But through all the volatility there are some areas for investment that still are viable. Property Investment is one area and is so attractive because it is tangible and directly under your control. Sean Wood and others at propertytutors.com have always invested in bricks and mortar rather than risk everything on intangibles.

Benefits of Property Investment

• Property is a Passive income – once you have the property, it quickly works for you either through rental or resale.
  The ability to become rich over a long period of time – Property is said to double in value every 10 years – in Auckland property doubles in less time – around seven years.
• Numerous strategies – there are many options and ways you can structure your property investment business and its components: For example, purchase and trade; purchase and renovate; purchase; build and sell; land banking; sub-divisions
• Favourable tax laws – with the right advice and support you can set your property investment business up so you maximize the benefits to you but meet your obligations with fairness.
• Control of your wealth – you are in control of how much you invest and borrow.

Property is one of the various options open to individuals on the threshold of making investments. It is conceptually easy to understand what property is and how you can make money from investing in property. How much risk you take is a personal choice and your personality may play a role since it reflects their risk taking abilities. Property is considered to be “safe” and many people invest in at least one property in their lifetime.

Click here for more information about how Sean Wood and Property Tutors have been successful.

It sounds nuts. How am I a hostage, and how does becoming a prisoner put me on the road to freedom?

Shrinks tell me that six months as a hostage has more lasting negative effect on someone that a number of years in prison. Why? A hostage has no idea when they will get out, the rules change every day, things that got them relief on one day get a whole different reaction the next day. It could all end badly tomorrow without notice. Everything is up in the air all the time, chaos reigns, and the lack of any knowledge about the future makes it all seem futile and endless.

Sound like your business? Most business owners are hostages to their business with rules that change daily, a reactionary way of doing business, and no end in sight.

A prisoner knows exactly how long they are in for, what the rules are and even how than can get out early for good behavior. It’s difficult for a hostage to be encouraged and have hope because the future is a big unknown. A prisoner always has hope and can be encouraged that every day is a step closer to freedom by just doing the right things.

You need to become a prisoner on the way to freedom in your business and here’s how:

He who makes the rules wins

Most of us let our business create the rules for us and we simply react to everything coming at us. To fix this we need to believe we can start setting the rules for our business and have it start reacting to our needs.

The only way I know to do this effectively is put in place the biggest thing that differentiates a hostage from a prisoner – an end date, or what I call a Business Maturity Date. Decide what your Ideal Lifestyle looks like and when you want to be there. This is the first step to moving from hostage to prisoner to business freedom (see other posts here on picking a Business Maturity Date).

Working toward a date at which your business will begin to be mature can change everything in business for you. Without it you’ll just be a hostage for decades to come.

But what if I “fail” to get my business to maturity (the business can make money and function without me while I’m on vacation) on that date? The only failure is to not try. If you decide you don’t want to take the risk to build a mature business by a specific date, you are ensuring a 100% failure rate for ever getting there.

A man still finds his destiny on the path he chose to avoid it

Pick a business maturity date, move from being a hostage to a prisoner, and that will ensure you will get to freedom.

If you are thinking about trading, are new to trading or even if you are an experienced trader – ask yourself this question: How much cash should I place on a trade?. If you cannot answer with a mathematically generated risk-based formula, then you really should not be trading. If you are trading amounts based on what you can afford – or what feels right then you should not place that trade. You need to learn how to trade size. You could consider getting some training from Knowledge to Action, a forex trading training company.

How to Trade Size

Trading is a numbers game. Every single trade you place must be considered as “a trade in a sea of many trades”. Some trades will work out, others will not – that’s life.

Your job is to make sure that the ones that do not work out don’t hit your account like a freight train – meaning they must be risk managed. You must set the game up to win. Losing trades should nibble at your capital, not shatter it after a string of losers. It is not in your winning trades that fortunes are made; it is in the protection of your capital against heavy draw downs where winning traders are made.

One of the biggest causes of failure amongst traders therefore is the inability to manage risk and control losses.

Remember this: Huge Money is Only Made When a Little Money is Risked The Right Way and Commonly Used Wrong Way to Determine the Size of Your Trade

Here’s my first tip:

Handling Losses – if your trade drops below a pre-defined level, you must exit – no hesitation. Sure it will hurt but as a successful trader you know that this is part of trading – consider it learning capital and GET USED TO IT!

Being a successful investor or trader isn’t simply about winning more trades than you lose. It’s about controlling your losses so that the profits from your wins will outweigh the losing trades.

Don’t believe all you hear –  Read this Article …. on Knowledge to Action

Knowledge to Action has published 4 educational videos on Forex Trading. The videos provide a wealth of information on Forex trading for people new to Forex traders as well as the “old salts” of trading. The video series is over 5 hours long and is provided for FREE and NO strings attached.  To find out more – Read this Article.

