It is April 15th again and time to hurry to get your income tax return to post office in time to get today’s stamp on it. Actually, I filed my tax return back in February, but April 15th is another tax deadline for those of us who are self-employed. It is time to file our First Quarter Estimated Taxes.

On April 15th we get to see both how close last year’s guess was to how much we actually made last year and we get to make our best guess to how much we will make this year. It can be a challenge because the IRS and the state revenue departments want 4 equal estimated tax payments on April 15, June 15, September 15, and January 18.

It still beats being an employee though and having someone else decide how much money comes out of your paycheck every week. My quarterly tax payments are based on income less expenses instead of just income like those with paychecks have to pay, so I have to pay less in taxes than I did as an employee.

Wayne Woodworth
You can be self-employed too

I met someone yesterday who has an excellent reason to look into a home-based business. She is the manager of a local department store photography studio.  The corporate office dictates the hours that her store is open without any input from her or feedback on what her customers need. She had to lay off all of her employees because the store isn’t open long enough to justify paying anyone and they aren’t making much money because the store is only open during the hours that her customers are at work. Talk about being a victim of Corporate America.

What she would like to do is go into business for herself doing photography but she’s worried that she wouldn’t be able to get enough clients. She probably also has a “no compete” clause in her contract which would make the jump to independence difficult. She also can’t go looking anywhere else for work because the people she let go are all still looking for work So she feels trapped.

A home-based business, like network marketing, could be a great opportunity for her if she has the motivation to make it work. She can do it part-time and still have time for her family and her current job, which is only part-time anyway. Once she gets going, it will help her bring in some extra money to make ends meet. Eventually she can start generating enough of an income to be able to quit the job and do the network marketing business full-time while she rides out the “no compete” period then start a part-time photography business if she still wants to. Then the network marketing income becomes the financial security for her to pursue her true passion.

Do you know anyone who is in a similar situation to this lady, or even that of her former employees? Have them read this and then at least take a look at network marketing.

Wayne Woodworth

Do you take responsibility for your successes and your failures?

I was listening to Bob Proctor’s Six Minutes to Success yesterday. At the point where I am in the series he is talking about the 11 characteristics of great leaders as Napolean Hill laid them out in Think and Grow Rich in the chapter on Organized Planning. In this particular video, Bob Proctor was talking about the 10th characteristic – a willingness to assume full responsibility.

There are two kinds of responsibility, being responsible to someone or something and being responsible for something. We are responsible to others,  our customers or employers for example to give our best for our compensation, but we can never be responsible for others. Neither can we hold other people responsible for us.

Bob Proctor says that responsibility is the key to freedom. If we blame others for our problems or lack of success then we make ourselves victims of things and people we cannot control. Once we take responsibility for our own actions, our own successes and failures, we have the ability to change them for the better. You can’t change the world but you can change yourself.

What would you like to improve? Finances, health, happiness. What are you going to take responsibility for today and change for the better?

Wayne Woodworth
Responsible for my own success

Loral Langemeier has a new book coming out on October 13th, and they are expecting it to be a best seller just like her three Millionaire Maker books are.

I’ve talked about Loral several times here, mostly about her Cash Machine Workshop live event. The reason I devote so much time to her is that she is for real. She isn’t selling a program that requires you to spend a wad of money to learn a bunch of new skills so that you can hopefully start to make a little money in a year or two. She encourages you (at the live events she pushes you) to use what you already know to start making money today. Once you are making money, then you spend the money to hire the team that will support you.

Here’s the description of the book:

Turn what you know into dough!

You Don’t have fixed potential, why accept fixed income? By following Loral’s simple and straightforward approach, you’ll put more cash – $1000 or more a month, into your pocket in no time. I’ve helped thousands of people make extra cash fast. People from all different backgrounds, in a variety of situations, all over the world. People just like you!

Get on the list to be one of the first to get the book. Click here  to Loral’s site.

