Body FX is a multi-million dollar, TV production company that has created a wide variety of exercise and fitness equipment infomercials. Some of their productions include AB Circle, Total Gym, Rhythm Rocker, Disco Abs and Red Fitness.

They are now launching a line of diet and fitness supplements that will be cross-marketed with their latest JNL Fusion videos and with all their subsequent video sets. They will be in direct competition with Beach Body, but have been set up as an MLM from the start.

Body FX Direct will use a state of the art compensation plan that rewards Reps and Coaches for developing and servicing customers.

Body FX Direct will also reward entrepreneurs for helping build a network of Reps and Coaches.

The backbone of the compensation plan is a network marketing style commission structure that has everything that even the most demanding network marketing professional would seek in a pay structure.

The Body FX Direct compensation plan pays uni-level style commissions and overrides on the sales of up to nine levels of distributors. The plan also includes Fast-Start Bonuses, Infinity Bonuses, and Matching Infinity Bonuses.

A full 50% is allocated to commissions, and all phases of the pay structure will include roll-up and dynamic compression.

During the pre-launch, sign-up is free.   http://teambodyfx.com

Exodus From Corporate America

 Whether you are leaving corporate America voluntarily or not, if your next step is into entrepreneurship, you have a lot of planning to do. 

Whether you’re about to leave corporate America or you have already left, you’ll benefit from the following which includes:

• Some proactive steps to take
• A few big mistakes to avoid

Some proactive steps to take:

1. NETWORK, Network, network!   It is never too early for corporate women to network, especially if you know the niche market in which you are establishing your new business.   This can be done informally through local meetups, joining online groups,  establishing your online persona (hint–>grab the Free 5 for 5 videos at the right).
2. Schedule informational interviews with successful (and not yet successful) entrepreneurs.  If you know some women who have exited the corporate world and ventured out on their own, call them up and ask them if they would be willing to meet for an informational interview.   Be very candid in your approach,  you want to get their professional opinion on what they have done well in the business world and also what they would change.   Be respectful of their time.   They are likely very busy, but you would be surprised at how they will welcome the break and talk about their business.   Ask if they would like to meet for coffee.   Be sure the pick a place convenient for her, and, of course, pick up the tab!    Be sure to send a thank-you note for her time.
3. Consider the hidden financial costs of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship involves startup and ongoing costs.  It also involves indirect costs.   Think about traveling to events, costs of building your online and offline presence, ongoing association costs.   Also,  these costs will likely rise over time.   This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the financial costs of entrepreneurship.   And, of course, it varies greatly if you establish a traditional “brick and mortar” business vs an online business.
4. Be realistic about your new lifestyle.  You will probably be busier than ever when you first start out!   If you are planning to work from home, don’t think that you will have a lot of free time.   Rather, realistically plan your day.   You will be the new boss; get into the mindset that you are still working, it’s just that you will be working for yourself.
5. If you do start your business while still working in corporate America, do so with discretion.   Be sure to check corporate policy and do not start the business if there is a conflict of interest.    It’s important to keep your corporate life separate from your personal business world.

A few big mistakes to avoid:

1. Using company time and resources to work your personal business.   It can be tempting to get off a few business related emails while working at your corporate job.   Or, checking out a few websites and collecting some ideas for your own business.   Then, all of the sudden, you’ve spent an hour of your company’s time.   Yes, remember that your time in corporate America does not belong to you.   You have agreed to exchange it for money.
2. Working your business with a corporate mindset.   In your business, YOU are the boss.  You need to make the tough decisions.  You need to be totally responsible for all aspects of your business.  You need to develop entrepreneurial skills.  You need to assess situations quickly and then make a business decision and take action.
3. Thinking you can do it alone.   You may be going into business by yourself, but build associations with others whom you want to emulate.   You will never stop learning if you are going to be a successful entrepreneur.  Your formal and informal business contacts will help you in countless ways; through support, advise, sending new business, etc.
4. Not giving back.   As you are building your business, remember to support other entrepreneurs; in time and business.   Have you mastered an online skill?   Great, offer to do a small seminar and share your talents.  

