To Catch a Thief, Think Like a Thief

The phone rings in the office at around 10 in the morning and my secretary answers it. It was from a priest, a Monsignor in fact looking for me. I wasn’t around at the time so my secretary asks for his number and purpose of the call. She got the number but the priest didn’t leave any specific reason, just that he wanted to talk to me urgently.

As I arrived in the office later, my secretary informs me of the call and asks if I want her to call the Monsignor back. Of course the natural reaction of anybody when a priest wants to talk to you would be to return their call as soon as possible. (Maybe he wanted to bless me, who knows right?) So I quickly make it a priority to talk to the man of the cloth.

So as the phone was handed over to me, things quickly began to unravel.

“Hello… father?”

“Maaark! (as if he knew me for a long time), how are you? This is Father something-something (I’m leaving the name out as I will explain some more on this later)”

“Yes Father, how can I help you?”

“Well you see Mark, I’m currently involved in community work for some military and police people, you see they have several good projects for their community and they are in need of some financial help…(a deliberate pause)”

“Yes Father, go on…”

“Okay, now I’m selling a few tickets for P5,000 each for an event that will happen on this date, can you purchase a few from me to help their cause?”

Now if this was the younger, naive and inexperienced version of me, I would have answered this way:

“Okay father can you give me some more details for this event? I can probably buy one ticket to help your cause, where and how can I give you my contribution?”

And I would bet that a lot (not all, but a lot) of people who talk to this priest would most likely say the same thing or some version of it if they had the money. Why? Because the mere mention of him being a priest would make most God fearing people instantly want to help the request of a holy man.

But you see, because I’m a little older now a little more experienced I don’t quite buy it just yet. So instead of rushing into giving a total stranger my hard earned money, I ask a few hard and straight to the point questions.

“Ah okay father, by the way what’s your name again? (then he repeats his full name), Okay father, just a quick question before anything else (he says sure!) — is it normal practice for priests to call people soliciting money for tickets?”

“(Pause)… (He was quite obviously surprised to get this question from me)… Uhm…No…it’s not… which is why I’m a little embarrassed to be calling you like this”

Honestly, he would have had a slightly better chance if he answered this way: “Actually my son, yes, when times are tough, even priests have to do what they can to help others.”

But he didn’t. Now at this point, I remember recognizing his voice from somewhere before but could not place it until now, then it dawned on me that he had called me a year or two ago, I remember his distinct voice pretending to be the head of customs and at that time selling me “smuggled” Johnny Walker for P5,000 per bottle.

So I continued asking a few more questions, but this time a little more direct as the plot became a little clearer:

“Okay father, I have to be honest, I do not know you, and I hope you understand that I do not just give my money to strangers. Also, how did you get this number?”

“Well, Mark, yes you are right, I understand what you are saying, I don’t know you, but my name is Monsignor something-something, you can actually look me up on the internet and a retired General gave me your number”

Now, when he said “you can look me up on the internet” this should have been good enough, but in my mind, anyone on the phone can get the identity of someone already established and claim that that is him / her so I just said.

“Okay thanks Father, but I will have to pass.”

“Really, hindi mo talaga ako matutulungan?”

“Sorry Father, I have helped many people in my own way and through various means, and I still do so until today but I will have to decline politely. Thanks for calling anyway.”

And the phone went dead.

Okay so the reason why I decided to write about and publish this particular incident of my life is to teach you 3 important lessons from it so that you avoid being scammed.

1.)   Do not be intimidated or be awed by titles or designations or positions of people over the phone. You always need proof of the person’s identity especially if it’s just by phone. Now offering of proof on the internet will not be good enough as I mentioned, you need social proof, who knows him/her that you know too? what does that mutual person say about him/her?

2.)   Remember this saying: “To catch a thief, you must think like a thief”. Although this is pretty self-explanatory, most of the time we tend to play a role in the scene that the other person sets up.  In the example above, the person paints the picture that he is a Monsignor, so normally people opposite that person will play the role of the good Catholic constituent. Etc.

