 Fact: you are capable of a lot more than you think you are capable of. I was driving around with my husband one weekend looking at plots of land and various properties.In addition, we drove to a few car dealerships and asked for quotes on cars. Whenever I liked something I said, I want that orI’m going to get that. Finally, after two days of hearing me say this so many times, my husband asks: with what money! I smiled and said, “You don’t ever need to worry about that. First, you decide what you want and then the money somehow finds you!” It sounds crazy, I know, but if I limited my heart’s desires based on the funds currently available I’d probably be nowhere right now. I’m sure I’ve written about this before but the first time I ever wanted something crazy, I wanted to go to The University of Cambridge. I told my friends what I wanted and only after I got in and got a scholarship to attend did some admit that they thought I was insane for wanting to go to this Cambridge place that many thought was unreachable.  When I had this desire I didn’t know where the money would come from, all I knew is that I had certain things in my control: hard work, achieving the best grades I could, getting the teachers to like me and back my application and if it came to it, begging whoever would listen for help and advice. I almost never thought of the money issue because that would have discouraged me and it was 100% out of my control. I focused exclusively on what was right in front me – the next A grade. In the end, I went to Cambridge. Since then there have been many triumphs and of course, a few failures or life lessons, as I like to call them. My latest fantasy moment occurred after I quit my job and realized I didn’t want a service business coaching people on how to get into investment banking after all;what I wanted was a product business. Problem: I needed £80k to £100k($130k to 160k) to get it off the ground. Eek! Now, I could have written a business plan and tried to get investors to be honest, very few people (even friends and family) are willing to fund a business in a genre that they think is overcrowded like the hair industry – and pretty much every industry outside of technology. I had two solutions: Solution 1:start off small, sell things that will keep me earning and enjoying a lifestyle based on working from home. I did that and incurred some mocking but I didn’t care because my small business was earning enough to keep the bills paid. Okay, if we are being fully honest, I did get a little upset at some of the mockery. I’ll still never forget someone “laughing at me” me for selling wide-tooth combs on instagram – they made some comment about how desperate it was to be selling combs to earn a buck…whatevs, don’t worry hun bun, haters are always going to hate, just focus on your goals and yourdreams.  Solution 2:just focus ononestep at a time and hope that I’ll save enough by the time I was ready to hire a manufacturer. So…I hired a formulating company. Do you know how silly I felt walking into a meeting I’d arranged at an established factory as the 30-year-old CEO of Neno Natural to an audience of 3 people ALL over the age of 50 with a long career in formulating and producing beauty products? Very! To boost my confidence I was dressed well and I looked good in my makeup. I came out shining. They thought I was smart and they said the business I was proposing excited them above and beyond many other clients they were doing things for. Over the course of 12 months I paid for the formulation and as we approached the 15th month enough money appeared to enable an order. Some of my earlier investments paid off and I was able to pursue the dream. That’s life. If you set your mind on something, you will get it, I promise you. That stuff they tell you about self-belief making things happen? It isn’t just “stuff”, it’s for real! Anyhow, I’d love to carry on this discussion with you and help you realise your dreams, if you want to start a product business sign up to The Money Spot program. You can join for as little as £49.99/month or come to my upcoming workshop on How To Build A 6-Figure Product Business.  Want to Build a 6-Figure Beauty Business from the comfort of your sofa? Then my course is designed for YOU!
"Beauty" includes a WIDE range of products from the not so obvious non-perishable foods and crafts to the more obvious hair, makeup, fashion, health & fitness.
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 Too many people try to solve every problem they encounter by themselves. This is not only a waste of time but it’s completely unnecessary. I came up with this insight as I watched my 8-month old son trying to solve his problems. I noticed that every time he wanted to get to something, if there was an obstacle in his way he continually tried to climb over the obstacle or push through it when he could simply walk around the obstacle and avoid it entirely. One time, there was a ball behind me and he kept trying to squeeze through my legs when there was ample space to crawl on one side of me. Another time there were some cushions in his way, and yet, another time his little girlfriend Maya was in his way; she really didn’t appreciate having a 9 kg boy trying to climb over her. His problem solving skills are still in development, of course, but some people do exactly what he was doing throughout their lives.  Today’s tip is simple: Think about how you can avoid your problems. Instead of climbing over them, can you work around them? I’m not suggesting you take short cuts, no, I’m just saying the solution is sometimes a lot simpler than you think. If I’m struggling with an issue I refer it to my mastermind group. I have weekly mastermind calls with my entrepreneur friends and often, we problem solve together. There’s nothing like a fresh pair of eyes. Note that I don’t go to non-business friends to solve business problems; I only go to those of my friends that are in business because they are better equipped to give good business advice. I started my business in 2012 and it took about two years to build a good quality, credible network of friends. If you wanting to accelerate the growth of your product business with my coaching program, you can either join the online solution or come to my upcoming live workshop. Alternatively, call to discuss the best solution for you.  Want to Build a 6-Figure Beauty Business from the comfort of your sofa? Then my course is designed for YOU!