So, there you have it…some thoughts on planning your exodus from Corporate  America.  

This is not an exhaustive list;  rather a starting point.

Leave me your thoughts in the comments box below! 

Passive Income-What it is and How to get some!

Passive Income-What is it and how do I get it?

Per wikipedia, passive income is:

    “an income received on a regular basis, with little effort required to maintain it.”

I like Robert Kiyosaki’s definition in “The Business of the 21st Century”:

“income that continues coming in, over and over,  long after you finished expending the effort and capital it took to create the source of income”.    

Boy…sounds like something everyone should have, doesn’t it?   It’s especially desirable when retirement seems like it’s getting further and further away, instead of closer and closer.

Well, that is a goal with certain businesses.   You can not get passive income from a job or career.   Once you stop working, you stop getting paid.   If you were able to save some serious money during your working life, then you possibly have some passive income from investments or maybe rental property.

Rental property is a great way to generate income.  But, what happens when you get a call at 1AM when a toilet starts to leak?   Sure, you can pay a maintenance company, but there is still some work that needs to be done with rental property.

The kind of passive income that I am working towards is the kind that is made whether I’m working for it or not;  whether I’m even thinking about it or not; heck, I want passive income to be generated when I’m sleeping!

The passive income I’m after is the kind that is generated from a true asset.   The asset that I’m building is an internet business.  I’m part of a thriving team where we support each other.

The business that I’m building allows me to leverage my time.   So, my time will be freed up to do the things that I’m truly passionate about.  It will allow me to spend time with my family and friends, travel the world and really do whatever I feel like doing–even if there are some days when I don’t feel like doing anything at all!

It allows me to leverage other people’s time.   This is a great thing!  A really GREAT thing!  You see, as you help your business partners, you actually grow your own business.   That is a WIN-WIN!   The internet business that I’m building is one that I can be proud of; one that is built with integrity.   

Use the “Work with Ann“ link to learn more about my business and how we generate passive income in our team!   

Online Marketing Pitfall Number 5

Mom, Are We There Yet??  

Patience is truly a virtue in the online marketing world!  Maybe you’ve been there…you heard the great possibilities that exist in your new business venture.  

Your business leader is a huge success and says to you “If I can do this, so can you!”   And you are going great guns!     You are writing out your goals and planning your retirement date.   You are working your business using the same business model that your business partners are using.  

Then, something happens.  You run out of steam, you lose momentum, you lose sight of why you are doing what you are doing.   In fact, you are wondering what the heck you are doing at all.  Afterall, you have not reached your goal yet and your friends and family are watching closely.

Oh…the pitfall of expecting big results right out of the gate.   The expectation of the big money when the effort just simply does not match.   I’ve read that many people in the internet marketing world greatly underestimate the number of leads that they need to generate and the people that they need to talk to in order to build a business.  

It can be downright painful when your paper plan does not match reality.

So, what do you do next?   Well, the first thing to do is to look at the successes that you have had.  Understand what it took to make those sales or generate those leads, or whatever the success was.   Then, using the effort that you have with the results that you have proven for yourself, use those numbers to plan your future goals.

But, your business partner had more success than you did based on the same actions, you say?   Well, he/she is more experienced than you and probably worked through these obstacles early on.   And, as she pressed on, she got better at what she was doing.  

Is this easy?   No, this is a point in time when many people quit!   But, you should reevaluate your goals and the action plan that you have in place to achieve those goals.   Adjustments are fine;  they are not a sign of failure!   

Has this happened to you?  Have you worked through it?   Leave me a comment and tell me about it. 

Corporate Women: Do You Love Mondays?

Do You Love Mondays?  OUCH!!  

