Biggest Money Mistakes Series - Home Equity vs. Credit Card Debt

"I always turn to the sports pages first, which records people's accomplishments. The front page has nothing but man's failures." - Earl Warren, Former Chief Justice of the United States.

The money mistakes series deals about attitudes, beliefs and values versus specific tips

Mistake # 7: Getting a home equity loan to pay off credit card debt is a good idea. No, it’s a terrible idea. The excuse is that you have converted a non-deductible high interest debt to a lower interest tax deductible debt. I mentioned in an earlier post in this series that paying off debt by borrowing more money is not a solution to staying out of debt. Learning how to pay off debt is the way to stay out of debt. Learning how to stay on a spending plan can keep you out of debt. Converting unsecured debt to one that puts your home at risk if you default is a bad idea.

Solution: Follow the 12 steps in Wealth On Any Income and set aside 10-15% of your income to handle emergency spending. Set aside 10% of your income to create financial freedom. Establish a spending plan based on goals that reflect your values and principals and you will have a spending plan (or budget) that will work for you.

Rennie Gabriel – Rennie@RennieGabriel.com
Author of Wealth on Any Income: 12 Steps to Freedom

Talking the Talk Part I - Getting the Appointment

"You miss 100% of the shots you never take." - Wayne Gretzky, Hall of Fame Hockey Player

We’ve written quite a bit on this blog about how to sell. At Possibilities Unlimited, we train people how to identify prospects, do research and get up to speed on social networking. We work with people to manage their time and schedule sales calls into their calendars. We do everything we possibly can to prepare people to sell.

What’s next? You still have to pick up that phone, or knock on that door, and talk to your prospect. You have to know what to say in order to get an appointment, make your presentation and close the sale. You can do all the preparation in the world, but if you don’t pick up the phone, you will not sell anything.

The first phone call is usually to introduce yourself and set another time to talk when you can present your product. We often call this the pre-approach, or the warm call. You want to create enough interest so that the prospect is willing to make time for you later. Typically they are not expecting your first call, so you want to be considerate of their time.

I think it’s good for the first few calls to have a script handy to support you in case you freeze up. You never want to read directly from the script, but have it there in case you need help. Practice with a colleague a few times before you pick up the phone. It’s very helpful to hear your own voice saying the words, so that you feel comfortable talking the talk. Actors have to rehearse before they go on stage. You should rehearse too. It takes a lot of the anxiety out of the situation.

Here are some suggestions for what to say when you want to set up an appointment with a prospect:

1. State clearly your identity. “My name is Lee Ann Farmer, and I work for Possibilities Unlimited.” Be sure to use your first and last name. People know a lot of Joe’s, Laurie’s and even Lee Ann’s.

2. State what you have in common – have you met before? Did someone refer you? Do you belong to the same professional association? Do your kids go to the same school? “Ralph White knows you from the local chamber of commerce. He asked me to give you a call.”

3. State what you have to offer. “Our company works with businesses like yours to create results in sales.”

4. Ask for the conversation. “I’d like to set up a time to talk about how your sales department is doing, and discuss how we’ve been able to increase sales at other companies like yours.”

Once you’ve got a few of these calls under your belt, you’ll become more and more relaxed and confident about selling. I always try to make every call personal, but not take it personally. Do your research, be friendly and engaging, but move on if the prospect is a dead end. Use your script, but only as a guideline. Find something unique to say to each prospect, and just keep going. Before you know it, you will have appointments booked weeks in advance, and you’ll be winning the game of sales.

In a future blog, we’ll delve into sample conversations for presenting your product or service.


Are you ready to win?

Health and Fitness - The Business Connection

"The first wealth is health" Ralph Waldo Emerson

Busy entrepreneurs tend to be very focused on the vital signs of their businesses, often neglecting their own health and the connection between personal and professional fitness. Without a clean bill of health, many entrepreneurs cannot secure the necessary insurance to back their business. Further, if employees are unfit, it becomes more expensive to provide health care coverage. Productivity decreases and absenteeism increases. All this contributes negatively to the bottom line.

The nation's workforce is becoming increasingly unhealthy. Root causes range from influences at the workplace to the home: sedentary jobs, lack of activity, too much time driving and sitting, smoking, oversized food portions, increased computer, TV and electronic game time, just to name a few. These unhealthy lifestyles raise the risk for Type-2 diabetes, high blood pressure, unhealthy cholesterol, stress, heart disease, and a myriad of other health problems.

If your employees engage in unhealthy behaviors, your costs of doing business will increase. Health care and worker's compensation premiums will increase as overall productivity declines. Other costs that employers often bear include prescription drugs, surgeries, therapies, and other medical treatments. Absenteeism adds to the hidden costs of unhealthy lifestyles. Employees take more and more time off to deal with these potentially debilitating illnesses leaving companies stretched to meet productivity targets.

How can a business owner make a difference? Lead by example. Begin by getting a full physical. Determine your current fitness level, and work with a primary care physician and fitness coach to help you develop a program to help you reach your goals. For your employees, use a health risk assessment (HRA), which is a systematic approach to collecting information from individuals that identifies risk factors. You can then provide individualized feedback and link the person with programs to help promote a healthier lifestyle to help prevent disease. Increase employees' awareness and take action. Provide educational programs, use your buying power to get discounted group memberships at a gym, or create team building opportunities with healthy group competitions for reaching certain fitness milestones per team.

For example, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) developed the Workforce Health Promotion (WHP) for its own employees, focused on these four pillars: physical activity, nutritious eating, preventive health, and making healthy choices. They’ve developed walking trails, discount fitness center membership programs for employees, and food policies which suggest healthier foods at company-sponsored meetings and events. The CDC even provides tips on program design, toolkits, policies and quick resources.

Your Consulting2Win coach can help you choose the right solution for you to be on your way to a more productive, fit workforce, improved productivity and reduced overall costs - moving your business toward physical, and fiscal, fitness.

Are you ready to win?