

5. Establish a Routine. When logging on to your preferred Business Social Networking sites, set aside a designated length of time to spend here. Have some specific goals in mind when visiting the site.

Don’t take a pass on the whole social networking trend. Millions of professionals are learning how social networks work, how social networking works, and how shared applications can be viral and ever-present. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to create a successful social business network of your own.

Robin Matuk is an Internet Business Coach who addresses the needs of entrepreneurs and business owners looking to maximize the power of the Internet to build, manage, and grow a thriving business. She is the founder of My Digital Coach, and a a blogger at Creating with Impact.

The owner of a small manufacturing company has 29 employees. After growing to this size and being in this very competitive business for just 5 years, this owner is experiencing headaches typical for a company in this stage of its growth curve.

Issues include:
1. The inability of the CEO to release control to key employees creating a sense of distrust among every single person in the company.

2. Questions about growth go unanswered more than likely because the CEO hasn’t created a vision for the company or felt the need to share it with people if it does exist.

3. Decision making is only done at the CEO level because employees know that their decisions will be belittled, not just questioned, leaving employees thinking that not asking is better than taking a risk in asking.

4. Experienced employees wanting to step up and take a more active role in helping to run the company receive no encouragement and lack the motivation to pursue their own professional growth because of what is perceived as a lack of trust and willingness on the part of the CEO to let go of authority and responsibility.

5. The CEO firmly believes that people just need to step up and do their jobs and shows impatience, and in fact, considers it a weakness when people can’t make decisions, ask too many questions and appear to not understand what is expected of them.

This is a company headed for disaster.

Will it happen right away? No. And many companies continue to expand and grow with the issues outlined above. There is nothing easy about running a company and being in the shoes of a CEO is a demanding and difficult place to be.

However, if a CEO has employees, there is an expectation among the people that are hired that the CEO is there to lead, guide, direct, manage, coach and discipline the people that work for that CEO.

In James Fischer’s book, “Navigating the Growth Curve”, he introduces a unique phenomena that indicated there is a blend of confidence and caution in every company and successful CEOs understood this critical ratio. They understood also that it was their responsibility to provide the balance of this ratio in order to move their companies forward.

The Builder/Protector Ratio
This phenomenon is called the Builder/Protector Ratio (B/P Ratio) and is a measurement within a company of confidence vs. caution. It’s a critical measurement tool for a CEO and their leadership team to be able to assess the company’s ability to accept change, react with confidence to that change and help the company achieve its stated goals.

A Builder mindset creates new ideas, takes on new initiatives, and finds ways to expand the revenue and profitability of the enterprise. A Builder chooses to challenge and improve the way things are done. They are risk tolerant and highly supportive of growth. A Builder tends to be confident in the financial strength of a company and hold a high degree of confidence in the company’s processes and systems.

A Protector mindset is cautious and prefers to slow down the pace of change. They are risk adverse and highly suspicious of growth. Protectors may not feel confident in the company’s financial strength and are slow to embrace the optimism of the future.

Too much Builder or too much Protector mindset in a company can create unrealized obstacles to growth.

The CEO of this small manufacturing company is unknowingly creating a company of Protectors because of his need to control and his hesitation to bring his employees into the vision and strategic plans for the company.

His controlling nature has virtually shut down the Builder-like capability in every single employee. By not encouraging communication, the Builders in the company will not step up and take risks and will revert to Protector status quickly.

By not sharing with the employees any information about the company’s future plans or their current financial situation, the employees will always come from a Protector mindset, which can be interpreted by the CEO as an unwillingness to step up and get the job done.

A company that had huge potential for growth will suddenly find itself with a culture of resistance, high staff turnover and life for the CEO will become almost unbearable.

Determining Your Company’s Builder/Protector Ratio
There are specific signs happening today in your company that will immediately let you know how balanced your Builder/Protector Ratio is. A leader can get a good idea of their company’s B/P Ratio by 1) tuning into the voltage (think energy) in your company 2) talking to your leadership team and asking some pointed questions and 3) listening to your employees, really listening.

