Category: Entrepreneur

Most people fantasize about creating a successful business in order to live their dream life. But reality hits and they realize that they start to worry? How did entrepreneurs like Robert Kiyosaki or Oprah Winfrey become successful?

Successful entrepreneurs are visionaries. They are clear about what they want to accomplish and develop a strategy to achieve their goals.

The first step is to define what success looks like for you. If you haven’t identified what success looks like for you, how will you know when you’ve achieved it? Someone once said, “If you aim at nothing, you’ll get there.”

Take some time to reflect and ask yourself some important questions, like:

* Why did you start your business?
* What do you want to accomplish with it?
* What motivates you to continue building your business despite the challenges you face?
* Are you creating extra income for your children’s college education?
* Do you want to spend more time with your family?
* Are you tired of working for someone else?
* Do you want to travel to exotic places?

Then define what success would look like for you. Be very specific. How much money will you make? Where will you be living?

Would you be giving to charities? Who would benefit from your wealth? Imagine yourself in your new home. Visualize yourself making a larger contribution to the charities of your choice.

Imagine yourself going on your dream trip. Where would you go? Who would travel with you? What would you do? What would you see? How would you feel to arrive there after dreaming about it for so long?

Imagine working from home and having the freedom to spend more time with your family. What would that feel like? How would the relationship with your children and/or spouse be affected? What would you do differently? Would you go on more vacations? Plan more fun activities with your children?

Write out the vision of your successful business in vivid, descriptive language. State exactly what you will be doing and with whom. Describe how your business success leads to improved relationships with your spouse and/or children. Include references to the charities or individuals who will benefit from your wealth.

Keep a copy of this masterpiece by your bed. Read it every night, before going to bed, experiencing the accompanied emotions. The key to becoming a visionary is to stay connected to the feelings that your vision evokes. Imagine how you will feel when the reality unfolds.

Every day spend time visualizing your business success. As you become very clear about your vision of success, the solutions to your challenges will unfold. You don’t have to try and figure it out by yourself. God will guide you to the answers to your problems! You are not alone.

So, hold a clear description of your business success. Write out your vision. Stay focussed. Amaze yourself as you become the successful entrepreneur of your dreams!

Environmental, social and ethical pressures on the global textiles and fashion sector emerged in Europe in the early 1980s. The main driver was consumer concern over the safety of the materials. However in parallel with this trend, a minority group of ethical consumers demanded chemical-free and low environmental impact clothing and fashion goods. This resulted in the European and later the US organic labeling system being extended to include criteria for clothing and textiles, such as organic cotton. As of 2007, the sector was the fastest growing part of the global cotton industry with growth of more than 50% a year. With reference to safety standards, primarily addressing consumer concern over chemicals in textiles, the Oeko-Tex standard has become highly popular in the industry. Although unknown to consumers, It tests for chemicals such as flame retardants in clothes and categorizes goods according to their likely exposure to humans (e.g. baby clothes must adhere to the strictest standards for chemicals). Thus the issue of chemicals in clothing has become largely one of liability risk control for the industry with the consumers obviously expecting products to pose no risk to their health. Organic and eco fashion and textiles attracts a far smaller, but fast growing group of consumers, largely in Western Europe and Coastal US.

Of far greater concern to the global fashion sector is the issue of worker welfare. The issue was highlighted by pressure groups such as Global Exchange in the US targeting Levis and Nike and others.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s anecdotal evidence began emerging from labor activists in the US and Europe concerning the supply chains and overseas factories of leading US and European multinationals. A key target was the world’s leading maker of denim jeans Levi Strauss, but more significantly Nike, the world’s largest sports shoe marketing firm. Global Exchange launched its Nike Anti Sweatshop campaign, focusing on the firms sourcing in China and Indonesia.

Issues included child labor, minimum wages, working hours and employee benefits. Activists argued that such issues should not differ too widely from standards mandatory in the West, while Nike argued at the time that differing national economic and social conditions dictated different standards globally. A good deal of negotiations and stakeholder meetings led to a generally accepted code of practice for labor management in developing countries acceptable to most parties involved. The SA 8000 emerged as the leading industry driven voluntary standard on worker welfare issues. SA 8000 supporters now include the GAP, TNT and others and SAI reports that as of 2008, almost 1 million workers in 1700 facilities have achieved SA 8000 certification. Such a certification requires investment in the process but also more significantly in changing labor practices such as wage structures. It is clearly being driven by large US and European multinationals that may require certain suppliers to gain certification.

