Productive Home Working Environment

April 30, 2010 By 3 Comments

I’m getting ready to go in the house and declutter…we’re having a yard sale tomorrow and we’re in the middle of a major remodeling project–so my house is a shambles.

But I wanted to shoot off a quick blog post before I go into the house and work.

Creating a productive home working environment can be accomplished with a few simple tips.

I’ve written a few posts about the clutter in our life and how it has a way of weighing us down. The same holds true in our business–we have downline members and yes sometimes upline, sideline members, and even business partners who bog us down with the constant phone calls, emails, hand-holding, etc.

I’ve eliminated a lot of that by sending most of my calls through my google voice–love this tool as I can read the message through my email–if it’s NOT important–I hit delete and it doesn’t hurt at all.

Some folks think everything is an emergency–it’s not I promise you. Most of the time the email and/or phone call questions can be answered if folks will go to their website and read the F.A.Q.’s or there is also this incredible tool called Google.

It’s funny when folks email me with How do I? If I don’t know the answer–I use the trusty Google search to find it–try it sometime–you’ll be amazed at the results.

OK I’m being a smart-a$$ here I know…

I have a friend who is an incredible marketer–I LOVE talking with her–we only talk about once every 8 weeks–but we get more accomplished in one 15-minute phone call than some folks do in 10 phones calls.

Do you find yourself with folks who email you constantly with questions and you answer every question immediately? Instead, wait a day–and answer ALL the emails in ONE email response.

OK so I’m headed into the house now–for the next 72 hours I will busy, busy, busy!!! I hope all of you have a super-great day!

Holly Powell

Filed Under: Mindset, Outsourcing

Outsourcing Your Projects

December 31, 2009 By 3 Comments

I just took a trip down memory lane with my photo albums.

I laughed and I cried as I looked at pictures of my Mom, my Dad, (both now gone) and my girls (now grown with babies of their own).

The travels that Jesse and I have experienced are all documented. Back 20 years or so ago we would buy souvenirs; only to have them end up in the next yard sale. I finally got smart and now just buy post cards. I write the days activities on the card, slap a postage stamp on it and mail it home. Funny, sometimes we beat the cards home–but it sure does take less space and they fit nicely in a photo album. Not to mention lighter luggage.

So as I’m writing this with those memories fresh in my mind; I reflect on the other half of my life, my business. I’ve been in this crazy industry since 1981–all the while dreaming, tasting, believing that one day I would be rich, quit my job, and never have to work again.

28 years later I did quit my job. OK I don’t want to discourage you–I didn’t work this industry in any serious manner until the fall of 2003. I piddled (showing my age with that term) or dabbled in the industry until 2003.

That is the year I got serious and decided to give it my all! I didn’t put a time-stamp on the day I would quit my job–I just plowed on! And kept at it…learning everything I could about the industry.

In 2007 I learned about the power of video–uploaded my first video in October of that year.

In 2008 I learned the power of blogging–and added my first blog post that  fall. Yes, I’ve only been blogging for a little over a year.

On October 13, 2009 I quit my full-time job of 17 years to work from home full-time! I said WORK! Come on people those of us who work from home still WORK!

The difference is I work for me now…and while I’m not stinking rich…we get by on my the income that I earn from my business. Is it still tight sometimes? Yep, I’m not going to lie to you…but since I quit in October 2009 we still manage to “make the bills”.

I’ve partnered with some incredible folks who well, they “sell my stuff”…and that makes it a whole lot easier for me.

I’m not going to list out goals here. I’m not going to list out resolutions for 2010–that doesn’t work for me. What am I going to do next year that will be different?

I’m going to be quite honest with you here! Probably a whole lot of what I’m doing now. Nurturing relationships, meeting new folks, earning their trust. Because that my friends is what brings partnerships and with partnerships–comes incredible income opportunities.

I have skills that they may need; they definitely have skills that I need and together we can conquer the world.

There is one more thing that I am planning to do!

Here is the biggie…

Many of you reading this have purchased courses that teach you how to reach out to offline business owners and bring them online. I am finding; however, that once you purchase those courses–and you “land” your first small business deal–you are realizing the unbelievable amount of work involved in fulfilling their “package”.

