Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Kids, Work, Home Business and Choices

I was just about to leave for lunch when the switchboard operator told me I had a phone call.

Puzzled, since I was new on the job and not expecting any calls, I walked back to my desk and picked up the phone. It was my 10-year-old .

"Hi, Mom, it's me."

"Linda?...Linda?"

"Yeah, it's me."

"Why did you call? Is anything the matter?"

"I'm at Eva's house?"

"You're supposed to be in school. Why are you at Eva's house?"

"The school caught on fire and they sent everyone home."

"What do you mean the school caught on fire..."

"So I got on Eva's bus and went to his house."

" . . .If the school caught on fire and you're at Eva's house, where's Veroinca?"

"I put her on our bus and told her to go to Jackies's"

"Did Jackies say it was OK?"

"I don't know, I'm at Eva's house."


As it turned out, 6-year-old Veroinca was indeed at Jackies's, but that phone call made me start to reconsider whether taking the job as a staff writer on a business trade magazine had been the right thing to do. Although the job was exactly the type of work I had wanted and allowed me to schedule my hours around the children's school schedule, I just didn't feel comfortable about working away from home.

It wasn't long either, until I started to resent the hour and fifteen minutes each day I had to spend traveling to and from work, and to realize that the costs of going to work (need for new clothes, gasoline, tires, lunch from the deli on days didn't have time to make my lunch or forgot to take it with me) all were eating into the extra income I thought I'd gain by working at a "real" job instead of freelancing from home as I had been doing for the ten years prior to taking that job.

So, a few months later, when my husband took a new job and we had to move to another part of the state, I decided to give self-employment another go-round -- at least until the children were a few years older.

That was more than 20 years ago. These days the "children" come to visit on weekends. Stephen is an accountant with one of the largest accounting firms in the country and Vicki is a middle school teacher. I still work for myself and don't think I could ever work for anyone else again.

Over the years my business has changed and grown just as my children have. I'm no longer a one-person writer and copywriter. Instead, I run the Businessknowhow.com web site, which provides information, tools and resources to more than a million home-based and small businesses each year.

BusinessKnowHow.com was run from home until 2004. But I didn't run it entirely alone. Instead, I had - and still have - a network of small businesses and freelancers - mostly work-at-home parents - I call on as needed (and as they are available) for various projects. One of the freelancers I've used in the past was my daughter, who did some editorial freelancing while she was in grad school.

The business has grown over the years. So last year, at an age when most people are wondering where they'll get enough money to retire (and hoping they don't get forced into retirement before they're ready), I rented office space and moved my business out of the house. I hired employees to work in the office, but still call on my virtual network to do projects from their homes.

Instead of worrying about the financial and emotional ramifications of losing a job and being forced into retirement, I enjoy running my own business and working to do the things that will make the business be both saleable and valuable when and if I decide I to scale back my business activities.

Remarkably, I have never personally met many of the freelancers and business owners who work on projects for me. They are scattered around the country. We communicate primarily via computer or telephone, with fax or US mail filling in as needed to transfer documents or materials that can't be transferred by computer.

I believe in many ways, that my business - and the way it's run - is a model of the way many more workplaces will be run in the future. While there will always be glassed-in, climate-controlled, ulcer-producing corporate workplaces, today's technology gives us choices we never had before about where we work, when we work, how we work, who we work with, and how long we work. And working from home - or in your own business 5 minutes away from home- is a pleasant alternative to traffic jams and elevators and deli sandwiches gulped down between phone calls and meetings.

Dealing with Home Office Distractions

In today's business world it is not uncommon for many sales people to work from a home office. At first this may seem like a great opportunity, however, it does create some unique challenges. One of the biggest obstacles is the number of distractions that can take us away from our work and prevent us from achieving our objectives.

When you work from a home office it is easy to get distracted from work, especially if it is work that you do not particularly enjoy like prospecting or cold calling. Watering the plants, running errands or even doing laundry can be a welcome change from the daily drudgery of selling. And, if you have young children, the number of distractions increases dramatically.