In the big lead-up to the book, Loral has recorded a free 20 minute video that is all content. You can get to it by going to my PlayLikeAMillionaire site and entering your name and email address. If nothing else, it’s a great free introduction to Loral Langemeier. Go check it out.

Wayne Woodworth
Play Like a Millionaire

Do you have a convenient, easy way for you customers to talk to you?

One easy way to stand out from the crowd is to be responsive to your customer, so it is important there are ways for them to interact with you. This is especially important when your business is only online.  An easy way is to allow your customers to post comments on a blog or to have a comment page where they can send you a message. But that’s only half of the equation. You also have to respond. Your standing with your customers will increase immensely if you actually answer the questions and comments they have. That will help you create a relationship with your customers because you have shown that you are a real person.

For brick and mortar-type stores this is very easy because there is a sales person for your customers to interact with. In the online world there is just a webpage. As I already said, comment forms are one way to make yourself available to your customers. Social media is another great way. Your customers can become friends or fans on Facebook and they can follow you on Twitter. This works great for building a community among your customers. Don’t forget to be active in your new community.

Wayne Woodworth
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/getwealthy
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/yonderwillow

If your business doesn’t have a business plan then it is in your best interest to create one.

I heard about a study recently of 1600 businesses conducted over a 25 year period about how they used business plans. 70% of the businesses surveyed had no written or verbal plan of any kind, 27% of them had only verbal goals, and only 3% of them had their plan written down. What you need to know is that 98% of all the wealth in those 1600 companies was held by those 3% that had written goals.

Do you see how important it is to have your plan written down?

There are many reasons why a written plan is so effective. One reason is that the process of writing down your business goals actually forces you to think about them and clarify them. You have to know what they are so that you can write them down.

A written plan also gives you a place to go to reset your focus. Flesh out your plan with the specific actions that you are going to do to achieve your goals. Also keep your plan in a place where everyone involved in your business can see it and refer to it. It becomes the document that guides everyone’s actions and keeps everyone on track to accomplish your business goals.

Another way that a written plan can help your business is when you talk to potential partners and/or investors. A business with a written plan will appear much more professional than a business with no plan or just a verbal one.

If you would like to know how to create a simple plan, I recommend Loral Langemeier‘s The Millionaire Maker’s Guide to Creating a Cash Machine for Life book or her Building, Leading, and Protecting Your Business audio program.

Get your plan together so that you can join the 3% of businesses with 98% of the money.

Wayne Woodworth
The business man with the business plan

My wife and I spent the past three days as volunteer staff at Loral Langemeier’s Cash Machine Workshop in Atlanta and had an absolute blast.

If you don’t know who Loral is, then you need to find out about her now. She is the Millionaire Maker and she teaches people how to become millionaires in three to five years. She has several best-selling books, cd programs, a radio show and live events. Her remaining Cash Machine Workshops for 2009 are in San Francisco, Los Angles, and Seattle.

There are several people out there teaching people that they need to become financially independent and how to do it, so why is Loral the best? What really impresses me the most about Loral Langemeier is that she is real. She isn’t one of those seminar speakers who stays up on stage and never interacts with the people who paid to come see them. She uses the same door to enter the room as everyone else. She is on the floor interacting with people while she is teaching. If you have something that will help her business then she will work a deal with you right then and there because it shows everyone else how it is done.

She is also balanced. She doesn’t sacrifice her family to do these events. Her family travels with her as much as possible. She has a beautiful little daughter that came with her to our workshop in Atlanta. She’s a mom, a wife, and also happens to teach people how to build teams and become millionaires.

You can learn about Loral and her teachings by reading her books and going through her CD programs. The best way is to get to one of the upcoming Cash Machine Workshops. When you come, you have to be ready to play. Everyone at the Atlanta event made some amount of money. If you would like to talk to somebody about the best way to get started on your path to becoming a millionaire, then leave me a comment and a friend of mine who works with Loral will get back with you.

Wayne Woodworth

My wife, Michelle, doing 5 minute chair massage in the Market Place during the August 2008 Cash Machine Workshop in Atlanta

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.

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