The Busido Entrepreneur

Greeting Friends,

An entrepreneur should have core values. These values shape your reputation and become the foundation of your character. Regardless of your industry, ultimately all business is people business. All things being equal, people want to do business with their friends. All things being not so equal, people still want to do business with their friends.

So, what does this have to do with Bushido? Bushido is translated as The Way of the Samurai. Bushido came about as a fusion of Buddhism and Shintoism. Bushido is known to have 7 Principles:

1. Gi: the right decision, taken with equanimity.
2. Yu: bravery tinged with heroism.
3. Jin: universal love, benevolence toward man; compassion.
4. Rei: right action; courtesy.
5. Makato: sincerity; truthfulness.
6. Melyo: honor
7. Chugo: devotion, loyalty.

Zen and Martial Arts have been a big influence on my life and I like these 7 Principles of Bushido. Using these principles as the foundation for my character, I will attract like minded people who share these values and therefore relationships can be built.

I have been asked what does my tag name mean (MikeCREI). MikeC represents my given name and the REI is principle #4. No matter what your values are or what you say, you will always be judged by your actions. Actions are the live presentation of our core values. When your actions contradict your principles, then you know you have some work to do. Another way I express it is I like to BE about it, not talk about it.

Stay true to yourself and your values and success will find you.

Thanks for reading. Please comment and share.

MikeCREI
"Building Wealth One Friend at a Time"
www.mikecrei.com

Credit Medic pt1

Hello Friends,

Many of us has felt a credit crunch recently. If you have good credit, bad credit, or no credit, the recent economic conditions has affected us all. Credit is and will be more important in the near future as this country moves more toward a cashless economy.

First is to increase your Credit IQ. The following are 3 books that will assist you with that:

1. Rich Dad's ABC's of Getting Out of Debt
2. The Complete Guide to Credit Repair
3. Debt Cures They Don't Want You to Know About
   

While you read those books and increase your Credit IQ, you will discover the value of obtaining your credit report. These are the 3 main credit reporting agencies:

1. Trans-Union
2. Experian
3. Equifax

You are allowed to get 1 credit report free from each agency every year. You can contact each one individually or you can get all three from one place.

• Annual Credit Report.com

The next information you need to be aware of is your Credit Score. Your score is not free but you can get it from one of the agencies mentioned above. They all offer some sort of program that will give you access to your scores as well as offer monitoring and other services. Take a look at all three and decide which one you prefer. You want to be sure you pick one that gives credit scores for all three agencies.

There are also third party companies that you can get your credit score and monitoring services but I'll let you look into those yourself. You see some of them on TV with catchy songs. Those companies are good if you prefer to go that way but do the research for yourself.

Take some time to acquire this information and in part 2 I will go over some tools that you can use to begin to repair any damage to your credit you may have.

The Credit Medic is on the case!

Thanks

MikeCREI
"Building Wealth One Friend at a Time"

Niche Marketing before Noon!

Hello Friends.

This morning, after doing some housework, I had the buzz to create a new site. So I used the following tools for my new site. Check it out!

First, I used the feemium web design and hosting site Weebly, (www.weebly.com) to design my new splash page.

Second, I used freemium affiliate network Clickbank (www.clickbank.com) to pick products in a niche. In this case the niche is learning
languages.

In these tough economic times adding other income streams is a must. The internet is the best leveraging tool today. Use it. Did I mention all this is free to use?

Feel free to contact me if you need help setting up a niche splash page or with anything I've covered so far.

This has been a good morning! Enjoy the rest of your day as well.

Thanks

MikeCREI
"Building Wealth One Friend at a Time"

An Entrepreneur's To Do List

Hello Friends,

I worked at an insurance company for a brief stint. I think the only reason I was there was to learn this very important lesson on being an entrepreneur.

During one of the coaching sessions the regional manager made this statement; “do what makes you money during business hours”. An entrepreneur may not work the traditional 9-5 and thus must be aware of how time is spent. At the time I was also reading 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. In this book he says, “Do not prioritize your schedule. Schedule your priorities” (pg 161).

This was an important lesson. Employees tend to do things that are not vital to making money and are good for multi-tasking. An entrepreneur must be focused. An entrepreneur’s job is clear. Raise money. Always be raising money!

There are 3 “to do” categories that an entrepreneur’s tasks must fall under. They are marketing, converting, and closing. That’s it. Any task or activity must fall under one of these categories or it is not making you money. Period. I know, sometimes there’s some “thing” that “must” be done “now”. In that case, delegate. Whatever time you set to take care of a moneymaking “to do”, do not allow interruptions.

Let’s look at the 3 “to do’s” of an entrepreneur.

1. Marketing: any activity that spreads your message, mission, and/or mantra. This also includes growing your brand awareness and of course, customer acquisition/lead generating.
2. Converting: you have a lead and now you must turn them into a customer. This is when you re-enforce your marketing (message, mission, mantra), but it’s now focused on how you, your product, or service benefits them.
3. Closing: is when your lead is now a customer. You present your offer for acceptance. Negotiation may take place but this is where the details of the business are being done and you get the sale or the contract!

