Well, go ahead and take a big sigh of relief because I have some good news to share with you. Even though we’re going through a bit of a rough spot doesn’t mean you just have to throw up your hands and deal with it. Learn how to build your own wealth in a bad economy–and realize that it’s about more than what shows on your resume. Take matters into your own hands and take action now.

Start a side business

You’ve always dreamed of being your own boss. And while now may not be the time to quit your job and go 100% on your own, it may be the time to start a side business. It’ll allow you to pursue your dream and make a little extra money while you’re doing it. You’re probably thinking, start a new business when so many businesses are failing? Yes, you heard me right. Think about it for a moment. Even in a bad economy, there are opportunities to be had and you have to grab them. It comes down to the basic supply and demand rule, so think about how you may be able to benefit from a bad situation.

Maybe you’re a marketing manager. In this economy, one of the first cutbacks that a company makes tends to be their marketing department. Fortunately for you, these companies still have to market their products and services. They just can’t afford to employ the marketing people full-time, plus benefits, plus, plus, plus. So what about becoming a marketing consultant to these companies? It’s a win-win. They need marketing services and you have marketing services to offer. You may make enough money on the side to put it all into savings and investments. You may even find that it is lucrative enough to take it full-time.

Take a minute to think about your talents. Then take a minute to think about how you can profit from these talents.

Lower your spending

We all spend frivolously at some point in our lives. Do you really need a Starbucks every day? Or is it really necessary to spend $200 a month eating out at restaurants? The answer to both questions is no. One of the easiest ways to build your wealth is to stop spending it all! Keep tracking of your spending for one month. Then go line-by-line on your spending sheet and see where you can cut. You may find a couple hundred extra dollars, a few thousand dollars, or 20 extra dollars. Whatever the amount, start socking that money away instead of wasting it. And don’t mistake cutting back your spending for giving up living, either. There are plenty of free and low cost ways to entertain yourself and fill your coffee fix (or whatever fix you have).

Don’t make your exit from the stock market… stay calm

If you have money invested in the stock market, the odds are good that you’ve seen it decrease in the past year or so. This is not the time to panic, sell off all your investments, and start stashing money under your mattress. Panic sell-offs are just making a bad situation worse. The market is cyclical and goes up and down. Your wealth will go back up when the market goes back up–and eventually it WILL go back up. This is not to say that you should just sit back and watch your money disappear either. Evaluate your investments once a year and make necessary changes to watch your money grow. Now may be the perfect time to invest in a company that was too expensive before. It’s kind of like the stock market is having a sale. You can get into investments at bargain basement prices.

Even when times are rough, you can take action and turn the bad times into good ones for you. It’s not always about running off and getting a new job to increase your income and increase your wealth. Sometimes it’s about creatively thinking of ways that you can take advantage of the bad economy and turn it into a positive for you.

Please subscribe to the Slow Down FAST RSS feed:

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

We are told to strive for unattainable lifestyles and to model ourselves after unrealistic, airbrushed models.

Sometimes you need to step back from this virtual reality and ponder what life is really about. Will that Mercedes or those anti-anxiety medications really make you happier, or are they only temporary solutions to deeper issues? Examine these five myths about how you should be living your life and start living the way you want to live.

Myth 1: Material Things Prove Your Worth

Someone once said, “One reason it’s so hard to save money is that our neighbors are always buying something we can’t afford.” Keeping up with the Joneses is certainly no way to live, and the desire to do so stems from a belief that material things prove your worth. Extravagant clothing, houses, and cars oftentimes serve as status symbols in today’s society, but when it comes down to it, what you have in your heart and mind is worth much more than what you’ve got in your wallet. Furthermore, comparing yourself financially to your friends and family will only cause envy and strife. Remember that while luxuries may be enjoyable, they don’t make you who you are.

Myth 2: You Should Always Take an Expert’s Opinion at Face Value

How many times have you taken your car in for a simple oil change, only to be told you need hundreds of dollars worth of repairs in other areas? Have you taken the mechanic’s word for it and shelled out the cash or gone in for a second opinion elsewhere? We tend to rely on experts for advice, whether they are doctors, lawyers, financial consultants, or repairmen, but you can’t forget that even though they are experts, they still don’t know everything. You always retain the power to do your own research or seek out another form of advice. You may find that separate individuals offer different yet complementary opinions that allow you to shape a more informed decision on the issue you are having.