What are the signs? Are people engaged in open and active dialogue? Are meetings productive, full of valuable information? Are good decisions being made?

What are the questions? Does your leadership team or your employees appear optimistic about the future? Are they confident in the financial strength of the company? Do they have a high level of confidence in their co-workers?

What are your employees saying? Is there too much behind the scenes gossiping? Is there a high rate of absenteeism or turnover? Do your managers or employees complain about a lack of accountability? Are projects derailed or slowed down too often?

Creating a Builder Mindset
A leader can help create more of a Builder mindset in their company by doing one thing and doing it often. Communicate. Communicate where the company is going. Communicate why it is going there. Communicate what the goals of the company are today and for the future. Communicate to individuals daily. Get to know each employee. Share critical information all the time and do it often.

If a company is aware of its B/P Ratio it can 1) make good decisions in a timely manner 2) accept change as a part of the company’s culture and 3) engage employees in meaningful dialogue because they have helped design the strategic future of the company.

Remember, a confident company is a profitable company.

Laurie Taylor helps business owners solve problems that impact their ability to grow a successful company. Find out more about Laurie’s business growth programs at http://www.igniteyourbiz.com.

Most entrepreneurs rebel against following rules. It’s that go-for-broke attitude that has started many successful ventures and those ventures didn’t start out by observing rules.

However, a thorough understanding of what stage of growth your company is in will provide a business owner with critical rules of the road that help business owners, with fewer than 500 employees, focus on critical aspects of their company.

As the President of a $12 million company that grew beyond my expectations, I struggled to find ways to engage employees in understanding what was needed to manage that growth. And I struggled against the overwhelming feeling of frustration in trying to manage all the challenges being thrown our way every day.

Once I began to understand the stages of growth and could articulate the rules of the road for our current stage of growth, those challenges became easier to manage. Why?

Because I was talking a language each employee in my company could understand and I could carve out three or four areas of focus instead of 20 or 30. It was getting focused on the critical rules of the road for my company when the dot-com blowup of March 2000 took out 30% of my staff that saved us from the brink of bankruptcy.

I’ve outlined two of the five critical rules of the road for each stage of growth.

As you read them and identify your stage of growth, simply add these two critical areas to your current strategic plan and watch your focus get laser-sharp and your productivity rise.

Stage 1: 1 to 10 employees

– Generate, track and preserve cash
– Focus 80% of your resources on selling the 2 to 3 offerings with the best margins

Stage 2: 11 to 19 employees

– Sell absolutely every day
– Develop, without fail, three employees to be responsible, accountable and proactive

Stage 3: 20 to 34 employees

– Without fail, clarify and strengthen any and all communication with your employees
– Delegate responsibility and authority to capable supervisors and meet with them regularly

Stage 4: 35 to 57 employees

– Hire and effectively train professional department managers who are responsible and accountable
– Establish a strict company project management template

One rule that you may not want to know about says: What you don’t get done in your current stage of growth will not just go away. The rules in each stage of growth need to be addressed and if they aren’t, you will face them again as you move to the next stage of growth.

Stage 5: 58 to 95 employees

– Integrate the management team into an inter-dependent, executive-focused leadership unit
– Establish a fully integrated living budget by revenue group and by department

Stage 6: 96 to 160 employees:

– Without fail, establish a two to three day new staff orientation
– Without fail, secure regular one-on-one supervisor/employee meetings

Stage 7: 161 to 500 employees:

– Overhaul the business model to optimize direction and margins
– Set up an enterprise management/leadership succession system.

Growing a business demands every minute of your energy, resources and brain power. The good news is you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. By understanding your stage of growth, by knowing what the rules of the road are for each stage of growth, you will have headlights to help you navigate the curves and get ahead of the obstacles.

Laurie Taylor is a business growth specialist. Laurie specializes in a unique growth model ‘The 7 Stages of Growth’ and helps business owners successfully navigate their own growth curve. Learn more about the 7 Stages of Growth at http://www.igniteyourbiz.com.

