3 Deadly Dream Killers: Fear, Procrastination, Doubt

By: Brandon Gaskins

   Dreams are so beautiful, they shine so brilliantly, a life where your needs and wants are fulfilled simultaneously; Stress is no longer a component in your life... THEN YOU WAKE UP. How do we get to that life where we are fulfilled completely? We ask ourselves that question several hundred thousand times throughout our lifetime. However a million times a day we are reminded, anything we put our mind to we can do.The irony of life is until we truly stand by our faith (not to be confused with religion), we will continue to suffer in situations that are stressful and unfulfilled.

   So what is fear? Is it something your can touch or smell; No. Fear is something we make up in our head. It has no value, it only has value when we add value to it. Fear does not exist until we give it life. Your scared of going without for awhile or adjusting your lifestyle where you only have the bare minimum? Well you should be terrified of getting old in America without have a six figure retirement. You cannot save up that kind of money, your 401k will not produce that kind of money. The cost of living is increasing so rapidly that your savings will not be able to support you; that's if you are able to save anything at all. You have got to stop allowing your own mental barriers from preventing you from living out your dreams.

   Now you have the courage to attempt to change your life and the energy you feel sustains you for the

beginning, then something begins to happen; you begin to think, "Is this goal something that I can actually obtain? What was I thinking? I could never start my own business, get fit, become an author or an entertainer. Doubt, it puts out the flame that drives our momentum, it interferer's with our ability to maintain a positive state of mind. We start looking towards others for approval, that what were doing is working. During this time it is good to remember the name Gary Dahl. Who is Gary Dahl you ask? Well in 1975 Dahl introduced the world to the very first Pet Rocks.

Okay now we have gotten past the fear of trying to live out our dreams, we have moved past the assumption that our goal is not obtainable, but I can start on it tomorrow. Tomorrow comes yet somehow we don't start changing our lives. Its procrastination, we have all the tools but feel like we have time to spare to start putting them to work. We let the minutes, hours and days go by without putting in the leg work to see our dreams come true. Do not dwell on things that alter your mind state, once you are energized from the belief that you can change your life you must sustain that energy and be fearful of living a life that is not your dream life.

Put Your Money To Work

By Brandon Gaskins

In 1983 Donna Summer lit up the charts with a hit titled, "She Works Hard For The Money", Well other than politicians and there cohorts, there are very few professions where you don't work hard for your money. We spend the majority of our lives at workplaces, when we would rather be somewhere else. We tell our families we do it for them , sadly we know better than that, we know if there was a life reset button, most people would chose to chase their dreams instead of a paycheck. The problem with a paycheck is that once you get it, your bills pretty much eat it up. You have rent, mortgage, gas and electric , cell phone, car note, food, credit cards bills,and miscellaneous. Two paychecks a month is not helping you climb out of your financial crisis.

Somehow you are able to not only survive but save some of your hard earned money. Unfortunately the $500 or $1000 you have been able to save is not enough to start that small business you have been dreaming of, or so it appears. There is a key component to every successful person's portfolio; and that is networking. You hear about this word often but its not practiced enough.
I have a goal to use Ideatank75 as a platform to bring people for the purpose of networking to build small groups of investors that are committed to building small businesses. 

Without getting into too much detail, I would like to briefly describe two avenues of revenue building that will be discussed in a later event. The first is Purchasing Power; everybody knows that if your going to buy a new or used car from a dealership, a home or even furniture you going to pay more than what its worth. The same goes for bikes, televisions and phones, when you only represent one buyer your going to pay a higher price. Don't you want to be able to make purchases at the cheapest price offered, of course you do. Well guess what, every person on this planet would love to do the same thing, the only problem is we don't have a program in place to connect with each other when we are ready to make a purchase.

The second is Circle Of Investors; Why is it when we hear the word small business we think of an endeavor requiring a store front or $10,000 to operate? There are plenty of small businesses that operate with far less capitol. For instance, you could sponsor charted trips for around $1,500, you could become a wholesale distributor of any number of products, there are events you could sponsor, like a Santa Claus obstacle race during the summer time, think outside of the box.