3.)   And lastly, if you work hard to make money for you and your family. You must also work hard in protecting that money from people who will constantly try to take that money from you and your family.

Remember, being generous is a good character trait to have, but we must also be prudent and smart.

About the Author:

Mark So is a fervent businessman, forex trader and educator.  He is the Chairman and CEO of Businessmaker Academy—a business, finance and corporate training center.  He is also the Chief Forex Trainer of Forex Club Manila.  A sought after speaker for business and forex, he is scheduled to conduct his signature seminars on Business Start-up and expansion as well as his Complete Forex Trading Course this month.  To know more about these seminars, you may visit www.businessmaker-academy.com or www.forexclubmanila.com or call (632)6874645.  You may email your comments and questions to:   markso@zerocapitalclub.com

5 Super Tips For Succeeding In Business!

Over the past year, I’ve written a good number of business advice articles for Manila Bulletin and each of those articles were and still are meant to help as many people as possible. These articles are from my experience and discoveries through a lot of trial and error in “business making”, and to be honest, all of those articles contain a secret or two of mine on being successful in business, so in this particular piece, I’d like to summarize some of the more valuable lessons and what has made me who I am over the years. I do hope that you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Keep things simple

If there is one truth about what works in this world is that the simplest of solutions are all you really need. A lot of times, I find myself looking at an opportunity and immediately start thinking of all sorts of “creative” ways of making money with it. Most of the time, it becomes an exercise in creativity rather than making a decent profit. In my article entitled, “Do Not Overcomplicate Your Business” I talk about this incident where a student from an Ivy League school was over complicating what should be a very simple and straightforward business — printing and selling of t-shirts. (Go to my blog at www.markso.wordpress.com and search the title if you have not yet read it) I mean, come on, how complicated can that be right? Well, as the story turns out, you’d be amazed at how our train of thought can be so devoid of common sense.

Find the customer first

When I first heard this line from a successful entrepreneur (a close and dear friend) a long time ago, I was blown away at the simplicity of the logic. This is really not a secret in business making, just find and talk to a successful businessperson, they will instantly validate it, and many a times, that is most probably how they started in business in the first place. So to explain further, I used to think like the throngs of would-be entrepreneurs when it came to starting a business, find capital, put up the business, then make money. The problem with that logic is that in order to be in business, you needed capital first and in many, many cases that was the whole problem, the reason why you want to start a business in the first place was because you did not have money to begin with, so I experimented with that line “Find the customer first”, tried this and tried that until finally I figured it out. I discuss this a little bit more in my article: “How to Make Extra Money with Zero Capital” (again go to my blog and search for it if you have not read it yet).

Learn how to sell

Business in its purest form is selling. So naturally, if you want to be in business, you need to learn how to sell. Now the problem with this for a lot of people is that the mere mention of the word “sell” sends shivers up and down their spines, “can’t do it”, “don’t want to”, “I don’t think I can” would probably be the three phrases that just popped in your head right now. But the truth is, anyone, given the right motivation can sell, in fact, the people who you think can’t sell are actually the ones who can outsell even the most gifted of sales men. In my article series “The Tale of Two Salesmen Parts 1, 2, and 3” I unravel the mysteries and debunk the myth that sales and selling are only for a select few. When you get to read those articles on my blog, you will soon realize that sales is not a position, it’s a way of life.

Manage your money

Now, the thing about selling is that if you do it very well, money comes in. And I used to think that the more money coming in, the richer I will be. Well, it is true, but unfortunately that’s only half right. What I experienced was that, the more money that I made, the lesser there was of it remaining because I spent most of it on useless stuff. It took my wife and a huge knock on the head for me to realize that no matter how much money you made, what mattered more was what you did with it. In other words, how you spend is much more important than what you make. This is another key to my business success. In my article series “Money Management Simplified Parts 1, 2, and 3” I discuss step by step how you can spend properly and of course manage your money. So if you haven’t done so yet, go to my blog now and search those articles.

