Network marketing 101: How much time does it take to build a successful business?

When I started my network marketing business in 2009, I had hardly any “extra time” left in my schedule. I was working 40+ hours per week in a cubicle for my public relations job and I was also engaged to be married, so we were planning our wedding. The last thing I thought I had time for was a side business.

What I realized, however, was that most successful network marketers started their networking careers alongside another full-time gig. The beauty of network marketing is that it’s a very social business. You might also call it “lifestyle marketing” because a lot of the “work” takes place throughout your normal day – as you strike up a conversation in line at the bank, as you’re reconnecting with a former co-worker over lunch, while you’re speaking with another parent at your child’s soccer game.

If you can find 5-10 hours or so per week of social time in your schedule, then you absolutely have time to build a successful network marketing business. It’s not so much about the hours of time you put towards it, but how you spend that time. For example, you will have WAY more success spending 5 hours per week meeting people over lunch or reconnecting over the phone than you would spending 10 hours per week organizing your office or replying to emails.

The core of success in the network marketing industry is engaging in conversation with people and sharing about your business/product. You get paid for presenting and sharing, NOT for racking up hours on a timesheet.

If you’re new to network marketing, focus on the windows of time you have in your schedule and maximize those with revenue producing activity. And also keep in mind, this is NOT an overnight success business. Just like the athletes you see competing in the Olympics, there’s a TON of behind the scenes preparation (and often failure) that takes place!

Taking on any new skill set or career path is going to require learning. Most people don’t achieve success in network marketing because they quit too soon. Robert Kiyosaki (author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad) says to give your network marketing business a minimum of 5 years before you quit. Of course, there are exceptions to every rule. Some network marketers will skyrocket within 1-2 years and others it may take 6-8 years…the key is consistency and remembering that everyone’s journey is different.

Network marketing has positively impacted my life in so many ways. It’s allowed me to pursue a calling that I’m crazy passionate about and not be “stuck in a job”.

Success will be defined differently by each person you speak with. Some desire an extra $200 per month alongside another career they love. Others desire $3,500 per month to replace a job that no longer fulfills them. Others are seeking $20,000 per month so they can give generously and change the lives of those around them.

Whatever your definition of success is…you can find it in network marketing.

Whatever your schedule looks like…you can find the time to be successful in this industry. Decide, do and don’t quit.  

Source: http://kristadial.com/2014/07/network-marketing-101-much-time-take-build-successful-business

The Power of Your Network in Real Estate

I was chatting with Chris Winterhalter, a successful apartment building investor and active participant in the Bigger Pockets forums.

He talked about some of the advances he made in his investing career, and many of them were tied to people he met. In fact, he met his current business partner at a real estate investing conference. That partner owned a commercial construction company and wanted to expand into apartment buildings. Chris was a wholesaler/flipper and wanted to get into apartments. A perfect match.

This conversation made me reflect on what networking has accomplished in my career but also made me think about what I could be better.

We Can Accomplish More with Others, Then We Can Accomplish on Our Own!

I had an apartment building under contract, due diligence was completed, the appraisal was completed and we were 14 days away from closing.

Everything looked good. Until I got a call from the loan underwriter who informed me that the local bank I was working with changed their mind about the deal. “The loan committee didn’t like the area the building was in”, was all he said.

Wow, really ?!? Two weeks before closing?

Fortunately I had been working with 4 other lenders, got them to present me with term sheets, and picked the best one. The second best one looked pretty good at this point! Sure enough, that bank jumped on it, we transferred the appraisal and they closed on it in 23 days.

I would have been stuck had I not been networking with other brokers.

The Power of Your Network

While I get the majority of deal flow from commercial real estate brokers, occasionally I get one from someone in my network.

One time I got a smaller building through a wholesaler from whom I had previously bought houses to flip. He knew another wholesaler who had this build under contract and was looking to sell the contract. The deal didn’t work out, but it looked promising for a while.