Myth 3: When in Doubt, Medicate

It’s hard to make it through a 2-minute commercial break without seeing an advertisement for some sort of prescription drug. The prescription drug industry has exploded in the past decade, and Zoloft, Prozac, and Ritalin are now part of most Americans’ vocabulary. While there is something to be said for the positive benefits medications have to offer, they are certainly not quick fix on the road to happiness. Before asking your doctor about the latest mood-altering drug you saw on television or in a magazine, consider seeking therapy and using self-improvement strategies to alter your moods instead. Even if prescription drugs are a feasible option for your treatment plan, it’s important to remember that they are not a cure-all. Healing takes time and a repertoire of varying strategies in order to truly come about.

Myth 4: It’s Hip to Be Forever Young

The world today is filled with Peter Pans – adults who don’t want to grow up. Whether they are lacking in emotional maturity or in wrinkles, growing old has become a faux pas for a lot of people. Don’t get the wrong idea. It’s great to feel young at heart and to be physically fit, but it’s possible to do so and still age gracefully. Aging with class involves learning from your past. What’s the point of a life long-lived if you want to act like a child and look like one, too? Gray hair, laugh lines, and a cultivated point of view are things to be embraced, not shunned.

Myth 5: You Can Do It All

Society tends to tell us that multitasking and the ability to juggle lots of things at once is a good thing, but when you have too many things in the air, something is bound to get dropped. Ambition is a good thing, but you have to know when enough is enough. Yes, it’s possible to be a wife, a mother, a businesswoman, and the best baker at the church bazaar, but it’s also okay to say no when your best friend asks you to help her plan a charity gala. When you take on more than you can handle, the quality of your projects often suffers. Don’t feel pressured to be a yes-man. Even the best of us can’t do it all.

There are so many self-improvement blogs, magazines, and websites out there these days, everyone has an opinion on the way you should be living your life. It’s important not to focus on the myths flooding the media but to analyze your situations carefully and live the way that is right for you.

NEWSFLASH: I’ve added another chapter to my life by joining C.A.S.T. Recovery, a Los Angeles based national outpatient drug rehab program which specializes in designing highly individualized recovery plans with appropriate professionals to support a client’s health, accountability, and success.

Please subscribe to the Slow Down FAST RSS feed:

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

Credit makes the world go round. OK. That’s not exactly true, but if you have bad credit, it can sure throw your world off its axis.

If you want to pay a decent interest rate on a mortgage or any loan you get or just get approved for a credit card, then you have to act to bump, bump, bump, bump it up (your credit score that is).

If you have blemished credit or downright bad credit, take these steps to get your credit back on track. While you already know that you have to pay your bills and pay them on time to increase your credit score, here are some lesser-known ways to get the job done.

Credit piggybacking.

If you’re married or have a close friend or relative with good credit, use this to your advantage. Have them add you to one of their established credit accounts–a credit card account usually works best for these purposes. With a simple phone call to the credit card company, your trusted credit buddy can request to add you as a cardholder on their account. Once this happens, their good credit becomes part of your credit report too. Simple and easy. The hard part–getting someone to add you to their account.

Pay down your debts (not off).

Debt is like cholesterol–there’s good cholesterol and bad cholesterol. There is good debt and bad debt. Credit cards quickly become bad debt when you’re paying 22% interest on a balance that you carry month after month. Mortgage debt that is generally tax deductible is good debt (as long as you pay and you pay on time). You may think that you have to pay off all of your debt to better your credit, but this isn’t true. Creditors like to see that you can manage your debt. This means that you should carry balances on certain types of debt–paying it down as necessary. If you don’t have any debt because you paid it all off then there isn’t anything to manage! Just be wise about what debt you have and how you manage it.

Don’t close your credit accounts.

You’ve probably done it. You’ve had a credit card sitting in your wallet for the past ten years, but haven’t touched it. One day you’re trying to free up space in your wallet and you call and cancel the unused card. Bad idea. The longer your good credit history with the credit card company, the better it is for your credit report and score. So pay your debt down and pay it off, but don’t close the account. It’s like a fine wine, it gets better with age!

Mix it up.