Keep investing in yourself

I said this once, and I’ll say it a thousand times more. The real secret to becoming a success is to never be content to just stay where you are. You are a product of evolution, when times change, so must you, when times get tougher, so must you. In this world we live in, it is the strong that survive, and so the most basic and yet most potent advice I could ever give you my dear reader is to never stop investing in improving your self, expanding your knowledge, practicing until you understand, making mistakes and boo boos along the way are all the things that you need to do constantly to keep on growing and succeeding.

In the end, I hope that my business advices through my articles and my blog have helped you in some way, hope or form. If it has, do leave a comment on my blog on any or all of the articles that you read there. Good luck and God bless!

Author box:

Mark So is a fervent businessman, forex trader, marketer, sales consultant, and educator.  He is the Chairman and CEO of Businessmaker Academy—a business, finance and corporate training center.  He is also the Chief Forex Trainer of Forex Club Manila. Mr. So is slated to conduct his 7 Point Formula for Business Start Up and Expansion this November 13, 2010. If you are interested in attending this seminar, email Mark directly at markso@zerocapitalclub.com. To read more of Mark’s interesting and life enriching articles you can go to his blog at http://www.markso.wordpress.com

Share

The Power of Suggestion, Your Destiny, and Dreams Coming True

Have you ever gone to a fortune teller? Or at least know of anyone who has gone to one? When I was younger, my mom would bring me and my sister to “Aling Erly”, a very gifted “manghuhula” (fortune teller) every so often to ask what the future holds for us.

I say “gifted” because I remember one time when a significant amount of money went missing from the “house fund”. We searched the whole house for it but to no avail, so my mom called up “Aling Erly” and consulted with her. And after a few minutes of reading cards, she said that the money was not stolen and that it was in good hands and it will appear soon enough.

A day later, my mom receives a call from our long time accountant who says that my (late) grandmother gave him the envelope with the cash by mistake and he will return it that evening. Spooky? You bet. Mystical powers? Who knows, but I will say that there are indeed people who can do amazing things and may have real psychic abilities. But, (yes there is a ‘but’); for the most part, fortune tellers don’t really use any “mystical powers” but rather something more basic, and, if used properly can be very, very potent. It’s called “The Power of Suggestion”

Has this ever happened to you or someone you know? — You go to a fortune teller and she tells you that tomorrow, you will meet the man/woman of your dreams? You’ll probably say that you don’t believe that and shrug it off. But, that very same night, even if you really don’t believe, you will most probably take a bath twice, make sure to put on an extra coat of that whitening lotion, and in the morning before leaving the house, you look at the mirror a few minutes longer checking out all angles making sure you look absolutely perfect. And then, all throughout the day, whenever you bump into a stranger, you start thinking “Could he/she be the one?”

If this has happened to you, then you know what I’m talking about, this is the power of suggestion at work. Fortune tellers most often than not say things that you want to hear, and they use the power of suggestion to make you believe that what you just heard from them will come true. The result is that it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy which, I believe is something that anyone with the right mindset, focus and a few practical guidelines can use to achieve unimaginable achievements in their lives without needing to go to any fortune teller (or anyone for that matter) anymore.

Read on because what I will share next will actually translate to your destiny.

“Destiny?” Well, not to be dramatic, but I believe we are all destined for something in life. While there are those who believe that their destiny in life is already pre-ordained and there is nothing they can do about it, I believe that we can all choose what are destiny will be. The problem that I see is that most people don’t know what they want in life let alone what they will be destined to become.

How about you do you know what you want in your life? Yes? Good, why don’t you write it down right now on a nice clean sheet of paper (even if you said NO, you can start by putting your thoughts down in writing, go ahead, try it). Now what I want you to write down are all the things you want to accomplish in your life time. So ask yourself this question after writing what you want in life “If I accomplish all of these, am I willing to leave this world happy and content?” If the answer is Yes, then congratulations, that is it. If the answer is No, then keep writing all the things that you want until you say Yes. Now once you say Yes, what you are doing is “suggesting” to yourself what your life will be like, what your destiny will be.