The Fair Trade movement has also had a significant impact on the fashion business. The standard combines a number of ethical issues of potential concern to consumers environmental factors, fair treatment of developing country suppliers and worker welfare. The Fair Trade label has show explosive growth.

Albeit on a very small scale and not always at the top end of the fashion industry, many niche brands have emerged which promote themselves primarily on sustainability grounds People Tree in the UK states that it creates Fair Trade and organic clothing and accessories by forming lasting partnerships with Fair Trade, organic producers in developing countries. Leading fashion journal Marie Claire ranked its top 10 eco brands in a recent issue. The key issues remain chemicals in clothing (certified by organic and Fair Trade labels), worker treatment (certified by SA 8000 and Fair Trade) and increasingly mainstream environmental issues such as climate change. The Carbon Reduction Label verifies a products cradle-to-grave carbon footprint, although is not specific to clothing. Mainstream brands such as Louis Vuitton, Gucci, H&M and Zara have been slower to make firm commitments on the full rage of ethical issues due to the difficulties of switching their supply chains and products lines completely in favor of organic or Fair Trade certified or other standards and norms. They are however, moving slowing to ensure they capture the market if it becomes significant the worlds largest fashion brand Louis Vuitton recently acquired a small eco fashion label. It is clear, however from the example of Nike and Levis, however that certain issues are here to stay, such as a demand by Western consumers that leading brands manage the issue of worker welfare in their supply chain properly.

Armando Montelongo is the host of the hit TV show “Flip This House.” He and his brother David are known as Residential Kings for hitting it big in the real estate business.

Prior to his success, Armando Montelongo was so broke he was living with his wife and child in the garage of his in-laws. He was born in San Antonio, Texas, but was forced to move to California because of his wifes and unborn sons health problems. His job couldn’t pay the massive medical bills that put him into debt. These challenges didn’t discourage Armando- it drove him to find a way to get out of his predicament. He went back to San Antonio, Texas. There he found out that there is money in the real estate business. He discovered that buying a house, refurbishing it a little, then selling it, makes money so he ventured into that. This process is now commonly called house flipping.

Armando Montelongo became so successful with flipping that he now owns a company named Montelongo Housebuyers. The company, at an average, buys and sells 25 houses a month. By making money out of flipping houses, Montelongo earned for himself the moniker “Flipping Machine.” He and his wife Veronica host Flip This House where episode upon episode viewer are treated to a transformation of a house. The reality show is rated seventh in a scale of 10 and is fast becoming a favorite of viewers specifically those who wants to invest in real estate.

Armando Montelongo is also hosting a website where he teaches, among others, the secrets of house flipping. Montelongo is passionate about his success and has a burning desire to share his knowledge to those who are willing to learn. He is currently developing educational CDs where he insists that there is money in real estate, where every investor can earn a million dollars within one year.

Some viewers are insisting that there is too much Montelongo in “Flip this House”, with Armando’s brother and his wife joining the cast. They want to bring back Richard Davis, who was the original host, whom they said was more entertaining. Montelongo was smothered in one episode when they were caught doing construction without the proper permit. The Montelongo Family enjoys playing practical jokes on one another. All these, however, may just be plain envy because Montelongo has turned the real estate industry in frenzy with house flipping.

Becoming a successful internet entrepreneur in today’s market can be highly competitive, nearly as competitive as becoming a Hollywood actor or a famous musician. The competition is tough and your competitors are highly talented, so in order to achieve the maximum amount of success in your internet business you must develop a few of the essential personality traits that are necessary to succeed in any creative endeavor. This article will cover the three most essential characteristics that you must possess and use constantly if you are to become financially independent and successful in this highly competitive market.

I have good news for you: The three essential personality traits that we will cover are not things that you need to be born with, but instead they are skills that can be learned and developed. A talent is something that you naturally possess or that you are born with, but a skill is something that you can teach yourself. If you are willing to work on developing these three skills within yourself, it can be possible for you to meet with unbounded success.

