My Top 5 Tips to Stay Motivated

There are many aspects towards creating a successful business or thriving in your current business, but on the top of the list should be keeping your vision alive and yourself motivated regardless of the struggles and obstacles you have to face. Here is my top 5 tips on how I manage to do this.

If you don’t truly believe in yourself or your product or your dream, how are you going to get anyone else to believe in it with you? How do you expect to get sales if you can’t even sell yourself on your your own dream?

No one is ever going to be your biggest fan, more than yourself. It stands to reason that you are the champion of your own dreams andvision.

Therefore it is up to you  to cultivate the skills and habits to keep you motivated and on track each and every day. It is what matters because you matter!

So here are my top 5 tips that you too can use as tools to stay motivated and on top of your game:

1. I keep only two mental snapshots of myself: a.) where I am and  b.) where I want to be in life.
This means that I don’t focus and mull over things of the past. I learn from the past, but I do not let the scars of yesterday haunt me or keep me from moving in the right direction. Momentum in the right direction is key.

2. I wake up each day and set achievable goals -  small improvements I can take action on today to improve my business skills and life skills.

3. I constantly repeat positive slogans to myself during the the course day. Example; “If it is to be- it is up to me” and another favourite: “It is not who I am, but who I am becoming that is important”. Motivational sayings and affirmations helps  us move forward in life and accomplish greater things than we could ever have imagined. After all, how can anybody deny the power of a can-do attitude.

4. I am always aware of seeking  opportunities by upgrading my skills and doing research on trends in my field of interest. I see an opportunity to make a difference in any small possibility that comes my way. All it takes to create a great opportunity is: an open mind, an open heart, an optimistic attitude, and the willingness to take action.  When you begin to do this on a regular basis, you can’t NOT attract exciting business opportunities into your life.

5. Lastly, and my most important tip that I practise...I surround myself with principled business partners and build lasting relationships with clients. This is a valuable sentence to grasp and internalize and I could write volumes about its essence.

I heard a slogan once which I apply to this day “if you are the smartest one in your team, then it is time to get a new team”. Having business partners, including my life partner, who is constantly motivated, energizes me and helps me to perform better.

Gentle reader, these 5 tips can work for you too if you decide right now to put it in practise.

You CANNOT allow, nor wait for people and circumstances to get you motivated and fired up. 

Simply, pick up the tools each day yourself and stay motivated. Be aware that a motivated person has the energy levels to far out-perform any colleague or competitor. Motivated people are ACHIEVERS.

Believe in yourself, and the rest will fall into place. Have faith in your own abilities, work hard, and there is nothing you cannot accomplish. Lets believe in our dreams and achieve them with passion.

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Calvin Dorman is a Professional Online Business Consultant and Graphics/Web Marketing Lecturer from Cape Town, South Africa, offering companies and individuals more effective Web Marketing, one to one Computer Training and Graphic Design solutions. Give him a call on 084 632 6622. Read more of Calvin’s business and motivational articles at http://www.calvinbusiness.co.za

Great product AND great product experience

We always hear that content is king. Content here referring to the Product offered by the company. But to have a great product is not enough. If you want to grow your business much faster (or in fact, even be in business in the next 5 years), you have to understand that you have to give your client A GREAT product experience as well. You can't have one without the other.

How many companies can you think of that has great marketing material (brochures, advertising, etc) but do not follow it through with a great product experience. Example: It’s lunch time and I am hungry. I go to a burger fast food outlet (not going to mention the brand) and look at this mouth-watering poster (marketing) of a burger, chips and coke. But the product is not as described by the words/pictures in the poster.

The burger is cold & thin and not “sizzling” and I was served by an employee that didn’t seem to care less if I would be about to have a great customer experience …no warm, friendly smile nor any connection with me with an “enjoy your day” approach.

My conclusion: the product and experience was BAD, but the marketing was GREAT.

The lesson here is that companies will no longer get away with it anymore, because we are living on the dawn of a new marketing era, namely the internet era where people are spreading their BAD/GREAT experiences on the social networks daily on a huge scale.
Soon that Burger Franchise branch will experience a drop in sales and then when they close down they will look all surprised.