You wouldn’t want to eat a salad for lunch everyday for the rest of your life. You want to mix it up and try different foods–a good mix of choices. The same holds true for your credit. Your credit score vibes off a mix of different types of credit–auto loans, personal loans, and credit cards (revolving credit). Again, this illustrates your ability to manage your credit.

Get rid of your bad credit.

Everyone makes mistakes and creditors and credit agencies aren’t exceptions to this rule. This means that it is possible you’ll find errors on your credit report–accounts that aren’t yours, late payments that weren’t late, or debts sent to collection that were paid. Listen up because this is important. When you find these errors, dispute them. Write a letter to the credit agency reporting this bad information telling them why it is wrong information and request for it to be removed from your credit report. Within 30 days the credit agency will respond and send you a new copy of your report when the information is removed. This is an instant boost in your credit.

Don’t file for bankruptcy.

Many people think filing for bankruptcy is the perfect solution to wipe their debt clean and start their credit history over again. Don’t fall into this trap. Bankruptcies stay on your credit for 7-10 years and make it extremely difficult to reestablish your credit. It also proves to creditors that you can’t manage your own credit so you have to resort to filing for bankruptcy. Bankruptcy should not be used as a solution to your credit and debt problems–only as a last resort when you’ve exhausted all of your other options.

Use these six ways to bump up your credit score and to clean up your credit. Once you do, you’ll be well on your way to getting your world spinning back on its axis.

Please subscribe to the Slow Down FAST RSS feed:

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

Here are the 12 Most-Read Numbered Posts in 2008 at Slow Down FAST:

12.    5 Tips for Becoming a Better Listener
11.    5 Qualities of Successful Relationships
10.    6 Ways for Effecting Change in Your Life
9.      6 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Busting Out of the Rat Race
8.      5 Signs It’s Time to Slow Down Fast
7.      6 Ways to Be a Friend Without Involving Money, Gifts or Obligation
6.      5 Ways to Reconnect to Your Inner Child
5.      10 Great Productivity Web Sites
4.      5 Signs You’re a Pleaser and What to Do About It
3.      5 Simple Tricks To Make You Smarter
2.      8 Essential Ingredients to Master Your Time
1.      The Causes and Cures of Procrastination

Thank you all for your support throughout the year, and best wishes in all your future endeavors.

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

So, after 700+ posts in 2008, I’m publishing the 12 Most Read Posts at Slow Down FAST so we can all get a jump on the new year.

Thank you all for your support throughout the year.

Here they are:

1. The Causes and Cures of Procrastination
2. Mindhacks: 5 Ways to Increase Creativity, Productivity and Intelligence
3. How to Overcome the #1 Fear: Public Speaking
4. 8 Essential Ingredients to Master Your Time
5. Do Not Wage Psychological Warfare
6. Stuck in a Rut? Fire Up Your Creativity with These 7 Steps
7. What Are You Passionate About?
8. See How Easily You Can Handle Change
9. How to Maintain Professional Boundaries
10. 5 Simple Tricks To Make You Smarter
11. 5 Signs You’re a Pleaser and What to Do About It
12. From Greedy to Grateful – Appreciating What You Have

Please subscribe to the Slow Down FAST RSS feed:   

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

Maybe you have a talent that you are offering as a service to clients such as massage, consulting, or financial planning. Or maybe your business is selling a product like clothing, wines, or information products. Whatever your plan involves–services or products–managing your own business takes certain skills beyond the specialized knowledge that makes you good at what you do.

If you don’t learn the skills of running and managing your business, you may find yourself experiencing some of these common pitfalls. If you do experience them, acknowledge where you are, then take measures to overcome them.

 Common Pitfalls of Managing Your Own Business:

1. Not having a business plan and a marketing plan.

A business plan is a roadmap for success and a marketing plan is a schematic for every day marketing activities. Many entrepreneurs believe they can get away without a business plan if they’re not seeking outside funding, but business plans are not just for investors. They guide you to where you want to go in your business. If you don’t have a plan, find a business consultant or SCORE counselor to help you write one. You can work with a marketing consultant or SCORE counselor to develop quarterly marketing plans to track what marketing activities give you the greatest results.

