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Websites seem to be driving the economy, even the way we think. Here is my latest website. Dallas Franchises

Low Cost Businesses

We are entering the new decade of the entrepreneur. The past decade showed us all the futility of big corporations and mega banks. We are returning to a time where the local shop owner will be honored for helping create the local economy. For many former managers and executives who have found themselves outside of corporate America, low cost franchises and licensed brands can give them the opportunity to enjoy the challenges and rewards of entrepreneurship, but still provide structure and a systematic approach to their chosen business model.

Profit From New Economic Data
By: Ed Wills

The new economic report is good news for small business.

The National Association for Business Economics released a new report indicating that America's economic is continuing to recover. This is great news, especially considering recent uncertainties.

Here are the basic numbers.

- 31% of businesses increased their number of workers in the past quarter.
- 39% of businesses plan to increase workers over the next 2 quarters.
- 50% fewer companies reported layoffs during the past quarter compared with the same period a year ago.
- 52% of companies reported increased demand for goods and services resulting in improved sales.

But not all the news is good.

- The stock market continues to be unstable as it absorbs and interprets new regulations.
- The housing market and real estate in general continue to be sluggish.

This information is not just academic. There are clues here indicating how to best invest you time and money to take advantage of changes in the economic climate.

First, the stock market is a poor place for your money. This is no surprise to anyone who has lost half of their retirement investment in stocks or mutual funds. Unless you are a very adept trader who can capitalize on market volatility, the stock market should be avoided. But don't confuse the ups and downs of the market as an indicator of how the economy is doing. The stock market is largely driven by emotion and speculation. Economic data may fuel the emotion, but the market will almost always over react, then over correct. So if the market falls 2000 points, it is not an indicator that the economy has collapsed any more than its 2000 point climb late last year indicated that the economy was completely healed.

Second, real estate is not where you should invest - yet. Some apparent relief earlier this year was largely due to government programs that have expired. Now, foreclosures are continuing to climb, and there are fewer new home starts. Real estate will likely bottom out in a year or two, but recovery is likely to be slow as the huge foreclosure inventory is absorbed by the marketplace.

So where is the right place to invest? Consider new business investment. As the economy strengthens, companies will be hiring employees and contracting new service agreements. The technology and business services sectors are likely to recover at a faster rate than the overall economy.

Express Employment, a franchised employment services company, reported an all-time record for weekly sales volume in June.

Intel reported increased sales for server chips, an indicator that US businesses are spending money on improved technology. They are also predicting a 20% improvement in PC sales, largely driven by companies increasing workers.

The BNZ index, an index of the business services industry, rose 2.2 points in May (most recent data available). This indicates continued expansion in the business services industry.

So if you are considering starting a new business, or just looking for a place to invest your money, business services is worth a close look. Besides employment services and technology, consider starting a business that focuses on consulting, marketing, supply management, sales training, and facilities management and maintenance.

If you are nervous about venturing into entrepreneurism, there are franchises that will assist you in setting up your own business in each of these sectors. A franchise will also provide your new startup with an established name and 50 year reputation. These are big plusses when approaching businesses for new business. Also, each franchise has developed a proven success formula that can be verified by you during your investigation and validation period.

However you approach your investment, it is time to quit worrying about the future and start creating your future. The tide is rising. Catch the wave.

Ed Wills is a franchise and small business startup consultant with WFA Franchise Consultants. He specializes in helping people identify business opportunities that will help them reach their personal and financial goals. He writes, speaks and coaches on a variety of business and success topics. You can learn more about his services or request a free consultation at www.WFAFranchiseConsultants.com.

Article Source: Profit From New Economic Data

Franchise Business Course

If you have not already signed up for my free franchise business course, now is the time.

In this course you will learn:

- The three basic business models and each model’s probability of success
- How to select which model is right for you
- How to choose an industry
- How to use a consultant in business selection
- How to translate your interests, skills and goals into profits
- How to finance your new business
- How to manage your new business

This course is absolutely free and will be emailed directly to you from info@WFAFranchiseConsultants.com.

Request Free Franchise Business Course.