It might be a website, a social media package, a video package–whatever service you sold them–you are now obligated to either do all the work yourself–or outsource pieces-parts to one or more individuals.

Well, you no longer have to outsource to more than one individual. I have a trained team who are trained in the following:

  • Blog Setup and Design
  • Article, Press Release, and Blog Post Writing
  • Video Creation and Distribution
  • Social Bookmarking
  • Forum Marketing
  • Blog Commenting
  • Search Engine Submission
  • Directory Submission

And so much more…so if you’re struggling and know that you can make more money by making more sales–but there is only one of you to do all the work–fret no more…

Give me a call 1-910-315-0304 or complete the Contact Form and we can schedule a time to talk about your outsourcing needs! All of them!

Filed Under: Outsourcing Tagged With: outsourcing your marketing, small business marketing

Urgent California Independent Contractors

July 10, 2009 By Leave a Comment

I received an email this morning from my good buddy, Ron Mueller over at Home Business Tax Savings. I’ve had the privilege of having Ron as a guest speaker for several calls over the last few years for my readers and he always has good advice. I received this email this morning from Ron and I know he will not mind my sharing with my readers; as we need to get the word out.

“Start of email…

Because of the urgency of this post I’m pasting his email exactly as I received it. Please tweet, retweet, share; whatever you have to do to get the news out.

Rarely do I send an “Urgent Alert,” so when I do it means something.
You should be worried if you…

(a) live in California AND/OR if you
(b) are an Independent Contractor AND/OR
(c) if you know that “Whatever happens in the ‘land of fruits ‘n nuts’ (that would be CA) gets copied everywhere else”…

YOU SHOULD BE WORRIED!!!
The California Assembly passed SB 17 on a majority vote which contains a provision for a 3% withholding tax on Independent Contractors.

If this bill becomes law, all of USA who contract with IC’s  will be required to withhold 3% of the monthly check of every IC and remit this amount to the state, just like a payroll withholding tax. Throughout history, across the country, Independent Contractors have been exempt from withholding taxes because many of their expenses are deductible. This legislation sets a dangerous precedent that other states, and even the Federal Government,
could follow.

If you share my concern — even if you are not a CA resident — please voice your opposition to this bill ASAP by contacting the CA Governor and CA Senate President Pro tem Darrell Steinberg and let them know how you feel.

A sample letter appears below for your convenience, but your communication will be most effective if you use your own words.

Contact info for the CA Governor and Senate President appears below.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: 916-445-2841
Fax: 916-558-3160

The following is Senate President Pro tem Darrell Steinberg’s contact information:
Senate President Pro tem Darrell Steinberg
State Capitol, Room 205
Sacramento, CA 95814
SAMPLE LETTER:
Dear [ ]:

Unfortunately, once again, the California Legislature is considering an Independent Contractor withholding proposal, which would place a HUGE burden on my family business.

[Tell your personal story in your own words]
I have been an Independent Contractor for more than [Insert the number] years. Originally, I became an IC because [fill in reason].  Now my family depends on this extra income to cover our cost of living in California.
I am not opposed to paying my share of taxes, but it makes no sense to me to send the State my money, and then have the State send it back a year later to me when I file my tax returns.

I need every dollar I make to run my business. I have to pay my business expenses from the income I earn. While I, of course, support the need to pay taxes, withholding up-front on taxes I may never really owe, will cause severe, and unnecessary, cash flow problems for my small home-based business.

Making a living at my business is already difficult enough. If you burden us with more administration and paper work, it only serves to make the business more difficult and less attractive, and therefore it will be more difficult for me to make a profitable (taxable!) income.

In the end, the State will not end up with any more money, but less. How will the State benefit by forcing legitimate mom-and-pop businesses out of business in the name of “tax reform?”

Please do not support any budget resolution that contains Independent Contractor withholding. It would hurt my family and my business as well as tens of thousands of others in my occupation.

Sincerely,
Your Name

“End of email”

So folks help me get the word out…share this with your followers. I’ve made it easy for you with the ShareThis plugin. Oh, and please if you like the plug-in make a donation!

hollypowell

Filed Under: Outsourcing, Tax Tips, Work From Home Tagged With: california independent contract tax

Are You Spending Your Valuable Time?

