C15 - Mind Your Business

Congratulations! The fact that you have come to this chapter proves you have a workable business idea. This chapter will tell you a few important things about business plan and give you some prosperity tips that you can use in your business to make money.

Business Plan
Every business owner, whether your surname is Gates or Nothing, needs a written business plan. A business plan for one person home-based business? Is it a joke? No.

In our country, people think of a business plan as a paperwork to get a loan or a permit. Our creative talents show their best when we write such project reports and plans.

Whether you sell candles from home and make Rs.3,000 a month or teach English to kindergarten kids in the evenings and make Rs.1,500 a month, you need a business plan.

Your business plan is a facts-based written document that helps you look ahead for direction, allocate resources, focus on key points, grab opportunities, work on problems, do first things first and make money.

The moment you complete a business plan, you are ready to launch your business.

Importance of Writing
Our head is usually like a crowded market place with thousands of stray thoughts. Only if you are clear in your head, you will be able to write any meaningful and complete document.

We are often insincere, unconscious and careless, when we think or talk. But, most of us become conscious and careful the moment we are asked to write down anything. Thoughts are subtle and intangible. When you write down a thought, you give it a tangible and material form. It acquires a life of its own. It will try to fulfill its mission. Its strength depends on the sincerity of the planner. Materially expressed thought leaves your mind, at least temporarily, so that you can concentrate on other important issues. The written thought has a power to act on the idea.

How to Write
The book keeps the outline and suggestions in this chapter simple and easy. When you flower into an entrepreneur, you will, prepare comprehensive plan with many colorful charts and tables with buzz words. You don't have to follow the order. Go through the topics, complete the ones that are easier as you go and later complete the more difficult ones. Whatever you write must be real to you.

Use common sense and facts rather than desires and dreams when you prepare business plan. Use headings and subheadings as you like. Your plan must cover all aspects of the business.

You are writing the plan for your own reference. Don't be embarrassed about grammar or spelling. Don't fear - it is not as hard as most people think.

To make you feel confident, a business plan of a housewife who works from home as a Virtual Secretary has been included. It has been prepared with the help of Business Plan Pro.

Business Summary
Summarize your business concept in a few sentences. State your mission, Objectives, Success Keys and Unique Selling Propositions.

Use your mission statement to establish your fundamental goals for the quality of your offering, customer satisfaction, employee welfare, long term vision and so forth.

Objectives should be specific goals that can be measured. Keep the list to three or four. Long lists make it harder to focus. Don't say, 'I want to have many customers and earn a lot.' Instead write, 'I will earn a net profit of Rs.2,40,000 in the first year by serving 360 clients.'

Every business has keys to success that make the difference between success and failure. For an ice cream seller, climate, kids, parking and electricity are the keys to success. Unique Selling Proposition differentiates you from the rest of competitors. Unless you know your niche, you won't have a USP.

Organization
By organization, here, we mean the physical arrangement. Name your business. Write about the ownership and legal structure of the business. If it is a partnership, describe the rights, duties and other details. Describe location, facilities and equipment that you need to start your business.

Estimate your start-up expenses (expenses incurred before you get to the starting point of your plan) and your start-up assets. Start-up expenses include expenses for fixing sign board, for printing stationery and for setting up an office. Describe how you intend to finance both the expenses and the initial assets. As you don't yet have experience in the new venture, it is not a good idea to borrow or use others' money.

Products
Describe your offerings, how they are provided and by whom, and plans for future product or service offerings and price structure. Write down the benefits and the value it will deliver to your customers and your plans for improvement of the products and services.

If there is a sudden surge in demand, how will you meet it? If you are not able to sell the product, what will you do with the unsold stock? If you provide service and suddenly need to travel for a week, how will you keep the customers happy? What will you do with returned goods?

Market Analysis
Describe general and target markets. Give your assessment about market and competition. Divide the market into workable market segments - age, income, service, product, geography, purchase patterns, needs, or other classifications. Describe different groups of target customers included in your market analysis and explain why you are selecting these as targets. What makes these groups more interesting than the other groups? Why are the characteristics you specify important?