 You may be reading and thinking I don't have $1,500 well if you have a circle of investors to network with you wont have to come up with the money by yourself and you have a group of people with different ideas and skill sets to network with.

Jobs VS Careers VS Entreprenuership

By Brandon Gaskins

Let me begin this post with this statement, there are plenty of men and women who are working in fields they would rather not be in, however they are doing so to help someone else reach their potential. Which means they are not basing their life's work from what they are doing to make money for themselves, they are basing their work from what they can do for someone else. That sacrifice is what allows many others to have choices not afforded to their elders. Their elders happiness is derived from seeing their hard work payoff in the success of their families. However there are far too many that are willing to accept a quick access to financial gains that they do not plan for their pending retirement until it is too late to do so. Never before have we seen so many citizens at retirement age working jobs that were once dominated by the youth.

When it comes to "making a living" there are typically three paths one can take, they are; jobs, careers and entrepreneurship. All three paths will ensure some type of stability as it pertains to your financial portfolio. However each path has its own set of rewards, limitations and obstacles that will keep you asking, Am I making the right decision? That's the irony of each path, you have to choose for yourself, you have to look yourself in the mirror and feel confident that the path you have chosen, is the one that defines who you are as a person and the one that will sustain you in your retirement years. Now I have to ask you, Have you chosen the path that will leave you with a fulfilled life or have you chosen a path that will only satisfy some of your needs.

From www.dictionary.com, a job is defined as the following:  An individual piece of work or task; An occupation; An object worked on or a result produced from working. What I get from this meaning is that a job is a short term task with very little reward but can require plenty of labor and sacrifice. In my opinion a job is a short term solution for someone in need of financial gains. You are never paid what you are worth because you are in a position were you can be replaced fairly quickly and by someone who is willing to do the job for lesser pay. Whatever your circumstances are, unless your goal is to work as hard as you can to help your family members got to school or you are helping them pursue a field that will help your family achieve social mobility, then a job should only be temporary.

From www.dictionary.com a career is defined as the following: An occupation or profession chosen as ones life work; an occupation requiring special training. A persons progress or general course of action through life. So as you can see,there is a Big difference between what a job is and what a career is. In my opinion the biggest difference between the two is the special training and education a person needs to obtain a career. With a job you are able to start working quickly to obtain a paycheck and usually without special training. While a career requires you to obtain more education and special certificates. Because a career requires so much more before you are able to receive a paycheck, they pay is almost always significantly more than that of a job. But, please do be fooled with that significant increase in pay comes an increase in bills.

From www.dictionary.com an entrepreneur is defined as the following: The owner or manager of a business enterprise, who by risk and initiative attempts to make profits. There is a BIG glaring word that usually send most people running scared from entrepreneurship and that word is, risk. Unlike with the other two paths there is no guarantee a check will be coming in a week or two, there is no certainty that you will be successful with your business offering. If you like eating steak you had best get used to eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for awhile. While most people avoid entrepreneurship because they are afraid of taking risk, those that have taken the initiative and put in the "grind" it takes to be successful will tell you the financial freedom and the ability to plan your own work schedule is well worth the risk. Looking at the definition again you will notice there was not a mention of money. taking the initiative does not cost you a dime, of course there will come a time where you will need an investor or two, however if you put in the leg work and you research to make sure your endeavor is profitable, when the time comes to find investors you will not have a problem finding one or more that believe in your idea; (see also crowd funding for revenue sources).

As you can see there is some level of risk and reward with each path, however if you want a life where you have more say so as to how your time will be spent, more financial freedom, a greater since of accomplishment and the ability to create a legacy, then the choice is simple, you should become an entrepreneur. If the highlight of your day is getting back in bed or if you are "living for the weekend", then you are definitely not happy with your current profession and should seriously consider becoming an entrepreneur. A word of advice, you should not attempt to become an entrepreneur to become rich, instead focus on how you can enrich the lives of those around, there is no greater currency than love.