July 1, 2009 By 2 Comments

We all know that we have 1440 minutes in a  day right? How do you get paid for that? Yes, I asked how to you get paid

time

Time Is Valuable

What is your time worth? Is it worth $10 an hour? $50, $100, $1000?

Have you figured it out? If you haven’t figured it out you’re going to continue to work on menial tasks worth about $2 an hour and you’ll get nowhere fast. I know I have worn those shoes–I wore those shoes out til there were no soles left.

I did finally get smart. And now it’s time for me to help you. I know for a fact there are folks who are charging $1000 for 60 hours of outsourcing help. I say, “To hell with that!” How can the average person pay that? The saddest part of that is…the one’s who do shell out that kind of dough don’t really have it to spend. They just do it because someone told them they had to in order to be successful.

That is a big, fat lie! You can get outsourcing for a whole lot less and still receive as much value. I guess I like to watch out for the little guy. I’ve been where you’re at. So I ask you this:

What is your wish list? What do you do daily that you know you could outsource?

I talked about this in a previous post. What can you outsource?

You could hire someone to…

  • Set up your social profiles
  • Write a few blog posts
  • Submit articles
  • Create generic videos for marketing
  • Add new friends on YouTube
  • Blog commenting
  • Link building

I could go on and on and on. The biggest issue is YOU! Most folks just can’t let go; and if you can’t do that…then you’ll continue to fill up those 1,440 minutes a day with $2 an hour tasks as opposed to those $1,000 an hour tasks.

With that said I am giving you the opportunity to test the outsourcing waters for a very small investment. You can hire my team today for NOT $1000,  NOT $500, NOT $100, NOT $50.

To hire my team who are already trained it will only cost you $27.50 for ten full hours of time! That’s right. 10 full hours of time to do that small project you’ve been meaning to finish but never have time to complete. But wait at this rate I simply can not continue this forever. So don’t delay.

How do you hire my team?

Visit NonStopSocialMedia and check out the outsourcing package. While you’re there be sure to get started as an affiliate so you can recommend these services to your friends and YES you’ll make money when they purchase outsourcing.

holly2

Holly Powell--Straight Up

Filed Under: Outsourcing Tagged With: time wasting marketing

Outsourcing Secrets Webinar

June 17, 2009 By 3 Comments

I get asked all the time. Holly how can you afford 5 employees working for you? My answer, I can’t afford NOT to. You see I choose to spend the money I make online paying for my employees/outsourcers.

I choose to give up those speciality coffees, lunches out, ebooks that collect computer dust to pay for the team I now have in place. Is it expensive? NO! A lot less than you think.

The next question I get is how do I train them? I also outsource that.

So here are the tools I use everyday with my team:

First you have to sit down and write your wish list.

Here is an example of a wish list:

I need someone to bookmark all of my sites
I need someone to post 5-10 ads a week online
I need someone to answer 5 yahoo answers a day
I need someone to add 10 youtube friends a day
I need someone to add 10 friends on my ning social sites a day
I need someone to post make 20 blog comments a day
I need someone to upload 1 video a day to traffic geyser and push that out
I need someone to setup 1 blog a month
I need someone to write 2 articles/blog posts a day

I think you get the picture. Then you need to research the best places to hire/outsource that work out. I’ve tried several. And while I was doing my due diligence one day I happened upon John Jonas site…and I now recommend the 4 hour work week to everyone!

#1 Outsourcing

Not Only did I receive so much value from this guy; he also trains my team for me; so I truly have time to build my business. Oh and when you sign up for this…well he gives you the absolute BEST place on the web to find the best of the best! Honest, I hired all of my team from him..save 2 people!

ReplaceMyself.com Banner

#2 You Need A Project Management System

You absolutely MUST have some type of project management system. I have tried everything and one of my team members shared with me this baby and I’ve been hooked every since.
Pelotonics

#3 Free pics for my blog

I use veer.com In my opinion the best pics on the web.

More tools to come…gotta go work with my team.

While you could use the above the software to keep yourself straight we use it for all of our projects.

So now you know…if you want even more information…listen in tonight

June 17, 2009

9:30 PM EST

while Eric Green interviews me about the team I have in place, what tasks they do for me and more :-)

Here is the webinar link:

https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/861745674

holly2

Filed Under: Outsourcing Tagged With: outsourcing your marketing