"Beauty" includes a WIDE range of products from the not so obvious non-perishable foods and crafts to the more obvious hair, makeup, fashion, health & fitness.  Your spending will always expand to match your income unless you specifically plan to live beneath your means. You can do this as a lifestyle choice or for short periods of time to save for something you really want. Shop around to save money on the things that you buy regularly – buy in bulk, get products where they are cheapest instead of just going to your favourite shop, use coupons and take advantage of discount days at local stores. However, there are some things that you can live without completely;that is the topic this blog. We get so used to buying what we always buy that we don’t usually stop to contemplate what’s necessary and what isn’t. To help you think through your own shopping list I’ll go through some things my friends and I cut back on to save: Rent You could live in a cheaper area and save thousands immediately. I did this when I first started work. I was spending almost half what my peers were on rent just by living a little further out of the city. Of course, many of us are unwilling to compromise here so we have to look at the small stuff. Juice! For what you get, it’s not cheap at all. I was having a chat with one of my best friends about cutting back and she said, “Can you believe it, we’ve even had to stop buying juice!” I was like, “You were still buying juice? I stopped buying juice ages ago because it contains way too many calories. I’ll only buy it if I have guests coming.” I also find juice to be poor value for money besides being completely unnecessary for the weight conscious. Juice packs in a lot more calories than one might suspect.  Restaurants We spend A LOT of money on eating out every month. I personally find it very hard to cut back because I think of it as a “treat” after a week of hard work. However, right now my husband and I have just spent a small fortune renovating a flat that we just bought so we’ll use that thought to spur us on during our financial fast in September. To stick to our resolve we add“treat foods” to our shopping list to encourage us to eat at home. For example, buying a frozen pizza that you just stick in the oven when you feel lazy is a lot cheaper than going out for pizza. We wouldn’t normally buy this type of food because it’s not healthy but it does the job of keeping us at home when we want to eat out. Meat News flash: you don’t have to eat meat every day. Some people would think this is unthinkable and perhaps an utterly ridiculous suggestion but it’s true. If your partner is against this suggestion remind them that desperate times call for desperate measures. You can also cut back by eating less meat rather than cutting it out completely. For instance, unless it’s a very small chicken I only ever eat one chicken piece, I find two to be excessive. If everyone in your home has two pieces your chicken will immediately last twice as long by enforcing a one-piece rule. The same goes for sausages and other meats. I normally cook minced meat with beans to bulk it up. Less meat means a heavier wallet and a more attractive waist line! You could go for offal aswell. Liver, oxtail and tongue are delicious. Body Products & Makeup There are so many options here. If you use a range of upmarket brands explore supermarket “equivalents” to see if they work just as well. You could save a tidy fortune here. Take a close look at what you tend to spend money and see what else you could do without. Magazines? New shoes or clothes? And so on. “Cut back on your rent or cut back on what you spend on food but never worry about investing money in a good book.” Robin S. Sharma  Want to Build a 6-Figure Beauty Business from the comfort of your sofa? Then my course is designed for YOU!
