10 Timeless Books Every Entrepreneur Should Read

10 Timeless Books Every Entrepreneur Should Read

If you are in business for someone else or for yourself you need to keep your mind sharp.

Part of this process is reading inspirational and entrepreneurial books on a regular basis.

More so for 'work from home' business people who, like me, can be guilty of finding it hard to stay focussed sometimes. So, many distractions!

Reading a certain type of book can really help with a wide range of skills including:

• Success Mindset - Talk to any ultra successful person and they will tell you that it is largely down to mindset.
• Being more productive - This is a biggie especially when working from home as you need to keep a handle on your productivity levels.
• Selling skills - Ultimately every businessman is a salesman. Whether its actually selling products, or selling an idea to your staff, it all comes down to sales.
• Marketing effectively - You can have the best product in the world but if you do not know how to market it to the world, you may as well have nothing.
• Being a face on camera - In these days of social media with Live streaming and YouTube, if you are too scared to get on camera, then you are missing a huge trick.

By the way, in case you were wondering, these skills are not just for business owners. Anyone with a job can utilise these skills.

So, to the list of books. These are in my opinion the best, most timeless (or will be) books that every would be entrepreneur should read. Click the blue links to find out more about each individual book.

1. The Magic of Thinking Big - David Schwartz : The title gives it away. Ever heard the saying, think big or go home!

2. The 10x Rule - Grant Cardone : This book isn't number 1908 in all the books on Amazon for nothing! Grant calls this the difference between success and failure

3. Dotcom Secrets - Russell Brunson : 

4. Awaken the Giant Within - Tony Robbins : Tony is world famous and due to his own inspiring story believes that everyone has huge potential locked up inside them. You just need to know how to release it.

5. The Quick and Easy Way to Public Speaking - Dale Carnegie : A list like this is never complete without a book by Dale Carnegie and this one is one of his best. If you are into public speaking this is a must read.

6. The Art of War - Sun Tzu : This book is not very well titled IMHO as it encompasses so much. This was compiled over 2000 years ago so wins the title for the oldest book on this list! It was taken from a battle perspective but has been used down the years to give insight into how to win conflict. "Know yourself, and you will win all battles"

7. The Motivation Manifesto - Brendon Burchard : In my opinion this is one of the most amazing books I have ever read. The very first paragraph is awesome. Here it is, take some time to think about the words:

"There comes a time in the lives of those destined for greatness when we must stand before the mirror of meaning and ask: Why, having been endowed with the courageous heart of a lion, do we live as mice?"

8. Think and Grow Rich - Napoleon Hill : One of the most famous books of all time and also one of my personal favs. Written in the early part of the 1900's, Napoleon interviewed 500 of the worlds most successful people and analysed what common traits they had, that attributed to their success. This is a must-read

9. Sam Walton, Made in America : The Walmart founder wrote this book as he believed that the best information a business owner can get about business is from his staff at grass roots level. If only every boss would do this!

10. The Psychology of Selling - Brian Tracy : This book is highly revered amongst people who sell for a living. In Brian's words, "Selling is more than just strategy and politics - it's the practical application of psychology!"

So there you have it! An awesome list if ever there was one. I read recently about the top 25 most stress free jobs. From audiologist, to bio chemist and many more, they ALL had one thing in common. You needed a degree (usually Bachelors) having done at least 4 years in college. To then start at a salary of about $28000 a year.

Getting just some of the above list in your head will not only put you ahead of most people but also enable you to have the mindset to maybe be the master of your own destiny, by launching your own business.

If this is something that appeals to you, you may be interested in this

Click HERE to Find Out More

How to Grow Your Facebook Fans on Your Page

Facebook has changed the way we grow our businesses. Your Facebook Business Page is a great way to bring together a targeted audience. Your goal is to grow your fans or ‘Likes,’ but remember you don’t just want anyone clicking the Like; you want to bring to your page those that have a genuine interest in your products/services.  While no Likes will be turned away, untargeted ones are not going to grow your business.  Here are some strategies to grow your Facebook fans on your Page

1. Using your Facebook Page as a place for your fans to gather is great, but you will want to make sure that your posts are interesting and engaging. Good posts will get your followers commenting and engaging each other, along with sharing these posts to non-followers, who in turn might find it interesting and ‘Like’ your Page.

2. Invite a couple of others on board as Admin of your Page. They can then suggest it to their friends and your reach can grow. In addition, having more than one administrator can offer different perspectives, which can help to keep the page interesting. It can also make responding to posts and comments more efficient. As your page grows, the more admins you should consider having.