I, too, work from a home office and have had to deal with this challenge. Here are a few ideas that can help manage these distractions and improve your productivity.

Create an office. When I first began working from home almost a decade ago, I used to work at my dining room table. Unfortunately, this put me in the middle of our household action. My wife would turn on the television and I would be instantly distracted from my work. In other cases, she would talk to me or ask me a question simply because I was in the same room. As a result, it was often difficult to focus on my work. Now I have an office and do the majority of my work there. If you don't have space to create an office, find somewhere in your house that has the least amount of traffic and opportunities for distractions.

Set specific "business" hours. This is particularly important if you have young children. It can be very difficult for children to understand that they can't disturb us while we're working. If you have an office, close your door and place a do not disturb sign on it. This is particularly important if you are making client calls because it prevents family members from inadvertently barging in on you during a critical call.

Use a "to do" list-everyday. Having a list of what you need to accomplish each day can help keep you focused; otherwise, it becomes too easy to do other things around the house. If you know that you need to accomplish a certain number of tasks by the end of the day, it can prevent you from getting distracted during the day. One of the challenges with this is that household duties or running errands are more enjoyable compared to work we have to complete. However, I have frequently found that once I get involved in my task, the desire to do something else fades.

Set deadlines for the projects you're working on. Although I don't have anyone holding me accountable to these deadlines, it find that this approach can help keep me on track. You can also share these deadlines with other people to help keep yourself focused especially if this type of accountability works for you.

Give yourself permission to relax from time-to-time. It's okay to allow yourself to get distracted once in a while. As long it's not a regular occurrence, you don't have to worry too much about it. However, if your relaxation time overtakes your work time, then you need to reconsider your priorities.

Share your goals and objections with a group of advisors. This type of accountability works well for many people because they know they will have to report their progress on specific projects.

Recognize that the results you achieve are a direct result of the effort you put into your work. When I first started my private practice, it was easy to put aside work and do chores or run errands. In my first year, I treated work like a part-time job, clocking an average of 20-25 hours per week. When I evaluated my results at the end of the year I realized I couldn't afford to maintain this mentality. So I started working more. And, I got better results. I eventually learned that the more effort I put into my work, the better results I achieved in terms of the revenue and income I generated. This made it easier to avoid the distractions and focus more on my work.

Lastly, you can try an approach I learned from Brian Tracy many years ago. When you find yourself procrastinating on a particular task or project, repeat the following three words to yourself over and over. "Do it now." This can be a great way to prevent yourself from getting distracted by other things you would prefer to do.

Distractions are sometimes positive. A break away from work can clear your mind, give you the opportunity to refresh yourself, and increase your energy level. However, it is important to remember that you have a responsibility to yourself and your business to limit these distractions

3 Simple Strategies to Build Your Home-Based Business Faster And Easier

One of the biggest mistakes new home-based business owners make is trying to do everything from square one.

You can rest assured that whatever you are attempting to do or build, it has already been done.

Sure, it probably won't be a mirror image of what you're doing, but it will have many of the same basic ingredients

The fastest and easiest way to get your business going and growing is by finding others who have already done what you want to do and learning and benefiting from their efforts.

A local business person recently told me he was in the process of building an autoresponder. Of course, this wouldn't be a strange thing to be doing if it was a service he plans to sell, but it has nothing to do with his business!

Instead of investing a few hours to explore those autoresponders already in existence, he is investing well more than a hundred hours trying to build one on his own so he can communicate with his customers.

By conducting only a couple of hours research, he would have discovered a variety of outstanding, affordable autoresponder services that are highly sophisticated and subject to continual upgrading and improvement to keep up with ever-changing technology and consumer needs.

Imagine the kind of business he could have generated for himself if he focused those one hundred plus hours acquiring new customers for his business and expanding and improving on his products and services!


Unfortunately, like him, many new home business owners are still of the employee mindset -- that they have to work relentlessly and do everything alone.