Paraphrasing Jim Rohn, if you have to work full time to make a living, then work part-time to build a fortune. Now that you have an idea of how to spend your time more effectively you can get faster and greater returns on your time invested.

Thanks
MikeCREI
“Building Wealth One Friend at a Time”

Before you join a Network Marketing Company...

A Network Marketing business is a great way to start your Entrepreneurial journey. If you have a “regular” job and need extra money, it fits that bill too. If you're unemployed then it should be highly considered. Quite frankly if you’re not doing some sort of your own business in this era you will struggle financially.

The thing with Network Marketing is there’s usually an upfront franchise fee, then a membership fee, or you have to sign up for the services and/or auto-ship products monthly. That’s all fine but what's the plan for making money?

The key to Network Marketing is the first “to do” of an entrepreneur, MARKETING. There are many methods; print ads, fliers, business cards, direct selling, networking events, etc. All necessary but the INTERNET is a very strong leveraging tool.

An important component to Network Marketing is building downline. The key ingredient to marketing online is driving traffic. Since most of the Network Marketing companies have great websites that will do a lot of the CONVERT and CLOSE (the other two “to do's” of an Entrepreneur) work for you, it’s important for you to leverage their efforts and drive traffic to their/your site.

So, building traffic and downline are two keys to success in a Network Marketing business. Doing this first will give you a foundation to be successful in any Network Marketing company you choose and your rate of ascension will get you the props at the next meeting!

If you’re considering a Network Marketing business opportunity, join my group and get some FREEMIUM tools to start building your downline and driving traffic before you spend your money.

Thanks
MikeCREI
“Building Wealth One Friend at a Time”

Freemium to Premium

Hello Friends,

What is Freemium?

Freemium is a business model in which a company provides its core product or service for free and generates revenue through secondary sources. This model was made popular by internet based companies such as Google and Social Media sites.

When I began my current entrepreneurial journey I was strapped for cash, had limited resources, and I was taking on an industry I knew little about. I did not let that stop me. After all, this is the information age. My philosophy is information is free though knowledge comes at a price. I was willing to access the information and my price has been time, patience, and perseverance.

Since I had little money I knew I had to find another way. I came up with a motto, to accomplish as much as I can with as many free resources as possible. So that has been my mission and I will share some of them with you.

1. Google: What can I say? I’m a Google fan boy. So many free tools to get your internet and/or offline business going. They deserve a post all to themselves. Gmail, Blogger, Groups, Docs, Calendar, and Voice! The list goes on. Wave is interesting too and I think will be the new way to “email”.
2. Zoho: If you’re a Google hater, then Zoho is a great alternative. They have similar tools as Google does with some unique features as well. Well worth a look.
3. Open Office: Why does MS Office cost so much in 2010? If you’re like me and need a fantastic alternative take a look at Open Office.
4. Skype: Keeps me connected. As of writing this, I do not use a cell phone due to Skype and Google Voice.
5. Meebo: IM is fun and effective. Meebo lets you get all your IM clients into one place.
6. Personal Brain: This is an awesome organization tool. I’m a visual thinker and this is awesome for getting my thoughts together as well as keeping my information organized.
7. Yola: Excellent web hosting and easy to use drag and drop web design.
8. Bravenet: Great web marketing tools.
9. Weebly: I just came across Weebly. It’s like Yola and Bravenet combined with more high end look to it. I wish I found it earlier!
10. The Library: Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore was my office for about a year. I'm considering relocating soon and the Public Library wherever I end up will be my office in the beginning there too!

These are just some of the resources I used to get my business and my life on the road to success. There are many others in all areas. Feel free to comment and share any other free resources you use.

Thanx
MikeCREI
“Building Wealth One Friend at a Time”

My New Blog!

Hello Friends,

Thank you for taking the time to check out my new blog. This blog is will serve as a forum to express my thoughts and share information about business, entrepreneurship, finance, and personal development. There are many sub topics that those can get in to as well, so I my drift at times but life's a journey after all.

So here’s the tour of the stuff in the side bar:

• Subscribe to the RSS if you use a reader.
  
• Subscribe via email if you prefer to get my posts via email.
• Subscribe to my Group to get the juicy stuff that I don’t publish to the blog.
• I'm not really sure how Follow works but I'm sure it's cool.
  
• I usually just post quotes to Twitter but need to use it more.
• Gold Spot/Silver Spot: I’m really into Gold and Silver and the charts are courtesy of GoldSilver.com.
  
• Useful Websites: A list of websites I frequently visit for information gathering, fun, and stuff lol.
• Blogroll: Blogs that I subscribe to. I’m looking for more but man the list get long fast.

I hope you enjoy the blog and find it useful. Please subscribe, follow, comment, and share!

Thanx
MikeCREI
"Building Wealth One Friend at a Time"