3. Encourage your visitors to post pictures on your wall, which will help your Facebook page to show up in the News Feed. Facebook users love pictures, so take advantage of them and encourage your followers to openly share their photos.

4. Inspirational images are well received. In fact, they are one of the most popular shares on Facebook so make sure to include them on your Facebook Page.

5. If you have a Brick & Mortar business, you can use your print media to encourage ‘Likes’ for special deals and discounts. You can also take advantage of Facebook Offers.

6. If you have a large email list, you can suggest to those on your list to ‘Like’ your Facebook Page. You might also tell your Twitter followers to come over and ‘Like’ your page.

7. Take advantage of Facebook Ads, which are easy to set up and very affordable. It’s a great way to target your traffic and bring in more ‘Likes.’

These 7 simple things can help you to grow your Facebook Page. Get ready to enjoy more likes and fans and to build your business.

Does Your Linkedin Cover Image Suck?

Hope you are well and business is going great for you. As you know, we love to start off with a quote so here is a another great one to kick off - Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. Thomas A. Edison

So, have you seen what Linkedin have just done (August 2017)?

They have changed the size of the cover picture - you know the one that is at the top of your profile.

What does yours look like?

Here is ours

Your cover image is a really important piece of online real estate and should be viewed as your billboard.

Here are some stats:

• 50% of B2B Buyers use LinkedIn When Making Purchasing Decisions
• 43% of Marketers Say They Sourced a Customer through LinkedIn
• LinkedIn now has more than 500 million members globally.
• The total number of monthly active users on LinkedIn is 106 million.
• LinkedIn profiles with photos get 21 times more profile views and 36 times more messages.

So what does your Linkedin image look like?

Check out some examples for inspiration over on our blog HERE

Hope this has given you some food for thought. Oh, and since we changed ours we have had a massive increase in people asking to join our network, so that is an added bonus.

Any questions just shout at debandjon@lakesideprofits.com

debandjon@lakesideprofits.com

How to Make Email Affiliate Marketing Work for You

Email Affiliate Marketing Discover How To Make It Work For You



If you are a new affiliate marketer you have probably already realized that in order to make money you will have to not only drive as much traffic as possible to your website but also to capture your visitors contact information so that you can build a relationship with them. This is where email affiliate marketing comes in. 

It might be depressing but it's true, upwards of 98% of the visitors you drive to your website aren't going to buy anything and most likely won't ever come back.  That means a lot of extra work for you when it comes to getting traffic. How much better would it be if you could somehow have multiple contacts with these website visitors so that you could build trust with them and they would eventually buy from you?  

When you install a simple opt in form on your website you have the ability to encourage your visitors to sign up to receive your email messages. If you use this tool properly you will be able to turn many more of these visitors into customers. 

You've probably heard that it can take anywhere from 7 - 10 contacts with someone before they're comfortable enough with you to buy from you. In order to get them to open and read your emails so that you can build a relationship with them you have to always offer them something of value. You cannot just use your emails as a chance to make a sales presentation. If you do, they will opt out of your list and you will have lost them forever. 

We have started using a new email marketing tool which is getting us far greater open rates - Check it out HERE

We have increased from approx. 10% right up to 40+% in some instances. And we have tested with the internet marketing, yoga and vegan niches.

Make sure that you step outside of yourself and offer your email list something that will truly benefit them, not you. By providing them great and helpful information you are proving to them that you are not only an expert in your field but also that you can be a trusted resource who can provide them with what they need in order to accomplish whatever it is they want to accomplish. 

To get them to sign up for your list you can offer them a report or a short mini course.  No matter what you offer as an incentive the same rules apply: make it something of real value that will help your subscriber in some way.  

There is a lot of free information floating around the internet.  It isn't enough anymore to just offer someone something for free. It has got to be something unique that offers a lot of perceived value.  

This same principle applies when you are preparing your follow up email messages.  Whatever you include make sure it offers your subscribers useful information that isn't readily available elsewhere.  

The best way to monetize your email list is to include a post script at the end of each of your messages that includes a link to a product or service that will help them further.  

Most of us want to make more money and when it comes to email affiliate marketing the biggest thing you can do to increase your income is to take the time and effort to build a trusting relationship with your email list subscribers.  People are always much more likely to buy from a friend that they trust than they will from a stranger.

6 Ways Online Marketers Can Increase Their Productivity

The biggest constraint that most online marketers face is a lack of time. Despite what the gurus say, most marketers just don’t seem to ever be in a situation where all they do is work 30 minutes a week while their PayPal accounts flood with cash.

Instead, most of them spend hours a day glued to their PC or laptop screens trying to make their online business work. Over time, they get overwhelmed and burned out. This idea of ‘easy profits’ seems to be an illusion that will never materialize.

