My 2¢ Worth

emember, as you go about your business, to take plenty of breaks. This is important no matter your line of work, but perhaps even more important for those of us who work on the computer.

uscles tend to get sore sitting hunched over your computer all day. Staring at a monitor strains the eyes. Other muscles become flabby from un use. Look at me. I used to be as skinny as a rail. I still am... except for my belly that is. I am a stronger contender to play Santa during the next holiday season.

fter you have rested and stretched your muscles, perhaps you should give you mind a break as well. Nothing is better suited for this than a nice little mindless game. I have recently found an online game that fills this bill perfectly.

ubbleCrack www.fur.com/~almackey/bubblecrack/index.html is a mindless, yet fun little game. And more than a little addictive. Enjoy!

Feature Article

Franchise Mentality

by: Robert Smith Smithfam.com

This month My Corporation is 11 years old, after 7 years full time on the Internet I have gained some perspective here is some advice I want to share with you.

Don't Start Like I Started.

When I suffered a serious back injury in 1995 I wasn't able to continue working in my trade of 30+ years. I exhausted my disability benefits and was re-injured 2 days after I attempted to return to work.

I started my Internet business in 1996 in desperation, when no one was selling anything on the Internet. I had no clue how difficult it would be. I worked day and night for months before I made single a sale. Sound familiar?

I had everything to lose and in the process, I lost almost everything.

It's SO much easier starting out today, at least from my point of view. There is a lot of great information that just wasn't available when I started. More importantly, now people are actually buying products and services on the Internet.

Keep Your Day Job

The nature of a job is to pay you less than you earn for the company. That's because they spent the time and effort to develop the job for you. A job provides cash flow, training, and security but most of us will never get rich working for someone else.

Having a regular job is a HUGE blessing when you want to start your own business. Earning a living income will most likely require more time than you expect so keep your regular job until you replace most of the income it provides.

Desperately NEEDING quick income actually works against you. Quitting your job doesn't speed up the learning curve; in fact it gives you tunnel vision often distracting you from discovering real purpose of business.

"To satisfy an identified desire in a market you can reach."

Immigrant Mentality

Often when someone arrives in the US the first thing they do is obtain a job, any job just to get the money flow started. Immigrants are often willing to work harder and longer than we are because they come here with faith in a vision the passion to pursue it.

I once worked with a young man from Cambodia. Whenever anyone wanted to go home after eight hours he would offer to do whatever work needed to be done in order to help out. Most days he worked at least 16 hours and we all thought he was crazy.

Later I learned that after his family was killed in Cambodia he built a kiln to make charcoal at 12 years of age. He got up before dawn every day to gather enough wood to fire the kiln then he would walk over 6 miles to fish for ten hours or more. The fishing earned him enough to eat and selling the charcoal helped him earn enough to get to the US. It took him over 7 years just to get here.

A 16-hour day seemed like a short day from his point of view. This is working for a purpose, and this is often what's required when building a business.

Now it's fifteen years later, he owns his own business, a house that's paid for, provides high paying jobs for others and gives back to his community on a regular basis purely out of gratitude.

The Old Fashion Way

Real success rarely comes easily, We EARN success in the process of following our passion. No one is born knowing how to build a business.

In fact, most of us start out with a job mentality, expecting a day's pay right after a day's work. In order to develop a business most of the work and much of the money is required up front before we ever receive a dime. This requires a long view and a passion for the process itself.

Like launching a rocket into space, the idea is to develop success before running out of fuel. The higher you go the less fuel it takes but most people quit before getting off the ground.

Success in business isn't really about the money. The fastest path to success is rarely the most direct path. Often it's what's you have to give that gets you what you want.

Adapt A Franchise Mentality

Franchise businesses are expensive because someone else did much of the groundwork for you. If you can't afford a franchise you will need to do most of that groundwork yourself.

Invest in your success, if you don't put much into it you'll have little to lose if you quit. Because of the amount of investment required, franchise owners are more likely to put in the effort required to succeed.

Learn your business, invest in your success, if you don't quit you WILL be successful - eventually.

**************

ROBERT SMITH helps thousands successfully market their Internet based home business at: www.smithfam.com/
You can reach him by phone at: (541) 689-1847 PST, and by email at. bob@smithfam.com
The WebKit CD - Learn what you need to know www.smithfam.com/webkit/

Horizontal Line Tips

Horizontal lines are nice to use on your Web page as a way to divide it into different sections because they take almost no time to load. This is pretty easy to do, and you can make them any size you want.

Play around with the tag variables to see how you can customize these lines. You can size them by relative screen percentage, or directly with pixels. You can also change the appearance of the line itself with width and alignment.

Review the following examples:

<hr width="80%">

<hr size="5" width="300">

<hr align="right" width="100" color="darkblue"> (color IE only)

* Get these syndicated tip feeds for yourweb site, free. *

Second Article

Our Checklists

by: Michael Angier Success Networks International

I'm a big believer in systems. Systems help make our work and our life easier, less prone to error and they free our minds for better things. And no system is simpler or more useful than a checklist.

When I walk on board an airplane, I take some comfort in knowing the flight deck crew is going through their checklists. Even though they may have gone through their routines thousands of times, they still use checklists to minimize the chance for error. Lives, equipment and reputation are on the line, and they wouldn't think of risking these things without using checklists.

We all use them. Most of the time, they're mental checklists. Before we go to bed, we lock the front door, turn out the lights and brush our teeth. It's a routine that doesn't require a written checklist.

But anything longer or more critical than this mental list would be best served with a written one. Anything we do infrequently or that affects safety should utilize this simple system.

Just a few things for which I have written checklists:

• travel, camping
• article, newsletter writing and publishing
• book authoring and publishing
• new product evaluation
• boat winterization, commissioning

You've heard it said that "A long pencil beats a short memory." It's true—our minds are better designed for thinking than remembering.

Checklists also help us to delegate tasks and projects to others. If we have a system, we're more confident the job will be done better, and we're more inclined to delegate it.

Action Point
What processes do you or your team members conduct that could be improved by using a checklist? What project are you involved with that you could document and develop a checklist for the next similar project?

**************

Copyright Michael Angier. SuccessNet.org and WorldClassBusiness.com help you and your business grow. Get their free report, 10 Pillars of a World Class Business, by sending an email to wcb@SuccessNet.org No-cost subscriptions, memberships, eCourses, eBooks and more are available at SuccessNet.org and InfoPlease@SuccessNet.org

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