Why? Because 10 years ago, you could tell 10 people…now you can 100 of your friends on Facebook and it is likely that 100 of their friends may see your “product experience” as well. Not to mention the power of Twitter.

This Blog might sound negative to you at first, but here is the up-side and GOOD news for small businesses and entrepreneurs who do not have the big marketing budgets of large enterprises.

Should you deliver a great product AND great product experience, you no longer have to spend large amounts of money on traditional advertising BUT can use the most powerful marketing means there is, namely, WORD-OF-MOUTH, which is now scalable through the medium of the Internet and using the many free apps and tools available to everybody.
Should you build up a relationship with your clients/customers online, they will try your product. Should it be a great product/service and you continue to build the relationship for a life-time through regular conversations via web marketing tools, you WILL BUILD EMOTIONAL EQUITY with your clients.

You will no longer PUSH marketing “down their throats” but will PULL them in by LISTENING to what they are experiencing and respond to the necessary changes that needs to be made to improve your
business.

The result: Your business will grow, but you must not ignore or be lazy to implement the hard work. The easy days of solving “sales growth problems” with bigger marketing budgets and “throwing more money at advertising” are over. CONNECTING with your customer/client online and ENGAGING with them daily by talking AND listening to them will see your profits soar.
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Calvin Dorman is a Professional Online Business Consultant and Graphics/Web Marketing Lecturer from Cape Town, South Africa, offering companies and individuals more effective Web Marketing, one to one Computer Training and Graphic Design solutions. Give him a call on 084 632 6622. Read more of Calvin’s business and motivational articles at http://www.calvinbusiness.co.za

What defines you?

There are many answers to this question. But a wider perspective I want to take in my blog also includes the question: What defines great business leaders?

This is an important question to ask because it relates to a code of conduct or principles we all live by. We all know that people of the same values will draw closer to each other and this is not because of race, culture or financial wealth. What draws people closer (or further apart) is the set of values they live by and perceive others (true or false) to live by.

I relate this to business because I find that I tend to do more business and develop business relationships with people who have high moral values of trust, honesty, humility  and respect.

These values will always be reflected in true business leaders.  They  have a sense of identity. They are confident and “comfortable in their own skin”. Your moral principles forms your beliefs or your belief-system which will ultimately define you as a person / business-person as well. 

My question. Will you compromise your beliefs to get a “huge financial kick-back” or make promises to clients when you know you “cannot deliver” but you want to take their money?

We live in the era of the internet and companies (their owners and staff) can no longer have a mask for their business and personal life to hide behind. Social media connections are exposing the “bad boys” in business and you can no longer hide who you really are. 

Gentle reader, do not be caught up in views, opinions, media influences or critical  people who tell you who and what you should think or how you should behave. Follow you own moral compass and be influenced by the principles of love and tolerance which you were brought up by and managed not to lose along the way. 
Follow  your dreams and set your goals based on true values. Do not let any person stand in your way and limit you. Remember that you are not defined by circumstances, but that you shape your own destiny according to your beliefs. 

You are the only one who should have the courage to define who you are, and not allow the opinions nor the beliefs of other people to do it for you. Once you realize that you matter not because of your business title, level of wealth or education, you will find your voice and purpose and achieve great things. This is what great leaders might refer to as "your destiny".

Apply noble and honorable business principles in all your affairs and especially in your business and you will attract success and successful people into your life. Birds of a feather flock together, This isn’t just a cute saying.  It happens. 
Define your own self and shape your own destiny.
___________________________________Calvin Dorman is a Professional Digital Business Consultant and Web Marketing Lecturer from Cape Town, South Africa, offering companies and individuals more effective Web Marketing, one-to-one Computer Training and Graphic Design solutions. Send Calvin an email: info@calvinbusiness.co.za or give him a call now on 084 632 6622. Read more of Calvin's motivational articles at http://www.calvinbusiness.co.za