I had a call with my business partner the other day and she said passionately that she “LOVES MONDAYS“.   And I know that she does!

Do you?

If you are still in the corporate world, chances are that you have that sinking feeling in your gut on Sunday evening.   Then comes Monday.   If you are truly passionate about your work, maybe this does not happen to you.  I’ve also heard from business leaders that when you love what you do, you will not work a day in your life.   What that means is that your business or career does not come with dreading Monday and the 4 days that follow it.  

You actually look forward to Monday morning and start out the week with vitality and a positive attitude.

If you are still reading this post at this point, I’m assuming that you are of the mindset that is not particularly fond of Monday morning.   There are options…there are ways to build your own business and make your own decisions about how you spend your time.    

Don’t think so?  A powerful motivator for me is that I deserve to have the financial and time freedom that my own business affords me.   My children deserve to have an excellent education and drive safe cars.   Do you feel that too?

Can you visualize yourself finally taking small steady steps towards the business and life you’ve always wanted?

This may hurt:  Going it alone won’t get you there.

Working with a strong, powerful team of like minded leaders will greatly increase your chances of success.  A team in which we truly share our successes and struggles.   A team where there is no judging, but rather support.

How do I know?

I am part of such a team.  Would you like to learn more about it?   Go to the Work with Ann tab and lets get started! 

Are you trying to be someone you are not?

In the end, our reputation is one of our most important assets.  Building and maintaining an unquestionable reputation online and offline should be your number 1 priority.   

If you are trying to be someone you are not, people will feel that from miles away.  I’m not talking in the literal sense, rather in subtle ways.   What I mean is if you are not a true “bubbly” person, don’t try to be one through your blog or other online presence. 

If you are not genuine in our online writing and persona, people will sense it.    One of the biggest challenges in building an online presence is to develop a relationship with your target market. 

Lets face it, at our first introduction, you don’t really know me; you probably don’t  like me; and you certainly don’t trust me.   Those are the 3 emotions that people use to make a buying decision.  So, if I’m competing in the online marketing space, I have those 3 hurdles to overcome.   And it takes multiple exposures.   Just like in a face to face relationship, an “online” relationship will develop over several emails, videos, blog posts;  likely some combination of those.

Therefore, be yourself.   Keep in mind that what you put into cyberspace can be there forever and can be seen by everyone.   There are growing industries in reputation management where the online presence is protected and preserved.  You are just one person so be very mindful of the content that you publish and the claims that you make online.  

So, then, how do you stand out from the crowd?  You should be yourself and be consistent and authentic.  Will you have everyone and their brother following you?   No, but the reality is that you probably don’t want them to either.  You want to attract people to you who are comfortable with your style and what you have to say.  You want to attract people who are like you…those will be the ones who will grow to know you, like you and eventually trust you.    And, those will be the people who will be your long time customers and business partners in your online marketing.  

Tell me what you think!   Leave me a comment below or use the contact Ann tab.

Online Marketing Pitfall Number 3 Confusion in Your Marketing Strategy

Online Marketing can be confusing!  Do I blog?  Do I use youtube?  I hear facebook PPC (pay-per-click) is the way to go, so let me get started there!
Is that you asking those questions and starting/stopping/changing gears/going in reverse all in the same week??

Before you know it, a month has gone by and you are still in the red!

There are dozens of methods to market online.   There are paid and free methods and within each category there are probably hundreds of ways to implement the marketing method.   That equates to lots of options which in turn can leads to lots of confusion.

The best thing to do is start with simply 1 online marketing method, 1 platform and learn all you can about it.   Then implement it and stick with it.   Easy to do??   NO, at least not the sticking with it part.

But, this does tie directly into knowing:
1- What your end game looks like, that is your goal.   Want to go to San Francisco?   Ok, then set that as your goal.