Explain different groups, classifications, and develop as much information as you feel you need to about the customers within each group.

Industry Analysis
Explain the type of industry you are in. Look at the size and concentration of businesses in this group, the way products or services are bought and sold, and specific competitors. Explain the general nature of competition in this industry and how the customers seem to choose one business over another.

How do people in your target customer group choose between competing products? What factors make the most difference for your products? Price, or features? Reputation? Image and visibility? Are brand names important? Or is it simply word of mouth of satisfied customers? Are you looking for long-term relationship?

Sales Plan
The next step is to develop your sales forecast. Forecasting takes good working knowledge of your business, which is more important than complex mathematics.

What growth rates are you expecting in units, and in rupees? Why are you projecting your sales at this level? Why not less or more? What are the main driving forces behind the sales forecast? How does it relate to your market analysis, your main target segments, your sales strategy and marketing strategy? Is your sales forecast believable? Why? What events might turn the sales forecast downward?

Do you think you don't have the competitive edge to run a successful business? Values like punctuality and honesty can give your competitor a marathon run for his money. What kind of things are you assuming will happen to make sure the sales happen? What is your competitive edge? How is your company different from all others?

Money
Cash is critical to any business. Cash is different from profits. Profits and cash are not equal because of the impact of capital, debts, and assets.

Projected Statements
This section will be more difficult than others. You need to prepare three types of projected financial statements. All these statements have two columns. All the figures that go into these statements are based on your educated guess.

You will get a basic idea about the statements from this book. Don't you think half a page of this book is a bit small space to teach you double entry accounting system that commerce graduates take three years to learn? Please discuss the issue with a friend who knows accounting and request him to teach you just the basic concepts. Or buy him a pizza and ask him to prepare the statements for you. The knowledge you gain will be a great asset, when your thousands become millions. If you want to do it on your own, go ahead. Without proper guidance, you will make some mistakes. Don't worry. Just use commonsense, prepare the statements and keep moving.

Prepare a Cash Flow statement. If you are a housewife, you know how to prepare a household budget. Using the same principle, prepare a statement that will tell you how much cash you will actually receive and spend over the next few months.

Prepare a Profit and Loss account. On one side, enter the anticipated sales. On the other side, enter the expenses you will incur. The difference is either profit or loss.

Prepare a Projected Balance Sheet as at the end of the year. It is a table with two columns - Assets and Liabilities. On Asset side enter all your business cash, receivables and other equipment value. On Liabilities side enter payables, debts and your investment. At any point of time your assets less liabilities must be equal to the figure in the Profit and Loss account.

Future Plans
This is a summary of your financial plan. How fast is the business expected to grow? How do you intend to fund that growth? Are you growing slowly and producing profits?

Action Plan
Once you complete the above sections, you are ready for action. In the previous sections, you learnt to describe the concept and your ideas about various aspects of the business. However, you have not yet thought about tasks and activities that will implement your plan. Develop a step by step action plan.

Of the whole range of possible market segments, products and services, and possible sales and marketing activities, which are your main priorities?

If you have a computer and internet, download a free or trial version of a scheduling or project management software. Use it to prepare an action plan.

Sample Plan
This is the business plan of Mrs. Rani Elango, a housewife who works from home. She developed this business plan with the help of her friend using Palo Alto Business Plan Pro Software.

Rani Unlimited
Objectives
(1) To generate over Rs.60,000 in the first year of operation. (2) To work for 5 hours a day in the first year except Fridays. (3) To network with others and generate Rs.90,000 by the end of second year.

Mission
The mission of Rani Unlimited (RU) is to offer the highest level of administrative assistant services from a remote location. RU will be able to handle a wide range of tasks with a level of professionalism and trust. RU will exceed customer's expectations.

