To Desire an Empire

It used to be that in order to make money on the web you had to have a specialized skill set. Thats not true anymore. Nowadays there are so many oppurtunities, and technology has advanced to the point where even web designers don’t need specialized skills. Everyone that I have tutored has been able to go from no web skills at all to managing their own portfolio of websites in less the 3 months.

Take a look at TCBoater.com, now mind you it’s only a month old so it’s not perfect yet. However, it’s nicer, and more functional then alot of other garbage that’s out there. This is a site run by an old high school friend that I recently bumped into again. She, Julie, was interested in running web businesses but always had to hire someone to build her websites. I showed her some free software that I use called Joomla, and within 2 weeks she was able to churn out 3 websites ready to start making profits.

Julie only does this work right now for herself. However, there is no reason she couldn’t start calling small businesses and start selling herself as a freelance web designer. I could see her getting $350-$600 per customer right now. I know because I was there and did this 6 months ago. I never teach anybody anything I haven’t tried and done successfully myself. I realize web design isn’t for everybody as it can be a little intimidating.

So what I have done for my sister, is showed her sites like eLance.com, GetaFreelancer.com, and Sitepoint.com. These sites are marketplaces where people ask for a service and freelancers all over the world “bid” on the jobs. Jessie, my sister, just had a baby girl a couple months ago and wants to be a stay at home mom. Today’s economy doesn’t really agree with that kind of thinking however.

I showed her these marketplace sites and how people will pay her to write various articles, short stories, jokes, and even some greeting cards. Now she says it’s no problem for her to bring in $300 a week, working whenever she wants. It’s not a fortune, but it’s all she wanted. Jessie knows that if she ever wanted to really go at it she could make as much as she wanted.

What if you can’t write? Well if you can’t write or absolutely hate writing like I do. Then you could try designing logo’s for businesses. 5 years ago you had to purchase fancy, expensive software like Photoshop. Lately, there has been alot of great open source (usually free) software coming out. These software applications almost always exactly replicate another piece of commercial software. Two popular programs are called Gimp and Paint.net and they can do everything that the almighty Photoshop could do.

Download one of these programs, then head over to 3DBuzz.com for some beginner training videos. These videos will be for Photoshop, but these open source versions are so similar that you will be able to benefit just the same. Mostly, the differences between these programs are buttons not in the same spots. After you have the basics down go over to PlanetPhotoshop.com and take a look at their tutorials. Print out a few and follow step by step with your new software.

This is great practice, and by now you’ll be so hooked on your new skills, that you’ll be yearning for more information. To polish your skills and quickly move up to pro level head over to PhotoshopTV.com. Where every Monday they have a new 30 minute episode full of video tutorials done by Photoshop legends. It took me about 3 weeks, a couple hours after work each night, to be able to start creating artwork that impressed people. Anyone can do this as long as their is a passionate drive to succeed. With just a small amount of learning anyone can make a living without ever driving off to a 9-5 again.

These are just a few of the ways I can show you how to make money online. Make sure you are subscribed to this blog so you can catch all of my knowledge. If you don’t know anything about feeds and RSS, I have a link on the right hand side to get updates via email just for you. Well thats all for today, stay tuned as the next post we’re going to get into starting a free online store and affiliate marketing made easy.

Onwards and Upwards,
Justin Brooke

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I was recently accepted into the Mind Petals Network for Young Entrepreneurs, and have my own column on all things bootstrapping. I wanted to talk just alittle about my recent article for MindPetals.com. I wrote about a technique called the “handy man.”

The “handy man” technique for bypassing gatekeepers is your personal vehicle to accessing the decision makers of any business. When you combine closing skills with a vehicle that drives you straight to the decision makers, you have a system for mass sales. I know because this is not just advice, this is the story of 2 years of my life.

Read about The Handy Man Technique: Cold calling techniques: Bypass the gatekeepers

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A scene from the movie “Boiler Room.” Depicting an over-exaggerated sales situation while still demonstrating true life sales closing techniques.

While one side of me hates this movie for being part of the reason salesmanship is underappreciated and sometimes despised, another part of me relishes in the quality of the techniques displayed.

