Murray Priestley - Business Acceleration on Autopilot

Dec 31

Internet Marketing: The Truth About Business Strategy and Knowledge Building

There are thousands—possibly millions—of on-and-off-line businesses worldwide which struggle and it is not for want of trying but more because of the lack of business strategy and building knowledge. To put this into perspective, let us first consider Internet marketing and how this business is evolving.

There is currently a plethora of small businesses on-and-off-line that possibly would find it difficult, or near impossible, to compete with the ‘big-boys’ offline. When I refer to the big-boys, I mean companies and corporations that are able to invest thousands—possibly millions—into advertising and marketing, which smaller business cannot, and it is this investment that allows them to eventually push their smaller competition out of the market.

However, online marketing and a successful online business is a little different because it levels the playing field and makes business competition a fairer game, so to speak. This is especially true when many of the larger companies are too busy building and maintaining their offline growth to consider the Internet as a big opportunity for them. Having said this, times are changing and more big business, such as designer labels and publishing companies, are now beginning to realise the magnitude of Internet marketing. This is why it is vital that you find your footing online now and give yourself the advantage of perfecting your game play before the big-boys arrive.

So, how do you acquire the business building knowledge that you need to have a successful online business and carve yourself a niche before the competition arrives?

You refine your business strategy from the beginning and work on developing this tactically, so that you and your business are constantly growing and profiting from your advancement.

Think of it like a game of football. You begin in little leagues with little or no knowledge of the game, and, as you age, so, too, do your skills in game play. By the time you reach your teens, you are able to use strategic manoeuvres to you and your team’s advantage, and this defeats the competition, game after game.

In order to defeat the competition, you are aware of your strengths and weaknesses and that of your team. You have analysed your competition and playing field so that you can take advantage of any given opportunity to take a mark and score a goal.

A business strategy is much the same. You need to know you and your business’ strengths and weaknesses and that of your competition as well as be aware of your marketplace and consumer preferences. Plus, you have to be focused on achieving goals—both personal and professional—so that you can maintain a strong focus on the direction you want your business to head.

This means considering all elements of your business, such as products and services, financing, and the development and management of customer relationships as well as outsourcing and tactics for increased profitability. Spend time perfecting this strategy until all elements of your business are refined much like you did when you played football. Then, set yourself milestones and goals that are achievable and increase your expectations so that you and your business are continually growing. An excellent way to do this is to sit down and calculate what you want from your business in terms of income in the long-term. Then, work on a short-term forecast to achieve this goal. For example, if you want turnover of $500,000 during the next financial year, then divide this by 52 weeks or the number of weeks remaining in the year. You will discover that you will need a weekly turnover of $9,615.00 to achieve your long-term goal. You currently have turnover of $7,500.00, so subtract this from your desired turnover to find your short-term goal. The difference between your current turnover and the turnover you wish to achieve is your short-term goal. Therefore, you need to generate an additional $2,115.00 per week in turnover to make your goal obtainable.

Once you have ascertained your short-term and long-term goals, you then need to refine how you are going to achieve these goals, and this may mean seriously looking at how you manage your time. If you wish to increase your business productivity, then focus on business activity that generates greater income rather than those that are time-consuming and less profitable. Also, delegate, if need be, so that you can concentrate your skills on the areas of greater profitability. In addition to this, consider introducing more profitable products or services to your business that will increase your long-term and short-term profitability.

About the author

Murray Priestley is a business growth advisor, author, speaker, consultant, and the Managing Partner of Portofino Asset Management. Visit his blog and signup free to get tested business building strategies and profit-boosting tips by email, along with blog updates, news, and more! Go now to http://www.murraypriestley.com. For a no-obligation Hidden Profits Assessment of your business go now to http://www.systemised.com/assessment.

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Dec 09

Taking Positive Steps For Business Growth

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As a business owner it is vital that you constantly review your businesses growth and take positive steps to ensuring that this is maintained at a high level.

These positive steps include:

Finding and Acknowledging Weaknesses – all businesses have weaknesses, just as individuals do, and it is in recognizing these weaknesses and then finding solutions for them, that will see your business grow. After all, there is only so much you can brush under the carpet before it becomes a noticeable bulge that others will comment on.