Keys to Success
(1) Offer a wide range of services allowing Rani Unlimited to handle any type of secretarial task that can be done from a remote location. (2) Maintain a flexible schedule so that last minute projects can be completed. (3) Ensure detailed and accurate billing and prompt collection. (4) Look for long term ongoing work with slightly lower rate per hour rather than short term one time projects with high rates.

Organization
The company, Rani Unlimited, is being formed as a sole proprietorship by Mrs. Rani Elango. The company will have start-up assets as detailed below. Rani will invest money of her own, and will not borrow or take money from others.

Start-up Summary
The following equipment and services will be needed to allow Rani Unlimited to begin operations: (1) Personal Computer, (2) Printer, (3) Internet connection, (4) Dedicated phone line and (5) Various software including Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, Internet Explorer and WinZip.

Office Space
RU will be operating out of her home. As she lives in single bedroom house and visitors are few, part of the living hall will be dedicated to the business.

Rani Unlimited provides a wide range of administrative assistant functions from a remote location. Rani Unlimited will serve a wide range of clients from businesses to individuals to not-for-profit organizations.

The following is a list (not exhaustive) of the different services offered. As long as Rani has the skills to complete a task, she will accept whatever project the client may offer: (a) Data entry, (b) Word processing, (c) Email marketing, (d) Bill collection reminders, (e) Customer support mails, (f) Lead Follow up mails, (g) Grammar and Spelling checking, (h) Excel worksheet preparation, and (i) Electronic documents archiving.

RU has the ability to provide many needed services for a client. Some of the services will be tasks that the client does not have time or staff for. Other tasks may be things that the client just does not have the desire to do. Either way, RU will offer a remote service to assist clients with a wide range of tasks.

This is of considerable value to the customer. The client incurs no payroll taxes, no insurance costs as well as no fringe benefit expenses. The client is not responsible for providing office space or equipment. This is contained in Rani Unlimited's hourly rates.

Service Charges
The hourly rate is Rs.25 - Rs.45 depending on the activity. Simple or routine tasks such as data entry will be billed out at Rs.25/hr. Activities such as Excel worksheet preparation and more skilled tasks will be billed out at Rs.45/hr.

Activities that require high internet usage like email marketing will be charged at Rs. 55 per hour, consisting of base rate of Rs. 25 plus Internet expense of Rs.30. If client agrees, actual expenses will be claimed as reimbursement.

Market Analysis
Rani Unlimited has segmented the market into four attractive, distinct, customer segments. Rani will target internet businesses, companies of any size, individuals and Not-for-profit organizations.

Market research indicates that these are the most likely consumers of remote administrative assistants. The virtual assistant is fairly new, proliferating with the internet, allowing service providers in remote locations to serve a large geographic range of clients.

Membership records within the larger American virtual assistant associations indicate that there are just 10-15 virtual assistants within each American state. RU was unable to locate any virtual assistant from India. There are companies here and there that accept work from big clients and distribute it to dozens of individuals on poor terms. Though there is great potential, this market is an infant and unnoticed.

Market Segmentation
Rani Unlimited has identified four customer segments which are the most attractive for the virtual assistant industry. These are the customers who tend to consume the largest amount of virtual assistant services.

(1) Internet Businesses: Most small online businesses are run by individual entrepreneurs. They are mostly from developed countries where wages are high. These businesspersons need low cost assistants. Whereas a typical virtual assistant in the United States charges $15/hr, Rani Unlimited charges only $1/hr. Both of them can provide the same level of service. As the services are provided over net, the client does not really worry about the location of the virtual assistant. However, Rani Unlimited will be so flexible in terms that no other virtual assistant can match and will try hard to be more efficient than any competitor.

(2) Companies: Some companies have been going through corporate downsizing as a means of decreasing overhead or burn rate. While this does assist reducing monthly expenditures, often the company soon thereafter realizes that there were certain necessary services being provided by the personnel that were let go. They turn to virtual assistants to perform these tasks. Companies also use virtual assistants for projects that come up with little notice, and for which they need a helping hand. The virtual assistants are particularly useful because the companies only pay for the services rendered and there is no continual employment or equipment overhead. Sizes for companies range from small organizations of a few people to large corporations. Some companies will use Rani Unlimited on a random basis, others may sign Rani Unlimited initially on a retainer basis. This arrangement is initial because once her business becomes full time, the highest billing rate work will be sought out since the number of hours available to Rani is limited.

