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Old December 11, 2017, 01:00 PM
GordonJ's Avatar
GordonJ GordonJ is offline
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Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: West Palm Beach, FL
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Default Open rant/rave to would be middlemen, TOLL boothers, JV partners, and opportunities..

This may be long winded, you have been forewarned. And, I will post quickly, meaning, check back, because this may take me all day to write, I've lost too many things recently, so best to post and edit.

So, big mistakes I've made; offering a one year program...just too long, too much time, and as some have found out, they can't keep their attention over a year, thus, that was eliminated from all my offers. Short term works, but I've seen too many starters get sidetracked by their life, things happening, and so on.

A brief rant about financial freedom. It is my opinion it takes 5 years for a married person with kids, or longer, to achieve financial freedom...get to the point where their money is earning their income. A single person or a couple who works together, sans kids, could get there in 2 years.

The catch? FOCUSED activity, or as I am wont to say, "Where your head goes, your body follows."

Now, of course, financial freedom is subjective, what it means to you will be different from what it means to other people. I'm reminded of a ship mate who stayed on his 36' sloop while we were in port, and though he did pay a slip space, he also worked for the harbor master and actually didn't pay any rent. He was able to pocket his Navy paychecks, which included our "Hazardous Duty Pay" (HA, for sitting on the beaches of Waikiki)...and he had a great time. Lots of adventures.

Another shipmate stayed with friends during our 90 days in port, he had a backpack and sleeping bag, and slept on floors and couches. Both of these guys saved their money and escaped the Navy with big wads of cash, as did I, from my chatteling.

We were all frugal with a purpose, mainly to save our money for after our Navy tours were done. Contrast that to the typical sailor who spent his paycheck on immediate pleasures. Not unlike most marketers who start getting a little ahead, they splurge and don't save.

The only secret to making money is, once you start making it, keep it and make it work for you. AH, that lesson goes in one ear and out the other.

But we've had recent discussions about TOLL POSITIONS. These give you control of a flow, sometimes in both directions as a toll booth on a bridge or a road will do, you have to pay coming and going.

We often refer to Harvey Brody, who wrote a lot about TOLLS, and demonstrates that through his product controls, most famously with ZOOM SPOUT OILER and PISTOL GRIP SPRAY CAN HOLDER.

On the SQ1, financial pictogrigm, here:
http://www.sowpub.com/gordon/financialpicto.gif

You see under sources, ownership...appreciation and USES, and you see leases, rights, rentals. Ed Barr made his fortune controlling Oil and Gas Leases he took over. Back in the day, his second billion, came from BLOCKBUSTER VIDEO, for renting movies...on top of his garbage fortunes (Wayne Huizenga).

Licensing is all about the use of rights.

IF you are considering a middle man operation, you better get good at communciation, on the phone, Internet. You don't have to meet people face to face, although that helps for LOCAL deals, but if you are not a people person, face to face, you need to be a good letter writer, email writer, and be able to talk on the phone. Having talked to many of you, an across the board assessment is, you need to WORK harder on this part.

The essence of Middlemen operations is an AGREEMENT. It helps to have an attorney, as long as you don't allow him to mess your deals up, read Robert Ringer for some good lessons on that. It might behoove you to take a class on business law or at the least watch some Youtube videos on contracts.

Agreements are reached via MUTUAL BENEFIT. Which is why I'm always harping on focusing on what YOU bring to the table, what you have to offer which helps the other guy.

So, in my opinion, you want to enter all deals, even enter into all thoughts about Joint Ventures, or deals, or getting good agreements in place is to be aware of how you can help the other guy win too. This is pretty much opposite of the Trump idea of deal making, where only he wins.

Don't lose, but create a position where there is something to be gained by doing the deal in the first place. Dien went into his Africa deal with someone who knew the people who could help it all take place, so his CONTACTS were an important player before he put his money into the venture.

Harvey Brody can pick up his phone and talk to the buyers of major chains, like Home Depot, because he developed the contacts, and they come easier when you offer your JV partner some on going profits which he can only get through you, which is what makes the TOLL position so powerful.

I like to watch small indie movies, and in one I just saw there was a discussion about ATTENTION span, and the premise was made that attention follows INTEREST. Which was why a teen age boy could spend hours playing his video games but couldn't read a book, or why the dad could lose hours in reading but couldn't last very long at the video game.

It wasn't their attention spans, it was their INTERESTS. I think one year is too much to ask people who are trying to start a business, their attention gets distracted because they lose interest, and in my opinion, it is because they haven't gotten any results.

Like 9 out of 10 of my shipmates, they couldn't delay their gratifcation and spent their pay on more immediate pleasures, while a few of us, put our money back for future use. I think most of you do not get results quick enough, and profits do not come at a rate fast enough to keep you interested.

Most of you have heard the story about Ben Suarez and Gary Halbert and Astrology. Ben hated the idea of selling astrology junk of any kind, Gary told him to sell what people wanted. After 5 years of struggling to build his business and not making money, Ben said, OK, and within months of his ASTROLOGY TODAY ads on the back of comic books he was raking in tens of thousands of dollars a month, and went on to build a big business....

SELLING WHAT PEOPLE WANTED TO BUY.

I think there are at least a couple of lessons there. A few months of selling something people wanted, wiped out 5 years of struggle, and some of you have been struggling that long too.

We like to talk about long term goals, like 5 years, medium goals like One year (the view from the rooftop)...90 days and 30 day goals.

Again, my opinion, if it take you more than 30 days to make a profit, you're overcomplicating your lives. Of course, if you want to have a new product, like a new coffee, or a new soft drink, or beer, it will take time to establish it...and a much longer time unless you are well funded.

MONEY to invest can be a shortcut for you, if it doesn't cost too much to get. If you can shoestring or bootstrap your business, and scale it up rapiedly from the profits, that would be a better way to go.

Continued on next post. gja

Last edited by GordonJ : December 11, 2017 at 02:16 PM.
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