Persistence

This can be the most difficult trait to master, but you need to learn how to set your goals and then boldly continue to move closer to accomplishing them no matter what problems may arise. It is important to remember that persistence is not the same thing as being stubborn, and it is important to be able to distinguish between the two. Persistence is continuing towards your goals in the face of any obstacles or setbacks, but this can morph into simply being stubborn when the blatent facts are indicating to you that what you are doing is not working.

Concentration

The true art of concentration is to hold an object or ideal in your mind and focus on it so intently that you become aware of nothing else. This is a very important skill to teach yourself, because many times if you are not concentrating on growing your business then nobody else will be either. This is the great challenge of the entrepreneur, because unless you have the proper focus and unless you can hold your focus on growing your company, you may only see marginal results which can lead to discouragement.

Performance

If you can understand the nature of this principle, you will be able soar above your competition. Think about the example of a horse race, where the horse that finishes in first place will receive ten times the winnings of the horse that comes in second place. Does this mean that the first horse is ten times more talented, or ten times faster? No, the winning horse needs to only be incrementally better than his competitors in order to receive ten times the winnings. In business it is the same way, and if you are willing to put in the extra effort in order to make yourself even incrementally better than your competitors, you can set yourself up to reap big results. The truest test of your performance is your end results, and you only need to be marginally better than your competitors to receive massive results.

The most natural and positive way to experience life is in a state of flow-constantly within the present moment, and yet constantly evolving. Unfortunately, most people rarely attain this state of being, but rather live in constriction. This blocks their enjoyment of life as well as their potential for realizing dreams.” ~Ellie Drake

I can imagine you thought that Mastermind Entrepreneurs had to be wealthy before they could earn their title, which is quite the opposite because the mind of an entrepreneur can start its development from a toddler.

As a toddler my son would take all his toys apart, but he was never satisfied until he mastered how to put them all back together in operating condition. Oh yes, he is presently in the pursuit of becoming an engineer.

Focus, obedience, and integrity are major components of a Mastermind Entrepreneur in the pursuit of a life changing income.

Are you ready for your pursuit?

If you have the seed of greatness and empowerment already in you, then you have a very good head start on this pursuit.

Is this really the celebration stage?

Okay, we are not at the finish line yet. Too much daydreaming on the results and not enough input on the training, which is needed for a grand momentum finish. A series of minor successes must be developed into a major accomplishment.

The creation of a Mastermind Entrepreneur in Internet Marketing is a gradual continuous process.

“Think of a muscle that is always tightly clenched. It will become sore and eventually begin to experience spasms, or become so exhausted that it must completely let go. That muscle is like your mind when deceived by the illusion that it must either grasp success or suffer failure” as described by Ellie Drake.

But suppose the athlete considered pain and suffering balanced with becoming a winner despite the endurance of occasional pain, as a positive conflicting opposite. Many people choose to “break training” mentally as well as physically at the celebration stage.

Their minds and muscles turn flabby after they succeed. They are so proud of their accomplishments that they soon forget that they need to keep in shape for the next race or obstacle.

They usually find themselves afflicted by the rheumatic twinges of deep-seated discontent with what they have done. A brief break may cause a lost opportunity before the victorious momentum.

Nearly everything comes to the one who is always waiting patiently, yet persistent.

No race was ever won by a person who could not finish. Believe that you have won the race and you will not be intimidated by fears of failure.

How long can you wait to be created into a

Mastermind Entrepreneur in Internet Marketing?

Upon recognition of the genius part that has been instilled in you, be committed to taking your assets and turned them into success. Success is not always on the material plane, so enjoy the fruits of your labor wherever they may materialize.

It was once said that brains alone are not influence, and that money alone is not influence, but brains and money combined are power. Be sure that the power will not be for destruction or someones demise, but allow that power to be used for the good of mankind in all its persuasion.

The Universe will always make provisions for your harmonious efforts, and the purest of thoughts will be sufficient.

Remember to keep these thoughts in mind:

Whatsoever things are true
Whatsoever things are honest
Whatsoever things are just
Whatsoever things are pure
Whatsoever things are lovely
Whatsoever things are of a good report
THINK ON THESE THINGS!

Especially during business transactions!!!

Deborah Akridge