Climb the Buyer Ladder

Climb the Buyer Ladder
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Ed_Wills]Ed Wills

Where does your product or service fit on the buyer ladder? Could moving your product or service up a rung on the ladder increase sales and improve your core business? Absolutely.

First, let's take a look at the ladder.

High Emotion - Significant Uniqueness

Low Emotion - Significant Uniqueness

High Emotion - Little Uniqueness

Low Emotion - Little Uniqueness

Luxury products such as Harley Davidson motorcycles, fine wines and diamond jewelry tend to fit on the top rung of the ladder. These products tend to carry a good deal of status and a high price tag. Purchasers will spend a good deal of time considering the purchase and making sure they are buying pleased with it. Everyday "brandless" products tend to fall on the bottom rung of the ladder. For example, what brand of paper clips are in your desk? Purchasers tend to spend little time considering the purchase and will probably just buy the cheapest one or the most convenient.

The key to a marketer is to raise your product or service up a rung on the ladder. Major corporations do this all the time. Look at the high emotional content of a Charmin toilet tissue ad. Do we really need an emotional attachment to our toilet paper? Marketers also attempt to increase uniqueness. Kleenex and Puffs go head to head with designer packaging, added lotions and pastel colors. That's a lot of hype for something you are going to blow your nose with and throw away. So whatever your product or service, there is probably a way to increase its emotional involvement or perceived uniqueness.

Automotive repair shops can email digital photos of customer's cars during the day to show progress of the repair. This will increase consumer involvement in the process and elevate emotional attachment as well as provide a unique attribute of your shop compared to other shops that do not provide that service. Customer surveys are great tools for increasing a consumer's "ownership" in your business. Community involvement including sponsoring juvenile sports, high school drama clubs, and public charitable assistance are great ways to increase a community's sense that your shop belongs to the community and not some absentee corporate entity. There is no greater coup for a marketer than to get customers to refer to a shop or service provider as "my coffee shop", "my book store" or "my mechanic".

If you are part of a franchise, your franchisor's marketing support has probably already done the leg work for you, developing ad campaigns that involve emotional attachment and create a sense of uniqueness. If you are an independent entrepreneur, the cost of bringing in a marketing consultant might seem daunting, but could be worth the expense. Another option is to spend some time surveying your existing customers. Find out their likes and dislikes. Why do they do business with you? Find their emotional attachment and use it to market to others.

So invest some time and effort in finding ways to increase emotional attachment or perceived uniqueness of your product or service. You will be pleased with the long term benefits.

Ed Wills is a franchise and small business startup consultant with WFA Franchise Consultants. He specializes in helping people identify business opportunities that will help them reach their personal and financial goals. He writes, speaks and coaches on a variety of business and success topics. You can learn more about his services or request a free consultation at [http://www.WFAFranchiseConsultants.com]http://www.WFAFranchiseConsultants.com.

Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Climb-the-Buyer-Ladder&id=4668956] Climb the Buyer Ladder

Identify And Overcome Emotional Blocks To Success

What is holding you back from fulfilling the vision you just wrote?
Has it ever occurred to you that what is preventing you from enjoying success is not the actions and attitudes of your parents, or the lack of opportunities, or just plain bad luck, but your own feelings and attitudes about yourself?
Many people work hard for success, but never seem to achieve it. Something always stops them before they can accomplish their goals and achieve their personal dreams and aspirations. In most cases, what is holding them back is that they don’t feel they deserve success. At some point in their lives they became saddled with the belief that they do not deserve good things in life.
Our strongest beliefs about ourselves become ingrained at a very early age, usually, when we are completely unable to make reasonable judgments about ourselves or our surroundings.
A small child sees something very bright and shiny. It looks so beautiful, so desirable. The child sets an infantile goal. “Put that bright shiny thing in my mouth.” He reaches for it. Suddenly, a parent snatches it away. “No! Bad!” The parent tosses the piece of broken glass into a big can and puts a lid on it. The child internalizes, “My parents will take my goal away from me because I am bad.”
An impressionable pre-teen sits in Church and hears a sermon from a pastor he has been taught to have complete confidence in. The pastor is preaching about how people who live for the love of money, instead of focusing their life on loving relationships with their family and friends will lead empty, unfulfilled lives. The youth internalizes, “I’m not going to make money, but make everyone like me.”
In both cases, the parent and the pastor are trying to communicate good, positive messages. But the recipient of the messages lacks sufficient understanding, and internalizes limiting emotions. It has happened to all of us. Often, those who find their way to success are so brash and self-confident that they have simply learned to ignore negative input and feelings and press ahead. But, there is a more gentle and enjoyable path to success. Change your internal feelings and attitudes about success so they support you rather than limit you.