They haven't yet developed the entrepreneurial mindset that understands you have to work smarter, not harder.

Another time-consuming task many new business owners take on is spending hours, even days, trying to design the perfect logo. I'm embarrassed to say I spent DAYS searching the Internet for sample logos, looking for ideas, then sitting and drawing possible logo after logo.

Most people have more creative flair in their big toe than I have in my entire body, yet I thought that if I put enough time into it, even though it meant not focusing on increasing business, the perfect logo would reveal itself.

I eventually abandoned the obsession and as soon as I handed the project over to my web designer, I had a new, effective and eye-catching logo within 24 hours.

It was a costly mistake. I had spent so many years working in a support capacity that I didn't know how to make the shift to a leader capacity and delegate the task.

(Even more important, I later realized, having a logo is waaaay down on the priority scale and doesn't even have to be considered during the start-up period.)

As you are starting your business, consider the following tasks and ask yourself if someone else could be doing them while you focus on building:

designing brochures and marketing materials
creating your web site
setting up your voice mail and e-mail
purchasing supplies and equipment
stuffing envelopes and taking them to the post office, or delivering flyers
market research
hooking up your new computer, modem, fax and installing software
trouble shooting computer problems
writing articles, reports or white papers
These are not revenue generating activities and if you find them challenging or time-consuming, delegate these tasks to someone else like a family member, co-op student or part-time assistant.

For the more specialized items, seek the input of a mastermind member or business colleague on how they handle those responsibilities. Also, hire or barter with experts in marketing, web design and technology.

Another wheel you don't need to re-invent is that of processes, particularly in the area of marketing.

Marketing may not be your forte, yet it is the most important element of your business, and this is where many new home business owners bury themselves.

The good news is you don't have to develop your marketing process by trial and error. Commit several days to studying other businesses both in and outside of your industry. How do they promote themselves? How do they collect leads? How do they convert leads?

In other words, how do they catch the attention of potential customers, get them to express an interest to learn more, and how do they get them to ultimately pull out their wallets and buy?

The quickest and easiest way to create winning processes is to study already successful businesses, then model what they do. Sign up for their newsletters and request additional information. Let them begin a courtship with you and pay attention to what they're doing. Buy a product or two and see what tools they use to keep inviting you back for more.

This doesn't mean copy them word for word or action by action, but assimilate what works, mould it to your specific business and add the essential ingredient of uniqueness that allows you to stand out from the crowd.

These are just three simple strategies you can start with today to get on the fast-track to home business success.

Again, here they are in a nutshell:

Uncover what has already been created or invented, then implement or install. Don't reinvent the wheel.

Think like a business owner, not an employee. Delegate, hire or trade.

Model the processes of others who have already achieved the level of success you're seeking. They've already made the mistakes for you and know what works.

Incorporate these strategies and you will shave hours and dollars from your start-up curve and begin reaping the rewards faster than you ever thought possible.

3 Simple Strategies to Build Your Home-Based Business Faster And Easier

One of the biggest mistakes new home-based business owners make is trying to do everything from square one.

You can rest assured that whatever you are attempting to do or build, it has already been done.

Sure, it probably won't be a mirror image of what you're doing, but it will have many of the same basic ingredients

The fastest and easiest way to get your business going and growing is by finding others who have already done what you want to do and learning and benefiting from their efforts.

A local business person recently told me he was in the process of building an autoresponder. Of course, this wouldn't be a strange thing to be doing if it was a service he plans to sell, but it has nothing to do with his business!

Instead of investing a few hours to explore those autoresponders already in existence, he is investing well more than a hundred hours trying to build one on his own so he can communicate with his customers.

By conducting only a couple of hours research, he would have discovered a variety of outstanding, affordable autoresponder services that are highly sophisticated and subject to continual upgrading and improvement to keep up with ever-changing technology and consumer needs.

Imagine the kind of business he could have generated for himself if he focused those one hundred plus hours acquiring new customers for his business and expanding and improving on his products and services!


