The site is at http://www.matthewwolfe.com

Here’s a sampling of some of the articles available over there:

How to make money with affiliate programs

How to create a WordPress Blog

How to Find and Keep a Mentor

The Best Plugins For Wordpress

18, Must Have, FREE tools for internet marketers and bloggers

I strongly suggest that you go check it out. You can really learn how to create an easy passive side income.

-M

To add to all of this drama in my personal life, Joe and I have formed a partnership and opened a bank account. We’ve decided we want to experiment and test the waters of affiliate marketing. We created a company called MBT Media and began studying the various ins and outs of the industry. It appears to be a very lucrative one to some people and we are hoping that sometime in the future, maybe we can join in and become profitable in this industry as well. Joe and I have started yet another blog to discuss the details of our affiliate marketing journey. If you have any interest at all in affiliate marketing or want to learn more about it, please check out our blog at mbtmedia.com.

I want to thank everyone who still subscribes to my rss feed and to all the people that are still on the mailing list. I know I haven’t been giving you guys much but I promise to get back in to this real soon. Things look to be calming down in my life. Once school is done, I am back full time.

I want to talk for a little bit about the attitude of some of my employees. Before I do, I want to give a little background about what I do on a day to day basis. A few years back I developed a piece of software, specifically tailored for my company. It is a piece of software that is linked to a database that stores all of our customers, all of their contact information, when they’ve paid, how much they owe, if there was any problems with their job, etc. It’s basically a massive compiling of all of our customers and every last, little detail about each customer. I’ve trained my employees on how to use it and how to keep it up to date. When the program is updated daily, I can generate a huge assortment of reports. I can generate reports that tell me exactly how much we are spending, how much we are making, and get down to every last detail for analysis. It’s like Quickbooks but tailored around our company and exactly what we do.

A couple weeks ago I went to generate some of my usual reports and noticed that a few of the numbers that were coming up just weren’t making sense. It bugged the hell out of me. I just couldn’t figure it out. The data is updated on a daily basis and no one had missed any days. How can my reports be coming out wrong? I wanted to pull my hair out, I was getting so frustrated. I talked to all of my employees and they all claimed that they were getting the information updated on a daily basis. There was one employee in particular, however, that made a comment that really got to me. She claimed that she knew for a fact that she was getting the information in there accurately at least 90% of the time. This comment upseted me. If you only get your job done 90% of the time, my data is going to be 100% wrong.

Being 90% effective at what you do is not good enough. In my case, the reports that I generate are completely useless unless the data is entered correctly 100% of the time. I guess I just don’t understand the mentality of thinking that 90% is good enough. I believe that no matter what you do in your career, you should do your absolute best. Give 100% all of the time. I don’t care if you are in a job that you hate. Be the absolute best at that job that you hate. If I had a job at McDonald’s cleaning toilets in the middle of the night, I’d be the best damn toilet cleaner they ever had. Do you want to know why? Because that’s how you get noticed. That’s how you move up in your career. If you just give everything you do a partial effort, people will notice that too. You don’t want that reputation.
I had a professor in college that always used to make a statement about percentages. He used to ask us, “if you knew that a plane that you were getting on had a 90% chance of making it to its destination, would you get on it?” Of course the answer to that question is absolutely not! That’s a 1 in 10 chance that your plane is going down. Those are not good odds. Why is that acceptable in your career? It shouldn’t be. Give every job you have 100% and be the best damn person in that position that you can be. You will move ahead faster than anyone else and guarantee you a much more successful career.

-M

I, in no way, condone dropping out of school. I do believe that school is necessary to make it far in your career. I recently found this article, however, that lists 15 Successful Entrepreneurs that didn’t graduate from college. Heck, the creater of Hershey’s didn’t even graduate from elementary school.

I love reading stories like this of entrepreneurs that have been successful and I will probably constantly point you in the direction of great articles that are both motivational and inspirational. Give this a read because stuff like this really gets those creative juices flowing.

Read the Full Article Here.

(By the way. That’s a picture of Steve Jobs back in the day. Yea… You remember. The Oregon Trail days…)

Over at MS Money they posted an article about some great new businesses that involve food. There are some really great ideas over there. I really love reading articles like this because it really gives me inspiration for my future businesses. It’s great to see people taking their little ideas and making them realities and making them successful. Not to mention that I really want to check out some of these in real life. The number 2 business on this list combines wine tasting with a massage. All I can say is, “why didn’t I think of that?” That sounds amazing!

Read the full article here.

Some sales people seem to be so good at grabbing your attention and getting your interest in what they’re selling. Some, on the other hand, seem to just make you angry and you have no problem turning them away. Why is this?