I do better when I have mentors. They give me confidence I didn’t have before. They might say “buying a 100 unit isn’t so bad. So you need to raise $1M, so what? It’s not that hard, I know you can do it!” Even if they don’t directly help, they’re confidence in me lets me expand my own comfort zone so that I, too, start believing I can do it.

I can Improve with My Networking

My friend Jonathan is my model in what it means to be a good networker: he’s constantly introducing people to each other.

He spends time with people, he calls them regularly. He asks you what you’re looking for and then keeps his eyes for something that could help you. He doesn’t ask “what’s in it for me?” but “what can I do to help you?”

I’m outgoing enough, but I’m not intentional enough with networking. I need to be more like Jonathan and find ways I can help others in my sphere of influence each and every day.

The lesson here is that we need to be more intentional with our networking. Put it on your list each week. Make that phone call, schedule that lunch, follow up with conversations, attend that investment meeting. Then figure out how you can help people achieve what they’re striving for.

What do you do to network with others? What can you do better?

Be sure to leave your comments below!

Source:  http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2014/08/11/power-network-real-estate

You Can’t Be Successful Without These Internet Marketing Tips

Cruising around the web, you’re going to find a lot of information on internet marketing in general. Some of it is good, and some of it is not so good. You should always be wary of what you’re reading, and in this article we’re going to explain some of the real points of internet marketing that you should be aware of, without the mumbo jumbo.

Getting involved in online forums and talking up your website can contribute significant benefits to an internet marketing plan. Do not be pushy or single-minded when you do this; contribute to forums that relate to your website’s focus and your own interests. If you can forge connections with potential customers that are interested in what you provide they will more than likely come to your site.

To make more money, you can offer additional products and bonuses. After presenting the qualities of a product, mention its shortcomings and how that can be fixed by an additional product. You should make sure that the original product and the bonuses would interest the same kind of customers.

To learn more techniques, you should pretend to be a customer and see what other sellers and marketers are doing in the niche you are interested in. Subscribe to other email lists, and analyze what attracts you and what makes you not want to buy the product. Adapt these techniques to your product.

Always provide the information and answers that customers are seeking and make it easy to find. Just providing a one page website that gives your hours and address is not going to attract customers. You should include plenty of information on different pages of your site, it should be of great quality and pertain to your niche.

Take a careful look at your competition. Making sure that you have a good knowledge of your competitors is important. Visit their websites. Take a look at the keywords that they are using. Take a look at your own keywords and compare them. Improve upon your keyword usage until you find yourself featuring more prominently in search results.

Brand yourself up. Make a logo, a saying, or even a simple title that will carry into everything you do. When people start to recognize your brand, success is on the way. Market your website just like you would a product: acknowledge the shortfalls, but be sure to praise the uniqueness. If you need help in this area, we recommend iConnect Media, a Mississauga web design company.

If your business is engaged in advertising both online and offline, make sure your marketing strategies in the two spheres complement each other. An internet marketing plan should work with and enhance your other efforts in print or other media. Make sure your website points visitors towards your adverts in other media – and make sure your TV, radio and print ads mention your website.

A fantastic way to increase your site visibility is to create site map pages which outline all the different parts of your site. This makes it easier for your site to be navigated, and will allow search engines to locate all the different sections of your site more easily.

While you do need keywords to get a higher visibility, you need to make sure that you write the content on your site for your consumers first. The search engine bots are not going to buy your products. Only real people are going to buy your products, so you need to write for them.

Once you cut through the hyperbole and the useless content out there, you will find that real information on marketing doesn’t make bold promises or mislead you in any way. Like the information contained in this article, internet marketing is a serious business venture, and thus you must approach it as such.

Source: http://www.womenentrepreneurshq.com/you-cant-be-successful-without-these-internet-marketing-tips

8 Pieces of Advice Newbies Can’t Afford to Ignore

I met a client last week who told me something that really touched my heart.

He said “Amanda, looking back on the last 5 years of investing in real estate I realized that I have made so many mistakes along the way that were so costly. Does that happen to everyone and what could I have done to avoid those mistakes?”

His comment struck a chord with me because I was in those same shoes. I think that as we look back on investing (and life in general) there are always going to be things that we wish we had known beforehand.