Step One: Self Acceptance
The first step on the path to emotional freedom is self acceptance. If you want to grow, you need to be able to look squarely at your mistakes, large and small, and say to yourself, “I blew it, but I love and accept myself just the way I am.” Success is not about avoiding mistakes, but moving past them. If you continue to beat yourself up over past errors in judgment, they will dominate your thoughts and emotions preventing you from learning from them and moving on.

Step Two: Forgiveness
From a place of self-acceptance, you can truly forgive anyone who provided negative influences that helped form limiting and sometimes self-destructive behaviors, attitudes and beliefs. It is easy to rationalize that these individuals weren’t trying to harm you and therefore don’t’ need forgiveness. They may not need forgiveness, but you need to forgive. Only after you forgive, can you let go and find freedom.
In some cases forgiveness seems undeserved. This is often the case in abuse or divorce. But holding onto unforgiveness never hurts those who wronged you. It only hurts you. In fact, unforgiveness gives the one who wronged you a type of control over you. By holding on to unforgiveness, you are allowing the injury to last a lifetime. Choosing to truly forgive can start a chain reaction of healing that will open a doorway to a joyful and productive life.
The most important person to forgive is yourself. Embarrassments and disappointments create deeply rooted resentments. Unfortunately, many people resent themselves. This creates a sense of disqualification, as if one feels disqualified to enjoy success because of something they did in their past.
Often what we believe disqualifies us was not even an action. It may have been a belief we held, or an emotion we experienced.
Once you have chosen to love and accept yourself just the way you are, and broken the chains of unforgiveness that have been holding you back, you can begin to move forward to become the person you truly want to be.

Step Three: Realize you Deserve to Succeed
If you grew up in a guilt culture, you may not feel you deserve many good things to happen to you. Guilt, often injected into our psyche by our parents, teachers or ministers, can create a strong sense of unworthiness. I grew up in an East Texas evangelical tradition. “I am unworthy” is a mantra of Southern evangelicalism. To succeed, you must first change that mantra to “I deserve to be successful.” “I deserve to have good things.” “I deserve to enjoy life.” I deserve to be rich” “I deserve to have people look up to me.”

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Big Goals Require a Big Vision