(3) Individuals: Virtual assistants are also useful to many different individuals. The individuals are likely to use the assistants for tasks that they do not have time for or tasks that they simply do not enjoy. These tasks could be business related, but research indicates that many of the requested tasks are personal in nature, assisting the individual with something that they do not have time for. One such client is book author. The client provides the assistant with some guidelines and the manuscripts. He expects the secretary to type in, correct spelling, check grammar and ensure proper punctuation.

(4) Not-for-profit Setups: These organizations are attractive customers because they are often in a funding crunch. They frequently do not have the funding to have some sort of assistant always on staff, ready to do work as it comes along. The nonprofit organizations are often as trim as possible regarding staffing. This sets up an excellent opportunity for RU who can provide administrative services when needed, but are not a resource drain when there is no work.

Internet businesses, companies, individuals and not-for-profits were chosen because they all are likely to have a need for a virtual assistant, all for different reasons.

As companies continue to become as efficient as possible, they are keeping their current employees as busy as possible. Often they are too busy to take care of projects that come up randomly, and that is were Rani Unlimited comes in. Individuals will have a demand for Rani Unlimited for tasks that they either do not have the time for or do not want to do. This is especially true as modern men and women have less and less free time. This then fuels our desire to pick and choose the activities that we have time for or care to do, and then subcontract out the things we do not do.

Not-for-profits are also attractive as they are the organizations who often have the least funds, so creative options to complete tasks are always considered. Rani Unlimited allows them to have someone complete the task without the typical overhead associated with an employee.

Service Industry Analysis
Virtual Assistants constitute a fairly new industry that has arisen from the convenience of the internet. The internet created a medium where people could communicate, transfer files electronically, do research and find people all from one's home. In essence the internet has created a "web" connecting people in remote locations.

The other factor that fueled the growth of virtual assistants was the downsizing of the business world. This created a lot of opportunities for virtual assistants because companies are getting slimmer and slimmer and are finding they must contract out for the small, random projects that pop up. When you combine the market need for projects and the internet as the connection to these remote people, you have a new business model.

There has also been the development of a few organizations that specifically serve virtual assistants that has assisted the growth and legitimacy of the industry. The associations have developed certification programs that have assisted growth by helping establish trust between two unknown parties. The certifications provide indications of minimum levels of skills as well as work product.

As technology progresses, more and more tasks will be able to be accomplished remotely, sending the finished product electronically. Video conferences allow simulated face-to-face meetings, even though the two parties may be half way around the world.

Buying Patterns
By virtue of the nature of virtual assistants, competition does not have significant physical boundaries. While there typically are 10-15 registered or certified virtual assistants per state in the United States, there is no advantage in choosing a virtual assistant from one country relative to another country. In fact, outsourcing to developing countries is a better option for a client from developed country.

Virtual assistants therefore compete on availability, costs, work product and skill set.

If the projects are easy, costs are likely going to be a main choice factor. If time is of the essence then availability will rule, and lastly if the task is difficult the virtual assistant is likely to be chosen on their ability to handle the task. Note that these considerations are primarily for the initial selection of a virtual assistant. Once a virtual assistant has been found and has been used a couple of times, it is likely that the client will not be looking for a new one but will maintain a working relationship with the existing one, assuming of course that the client's satisfaction is maintained.

Implementation
Rani Unlimited will leverage her competitive edge of offering a wide range of services. This will be especially useful since once a client has found a virtual assistant that they are happy with they will tend to continue to use them. Rani Unlimited's marketing strategy will develop visibility and awareness for the company as a virtual assistant. This will be accomplished by using several marketing mediums.

