Top 10 Incredible Success Secrets Creating a High-Five Culture

Ninja Selling by Larry Kendall

The following is a guest post by Larry Kendall, author of Ninja Selling and chairman of The Group, Inc. If you’d like to be considered for a future guest post on Money Q&A, check out our guest posting guidelines.

Ninja Selling by Larry KendallThe average annual household income in the United States is $56,516. For the top 5 percent of households, it’s $159,619 and for the 1 percenters, it’s $380,354. In our company, we are only interested in hiring associates who aspire to be 5 percenters or better. We call them High Fivers, and we have a system to help them get there. Our associates averaged $221,485 in Gross Commission Income (GCI) in 2016.

Success Secrets Creating a High-Five Business Culture

How do you build a High-Five business culture? Simple. Hire financial sales associates who aspire to be 5 percenters and coach them to success.  Here are our observations of the Top 10 attributes and activities of these top agents to have a great business culture:

1. Mindset. Players versus Victims. Look for associates with a growth mindset who believe they can figure this business out and be successful if they work hard enough. See Dr. Carol Dweck’s book: Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.

2. Hungry. Success takes effort. Hire associates who hunger to succeed and the work ethic to get there. What is their motivation? What is there why?

3. Character. Hire likable people who tell the truth and do what they say. These character attributes are the keys for them to be a trusted advisor rather than just a salesperson.

4. Empathy. Having the social skills to pick up on the subtle nuances and the feelings of another was the key attribute of the top 10 percent of sales associates, according to a study by Franklin-Covey.

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Money Saving Facts: To-Do-List To Ensure Employee Productivity

How To Increase Employee Productivity

How To Increase Employee ProductivityWe’re now in an era where competition has greatly heightened with old players fighting to hold on to their positions. Digital developments have taken the world by storm and provide new players with a more level-playing field. The numbers of entrepreneurs have surged in recent years and we’re seeing more innovations in different industries.

How to Increase Employee Productivity

In an effort to increase competitive edge, employers are observing worker productivity more and finding ways to increase employee productivity. There are now several technologies aimed at promoting this but are these really the solutions? Or, are they Band-Aid approaches to a larger business issue?

Cut your employees some slack.

Heavily monitoring your workers can increase pressure on them, increasing stress levels over time, even without additional workload. Mental limits do exist. Time spent working does not necessarily equate to the quality of work.

Breaks can consist from taking short naps to sitting at the computer doing non-work activities, anything that allows the brain to take refresh. Discuss with your leaders and your employees to see what works best or what kind of activities you can allow during work hours.

Be supportive to subordinates.

When you’ve noticed an employee that has been performing consistently poorly or there was a sudden drop in productivity, take time to engage with the worker concerned. This person may be undergoing a deep personal issue that’s preventing focus on work.

Establishing a supportive approach would not only help you find ways to work around the issue but would win your employee’s loyalty. That is a strong foundation for productivity. Be human. We all have those days. When reprimanding, do so in private and avoid using derogatory speech. If anyone deserves praise, jump at the chance.

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How to Overcome the Challenges of Bootstrapping Your Business

How to Overcome the Challenges of Bootstrapping Your Business

The following is a guest post by Ed “Skip” McLaughlin and Wyn Lydecker, the authors of “The Purpose Is Profit: The Truth about Starting and Building Your Own Business“. If you’d like to find out more about guest posting on Money Q&A, please read our Guest Posting Guidelines. Every business needs capital to start, operate, and grow. Every type of capital has a cost, with advantages and disadvantages to consider. And to some degree, every source of capital will affect the amount of control you will maintain over your business. When I was starting my company, USI, I couldn’t wait to lift off. I was ready to quit my job and felt impatient to get started. I considered sourcing money from … Read more

5 Signs You Should Hire A Coach for Your Life or Business

5 Signs You Should Hire A Coach

5 Signs You Should Hire A CoachCoaching has become a rapidly growing profession worldwide, expanding form its origins in sports and branching out into a number of different areas. There are business coaches, executive coaches, career coaches, health & wellness coaches, and general life coaches. But, should you hire a coach to help you succeed in life or in your business?

People seem to be recognizing that having a coach can make a difference. In fact, studies of coaching in organizations shows a return of $4 – $8 for every dollar invested.

At the same time, people have begun to recognize that top athletes spend around 95% of time practicing with a coach and 5% actually performing. While the rest of us spend almost all of our time performing, with almost no time to practice or improve.

Why shouldn’t everyone benefit from more time to work with a coach and develop mastery?

5 Signs You Should Hire A Coach

You See The Possibilities

You see great possibility for yourself, your career, or your business, but you can’t turn that possibility into a clear vision, action, and/or results. In other words, you are stuck.

What is your purpose? What is your vision for your life, career, or business? What are your strengths and how can you use them to make great things happen? A coach works with you to get answers to these questions.