Okay good, what I want you to do now is to read silently what you wrote down every night, forever. Of course if you want to add more to what you wrote, go ahead and don’t feel at all limited by it. In fact, I suggest that you start a “journal” that you will update as you go along.

Okay, once you’ve got that down, here’s the critical part. Every time you read your “Journal” to yourself, I want you to ask “What am I willing to do to achieve these?” Are you willing to work harder? Are you willing to sacrifice? Are you willing to take a bit more risk? Your answer will now determine the choices that you will make. Your choices, based on what you are willing to do, will lead to not “if” you will achieve what you wrote down in your Journal but rather “how fast” it will take for you to fulfill your destiny.

Do you know this saying? “Be careful what you wish for…” Well I believe that the next sentence should not be “…you just might get it.” But rather, “…you will get it.”

And so, my wish for you my dear reader, is that you will have the greatest life ever and that all your dreams will come true. May you strive everyday to live your life to the fullest and may you make the choices that matter. May the power of your suggestions, give you hope and direction and may you help yourself fulfill your destiny sooner rather than later.

Author box:

Mark So is a fervent businessman, forex trader, marketer, sales consultant, and educator.  He is the Chairman and CEO of Businessmaker Academy—a business, finance and corporate training center.  He is also the Chief Forex Trainer of Forex Club Manila. Mr. So is slated to conduct his 7 Point Formula for Business Start Up and Expansion this October 9, 2010. If you are interested in attending this seminar, email Mark directly at markso@zerocapitalclub.com. To read more of Mark’s interesting and life enriching articles you can go to his blog at http://www.markso.wordpress.com

The Difference Between Trading And Investing

I want you to imagine that you are in one of my finance seminars right now. You are seated in the middle row and you are here because you want to understand how to grow your money.

As the seminar begins, and after I make everyone feel comfortable, I pause and look into the crowd and ask a simple question. “Can anyone tell me; is there a difference between Trading and Investing?”  A few hands go up and I pick one. “Sir, investing is putting your money into an asset and making it work for you”. “Good”, I say, “…and what about Trading?” “Well, sir trading is buying and selling”. “Very good, okay, how about you?” I point to another person. “Investing is long term, trading is short term”. “Fantastic! Thank you for your very concise answers, you are both correct, now let me summarize and simplify so that everyone understands: Investing and trading are both being able to place your money into assets and make it work for you, both of them are also buying and selling, the difference is, investing is buying and selling on a long term basis while trading is buying and selling on a short term basis.”

Then I joke around. “Of course many of the experienced investors in the room know that Investing is also known as ‘Buying and Praying’” Which elicits a healthy amount of laughter. And I continue “…And those of you experienced traders in the room also know that Trading is ‘Buying and Praying Faster!’” And the room gets hysterical. I continue with another question: “Okay, raise your hands, how many of you want to make money by waiting a few years (Long term) to see some returns?” About a third of the room raises their hands. “Great! Now raise your hands if you want to make your money even faster!” Almost everyone in the room, even those who said they wanted long term investments raises their hands. “Ah, greed is in the air today I see…Now let me ask you, why do you want to make money faster?” Someone shouts, “Para yumaman ng mas mabilis!” (“So that we can get richer faster”) And the room starts to laugh again as everyone has the same mindset. So I continue “Very good, I know exactly what  you mean, everyone wants to get rich as soon as possible.”

Then I ask a few more questions: “So, how long would it take for you to double your money in a long term investment?” The crowd begins to chatter and you can hear people saying certain investment types and attaching the amount of years it would take for that investment vehicle to double their money. Some say 5 years, others say 3 while others say 10 years. “And how long would it take to double your money in trading short term?” Then the crowd randomly mentions a few numbers, some say 1 month, 3 months, 1 year. “Okay guys, that’s great, now let’s just say, for long term investments, and for arguments sake, can we agree that if you pick the right vehicle and you invest at the right time, you can actually double your money in 1 year?” The investors in the room nod. “Okay then, now for the traders in the room can we agree that for short term investments, you can double your money in 1 month?” A person from the back shouts “Actually Sir, you can double your money in 1 week, especially if you time it correctly!” And I myself nod and continue “…That’s true, but let’s just say 1 month to be a bit more conservative, can we agree? Good, now let me ask you guys, if you can double your money in a long term investment in 1 year, can you also lose all of your money in 1 year?” The room unanimously agrees, Yes they say with a vengeance. “And for short term traders, if you can double your money in 1 month, can you also lose all your money in 1 day?” The room, especially the veteran traders, vigorously nods in total agreement. ‘Absolutely’ is what I hear some people say as I press on.