Unfortunately, like him, many new home business owners are still of the employee mindset -- that they have to work relentlessly and do everything alone.

They haven't yet developed the entrepreneurial mindset that understands you have to work smarter, not harder.

Another time-consuming task many new business owners take on is spending hours, even days, trying to design the perfect logo. I'm embarrassed to say I spent DAYS searching the Internet for sample logos, looking for ideas, then sitting and drawing possible logo after logo.

Most people have more creative flair in their big toe than I have in my entire body, yet I thought that if I put enough time into it, even though it meant not focusing on increasing business, the perfect logo would reveal itself.

I eventually abandoned the obsession and as soon as I handed the project over to my web designer, I had a new, effective and eye-catching logo within 24 hours.

It was a costly mistake. I had spent so many years working in a support capacity that I didn't know how to make the shift to a leader capacity and delegate the task.

(Even more important, I later realized, having a logo is waaaay down on the priority scale and doesn't even have to be considered during the start-up period.)

As you are starting your business, consider the following tasks and ask yourself if someone else could be doing them while you focus on building:

designing brochures and marketing materials
creating your web site
setting up your voice mail and e-mail
purchasing supplies and equipment
stuffing envelopes and taking them to the post office, or delivering flyers
market research
hooking up your new computer, modem, fax and installing software
trouble shooting computer problems
writing articles, reports or white papers
These are not revenue generating activities and if you find them challenging or time-consuming, delegate these tasks to someone else like a family member, co-op student or part-time assistant.

For the more specialized items, seek the input of a mastermind member or business colleague on how they handle those responsibilities. Also, hire or barter with experts in marketing, web design and technology.

Another wheel you don't need to re-invent is that of processes, particularly in the area of marketing.

Marketing may not be your forte, yet it is the most important element of your business, and this is where many new home business owners bury themselves.

The good news is you don't have to develop your marketing process by trial and error. Commit several days to studying other businesses both in and outside of your industry. How do they promote themselves? How do they collect leads? How do they convert leads?

In other words, how do they catch the attention of potential customers, get them to express an interest to learn more, and how do they get them to ultimately pull out their wallets and buy?

The quickest and easiest way to create winning processes is to study already successful businesses, then model what they do. Sign up for their newsletters and request additional information. Let them begin a courtship with you and pay attention to what they're doing. Buy a product or two and see what tools they use to keep inviting you back for more.

This doesn't mean copy them word for word or action by action, but assimilate what works, mould it to your specific business and add the essential ingredient of uniqueness that allows you to stand out from the crowd.

These are just three simple strategies you can start with today to get on the fast-track to home business success.

Again, here they are in a nutshell:

Uncover what has already been created or invented, then implement or install. Don't reinvent the wheel.

Think like a business owner, not an employee. Delegate, hire or trade.

Model the processes of others who have already achieved the level of success you're seeking. They've already made the mistakes for you and know what works.

Incorporate these strategies and you will shave hours and dollars from your start-up curve and begin reaping the rewards faster than you ever thought possible.

"How to Move Past 'Newbie' Status to Full-Fledged Affiliate Marketer"

"How to Move Past 'Newbie' Status to Full-Fledged Affiliate Marketer"

Every day there's at least one person who discovers 'affiliate marketing' for the first time. And, every day, there's at least one person, maybe that person is you, who goes back to the drawing board trying to figure out why they haven't yet succeeded as wildly as they'd hoped.

No matter which category you fall into, I'd like to share some concepts with you that might make all the difference in the world to your future success. In fact, you just might learn from this article the one thing that helps you start earning real money.

It really all comes down these two mistakes that beginner's make:

1. Promoting to many products at once (lack of focus), and..
2. Giving up too soon.

These two mistakes are related, and are actually self-reinforcing. It sounds obvious enough, but let me explain exactly how this scenario plays out.

Lack of Focus:

Experienced affiliate marketers do have the ability to promote several products, sometimes far afield from each other, at the same time. The reason they can do this is because they'd already learned and applied certain fundamental skills, and have developed a system for themselves which works to bring in sales consistently.

As a beginner, however, you're still learning what works and what doesn't. For that reason alone, you need a clearly defined testing ground - and this means limiting your promotion to just one product when you first start out.

Just imagine for a moment if you were in a laboratory. You're working with a new chemical and need to determine its boiling point, solubility, molecular weight and so on.

Would it be quicker and easier for you to accomplish this by working with just that one chemical, or by juggling multiple, other chemicals all at the same time...starting one experiment and then rushing over to another one midway through?

Obviously, it would be easier to work with just the one chemical, right?

Well, the same is true for marketing. Just like the variables in your lab experiment, you've also got variables in every product promotion you undertake. The variables include things like traffic generation, conversion rates, advertising response rates and so on.

So, how much data do you want to juggle? Do you want to keep track of, say, Google Adwords performance for ONE e-book...or for a dozen of them spread across more than one niche?

This is where a lot beginners get themselves into a rut. They try to juggle all of this information at once, get overwhelmed by it and simply give up.

Giving Up Too Soon:

Ok, so, information overload hits, and you throw your hands in the air in surrender.

There's no need to despair!

You can turn the situation around completely if you'll just make a commitment to do the following three things:

1. Pick ONE niche market
2. Pick ONE product from that market
3. Use just that one niche product as your testing ground, in order to solidify your skills as an affiliate marketer.

You see, its a lot like learning to ride a bicycle as a kid. You start off with a tricycle, then move up to regular bike with training wheels and from there onto riding any bike you choose.

The same is true for learning how to promote products as an affiliate.

*Learn how to generate traffic on just one product
*Learn how to capture subscribers to your opt-in list for just one product
*Learn how to write advertisements and promotional copy for just one product
*Learn how to track your advertising links and conversion rates for just that one product....

http://tinyurl.com/2juuel

....and THEN, you'll be able to turn around and apply that knowledge to additional products, in different niches.

The key is to get some real results established in one place, and only then start building on that incrementally.

If you'll follow even just this one simple rule, I promise you'll see an increase in your commissions - and you can drop that 'newbie' label for the title of: Successful Affiliate Marketer!

Saturday, May 05, 2007

You may want to use this letter to encourage upgrades to EA

I have the BOLD text below as my New Affiliate Greeting. My downline affiliates who haven't upgraded to Executive Affiliate also get a slightly revised version.

Enter your own personalized affiliate greeting at the SFIMG Affiliate Center, go to My Account - Miscellaneous Account Options - My New Affiliate Greeting

You'll need to modify your letter copy if you're not a Team Leader. And of course, replace [Your Name] with your name at the top and bottom. The SUMMARY in italics at the bottom, may be kept with the letter, or not, as you prefer.

By the way, if you're not an EA yet - WHY NOT?
Don't you want to be rich?

Hi New Affiliate,
Welcome to SFI!

My name is [Your Name].
I'm an Executive Affiliate (EA) and Team Leader (TL) in SFI.
And I'm absolutely delighted that you're now on my SFI team!

As your SFI sponsor, I'm here to help you get off to a fast and profitable start.
My success is tied directly to yours,
so feel free to contact me to assist you with anything, anytime.

The purpose of this message is to give you some really great news!
And also to tell you a little bit about why I'm in SFI
so that you'll understand how you too will benefit, like me, by being in SFI.

Here are 4 of my reasons.
> SFI is a good honest company.
> I want to use SFI to make a good income.
> SFI gives me all I need to make becoming rich possible.
> SFI's founder, Gery Carson, can be trusted to deliver these things.

Now then...
I already know a couple of things about you.
You're not an Executive Affiliate in SFI... yet.
And, like me, I'm sure you want to become as rich as possible.

So, here's your good news.
I know how to quickly make us both rich with SFI.
And I have an excellent plan which will do just that.

The plan is below, right here in this letter.
I call it "3 Steps To Riches".
It's my recommendation, a path for you to follow,
based on my experience having found out what works with SFI.

In a word, it's DUPLICATION.

1) Become an Executive Affiliate, like me... preferably TODAY!

Why...?
Because being, and staying, EA locks you into SFI's companywide Powerline
where you'll earn regular Executive Bonuses, a real live paycheck each month.
What you'll earn with this bonus is based on company earnings.
When SFI grows, your income grows with SFI!

*A single retail sale or a single purchase of SFI's products can make you EA.

2) Sponsor new affiliates... hopefully DAILY!

Why...?
Because here you build your team and earn the more lucrative bonuses - Executive Matches and Team Matches.
This income can be bigger and better because your teamwork will make it so.
As your team succeeds you succeed along with them!

*Showing your free SFI websites to people can produce sponsored affiliates for you.

3) Send this same letter I've sent you to all your affiliates who aren't yet EA... I recommend REGULARLY!

Why...?
Because Self-Discipline, Followup, Persistence, Duplication, and Teamwork
are what WILL make you a winner with SFI.
No one wants to be a loser.
SFI makes it possible, likely, and very easy for you to win, even win big!
SFI will indeed help YOU finally become the winner you've always wanted to be!

*People often need to see your offer several times before they can confidently respond.

That's it!
That's the plan!
It's as simple as 1, 2, 3!

A MAJOR HINT!
If you'll show your sponsored affiliates your personalized version of this letter and plan,
over and over again,
they'll eventually understand how they, too, can easily and quickly become rich with SFI!

===> Important <<<===

This plan is believable. It is not hype!
This plan has been tested, and it really does work!
This plan will work for you... but only IF you will execute the plan!

You must be EA, and stay EA, just like me, if you hope to become rich in SFI!
You can be EA by either selling or buying SFI's products monthly.
You will be EA sooner or later, guaranteed, so why wait?

For best results and most benefits, I suggest that you... BECOME EA NOW!

If you'll upgrade to Executive Affiliate, here's what I'll do for you.

If you need help sponsoring people into SFI,
marketing any of the fine SFI products,
or advertising your SFI websites,
that help will be yours!
Please let me know.

EXTRA Help Is Available, TOO!
What else can I do to aid you with your new SFI business?

Are there any questions I can answer for you?
Is there anything I can clarify for you about the SFI Powerline program?

Have you been to SFI's extremely valuable Discussion Board
where you'll find much more information freely provided by other affiliates?

If there's anything at all that I can assist you with, please, don't hesitate to ask... anytime.

Bottom line - I'm here to do what I can to ensure your success in SFI.
SFI and I will help you build a profitable, worldwide Internet business.

MORE Good News for YOU!
Become a Team Leader in SFI by sponsoring only 5 Executive Affiliates.
Achieving the TL level positions you to earn the biggest money SFI offers.

That's about it. But there's just one more thing I'd like you know.
You may wonder how I maintain my personal Executive Affiliate status.

I have a monthly Standing Order for IAHBE.
(IAHBE is a subscription to SFI's International Association of Home Business Entrepreneurs).

See http://www.iahbe.org/.

Why do I buy IAHBE?
IAHBE is online (no shipping and handling) and accessible worldwide.
IAHBE makes it easy and fun for me to operate my SFI business.
IAHBE is worth at least 100 times it's expense in value to me.
IAHBE costs me only $29.95 a month, less than $1 a day.
IAHBE gives me the 10 SVP monthly I need to stay EA.

IAHBE was my first choice to be EA because I wanted to become rich with SFI, fast.
And many of SFI's top Executive Affiliates and Team Leaders agree.

OK, that's enough about me... now how about you?

Are you ready and willing to follow this plan?
So that we both can become rich?
I certainly do hope so!

Remember these 3 important things.
> Be EA - Simply retail or buy SFI's products each month.
> Become a Team Leader - Simply sponsor 5 Executive Affiliates.
> Make big money with SFI - Simply create a team that does as you do.

Are you willing to do what I've done?
You can easily and inexpensively do exactly what I do and teach what I'm teaching you.
Just follow my example, and use "3 Steps To Riches".
It's all you need do to be a success with SFI.

So...

Will you execute my plan?
Will you do what it takes for you to be EA
so that you can obtain wealth with SFI... just like me?

RIGHT THIS MINUTE...??

Or will you continue just barely getting by, by not becoming EA?

OK, it's time for you to decide - the next move is yours!


Join SFI's Top Earners... Go EXECUTIVE!
Click on the link below or place it in your browser.
http://www.sfimg.com/EA/


SUMMARY:
1) Become EA yourself... right away.
2) Sponsor new affiliates as often as you can.
3) Encourage as many of your sponsored affiliates as you can
to become EA like you as soon as possible, assisted by SFI, as
often as it takes for the few go-getters, the best ones you can
identify and help support, to understand what to do and do it.

Then repeat 1-3 each month, and advise them to repeat each month.
Nothing hard about it. No personal websites needed. It's free, or can be.

You can become rich as you want simply by doing steps 1-3,
but you and your team must do every step, over and over again,
or in other words, everyone must do his/her part
to do a little easy work for SFI before SFI will reward you with commission.

If you don't do your part, don't expect to earn anything from SFI.

But by doing your part, using the 3-Step Plan,
SFI will reward you and your team handsomely
for your efforts, your sales, and your teamwork!

With DUPLICATION... it's quick, easy, and fun!

Till next time.

Your sponsor in SFI,

[Your Name]

P.S. HERE'S Another Major HINT!

Try replacement buying.
Here's what I mean by that.

SFI products are of such high quality that
you might find it better to buy from your own SFI Store.
Find something you now get elsewhere and use frequently, and then consider getting it instead from SFI.

Thus, you'll have no extra out-of-pocket expense to be EA each month!
Neat, huh? You can be EA for FREE!
And you'll quite likely save money doing it too!

SFI's Earnings Calculator will show you the amount of money you can
earn by being EA and sponsoring EAs, from now on.
Login to the SFI Affiliate Center, then use this link for SFI's Earnings Calculator.

https://www.sfimg.com/PopUp/earnings_calculator.jsp/

Logon to the SFI Affiliate Center, then use this link for Success with SFI... "as simple as 1,2,3!"

https://www.sfimg.com/Reference/StepsForSuccess.sfi/

You can do it... just like I am. And I'll help you!

If each of us does just a little work each month,
in other words...
===>>> Use the Extremely Simple and Easily Applied 3-Step Plan, <<<===
to do your part,
then I can confidently predict,
we as a team WILL make very good money with SFI.

Finally a quote from Gery Carson, Founder and President of SFI:
"As for the comp plan, you simply have to be a TL. Period.
This keeps the comp plan clean, simple, and puts the big money within reach of every affiliate."

Visit the SFI Discussion Board
http://www.sfidboard.com/index.php?/
for an almost unbelievable amount of Fabulous FREE Information!

Here's to you and me getting rich with SFI... soon!

Remember, so that they'll eventually come to understand how SFI works,
and so that they and YOU will make BIG money in your new business,
ensure that affiliates you sponsor see this message regularly!

Q: I don't feel my sponsor is properly supporting me. Can I be provided with a new sponsor?

Q: I don't feel my sponsor is properly supporting me. Can I be provided with a new sponsor?

A: If you don't like your sponsor, you can opt of SFI for six months and rejoin under any SFI affiliate of your choosing. However, even without factoring in losing six months of productivity, it's a bad decision in my opinion. I say this because I believe focusing on what your sponsor does or doesn't do is completely irrelevant to your success.

Before I started SFI, I was extremely successful for many years as a distributor in several network marketing companies. I built groups numbering in the many tens of thousands—generating millions of dollars in sales. I was wildly successful, yet I essentially never heard from my sponsors or received any upline assistance. I knew what I wanted to do, and I went out and did it. I didn't need a sponsor to succeed...and neither do you!