Lastly, Rani Unlimited will highlight in her sales strategy the high level of customer satisfaction that she produces. This is especially important because repeat business from a customer is likely if they are kept happy always.

Competitive Edge
Rani Unlimited's competitive edge is the wide range of skills that she offers to clients. While many of the virtual assistants can offer basic administrative tasks, RU has an expanded selection of skills that includes Excel Worksheet design and marketing. Having the wider range of skills is significant because the nature of the industry is that once a good service provider is found the client tends to use the virtual assistant for all of the needs the secretary can fill. If there are tasks that the virtual assistant cannot do the client will look elsewhere to have those tasks completed. Herein lies the danger, the possibility that the client will find a new virtual assistant, one that is more diverse and stay with the new one. By offering a wide range of services RU can be the one-stop virtual assistant serving all of the client's needs.

Marketing Strategy
Marketing strategy will seek to raise awareness of Rani Unlimited as a premier virtual assistant.

The first method that RU will use is membership in the International Virtual Assistant Association (IVAA). This association offers a certification process which is useful when trying to sell services over the internet, giving the prospective customer a recognized credential for an otherwise unknown contractor. The certification develops some degree of trust because it provides an indication of professionalism, acceptable work products and appropriate skills. This will tend to speed up the process of developing trust between RU and remote clients. Being a member of the association is also useful because it includes RU in their directory. When clients visit an association's website looking for a virtual assistant, they will see Rani Unlimited's listing.

RU will collect contact email addresses of website business owners from English speaking developed countries and send them professionally written proposals. Every month a minimum of 300 websites will be contacted. When work pours in, marketing activity will be done at free hours. Care will be taken not to misuse email system by sending cheap spam mails. RU will develop a list of good will persons, contact each of them to explain the services and request for work or reference. RU will also place some advertisements in professional journals like Law Weekly. Journals for authors and research scholars will also be considered. Rani Unlimited will also have a website to showcase the services that it offers. However, website is not an immediate need.

Sales Strategy
The sales strategy will be based on ensuring complete customer satisfaction. This will be addressed because the chance of repeat business is very high. Once a client has found a remote assistant and used them for a while, a trust relationship builds where the client begins to feel more and more comfortable with this contractor.

There then is a decreased chance of the client looking for a different service provider when the switching costs increase. It takes time to find someone new and build trust. Rani Unlimited will be successful in developing superior customer satisfaction so that the majority of her clients will become repeat clients. With repeat business, marketing costs fall. There is a finite amount of business that Rani can handle in a month because it is a one person business

Rani Unlimited can be more selective in accepting the projects when more projects come in. Projects with higher billing can be chosen, increasing revenue for the same amount of hours worked.

The key to customer satisfaction is ensuring that all customers are more than happy. If it turns out a customer is not happy with the completed project it is worthwhile to correct the situation, even if it is costly in the short run. In the long term, the customer should be convinced to remain with Rani Unlimited.

Handled properly, the client is likely to tell others about how Rani went out of her way to correct the problem. This develops goodwill. Even if services have to be given away to ensure complete satisfaction, that short term cost will be a worthwhile investment for the long term sustainability of the business.

Projected Statements
The actual statements are given here in summarized format to keep things simple. The statements do not conform to accounting standards. The purpose is to let you know that preparation of these financial statements is not as difficult as it appears to be. Cash flow statement doubles as Profit and Loss account.