“Good! Now, do you still want to make money in the short term knowing that you can also lose money faster?” then suddenly the room starts to ponder and quiet down a bit, and I can see some people beginning to realize the ugly truth about trying to grow your money whether for the long term or the short term. Everyone wants to make money fast, but my question made them realize that they might not want to lose money –slow or fast.

So I look around the room and I speak to them as I am speaking to you right now.

“Well, if you ask me, I would still want to make money in the short term even if I know that I can lose money faster, because and remember this, if you lose money in a long term investment, you don’t just lose your money, you also lose something far more valuable, you lose time. Remember my example above? If your long term investment made you lose money in 1 year, you lost your money and you also lost 1 year of your life — something that you can never get back…. Now if I lost my money in the short term, say 1 month. I lost my money, but only 1 month, which means I still have 11 months in the year to decide on what to do with my life!” And the crowd laughs and smiles in unison as if they saw clearer into their future on how they might tackle how they will grow their money. They nod in simple agreement and like them, I hope that you now understand in more practical terms what the difference is between Trading and Investing.

Want more of my Premium Articles like this one? Go to my blog at http://www.markso.wordpress.com now.

Author box:

Mark So is a fervent businessman, forex trader, marketer, sales consultant, and educator.  He is the Chairman and CEO of Businessmaker Academy—a business, finance and corporate training center.  He is also the Chief Forex Trainer of Forex Club Manila. Mr. So is slated to conduct his “Forex Orientation Seminar” this August 28, 2010. If you are interested in attending this seminar, click here: http://www.forexclubmanila.com/forexorient or call 6874445 / 6873416 / 6874645 and look for Aiza King

How I Make My Problems Produce Profits for Me

FACT: “Everyone has problems. And almost everyone I know HATES having to deal with problems.”

This absolutely simple truth is the most basic formula for success in all of my businesses.

Because while everyone thinks of problems as unwanted nuisances that upset their well being and adds stress to their already stressful lives. I see profitable business opportunities just waiting to be started.

Let me ask you, my dear reader. If your problem was urgent enough, irritating enough, complicated enough, or time consuming enough, would you be willing to pay for your problem(s) to go away?

If you said yes, then someone in the world this very moment is already profiting from your problem(s) (It might even be me). Wouldn’t it be nicer if that someone who was profiting from your problem was you? In my article today, I’ll teach you how I do it in five very easy steps.

5 steps to make my problems produce profits for me

Step 1: I know that my problems, no matter how big or small are not unique to me, if I have these problems so does a whole bunch of other people. So let’s take this problem of mine as an example

“I need to eat healthy but I don’t know how to cook healthy food”

Now I’m willing to bet that this problem is shared by millions of people like me around the world.

Step 2: The next step of course would be to find a solution for it. And I’m not necessarily talking about having to invent a solution for it on my own unless of course I can or want to, I’m talking about finding a ready made existing solution to it — simply “google” it and chances are you will find  pretty good suggestions immediately.

So for the problem I wrote above I googled “I need to eat healthy but I don’t know how to cook healthy food” and what came up in the search was a Blog of someone giving me these suggestions:

• If you are in a hurry and can’t cook, go to the grocery instead of the fast food and buy a rotisserie chicken its low in fat and tastes excellent. Just remember to remove the skin.
• Buy pre-cut salad mixes from the vegetable section, break open a pack when you get home then toss with a light vinaigrette which can also be bought in the Grocery
• Buy pre-seasoned lean meat in the meat department of the grocery and steam it when you get home.

And the suggestions go on and on.

