How to kill your business overnight

As you no doubt have noticed in recent weeks and months, the economy - not
just in North America, but worldwide - has been interesting to say the
least.

And of course with this comes the ever present question of concerned
business owners - whether online or off - of what to do when the economy
does slow down. Do I cut my advertising? Do I scale back my marketing
efforts? In short, how do I weather the storm?

Well, I just so happen to have an acquaintance who runs a 50 million
dollar a year enterprise and when I asked his opinion, here is what he had
to say.

"The simplest thing I was ever taught - whether good times or bad - was to
spend as much smart money as you can and at the same time eliminate as much
foolish spending as possible. Of course this makes sense in any economic
situation; however it is much more prudent in slowing times to make sure
that careless spending does not completely erase our bottom line.

Yes it's true that margins may shrink in some of our efforts, but the
important thing is that there are margins that remain. Whatever you do -
DON'T stop what's working. Don't stop advertising. Don't stop marketing.
Don't stop getting your name out there. Matter of fact, in a slowing
economy, you should be doing more. Keep building up your brand or business
in good times and bad. Get your name out there on a consistent basis
because the tough times won't last forever and when things turn around, you
want to be poised and ready for growth, not in the position of having to
build up your business from scratch again.

As a business owner it is your responsibility to you, your family, your
employees and your customers to remain in business. Do not get caught up
in a self fulfilling prophecy whereby business drops off, so you advertise
and market less and end up in a downward spiraling loop until suddenly you
are out of business. Don't get caught up in the media frenzy of doom and
gloom that thrives on sensationalism."

And this last point he led me to a popular story you can find posted all
over the internet. It sure rings true as to what's happening today.

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HOW TO KILL YOUR BUSINESS OVERNIGHT
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During the 1930's there was a man who lived by the side of the road and
sold hot dogs. He was hard of hearing, so he had no radio. He had trouble
with his eyes, so he read no newspapers. But he sold good hot dogs. He
stood at the side of the road and cried: "Buy a hot dog, mister?" And
people bought. He increased his meat and bun orders. He bought a bigger
stove to take care of his trade.

Business was so good he brought his son home from college early to help
him out. And his son said: "Father, haven't you been listening to the
radio? Haven't you been reading the newspapers? The European situation is
terrible. The domestic situation is worse."

The father thought to himself, "Well, my son's been to college, he reads
the papers and he listens to the radio -- so he ought to know." So the
father cut down his meat and bun orders, took down his signs, and no longer
bothered to stand out on the highway to sell his hot dogs. And his hot dog
sales fell almost overnight. The father said to the boy, "You're right,
son, we certainly are in the middle of a great depression."

Doesn't that sound exactly like what is happening now?

So what should you do? Keep doing what works. Advertising works. PPC
works. JVs work. And of course article marketing works.

Consistency is key. Keep your articles going out. Keep your name and
company in the spotlight. People are still spending. Give them the
reasons why they should spend it with you. And to help your efforts become
more effective with very little effort, we have been feverishly working on
the BIGGEST upgrade in the Wizard's history. And although we can't tell
you what it is quite yet, it will bring the Wizard - and of course, your
articles - firmly into the world of WEB 2.0.

Keep your eyes on your inbox for more information in the next few weeks.

Remember what Henry Ford said "whether you think you can or you think you
can't, you're right."

How To Find Life Meaning

So how do we find meaning? The first step is through personal experiences – experiences through something to which we are familiar and through someone we value. Develop your appreciation of beauty – that is heightening your sensitivity to beauty such as in great art or wonders in nature. The most important of all these type of experiences is the love we feel toward each other. To love another and to demonstrate this to such an extent as to allow your beloved to develop – and by doing this we will find that we develop meaning ourselves. Love is the highest purpose to which we can aspire.

Not to make the mistake of confusing sex with love. Sex can only be enjoyed fully when it is a physical expression of love. Maybe you will scoff but how many people do you know who are happy jumping from one bed to another.

A second step to meaning in your life is through creative values. Doing good, a good act toward a fellow human being – do it and see how you feel afterwards. Live life to the full, but not becoming busy. We are all guilty of running around with no time to do anything at all! No, become involved in a methodical and purposeful way, have zest for life. Get a project to become involved with anything creative such as, music, writing, art. something inventive.