Projected Cash Flow Statement
Item Jan - Mar Apr - Jun Jul - Sep Oct - Dec

Receipts
Op.Bal. 0 3,000 18,000 39,000

Fees 7,000 21,000 30,000 30,000

Sub Total 7,000 24,000 48,000 69,000

Payments
Details 4,000 6,000 9,000 9,000

Sub Total 4,000 6,000 9,000 9,000

Cl.Bal. 3,000 18,000 39,000 60,000

Projected Balance Sheet As On
Item 31.03.03 30.06.03 30.09.03 31.12.03

Assets
Cash 3,000 18,000 39,000 60,000

System 30,000 30,000 30,000 30,000

Furniture 5,000 5,000 5,000 5,000

Total 38,000 53,000 74,000 95,000

Liabilities
Capital 35,000 35,000 35,000 35,000

Profit 3,000 18,000 39,000 60,000

Total 38,000 53,000 74,000 95,000

Prosperity Tips
You have started your own business. You have begun to make some money. However, you will be prosperous only if you keep progressing. The moment you stop growing, you begin to stagnate and then start declining. You must keep flowing like a river until you become a sea and then an ocean. There is an easy way to automate your non-stop growth. You have learnt about the power of values like Cleanliness and the power of Life Response principles like changing attitudes. The book gives you just a few of the values and principles.

Please learn about these values and principles and apply them to your business. If you implement those timeless, universal, prosperity principles and values sincerely from the beginning and follow them without any break, your business will take off like a rocket and will go high and high.

There are dozens of values and principles. Each value has its own strength. Each principle has its own power. Use them in your business. They will work only if you use them. Some of the ideas may appear to be funny and abnormal. If so, follow the ideas that are perfectly natural, logical and normal to you. If you don't agree with the law of gratitude, you will certainly agree with the laws of cleanliness and punctuality. Everyone knows the importance of these values. Why don't you follow them?

Prosperity Tip #01
Consciousness
There is a consciousness that is microscopic in its action. You can call it by any name you like. Experts say that every human being has it in the center of his or her chest. If you seek its help, it is ready to help you. How can you get its help? Before you begin to do something, try to imagine a brilliant white flame in the middle of your chest and tell the light about your plans. Remember the light and offer your act to it. Do this simple exercise whenever and wherever possible. It takes only a fraction of second. But the benefits you will receive may continue for years.

Prosperity Tip #02
Gratitude
Whenever you find time, offer your gratitude for everything from the deepest depths of your heart to the consciousness - that magnificent white light in the middle of your chest. No other insurance against mishaps is greater and more powerful than your heart-felt gratitude to the inner guide. This simple act has the power to neutralize all your problems and attract opportunities from nowhere.

Prosperity Tip #03
Harmony
If you have nothing pleasant to say about a thing or a person, be silent. The moment you disagree or begin a quarrel, you are declaring war against your own business. Avoiding disharmony eliminates problems. However, to attract opportunities and orders, you must develop harmonious relationship with all around you. If you are genuinely happy to meet others and if they are happy to meet you, then you can be sure that there is harmony around you.

Prosperity Tip #04
Sending Light
This applies to you if you have accepted the idea of the white flame in your heart.

When you dial a telephone, you send signals to the called telephone. The other telephone rings and makes the called person answer. Telephone activates telephone. Consciousness activates consciousness. So, imagine that a flame of white light from your heart goes to the heart of the customer, supplier, banker and employees and to your business premises. The white flame you send activates the white flame in other persons' hearts and make them respond to your need. This is a powerful method to increase sales.

Prosperity Tip #05
Be Positive
The nature of water is to help plants and trees grow. It helps both useful plants and poisonous plants grow. Like water, attention has the power to energize the object or issue on hand. If you give attention to negative aspects or problems, they will grow. If you refuse to give attention to them, slowly they will leave you.

If you give attention to positive traits and issues, they will be energized. Your life will be full of positive things and you will be surrounded by a positive atmosphere.

Ken has an Australian friend who practises this principle to the extreme, to the extent of being crazy. He would not say, "Nothing is impossible," because it has two negative words. Instead, he would say, "Everything is possible." He is successful. Anyone who meets him and appreciates him receive some benefits from unexpected sources within a week. His positive atmosphere has so much of power.

When you meet a person, be open to tell him about the positive quality and let him know how much you like it. Immerse him in the abundance of your praise. If you do this, everyone will have at least one reason to like you. But don't lie. Others can easily figure out your deception in no time. Never give attention to negative words, negative thoughts and negative traits.