2- How you are going to get there.   Just like driving from NYC to San Francisco.   It’s just insanity to wake up one morning and say “Bye guys, I’m heading to San Francisco & I’ll call you when I get there”.   Then go and get in the car head west.   No plan, no budget, no map, no clothes packed.

3- Decide your marketing budget ahead of time.   PPC is not just something that you start and stop if you don’t like your results in your first day.   You need to have a daily/weekly/monthly budget and expect that it will all be spent as you have designated in your PPC account.   Don’t quite have the stomach for a $30/day budget?  That’s OK, but expect to put in a little more work when using the free marketing methods.

4-Commit to a timeframe.  You need to give any kind of online marketing method some time to start to see results.  If you are using blogging and onpage SEO, expect that it will take days, if not weeks, before you start to see your keywords bubbling up in search engine ranking.

5- Test and evaluate and adjust.   Repeat.   Did you hear me?  Test and evaluate and adjust.  If you have given your marketing method ample time to produce the results that you expect but it has not, try to figure out whats going wrong.   Ask a colleague for some input.   Make a small modification, a single change to see if your results improve.    Changing one word or the color of a title can make a 50% improvement in your results.   So, Test and evaluate and adjust.   Repeat.

6- Once you master this, then implement another marketing method.  

So work this into your Online Marketing Strategy  and let me know how it goes.

Corporate Women: What was your best Compliment in your Corporate Career?‏

Many in the corporate world feel that recognition for a job well done is more important than a raise.  

Most who work in corporate America would agree that a compliment on work ethic or commitment to excellence is one of the best compliments one can receive.   This is usually the case even if the compliment is not publicized.   

This leads me to reveal what has been the best compliment that I received from a colleague and friend.    She told me I was “like a dog with a bone”!!   Hahaha, yes, still is a colleague and still a very good friend.    

You see, I work in software test.   Our main goal is to find the bugs in software before the software is released to the customer.   Sounds like a fairly straight-forward objective.   And, sometimes bugs are pretty obvious to find & report.   But, the real elusive bugs are the ones that we pride ourselves on finding.   Those are the ones that show up under only certain conditions and have a pretty nasty consequence when they hit.    And those are the ones that I’ll spend countless hours trying to recreate…trying to figure out what those conditions are that cause this bug to hit.   And, that’s when my good friend tells me I’m like a dog with a bone!   Others may have given up!   But, no not me, I am more driven to find the source of the problem. 

There are other times when I have this persistence, this stubborn resolution to see an issue to the end.   I have done that in the corporate world when I’ve proposed a solution to an issue that does not align with what others believe to be the right solution.    There have been several times that I’ve had to present my case and rationale for something that I think is the right solution.   Sometimes my solution is implemented, sometimes not.   But, the point is that in those cases, I was like a dog with a bone. 

Why am I writing about this here?  I think that this is a quality that serves people well in business as well.  If you want to realize a business goal, you need to persevere through the hard times, stick it out until the goal is reached.   That is definitely not always easy, but I think my years in the corporate world have helped me to see that and to learn that a goal reached is not the end of the game; it’s time to savor the moment and set a new goal. 

What about you?  What was your best Compliment in your Corporate Career?   How has that personal attribute helped you in other aspects of your life?   Will those attributes help in your second career?   Let me know!

Online Marketing Pitfall Number 2 Buying Every Info Product that Comes to Your Inbox

Ok, Maybe it’s me.   Maybe I’m an easy sell (PLEASE don’t start sending me offers! LOL).   But, I’m guilty of this one, or I should I say I was guilty…   But,  offers from the top dogs for online marketing solutions are usually really good!

You’ve seen the offers.  You’ve watched the webinars.  You’ve purchased the product.   It’s a great series of videos that you really need to move your business forward and finally get into positive cash flow.   Then you watch the first video, excellent stuff!   Can’t wait for video number 2.   When that is available, it’s more great stuff!   By the time video 3 comes along you realize that this is not the direction that you had planned on going with your business.   It’s great stuff and something that you will come back to later, but for now, you just need to keep this in your back pocket for when you are ready for it.