2. Not doing financial projections and monthly reports.

Most business owners are only concerned with how much money is coming in. But that’s only gross profit, and your business success is based on net profit–how much is left after expenses. A major pitfall of business owners is not doing financial projections. You need to chart out for one year what income you expect and your estimated expenses, both fixed and variable. Use an Excel spreadsheet or have your accountant do it in QuickBooks. When they run your monthly profit and loss statement, make sure they explain what the numbers mean. You must know your bottom line each month to manage your business successfully.

3. Not having enough capital or reserves.

Some businesses need an infusion of capital when they start out. You may need to borrow funds for renting your location, purchasing inventory, or outfitting your office. If you were unable to borrow, you might have gotten personal loans or you started on a shoestring. With little capital, you probably don’t have much in reserve. Business advisors suggest having at least six month’s to a year’s worth of expenses in the bank. This pitfall causes the demise of many businesses. Build up your reserves whenever you have any surplus.

4. Not being knowledgeable in your field or about business.

Do you have formal training in your industry? Have you studied how to run a business? Not having enough knowledge, skill, or training in your specialty or in business is a major pitfall. How will you compete against more skilled practitioners? How will you know the best quality products to buy and the best prices? You can open a business and then get more training and education as you go along, because ongoing training will keep your skills sharp and current. And you’ll want to get educated in all the nuances of managing a business from financials, to customer service, to employee relations, and more.

5. Not checking the competition or staying current with industry trends.

You can’t ignore the competition or pretend you don’t have any. It’s not spying, but you must know who your competition is and what they are up to. Can you provide better, faster, or a different service? Can you offer deeper discounts, better quality, or follow-up support? Find out what your competition is doing and offer something more. Read industry journals and stay current with what is going on in your industry. You have to be the best to stay on top, and it only takes a little time each week to do your homework.

6. Not tracking, measuring, following up, or following through.

How can you know how successful you are if you don’t track your results? Did this marketing campaign attract more visitors to my website? If not, what can I do to improve my results? Learn how to track and measure your business and marketing activities. Also, make sure you follow up and follow through. If you send out postcards and offer a free 30-minute consultation, make sure you provide it to those who respond. If you advertise an open house for client appreciation day, follow through and hold the event. Clients and prospects will lose faith in you if you don’t keep your word.

7. Poor customer service.

Have you heard the expression, the customer is always right? I have some coaching clients who run retail operations and they say that they train their staff to give 110% when it comes to customer service. Satisfied customers provide additional revenue in the form of return business and referrals. However, dissatisfied customers can do a lot of damage by spreading the word about your poor service. See the long-term value of happy customers and do everything in your power to make this a top priority. Without customers, you have no revenue!!!

8. Burnout from overworking and doing everything yourself.

Enthusiastic entrepreneurs wear a big “S” on their chests thinking they are Super Business Owner! I can do everything myself. If I want it done right, I have to do it. That works fine until you find yourself getting about five hours of sleep a night and making errors during the work day. Start looking at what you can delegate and find top quality, affordable contractors or employees to take some of the load off. After all, all work and no play makes for a very unhappy business owner. If you’re so stressed out, how can you enjoy the fruits of your labor?

Please subscribe to my RSS feed:

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

“I finally learned that you cannot help people unless they really need help, are willing to be helped, want you to help them and ask you to help them. Even then, you can only help them to help themselves.” ~ Vincent Collins

Please subscribe to my RSS feed:

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

Please subscribe to my RSS feed:

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

There’s a saying in recovery/treatment/12-step programs that goes: “TREAT THE DISEASE, not the symptoms.” What are the diseases causing your stress? The current economic “crisis”? The political race? The politics in your office? Your son’s report card? Making your next credit card payment? You hold the power. Once you get clear in your mind, you have the opportunity and ability to deal with the anxiety and stress of today’s world by keeping your side of the street clean.

Financially Speaking

No, you didn’t singlehandedly cause the current financial crisis. So don’t take the blame for it, don’t feel guilty about it, and, by all means, don’t think that you have to fix it. Just look out for you and your family. Your only job as a responsible consumer is keeping your end of the bargain.

If you have a credit card payment that you are not sure you can make, find time to work some extra hours. Around the holidays there are plenty of seasonal jobs and you CAN make ends meet. If this is not an option, make sure you cut back on your spending. You can brew coffee at home for 1/20th the price of the designer coffee houses. Washing and ironing your own shirts for a month can save you at least $20. Pants, too, and you are looking at almost $100 or more! Cheaper cuts of meat, generic store brands, clipping coupons, can all get you to where you need to be especially if the situation is temporary.