"Beauty" includes a WIDE range of products from the not so obvious non-perishable foods and crafts to the more obvious hair, makeup, fashion, health & fitness.  How often do you think about how you're going to live life in your 60s? Here are alternative outcomes. Living Off The Kiddies Some will reach the age of 60 without a single saving. You will depend on your kids for money, for food and perhaps even need them to house you somehow – if they are willing. For many this will not happen because life has been unkind to you, it will be the result of a series of bad choices such as having more children than you can afford to support and not saving enough. Be in no doubt that if you find yourself in this situation you will be a burden to your children. In the ideal world children don’t want to have to look after their parents financially and if they just earn enough to support their family will resent having to look after you because you didn’t plan for old age. Could this be you? POSSIBLE SCENARIOS Oh, This Isn't My House? Some will reach retirement age and realise that the bank or the company they work for owns “their” house and “their” car. It’s easy to forget such things when you are enjoying life but at this point you will be forced to either live off your children or invest your savings in a business. If you’re lucky you’ll find jobs in retirement or positions on boards of directors that provide an income whilst you make up for lost time on the investment front. Living Off The Rentals Some will reach the age of 60 with a tidy property portfolio. You will own the house you live in outright and you will have at least two rental properties. Your rental properties will produce enough money to cover all necessities, bills and wants such as holidays. When your children come to visit you, they will come with pride. Pride that they have forward-thinking parents that had the wisdom to cover their own retirement. You will have no unnecessary worries and will be safe in the knowledge that you never have to go to bed hungry or cold.  The Art of Visualisation Visualising is like fantasising. You visualise a specific event in the future in very specific and detailed terms and think about how much you will enjoy it. Scientists have confirmed that visualising can lead to the achievement of real results. In a well-known study on creative visualisation in sports, Russian scientists compared three groups of Olympic athletes:
Group 3 had the best performance results. This indicates that some types of mental training, such as consciously invoking specific subjective states, can have significant measurable effects on biological performance. Further to this, some celebrities have argued that they have achieved certain results in their life by visualising them first. These include Oprah, Will Smith and Jim Carrey. Visualising helps you to focus on a goal. If you can find just ten minutes a day to meditate and visualise the things you want to achieve you will increase your chances of achieving them. Most people don't think too far beyond the next couple of years, if that. Those that do are at an advantage. Of course you shouldn't live so far in the future that you cannotenjoy the present. That said, thinking about and planning for the future is enjoyable in itself –just do it! "Ordinary people believe only in the possible. Extraordinary people visualize not what is possible or probable, but rather what is impossible. And by visualizing the impossible, they begin to see it as possible." Cherie Carter-Scott  Want to Build a 6-Figure Beauty Business from the comfort of your sofa? Then my course is designed for YOU!
"Beauty" includes a WIDE range of products from the not so obvious non-perishable foods and crafts to the more obvious hair, makeup, fashion, health & fitness.  A series of good habits is pretty much all it takes to foster a culture of success in all areas of your life. To form a set of good habits all you need to do is adopt a couple of good habits at a time through repeated action. Don’t commit to adopting too many habits all in one go.That is more than the average person’s will power can handle. However, once a good habit is formed it gets easier and easier to build on that base to form more good habits. Now, a lot of literature out there talks about how will power is limited, however, what you don’t often hear being discussed is that “the will power muscle” can be grown. The more you exercise your will power the more will power you gain. In this article I aim to help you understand will power a little better so that you can use it to your advantage.My writing on will power is informed by several books that I have read including The One Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan as well as The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. Will Power Is Limited – What Does That Mean? When you wake up in the morning you have a full tank of will power. Over the course of the day, every time you encounter a situationthat requires you to exercise control, that will power is used up. This means every time you encounter a situation you have less and less will power to deal with that situation. Once you form certain habits or standard responses, those challenging circumstances cease to tax your will power. I’ll give you some examples that are very common in every day life.  Examples of Instances Where Exercise Will Power Is Used Up Food You wake up in the morning and face the first challenge:Crunchy Nut Cornflakes or Oats If you don’t particularly like oats but choose to eat them anyway because they are good for you then that decision uses up a bit of your limited will power for that day. If you set a given standard that you’ll eat oats for breakfast everyday except Saturday you cease to use up any will power at breakfast because the decision of what to eat has been decided beforehand;you’ll eat oats at breakfast out of habit and you might even start to like them. Challenge 2: Around 10 a.m. you feel hungry. If someone offers you a biscuit or slice of cake you will take it. If you’ve developed the habit of always carrying fruit with you to snack on when mid-morning hunger hits then you’re equipped not to give in to sugary treats. Carrying fruit around with you is a good standard habit. Temper Every time you get annoyed or upset but manage to handle a situation without letting emotions get the better of you, you use up some will power. In The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg he recounts a very interesting experiment. Two groups were invited to take part in a study:
 After that, each group was asked to do a boring task. A series of numbers popped up on a computer and every time a 6 was followed by a 4 the participants were told to press a certain button. Interestingly, group 1 did well and managed to continue doing this rather mundane task for the entire 12 minutes whilst group 2 kept making errors and for the most part couldn’t do the experiment for the full 12 minutes. The conclusion was group 2 had used up their will power in the first part of the experiment. However, because group 1 were made to feel like they were helping and were an integral part of the initial phase of the experiment their will power wasn’t used up by the time they were set in front of the computer. To the extent that we feel in control of a situation(as group 1 were made to feel) we don’t use up will power. Money Most people purchase whatever they want to buy if they have the money (or credit) and every time they stop themself from purchasing something their heart desiresthey use up some will power. If you adopt the standardthat you only go shopping for, say makeup and clothes, on a Sunday then every other time you see something nice in a street window you don’t purchase it on impulse because it’s not Sunday. By the time Sunday arrives you might decide you don’t want whatever it is that looked amazing in the week. In conclusion, any situation that requires you to exercise self-control uses up your limited will power. If you set up some rules for dealing with these situations then you don’t have to think up a reaction every time; this will result in less usage of your will power. The better you get at managing your will power using a bank of good habits and pre-set standard responses, the less of it you will use up unnecessarily To your success.  Want to Build a 6-Figure Beauty Business from the comfort of your sofa? Then my course is designed for YOU!