If you hear of the word bookmark, you associate it with something that helps you remember a page in a book, so you can come back to read it again at a later time. In the case of websites and web pages on the internet, social bookmarking is the practice of saving web pages, in a way tagging them, so you can view and read them again. When you bookmark a page that is constantly updated, like a news page, each time you return to view it, there is something new for you to see.

Are there any advantages to social bookmarking?

The answer is yes! As said before, internet users benefit from social bookmarking as it allows them to come back to sites that they like, or pages that have very useful and relevant content. Also, according to sources, if a site is constructed well, and has very interesting and expertly written content, there is a higher probability that it will be bookmarked.

Think about it. Would you be coming back to a site if it didn’t have anything important to say? Such is the motivational factor that drives web surfers to stay within a site, and possibly even purchase items and recommend it to others.

The more times a site is bookmarked, the better it is for Search Engine Optimization. Search engine bots or crawlers are able to index more sites through this. In a way, the number of social bookmarks made can directly affect the page popularity and page rank.

In terms of the frequency of the returns of visitors to your site, it will be ideal if they bookmark your site by subscribing to web feeds. In this way, whenever you make changes or updates, your former visitors will be sure to come back.

Is this what RSS feeds are about?

RSS feeds are only one of the many types of web feeds available. Users who have aggregator programs on their computer are reminded or alerted every time an update is made on any of the sites they bookmarked or have subscribed to web feeds. RSS feeds are a common feature on blogs about political issues, news websites, online magazines, and more. Other examples of methods of social bookmarking through web feeds are Digg, Stumbleupon, Reddit, and more.

How can your website benefit from social bookmarking?

Can you visualize your site with hundreds to thousands of visitors per day, and all of them coming back regularly to check out what’s new? You will soon find that the conversion rate of your site visitors to product buyers will be high, and who wouldn’t want that? With this method of social bookmarking, you can improve your site’s page ranking, since more bookmarks of your site will be made by users.

Robin Matuk is an Internet Business Coach who addresses the needs of entrepreneurs and business owners looking to maximize the power of the Internet to build, manage, and grow a thriving business. She is the founder of My Digital Coach, and a blogger at Creating with Impact.

It is hard to get excited about something if you don’t feel that you have a good reason to be doing it. I sometimes have that problem and I keep tuning my why(s) so that they are as clear as crystal to me. Let’s face it. Many of us get into the MLM industry part-time while still working a full-time J-O-B. On top of that job which takes most of our time (including travelling), all of us have many other big responsibilities in our lives so our time is valuable. Thus, if you haven’t done so, do it now because it will be your motivating factor when times are tough.

In fact time may be your burning desire: time with your family, time on vacation, time fishing, time on the golf course, or finally some time to yourself. Personally, for me it was time on my terms. I don’t want to be tied to someone else’s schedule all the time. Working for someone is basically about paying the bills, get to just over being broke and sacrificing your freedom for doing that. Mind you I do enjoy working in my profession as a CPA.

Financial Freedom is another popular burning desire and this is my number three reason of why. Many of us have signed up to make extra money to have the things we want or to get free from debt or leave a legacy for our children or to have comfortable retirement with good health. On a side note, if financial freedom is your burning desire, I strongly recommend that you get familiar with the works of Robert Kiyosaki.

Lastly but this is not all there is to it, some people want to develop themselves much further. The best way to becoming a successful entrepreneur without having to lay down a huge capital investment is to take up a home based business. That is my number two reason why. It not only helps me to develop my skills in leadership and marketing but also develop myself to becoming a better networker who has influence on others for a good cause. I say this now with ease but sometimes I have challengers for they put much of a demand on me.

Once you have determined your why, write it down and review it regularly. Put it on the places where you can view it regularly. For example, stick it on your refrigerator, on the bathroom mirror, on the corner of your computer monitor and etc. The key is to look at it often. Let it be a reminder of why you are working so hard and sacrificing so much.

Create some clear goals around it, follow your system, be persistent, believe that nothing can stop your burning desire and go to work.