Being prepared to Work – there is no such thing as a “lifestyle business” that will earn you millions of dollars while you happily lay on the deck of a yacht off Hamilton Island. Being in business means working toward future goals that allow you business to grow, which then lead to the lifestyle that you are seeking.

Finding Resources – resources are assets to business growth, they are a part of your structural framework that enable you to strategically develop your business well into the future. Therefore, the quality of your business resources needs to be strong, because if your business structure is weak your business can potentially topple over in any breeze, and you want it to withstand category 5 cyclones.

Focusing – knowing who you are in terms of vision, passion and strength will allow you to not only to direct your business along a positive path for success, but also will give you the drive to make your business successful. This in turn, will allow you to gain a competitive advantage within the marketplace that will see your business grow. Losing your focus in business is comparable to losing your car headlights on a busy stretch of highway, in the middle of the night; not only is your vision impaired but also you run this risk of crashing.

Seeking Knowledge – join groups and other initiatives that allow you to connect with like-minded individuals who are more knowledgeable than you. Alliances give you an incredible advantage over your competition, as they allow you to continually grow personally and tap into an endless wealth of knowledge. Plus these alliances also grow, and you continually meet bigger and better business connections, which helps you to secure your businesses roots firmly in the ground.

Developing Strong Business Marketing – your main quest in marketing is to create and increase your businesses customer base, using cost effective methods. If you spend too much on customer acquisition or over the time that the customer uses your business, then your profits will be eroded, and profit erosion is comparable to soil erosion, where everything in its path will eventually fall to its demise.

About the author

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Dec 03

How To Attain Anything That You Want

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Do you have everything that you want in life right now?

Do you sometimes find yourself thinking about how you’d really like something?

If you are not getting what you want, especially in your financial life, then this post could be the most valuable that you will ever read.

You may have read in magazines or books about people, seemingly normal people, who always seem to get all the luck. Life changing opportunities have come their way and they jumped on board and were transformed.

What if I said, that you can have this too?

You can have a life changing opportunity come your way – if only you could recognize it.

You can transform your life to one that gives you joy, pleasure and financial satisfaction.

But let me be blunt.

This is not an easy task to undertake. It takes work.

I’ve written this up in a report some time ago, but since we’re getting closer to the end of the year, I thought I’d resurface it now. Click here to Download PDF file for FREE.

Enjoy,

Murray Priestley

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Nov 26

Eve of Destruction: How the Financial Crisis Was Built Into the System

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I just read this great article by Robert Kiyosaki. Here it is in full.

Murray

————–

How did we get into the current financial mess? Great question.

Turmoil in the Making

In 1910, seven men held a secret meeting on Jekyll Island off the coast of Georgia. It’s estimated that those seven men represented one-sixth of the world’s wealth. Six were Americans representing J.P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, and the U.S. government. One was a European representing the Rothschilds and Warburgs.

In 1913, the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank was created as a direct result of that secret meeting. Interestingly, the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank isn’t federal, there are no reserves, and it’s not a bank. Those seven men, some American and some European, created this new entity, commonly referred to as the Fed, to take control of the banking system and the money supply of the United States.

In 1944, a meeting in Bretton Woods, N.H., led to the creation of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. While the stated purposes for the two new organizations initially sounded admirable, the IMF and the World Bank were created to do to the world what the Federal Reserve Bank does to the United States.

In 1971, President Richard Nixon signed an executive order declaring that the United States no longer had to redeem its paper dollars for gold. With that, the first phase of the takeover of the world banking system and money supply was complete.

In 2008, the world is in economic turmoil. The rich are getting richer, but most people are becoming poorer. Much of this turmoil is directly related to those meetings that took place decades ago. In other words, much of this turmoil is by design.

Power and Domination

Some people say these events are part of a grand conspiracy, and that might well be. Some people say they represent the struggle between capitalists, communists and socialists, and that might be, too.

I personally don’t participate in the debate over a possible global conspiracy; it’s a waste of time. To me, the wider struggle is for power and domination. And while this struggle has done a lot of good — and a lot of bad — I just want to know how to avoid becoming its victim. I see no reason to be a mouse trying to stop a herd of elephants from fighting.

Currently, many people are suffering due to high oil price, the slowdown in the economy, loss of jobs, declines in home values, increased bankruptcies and businesses closings, savings being wiped out, the plummeting stock market, and rising inflation. These realities are all direct results of this financial power struggle, and millions of people are its victims today.