"Beauty" includes a WIDE range of products from the not so obvious non-perishable foods and crafts to the more obvious hair, makeup, fashion, health & fitness.  You’ve heard it said a million times before, everyone has ideas but only a tiny percentage of people actually do something about them. Usually, people blame it on fear that leads to inaction or the lack of resources required to make their idea a reality. However, the truth is not everyone is cut out for the realities of taking the risk to run a business. No, they are not lazy, it has a lot more to do with the stories they have told themselves and the unshakeable habits they have formed over a lifetime. If you are in this situation before you can even contemplate starting a business you need a huge mindset shift and that may sometimes not be possible for you because you don’t want it. Rather than talking in riddles, I am going to give three very specific traits that I have noticed in friends that would hate the realities of entrepreneurship. 1: No Guilt When Not Productive In my personal world, when I wake up, I have to be productive as soon as possible otherwise an overwhelming guilt will sweep over me. My productivity is normally set by a to-do list rather than the number of hours that I work. Once I have achieved the goals of the day or at least the ones I realize were realistic then I can relax without feeling guilty. On the other hand, I have observed some people don’t see things in the same way and don’t carry this productivity guilt at all. They will wake up, watch some TV or YouTube videos, read a newspaper, play video games and before you know it, two or three hours have passed. They then have a shower and get ready and then lo-and-behold it’s lunch time and they haven’t done a thing. Importantly, they don’t feel guilty about it at all. It’s almost enviable the way they can relax like that. They don’t see that passage of time as a lack of productivity but simply as them carrying out rituals they enjoy before they get on to doing some work. 2: A Different Attitude About The Need For Relaxation Outside of scheduled holidays many believe you need to pace yourself and incorporate relaxation into your schedule. Nowadays many are raised with rituals like taking the weekend off or having a lie-in at the weekend but many entrepreneurs don’t see it like that. The typical entrepreneur normally wakes up to work on a project unrelated to his day-job in his relaxation times – her business is her hobby. So, if you have an employer then you see your free time as the time to work on the business that you’d like to make a reality. You see it as fun, not as work at all. Ultimately, if and when you do manage to transition out of a regular job this habit of using free time to work on pet projects does not go away. If anything it comes on with a vengeance, taking time to just chill is a struggle. My grandfather who died when I was less than three summed it up beautifully, he said to my dad, holidays are not an opportunity to do nothing, they are an opportunity to work on things you don’t normally get a chance to work on.  I was pretty much brainwashed to fully believe the same thing because my dad lives this reality. If we went on holiday he would take me along to shops; as we perused the aisles, he said we were checking out what they sell in whatever country we were visiting to see if it was exportable to Malawi. If we went on holiday to Lake Malawi he would pull out a piece of paper and start drawing the type of house he plans to build at The Lake in future. There were plenty of times when we just chat and he told stories but peppered along every holiday were instances of what many would call work. To him, and to many entrepreneurs drafting your plans is pure fun. Not everyone has been nurtured with these principles, beliefs and rituals so they don’t come naturally. That’s not necessarily a problem. 3: Completely Struggle To Keep To Plans My office is at home. When I wake up, no one tells me what to do. I have a schedule and I stick to it and for the most part I don’t even have to think about working my plan. It just happens like clockwork. “I wouldn’t get anything done if I worked for myself,” many friends have said to me. At first, I thought this was complete nonsense but now, at the age of 30, I realize that I was judging them by my own standards. Those that have said this to me know themselves better than I know them and if they think they wouldn’t get anything done, they probably wouldn’t. If you have gone your whole life doing things simply because you have been told to do them, e.g. teachers say do this, parents say do that – you will not all of sudden become a self-starter. Some people cannot work and achieve goals without having a higher authority to be accountable to. If you know this about yourself that is awesome because you stick to employment and don’t set yourself up for failure by going out and trying to strike it out on your own. IS THERE A SOLUTION? What if you notice one or more of the above traits in yourself but still want to pursue a business because you believe your idea is a slum dunk? Is there a solution? Yes there is: partner with someone! Find someone who has the trait of making things happen and sell your idea to them. Make it clear what your weaknesses are in making your idea a reality and create a partnership agreement where your partner makes up for your weaknesses. Sometimes accepting that you are lacking some very necessary qualities required to start an enterprise is the best way to actually finding the path to a fruitful business. Accept the way you are then find a solution for your weaknesses.  Want to Build a 6-Figure Beauty Business from the comfort of your sofa? Then my course is designed for YOU!