There are a lot of factors that go in to a good sales representative but I can almost guarantee that one of them has to do with the enthusiasm of the sales person. When someone is so interested and so excited about what they do, it’s hard not to pass that interest on to others. Enthusiasm in your work makes work easier as well. If you love what you are doing and you are genuinely interested in it, your days will go much quicker.

Since this site deals a lot with starting a business and entrepreneurship, I thought it would be a good idea to talk about this very vital point that goes in to a business. Enthusiasm can make all the difference in the start up of a new company. The fact that you love what you are doing comes across when you talk to your customers. Get excited about what you do and you will have no problem getting your customers excited as well.

The main thing to do when starting a company, a blog, a hobby or pretty much anything is to really get to know it. Do a lot of research on your subject and become an expert. If you’re talking about a company, look forward a little bit and see what you stand to make. Nothing can really garner up enthusiasm like the idea of how much money can be made in the future. I sure know that, looking in to the future of my companies, seeing the financial potential motivates the hell out of me. Become and expert, get to know your product and learn to enjoy all the aspects of that product.

Even if you don’t have a product or a company in mind, you can probably think of a subject and dig a little deeper in to it. You may find something that really interests you. For example, you may have absolutely no interest or knowledge in something like powder coating. If you really start to dig deep in to the subject, you start to learn the different types of customers you will be working with, the type of equipment that you work with, the process that goes in to it, the various types of powder, the weather conditions that are the most supportive of the technique and probably even the money that can be made in the industry. When you start really digging deeper in to a subject and become an expert, you will gain that enthusiasm that’s required to really get something rolling. That’s how companies get started that, seemingly, make boring products. Dig deeper and there’s a whole world within that industry that makes it exciting that most people never see.

You should hear Joe and I sitting around talking about our blogs or the company that we work for. We sit around for hours and throw ideas off each other. We get so excited about what we do and, hopefully, it shows through in the work that we do. Dig deeper, become an expert and gain the enthusiasm of every endeavor you partake in. I guarantee it will make you a more successful person.

-M

Matt and I played a little flip-flop on the website writing today. So if you’re wondering where ‘Ol Matt ran off to, check out his post over at our other site, Be Healthy and Relax. Now on to what I have to say…

The name Parkinson’s Law may be one you have not heard of before, but I’m sure that you, along with the rest of us, tend to fall into the trap of its concept. Simply put, Parkinson’s Law is a theory that says, if given a task and a certain amount of time to complete it, you fill every living second until the completion time to finish the project. You will basically find mundane tasks until you feel the time pinch to complete the task. We have dealt with this theory since grade school. This is when we developed and learned to exercise Parkinson’s Law’s largest contributor: Procrastination. We cannot deny that procrastination has taken control of us from time to time. There are a lucky few out there that are more apt to taming their procrastination, but knowing and understanding how to conquer Parkinson’s Law is definitely one of the most beneficial steps to becoming more productive and allowing you to control your own life.

The most common place that Parkinson’s Law is put to test is in the workplace, during 9-5. Each day we are allotted this socially accepted time to complete the various tasks which are assigned to us. Why 8? Who was the genius that told us that we needed to mull around for 8 hours to complete tasks that could be easily shortened into 2 or 3? Of course this example does not relate to everyone’s working situation, but it can definitely shorten the time we believe a project takes to be completed. Being stuck in the 9-5 can make you feel like there is no incentive to work more diligently, but doing so will free your time to become more effective within the company while possibly opening doors to learn qualities of a higher position. With this ability you are becoming a greater treasure to your company, as well as gaining the entrepreneurial skills that you’d like to have for the future. Here are a few tips that should help us all get over the evils of Parkinson’s Law…

• On a personal level, keep your to-do lists more concise and meaningful. Don’t clutter it with unimportant tasks that just fill time. Set deadlines to your meaningful tasks to times that seem almost impossible. You’ll find a way to complete them if you try.
• On a working level, break down the 8 hour day into a bunch of smaller deadlines. Control as much time as you can within your given workday. Doing this will force you to complete those previously long and drawn out projects.
• On both a personal and a working level, use the 80/20 law I pointed out in my post, The 100 Year Old Golden Rule. Once again, separate the important from the unimportant. Use this to free up more of your day so you can feel like you have that huge load off your back.

Hopefully putting a name to the struggles of procrastination and time management has helped you learn to take more control of them. The key is to bang out all of those daily tasks with the most efficient methods so you can spend the rest of that lost time on yourself, and with family and friends. Good luck!