Your Having Challenges

You are having challenges influencing or working with other people to get things done. Leadership – in life and in work – is partly about influencing others.

Many people have challenges with how they communicate, work on teams, and make things happen. A coach can help you develop new skills and behaviors to have more impact when working with other people. Your coach can also help you to understand how to build a powerful network of relationships so that you can get more things done more easily.

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Should I Get a Small Business Loan?

Should I Get a Small Business Loan?
Should I Get a Small Business Loan?

Should you get a small business loan? Each business is unique. So, there’s no single, universal answer to this common concern. However, we can examine some important questions, whose answers can help you make the best decision for your situation.

What is a Small Business Loan?

A small business loan works just like personal credit, only it’s intended to help you grow your business. For a new business, you will still personally guarantee the loan, but you will have to qualify based on your business’s health and your ability to demonstrate how the money will make your business more profitable and stable.

Though they are conceptually similar to personal loans, you can expect to see a few differences with small business loans:

  • You can get a small business loan for far more money than for most personal loans short of a mortgage
  • You may pay more interest, and possibly higher fees, than you would for a comparable personal loan
  • The application process can sometimes be more detailed and time-consuming

Grow Your Business With A Fixed Rate Loan Up To $300,000 From Lending Club. Approval Takes Just A Few Minutes With No Obligation!

How Can I Use a Small Business Loan?

Don’t think of small business loans as a credit card, which you use for convenience or to buy something today that you can’t really afford until tomorrow. Think of small business loans like student loans: specific investments that will make you more money than you paid in interest once you’ve leveraged what you buy.

By making this kind of investment, you can make more money sooner. This process can help you grow your business’ profits and income. In comparison, a small business loan is much like a student loan.

You borrow and spend the money during college so your salary post-graduation is high enough to justify the expense and interest. With a small business loan, you borrow and spend the money one year to make more money moving forward through the next several years.

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Three Home Business Opportunities To Boost Your Income

Top 3 Home Business Opportunities To Boost Your Income

Top 3 Home Business Opportunities To Boost Your IncomeYou need more income to help your financial situation. Cutting items from your budget and watching your pennies each month will only get you so far. You need to attack the other side of the budgeting equation. Many people simply don’t know where to start, but there are many business opportunities from home that you can use to increase your income.

You need a side hustle. But, I’m not talking about selling stuff to your friends in your living room during in-home demonstrations and fake parties. Selling multi-level marketing (MLM) items simply won’t work for the long term. You need a real home business opportunity that can help you make real money.

I know far too many people who hope and pray (and fall prey) to the allure of easy riches of MLM opportunities. My house is full of candles, protein powder, vitamins, jewelry, weight loss wraps, and face wash that my friends have been hocking over the past few years. Your home-based business has to be more than simply selling things to your friend and family. Eventually, you’ll run out of customers. And, the leaders of these types of businesses often don’t communication (or we’re oblivious) to how much real work goes into making them successful.

Many MLM programs are built on you recruiting distributors underneath you instead of actually selling the products. Selling items to customers is often a byproduct of the business. The real business is recruiting unfortunately.

Don’t get me wrong. I love my friends. I don’t mind supplementing their incomes to a certain degree if that’s what will make them truly happy in life. The problem is that these MLM strategies aren’t good enough home business opportunities to earn additional income over the long term for most people. If you’re on the bottom of the pyramid, the income can be quite paltry.

Here are three home-based business opportunities that can help you earn a real income over the long haul.

Home Business Opportunities To Boost Your Income

Create Your Own Website

Okay, I’m a little biased with this home business opportunity. I think everyone needs a website. It’s a great creative outlet. It sets you personally up as your own brand. And, then it can be a launching pad for any home business opportunity that you want.

Do you want to sell items that you create? You should have a website to highlight your products. Do you want to freelance as a copywriter? You should have your own website to showcase your talent.

Everyone needs a website. And, you also need to own your name URL. It took me years to purchase hankcoleman.com. But, it was worth the wait. You should own your own name as a .com and .net. And, for that matter, you should own your children’s names as domain names too. $10 per year (or less in many cases) is a small price to pay when it can cost you hundreds down the line.

A great way to build your website is through sites like Wix.com. Wix.com makes it easy to build your own site, and they show how to make your own website if you’re a beginner.

Wix provides free websites for people with an easy drag and drop system that is geared towards the beginner who isn’t familiar with coding. There is no coding required with their system. They also have designer pre-made templates and photo galleries that you can use to help you build your website.

Wix can help you create an amazing website for free. It’s never been easier since you do not need to be tech savvy. It’s all drag and drop. You simply pick a template, add images and videos (either your own or theirs), making any changes to the layout you want, add text and then publish your site online instantly.

And, if you choose, Wix can help you add secure hosting and domain names to your website. It’s a one stop shop for building your website from scratch with little to no previous experience all wrapped up in one.

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