Now, go find your burning desire and flame on. . .

Below are some simple questions to stimulate your thinking about your big, bold dreams. If you want a rich and abundant life, it all begins with a dream!

1. If time and money is not an issue:

What are three things you would like to do?

Where would you like to go?

What are two things you would like to purchase?

2. What dream have you always thought about in your mind, but never told anyone about it?

3. If there is a 100% wildly successful activity, what would you do?

4. Describe in details about your dream home - the outside, the inside, the feel about it and the surroundings

5. What three things are you really passionate about?

6. If you had $500,000 to donate, who or what organization would you give it to?

7. What are three things you want your dreams to do for your family?

8. What is the one thing that really drives you?

9. What would cause you to get up early, stay up late, and ignore fatigue?

10. List three things that will make you happy and full of joy.

Now that you have some good information about yourself, write them down on paper and write one dream you feel you can accomplish in one year or less.

Then work for it focusing with that end in sight. When you make that dream a reality, set another small dream in front of you and work for it.

When you work toward your small dreams you are also working toward that big, bold dreams too.

Jackie is best known for her coaching. She has much to offer you from her exposure with Magnetic Sponsoring and applications of strategies at Work At Home Business
To build with tight budget at Building On A Budget
To generate your own leads at Traffic Formula

Many business people become discouraged upon reading the headlines in the newspapers. They see predicted doom and gloom and ask themselves, why bother?

Your attitude and belief system affect everything you do. By paying attention to what you can do to improve your business climate and believing you can make a difference and succeed, you will stand a far better chance for succeeding. The following guideline will help you through tougher economic times.

The three easy steps you can take to boost business during tough times are:

1. Get the education for your business that you were putting off.

2. Call a minimum of 10 people per day whose name is in your database and whom you met personally.

3. Create and promote new product on days the phone is quiet.

Education comes in many forms: attending a university class, webinar, tele-class, seminars and conventions. Networking alone will potentially put you in front of a contact who has a brand new idea for you to consider.

Belonging to a mastermind group with members who have complementary businesses can bring about new ideas and insight on how to fast track your goals. Hiring a coach familiar with your business and your goals is one of the quickest routes to success and will pay back exponentialy.

Any piece of education will get you to your goal far more quickly and effectively than going it alone. As you continue to educate yourself and grow in confidence and with new ideas, you begin attracting more people to your business.

Everyone in business must be dedicated to a database management system or CRM (Customer Relationship Management) as it is referred to by many. The best advice is to group your contacts according to where you met them. In this manner, it is easy to reconnect months later with familiarity including where you met.

When you find your phone traffic has slowed, make it a habit to call a minimum of 10 contacts listed in your personal database on a daily basis. Most often, the person on the other end will be so glad you thought of them, they will begin to brainstorm with you as to how you can help one another. As this becomes an everyday habit, your phone will begin ringing again.

The days that are particularly slow are the days when you can easily give focused thought to writing articles, compiling a manual, recording the podcasts you have been meaning to do, and writing a manuscript.

Should one or some of these already be completed, the slower days are perfect for finding resources that will help promote your product(s). You can offer a free tele-class or webinar for your contacts; develop an affiliate program and pay a reasonable commission; speak to groups about your business and how your products will assist others; or become a vendor at larger venues to show off your new creations.

As you can see, by implementing the 3 easy steps listed above, instead of complaining about slow times, you will create good times on your own terms.

Through the years of entrepreneurship, I have followed all of the advice above. In particular, I hired coaches for a few months at a time when I was ready to get to the next level and get there more quickly than figuring it out on my own. Their fees were earned back exponentially.

While newscasters are predicting the economic perfect storm, many of us who follow the advice above are looking at our best year yet.

Elinor Stutz, CEO of Smooth Sale, LLC and author of “Nice Girls DO Get the Sale” trains others on her proven relationship selling techniques through services and products. Her book sells worldwide.

Services include training, coaching, and speaking. Her products suit all learning styles.

Visit Smooth Sale or call 800-704-1499.