Ok so I’ve held myself responsible for talking about closing in this post. What is a closer and closing, in regards to sales? A closer is a salesman among salesman, s/he is the sales person other sales persons go to when they have a person right on the edge, but can’t get them to jump over in the sales process. A close is the part of sales when you actually ask for the sale. However, closing is “moving the customer towards you’re objective in the presentation with finesse.” Knowing how to ask the right questions at the right time, voice inflection, rebuting the prospects concerns, and educating the customer are all parts of closing.

I’m sure you have heard the famous quote “ABC = Always Be Closing.” from the movie GlenGary, GlenRoss. This means that nothing that is not helping you close the sale should be said during the sales presentation. You need to have a script that is so memorized, you could call any piece of it into action at anytime during the sales process without hesitation. (Ideally) Being that this is a blog and not a book I have to move on. Subscribe to this blog though as I will be going into this more in depth with time.

How To Close:

First off, if you are really serious about doubling or tripling your sales percentages I highly recommend these two books.(Zig Ziglar’s Secrets of Closing the Sale | The Art of Closing Any Deal: How to Be a Master Closer in Everything You Do) Get them right away, you will be able to implement the techniques in these books as you read each chapter.

So you have gained the customers interest and then you have educated them about your product, now it’s time to go in for the first closing attempt. What do you do? I always go for a real easy direct close first, to guage where the prospect is, not to mention maybe i’ll get lucky and the prospect will go down easy. ( TIIIMMMBERRRR!) An example of one of these easy direct closes is “we allow cash, check, or credit card…which will you be using today?” (Never ask a question that can be answered with a simple yes or no. You want to keep a conversation going)

Never be scared to ask for the money, as a salesperson it is YOUR JOB to ask for the money.

Now either you will have gotten lucky and filling out an order form right now, or the prospect said something like “I would pay credit but I really wasn’t ready to buy anything today. I just came in for information.” No where in this statement did the customer say ” I don’t want your product.service.” The customer is just afraid to part with their money at this point, it’s a perfectly natural feeling. Now it’s your job to create urgency and make them feel safe about relinquishing there hard earned money. After you have tried closing the sale once now you are rebuting the prospects objections. The objection you are facing right now with our example situation is “I want to think some more before I decide to buy.”

You might come back with “well mrs. x, I am a consumer just like you at other stores so I understand wanting to make sure you are making the right choice before buying. However, I have to say that if you don’t make the purchase today you could miss out on a sale we’re having right now.” (urgency) Now you are going to go in for a stronger closing technique.

The Benjamin Franklin Close: (From, The Art of Closing Any Deal: How to Be a Master Closer in Everything You Do)

Mrs. X, when I am about to make an important decision I use the same technique that the great Benjamin Franklin used to use. I take a piece of blank paper (have one ready) and draw a line straight down the center. Then I label one side Pro’s and the other Con’s. Now I can write out the pro’s and con’s of my decision. This always helps me feel secure about my decisions…(Start listing as many pro’s about your product/service as you can. Act out this whole scenario with the customer and be silent when it comes to the con’s. If the customer does come up with some bad aspects of the product/service, GREAT! Now they have just uncovered their true and only objections to buying. Use your words to turn any con’s into benefits or atleast make them feel minimal and go back over ALL the MANY pro’s with the customer. ) So you see Mrs. X not only do you save money by making your purchase today, but you can see right here that the Pro’s outweigh the Con’s. I’ll go grab an order form. (ask a trivial question to break them out of any defensive thoughts, that may have just popped up. Examples; Would you like that in red or blue? Will you pay with cash or credit?)

It’s a good rule of thumb to not try and close more then 3 times as that starts to get really pushy. If after three closesm unless you feel really sure there is still a chance, just let it go. You can’t save em all Hasselhoff! You don’t want to beat a dead horse, thank your prospect and move onto the next as if nothing ever happened. Sales is about numbers and percentages.

