Do you know how to build financial freedom? Do you know what financial freedom is?

Financial freedom is the ability to go about your life, doing what you want to do, without having to worry about money. Sounds cool and maybe too good to be true, right?

Well, it is true because I know a few people who have it. I have blogged a lot about Loral Langemeier and I believe she has financial freedom. Some other people I follow that you may have heard of, like Mike Dillard, Bob Proctor, and Joe Vitale, also have financial freedom. Closer to what I’m doing, Reid Nelson and Dave Johnson are high-ranking Nikken distributors who have achieved it.

I think that you and I should also be on that list, don’t you?

I quit my job 3 weeks ago today, totally voluntary, so that I could focus on building my own businesses. My primary business is with Nikken, a research company originally from Japan, that offers very unique technologies to help people feel better without having to rely so heavily on drugs and surgery. My goal is to build a team that cares enough about other people to want to offer alternatives for staying healthy,  building income, and establish their own financial independence.

I had some one-on-one time recently with Reid Nelson, one of the people I mentioned above, about what he sees as our real business. He doesn’t see Nikken and network marketing as selling. Instead he describes it as building distribution networks for some amazing products and our income is earned by moving product through those networks. I have to agree with him. I can’t remember the last time that I sold any product and I still get a check every month. I have a website that sells product for me and I get rebates from the product that I buy for my own use. The people on my team buy product for themselves and I make some income from that as well. It’s really a very useful way to look at it.

If this sounds interesting to you, please leave me a comment or contact me through my contact page. I can also be reached through my product site at www.getmywellness.com where you can also see those amazing Nikken wellness products I mentioned.

Wayne Woodworth
Building financial independence through distribution networks

I was looking for something to listen to and came across Robert Kiyosaki‘s audio book – Increase Your Financial IQ. It was published in March 2008 and has some very good, current information. I highly recommend it. There was some important information in the first chapter that I want to share here.

In 1971 President Nixon took the US off the gold standard, which changed how our money works. Prior to 1971, the dollar was based on gold, which has intrinsic value. To save money was equal to saving gold, so it made sense to save money for retirement or college because it would hold value.

Since 1971, the dollar is no longer money because it doesn’t have any real value backing it. It is now a currency. The word “currency” comes from the same root as “current”, like an electric current or air current. Currents require movement for them to exist. Likewise, a currency requires movement for it to maintain value.  As you can see from our current economy, as the movement of the dollar slows, the value of the dollar decreases and the economy suffers.

Historically, all currencies eventually go to zero.

Are you listening to those financial advisers who are telling people that they need to reduce their spending, pay off debt, and save for the future? If the value of our currency does go to zero, what will your savings be worth?

So, what do you do? How do you secure your financial future? I’m not a financial adviser, so I can’t tell you what to do. I can tell you what I’m doing though.

First, I’m listening to people like Robert Kiyosaki, Donald Trump,  Bob Proctor, and Loral Langemeier. They teach that a job is a lousy way to make money. Kiyosaki, in Rich Dad Poor Dad, said that a job is a good place to learn a new skill, then move one once it has been learned. The thing I like about these teachers is that they preach what they practice. They look for new sources of income and then use that income to buy more assets that generate even more income, and that is what they teach others to do.

Loral Langemeier, in her Millionaire Maker books and Cash Machine Workshops, teaches people how to build a business as an asset, and that’s what I am doing. To be an asset, the business has to generate a sustainable income. I am building my business in network marketing and affiliate marketing which means that I generate income by promoting products from other companies. That allows me to quickly start making money without the up-front costs of developing a new product.

Once I have a business that produces a steady stream of income, I can take that income to buy more assets that then generate more income. Those assets can be investments in other businesses, real estate, gold, gas, oil, or anything else that has a value and an income stream.