Step 3: I will try and test the suggestions and see if it works for me. If it doesn’t then I go back to step 2 and find other suggestions or solutions then repeat until I find one that works. Now let’s say I like the suggestions already and it works absolutely fantastic for me. In other words, it solves my problem, AND there is a tangible result from this solution lets say I lost 20 pounds in a month and I completely stopped eating unhealthy fast food.

Step 4: This step is where I make a small business out of it by first creating a “product”. In this case my product will be my “Super healthy food system menu” — A menu of all the healthy food combinations I ate for one month that resulted in losing 20 pounds.

Then Once I complete my product which can be as simple as an Email, I create a super simple “offer” to people who have the same problem as me

The offer will look something like this:

“Do you need to eat healthy food but don’t know how to cook healthy food?

I had the same problem until I created and tested my super healthy food system that has absolutely no cooking time nor effort what so ever.

And these were my results:

• I completely stopped eating unhealthy fast food
• I lost 20 pounds in one month.
• I can sleep better now.
• I can move faster.
• And best of all, I feel absolutely healthy!

It cost me a bit of money and a bit of time to experiment with different combinations but because I know it will help you, you can have my super healthy food system menu that you just have to follow at one super low price. And the best part is everything on the Menu is available at your local grocery store.

To get my super healthy menu for just P500 just email me at (email address) or call me at (Phone number) or visit my website at (website)”

Or something like that…

Step 5: This step is where I launch the small business. I send out this offer to the right target market or those who have the same problem that I have. Who are they? Well they are people who are just like me, busy people, mid thirties, doesn’t get much exercise because of too much work, etc. I know their profile because they are me, well not as handsome though ha ha, but you get the point.

So In my example above, the problem was a small one which really didn’t need me to spend anything outside of what I had to spend — I needed to spend on my food anyway during my “experimentation” phase and when it came to my “product” I can deliver it by email. Now if I apply the right marketing effort and know how, this “small problem” would easily produce me some very nice profits.

So I hope you’ve learned how I view problems in a different light. For most people, problems are stressful nuisances that they want to get rid of even if they need to pay someone to solve their problems for them. But for entrepreneurs like me, the very same problems given the right plan, exists to make me even more profits.

Want more of my Premium Articles like this one? Go to my blog at http://www.markso.wordpress.com now.

Author box:

Mark So is a fervent businessman, forex trader, marketer, sales consultant, and educator.  He is the Chairman and CEO of Businessmaker Academy—a business, finance and corporate training center.  He is also the Chief Forex Trainer of Forex Club Manila. Mr. So is slated to conduct his “7 Point Formula for Business Start up and Growth”  this September, 2010. If you are interested in attending this seminar, email Mark directly at markso@zerocapitalclub.com. or call (632)6874445 / 6873416 / 6874645 and look for Kenneth Dalen. To read more of Mark’s interesting and life enriching articles Mark is published twice a month at Manila Bulletin Classifieds Sections usually on Wednesdays and Sundays.

How I Learned To Manage People

In my earlier years, I never really thought of myself as a manager of people, truth be told I never really understood how important managing people really was until I became an Entrepreneur. And even when I embraced entrepreneurship full time, I made many, many mistakes in this field which taught me huge lessons not just in business but in life over all.

You see, back in the day as an inexperienced Entrepreneur, I thought that people management was simple: “if you want your business to succeed, you must hire people who have the background to run your business for you.” Little did I know that those thoughts were the most devastating thoughts ever to cross my mind. Why? Because no matter how good the people you hire, or how much money you offer them, the truth is: No one can ever run your business better than you.

I learned the hard way that being a business owner did not mean that you hired people to think for you and run the day to day operations for you, it meant that you needed to first know what you really want your business to become, and to do that, you need to be Employee number 1. Because and remember Murphy’s Law: If something can go wrong, it usually will. And if you are not there to steer the business clear of problems, you should never expect Employee number 2, 3 or 4 to do it better than you.