And with that my friends, is your first lesson from me on closing a sale. Much more to come, and if you just cannot wait for more great techniques like the Benjamin Franklin close. Then buy these books today:

• Zig Ziglar’s Secrets of Closing the Sale
• The Art of Closing Any Deal: How to Be a Master Closer in Everything You Do

Onwards and Upwards,
Justin Brooke

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I am a salesman thru and thru, always have been always will be. The thing you might not understand is so are you.

“Everyone is selling and everythings is sales.” by Zig Ziglar

If you are interested in being successful in life you have to hone your sales skills. It is mandatory! You cannot have a job interview go well without sales skills, you cannot win an argument without sales skills, you cannot even talk a 3yr old into eating the rest of his chicken nuggets without having sales skills. So many people are scared to sell, or think sales is borderline criminal work. Sales is merely a conversation in which you try to have it go your way. That is the simplest explanation I can give.

Sales as pertained to the business world is the act of bringing in money. So if you are in business for yourself or contemplating the act soon, then it is so crucial that you start sharpening your lips as I say. (Reading, Watching, Practicing sales techniques.) A business cannot live or even be called a business without a monetary current. Even a non-profit company first has to sell people as to why they should donate their hard earned income to their cause.

Right from the hip of this blog, I’m going to teach you how you can be a better salesman/woman then 80% of the other sales professionals out there. You can make this leap in as little as just one weekend. What you do is you go into your kitchen grab the following items:

• Fork
• Spoon
• Bowl
• Pot/Pan
• Toothpick or some other very small insignificant object.

Now you’re going to take those items into the bathroom. Take a minute to look into the mirror and point out one good quality about yourself. Now without further thought pick up the fork and sell it to the mirror! Try first to give a 60 second presentation. With time you should be able to give that mirror the most outrageous 3 minute sales presentation a fork and mirror have ever seen. Repeat this with each object, grab random household items, sell the toilet to the mirror, but be relaxed and observant the whole time.

This excercise has been done by all the top sales professionals, most still practice this right before major presentations. It’s an excercise is building confidence, learning how your body looks and reacts while you pitch, and sharpening your innovative powers. You have to be serious about this though, you are not in there for jokes. If you stutter or notice your body language reflected something that did not flow with your pitch…STOP..and start over. If you did this for just 30 minutes this Saturday and Sunday morning. Monday you would be ready, able, and willing to sell anything to anyone at anytime. Practice this 15 minutes every day, within a month you can be out performing 80% of all sales people. The confidence you build during this excercise will actually make you yearn for the oppurtunity to sell something to someone. You’ll start doing it in your conversations, anything to watch how much better your persuasive power has gotten.

Next post we’ll talk about closing a sale, because no sale is a sale without a close.

Onwards and Upwards,
Justin A . Brooke

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Hmmm…well I’m a first time blogger so bare with me as I get up to speed. I am planning for this blog to give an insight to my life and work. I am 24 years old and have been through some things you have only seen in the movies! Then again who hasn’t? (There is a brief introductory to my life in the about section)

So why should you give me anymore then 30 seconds of your time?

In my eyes. there are sooo many ways to be making money working for yourself. I want to unearth them all for you, I started already by giving you my most traveled to links. (listed on the sidebar of this blog) I have found my way into alot of mistakes in my quest to work for myself and make money online. There is a famous quote, at the moment I can’t remember who by, that says “a smart man learns from his mistakes but a genius learns from the mistakes of others.” So please use me to become a genius!

If you’re interested in quitting your job to work for yourself, then you need to bookmark this blog and subscribe. My whole life I have always been able to figure out how to do things my own way. How to make the money I wanted, when I wanted it, and how I wanted to make it. Finally, instead of the random forum post on the many forums I am a member of, I am letting my knowledge out onto this virtual paper. When we have all reached our dreams, lets take a cruise together! Just us we’ll rent the whole Yacht! Well, in the Euphoria that I imagine that’s what we’ll do…and the reason I want to write.

Follow me and I’ll teach you; sales skills are the most important skills you can posses, to be a self taught “professional” web designer in 6 months, to make money online, to market anything for under $100 to 100k+ people, to be in business for yourself, finally to stay positive when its raining negativity.

Onwards and Upwards,
Justin A. Brooke

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