I watched the “Private Lives” episode of House last evening…the story line was a blogger who could would NOT make a decision about her treatment without consulting her bloggers.

Needless to say it was frustrating on her boyfriends  part. As I watched the episode unfold–I thought about the many, many folks who rely on other peoples opinions in their decision making process.

Don’t get me wrong–I have been guilty…

But some of you won’t make a move about your business without first listening to every Tom, Dick, and Mary’s opinion. That in my opinion sorry I had to throw that in is just a deadly business mistake.

You’re going to listen to your family, friends, co-workers, their friends, their family…and use those opinions in your business decisions.

So here is my take on this…

If you’re thinking about starting a business online–do what you would do if you were going to start a traditional offline business.

Get your ducks in a row

Put together a solid business plan

Create a marketing strategy

Draft your vision and mission statements

Create solid financial statements (based on research–NOT opinions)

Establish a name

Treat your business as though your financial health depended on it…

and then

GET TO WORK–PUT IT IN ACTION!

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this subject. Did you watch that House episode?

Recently I attended Joe Schroeder and Diane Hochman’s Wisdom School in Newark, NJ. I was there as a guest–but I received more value in the workshop than I have in a long time from any other self-proclaimed “guru” on the web.

Joe has a tell it like it is teaching style. He released his new book “Disciplines of Doership” and I gotta say “Wow, wow, wow!”

Here is a taste of the chapters:

• What is the secret to those with an electric personality? Page 90
• Why do smart, educated people start, stop, fail and then never follow through? What is the FAILURE PROGRAM? Page 134
• Why do work-a-day people get irritated by the use of the word rich? Why trying to “BE RICH” anger the masses? Page 78
• Why does goal setting not work for most people? What is the secret to goal setting that no other book has ever revealed that would unleash 1,000,000 people? Page 112

I LOVE this book–

You can get your copy today BEFORE they come out publicly (19.95)–but you gotta let me know fast–I only have 11 copies available. Use the link below to get your copy–I’ll pay shipping for ya–but again I ONLY have 11 copies.

Oh and this inspired me to have my graphic designer create my own “Tomb Stone” where I buried the words–I Can’t!

Please leave your comments–I would love to hear from you.

In my tradition of de-cluttering my life, in-box, and everything else so I can concentrate on what I do best–I unsubscribed from all the self-proclaimed guru’s newsletters today.

Oh boy, did it feel good. Am I afraid I’m going to miss something? Nope, I’ve decided to hang out at ONE place–the Warrior Forum and of course Facebook–I can learn everything I need to know–and truth be told they are more willing to share than the self-proclaimed guru’s out there.

I started looking at the 100 or so newsletters I’m subscribed to and decided to start un-subscribing if they didn’t start sharing value instead of trying to pitch all their own products in every single freakin’ email I received from them.

I stayed on with a few…

Randy Gage–No, I’m not in his program–but he is a very smart marketer

Diane Hochman–I love this lady!

Mike Dillard

Frank Kern–cuz he’s so f@#@$#@ smart

Jeff Schuman–cuz he writes kick-ass articles!

Jason Better (You know he is not real right–well he is real–but his name is oh shoot I forgot?)

Joe Schroeder–great things happening here

Some I unsubscribed from:

Howie Schwartz–sorry I just can’t stand getting not one, not two, but even more emails from you a day!

Michael Rasmussen–sorry but you had to go–hadn’t seen any real value posts lately.

Dani Johnson–I like her but I like Diane better

And many, many more…

Soooo with that said…I hope you too will consider the email junk that keeps you from staying focused. I promise you’ll make more money if you clean up the clutter in your in-box.

In this day and age of Network Marketing–it becomes apparent that you need to connect with more people. Listen to my short message.

While I will not go through the exact affiliate products that I have canceled. I will tell you that approx every 90 days I sit down and write out the products that I’m paying for on a monthly/quarterly basis. Then I analyze whether it is worth it to keep on paying for the service.

So many folks come to me and say I just don’t have the money for this or the money for that. Here is how you can overcome that.