Politically Speaking

The political race can be a toughie. There are many of you out there that are very passionate about the outcome… but are you really in a situation to make a difference? Your responsibility ends at the ballot box. You can have a clear conscience if you have done your job and supported the candidate that you believe has your best interests at heart. If you are in a swing state, it is important for you to get out there. In a traditionally red or blue state? Volunteers are always needed. You can do your part and some more by helping out the campaign of your choosing.

Professionally Speaking

Office politics is something that affects everyone differently. If you’re not happy with what’s going on, try to distance yourself from it. Make it known that you really do not care to participate in office chit-chat that can either be disruptive or hurtful. Find peace in the knowledge that you have controlled the situation and your stress levels can be lower each time you walk into the workplace. If people know that you are not interested (which is different than being offended by it) in the gossip, they will make sure that they talk to you about the things that matter in the day to day runnings of the office.

Personally Speaking

If your son has his sights on Harvard but is consistently achieving grades that will never get him there, you can find a different approach to reducing stress… not only for you, but the rest of your family. Either make sure that he understands the requirements to get into such an institution and let him know that there are plenty of other options and not to set all of his eggs in one basket, or (if you are not already) make sure you invest time in his education. Working side by side with your child not only gives him the added benefit of your support, but will also help him learn how to study and learn how to trust his instincts. After all, our job as parents is to put all of our best into our children and hope that they use it to their advantage.

All you can do is to be proactive. Accept what you can’t control. Enhance what you can.

Please subscribe to my RSS feed:

Thanks to Rich Life Carnival for featuring this post, to Insight Writer for including this post in the Carnival of Personal Development, and to pinkblocks for publishing this post in the Blog Carnival on Personal Power.

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

Don’t know what to do?

You can tell the intentions of those close to you. If your boss is tirelessly waving that promotion under your nose but never seems to deliver no matter how hard you work, do not feel guilty about leaving work early to spend time with your family. Don’t schedule lunch with your girlfriend anymore if she can’t seem to find the time to show up. Do not put yourself into the situation of being disappointed when it is in some people’s character to disappoint you and countless others. Your local representative promised lower taxes and less government involvement but the record shows the exact opposite…vote that politician out of office! Not as difficult as it might seem given that the record is there for public scrutiny.

Wonder if all absolute fact has been lost in today’s world?

I’m amazed by how difficult it is to figure out what the candidates in today’s presidential election stand for… especially with the press pushing their “unbiased” agenda. The only real solution is to not only expose yourself to all coverage (national media, cable television, talk radio, newspapers, and political journals) but to also do your own research. By cruising the candidates’ websites, you can see the consistencies and inconsistencies in their rhetoric.

It’s also interesting to see the difference in news coverage. If you watch NBC, you’ll see constant attacks on John McCain and Sarah Palin and glossing over the facts with Barack Obama and Joe Biden. When listening to Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh, you will see accusations thrown at the Obama-Biden ticket and more positive spin towards the republicans.

It is a difficult task, but siphoning through the nonsense for the consistent message can be done. The basics in their intentions can be seen in their parties’ politics. If you’re looking for a candidate who supports public welfare programs through higher spending and tougher government regulations, you know where to find him. If you are looking for a candidate who promotes less government involvement and the “take care of yourself first” mentality, you know where to find him, too. The trick is weeding through the issues (economy, foreign policy, healthcare, etc.) and pushing away the none-issues.

Ignore what people say and watch what they do.

Although history isn’t always an accurate guide in determining what will happen in the future, it’s a very precise indicator of what people will do. Yes, people do change, but you won’t take notice of it until you see the change in their actions. The friend that is constantly disappointing you might take notice when you stop inviting her to do things with you and mend her ways. Your boss will notice if you call him out on your constant delivery and his constant lack thereof. Check out the bills that your congressperson did and did not vote for…you might find pork barrel spending was the reason for their Yeah or Nay vote. If not, you can still hold them accountable by voicing your opinions to their office and staff.

Look for the best in everybody – IN THEIR ACTIONS TOWARDS YOU. You might not initially like what you find, but sometimes, if you wait long enough, people will surprise and impress you. Be patient.

Please subscribe to my RSS feed:

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites