Book Summary: "Zapp! The Lightning of Empowerment" by William C Byham

Zapp! is not a recent book. In fact, it was written 21 years ago. But its concepts about employee empowerment hold up very well in today's challenging work environment.

Employee motivation is often a difficult idea to truly grasp, yet alone to influence and leverage. Yet, if companies are to continuously improve, as is necessary for survival and success, everyone in the organization needs to be engaged. Byham writes that people with this engagement (those who are "zapped") have "responsibility, a sense of ownership, satisfaction in accomplishments, power over what and how things are done, recognition for their ideas, and the knowledge that they're important to the organization." It is important to understand that this engagement in constant improvement can not be imposed or forced on employees (termed being "sapped"); it is only fully achieved by empowering them.

Do these characteristics describe your workplace?

- Management talks about doing a better job and only gets blank stares in return.

- Hardly anyone get excited about work and everybody does just enough to get by.

- Whenever management tries to motivate employees, the results are mixed and short-lived.

- The general attitude is: Don't do anything you don't have to do. Then do as little as possible.

- Nobody cares about improvements; they're all afraid of change.

If so, then your employees need to be "zapped." Zapp is a force that energizes people.

Have some of these techniques and "programs" been tried in your organization?

- Pep talks

- Job enrichment

- Quality circles and work teams

- Suggestion systems

- Participative management

- More training

- And lots of other programs

If so, then your employees need to be "zapped." Zapp is a key to success for new ideas and programs. Zapp is the giving of power, while Sapp is the taking of power.

There are three steps of Zapp:

1st Step of Zapp: Maintain Self-Esteem. Help employees feel confident and satisfied in the work they do.

2nd Step of Zapp: Listen and Respond with Empathy. Understand their needs and concerns, and don't assume that you know what they are.

3rd Step of Zapp: Ask for Help Solving Problems. Involve your employees in solutions. Seek ideas, suggestions, and information.

And the three steps lead to the Soul of Zapp: Offer Help without Taking Responsibility. Managers need to be there for their employees, being supportive and providing encouragement and help, but without taking the employees' work on themselves or micro-managing them.

For Zapp to work, people need:

1. Direction, consisting of key result areas (the directions we want to go), measurements (ways we know we are moving in the right direction), and goals (something to tell us if we're there yet).

2. Knowledge, including job skills, training, information, and specific goals.

3. Resources, such as tools, materials, facilities, and money.

4. Support, including approval, coaching, constant feedback, and encouragement.

It's easy to "sapp" people. But having Zapped! employees is difficult: it takes time, energy and a belief that the organization is only as good as its people. If you truly desire continuous improvement and the opportunity to reach your loftiest goals, your organization needs to get Zapped!

JFD Performance Solutions (http://www.jfdperfsolutions.com/)
As a business coaching and consulting firm, we specialize in helping individuals to reach more of their potential, companies to achieve greater results, and teams to work better together. We help our clients implement sustainable change and be more successful.

View the original article here

Book Summary: "Choosing to Cheat: Who Wins When Family and Work Collide", by Andy Stanley

With such an intriguing title, I quickly accepted this book from Lyn Adams, my friend and financial advisor. Choosing to Cheat is about establishing priorities, making choices, and work-life balance...with an intended bias toward the life side. As the founding pastor of North Point Community Church in Atlanta, Georgia, the author uses his religious beliefs and the teachings of the Bible to help explain and support his message. He writes that both family and work are vital parts of our lives, but that you can't absolutely choose one over the other. Therefore, you can only find true contentment when you align your priorities between the two.

For the author, "choosing to cheat" refers to "the decision to give up one thing in order to gain something else." Using this definition, everybody cheats and by extension, everyone gets cheated. The challenge is to "cheat" without making people feel cheated. But this isn't about being deceitful; cheating at work has nothing to do with cheating your employer. It's about "reallocating your limited time according to your predetermined priorities". Openly discuss your desires and your difficulties balancing life and work, and figure out a way for your family, friends, employer and co-workers to not feel cheated.

Since more than anything else, your work and your family define your sense of identity, a collision between the two is only natural. The issue, the author states, is that there is just not enough time in the day to give all that is required and to get everything done at both work and home. Therefore, we often run from "fire to fire, troubleshooting our way through life." But that's no way to live. You do your job and you love your family. If we reverse the order (do you live to work or work to live?) then tensions escalate and a tug-of-war ensues.

When you choose work over family, you send the message that work is more important. There may be seemingly valid reasons for this choice, and you may believe that your family understands, but you don't really know unless you are openly discussing it with them and frequently gauging their feelings. If you don't, then small problems could grow into large ones. Your primary role and concern should be for your family. Stanley writes that you are expendable at work (everyone is, really) but you're not expendable at home. Only you can be the mother, father, wife, husband. You have this unique role and responsibility.

So how do you go about balancing life and work? The author suggests that, first, you make a decision to quit cheating at home. Unless you decide to do this and commit yourself, nothing is going to change. Making up your mind to change provides you with momentum and focus. Second, be specific about what you want to achieve: the results that you desire. Ask your family, for example, what schedule changes they would love to see you make. This leads to the next point which is to involve others. Don't go about this on your own. Talk to your family. Speak with your boss. Be flexible, not demanding, Provide options, not ultimatums. Be willing to test and try different changes to see what works best. But address the issue directly; otherwise your results won't be all that you want.

Making difficult choices forces prioritization and prioritization can drive better performance in those preferred areas. The author suggests a Thirty-Day Challenge to improving your work-life balance, and offers a study guide to help with the materials in his book. So if you're looking to make a change in how you "cheat", give this book a read.

JFD Performance Solutions (http://www.jfdperfsolutions.com/)
As a business coaching and consulting firm, we specialize in helping individuals to reach more of their potential, companies to achieve greater results, and teams to work better together. We help our clients implement sustainable change and be more successful.

View the original article here

Book Summary of "The No Complaining Rule" by Jon Gordon

The No Complaining Rule is based on the premise that, when it comes to building a positive work environment, there are much more subtle and far more dangerous problems than "jerks" (these are people who are easily identified and should be dealt with quickly). The far more dangerous employees are those whose negativity is less obvious...growing and spreading largely unnoticed.

Complaining is a common form of this negativity and comes from people that the author terms "energy vampires" who spread negativity, adversely affecting morale and job performance. However, the author's goals for this book are not to eliminate all complaining, merely mindless, chronic complaining and to turn justified complaints into positive solutions. The outcome would be to leverage the positive effects of being positive and minimize the harmful effects of being negative.

Poor communication and lack of information, common problems in business, sow a ripe field for negativity. And where there is a void, negativity will typically fill it. It's human nature to worry, assume the worst and act accordingly. Thus negativity and complaining frequently result. The author quotes some research regarding the cost and impact of negativity:

Negativity costs the U.S. economy between $250 and $300 billion every year in lost productivity (The Gallup Organization)Ninety percent of doctor visits are stress related (the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)The #1 cause of office stress is coworkers and their complaining (Truejobs.com)Negative emotions are associated with: Decreased life span and longevityIncreased risk of heart attackIncreased risk of strokeGreater stressLess energyMore painFewer friendsLess success

Complaining is easy to do and often makes us feel better. Many psychologists even say that it is healthy to vent - a common form of complaining - but they're wrong! Complaining is often merely an outlet for negative thoughts and attitudes...destructive to ourselves and annoying to those around us. Football coach Lou Holtz captured it simply when he said, "Don't complain. Eighty percent of the people you complain to don't care and 20 percent are glad you have problems."

The book states that the two main reasons people complain are 1) because they are fearful and helpless and 2) because it has become a habit. But, as we know, changing habits isn't easy. And regarding changing bad habits, someone once said that "What we need the most we resist the most." In this parable, to decrease negativity and help diminish the harmful effects of complaining, the company implemented a "no complaining rule" whereby employees were not allowed to mindlessly complain to their coworkers. If they had a problem or complaint, they were encouraged to take the issue to their manager or someone in a position to address it. However, as a requirement of the process, the employee also had to share one or two possible solutions to their complaint. Thus, when someone did have a complaint, the company looked to use it to their advantage, as a catalyst for positive change and not merely as a release of negative energy.

Gordon writes that "Positive energy flows from the top down in most organizations, and the best way to deal with negativity is to create a positive culture where it can't breed, grow and survive. Otherwise you spend all your time fighting negativity rather than cultivating a positive culture." Need something to do instead of complain? Gordon offers some alternatives such as practicing gratitude, praising others, focusing on success, and letting go of what you don't have the power to change.

Abraham Lincoln once said, "A man is about as happy as he chooses to be"...and drastically reducing mindless complaining can have a tremendously positive impact on your happiness, your morale and your job performance. So give it a try: forbid yourself from negativity and mindless complaining for a whole day and see how you do. Then share the exercise with your family, friends and colleagues.

JFD Performance Solutions (http://www.jfdperfsolutions.com/)

As a business coaching and consulting firm, we specialize in helping individuals to reach more of their potential, companies to achieve greater results, and teams to work better together. We help our clients implement sustainable change and be more successful.

View the original article here

Free Book Summary - How to Be a Billionaire Written by Martin S Fridson

How to Be a Billionaire - Proven Strategies from the Titans of Wealth- Written by Martin S. Fridson

This book looks at the titans of wealth. It was published in 2000 so you won't see some of the new money from Google and Facebook in here but the principles are the same. Whenever you can leverage thoughts from such an elite group of people, it is worth it to take the time to study it.

Quick useless trivia stats to put in perspective how much a million, billion and trillion really are - If you were to count that amount of money and assume that you count $1 dollar every second then here is how it works out:

1. It would take you 12 days to count $1,000,000 dollars.

2. It would take you 32 years to count $1,000,000,000 dollars.

3. It would take you over 32,000 years to count $1,000,000,000,000 dollars.

Let's not even discuss the U.S. debt. I guess we should make all the politicians sit in the room and count until they hit it. It may be a more productive use of their time since they get so much done now!

Why is this important to me? This book may not be important to you for good reasons. It takes huge sacrifice to become a billionaire. These titans of wealth are the elite of money making humanity. This takes work. If you think of the best professional athletes then you will understand the dedication it really takes. Muhammad Ali started boxing at 10 years old and practiced his whole life. Boxing was his life's passion and it took that type of dedication to be the best. He did not just step in the ring one day and become the best. It took him years of self-sacrifice, dedication and sweat equity to get it done. The same is true for all the Billionaires profiled in this book. On the other hand, there is great knowledge to be used if your goals are big but maybe not that big. Let's say you want a more balanced life then you can still use these principles to make a ton of money and garner security and the good things that money can buy without pouring all of your time in the endeavor. The principles you will see in this book take OPM, OPE and OPT to the extremes. I have talked about these concepts in other summaries. It is interesting how you see the same principles pop up in profiling success.

This book is packed with 9 principles used by different people to become billionaires. You may or may not agree but the data is conclusive on their success. I will touch on all of them but dig into the top 3 in more detail

1. Take Monumental Risks- "Fortune assists the brave" - H.L Hunt and John Kluge bankrolled their fortunes at the poker table. These men learned more about deals and money gambling then they did in traditional university. John borrowed $5000 from the bank and only used $1000 of it and then sold the business for $500,000. When he told the bank, the comment was "that is some leverage" - He asked - What is leverage? Years later he was sorry he asked. He amassed his fortune in Radio and LBO's (Leveraged Buyouts)

2. Do business in a new way - Sam Walton and Ross Perot both saw weaknesses in the market that they exploited. They built a culture of execution and market dominance. Wal-Mart may be the first company in history to generate $1 Trillion in revenue. This will summarize everything - According to Ross Perot - "The first EDSER to see a snake kills it. At GM, first thing you do is organize a committee on snakes. Then you bring in a consultant who knows a lot about snakes......Then you talk about if for one year." This is why Perot left GM after selling EDS to them.

3. Dominate your market - John D. Rockefeller and Bill Gates. Both were highly successful and dominated everything they touched. Both men created enemies and people ALWAYS questioned their tactics. With that aside you can't deny what they accomplished. They played to win. The story of Microsoft is one of shear dominance in the market. Gates exploited a whole and created an entire industry out of thin air. People questioned that Monopoly power that Microsoft had and they would be correct in pointing it out. This should be a goal of any entrepreneur - CONTROL YOUR MARKET. If you cannot be in the top 3 in your market then you need to get out of it. Gates lead Microsoft with razor sharp focus and expected the best. He leveraged his strength to branch into other profitable software markets. He read the encyclopedia cover to cover by age 11. You cannot deny his intellect.

4. Consolidate a market - This strategy does create billions of dollars but you need to be careful because most market rollups end in disaster. Read Billion Dollar Lessons. When you do it right like Wayne Huizenga of Waste Management then you create Billion dollar companies and market capitalizations. The key here is if you have two average companies and meld them together then you have one big average. This is not the way to do it. You have to execute and drive a culture of innovation to succeed with this method.

5. Buy Low - Warren Buffett, Carl Icahn, Lawrence Tisch and J. Paul Getty all used this strategy to amass fortune. Warren Buffet always wants to buy $1 and pay 50 cents. This is one secret to his magical fortune. When you dig in you will see he uses the right instruments to do this. He uses Insurance companies to buy whole or controlling interests in companies. This is brilliant because he can use the "Float" or OPM, the tax advantages of the entity and sound financial leverage. How can the little guy use these principles? I recommend checking out my summaries of Robert Kiyosaki's books. He talks about the same concepts but more in tune for the little guys.

6. Thrive on Deals - This is simply love of the game. You see this all the time when you study these billionaire magnets. The key is execution and the ones that are successful do not do deals for the deals sake. This is for all the other idiots that you can read about in the book summary Billion Dollar Lessons.

7. Out manage the competition - First and foremost, hire the right people. Be diligent at doing this. Microsoft used to take out ads that said - "We recruit the best and brightest only." They would give them difficult problems in the interview and tell them "Solve it". They ripped them to pieces before they hired them. This set the tone for the people that did get hired and they made no mistake about the culture. Sam Walton and Richard Branson also use positive reinforcement and entrusting people with a lot responsibility to out manage the competition.

These last two I will not spend any time on because for the other 95% of us we cannot do this and it clouds the game regardless

How to be a billionaire is a simple road map to how the titans of business use certain strategies to amass fortunes. There is nothing better than investing a couple of hours and sucking out the knowledge of 300 man years of billionaire knowledge. This is, in my humble opinion, the best way to use leverage. That is OPE - leverage other people's expertise and use it for your own gain and to better society.

I hope you have found this short video summary useful. The key to any new idea is to work it into your daily routine until it becomes habit. Habits form in as little as 21 days.

One thing you can take away from this book is to buy low. This is probably the easiest thing to do. Invest the same way you buy groceries and good things will happen. One really good deal can have big effects.

I was really lucky in my business; we merged with a company that was going to be dissolved by a much bigger entity. We picked up the company for pennies and added to our team 3 professionals that will enhance us 10 fold. Be patient and keep your eyes open. "Luck favors the prepared mind."

Joe Mosed invites you to subscribe to http://www.successprogress.com/ to receive free video book summaries. Our vision at Success Progress is to provide relevant & meaningful content to our user community. To view the video summary of this article please visit http://www.successprogress.com/videos/billionaire

(c) Copyright - Joe Mosed / Success Progress All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

View the original article here

Free Book Summary: How to Buy and Sell a Business By Garrett Sutton

This book is part of the Rich Dad Advisor family. This is a HOW TO: on Buying and Selling a Business. As part of the Rich Dad philosophy the goal is to create wealth. One excellent way to do that is through a business. Business's, by far have the most potential for wealth creation than any other means. Once your business is successful then you can hold your money in Real Estate. Garrett dives into more details and I will share my personal stories of success and ass chaffing's as well.

Why is this important to me? As you may know, I ask this question as if I am sitting in your shoes. Am I investing my time in learning or burning 6 minutes on crap? So with that enlightening philosophy here is why this book is important.

1. Businesses create wealth - Have you ever heard of Domino's Pizza? The original founder of that company was an orphan by the name of Tom Monahan. The legacy continues with Domino's being in every major country in the world. The amount of wealth and economic value created is vast.

2. Businesses fail - You need to get educated on real world pitfalls because the odds are against you when you start a business from scratch. 90% of Businesses fail in the first 5 years and 90% of the 10% fail in the next 5 years. Without financial education, you will get your ass kicked.

Why Buy a Business?
1. Cash Flow - A successful business generates monthly cash flow. As you know, cash flow is everything. Think about blood in your body. When it stops flowing, you die. The same holds true in business. Strong cash flow allows you to compound the business value and create more growth.

2. OPM - There is nothing better than creating an infinite return. When you sell something for $100,000 and make a big profit that is great but when your customer sees a $500,000 savings from your offering that is even better.

3. OPE /OPT- Usually when you start out in business, it is in the S - Quadrant of the cash flow quadrant. This means you have effectively created yourself a job. Where the real growth comes in is when you can recruit and lead people behind your cause. Once that happens then you learn to multiply your companies effectiveness because you are leveraging OPE & OPT (Other people's expertise and time)

4. Tax Advantaged - With a business, you are able to generate income, pay all your expenses and then pay your taxes. The government sets it up this way because they know that business is the key to a successful economy. If you are an employee then you generate income, pay your taxes and then pay your expenses. There is at least a 30% difference in the two approaches. That is a big compound deal over time.

As you can see, a business affords many benefits. I will highlight some of the tools that Garrett outlines in the book and then go off on a tangent and talk about different business ideas and why some businesses are much better than others.

How to Buy and Sell a Business is packed with great information. This really is a HOW TO so I suggest you read it if you are buying or selling a company. For the sake of time, I will touch on three areas.

1. Team- Your team and the depth of your bench will dictate your success. Do not be pennywise and pound foolish with stuff. You need a good CPA, Lawyer and coach. If you look at the best football teams, they have strength, endurance and tactical coaches for every position on the field. They have to work together to win the Super Bowl. The organization with the best TEAM will always achieve more than the one super star with an army of pawns. Think of TEAM as TOGETHER EVERYONE ACHIEVES MORE.

2. Agreements- These are very important when buying and selling a business. Things like NDA's, Confidentiality and NON-COMPETITION agreements are critical in the evaluation stages of any business venture. Once a deal is in progress then you want to be familiar with Asset Purchase Agreements, Stock Buy Back agreements and Consulting Agreements. These all make a difference on how you structure the deal and affect taxes for both parties. Another detail you want when you BUY a business is a performance clause. I purchased a company and looked at the maintenance revenue and offered a fair price. Come to find out the person I was dealing with was not honest with the numbers. In the first three months, half the revenue was NOT realized and because I did NOT put a performance clause in the agreement, I received everything but the kiss. Needless to say I had to bust my ass to break even on the deal and then grow it.

One bad deal like this can cause a ton of stress and problems so GET EDUCATED!!!!!! I rather have you learn from my mistakes instead of making them.

3. Financials- These are a business's report card. You need to be able to read financial statements and dig into the areas and ask a TON of questions. This is important because financial shenanigans can be hidden really well in a pretty financial statement. Cases in point, Enron, Tyco, WorldCom and I.O.U.S.A!!!!

There are different types of businesses and some are stronger than others. Warren Buffett is a big believer in easy businesses. He rather have a great business that can succeed with average management then a really hard business that needs a magician to make it work. This is why he invests in food companies like SEES Candy and Dairy Queen and NOT in car companies like GM. There are two differentiators here. One is moat which is competitive advantage and the other is capital investment. Every other year, car companies have to plow all their investment into the next car model. Dairy Queen simply needs to invest in more cash producing assets or give the money to their owners. If you are looking to go into business, spend some time on business types. I will profile more of these in future tutorials.

Real World Examples

1. If you hate paying too much for something then you will hate my two stories. There is an old saying in poker that if you don't know who the idiot at the table is then you are the idiot. Well in two cases, I really screwed up in purchasing businesses. The first business I purchased was 15 years ago (I am still paying it.) The mistakes I made here were several:

1. I did not get a real valuation of the company.
2. I had no idea how to read financial statements.
3. There was a real estate component to the deal and I did not value that.
4. I was way too excited to get the deal done - emotional bliss can lead to intellectual bankruptcy.
5. I was the tuna negotiating with sharks. All of these things were my fault. My second fiasco was the deal I talked about earlier where I did not put a performance clause in the contract. This was a huge debacle. These were my two highlighted DUMB ASS moments. They were both MY FAULT!!!!

2. I never like to end a review on a bad note so I will profile some good stuff. I purchased an IP (Intellectual Property) company for 10% of revenue. This is unheard of in the software world. This deal came out of the blue and the team we acquired is excellent. The lesson here is that if you are looking to buy a company, call on really large companies that are spinning off divisions. The best deals I have ever gotten are from big publicly traded companies that need to get assets off the books at the end of a quarter. I have done this twice and it is like buying dollars for $.10 cents. Think about it. If you have a company that does a billion dollars in revenue, do they care if they sell a company for $50,000 or $200,000? Not really, this does not even make a blip on their financial statements. If I can impart any advice, it would be to look for these types of opportunities. These can make you feel like a Magnificent Genius but real world business has a way of punching you right I the forehead so never keep your head in the clouds.

There is a ton of great resources in Garrett's book. I recommend highly the Appendix sections if you are buying or selling your business. Another key differentiators as well would be to approach a big company. The amount of money you will pay or receive is night and day. If somebody wants me to buy their business, I am going to negotiate hard on the price but if they go to a large company, an extra zero means nothing to them. Keep this in mind.

I hope you have found this short video summary useful. The key to any new idea is to work it into your daily routine until it becomes habit. Habits form in as little as 21 days. One thing you can take away from this book is ask questions. This is probably the best advice because the area the book covers generates questions. Also, trust your gut. If something seems to go to be true then it is.

Joe Mosed invites you to subscribe to http://www.successprogress.com/ to receive free video book summaries. Our vision at Success Progress is to provide relevant & meaningful content to our user community. To view the video summary of this article please visit http://youtube.com/successprogress

(c) Copyright - Joe Mosed / Success Progress All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

View the original article here

Review of Make Every Second Count by Robert W Bly

You must be thinking, "Not another time management book." Yes, I know how you feel.

A few months ago I received an email asking for permission to send me a copy of Make Every Second Count by Robert W. Bly. I said, "Sure" and gave my mailing address but did not pay any attention to who the author was. I shortly received the book and placed it in my stack of books to read, when I noticed that it was written by Robert W. Bly (Bob Bly). I know Bob Bly as a copywriter.

So what does Bob have to say in Make Every Second Count: Time Management Tips and Techniques for More Success With Less Stress? A lot actually, more that what you would expect in a time management book.

One of the things I've noticed with Bob Bly is that he structures his books, at least the ones I have read, in such a way that you can start at any point, and this book has 14 clearly titled chapters.
Chapter 1: Work Habits That Speed You UpChapter 2: Do You Really Want to Be ProductiveChapter 3: Goal-SettingChapter 4: Save Time and Money When You TravelChapter 5: The 10% Solution for Increased Personal EfficiencyChapter 6: Networking OnlineChapter 7: Using Technology to Save TimeChapter 8: Going MobileChapter 9: Delegation and OutsourcingChapter 10: Getting OrganizedChapter 11: Planning Systems and Software to Increase Your ProductivityChapter 12: Maximizing Your Personal EnergyChapter 13: Managing Information OverloadChapter 14: Saving Time at HomeThere were times while I was reading that I had adverse reactions to what Bly was saying, and had to take a step back, and remind myself that that's okay. My responsibility as a reader is to take in information, evaluate it, then decide if the information makes sense for me. And that's something that I recommend. I also have a responsibility to my readers to be honest in my feedback.

I'm sure that there are things that you will not like about the book, but the beauty is that because Bly has done such a great job in laying out the information, you can quickly find what you need.

What I liked about Make Every Second Count.

Bly uses a system where he has three to-do lists: Daily to-do, Projects to-do and Long-term to-do (This could be some personal projects that are important to you, but do not have a definite end date, so allocate a few hours a week working on them), which I think would be very helpful and allow you to carve out the time to do things that are meaningful to you, but will not necessarily earn money in the short term.

I found chapters 4, 5, 6, 7, 10 and 11 most useful. For instance, in Chapter 6, which is Networking Online there is a Networking Grid which would be a welcome to a social media strategy because it allows you to structure the actions you take. There are some helpful tips in the book on how increase personal efficiency, and I was delighted to see a section on how to think faster which uses the creativity model that we have discussed on this blog many times. And very timely, are great tips to deal with email overload.

He offered an example of setting up your folders on your computer, and though some may think that information is basic, I'm glad it was included because so much time can be wasted searching for files on a computer. There is also a very detailed chart, which includes productivity software so you can compare them and determine which is best suitable for your needs.

And for those who love to travel, Chapter 4 has some great tips. I discovered that in addition to Kayak.com, SideStep.com allows you to search multiple websites for deals on hotel, airline and car rental packages. CleverDude.com provides tips on how to get free airline upgrades.

Though I couldn't figure out why some historical information on mobile technology, and other were included, I recommend Make Every Second Count: Time Management Tips and Techniques for More Success With Less Stress but I suggest that you read only the chapters that would be useful to you. Despite my adverse reaction (I think that some of the time saving tips for home are a bit extreme, and takes out some of the joy out of life for people) to some of the content, I'm happy that I read Make Every Second Count because I picked up some tips that will increase my personal efficiency.

Avil Beckford, Chief Invisible Mentor, has over 17 years writing, research and analysis experience. If you enjoyed this article, please subscribe to The Invisible Mentor Blog by email or by RSS Feed.

View the original article here

62 Free Ways to Grow Your Business Profits by Jay Conrad Levinson

Jay Conrad Levinson is definitely a person you should listen to if you wish to get your business into good shape. And by good shape it is meant you will need to pay heed to his words if you want your business to be profitable. He has made the process quite simple. All you need to do is follow his 62 Free Ways to Grow Your Business Profits.

This series is found on 8 comprehensive audio CDs (Listing all 62 tips is going to require quite a bit of time!) and the organization of the material is impeccable. It would be next to impossible to absorb all of the information in a cursory listening. That means you will need to listen to the CDs a few times in order to properly absorb all the information present on the CDs. This time commitment is well worth it. After all, the end result would be the potential great enhancement of your business venture's profits.

A great deal of the information on the CDs entails marketing strategies. Yes, there are quite a number of books, DVDs, and CDs that cover marketing tips and strategies. Can anything new be brought to the table? Innovative and creative entrepreneurs always have something new to bring to the table. This becomes quite evident when you listen to the musings of Jay Conrad Levinson in 62 Free Ways to Grow Your Business Profits. His theories and tips are not rooted in academic study. They are rooted in effective personal experience intended to deliver the much needed results one seeks when looking to boost a business' success potential.

And success potential may increase when you listen to the 62 Free Ways to Grow Your Business Profits CD series. No, you will not gain any insight into how to make tons of money overnight. No credible educational resource will infer such an outcome. With this expansive work from Jay Conrad Levinson, you are treated to tested logical steps that can prove enormously helpful to entrepreneurs. Consider that a major reason why this CD set has become so wildly popular in self-help and marketing circles.

Some of the tips are so basic and simple you might be shocked to listen to some of them. Leaving business cards in strategic locations is one. Redesigning strategically placed post-it notes to look like UPS memos is another. Even running a contest in which a business solicits marketing advice from customers has been proven to deliver massive increases in profits! Again, these are all simple and basic tips and they do definitely deliver results provided they are put into action. This latter point bears repeating. Listening to the 62 Free Ways to Grow Your Business Profits by Jay Conrad Levinson is not enough. You have to do what you need to do to put such steps into action or else they are just words.

Jay Conrad Levinson has crafted a brilliant compact disk series. It is not all that difficult to maximize your profits when you follow these basic steps. So, give them a try!

Please visit The Personal Development Company if you would like to learn more about 62 Free Ways to Grow Your Business Profits by Jay Conrad Levinson

View the original article here