The hard truth of the matter is that if you wish to reach the stage where you have a passive income that rolls in like clockwork, you’ll need to do a lot of work in the beginning. You need to set up automation systems and have a plan and schedule that you assiduously follow.

Over and above all, you must be as productive as humanly possible. Many beginners spend hours in front of the computer but get nothing done. They spin their wheels faster than a car in a Vin Diesel movie and yet go nowhere. They mistake activity for work.

Time and energy is expended on things that don’t matter. All their effort is spent on learning instead of doing. They’re not productive where it matters and that’s why their efforts don’t matter.
In this article, you’ll discover 6 tips to increase your productivity. It’s imperative that you put them into practice so that you can get more done in less time. If you’re after the ‘laptop lifestyle’ where you earn an income while you sip cocktails by the beach, being productive is the most important skill to master.

1. Breaking Away from Social Media
Schedule specific times of the day where you’ll check your social media sites like Facebook or Instagram. As an online marketer, you’ll be on the computer a lot. It can be very tempting to sneak off and check your Facebook feed only to realize that you’ve wasted 45 minutes reading political posts and the vitriolic comments of people engaging in pointless debate.
As an online marketer, time is money. Facebook can be a major ‘time suck.’ So, only check your social media at specific times for specific durations. If you’re addicted to it, you can enable the Chrome extension ‘Stay Focusd’ on your browser. This will restrict time that you spend on sites that distract you. There are many other similar apps too. Find one that works for you and limit your time on social media.
To generate an income online, your focus should be on income generating activities. The cat videos and inane political debates can wait.

2. The 2-minute Rule
The 2-minute rule is a very simple rule. If you have a task that can be completed in 2 minutes, get it over and done with then and there. If you have an email to answer and you can do it in 2 minutes, reply that email.
If you have a plugin to install on your website and it takes a minute, do it quick. You do not need to make a to-do list and put all these little tasks on it. Clear off all the little tasks quickly. This will reduce your feeling of overwhelm and you’ll have less work carrying over each day.

3. Delete, Delete, Delete
Deleting your emails and old files off your hard drive is akin to decluttering in real life. When clearing your emails, delete whatever you do not need. If something catches your eye, move it to a KIV folder and come back to it when you’re free.
If you’ve bought infoproducts, delete them off once you’re done going through them. Ideally, you should take down written notes that summarize these infoproducts into a streamlined blueprint for you to take action on.
Don’t turn your hard drive into a cemetery for digital products. Delete whatever you don’t need and be merciless about it. By removing all the ‘noise’ you’ll only have to face what you need to focus on.

4. Quit Multitasking
As mentioned earlier, you must have focus. With focus comes productivity. Don’t have 27 tabs open in your browser so that you can keep track of many things all at once.
If you’re writing a blog post, give it your full attention till it’s done. Checking your website statistics? Focus on that instead of trying to listen to an audio track about traffic generation at the same time.
Your workflow should basically be you focusing on the income generating tasks that take up the most time. This will be followed by completing secondary tasks that support your business. Then you can set aside time for learning what you need to and finally, everything else that is less important. One task at a time and you’ll complete them in record time.

5. Removing Distractions
Some people work better with music, some prefer background noises and some prefer total silence. You must know what works best for you. Usually, silence is the best.
However, many people prefer going to a café and working from there. They like the sound of the hustle and bustle. Yet, the constant movement of people can be very distracting. You’re better off using a site like https://coffitivity.com/ that recreates the ambient noises. So, you have the background noise without the physical distractions.
If you work from home, make sure your family knows when to give you space to work on your business. You need total focus when you’re working. That’s the only way to be productive.

6. Work in Batches
This is a very useful tip. It means doing several similar tasks at the same time. For example, if you have 5 blog posts to write per week, batching your work will mean doing research for all 5 posts at once. When you sit down to write, you’ll be able to write all 5 posts much faster. Instead of researching for one post then writing it and then researching the next one and so on.
The same applies to all other tasks too. Doing video marketing? Edit all your videos at once. Upload all of them at once. Optimize all of them at once. Doing your tasks in batches will save you a lot of time spent going back and forth.

Batching is similar to doing work in a factory line repeatedly. You’ll be doing the same task over and over. You’ll get faster at it since it’s a routine and you don’t have to keep switching tasks and thinking too much.

Adopt the 6 productivity tips above and you’ll notice that you get more done and free up time for yourself. Of course, there are many other tips such as outsourcing, time management, task
management and much more. However, for starters, implement the 6 tips above and you can move on to the rest later.

