The best powerwebinar I’ve heard about ever before is NOW FREE online on June 14.  It usually goes for around more than $150 to attend, but not it’s free and you can join from wherever you are in the world.

Check it out.  The first 150 to rsvp get in free.

In the journey of life, are you DRIVING?

or are you a passenger?

Watch LifeCoach Muhammad Alshareef present a LIVE POWERWEBINAR ONLINE (Just RSVP )

(http://discoverulife.com/blog)

If you want to learn how to make vidoes or media for your business, here’s a great program to sign up to:

www.messagemastery.com

You can check out their video on their website.

This book I read recently, Blink, is a different kind of book.  Although, it’s not my style, it did make me ponder on a few things pertaining to my business and personal life.  You know those first two seconds when you look at something, anything, and make a snap judgement?  That’s what Blink is about.

Blink analyzes your first impression, which depends on your experiences and environment you live in and this first impression can be changed, or conditioned.  Your first impression can be accurate or inaccurate and here are some ways it can be conditioned: 

1. Thin Slicing:

Coming to a judgement without having lots of information, ON PURPOSE. It is proven that if you have few but key information points in the right context of the situation, you can make a better snap decision that if you have information overload because in the latter case you get sidetracked by irrelevant details.

So, the next time you are shopping around, you may want to store LESS information as long as they are relevant and key pieces of information, before making a buying decision.

2. Removal or Addition of the ‘Prime Effect’:

For example, if you prime people to think like professors before taking a test, or fashionable before buying a dress, more than likely, they will score better or buy your product. If you ask a black person (or other minorities) to fill out their race before the quiz, you can indirectly prime them to score lower on a test.

3. Practice, Practice, Practice:

Practicing exhaustively beforehand will get you in a groove so much that it will sink into your unconscious so when it comes time to make that two second snap judgement, more than likely, it will be correct.

After watching Pablo and Bruno, some of you might have thought, wow, but how can I do that?  I would say, read Rich Dad Poor Dad.  It’s not only a book, it’s a paradigm shift in the way you think of business and money. Here are some tips to get you started:

Tips:

1. The poor and middle class work for money. The rich have money work for them.

2. Learn the difference between an asset and liability (Many people THINK they know, but they really don’t!)

3. Invest in financial education FIRST before you invest your money.

4. Work to LEARN and get SKILLS, even if you have to work for free!  <– Hard to believe? 

You might read this list and become confused, or even disagree.  That’s ok.  Just trust me, read the book and you’ll see what I mean and then you will see the difference in thinking between the poor/middle class and the rich. 

Watching this video brought back a lot of memories.  This exact story was the turning point in my life and the start of my journey from employee to entrepreneur, except, it wasn’t Pablo and Bruno.  It was Tareq and Amina and I heard the story when I was taking the Rizq Management course from AlMaghrib Institute.

This simple but revolutionary example changed my life!  Check it out.

So you want a successful home-based business?

Find out how right here!

 Have you ever wanted to have a stay-at-home kind of job so that you could:

       plan your work hours around the needs of your children

       spend more quality time with your family

       earn extra income without having to leave the house for many hours each day

If “How can I do this?” is your question, we have the answer.  Would you like to find out more?

Right now we are in the process of developing high quality products and services to help YOU meet your individual business needs.  These products and services will allow you to develop the skills and gain the knowledge you must have to create the successful business you really want. 

But to make sure you get exactly what you’re looking for, we need your help.

Here’s the link for a short, 10-question survey.  Take about four minutes to tell us what would help you the most.

= =>> Survey << = =

You could take advantage of being able to offer your opinion today, or not.  You could also continue wondering what the freedom of a profitable home-based business would be like, or you could get what YOU need to make it a reality. 

Completing this survey means that you are already taking your first steps toward making your dream real.  And, it says that you are among a small group of dedicated people who not only think about things, but also act on them, too.  We commend you for that! 

Thank you for your participation, and may you find the greatest success! 

Sincerely,

The Product Development Team

P.S.  If you were to invest time and money in your business, wouldn’t you want to gain the most you could from it?  Let’s make this work for you, now!  Just click here:  survey

P.P.S.  We almost forgot to mention the extra bonus!  As soon as you complete this survey, one dollar will be sent to a Muslim Sister’s charity through HalfDate.com to help other Sisters get more out of their lives.  You can invest in yourself, and others, too!