Prosperity Tip #06
Accounts
The best way to give attention to money is to maintain accurate accounts. If you balance your account books properly everyday, you will never have cash, money, currency shortfall. Don't expect this principle to work in your business, if you don't care to maintain personal and household accounts. Money is money, whether it is used for business or personal purpose. Your accounts should automatically tally without any adjustment.

Prosperity Tip #07
Exhausting Resources
Life will give you orders, resources, income and opportunities as soon as you exhaust all available resources. You must learn to avoid wastage and to achieve maximum utilization of resources.

Prosperity Tip #08
Cleanliness
Cleanliness and prosperity have direct relationship. Every effort to improve cleanliness will be richly rewarded. A clean environment energizes your life and money loves to come to you.

Prosperity Tip #09
Orderliness
Orderliness saves time, improves efficiency and energizes business. These are all secondary benefits. The primary benefit is cash inflow. Files, papers, shoes and dishes are some of the items that require your frequent attention.

Prosperity Tip #10
Truthfulness

A merchant taught his son the secrets of the trade: "When you charge a customer $100, and he pays you by mistake $200, you have an ethical dilemma -- should you tell your partner?"

All of us have acquired the habit of twisting the truth and we do it well in every walk of life. Most principles in this book will work only if you are truthful.

Prosperity Tip #11
Systems
Systems link your business activities and processes. Wherever possible introduce systems. Introducing systems at all levels, liberates you from mechanical work and makes you a creative and knowledge worker. This means you will have more time to think about expanding your business while your systems work hard to earn money for you.

Prosperity Tip #12
Don't React
Here is a Japanese story. Just before an invading army of brutes took control of a big town, everyone fled - everyone except an old and wise prosperous businessman. Curious about the old fellow who did not try to run away, the captain of the army went to his place to execute him. When he wasn't treated with the deference and submissiveness to which he was accustomed to, the captain burst into anger. "You fool," he shouted as he reached for his sword, "don't you realize that you are standing before a man who could run you through with a sword without a blink in his eyes?" But, despite the threat, the businessman did not react. "And do you realize," the gentleman replied softly, "that you are standing before a man who can be run through with a sword without a blink in his eyes?" The captain didn't reply. He walked away with his men from the old man's office without harming the old man and without touching anything.

If you refuse to react impulsively and to be negative, nothing can trouble you. The goodwill you earn by refusing to react impulsively to a customer, supplier or banker will immediately translate into profit.

Prosperity Tip #13
Silent Will
If you want other people do what you want them to do, then don't tell them your thought. It may seem illogical. But, this is the most effective method. Powerful thoughts try to express themselves in words. When you refuse to give them an outlet, they will go to the person next to you. When he expresses your thought, he believes it is his idea and does everything at his command to honor it.

Always allow others to express themselves. Then, see the issue from others' point of view and agree to their reasons. If necessary, modify your objective. Never argue about the correctness of your views or try to convince others with your reasons which are in conflict with their reasons.

Prosperity Tip #14
Luck
If you want to create ever lasting luck in your life, there is an easy route. Aspire that all your relatives and friends who have goodwill for you, must prosper. Do whatever you can to make them prosperous. This is the key that opens the iron doors of luck. The author knows many people who followed this principle unconsciously and became wealthy.

Prosperity Tip #15
Punctuality
If you learn a good time management system, manage time efficiently and worship punctuality, money will come in floods. Try to note down for a week how you spend your time. Multiply the wasted hours by your hourly earning rate. You will have a great realization.

Prosperity Tip #16
Mirror
What do you do to groom yourself? Of course, you look into a mirror. Consider your life as a magic mirror that reflects your attitudes, thoughts, actions and feelings. Every event you encounter must be treated as a reflection of your inner status. Whenever you make changes to your inner status, life will reflect the change. By using this principle, you can change yourself in such a way to make life give you income opportunities.

Prosperity Tip #17
Soft Speech
Disciplined energy is money. Speech consumes energy. If you know the ways to conserve your energy and use it in money making activities, you will be prosperous. There are two ways to spend minimum energy when you speak. Always use a soft voice and use only minimum number of words required.