Alright, I was daring enough to put sex in my title, but what does it really have to do with your online business and online marketing basics? Would you believe everything? I am not going to tell you how to use sex sites and other off color things to build your business. I will show how sex and harnessing its power will and does change your power to achieve online marketing success.

Nothing here is new. In fact, Napoleon Hill has already covered the subject well. Long ago, Hill studied and recorded in ‘Think and Grow Rich’ the power of sex transmutation. Now what does that mean? Sex transmutation is taking your incredible sex drive and transmuting (or converting) it to highly productive performance.

You know from your personal life that sex is a powerful influence, combined with love, channeled to positive flow, and controlled it can turn mediocrity into genius. In life, sex has very constructive powers including the continuation of the human race, maintaining good physical health and emotional balance, and propelling mediocrity to genius. Are you getting the point yet, or maybe you dont believe me and think I am just pulling your leg.

Sex and genius; what do they have to do with each other? If you look through history, (which I won’t do here since this is a short article for online marketing success strategies) you can certainly name many examples of greatness you are familiar with. You can even review the people you admire today and identify the creative genius.

Something known to be common to their genius is the ability to use the ’sixth sense’ or creative ability harnessed within. Your creative ability is essential in any business especially in developing your online marketing basics. Super achievers in any field have learned to stimulate their mind in a way that makes their brain function at a higher than average intensity. Genius functions by concentrating on known qualities and factors (of an unfinished product or strategy) and keeping this mind picture for the subconscious to capture and flash the answer to the mind.

Maybe it sounds hokey to you, but maybe it’s because you haven’t allowed your mind to focus and capture your ideas for your true genius to emerge. Maybe you believe this is not an online marketing basic, but the fact is, you must start focusing on your genius (you do have it) as part of your online marketing strategy.

What does this have to do with sex? Your knowledge of historical biographies, biographical movies, and people you admire today will clearly demonstrate that love and sex create a powerful drive motivating the creative genius. Everyone you can think of that experienced incredible success has a love and sex story that spurred the genius.

Everyone has a sex drive and it can be positive if controlled and channeled with love, or negative if allowed to be the motivation without love. Napoleon Hill analyzed 25,000 people and found that the majority of people don’t learn to control their sex drive until about 40 years of age. This is also the same time that most people achieve their real genius, between 40 and 50 years of age.

Harnessing sex and love will explode your creative genius. The earlier in life you learn this, the sooner your online marketing basics will convert to a genius online marketing strategy. What do you do about it?

1. Stop ignoring sex and love, you have to have it, it is biological
2. Stop chasing sex alone, it will destroy you and prevent you from achieving your genius.
3. Use the powerful energy of sex in your portrayed confidence: your handshake, your tone of voice, your posture, and your clothing.
4. Allow love to exist with your sex, this combines spiritual power (love) with physical power (sex) and creates an incredible chemistry to put you in touch with your creativity.

When the power of sex and love is part of your online marketing basics, your creative genius becomes infinite. Your mind is no longer finite and your online business propels to the next level.

Follow Daniel at Think Big and Grow to learn the many strategies of his online marketing basics. Be sure to signup for his free newsletter, ‘Think Big and Grow.’

From time to time I am asked by business advisors, senior level managers, and successors in privately held or family owned companies, if I have any special insights that will magically get the owners of their company to lighten up.

Why aren’t they willing to delegate some of their authority, upgrade their technology to take advantage of cutting edge strategies the younger generation and their advocates are all fired up about, and give everyone a little slack - so they feel empowered to make decisions on their own once in a while?

Recently the son-in-law of a business owner told me he was really excited about a database driven addition to the company’s web site. All those time consuming frequently asked questions about their warranty procedures would be online and answered automatically. Customers would be able to schedule warranty service via an online form, their sales people would be able to periodically contact their most loyal customers with notices of private sales - and much much more.

He got together with the database engineer and the web designer and together they created a compelling PowerPoint presentation for dad. He said dad listened attentively to the presentation, asking relevant thoughtful questions.