This plan doesn’t mean that you have to live without comforts. In Increase Your Financial IQ, Kiyosaki gives an example of how he bought an expensive luxury car.  He took some money out from one of his assets and invested it so that it would make more money. He gave instructions to the person who managed the investment to let him know when it had increased to the point where he could afford the car, pay the fees for managing the investment, and still have the original value of the asset left over. It took some time to accomplish it, but the car was purchased without any money from his own pocket or by decreasing his net worth. That’s a pretty cool deal, huh?

To summarize, the dollar is a currency and all currencies throughout history have eventually failed. To keep our currency alive and maintain it’s value, it has to flow, which means that saving it in a bank account isn’t the right thing to do. A better way to prepare for your future is to convert your money to assets that maintain their value and generate an income of their own. One such asset is a properly structured business, which in my case is in network marketing.

Just as a reminder, I am NOT a financial adviser. Go check out the books by Robert Kiyosaki, Donald Trump, and Loral Langemeier then find a good financial planner to help you decide what is best for you. Ask your financial planner if he or she is wealthy and if he or she got that way by doing what they are advising you to do. If they aren’t, then find another planner.

Wayne Woodworth
Network Marketing Entrepreneur

You hear all the time right now about unemployment.  People are going through layoffs, downsizings and rightsizings as companies seek to find a way through the current economy, or give up entirely and close their doors.

On the other hand, if you travel in small business / entrepreneurial circles, you hear people talk about being unemployable.  I’m not talking about people who have no skills and no ambition.  These are bright people with a lot of skills.  So why are they unemployable?

Because they choose to be.  They are of the mindset that they cannot be employed by another person because they have chosen to set their own course, take responsibility for their own results, and not allow any external agency to set limits on what they can accomplish.

I first heard this term in August 2008 at one of Loral Langemeier’s Cash Machine Workshops.  If you have never heard of Loral before I suggest you take a look at what she teaches.  She has come to be known as The Millionaire Maker and her best selling books are published under that title.  One of the things she teaches is that everyone should build a Cash Machine, a way to quickly make money with skills you already have.  Once you do that and have money coming in based solely on your own efforts and ideas you will understand what it means to be unemployable.

So, what are you going to do?

Wayne Woodworth
I’m becoming unemployable too.

It is absolutely critical to get regular training if you are involved in a business.

If you have ever studied personal growth then you have probably heard that if you aren’t growing, then you are dying. That is very true. If your business isn’t growing then you will soon find that you have been left behind by the other businesses in your market. Things are always changing, new technologies and methodologies are constantly being introduced. A regular training program is the best way to keep up with everything that is going on.

Training is even more important when you are building your business online where things are constantly changing.

I have decided to build my business online, and it is much more than just building a website and waiting for people to show up.  Right now social media and blogs are the big thing, and most people don’t understand them, especially social media.  Fortunately there are a few people who do have it figured out and they are willing to teach the people who will listen.

So far, the best training programs I have found for Internet Marketing are Mike Dillard’s Magnetic Sponsoring and Ann Seig and Mike Klingler’s Renegade Professional.  They both have a network marketing flavor but the material is appropriate for any small business looking to build its presence online.  If you are completely new to the online world, then I think Renegade Professional is best.  It provides very detailed, step-by-step instruction.

In building a business it is important to stay up to date, improve your existing skills, learn new skills, and learn from other people’s mistakes so that you don’t make them yourself.

Wayne Woodworth
FYI, spam is not the right way to use social media.

I have started listening to Bob Proctor’s Mission in Commission program, which is for people who make their income through sales.   He makes a few statements on the first disk that really stood out to me.

First is a quote that he found from a Spanish distiller: “The good life is expensive.  There is another way to live that doesn’t cost as much, but it isn’t any good.” I like that line.  Everybody has dreams of living a certain lifestyle and most people think they will never have it.  I think that’s too bad.  I believe that we are here to experience all of the greatness that life has to offer and it is a shame when we limit ourselves with wrong ideas.  Bob Proctor notes that salespeople are both the highest paid and the lowest paid of all professions and the difference between high and low is just your mindset.