The bigger your goal, the bigger your vision needs to be to motivate you to accomplish it. If your goal is to become a manager at the place where you work, what is it about being a manager that will motivate you to do what it takes to become a manager? Is your goal to become the top sales person in your organization? The question is, “Why bother?” Is it for the money? The prestige? The recognition? There is no wrong answer here. It is important to know what motivates you, so you can keep yourself motivated to prospect the new customer, learn all you can about the new products, make the extra sales and go the extra mile.
What do you really want?
Most people have financial goals, but what they really want is not money. They really want something else that having money provides for them. It may be a bigger house. Better education for the kids. The freedom to travel. Or perhaps they are motivated by intangibles like security, confidence, recognition or freedom from worrying about money.
Zig Ziglar is famous for saying, “Every year thousands of people go out and buy ¼ inch drill bits, but not one of them wanted a ¼ inch drill bit. They all wanted ¼ inch holes.”
What is it that you really want? What will motivate you to do what it takes to get it?
Put Your Vision In Writing
Write out your life vision. Include a description of what your ideal day is like. Talk about your feelings having accomplished your goals. Take time every day to read your vision and imagine yourself as having accomplished your goals.
Jack was a college student who wanted to graduate valedictorian of his class. He asked his mother to sew a wall hanging with a big “V” on it. Every day for four years he looked at that wall hanging and took a moment to think about what it would feel like to be named valedictorian of his graduating class. He thought about what he would say in his speech. He imagined the applause. Then, he went to class focused on making the grades necessary to be valedictorian. Sure enough, when his class graduated, Jack was named valedictorian. Only then did he tell all his friends what the wall hanging was all about. For four years they had questioned him. Now they all understood.
Detailed Description Makes Your Vision Real
You don’t have to be a novelist to write a detailed description of something you hold deeply in your heart. As you picture you life after you have achieved your goals, ask yourself, “What do I see?” “What do I hear” “What do I smell?” “What do I feel?” If your goal is to make enough money to put your children through the best education available, imagine yourself sitting in the audience other parents at an Ivy League college. Feel the enthusiasm. Hear the applause. Note the pride swelling up inside of you.
Emotion Gives Your Vision Power
Several studies have shown that memory is closely linked to emotion. If you experience deep emotion during an event, you will remember it forever. If you are a parent, you probably remember in vivid detail the events and surroundings related to the birth of your children. You can probably describe in detail the room you were in and what you were doing when you heard about the terrorist attacks of 9-11. When describing your vision, create a memory in advance. Describe what you feel when you realize the accomplishment of your goals.
Put Your Vision In Writing
Write out your life vision. Include a description of what your ideal day is like. Talk about your feelings having accomplished your goals. Take time every day to read your vision and imagine yourself as having accomplished your goals.
Jack was a college student who wanted to graduate valedictorian of his class. He asked his mother to sew a wall hanging with a big “V” on it. Every day for four years he looked at that wall hanging and took a moment to think about what it would feel like to be named valedictorian of his graduating class. He thought about what he would say in his speech. He imagined the applause. Then, he went to class focused on making the grades necessary to be valedictorian. Sure enough, when his class graduated, Jack was named valedictorian. Only then did he tell all his friends what the wall hanging was all about. For four years they had questioned him. Now they all understood.
Create a sensory map.
Take a moment to think of the most exciting and joyful experience of your life. You will probably begin feeling the same emotions all over again. You may begin to smile or laugh. Now mentally attach those feelings to your ultimate vision. You may need to repeat this exercise the first few times you read your vision. Soon you will discover that the emotions will come naturally and quickly.
Read Your Vision Every Day
It is important to keep your vision in front of you. This is the key to your motivation. So take time each day to imagine what it is you are working towards.
Set aside time, preferably at the beginning and end of each day, to:
• Read your vision.
• Create a mental picture of your life after you have reached your goals.
• Imagine the sights, smells and other sensory input.
• Feel the emotions of joy and elation that come from achieving your goals.
• Make your future yours today.
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Why Visualizing Your Way to Success Works

There is a lot of hype in the self help genre about meditation and visualization. There is also a lot of skepticism by business professionals. That is because the case for meditation and visualization, often associated with the law of attraction, has been grossly overstated. Yes, visualization works. You can bring about amazing things through meditation and visualization. But it isn’t magic.

Let me state now, it isn’t dangerous. You didn’t attract the car accident by having negative thoughts. You may have attracted it by being tired or distracted, but not by having bad self talk or a bad visualization model. I grew up in the East Texas Bible belt where there was always someone telling me if I had the right kind of faith, good things would happen to me. If bad things happened, I just didn’t have enough faith. That is a bunch of baloney. A lot of what I hear about self talk, meditation, visualization and the law of attraction is the same snake oil with a new label.

I have also heard the law of attraction touted as the key to success in business. If you want to succeed in business, you need a good business plan, dynamite marketing, great customer service and a lot of hard work. Meditation and visualization have their place; one could even argue they are essential. But they are no substitute.

Now that I have begun this chapter with an overdone caveat, let’s talk about what is real and practical about mediation and visualization.

The DC Experiment
John Hagelin hypothesized that if enough people meditated in a city, they could measurably reduce the crime rate. In 1993, an experiment was conducted in the nation’s capital. About 500 people gathered in Washington DC and began meditating toward the specific purpose of reducing the crime rate in the city. At the end of 4 weeks, the crime rate had dropped about 2%. Then there was a marked increase in the number of individuals meditating. By the end of the eighth week, there were almost 4,000 people gathering and mediating. By the end of the 2 month experiment, the crime rate had dropped 23 %.

