Expos(ed)

7 Ways To Stop Sabotaging Your Income in a Recession

By Debbie Allen

In today’s challenged economy you must develop a proven marketing plan and stick with it. Now is the best time to market your business since many of your competitors have cut back on their marketing. Therefore when you market now, you’ll stand out even more. How to stop sabotaging your income:

1. Stop worrying about the economic situation and focus on the positive results you can make in your business each day.

2. Do more to get more. Today you must work smarter and harder to get ahead.

3. Get more creative and innovative with your marketing. Dare to be different!

4. Use more low cost marketing strategies to promote your business such as social networking, free media and networking.

5. Spend down time learning new business skills. Invest in your skills by reading more and attending live events.

6. Invest in personal development. Utilise this time to become a better you. Learn how to manage stress, fear or challenges more effectively.

7. Update your marketing and develop a powerful brand. Improve your business card and website for more effective exposure.

If you don’t keep reminding your existing customers to return – they will simply forget about you. Your customers are your most valuable asset. Prove to your clients that you really do value and appreciate them on a regular basis.

Show your customers that you are a successful entrepreneur willing to invest in your relationship with them. This in turn will instil trust, credibility and confidence in you and your company as well as your services and/or products.

Marketing is an investment into your business – not an expense! When done well, marketing will pay you back with a return on your investment many times over. This will automatically increase your income!

5 Reasons Why Dreams Don't Take Flight

"The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by obvious realities. We need men and women who can dream of things that never were...!" - John F. Kennedy

By John C. Maxwell
Most of us never see our dreams come true. Instead of soaring through the clouds, our dreams languish like a broken-down airplane confined to its hangar. Through life, I have come to identify five common reasons why dreams don't take flight.

#1 We Have Been Discouraged from Dreaming by Others
We have to pilot our own dreams; we cannot entrust them to anyone else. People who aren't following their own dreams resent us pursuing ours. Such people feel inadequate when we succeed, so they try to drag us down.

If we listen to external voices, then we allow our dreams to be hijacked. At some point, other people will place limitations on us by doubting our abilities. When surrounded by the turbulence of criticism, we have to grasp the controls tightly to keep from being knocked off course.

#2 We Are Hindered by Past Disappointments and Hurts
In the movie Top Gun, Tom Cruise plays Maverick, a young, talented, and cocky aviator who dreams of being the premier pilot in the U.S. Navy. In the film's opening scenes, Maverick showcases his flying ability but also displays a knack for pushing the envelope with regards to safety. Midway through the movie, Maverick's characteristic aggression spells disaster. His plane crashes, killing his best friend and co-pilot.

Although cleared of wrongdoing, the painful memory of the accident haunts Maverick. He quits taking risks and loses his edge. Struggling to regain his poise, he considers giving up on his dream. Although the incident nearly wrecks Maverick's career, he eventually reaches within to find the strength to return to the sky.

Like Maverick, many of us live with the memory of failure embedded in our psyche. Perhaps a business we started went broke, or we were fired from a position of leadership. Disappointment is the gap that exists between expectation and reality, and all of us have encountered that gap. Failure is a necessary and natural part of life, but if we're going to attain our dreams, then, like Maverick, we have to summon the courage to deal with past hurts.

#3 We Fall into the Habit of Settling for Average
Average is the norm for a reason. Being exceptional demands extra effort, sustained inspiration, and uncommon discipline. When we attempt to give flight to our dreams, we have to overcome the weight of opposition. Like gravity, life's circumstances constantly pull on our dreams, tugging us down to mediocrity.

Most of us don't pay the price to overcome the opposition to our dreams. We may start out inspired, but through time we fatigue. Although never intending to abandon our dreams, we begin to make concessions here and there. Through time, our lives become mundane, and our dreams slip away.

#4 We Lack the Confidence Needed to Pursue Our Dreams
Dreams are fragile. They will be buffeted by assaults from all sides. As such, they must be supplied with the extra strength of self-confidence. In Amelia Earhart's day, women were not supposed to fly airplanes. If she had lacked self-assurance, she never would have even attempted to be a pilot. Instead, Earhart confidently chased after her dream, and she was rewarded with both fulfillment and fame.

#5 We Lack the Imagination to Dream
For thousands of years, mankind traveled along the ground: by foot, by horse-and-buggy, by locomotive, and eventually by automobile. Thanks to the dreams of Orville and Wilbur Wright, we now hop across oceans in a matter of hours. The imaginative brothers overcame ridicule and doubt to pioneer human flight, and the world has never been the same.

Many of us play small because we do not allow ourselves to dream. We trap ourselves in reality and never dare to go beyond what we can see with our eyes. Imagination lifts us beyond average by giving us a vision of life that surpasses what we are experiencing currently. Dreams infuse our spirit with energy and spur us on to greatness.

"Nothing happens unless first a dream!" - Carl Sandburg

"Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning!" - Gloria Steinem