Looking back, the son-in-law said that he should not have scheduled the presentation for 10:00 Wednesday morning because the instant it was over, at ten minutes before noon, dad stood up, reached for his sport coat and was heading out the door to his weekly Rotary Club luncheon. Reacting to the questioning look from his son-in-law, he motioned for him to come out into the corridor, where dad turned to him and said, “Tell him we’re not interested.” And that was that.

Over the years I have seen many ideas presented by successors and their advisors scuttled by the senior generation (the people with the checkbook) with the same response or maybe it’s the “wait a while” excuse supported by dads cronies (who are also resisting the inevitable), and often includes others inside the business who feel threatened by the younger generation.

Why are these forward-thinking ideas being rejected? Half a lifetime spent working with family businesses has taught me about the fears, concerns, and motivations of the typical family business owner.

Let’s look at things from dad’s point of view. Let’s face it, from his perspective, things are often going just fine the way the are. Probably 90% of the companies that were started when his business was launched have failed, disappeared, and are long forgotten.

The business is successful now because he kept his own council, stayed away from advisors who have never run a business themselves and who make money telling people like him how to run theirs. The business is successful because he has avoided the advice of others who really had no idea what they were talking about. And he is successful because he was committed to his mission to grow the company in spite of the odds and in spite of the folks looking to distract him from his objectives with their clever ideas.

A business owner told me that “my neighbors think everything I touch turns to gold” because they never learn about all the ideas I have tried that failed.

Successors and their advisor friends want to run the business thinking they can do it better than dad. What they are really saying is that they can take what dad has created over a 20, 30, 40 year period and leverage it into something that will really impress their friends. If they lose it all, well they’re sorry - but not as sorry as their dad. He loses face in the community and the industry plus he may lose his home and his retirement income.

Betting the business on junior’s big ideas - promoted by his peers and his advisor pals, could mean that dad ends up living in his son’s basement apartment. That’s not likely to inspire dad to get on board with an expansion of the plant.

Creating a successful company is not a straight line proposition. Dad has had to cut corners, try things that did not work, keep a smile on his face when he’s afraid that if the check from a slow-pay customer doesn’t arrive soon he can’t meet payroll, and he can’t tell anyone about it. If others find out how tough things are they might lose faith in him and the business. That loss of faith is just one more thing - maybe the final straw.

After years of juggling things get better. Dad really is on easy street. Since he has made it look so simple all along, outsiders have no idea how hard it was. And then the successors come along and want “introduce advanced improved management strategies” that change the ways things are being done.

The members of the next generation waltz in with their newly minted MBA under their arm and want to be in charge. They know from the books they’re been reading and from listening to professors who have never built a company from scratch - that dad’s company could be much more profitable.

They bring in the advisors who support the changes - people who are getting paid when they convince dad to spend money on these brilliant ideas. Often these are the same advisors (or their children) that dad avoided so successfully for so many years.

A tactic I have recommended several times when the successors want more room to make decisions - to be a more important part of the team, is to ask them to sign over their house, cars, and other assets as collateral. If the decisions work out they will share the benefits and if not they bear some of the very real responsibility.

I am not suggesting some informal agreement. I mean to literally have them pledge their assets to at least the same percentage as their dad - legally, contractually.

When people share the risks and the rewards they are more likely to communicate honestly with one other and look at the pros and cons of decisions very carefully. Maybe if your dad saw that you were as committed as he is, you’d get further with your ideas.

Fear of failure goes beyond the money. Often it is looking bad to their contemporaries and competitors– that causes them to hold back. One business owner said, “I’ve spent 45 years in this business and am on the Board of the national association. I’m thought of as a successful guy because I am a successful guy. I am not going to let go of things which, if they aren’t handled right, can make me look bad.”

Business owners have always faced challenges, today’s new technologies are not the first new technologies they’ve seen. Successful business owners know that some mistakes the business can and has absorbed. But that some mistakes will absorb the business.

Premature delegation offers too much risk to the business owners self-esteem. Delegating because the advisors say it’s the thing to do, turning the reins over to others to keep them happy hoping for the best really isn’t a very smart idea.

