The Agreement Seekers Blog

I grew up with the expression, "too poor to pay attention".  This is a kind of tongue-in-cheek expression to describe people burdened by poverty.  Life for many is about survival and getting from month to month.  People in these circumstances are so busy getting through today, that there is no time left to think about tomorrow (their future). The next step up this ladder is people with little to no risk tolerance due to their budgets being so tight that they can't afford to "play around" with any risks.  In other words, they have to pay their bills.  They go to work to make it so.  And this cycle repeats itself over and over and over - in many cases for entire lifetimes. Given this reality, there are really two perspectives as they relate to what we do: These people are simply not a match for what we do.  They are better off keeping on the path they are on because they literally can not afford to take a risk.  What we do is not for everyone, and t...

Before starting this post, I Googled BOBO simply to see what I would find.  In Filipino, it is a word that means smart or perceptive.  In Spanish, it means dumb or dull.  It is interesting that these are somewhat opposites.  Then, there is Bobo the Clown (also acknowledging Bozo).  In this post, I add my own definition for BOBO. In our business, we specifically target groups of people similar to us.  We refer to this as Affinity Marketing.  I won't dive deep into that here.  However, depending upon the statistics you look at, anywhere between 50% and 80% of people hate what they do for work (and) if hate is too strong a word, let's say they could "take it or leave it" in regard to what they do to earn money in supporting themselves and their families. Of these people, there is a huge "slice" of folks who are Bordering On Burn Out. (BOBO)  They metaphorically "hold their breath" every day and can't wait for their workday to end.  Wednesda...

Hmmm... a funnel and two buckets... Sound like we're changing the oil in your car? Not quite. Anyone who has been around marketing for any length knows what a marketing funnel is. Essentially it is a process of exposure, then education that progressively narrows people who have been exposed to your message, then take the initiative to learn more - and ultimately choose to buy what you are selling, join what you are doing, or respond to what you are saying, etc. The funnel is a front-end business process. Like any process, it has steps to be followed (and as such) is able to be replicated, no different than a recipe when cooking any food. It is a do this, then that approach. We have and we teach how to use our front-end marketing funnel. Then we have two buckets for two different purposes. Bucket number one holds recurring income money. Recurring income happens by selling something, like a hot dog vendor. You can make a living with a recurring income, but you must go out on ...

 A big portion of the demographic of our target audience are professionals who are burnt out (for any number of reasons) and looking for income alternatives.  These people are looking for a "choice" with the opportunity to take their life in a different direction. I get it.  I was one of them.  Every week, there came the point on Sunday night at 8:00 - right after 60 Minutes - that I would feel a sense of dread wash over me.  It was the dread of another week doing something I "had to do", but it was not necessarily something I "wanted to do".   I had to earn money to support my family.  I had to go to a job and work with people I did not necessarily like and take direction from people I did not necessarily respect.  I was working to make a paycheck with no sense of purpose or passion.  It was a means to an end and in retrospect, it was year after year after year conforming to organizations I worked for.  It was a regrettable use of ...

 This is a quick bit of perspective and advice. Many business opportunities in our space never talk about taxes, other than to say that "taxes are your responsibility".  Right up front, you should know that if you want to build a long-term, sustainable business, you should learn about (and) pay taxes on the money you earn from your home business. As such, you need to know that you may be earning 100% commissions in some programs, however, you also need to know that these earnings are taxed at 15.3%.  As such, for every $10,000 you make, you "net" 84.7%, or $8,470.00. Some programs will send you a 1099 Self Employment Tax Statement.  Others may not. In either case, be smart and put the $1530 in a savings account (or any place you won't touch it) so it will "be there" when you need it to square up with the government at tax time.

The level of effort you apply to your business is important, sure.  However, the road to (profitability) is paved with a lot more things that need to be in place - independent of how hard you intend to work at it. Mentorship - enables you to avoid unproductive activity and provides a support system that teaches how to transition from a newbie to a professional Home Business Owner.  It is the proverbial "shoulder to lean on".  However, it is a shoulder you are paying for and this is an important dynamic for both the mentor and mentee to understand. Leverage - there have to be components of the overall "system" that leverage your time and money.  You can leverage your time with tools and technology.  You can leverage money by understanding and ensuring that you are involved with platforms that employ compensation systems that have a leverage component. Onboarding - allied with mentorship, there has to be a "structure" that (at least in theory) provides you...

This will all make sense at the end... Preconceptions and predispositions relate to opinions and attitudes.  Both attitudes and opinions can be thought of on a linear scale from negative to neutral to positive.  In our industry, we deal with preconceptions, all day - every day.   To drill down one level deeper, an attitude is an established (predisposed) way of thinking about someone or something.  It exists as something that is pre-verbal.  It is also known as a mindset.  Everyone has attitudes and opinions that are a matter of degree - in someone's willingness to speak up (or) remain silent.  Either way, attitudes and opinions exist. As stated, once an attitude is articulated into words, it becomes an opinion.  The important thing to understand is that an opinion is something that is not necessarily based on facts or knowledge.   OK...  So, what is the point here... We build organizations in the context of person-to-person co...