Productivity is not just about doing more. It’s about creating more impact with less work. Get more productive today!
If you would like a Simple Step by Step Checklist to Create an Online Business check out our free guides at http://LakesideProfits.com/Insider

Is Your Glass Half-Full Or Half Empty? How Positivity Can Change Your Life

Do you know what happy, successful people think about every day? It’s simple. They think about what they want and how they can get it. Positivity can change your life.

When you spend your time thinking and talking about what you want from life and how you can achieve it, you will feel happier and more in control. When you think about happy things, your brain releases endorphins, which give you a feeling of well-being. It doesn’t take long to develop a positive attitude.

The Importance of Optimism

Psychological tests have shown that happy people have a specific quality that enables them to live a better life. That quality, of course, is optimism. If you’re groaning at the thought of such positivity, because you worry that you can’t become an optimist, then stop right now. According to WebMD, optimism can be learned. It’s all about cause and effect. If you change your way of thinking and align it with optimists, you will start to feel happier and see results.

The Happy Find The Good In The World

There are two distinct ways that optimists deal with the world, which sets them apart from the rest:

·         First, they remain focused on what they want, looking for ways to achieve it. They set clear goals and remain confident they will achieve them.

·         Second, in every difficult situation an optimist will look for the good. When something goes wrong, they determine what lesson or knowledge can be drawn from the situation.

If you look for the good in someone or something then you will always find it, and in the looking, you will find yourself more cheerful.

The Power Of Positive Thinking 

Optimists seek the lesson in every obstacle. They don’t get upset and look at where they can lay blame. They control their emotions and look at things logically.

Positive thinking has several benefits to your life:

Motivation: Willpower and motivation come from a strong mind. Negative thoughts lead to negative actions. When you replace pessimism with optimism, you reshape your outlook.

Strong Relationships: Happiness attracts happiness, thus happy people attract people who are happy. If you surround yourself with negativity, you will only attract negativity. Positivity breeds trust, which builds strong relationships. Without trust, relationships cannot survive. We are hardwired to seek trust.

Confidence: Negativity spreads and can impact other attributes, such as self-esteem and confidence. The key to leading a happy life is loving yourself. Optimists laugh louder, love harder, and walk taller. They glow.

Strong Mind & Body: Negative thoughts are draining and can have a severe impact on your mental health. They can leave you struggling to get up in the morning and inhibit your ability to sleep. Fatigue leads to weakness, sadness, and a lack of motivation. Therefore, negativity takes a toll on your whole body.

Choose Happiness

You can make the choice today to see the glass as half full instead of half empty. Look at your blessings rather than noting every shortcoming. Look at the best in everyone around you, because in truth, the majority of people are honest and good. Look for the good in their actions and in their words, and resolve to be of good cheer.

It’s easy to be upbeat when everything in your life is going well. However, it’s even more important to do so when everything is going against you or is falling apart. You can still draw from your inner strength and look on the bright side of life, it will pay off in spades.

5 Top Facts About Email Marketing

Hi there 

Hope you are well and business is going great for you. As you know, we love to start off with a quote so here is a another great one to kick off - "Change your thinking, and you will change your life." ― Brian Tracy

So, are you using email marketing in your online business strategies?

If not, then you are missing a trick! If you are short on time we have a really useful nil cost guide on email marketing for you over at

http://bestemailmarketingsolution.com/ExtremeEmail

Whichever industry you are in you have probably heard the saying - the money is in the list - and it is true.

By capturing peoples email addresses on your website and then sending useful information and offers to them on a regular basis you can substantially increase your revenue.

But, you need to have the right tips and tricks in order to get people to open your emails and then also click the links within.

It is all about building a relationship with your audience. Here are a few facts about email marketing:

• Email marketing can have an ROI of 4,300%

• 91% of consumers check email daily (most people check it much more!)

• When surveyed, companies say that email marketing is more profitable than: PPC, content marketing, display advertising, mobile ads, social media marketing, direct marketing, affiliate marketing…

• 66% of US consumers aged over 15 have made a purchase as a direct result of an email campaign

• 1/3rd of consumers say that they open their emails on the basis of the subject line alone

As you can see, this is a form of marketing with a truly gigantic ROI and that has the power to engage like no other.

The question you need to ask is whether you’re making the most from your list building activities.

If you want to make more of your email marketing or just want to get started we have an offer specially for you (our Linkedin friends)

http://lakesideprofits.com/email-list-secrets/

Any questions just shout

Until next time

Jon & Debbie Lake

http://LakesideProfits.com

P.S If you do email marketing and need a really reliable autoresponder then this offer finishes on Sept 8th, so click the link below today!

Get Your 14 Day Trial of Convertkit HERE