An Extreme Example

I was in South Africa in July of this year. During my television and radio interviews there, I was often asked my opinion on the world economy. Speaking bluntly, I said that South Africans had a better opportunity of comprehending the global turmoil because they’re neighbors to Zimbabwe, a country run by Robert Mugabe.

In my interviews, I said, “What Mugabe has done to Zimbabwe, the Federal Reserve Bank and the IMF are doing to the world.” Obviously, my statements disturbed many of the journalists. I did my best to comfort them and assure them I was not an anarchist. I explained, as best I could, that Zimbabwe was an extreme example of an out of control power struggle.

After they were assured I was only using Zimbabwe to illustrate my point, I said, “If you want to understand the world economy, take a refugee from Zimbabwe to lunch.” I advised them to ask the refugee these questions:

1. How fast did the economy turn?

2. When did you know that you were in financial trouble?

3. When did you finally decide to leave Zimbabwe?

4. If you could do things differently, what would you have done?

Three Approaches to a Crumbling Economy

I spoke to three young couples from Zimbabwe while I was in South Africa. Two couples were recent refugees now living in South Africa, and one couple still lives in Zimbabwe. All three couples had interesting stories to tell.

One couple said that they would have quit their jobs earlier. Instead, they hung on, hoping the economy would change. Then, virtually overnight, the value of the Zimbabwean dollar dropped and inflation went through the roof. Even though they received pay raises, the couple couldn’t survive and soon depleted their savings. They left Zimbabwe by car with almost nothing. If they could’ve done something differently, they told me, they would have started a business in Zimbabwe and began exporting products to South Africa, so that they would have had South African currency and a bank account there before they fled.

The second couple that fled the country said they saved money and paid off their house and other debts even as the Zimbabwean dollar fell in value. Looking back, they say they would’ve saved nothing and gotten deeply in debt in Zimbabwe, allowing them to pay off their debt with the cheaper dollars. Instead, they fled after they lost their jobs, leaving behind their house and owning $200,000 in nearly worthless Zimbabwean dollars.

The third couple still lives in Zimbabwe. When they saw the writing on the wall, they set up a business in South Africa and, with the profits, began acquiring tangible assets in Zimbabwe. Often, they’ll buy an asset in Zimbabwe and pay the seller in South African currency. They believe that once Mugabe is gone and order is restored, they’ll be in a strong financial position.

Many Problems, Few Solutions

There are three major problems with the events of 1913, 1944, and 1971. The first is that the Fed, the World Bank, and the IMF are allowed to create money out of nothing. This is the primary cause of global inflation. Global inflation devalues our work and our savings by raising the prices of necessities.

For example, when gas prices soared, many people said that the price of oil was going up. In reality, the main cause of the high price of oil is the decreasing value of the dollar. The Fed, the World Bank, and the IMF, like Zimbabwe, are mass-producing funny money, thereby increasing prices and devaluing our quality of life.

The second problem is that our economic crises are getting bigger. In the 1970s, the Fed faced and solved million-dollar crises. In the 1980s, it was billion-dollar crises. Today, we have trillion-dollar crises. Unfortunately, these bigger crises mean more funny money entering the system.

Apocalypse Soon

The third problem is that in 1913, the Fed only protected the large commercial banks such as Bank of America. After 1944, the Fed, the World Bank, and the IMF began bailing out Third World nations such as Tanzania and Mexico. Then, in 2008, the Fed began bailing out investment banks such as Bear Sterns, and its role in the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac debacle is well known. By 2020, the biggest of bailout of all will probably occur: Social Security and Medicare, which will cost at least a $100 trillion.

Even if we find more oil and produce more food, prices will continue to rise because the value of the dollar will continue to decline. The dollar has lost over 90 percent of its value since the Fed was created. The U.S. dollar will continue to decline because of those seven men on Jekyll Island in 1910.

Granted, the funny-money system has done a lot of good — it has improved the world and made a lot of people rich. But it’s also done a lot of bad. I believe somewhere between today and 2020, the system will break. We’re on the eve of financial destruction, and that’s why it’s in gold I trust. I’d rather be a victor than a victim.

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Nov 07

Advance Warning of New Event

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Online Event Registration – Powered by www.eventbrite.com

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