"Beauty" includes a WIDE range of products from the not so obvious non-perishable foods and crafts to the more obvious hair, makeup, fashion, health & fitness.  Children as a group are possibly the best salespeople in the world. When a child decides he wants something he will try to get it at any cost and only give up when he realizes there isn’t a chance in hell of getting the wanted item. This is why they are so successful in their pursuits. It has nothing to do with mother nature making them oh-so cute and impossible to say no to. I love watching kids, especially when I’m in a store to see how they go about getting what they want. Here’s what makes them so effective: LACK OF FEAR Children aren’t generally afraid to ask. They hear the word ‘no’ all the time but when they want something else they will ask. They’re willing to risk hearing ‘no’ because there is a chance that you might say ‘yes’. QUICK RECOVERY FROM REJECTION A kid can hear a very firm ‘no’, have a cry over it and yet five minutes later they are asking for something else, possibly even the same thing that was denied only five minutes before. When they come to ask for it again they usually have a new strategy. Lots of adults get overly deflated by rejection; they wallow in it for way too long before sliding on to the next thing.  POSITIVITY If your kid sees something she likes on TV she’ll ask for it even if the economy is going down the toilet. She doesn’t know about the economic situation and quite frankly, doesn’t care. She wants what she wants and she’ll fight for it. I’m always saying this but I’ll say it again. News, ALL news, is designed to keep us scared, negative and constantly in fear. You don’t have to watch a news channel for 5 minutes before the next bit of negative news comes on: someone died, or a plane crashed, or war has broken out in [name country] or there’s a new natural disaster somewhere in the world. It’s depressing and it has a long-term impact on your behaviour. For instance, when the recession started there was no end of bad financial news. It stopped many of us from taking risks such as starting a business. The collective psyche of people tells them to save more and spend less. Spend more and save less has only one outcome: the economy contracts even further, people lose their jobs and you have a never-ending cycle of contraction. For those that don’t immerse themselves in bad news, reject it and instead adapt their behaviour to make profit in a different way, the outcomes are different: in If You’re Not First You’re Last by Grant Cardone he says that when the economy is going down he ups his marketing spend and begins to take even more massive action because people’s default response is now ‘no’. You have to work harder to convince them to buy.  FOCUS ON THE GOAL In that moment when a kid decides she wants something that becomes her sole focus. She will try one strategy after another to get that thing until she gets it. She doesn’t get distracted. STRATEGY REFINEMENT Kids learn early what works. For some parents / aunts / uncles crying and whining work so that’s what they will do. For me, if you cry or whine I feel nothing. I hate criers and whiners. It makes me not want to give them what they want even more. I was raised like that. My dad would send you outside if you started crying and I’m glad he did because I learnt how to justify my wants instead. For kids that learn to argue their case and justify, the world is their oyster – most adults are amused by the stories kids can come up with to ensure they get what they want. I was once out visiting my brother in Indiana and my 3-year old nephew decided he needed money. His dad said he didn’t have any and he immediately said, “But Ant [that’s how they say Aunt in ‘Merica] Heather has money!” We all laughed. He didn’t talk much at that age but he was obviously watching things closely. CLOSING THE DEAL When does a kid stop? When he’s tried everything and decided nothing is going to work this time around. If we could keep a fraction of these sales skills into adulthood we would all be a lot more successful. Unfortunately though, before we reach the teen years we become socialized to behave ‘normal’ – we’re more fearful, we’re broken by rejection and we give up all too quickly. If you can dig out your inner child, you’ll sell way better and enjoy an overall more wealthy life.  Want to Build a 6-Figure Beauty Business from the comfort of your sofa? Then my course is designed for YOU! "Beauty" includes a WIDE range of products from the not so obvious non-perishable foods and crafts to the more obvious hair, makeup, fashion, health & fitness. |
Heather on WealthI enjoy helping people think through their personal finances and blog about that here. Join my personal finance community at The Money Spot™. Categories
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Heather Katsonga-Woodward, a massive personal finance fanatic.
** All views expressed are my own and not those of any employer, past or present. ** Please get professional advice before re-arranging your personal finances.