25%, 50%, 75% or 100% of your time?  If you are spending more than 25% of your time working with your product or service, most likely, you are not advancing in your business.

Why less than 25%?

If you spend more than 25%, where do you find the time to spend on other areas like legalities, structuring how you run your business, marketing and finance management? How much time are you putting towards planning for the future?

Bottom line

Are you working *IN* your business or *ON* your business? 

Try this exercise

Write down what percentage (approximately) you spend on the following towards your business:

product

legal

systems

communication (internal and external)

finance management

future business planning

Note: most of the time, your percentages should increase as you go down the list.

Today, I got asked about one of the most popular questions in starting a business – How much should I charge?

Big mistake!

When I started out, I first surfed the net for competition and I went straight to their “rates” page.  So, then I made a range of lowest to highest rates amongst competition.  I was fortunate to also read a book about starting a business.  They told me, whatever you do, DO NOT price too low.  Shoot for a medium price, at least.  Every cell in my body cringed at that.  I mean, how can I price above the lowest price… AND convince customers to pay me?  So, guess what I did?  I charged the lowest price.  BIG mistake!

The less you charge, the less customers you have

What? Wouldn’t it be the opposite?  That’s what I thought at first too.  That’s why I charged something like $5 per hour, or less!  When you charge less, you don’t get customers who value quality and then become loyal to you.  Most likely, a good chunk of your client base will be people who are searching for the lowest price.  They don’t really care to be loyal to you.  And most of the time, they will give you a lot of hassle.  It’s true!

So then, how much should I charge?

I can’t give you a clear cut answer because, quite frankly, it depends.  Here are some factors to think about:

1.  Are you doing this as a hobby, freelancer or company?

2. Who exaclty are your clients?

3. How much quality are they looking for?

4. How much are they willing to pay for your work?

5. How good is your product or service?

…and most importantly,

6. To what extent do YOU value your own work?

In most cases, it’s best to go for the medium to high price. That’s IF you have a good product or service.

I recently came across a useful hub for information about the Muslim business world on www.DinarStandard.com.  They just published an article with an interview about me for their new section, Women in Management.

Enjoy the article.

The website has over 400 webpages ma sha Allah, and mostly provides articles to Muslim entrepreneurs about finance, management, entrepreneurial challenges etc.

I’m currently going back and forth with a writer from DinarStandard that is interviewing me for an upcoming article. After discussing what makes a women a great manager, she ended up asking me how long I’ve had my business for and she thought it was for 6 years now.

After telling her that I’ve been running it now for 2 years only, I started thinking about how far we’ve grown in just a short time.  And then I started thinking about other businesses I know who didn’t do the same.

So, what’s my secret to success in business?

Definitely, the answer is “it’s all in the mind”.

I recently read an amazing quote from Henry Ford,

“If you think you can, you can and

if you think you can’t, you can’t. 

Either way, you’re right.” 

If you treat your mind like prime real estate, you will achieve your goals.  If you treat your mind like the garbage dump, you’ll probably end up there.

So, how did I grow my business so fast?

I simply set my goals beyond realistic measures.  The first thing I did after deciding to start a business was sit down and write a 10 year plan.  When I was writing this, the only thought that was going through my mind was, “Man, this is so crazy, I don’t know how I’m going to achieve all of this but I’m going to keep writing!”. 

So, how do you reach your dreams in 1/6th of the time?

Now, after reaching my goals faster than I ever dreamed of, I recently signed up with a lifecoach to take my personal and business life to an ultimate level.  That’s where I want to go, and I want to do it in 1/6th of the time.  But this time, I have my lifecoach who gives me tremendous support and optimism and makes me superfocused in the stuff that’s really important to me.

With a lifecoach, not only is your mind living in prime real estate, all the minds surrounding you are prime real estate too!

If you want to catch up in success and achieve all your goals in 1/6th of the time, you can visit my lifecoach’s blog.  She has some really awesome reflections and tips so check it out.