The third way is your attitude. As the great philosopher said – it is better to treat people the way you would like them to treat you. Your attitude will bounce back to you. By going as far as – dare I say – not putting yourself first. We are all told to look after number one – it is all about you – does it feel good for you – what do you get out of it. Think about it – what would it be like if truly everyone thought only about themselves. A young couple about to get married they love each other – do they put themselves first? No – no they do not. However, give them a few years of marriage and both parties are unhappy because of me, myself and I. Do not forget your first love – return to your first love and discover the meaning. The attitude you give out to others will have an effect on you. To be positive and see good in everything takes practice. Being positive is hard work – however - negative thoughts will just happen all by themselves.

Always I say it is down to choice. We may feel we are victims in a situation buy you have a choice to stay in misery or do something about it – and it starts with you, with the three steps above and not looking to other to blame. Meaning to your life will not just happen it is a choice you must make.

There is no such thing as failure

There is no such thing as failure – only feedback – we can learn from our failures. Do not let apparent failures beat you up, learn from them. As humans, we tend to be harder on ourselves than others are. A small child learning to walk never fails to get up and try and try and try until success is achieved. It is the same in life; every failure is a step closer to success.

Emotions are notoriously fickle: to let your emotions be your rule of success or failure is asking for trouble. Do not listen to your heart this is dangerous; you need to have advisors who are able to help direct you. No one succeeds alone always there is a strong team behind any success.

Your inner circle: Many successful men and women throughout history and up to the present day have a trusted an inner-circle of friends and advisors. Choose this inner-circle with great care and wisdom.

Choice: It is all down to choice. That is your attitude toward failure and success. Many of those who succeed have a track record littered with what we would call failures. They chose to learn from these and move toward their goal. The last of the human freedoms is to choose your attitude in whatever circumstance you may find yourself.

Ensue or pursuit? The more you aim for something the more likely you are to miss it. Put quite simply success must happen. This is why the successful entrepreneur makes it look easy – they just let it happen. Do not care for success so much as following your principles, working toward the future and eventually success will be their with you – precisely because you forgot to aim for it.

Get rich quick schemes: is not a recipe for success. These schemes usually do not deliver what they promise; at best they are a lie. To get rich slowly slowly is a much more stable road to tread.

Meaning in life is important. So how do we find meaning? See the article on “So how do we find meaning?”

Hakoona Matata! (Don’t worry, Be Happy)

Smile, as an act has much potential in it. It is not that everybody does not like to smile – but it is that they do not realize the value of a Smile. Either they are busy in their own world of worries that they can not smile or it is that it do not come in-built with their nature.

Smile is a natural gift for people who keep smiling always. To have a smiling face means “no ill feelings”. To maintain the purity of life as we were born, smile is very essential in our lives.

Smile can build a bundle of joy to you. It enhances happiness in our lives. It is that one necessary thing that we do not forget “to be happy”. And, to be happy keep those smiles going on.

Smile should always mean natural happiness. If you are not in-built with this quality, adopt this as a hobby. I assure you that you will definitely feel much better than earlier.

Smile can make you free of your apprehensions. A little smile on your face can make a huge difference for the people around you. Even if someone is feeling vexed, they can forget about their problems at least for a while by seeing a cute little smile on your face.

Smile can give way to a lot of good things in life. It can build good relations around you. The very moment, someone looks at you, they can understand what kind of a person you are and about your nature. I feel it is a very great tool to reduce stress.

I would like to quote a few things which I have personally come across:

Smile in Joy & in Pain;
Smile when sorrow pours like Rain;
Because, Smile has a healing touch!! (This really works out!!)

Keep Smiling that is the best thing one can give it to others. (This is a personal compliment received by me from an elderly person)

We take birth in this life for a very short period. So, make every moment of your life a memorable one. Give happiness to others and you will definitely receive the same. We do see many ups and downs in this life – but we can make a change in this lifestyle only if we strongly believe that we are born for happiness. And Smile is the first and foremost step towards achieving happiness.

Hakoona Matata! (Don’t worry, Be Happy)

Keep Smiling!!!