The fact that we made mistakes or bad decisions does not necessarily mean that we did something wrong or that we missed the target by some fault of our own. It is just a part of growing. In fact I can say that I have never met an investor who didn’t make any mistakes.

So instead of talking about taxes or finances this week, I think it would be helpful to talk about some common investing mistakes that I see often, and if you are a newbie investor, then hopefully one or  more of these points below can help prevent you from making a bad investment move.

The 8 Pieces of Advice Newbies Cannot Afford to Ignore

The following are 8 pieces of advice that newbies need to pay attention to.  These will help prevent you from making terrible investment decisions and put you on the path to becoming successful earlier than most.

1. Take the Time to Learn:

Learning from the mistakes of other investors is likely the best way to leverage your time. Instead of re-creating the wheel or making costly mistakes, learn from others who have done this before.

2. Know What’s Important:

A smart investor focuses on what his or her return will be.

One of the best pieces of advice I received from a mentor when I first started investing was “don’t fall in love with the dirt”. As hard as that may be, focus your energy on the numbers behind the deal and don’t let that beautiful master bathroom lead you astray. Analyzing an investment is not the same as buying your dream home.

3. Take Action:

You can read books or attend seminars all day long but there is no better way to get into real estate than by taking action.

Get your feet wet by making offers, speaking with investors, and analyzing deals early on. Don’t waste too much time sitting on the sidelines.

4. Be Realistic:

You undoubtedly have read books or heard about how easy it is to get into real estate with no money and no experience.

Behind every successful investor are the stories of their sweat, tears, and failures that pre-empted their success.  Know that you will make some mistakes along the way and that it’s okay.

Accepting that mistakes can happen and that it is a natural part of investing can help reduce the anxiety associated with pulling the trigger on your first deal.

5. Get Your Team in Place:

None of us can understand all there is to know when it comes to investing, nor do we have the time to do everything that needs to be done for our properties.

Just as we leverage the bank’s money, we can also leverage the experience and knowledge of others around us. From attorneys and accountants to property managers and appraisers, leveraging your advisor’s experiences and expertise can help you to avoid common investing mistakes.

6. ListenTo The Right People:

If you are using a realtor to find your properties make sure they belong to the National Association of Realtors, because then at least you know they are mandated to adhere to strict ethic codes.

The right realtor can also help you look for the best properties. Listen to fellow successful investors and you may be surprised by how many great recommendations and sources for reliable information you can find.

7. Build a Business Not Just a Portfolio:

You should view this venture as a business and approach it with realistic goals.

To make sure that you treat your real estate as a business, it would be to your benefit to create a business plan that provides details as to how you will run your business over the next 1-10 years.

8. Stay On Top of Your Credit Score:

We have all heard of no money down real estate but let’s face it, one of the cheapest forms of funding for real estate is still bank money.

Many lenders require 700+ FICO scores and want a healthy debt-to- income ratio. Keeping an eye out on your credit score can help you to obtain cheap financing.

Would any of you seasoned investors add anything to this list? 

Be sure to leave your comments below!

Source: http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2014/07/24/8-pieces-advice-newbies-cant-afford-ignore

Digital Relationship Building

Digital relationship building drip campaigns, email blast, social media, CRM, texting is here to stay, we crave for it and cherish it. Everyday we have a small business owner reaching out to learn how to set-up, manage or improve their social media platforms. The thing is to get the most out of your digital networks you must turn that online relationship into a real world relationship (RWR). It’s unfortunate but most business owners find it to hard to put in the effort to transform the connection online into one that exist offline. They usually respond with not wanting to be to pushy or needy yet they will dedicate hours into interacting with valued customers in the digital world without truly getting to know them in a way they could if they made a phone call, held a party and invited all their customer or even gave them notice that they are coming to their town and would love to meet up for a meal or drink. What happened to making a real connection? Is getting someone’s email or preferred social networks the extent of being social and staying connected?