Along the way I learned two valuable principles that transformed me and my businesses, and helped me build a business I could enjoy for decades:

1. You get what you intend, not what you hope for… and…
2. He who makes the rules wins.

Throughout a number of my businesses I intended to work extremely hard and make money, and I got exactly what I intended – hard work and some money. While growing those same businesses I “hoped” they would result in a great lifestyle and worked even harder to increase my chances. But we get what we intend, not what we hope for.

I learned that unless I very intentionally designed my work around building a great lifestyle, that all I was going to get was hard work and maybe some money. I decided I was going to turn the whole thing on its head, stop working for my business and make my business start working for me.

It dawned on me that “He who makes the rules wins”, and that I had been allowing my businesses to make the rules by just “hoping” they would give me a great lifestyle. I added “use my business to create a great lifestyle” to my intentionality, having grown into the belief now that business should not just give us money, but it should give us three things – money, time, and the opportunity for significance, or meaning.

This led me to develop simple tools that would keep me on track to create that lifestyle:

1. The Big Why – those with a great vision for what to do are more likely to be successful.
2. A Business Maturity Date – to give me a very clear, measure of the time, money, and significance I now intended for my business to bring me, and a specific date for when I intended to be there – Friday, February 18, 2001, at 10am.
3. A simple 2-page Strategic Plan – to help me stay above the daily Tyranny of the Urgent so I could focus on the things that would build a business that makes money while I’m on vacation.
4. Process Mapping – to get me off the treadmill, allow me to train others to do what I do, and create repeatable and consistent experiences for my clients.
5. Outside Eyes – I have others I meet with regularly who are helping me keep on track. I’m too subjective about my own business to make the kind of progress I regularly should.

February 18, 2011, we’ll be on our way to New Zealand celebrating the maturity of our business, and we fully intend for it to make money while we’re on vacation. Why don’t most businesses get here? Simple, the owner is doing what I used to do – intending to work hard and make money, and “hoping” it will all work out in a great lifestyle. We get what we intend, not what we hope for, And when I realized I could no longer let my businesses make the rules, I was on the road to freedom.

What are you doing to build a business that makes money while you’re on vacation?

UPDATE: The book is now out and available.

Where I sit – I’m a capitalist who believes that social entrepreneurship (it’s not a great use of the word entrepreneur, but I’ll go with it) is the surest route to making more money. If we focus on the needs of others first, we will, over time, do better than those who put their own interests ahead of others. Greed does work in the short run, but it is never sustainable in the long run. I believe a majority of capitalists would agree.

Where I stand – Every dollar earned by anyone in a legal way does some social good by creating a ripple effect behind it from the spending it also creates throughout the economy. This is a real, tangible social benefit that is at the root of my fellow capitalist’s argument that they don’t need someone to tell them they need to become a social entrepreneur. The term irritates them because it implies the economic impact of their business doesn’t already create massive social good. And it absolutely does.

But the difference between the social effect of traditional capitalism and the social effect of social entrepreneurship is the difference between passive and active.

As a capitalist, I understand very well that I don’t have to do a thing beyond sell something, hire someone, make a profit and begin spending to create a significant wake of passive social good with my business. But how much more powerful could my impact be if I was actively and intentionally using my business to do good beyond the passive revenue effect?

The fact is that a large minority of business owners has always been intentional about both making money and making an impact in the world around them. A good segment of businesses have always been actively involved in non-profits, building businesses in disadvantaged neighborhoods, hiring people others wouldn’t, giving better benefits to their employees and looking for ways to use their businesses to do intentional acts of sustainable kindness.

But these are not the capitalists I know who have problems with the term “social entrepreneurship”. It’s largely those who are passively social via revenue production who have trouble with it.

I think the term has real positive value in recognizing those business owners who go beyond the clear and undeniable passive social benefits of just creating a healthy business. Those companies that are much more intentional and active in creating significance in the world around them should be recognized for going the extra mile. It might be clearer to call all business owners social entrepreneurs and just put the word passive or active in front of each as it fits, but that would introduce even more political correctness to an already overly corrected world.

All businesses are socially beneficial. I believe those that are socially intentional and active beyond the generation of revenue are much more likely to make a bigger impact and also more money. Even if a capitalist doesn’t have altruistic motivations, they should practice social entrepreneurship just so they can make more money. We’ll all be better off.

You either live in a world of abundance or a world of scarcity. Whichever one you choose affects every decision you make.

Live well by doing good.

Every capitalist business owner would make more money if they did.

So how do we shift more of our spend from advertising, direct marketing, and public relations to relationship marketing? The good news is that it just doesn’t cost that much money – it costs time. The bad news is that we think we can buy customers and would much rather spend money than time. Good luck with that.

It actually works if you have enough money to make a very big and sustained splash. But most business owners don’t have the kind of marketing budget that allows them the luxury of spending wads of cash and sitting back to wait for the phones to ring. Like it or not, we have more time than money, but again, the good news is that an investment of your time in building relationships will be much more effective than a quick, short-term spend of money.

