Things to Consider at Tax Time

Are you DONE with tax filings or just getting started?  I hope you are planning to file a Schedule C, I hear a lot of small businessowners do not and it’s a shame to pay MORE than you need to on taxes.  Since this just might be on your *to-do* list, I wanted to share some tips my accountant has given me:

The first step in reducing taxes is to know what is deductible.  A simple definition of a deductible expense is an “ordinary and necessary expense you incur while furthering your business for profit”.   If that seems vague, keep in mind that Congress intended the tax code to be general, because all deductions are unique to the particular facts and circumstances of a particular person and/or situation.  My tax guy has defined ordinary as “one that is common and accepted in your field of business” and necessary is “one that is helpful and appropriate for your business”. However, an expense does not have to be indispensable to be considered necessary. 

In our network marketing business it is not unusual to have an expense that is used partly for business and partly for personal purposes.  You can divide these expenses and deduct the part that is for business.  (Example:  I wrote off a trip to Mexico and even though I stayed with friends, the purpose of the trip was business so I wrote ALL my expenses off…airfare, rental car, food…but not the lodging since I stayed with friends.  In the audit for that year, the auditor let it go after I explained it).

Limits on Losses:  If you DO NOT carry on your business activity with the intention of making a profit, you CANNOT use it to offset other income.  If you deem this to be a hobby, or for sport or recreation, then you are eligible to only deduct the expenses of the hobby up to the income the hobby generated.  Some people DO choose to work network marketing as a hobby…so this applies to them! Read the rest of this entry »

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Your MLM Business can be as simple as a joke

One of my highest values is “humor” so that is always a slant I prefer to look at everything with.  Are you game to look at how humor can play a big part of your MLM business?

So, Have you heard the one about why God created children? Here it is:

Whenever your kids are out of control, you can take comfort from the thought that even God’s omnipotence did not extend to his kids. After creating heaven and earth and seeing that it was “good,” God created Adam and Eve.

The first thing God said to them was, “Don’t.”
“Don’t what?” Adam asked.
“Don’t eat the forbidden fruit,” said God.
“Forbidden fruit? Really? Where is it?” Adam and Eve asked, excitedly jumping up and down.
“It’s over there,” said God— wondering why he hadn’t stopped after making the elephants.
A few minutes later God saw the kids having an apple snack and he was very angry.
“Didn’t I tell you not to eat that fruit?” the First Parent asked.
“Uh huh,” Eve replied.
“Then why did you do it?” God asked exasperatedly.
“I dunno,” Adam answered.
God’s punishment was that Adam and Eve would have children of their own.
Thus the pattern of having children was set and has never changed.

Cute, huh?

This was sent to me by a friend, Dorothy. I noticed in the header of her email that Dorothy also sent the joke to a number of other recipients, some I knew and some I didn’t, but it had over 20 people.

The joke was originally e-mailed to Dorothy from Betsy.  Who knows who “told it” to her.

Okay, so what? Read the rest of this entry »

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Start Leveraging Failure in your MLM business

The dreaded F-word, failure — it is so important, so common, and yet so misunderstood. Succeeding in Network Marketing depends on knowing how to apply the same leverage principles that make the business model work to the failures you’ll encounter in your day-to-day experience as a Networker.

Few people choose to study their own failures except to lament the consequences and formulate what they believe to be corrective solutions. Most of us have strong tendency to concentrate on the negative side of failure — it’s all bad. (This is terrible., I was counting on Bill to join! It’s no wonder, I must have sounded so stupid on the phone. . . . The meeting was awful! This one prospect just wouldn’t shut up about pyramids so it got all tense and no one signed up…. Oh my God, the company’s gone bankrupt, how am I going to explain it to my group ?!) While the experience of a failed effort can range from mildly unpleasant to devastating, in focusing on the experience alone, we miss the significant positive contributions. The fact is that, like it or not, it’s impossible to be successful without experiencing some degree of failure. Of course we want to avoid it, but how many of us avoid it at such costs that we end up avoiding success with equal determination?

By promoting a more informed and tolerant opinion of failure, I hope to counter the pressure that causes people to respond to failure in ways that inhibit progress and spawn more of the same.  I suggest instead that failure can be a compass for day-by-day progress as you build your Network Marketing business.

Your Failure Guarantee:
Perfectionism Read the rest of this entry »

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The Power Of Conversation

If you think about it…

The secret to our Network Marketing business IS Conversation, and it is something we all have done for a long time, and many have even mastered.

Then let me ask an obvious question here:

Why do people not use more conversation as a sponsoring tool?  Good question…according to psychologists, we hold as adults around 100-150 conversations a day minimum…and these can be very strong prospecting tools if properly utilized.

Have you ever talked to someone and after they have walked away, you thought…”Shoot! I wished I would have mentioned my MLM company or MLM product…?” 

Well… nowadays, you really need to be more professional with your approach in conversations, and also in general…people today get hit up a lot by telemarketers and less than professional mlm’ers, and you need to have a much more professional and focused approach that gets their interest when their defenses are down…

That is why conversation is such a great tool…most people during a conversation are at ease and their defenses are at bay…not up… Read the rest of this entry »

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Feature: Who Are You to Your MLM Prospects?

If I mention the words “photocopier” or “overnight delivery” or “personal computer,” chances are that a specific brand name immediately pops into your mind. When you go to the grocery store, don’t you gravitate toward certain products over and over because you know them by name and think to look for them each time you walk down the aisles?

In each of these situations, you’re activating “mental shelf space” — the automatic association of a product or service with the person or organization delivering it. That is the kind of powerful mental connection that each of us needs to develop for our MLM business. If you’re an expert Networker, not only will the people you know think about you when the MLM product or MLM service you’re associated with comes up in conversation, but your name rolls off their tongues as quickly as the recognized brand of overnight delivery service.

Please understand, we’re not talking about a right or wrong way to network. Even a broken clock is right twice a day; however, different Networking styles produce different results. Is your Networking style appropriate for you, your Networking partners, your markets, your MLM products and services, and your own goals and objectives? Will it bring you to the results you’re after? Only you can answer these questions.

Take a moment to think — when your network of acquaintances thinks about you, what do you guess comes to mind? Analyst, insurance person, that guy from the office, international marketer? You know the saying, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know”? Ask yourself who knows you. Do they know what you can do for them? When they think of the MLM product or service you provide, do they automatically pull your name off the shelf? There’s no reason they shouldn’t; you need to decide what perception you want to create of yourself.

I tell my prospective MLM distributors that passively thinking about something does nothing for their wallets. Remember when you were growing up, and people told you to “think before you speak”? Sage advice to be sure, but focused, targeted action must follow the thoughts!

You and I will work very hard over our lifetimes. Hard work is not the challenge. Working smart is. Short of scientific inquiry and space exploration, there’s not a lot of “new” information; this means it’s in your power today, through your choice of a Networking approach, to create mental shelf space for yourself in enough people’s minds to build a booming MLM business.

What style are you employing and what methods are you using to become known to your MLM target market? Read the rest of this entry »

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Network Marketing: Got a Busy Life?

Question:   What do you and every one of the greatest Networkers in our MLM industry have in common?

Answer.   A 24-hour day!

Yes, the 24-hour day is a great common denominator. All of us who desire success in Network Marketing are using 24 hours of our day already. We may say to ourselves, “As soon as things slow down a bit, I’ll be able to work my Networking business.” The problem is things never slow down!

Many of us act as if our activities will somehow make room for us to work our business. Unfortunately, it doesn’t happen like that.  You have to make it happen. To get something different, you need to do something different. Read the rest of this entry »

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