Clinical Trials
There have been a few clinical trials on the effects of intercessory prayer (a form of meditation) in the treatment of disease. In 1988 the Southern Medical Journal reported a significant better recovery of heart patients that received intercessory prayer as part of their therapy. A similar study with rheumatoid arthritis patients was published in 2000 in the same journal. Again, patients who received in person intercessory prayer had significantly improved recoveries.

To some, measurable results from prayer, meditation and visualization seems spooky and mysterious. There is really nothing mysterious about it. Mind, body and spirit are interconnected. We have all experienced how strengthening the body gives strength to the mind and spirit. Illness that affects the body, can also affect the mind and spirit. Why must we start with the body? Doesn’t it stand to reason that if we strengthen the spirit, the body and mind will follow?

The Chardinian Noosphere and Chicken Salad
We operate a small coffee and sandwich shop. We offer nine different kinds of sandwiches, all of which are roughly equally popular. The other day my daughter reported to me that is seemed everyone who came in ordered a chicken salad sandwich. Why did on this one day chicken salad more than double in popularity? The common vernacular answer is “There is something in the air.” Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Jesuit priest and philosopher, might say, “Yes, there is something in the air, and it is the collective consciousness.” His theory was that there is a collective consciousness emanating from the interaction of human minds. This collective consciousness, he called the noosphere (from the Greek word for mind, nous). The noosphere is evolving and integrating with conscious human though until it reaches total integration which he called the Omega point.
This may seem like pretty far out stuff, but why is it that sometimes everyone seems to get the same idea? Is the collective consciousness whispering in people’s ears, “Eat chicken salad today.”?

Attitude is Contagious
Have you ever been in a room with friends, having a pleasant discussion, when in walks a newcomer? Sometimes the newcomer is ridiculously happy and excited. Perhaps everyone laughs at first, but as the newcomer shares his excitement, soon the spirits of everyone in the room are lifted. At other times the newcomer may be despondent and depressed. Soon people begin to leave because of the uneasiness everyone is feeling. There is a collective consciousness of everyone in the room. The introduction of a newcomer can affect that consciousness either positively or negatively. Either way, soon everyone is feeling it.

Collective Consciousness on a National Scale
The history of America is the history of dissenters. From the Federalist Papers to Henry David Thoreau to John Reed, America has prided herself in her dissenters. These dissenters usually develop a following, but are generally forgotten except in the halls of academia. But in 1968 America was reshaped by the voice of dissention.
The early 60’s were as American as apple pie. Popular music was dominated by folk songs sung by clean cut young men like the Kingston Trio and The Brothers Four. But in 1968 everything changed. Why did previous dissenters have to settle for a small following, while in 1968 there were so many dissenting voices that it became a chorus of dissent that changed the direction of the country forever. It was something in the air.

Prayer, meditation and visualization are ways of putting something into the air. It joins the noosphere of collective consciousness and rejoins the world of tangible reality, sometimes in very dramatic ways.

The 1980 Soviet Olympic Team
In 1980, the Soviets conducted a visualization experiment. They divided the athletes into four groups. The first group practiced as usual. The second group devoted 25% of their practice time to visualization. The third group devoted 50% of their practice time to visualization. The fourth group devoted 75% of their practice time to visualization. At the 1980 Olympics, the group that spent 75% of their time practicing physically and devoted 25% of their practice time to visualization won the most medals.

John Asaraf’s House
John Asaraf tells the story in his book, The Answer, of how, when he was a young realtor in Indiana, he had a vision board of things he wanted to achieve. Among other things, he cut a picture of a house out of a magazine and glued it to his vision board. It was a big beautiful house, and he considered this his dream home. Five years later, he decided to move to California. When unpacking, he found his old dream boards. Looking over them he realized that without conscious awareness, he had purchased the exact house he had glued to his vision board five years earlier.

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