The key is moving people from being “advocates” to “raving fans”. There are a lot of past and present customers along with friends and business associates who really like us a lot. But they have lives and we are not at the center of their lives. I describe an advocate as someone who likes me enough to give me a referral when I ask, but I have to ask. A Raving Fan however, is at a whole new level – this is someone who sends me customers without me asking.

The difference is one degree.

At 211 degrees we get hot water to make tea. At 212 degrees we get steam to power a civilization. We have a lot of 211 degree relationships who are really warmed up to us (Advocates), but what do we do move them that one extra degree to turn them into Raving Fans?

Here are some simple things that can turn Advocates into Raving Fans. By the way, the profound things are always the most simple.

1. Serve people – meet them where they are at, not where you want them to be. You want to sell them something, but they need a babysitter or a new supplier. Find them that and forget selling them your wares.
2. Set aside a few minutes a week to ask yourself what else you can do to move them forward? Do you want a client from them? Can you send them one instead? Or just call and say hi and ask them what you can do to push them forward.
3. Relate/recreate with them – when was the last time you actually took time to build a relationship with an Advocate? Go to dinner, have a cup of coffee, invite them to golf, go to a workshop together. People buy from people, and they buy more from people they like. Become likeable.

Discover what your Advocates want and deliver that. If you do, they could become Raving Fans who will become gate openers for your business. What have you done for them besides deliver something they’ve paid for? Answer that question positively and you are on the way to turning your 211-degree relationships into 212 Raving Fans.

Make a list of five to ten people who love you and aren’t helping you grow your business. Then create a three month action plan help them grow theirs and watch what happens.

One degree – does it really matter? It just might take one of your 211-degree relationships and turn it into steam that can power your business for years going forward.

Most of the better definitions still only define or describe ONE PART of the purpose of a business, but not the whole enchilada. Examples of the most common definitions I’ve heard over the years:

The purpose of a business is:

• to make money.
• to fulfill a human need
• to serve the stakeholders
• to provide goods and services to the population.
• to maximize shareholder profit.
• The Purpose of a Business must create sustainability or it’s not inclusive enough. If you focused solely on any of the above, you would go out of business. Peter Drucker has the most famous definition. But the quote from him I see most often is only 1/3rd of the purpose of a business: Drucker – “There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer.” Follow this slavishly and you will go out of business.
• I’ve also occasionally seen an expanded version of that which is closer and captures 2/3rds of the purpose of a business. I don’t know if this is truly Drucker’s statement or someone has added to it: Drucker – “The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer.” I have also heard this with the words “acquire a customer”, or “retain a customer”. But a focus on these two things will send you out of business, too.
• Here’s mine and what I believe to be the most inclusive purpose of a business:
• The purpose of a business is to acquire and retain customers profitably.
• The reason this is the best definition of a business is that it is inclusive of all the three things that will keep you in business for the long haul. 1) acquire, 2) retain and 3) be profitable. The others all leave at least one of these three out.

Acquire

If you focus only on the Drucker definitiion of creating customers but you don’t work hard to retain them, you create a revolving door. People buy great marketing only once. Acquisition isn’t enough, you must work hard to retain by having a great product/service and the best customer service.

Retain

If you focus only on a great product or service (retaining), but don’t have a great system to acquire, you fit in the category of a lot of businesses who think that because they make a great chair somebody ought to buy it. It’s a high quality way to go out of business.

Be Profitable

But even if you’re great at both acquisition and retention and you don’t set your pricing to be profitable, you’ll be out of business very quickly. And conversely, if you’re simply very profitable at the expense of acquisition or retention, word of mouth will quickly put you out of business.

Focus on all three – acquisitions, retention, and profitability. Check your business against these three and shore up the one or two that is keeping you from creating a great business.

By the way the purpose of OWNING a business is radically different than the purpose of business in general. People get these two things confused and it significantly endangers their ability to grow the business they always dreamed of. Next week will talk about the purpose of OWNING a business.

Fellow students at Knowledge to Action course.

I wrote a post on my finance blog titled “Is Knowledge to Action a Scam?” and also my Forex trader friend who is also a Knowledge to Action student wrote a similar post here=> Knowledge to Action all a big Scam?

The post addresses comments I have found on forums and blogs questioning the business practices of Knowledge to Action.

I thought it important that our Business Blogs readers get alerted to this post as it provides a good case study on how an ethical business that is providing great courses can have negative reviews. Due to the Internet and social networks your business can be damage more quickly and with far more scope than never before so you need to be very aware of the type of people you are attracting to your business as potential customers. The wrong customer can do serious damage to your business through no fault of your own.

I have attended the Knowledge to Action “Ultimate Forex” course myself and found the course to be of exceptional value. The post provides my findings on what type of person complains about a business regardless of the quality of the business. I will write another post on how you can possibly reduce the impact of such negative posts in a few days.

This case study should make you more conscious of the absolute importance of making sure the staff members who are representing your business on forums and social networks are well trained and stick within your engagement guidelines as one false move no matter how trival can be great ammo for people who want to damage your brand.

You can read the post here “Is Knowledge to Action a Scam?“