A good sponsor should be looked upon as "icing on the cake" ONLY. That is, if you're fortunate enough to have chosen a sponsor who supports you to your satisfaction, that's great. On the other hand, if you're not completely satisfied with the support your sponsor provides, that's okay, too, because whatever success you achieve is always going to come down to what YOU do and no one else.

As most longtime SFI affiliates know, one of my guiding mottos has always been, "If it's to be, it's up to me." NEVER, EVER allow yourself to think your sponsor, other upline members, or anyone else controls what level of success you achieve. Blaming anyone else for your lack of success is a defeatist attitude that will keep you from ever achieving your dreams. YOU and YOU ALONE are responsible for your success! Don't' ever forget that!

Now that you understand that, let's look at this from another angle: What do you expect your sponsor to do for you? He or she can't magically turn you into a success (that's up to you, as I've explained above). What a sponsor CAN and SHOULD do, however, is help you with your concerns, help you get your questions answered, etc.

Hopefully, your sponsor is providing this service. If not, however, you're FAR from being left out in the cold. You can go to your upline Team Leaders. You have up to six of them listed at:

https://www.sfimg.com/MyAccount/upline.sfi

There's also the SFI "DBoard" (www.sfidboard.com).The DBoard is like having a hundred sponsors! Indeed, the DBoard is a place where thousands of experienced moderators and fellow SFI affiliates gather to discuss SFI topics and help each other with problems, questions, and concerns. You can get help 24 hours a day from the DBoard by simply posting a question.

Finally, there's SFI corporate support. Our staff stands ready to help you with any problem or question you have. Just e-mail us at support@sfimg.com and you will receive an reply, usually within one to two business days.
Q: OK, I see now how I don't actually need a good sponsor, but can't SFI make my sponsor answer my e-mails or at least penalize him for being non-supportive?

That's a very loaded question! First of all, realize that all SFI affiliates are INDEPENDENT representatives. They are not employees. Just as we can't force you to answer your e-mails, we can't force your sponsor or anyone else to do it either.

The vast majority of affiliates DO answer their e-mails because, of course, that's how you build a profitable organization. Beyond putting that incentive out there, however, there's not much else we can do, particularly because we have NO WAY of knowing the status of your or their e-mails.

That is, because of misconfigured spam filters, millions of legitimate e-mails every day are not delivered or are routed to "junk" folders where they're never seen. The fact is, your sponsor may not be receiving the e-mails you send him or her. Or, he or she may be receiving them and replying to them, but your ISP is not delivering or junking the e-mails.

There's NO WAY we can know exactly what is occurring. There's no way to determine if it's your sponsor who is not responding to your e-mails, of if your sponsor's ISP, or your ISP is dropping the ball.

Because this cannot be known, punishment for "non-support" just doesn't work. If we suddenly cut off your check because someone in your downline reported that they had e-mailed you and didn't hear back from you, you'd likely be very upset. You'd probably think a lawsuit was in order in fact. Especially if you actually DID respond but through no fault of your own the e-mails never got delivered.

Now, all that said, there IS something coming to SFI that will change this dynamic. It's called "A2A" and is our new Web-based messaging system that will allow messaging between upline and downline members.

A2A, which stands for "Affiliate To Affiliate" will also allow you to send messages back and forth with ANY affiliate in SFI. This will be particularly valuable because you can precisely select affiliates. You will be able to directly communicate with affiliates in your country, for example...or, of same gender and age...or, choose affiliates who joined SFI the same time you did...and so on.

In regards to your sponsor, however, A2A will provide SFI for the first time with the ability to know if a sponsor is not responding to requests from downline members. This is because A2A operates 100% on our servers. There are no outside ISPs used. When you send a message to your sponsor using A2A, we'll know it was sent and delivered. We'll know if your sponsor responded, and we'll be able to take the appropriate actions if not.