When you’re starting a business and no one knows who you are yet, you’ve got to get your name out there. How are you going to do that? One way is to send out an introduction letter to any would-be clients. An introduction letter is letter that lets potential customers know that you exist. This will get your product or service in the hands of the companies that are relevant. I think it would be a good idea to invest in a good fax machine when starting a company. That way you can scour the internet for relevant companies and fax away. If you can’t afford a fax machine when starting up, mailing or even dropping by various places will suffice.

When writing your introduction letter, think of the problem that you are solving or the need that you are fulfilling. The idea that you want to get across is that these customers have a need that you can either fulfill for them or do it better for them. You don’t want to come off as arrogant but you do want to appear confident that you can accomplish something for them.

In writing your letter, I also believe it is a good idea to talk about their business. Say things like “your business” and “you”. For example, “Your business could see profits double with the added revenue stream something like (product) could provide.” Avoid using words like “we”, “us”, “our” and “I” when giving the description of the product and it’s benefits. The customer wants to see how they benefit and some choice words can set a much more appealing tone.

What to include in an introduction letter:

• Advantages – What do you have that your competition does not. What are you bringing to the table?
• Testimonials – You want to show that other people have benefited from what you provide.
• Background – Establish some credibility. How many years have you been doing this? You want your customers to know that you know what you are doing and that you are a professional.
• Credentials – Has your product won any awards or been featured in any prominent magazines or t.v. shows?
• Guarantees – Do you offer any guarantees that prove the quality of your product or service?
• Contact Info – Once the customer knows what you can do for them, make sure they can easily contact you to take advantage of your service.

One last tip that may be beneficial for those who are mailing or dropping off their letter of introduction would be to use some nice letter head. Make sure it’s on nice paper with your company logo on it. It’s just one more thing that can make you look that much more professional and impress your potential customers.

Starting a new business is not easy and it takes a lot of hard work. My goal is to give some ideas to make a start up a little bit easier. This is one idea that can market and promote your company that can be very cost efficient. It’s only the cost of the paper and ink.

-M

The first thing you are going to need when setting up a website is a domain name. The domain name is the actually web address that people will identify your website with. The domain for this site, for example, is www.howiwillberich.com. If your company is called Wolf Productions you would want to see if you can get the domain www.wolfproductions.com. If it’s not available, try www.wolfproductions.net. Basically, you will need to try names until you get one that you like and is available. Domain registration is cheap. GoDaddy.com has domains for $9.99 per year for a .com or a .net.

Once you’ve got your domain name registered, you’ve got to get a host. Hosting prices vary all over the place but can actually be found for pretty cheap these days. Since your business is brand new, you probably are not going to be expecting massive amounts of traffic. You probably won’t even need a gigabyte of space but most hosts offer hundreds of gigabytes. This is basically so that they can look better than the competition. This amount of space is unnecessary for a small business website. Here is a list of some inexpensive web hosts that would be perfectly fine for your new small business.

• GoDaddy – $3.95 Per Month
• IX Web Hosting – 3.95 Per Month
• HostMonster -$4.95 Per Month
• StartLogic – $4.95 Per Month
• BlueHost – $6.95 Per Month
• Yahoo – $8.96 Per Month
• HostGator – $9.95 Per Month

Once you’ve got your domain name and you’ve got the host, it’s time to start putting content on your site. Some things that are good to include in your website are:

• Give Information about your company. Explain what it is that you do and what makes you better than the competition out there.
• In some industries it may be beneficial to give a little bit of personal knowledge as well. If you are a family owned company, people like to hear about that. It’s very respectable.
• Images of the work that you do. If you do powder coating, for instance, you can post some pictures of the more impressive projects that you have worked on.
• Customer feedback of your company. Take any e-mails that people have sent you and quote them. If you don’t have any, e-mail or call some of the people that you know where happy with your work and ask them for a comment that you can post in the customer feedback section of your site.
• Contact information. People know what you do, they’ve seen the work you’ve done and they know that you have happy customers. Give them a way to contact you so that they can be your next customer.

And that’s it. For about $58.00 per year you can have your very own website. All that you need to do is promote it and I’ll get to that in a later post.

-M

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A web hosting services let an individuals, or/and an organizations to have their own websites accessible via the World Wide Web. For new businesses the startlogic is an attractive offer because it offers cheap web hoisting with free domain names. The netfirms is another option for then to get access to free domain names and almost free web hosting. So it is always required by small and newly established businesses to find a webhosting cheap. Otherwise if they choose a web host that is expensive and not serving them as per its advertisement then the business will have to bear great loss due to heavy payments to such service providers.
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