The greatest mistake I made with my first business was to hire a General Manager and her managers (Employee number 2 and 3 and 4) to run the business. I was still working for a big multinational company back then and had the excuse of “I’m too busy to handle my own business”. So I relied on the salaries that I was paying my people to make them grow my business, solve problems and make me rich!

Of course, reality is never that easy. Because people that you pay but do not manage usually result in the people taking their salaries and end up making excuses for why things didn’t go as planned.

To read more about my problems on my first business and how I solved it, Click here to read: “Business and the start of a beautiful relationship parts 1 to 3”.

In hindsight, I realized that my biggest mistake was that I “abdicated” instead of “delegated”. Abdication is what happens when you are not there to guide people and as a result fail to fulfill your responsibility as the founder of the business. Delegation is when you slowly give some responsibility to the people you hire so that they can eventually do the work for you over time. Take note, the operative words here are “slowly” and “over time”.

So in my next business, I tried “delegating”. I was more hands on in the business. But there were still big glaring problems. The biggest problem of all was my attitude. I was either too nice, or too strict, or too tyrannical or all of the above. So as you can imagine, some of my people were complaining behind my back. I wasn’t consistent in my approach and my moods got the best of me, because and this is not an excuse: as an entrepreneur you are faced with an extreme amount of stress on a daily basis.

So how did I learn to manage my people better? Well, three things.

First I had to learn to be better than the normal guy. As an Entrepreneur, you will really face a lot of hard and stressful times but even during those times, I had to learn how to become more “presidential” which meant I needed to stop being dramatic, learn to act from my head and not from my heart. It wasn’t easy, but I (with my wife) realized that the solution to achieving this was to slowly and painstakingly build a system to address the needs of our people. This is where my wife, Jhoanna really excelled, she built our Human Resource System almost single handedly which did not just address concerns of our people but also replaced impulsiveness and drama with solid procedures for addressing our people’s problems.

Second, and simultaneously, I had to weed out the bad apples in the bunch. You see I believe that the business owner has to do his / her part in becoming better at managing people but the people themselves must be willing to be honed to become even better for the sake of the Business. Unfortunately there are those who just do not have the right attitude and the only answer is to remove them from the equation. Once I cleared the ranks, replacing them with “better” people was the next task, and to do this, we created a criteria for hiring people, and that criteria was the most important of all, it was to hire those that believed in what the business wanted to achieve. This unified belief is what bonded our people together to act as one with the owners themselves. Without this bond you can never really build a team with a common purpose.

Third, and finally, I realized that the first two things will not matter at all if I did not show them exactly what it was that the business wanted to achieve. So the last and final ingredient of how I learned how to manage people is to lead by example. I am Employee number 1 and as such I must show the rest of the team how to do it the first time, the second time, the third time, until they can do it on their own. Today, I can honestly say that I have come a long way when it comes to managing people. Today I can honestly say I together with my wife are better managers of people.

Author box:

Mark So is a fervent businessman, forex trader, marketer, sales consultant, and educator.  He is the Chairman and CEO of Businessmaker Academy—a business, finance and corporate training center.  He is also the Chief Forex Trainer of Forex Club Manila. Attend Businessmaker Academy’s Business Operations and People Management this August 7, 2010 at Businessmaker Academy. If you are interested in attending this seminar, email Mark directly at markso@zerocapitalclub.com or call 6874445 / 6873416 / 6874645 and look for Kenneth Dalen

How I Build Businesses using the Power of Accumulation!

My wife and I used to live in a condo unit when we were newly married. At first, the condo was pretty spacious and needed some furniture so we got a little bit of this, and a little bit of that, then gifts would come from friends and family on special occasions and over time the stuff we had would pile up. I remember one time feeling claustrophobic already, I literally couldn’t breathe anymore and no matter how many times we would donate, or purge we would feel that the condo was magically getting smaller and smaller.

Now this is not because we keep buying stuff, we actually live (then and now) a very simple life. We do not buy anything we do not need and we donate and “purge” regularly, the fact is everyone will eventually have more “stuff” over time. This is what I call “the power of accumulation” and what I wanted to share with you today is how I use this power in businesses. And how you too can build something small first then slowly, over time, accumulate not just “stuff” but wealth.