Why Your Small Business Will Fail

Written by Brandon Gaskins


    I have had my fair share of projects that I wanted to turn into a business but for some reason could not get the ball rolling. Sure I start off with some momentum that leads to sales and some light interest but then I make the mistake many aspiring business owners make and that is not thinking creatively to generate interest from a different perspective. Every customer does not show int erst in you for the same reason. Some may like your appearance, others might like your presentation while someone else may not like you at all or just a little but LOVE your product or service. Do not settle with one approach for generating leads, sure social media is a must into today's marketing world but if you want to really gain a following, nothing beats a face and voice your audience can see. Stop standing behind or inside your business and start standing in front of it. you speak for your business, it does not speak for you.

    I see small businesses come and go very often, from restaurants, clubs, clothing stores, phone stores you name it, they put up grand opening signs, fresh new paint and expect the customers to come rolling in. Soon the flyer's start coming, then the sales, next comes the,"New Management" signs. Still the sales are fickle and your barely staying afloat. Once the frustration of negative sales start rolling in, they forget all about customer service and just become the biggest" Bitch" ala Naomi Campbell. You walk into their place of business and the staff are more focused on themselves and not you the customer. Once your heart is taken out of play you will never be able to give one hundred and ten percent to your project because you can easily be thrown off course by the smallest of problems. If you have your health, your faith and the wisdom to respect all creations your a wealthy person.

    Now that I have pointed out why your small business will fail, let me give you the antidote to suffering sales; its networking. Network with other businesses in your area, possible investors, local media, seek out aspiring entrepreneurs could be a great resource for getting low cost marketing for your business. Get out and offer samples, allow the public to give a critique of your project, seek out like minded business that could benefit from having a relationship with you. The name of the game is this, If you are not willing to introduce yourself to every possible lead then you are setting yourself up for failure. If you truly believe in your product or service,then it is a must you sell yourself or partner up with a trustworthy person that can do the bulk of the gorilla marketing for you. You must tirelessly seek out ways to improve your idea and connect with the public.

   

(Summary) 42 Tips For Producing A Memorable Small Business Event

Written by Jamillah Warner 6/2/2013 @ smallbiztrends.com ... view original post to see all 42 tips

1. Decide upon your target audience before anything else- This approach will also help you stay focus on achieving specific goals and not allowing the scope to become too broad or watered down.

2. Have a clear business purpose for holding the event- Before you can begin planning a successful event be clear on why you are doing it in the first place. your reasons could be to; create awareness, generate leads, create brand loyalty or to simply make money.

3. Be flexible with changes in time, size, location and other details-  Changes are natural and perfectly fine as long as you don't lose sight of the reason your doing all the work in the first place.

4. Know your limitations- We all know the goal is to throw a great live event. To that end we also have to be aware at what we can or cannot realistically do; be it budget or time.

5. Create smart goals- Just like building any business, great events start with a strong thoughtful and measurable strategy. 

6. Develop a financing plan for your event and estimate the numbers- Know how you are going to pay for the event. Most events are sponsored through sponsorship, ticket sales and internal marketing budgets. Estimate how much money you can raise from the mentioned revenue sources. Before you book your event or sign any contracts, its a good idea to start looking for sponsors or selling advanced tickets to make sure there is enough interest in your idea to fund it.

7. Be tireless in your efforts or your event will fail- If you don't want to be alone at your event then market, market, market and then market some more.

8. Define good reasons for people to show up to your event- You need to define what your doing at the event that will bring those target attendees in the door. For a consumer product it might be a party with entertainment, product demos and freebies. For a business crowd it might be educational content or an expert speaker.

9. Make it easy for your speakers to publicize to their followers- If you have any speakers/experts attending your event encourage them publicize their attendance to their social media followers/email subscribers.

10. Have a skilled social media team cover your event- Don't forget a social media team. While not imperative for every event or industry, more and more events are focusing on harnessing the viral power of their audience. If your audience is tweeting, Facebooking and taking pictures on Instagram; you should be doing the same and will need a trained team to execute.