Sit down today or at least before the year is up and analyze your finances–what can you get rid of? What can you stop paying monthly fees for? What can you “share” with your team?

There are some tools that I know I can not do without. I share those costs with my business partners or team members.

I did this today and now have a savings of $187.80 a month–and I’m not done. I have a few more things to go through–who knows maybe by the time I’m done I’ll be up to almost $300 a month.

Please share your stories here in my blog–of your experience with this exercise.

If you’re a blogger and have written reviews of products or endorsed products there are new FTC guidelines that you should be paying attention to.

The FTC has published Final Guides Governing Endorsements and Testimonials.

I have written many blog posts endorsing products without adding a disclaimer. No longer can you do that. “…the post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement.” As affiliates of many products it’s better to be safe than sorry. I’m not sure exactly how this will affect us bloggers; however, I will choose to err on the side of caution and add a line of text that says something like:

“I will be paid an affiliate commission if you click on the following link.” Will that satisfy the FTC regulations? I’m not sure. But beware; it’s better to put something than nothing.

“The revised Guides also add new examples to illustrate the long standing principle that “material connections” (sometimes payments or free products) between advertisers and endorsers – connections that consumers would not expect – must be disclosed”

Read the complete Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising

Yes, I really did it. I quit my job of 17 years yesterday–10/13/09 my first official day of freedom. I’m not scared…but if I said I wasn’t a little bit nervous I’d be lying.

I quit without fanfare and I quit happy. I quit with ONE email and in the subject line I said; I Quit Effective Immediately.

I’m going to tell you a story. I have been working for Brunswick County School since 1992. I worked my way up as far as my education would let me go. I worked hard and I made pretty good money.

Around February or so of this year my friend asked me to be a character witness for her in a grievance she was filing. I said absolutely without hesitation. I had known my friend for almost 20 years; it was a no-brainer. She said now wait you may not want to when you find out who the grievance is against. She said it was against the superintendent of the school system; I answered again…yes I will be your character witness.

A few months later this grievance was finally heard by the board. And lo and behold a few weeks after that 1/2 of my friends witnesses were transferred out of the central office to different positions in the school system. Now I was one of those transferred–from a central office setting to a school setting and given another job on top of the job “they let me keep”. How nice of them. This was a clear retaliatory action; and I believe against the “whistle blowers” act; but the board didn’t care–they upheld all of these transfers.

There was no notice given; I happened to hear on the day of the board meeting that I was on the “hit list”. They didn’t give me the courtesy of notifying me; sitting me down after 17 years of good service–so did I feel that I owed them a notice? No!

Anyway, I was put into this new position PLUS still had to fulfill my other responsibilities; both of them being full-time jobs. The board wouldn’t hear me; the HR Director wouldn’t hear me…my boss wouldn’t hear me. There is probably a lawsuit here–but…

Anyway I’m a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. Last week I took the week off and actually went to the Dr’s and was put on anti-depressants! Now mind you I’ve never been in that position. Hell, I was depressed. My job was never-ending never get caught up–I couldn’t handle both positions and do either of them well. So I started back to work on Monday morning with a dread of even being there. On Tuesday I received several emails from my director saying give rights to this person; give rights to that person–jobs that I had been doing. And I thought I know where this is headed.

I called hubby and said, “Can I quit? Right now?” He said let’s talk about it tonight. I said o.k. then he sent me a text that said; “Walk right now!” And well I did.

Now that being said I know how folks feel when they say; “I knew if I didn’t make this decision my business was never going to go on to the next level.” You see I have worked online since 2003 of November. So almost 6 years to the month–I am able to quit. I started in January of this year with 2 Virtual Assistants and am now up to 9 people who help me with my business. So my business has grown and now it’s time for my income to double! I knew that if I continued to work on my business only from 5:00 PM to 2:00 AM I would never get it to the next level…so here I am!

Happily enjoying my freedom! I had to (taking from my friends words) give myself permission to quit. I had to have the mindset that it was finally time to take my business to the next level. My team is in place…and I’m ready to take on the world.

Who wants to join me on this incredible journey? Any takers?

In my next post I’ll tell you the story of my experience and what I’ve done to get here.