The second statement that stood out is that “selling is something you do for a person, not to a person.” Being involved in network marketing circles online I am constantly amazed at how pushy some marketers are.  They will tell you all about how great their opportunity is almost before they ask your name.  Selling is about finding out about the other person.  Who are they, what kind of person are they, what are their concerns and needs.  Build a relationship first then only bring up your product and business opportunity if you see that you can fill a legitimate need of theirs.  Most people I meet on a daily basis know nothing about me being a network marketer or the product that I sell unless I learn they have a need for it.  Be a person and a friend first.

Bob then went on with the qualities that he thinks makes for a good salesperson.  “It takes a pleasing personality and sincere desire to help someone else improve their quality of life.” I think we’ve pretty much covered this one.  If you are friendly, not pushy, and have a genuine desire to help then you have the necessary qualities to be a great salesperson.  The rest of what you need are skills that can be learned.

If you like this material then you will love Bob Proctor’s other programs.  If you are interested in trying you hand at sales then I recommend network marketing because it is easy to get into and learn the skills as you go.  I know of a few different opportunities that you can check out.  Leave me a comment and we’ll talk.

Wayne Woodworth
Everyone is a salesperson. Most just don’t know it.

You’ve heard about self-made millionaires before, right? Have you ever met one? Were they really self-made, as in they did it all by themselves?

I’ve been studying Loral Langemeier‘s programs again and she puts out the idea of team-made millionaires because you cannot really become a millionaire all by yourself. In reaching that point you will run into things that you don’t know how to do or things that are better left to others so that you can stay focused on making money. You need a team to take on those tasks, such as bookkeeping or cleaning your house, so that you can stay focused on the tasks you need to be doing. Besides, you are supporting other businesses in your area by hiring out those tasks.

I see this as a big problem in network marketing. To be successful we need to treat our network marketing as a business and teach our downlines to treat it as a business too, which means creating a team to take care of things so that we can spend our time prospecting and creating new business partners and selling our products or services.

For more business-related info, checkout by revenue modeling post at www.diversifymyincome.com.

Wayne Woodworth
Network Marketer
A home-based business is still a business

Have your heard that network marketing is a pyramid scheme?

I had a customer recently criticize network marketing as a scam.  Her first point was all the pay-per-click ads she had seen on Google claiming that network marketing is a scam.  If she had clicked them or even looked at the URL she would have seen that it was actually someone selling a program like Magnetic Sponsoring that teaches network marketers how to prospect online.

Her second argument gets into the old pyramid scheme idea.  She sees network marketing as a scam where a bunch of people sit around doing nothing and collect a check every month from the efforts of the people beneath them.  That does sound like a pyramid scheme.  It is also the view some people have of any corporate structure.  I want to address that now.  First of all, real pyramid schemes are illegal because members make money only by signing people up.  That’s it.  There’s no product or any other benefit to being a member.  The last people to sign up before the scheme collapses get screwed over.  That’s not network marketing.

One way to look at network marketing is that it is a way for companies to outsource their sales force. Each company that the sales work is outsourced to has the right to sell the products and further outsource to other companies.  This lets the network marketing company to focus its efforts on product research and development.  The network marketers are effectively small sales companies that don’t have to worry about product development.  They are free to focus on sales and are paid based on how much product they sell.

The great benefit for you just starting out is that your advancement in the organization is completely unlimited. In any traditional sales organization there is a structure of VP of Sales, regional managers, district managers, and so on.  It has a pyramid-like structure.  In order to advance you have to wait for one of the people above you to leave the organization.  Network marketing doesn’t have a pyramid structure.  When you join my team there is nothing to stop you from advancing beyond me.  There are at least two places in my upline where the sponsored consultant outranks their sponsor.  That could never happen in a corporate structure and definitely not in a pyramid.

And as for them all sitting around and collecting money from my sales efforts?  That just isn’t true either.  They put a lot time and effort into training and support for their many downlines.

I hope that clears it up a little.