And if the ideas of the successors are right on the money - then what? The business owner knows that he will be asked to go to the bank for more capital to fund the successful ideas for growth. That puts him in even more financial jeopardy and ties up even more of his assets in the business - at a time when would like to be getting money out for a change.

When successors and their advisors ask me how they can get the old man to delegate more, give them more say in the way things are being done - allow them to implement 21st century strategies, etc. I tell them that frankly I am amazed when the senior generation is willing to do anything at all.

Successors and their advocates inside the family and out seem impatient to me and to dad.

Let’s consider this in the context of the military. Dad is the commanding officer and the successors start out as the lowest ranking officer possible.

In the military it takes years of on-the-job training, specialized schooling, and collaboration with colleagues up and down the chain of command in order for these young officers to move up through the ranks. Each step along the way is measured with responsibility, authority, and accountability added with each one.

Over time the decisions made at the top and those made by the rising young officer are more and more coordinated because each person is learning to trust the judgements and motives of the other.

What’s the bottom line solution for you the senior generation owner or the successor? Start today to develop the path, begin the collaboration based on mutual commitments both personally and financially to one another and realize that this is a process not an event.

Estate planning documents, life insurance, etc. are quite necessary because they guarantee the future you are seeking and should be drafted with that in mind. However estate planning documents are not a substitute for the years of co-developed strategies for the common future of the company.

If you have been unable to communicate in the past, why is that? What are you afraid of? If you have been unwilling to address uncomfortable issues together, why? Do you seriously believe you can wish them away, that time will make them get better? If you are so paralyzed by the past and so intrenched by your positions, then your company will be one of the successful ones that fail. It’s up to you.

If you think you need a non-biased third party to help you bridge these discussions and help you get the process started - someone with no ax to grind, no financial stake in the input they provide, and no advice to protect, engage the services of an experienced coach you both trust and respect.

Wayne Messick reports on how Main St. businesses are poised to succeed in the 21st Century on his blog
www.WayneMessick.com His updated peer-to-peer collaboration report can be found at
www.SelfDirecterPeerGroups.com

Whenever you are ready to launch a new online venture, a great way to drive targeted traffic to your new website is to write a great press release. When writing a press release it is important to keep a few things in mind to avoid having your press release labeled as shameless self promotion.

Even though the press release is a form of advertising, it is important that it does not sound like advertising. A good press release should sound like a third party that has nothing to gain by the press release informing interested parties of a potentially interesting website or online business.

The first thing to keep in mind when writing a press release is that you want to convince the reader that you are providing valid, researched, information rather than presenting your opinion as fact. A great way to show the reader that the information contained in the press release is legitimate is to provide statistics. Hard numbers and facts will help give the press release some credibility. When providing statistics stick to simple numbers that help illustrate or back up statements made in the press release that will not be to confusing.

Secondly, make sure the press release is written in an interesting manner. Be entertaining even when facts are being presented. Write your press release in the same manner as a news article or something that is going to be read for entertainment reasons. A dry press release containing nothing but facts and figures is not going to make interesting reading and will not create the same buzz that a creative, entertaining press release will.

Third, when writing your press release do not constantly mention your domain name or website. Most press releases will have a contact area for media and that area will give you the chance to provide the relevant domain name. Mentioning the website domain name by providing the full URL once in the body of the press release is also acceptable. Having the domain name present in the press release anymore than that will make the press release seem like nothing more than a way to get free promotion and will be ignored by many of the people you want to read the press release.

Lastly, do not stuff your press release with keywords or sales jargon. Remember, a press release is not a sales pitch. It is completely possible to promote yourself, your product, and your website without sounding like an online sales person.

Robin Matuk is an Internet Business Coach who addresses the needs of entrepreneurs and business owners looking to maximize the power of the Internet to build, manage, and grow a thriving business. She is the founder of My Digital Coach, a blogger at Creating with Impact and a community builder at The Big Idea Community. Check out her website The Big Idea Community and her blog Creating with Impact.