Every day I received at least one Linkedin request but here’s the thing they really don’t want to be linked in to me as a business owner. Why because the only value they saw was to send me the standard staple message Linkedin decided to furnish them. They did not see fit to personalize the message in anyway or manner to connect to me, I was just another email they had acquire for the purpose of digital relationship building for the value of a number to add to their online dragging rights. I’m worth more than a digital placement in your business life, I’m worth your personal attention. After all I’m a trusted advisor to my friends, family, colleagues and customers. I’m fun to be around, I’ll add to the quality to your network and life. I have the ability to supply good tangible referrals if you show me you are genuine in your relationship building with me, I have valuable information that can add to your bottom line. This is not a quid pro quo but real relationship building a I see you do you see me; I hear you, do you hear; I value you, do you value me?

At what point did we decide that a telephone call was intrusive? At what point did we decide we were more productive solely thru digital interaction? Relationship building isn’t digital files, emails or email blast, it’s looking up as Gary Turk video below clearly explains. Relationship building is connecting face-to-face, eye-to-eye, person-to-person and from all of that you will build repeat business, valuable referrals, trusted business partners and amazing opportunities to collaborate. Relationship building is personal communication not a drip campaign. Turn your digital relationship building into connecting with our customers via

• holding a party quarterly or once a year
• inviting them to a networking event you’ll attend
• have free lunch Fridays at your office and invite your customers
• making attempts to catch-up over a meal or drinks, it doesn’t have to be one-on-one invite 3 to 4 customers
• learn who they are outside their jobs, learn why they chose their career

Yes, there is the angle where you ask who’s your best customer and how do you find them. But when a customer see you are not just interested in the money in their pocket but them personally your well crafted drip campaign no matter how good the response rate will not provide the ROI that the personal connection will. Consider it, it’s not in the numbers that you win it’s in the quality in those few numbers that matter the most. The good stuff really happens in real time not digital time as text bloopers craft out.

Source: http://businesspipeline.com/digital-relationship-building

How To Make the Most of Your Networking Experience

Conferences are a great way to network with likeminded people who may be just as multi-passionate as you. Last year I had the pleasure of meeting people I knew online for the first time, getting in touch with people I’d already met, and meeting new people I now consider good friends. But  networking can be difficult and overwhelming, especially if you’re an introvert. So here are some tips for getting the most of your conference or event experience if networking sounds like hard work to you.

1. Choose Your Angle

As well as crafting your elevator pitch, choose which project(s) you want to highlight and share and which message(s) you want to own. You can switch it up according to the interests and personalities of the people you meet, you can stick with being a multipotentialite and telling people what that means to you, or you can choose to “specialize” by telling people what you do and, most importantly, how what you do benefits people (think about your values and your big why).

2. Ground Yourself

Networking events can be overwhelming. Networking is like speed dating in some ways, so you have to learn to ground yourself to keep yourself centered and in the moment. This means not getting too anxious when meeting people and honoring who you are. Take a deep breath. Connect with where you are now, not where you want to be, or where you were in the past.

3. Know Your Social Limits

If you’re an introvert, plan out which meet-ups you want to attend. Remember that you can pick and choose and can go to as many or as few as you want. You get to choose how to participate. There are huge meet-ups and there are smaller ones. Which suit you best? Pace yourself. If you know you get overwhelmed in big crowds, give yourself downtown and take breaks.

4. Know Your People

Once you know what your angle is, you’ll probably know who your people are. Who do you want to connect with? Who are the kinds of people you can help? Which types of people would you genuinely love to be friends with? The point isn’t to meet as many people as possible; it is to meet the right kind of people and then to make meaningful connections with them.

5. Follow up

Following up is an important step which is often forgotten about (guilty!). Follow up with people to let them know you enjoyed meeting them and reiterate who you are and how you help people. Use the business cards you collect as a guide, but there are plenty of other ways to follow up. Create a Twitter list of the people you’ve connected with. Add them on Facebook. Invite them to a free thirty-minute “coffee chat” over Skype (I use SoHelpful to help me do this). A simple hello can go a long way.

Source:  http://puttylike.com/how-to-make-the-most-of-your-networking-experience