Wayne Woodworth
Internet Network Marketer
I challenge you to outrank me

April 15th has come and gone and tax season is over for another year.  Were you happy with how much money you gave the government or would you like to decrease it?  Now is the time to look at that and prepare for next year.

I don’t mind paying my taxes every year but I definitely don’t want to pay more than I have to.  The best way to reduce your taxes is to be in business for yourself.  If you have a regular job then you know that you pay taxes on the amount of money you make then you pay your expenses with what’s left.  Did you know that businesses do it differently?  They pay their expenses from the money they make then pay taxes on what’s left.

In case you didn’t get that, let’s say you are an employee who makes $3,000 each month.  The government taxes you at 25%, so they take $750 and leave you $2,250 for the month out of which you make a $500 car payment.  You have $1,750 left.  Now let’s say you are a  business that makes the same $3,000 each month.  As a business, your $500 car payment is a business expense leaving you $2,500 in income.  That amount is taxed at 15% (you dropped to a lower tax bracket) for $375 and leaves you $2,125 to get through the rest of the month.  You have an extra $375 each month just because you are a business.

Starting a business sounds good now, doesn’t it?  But what are you going to do?  It has to be a legitimate business.  How about network marketing?  It is easy to start, has very low cost, and you can do it from home (which saves you even more money because your home office is a business expense).  I can offer you two good choices of network marketing companies to look at. One in wellness and the other in greeting cards.

Wayne Woodworth
Network Marketer
Saving me a fortune.

One more thing, I am not a financial advisor.  I strongly encourage you to talk to one about your situation so that you know everything you need to know for your area and what you want to accomplish.

Before the economy became a problem, the news stories were about how health care is too expensive and people cannot afford insurance. Now that the economy is the top story, even more people are unable to afford health care. Do you know people who are in this position? Are you concerned that you could face this before the economy recovers? Would you be interested in a solution?

My favorite solution to rising costs is to make more money.  Easier said than done, right? It is easy.  Network marketing and affiliate marketing are what I like to do.  Would you like to get paid for recommending your favorite movie or restaurant to your friends? Unfortunately, restaurants and theaters don’t do that, although they do depend on word-of-mouth advertising for the majority of their sales. Some companies do work that way though, and they use either a network marketing or affiliate marketing plan.

Read more for another great idea to control your health care costs.

Bob Proctor has a great new affiliate program.

Wayne Woodworth
Internet Marketer

How much money do you want to make this year?  Do you know how you are going to do it?

My wife and I spent some more time with Live Out Loud for training on their affiliate program (which pays very well if you are looking for a cash machine).  One of the things we came away with is Loral’s process for revenue modeling.  It is a very simple process because you want to quickly figure out what you need to do to meet your goals then get busy doing those things.

First, write down how much money you want to make in the next however many days.  Then figure out how much of your product or service you need to sell to reach that number.  Next figure out what you are going to do to make those sales.  And the last step is go do it.

For example, let’s say I want to take home $2000 in the next 30 days.  My profit for selling Nikken product is 20% if I sell it at the full retail price so my sales goal is $10,000.  Now I have to figure out what products I think I can sell this much to reach $10,000.  It turns out that all I have to do is set up 3 families with the basics of a wellness home (if you curious, that is a magnetic sleep system, air and water filtration, magnetic insoles, and a few other small items).

Pretty easy, right?  The benefits of spending a few minutes doing this planning are huge, especially considering the amount of time it takes because now you know exactly what you need to do to reach your income goals.  You know where you need to devote your time so that you are not as easily distracted  by other things.

If you don’t have a way to make money outside of a fixed paycheck, see my cash machine post then leave me a comment.  I would be happy to discuss ideas with you as well as share a few of the things that I am doing.

If you want to learn more about how to write you plan, check out the Building, Leading, Protecting Your Business audio program or attend on of her live Cash Machine Workshops.

So there you have it.  Go plan then get busy.

Wayne Woodworth
Network Marketer
Affiliate Marketer
Planning to be wealthy