Prosperity Tip #18
Attitude
Attitudes have amazing power over money. If you learn to find out the right attitude in a work and do the work with that right attitude, the work will expand without limits. By changing a wrong attitude now, it is possible to convert a lost situation into a profitable income opportunity. Attitude is different from thoughts and opinions. Changing negative thoughts and opinions into positive ones will also bring in prosperity.

Prosperity Tip #19
Goodwill
A person with a negative attitude or bad will towards you can destroy your work even if you follow other principles. This is the reason why experienced people do not discuss their plans and ideas with all. You must find out the angels that have good will for you and should be in constant touch with them. Of course, you must have only good will for every one.

Prosperity Tip #20
Equality
The author read the following interesting story on a website. One day a Russian farmer's horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors tried to console him. "Such a bad luck," they said. "Let's see," the farmer replied. The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it four other wild horses. "What a good luck," the neighbors exclaimed. "Let's see," replied the old man. The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbors again offered their sympathy. "Let's see," answered the farmer. The day after, military officials came to the village for compulsory recruitment of young men into the army. Seeing that the young man's leg was broken, they passed him by. The neighbors congratulated the farmer and said, "What a good luck!" The Farmer said, "Let's see."

If you are equal to upward and downward market, you will be able to make money steadily even in downward market. For example, long term investors in stock market know this principle. They don't gamble or speculate and react to each and every news about the company. They always make money. The traders in shares usually lose money because they take short term view and don't treat all news equally.

Prosperity Tip #21
Life Response
By changing your thoughts, feelings, attitudes, actions and things under your control, you can make life respond to your efforts and give you positive material results. You have already learnt some Life Response principles. Practise them and you will be prosperous.

Will You Do it?
A world famous speaker and author on mental skills once told the following story. This story by Harry Lorayne illustrates an important truth.

A violin virtuoso living in America truly believed that he could play so well that he could actually charm a savage beast. Despite the warnings and pleas of his friends, he decided he would go to darkest Africa, unarmed, with only his violin. He stood in a clearing in the dense jungle and began to play. An elephant received his scent, and came charging towards him; but, when he came within hearing distance, he sat down to listen to the beautiful music. A panther sprang from a tree with fangs bared, but also succumbed to the music. Soon a lion appeared to join the others. Before long, many wild animals were seated near the virtuoso; he played on, unharmed.

Just then a leopard leaped from a nearby tree, onto the violinist, and devoured him. As he stood licking his chops, the other animals approached with tears, and asked, "Why did you do that? The man was playing such a lovely music!" The leopard, cupping his ear, said, "Eh, what did you say?"

No matter how beautiful the music is, unfortunately, if you can't hear it, then it doesn't mean a thing. No matter how useful and helpful the ideas in this book are, they won't do you a bit of good if you don't use them.

The world is full of opportunities. If you want to be prosperous and financially independent in your life, you must go for self-employment. We have wrong ideas about self-employment and money making. You must give them up. Learn to be careful about fake income opportunities that will actually leave a hole in your pocket. Having some basic knowledge about the history of money and characteristics of money will help you to have better control over the money making process.

The atmosphere plays a great role in attracting income opportunities. You are the master of your own atmosphere. Use the Money Magnets every day to enrich your atmosphere. By changing things under your control, you can change things that are not under your control. This is the basic general idea of Life Response. If you learn to make life respond positively, earning money is easy.

All of us have skills, talents and knowledge that can be converted into marketable products or services. Most of us are not aware of them. By using Treasure Miners, you can discover your hidden treasure. Once you know your skills, you can go through the Income Strategies and come up with ideas to convert the skills into business concepts. Your business concepts must be validated through the Reality Check exercise. If you have a business idea that will work in real world, then you must do a thorough research on it and draw a business plan and an action plan.

A wonderful world of prosperity is awaiting you at your doors. If only you open your doors