Before I start, I’m sure you are thinking right now: “I can’t start a business yet, I don’t know anything about businesses”. So I want to let you know one powerful truth:

“Everyone starts at ZERO.”

Every successful business owner starts by not knowing much about business. Sure, some of them might have studied about starting a business whether in college, grad school, books and even through seminars. And I wholeheartedly believe in education, but let me tell you another powerful truth:

“Experience is the best teacher of all”.

Let me explain further. If I were to tell a 5 year old child to stay away from the stove because he/she might get burned, then show the child pictures of what a burn looks like and tell her that it is very, very painful then the child has been educated on how not to get burned right?

Now, the child will listen to you…for a while that is.  But when you are not looking and the stove is on, chances are, the child will still go near the stove and accidentally burn her hand anyway. Because the child needs to fulfill her curiosity on what the word “burn” is and understand what you meant about how painful it can really be. Now, the moment she gets hurt and realizes that she never wants to get burned again, she has gained experience.

Likewise, the best way to learn about business is to experience doing business and find out first hand what it is like to go through the pains and gains of being in business.

So are you ready to gain experience and accumulate businesses? Alright then here’s the simple formula / plan that you must start doing now to start accumulating wealth through businesses: “S+R+A” = Power of Accumulation

S = “Start small”

There are many ways to start a business, but my method is the one that you can do right now. First off, know that no one can ever be sure if a business will succeed or not. So, common sense would dictate that you start small. If you have a small business already, good! If you don’t, then start one now by starting a sideline or racket. If you need some suggestions on creating a business without adding any costs, go to my blog at www.markso.wordpress.com and search this phrase: “Money Management Simplified Part 3”. In that article are two incredibly simple ways to start a small sideline business with Zero Costs. I would also suggest that you read the whole series (parts 1 to 3) to learn how to manage your money for businesses.

As my readers already know, when I start businesses I start them with Zero costs, to me that is the ultimate way of starting small.

R = “Remain Small”

When I start a small business, and it becomes a success, I do not hire a lot of people, I keep it small and manageable. But I do something “special” inside the business to make it even more profitable. I call it “Multiple Streaming”. It’s a technique that I teach in my 7 point formula seminar. What Multiple Streaming does is that it takes an ordinary sideline or racket and it “doubles” the income streams of that business every year. Now, if I increase my income stream per business and keep my staff small and manageable, the business becomes a lot more profitable even without becoming too big. Why do I like keeping my businesses small? Well, lots of reasons but the most important reason is that small businesses can move a lot faster than bigger businesses and the relationship between the customers, the staff and me are more direct and personal, no red tape.

A = “Accumulate”

Now, once my small business’ income stream stabilizes. I do it all over again with the same process, I start another small business, then I “Multiple Stream it” until profitable, then add another when ready. I simply keep adding small, profitable businesses over time that accumulate into true wealth. Imagine money coming in from multiple sources — when you wake up, when you are asleep, when you are eating, when you are on vacation. It’s an incredible feeling I assure you.

“The Power of Accumulation”

So going back to the introduction of this article when my wife and I started out in a small condominium, the fact is, you will always accumulate more “stuff” no matter what. So I learned to apply this incredible power into businesses and instead of the awful feeling of Claustrophobia, I achieve something else- “freedom from financial worry”. So now, you too can accumulate more wealth by just following the simple plan that I just outlined for you and of course gaining as much experience in the process. All the best! Good luck and God bless!

Author box:

Mark So is a fervent businessman, forex trader, marketer, sales consultant, and educator.  He is the Chairman and CEO of Businessmaker Academy—a business, finance and corporate training center.  He is also the Chief Forex Trainer of Forex Club Manila. Mr. So is slated to conduct his “7 Point Formula Seminar” this July 31, 2010. If you are interested in attending this seminar, email Mark directly at markso@zerocapitalclub.com. To read more of Mark’s interesting and life enriching articles you can go to his blog at http://www.markso.wordpress.com