A couple of months go by and another great offer comes your way.  You watch the webinar, etc. etc.  The cost is just $197 and it’s great stuff!
Sound familiar?

I’m not saying that these are bad products, no, not at all, but what I am saying is be very selective of both your time and your wallet.

If you are on several of the industry leader’s email lists, you will see information products that are free and some that are for purchase.   It can be very tempting to purchase these products, afterall, these leaders are leaders because they are very good at marketing!

Sure, these information products pack a lot of punch, but ask yourself these 5 questions before buying:
1-Does this product really, truly fit in with my online marketing strategy?
2-Will I have time to fully engage in the training and implement the strategy?
3-Does the person making the offer have an excellent reputation?
4-Who is doing the training and will that person be available for any kind of questions?
5-Is it worth the cost?

Note that many of the industry leaders form joint ventures with each other.   Roughly, it works like this:   I create a product which I plan to retail for $100.   I ask a few of my business associates to help me promote it.   If they agree and send out an email blast, for every sale that they make, I’ll pay them $50.   From a business perspective, it’s a win-win.    From the prospect’s perspective, you may get several emails promoting the same product.   And that is powerful marketing–you are told by several industry leaders that this product is a MUST HAVE.   That is called third party validation.   And, sure, it may be an excellent product, but marketing is marketing and they do a good job!   They are industry leaders for a reason!  

You need to recognize what is going on with these offers and be selective in your purchase.

Do you like this kind of candid online marketing tip?    If so, us the Contact Ann tab and let me know!   If you have questions, use the Ask Ann tab and ask–others may benefit from your question and the answer!   If you would like to simply leave a comment, please do!

I’d love to hear from you!   

Online Marketing: Avoid Time Stealer

They are innocent enough.  You are working on your online marketing and you sit down at your laptop without a clear plan.

Cute baby pictures, your friend’s cousin’s great uncle’s wedding–what a good looking couple they are! Say what? You don’t even know them? Well…then why the heck are you spending your valuable time looking at them?

Or, you are sitting at your desk with your fresh cup of coffee, your door is closed, your family knows that unless someone is bleeding from the head, they are not to disturb you. You open your blog ready to put the finishing touches on that blog post that you started yesterday. Then, ping, your college roommate sends you an instant message! She knows you are online, it’s just plain rude to ignore her. So, you respond…she tells you she just got a postcard from our other college roommate and then tells you what they are up to.

Hmm…there goes 15 minutes of your 60 minute commitment.

Your friend certainly had no intention of being a time stealer, but you feel a bit resentful. What’s up with that?? You need to take responsibility for your time. We all have the same number of minutes, hours, days. We have to be in control, especially when we are independent entrepreneurs.

So, what to do:
1-Turn off instant messaging on facebook, gmail, yahoo, skype basically anywhere that supports it.
2- When planning your “golden time”, decide exactly what you want to accomplish before you log into your laptop. Write it down.
3-Set an egg timer. I’m serious. Don’t move off of the ONE single task that you plan to accomplish until you have either accomplished it or the timer goes off. That means, if you are writing a blog post, then you log into your dashboard, open the post and work on ONLY that blog post. Do not even move off of that window.
4- Keep a notepad next to you for random ideas. For example, you are working on your post but you also get a great idea for a related video and how to market it.  Don’t go to youtube and search for similar videos. Do jot down that idea on paper so that you can research it later.
5-Resist the urge to check your email, facebook, twitter, whatever your habits are.
6-Go easy on yourself. If you think that an hour is just way too long, make it 20 minutes. Simply train yourself to complete the task in an amount of time that is reasonable for you.
7-Continue to do these steps until they are a habit.
8-Celebrate your accomplishments!

So, there you have it.   Online marketing pitfall number 1:  Falling prey to time stealers!  

Let me what you think and  know how it goes!