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Real Estate Guidance and How to Profit in a University Setting

Melvin Feller both an adjunct professor in real estate and real investments and financing located in Texas and Oklahoma invests across the country and now sees this current economy as a great time to be investing in real estate.  Melvin Feller has taken a class of college students out to the field to test the theory that anyone can invest smartly and by asking the right questions.  This was a test for Melvin Feller and his new upcoming College Class Book on “Today’s Real Estate Techniques – What Works in This New Economy.”

 His students did well with 10 out of 14 students having bought or been deeded real estate that these students turned around and made profits on.  Melvin Feller called this his first outdoor lab with boots on the ground for university learning!

 However, as Melvin Feller suggested, if you are looking to get into real estate investing you will want to do your research and take advice from people who know what they are talking about.  Real estate investing, if done properly, can make you wealthy and financially independent, over a period of time.  Investing in real estate can be risky at times, due to the current economic situation. This article will give you some great advice if you are wanting or thinking about real estate investing.

 Real estate investment has been proven to be less risky than buying stocks.  It attracts numerous people from numerous different backgrounds and real estate investing has three main benefits: the tax advantages from deprecation and the equity growth.  The best benefit is that is looked at as forced savings account because your renters are paying off the mortgage.

 The term depreciation in real estate investing means purchasing with money that came from a mortgage that has the yearly rents less than the interest of the current mortgage and the expenditures paid for the property’s maintenance. These items convey benefits from taxes and the most important thing is the interest of your mortgage that become highly coveted tax deductions on annual basis.

 Equity growth is defined as the appreciation earned from the value of your properties. One point to remember and always keep at the forefront of your mind is that is not guaranteed, because you have no guarantees that the value of a property will raise.  You always need to know that real estate is micro economically controlled and thus id depend upon that city’s economic policies and safety issues.

When planning your real estate investing you don’t have to start by investing in a place where you live. Just by following due diligence principals on various surrounding areas and getting to know the area like the back of your hand; you can buy an apartment or house that you can then rent out. Furthermore, real estate investing that’s done in a city which you are not going to live actually removes some of the stress and emotion of what and where to buy.  The main reason is because you will need to turn the daily management of those properties over to property management company.

 If you get into real estate investment as landlord, but you feel that you just do not have the time and/or the skills to manage, you can hire a property manager that will take care of the property management for you. Generally, the fee for their skills are around 10% of the profits, but there are many advantages, you save a lot of time and you will certainly profit from the experience and knowledge property managers have.

 One of the most important decisions to make as your preliminary thinking about investing in your local market, I recommended that you try to locate rental property in growing areas that provide everything a tenant is looking for which includes: leisure activities, restaurants, transportation and a sense of belonging to an area that they love.

 Another possible risk in real estate investing is the chance that the value of the property you purchased may actually decrease in retail value, and you may feel that will be forced to sell the property quickly, so consider this when buying and try to pick an area where you know and understand that rents are stable.  Many areas have price drops and increases.  However, we generally never see where rents decrease over this invent. In fact, rents generally have increased and the tenants are still making a profit for you.  So rather then sell the property, it is actually a great time to purchase more property.

 The last item in regards to purchasing and renting out a property is that before doing the initial purchase that you do an in-depth research regarding the history of tenancy in that specific area.  The main reason I suggest this is because if there are too many tenants in a given area your vacancy factor may increase, which translates into longer period of vacancy between tenants.  

 I have described some of the most basic information you will need if you want to start investing in real estate.  Real estate investment is not easy so you should take this advice and do further research with well-seasoned Realtors and Investors if you think that this is the ring thing for you.

#real estate #realtionships #Real Estate Foreclosures #melvin feller real estate #real estate goal #goals in real estate #real estate investing #no money down real estate investing #no money down #melvin feller #melvinfeller #melvin feller in texas #melvin feller texas #melvin feller oklahoma #melvin Feller in Oklahoma #melvin Feller Business Group #Melvin Feller loves real estate #melvin Feller facebook #melvin Feller Leadership #melvin Feller Ministries #Melvin Feller a myth and legend #melvin feller real estate expert #melvin feller formally an abused husband #melvin feller works hard

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How to be Truly Thankful -Ponder This By Melvin Feller

The following is something to ponder if you don’t know what to be thankful for.

If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep … you are richer than 75% of this world.

If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace … you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthy.

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness … you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week.

If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation… you are ahead of 500 million people in the world.

If you can attend a church or synagogue meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death … you are more blessed than three billion people in the world.

If your parents are still alive and still married … you are very rare, even in the United States.

If you hold up your head with a smile on your face and are truly thankful … you are blessed because the majority can, but most do not.

If you can hold someone’s hand, hug them or even touch them on the shoulder … you are blessed because you can offer a healing touch.

If you can read this message, you just received a double blessing in that someone was thinking of you, and furthermore, you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world that cannot read at all.

Now isn’t that something to ponder about?

#God #melvin Feller #Melvin Feller is in Texas #melvinfeller #melvinfellerin texas #Melvinfellertexas #melvinfelleroklahoma #thankfulness #givingthanks #thanks #melvinfellerministries

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Promoting Your Business with Internet Marketing

Melvin Feller both a business owner of online and offline businesses, knows the importance of utilizing today's technology. Having taught business classes as an adjunct using online tools, he is adamant about teaching others the ways to success in business. Melvin Feller has over 20 years’ experience in the online business world.

The development and implementation of a successful marketing plan for your newly launched internet business is key to its overall potential for success. In the world of eCommerce, competition is fierce, and growing stronger with each passing day. Virtually every aspect of your organization’s planning — site design, development, service and product offerings, pricing, market selection — will be carefully watched, and potentially incorporated by entrepreneurial minds searching for additional opportunities. How do you stay ahead of the pack, ensuring your operations staying power? With a well-organized array of consistently improving products, services, and marketing components.

The keys to successfully created brand awareness on the web are innumerable. In today’s eCommerce world, fiscal responsibility and control are an imperative, an experience taught by the dot com failures of recent years. The days of exorbitant spending on web-based advertising, without relative gains in the overall profit margin are long gone, though the opportunities to spend magnificent sums of money on an infinite variety of marketing approaches are not.

Preparing an effective, and targeted internet marketing strategy requires a number of elements. Knowledge of your target group. Awareness of available mediums for communicating to that market, be it via the internet, or otherwise. And the final imperative — a keen insight into what it is that motivates that market, grabs their immediate attention, and brings them over the line, from looker to buyer.

Commonly, online operations utilize in-house creativity to develop a successful methodology of communication. They understand their market through and through, and via that knowledge have created an outstanding message to brand and define their company within that marketplace. The question that most often arises within those groups new to the internet economy is where to go from there.

Several options are:

Affiliate Programs:

Affiliate programs provide the developing online business a potential for exponential traffic, directed to your site via operators in all areas of expertise. The creation of traffic is a daunting, and at times potentially expensive proposition for the newcomer to the market. Competition is fierce, and the cost-effective acquisition of customers can be the most challenging aspect of achieving success.

By developing an affiliate program, you create an immediate interest in other online entrepreneurs to promote your site, and products at their property. Unlike most advertising propositions, there is little up-front cost involved. Instead, an agreement is reached to share any revenues generated from that property with its owners. Generally, the only direct cost associated with setup is an account deposit with the party managing your program for you.

There are a variety of services available to assist you in the implementation of an affiliate offering on your site. Software packages are available to allow the developer to incorporate the affiliate program onto their own servers, which then requires the site owner manage it as well.

The alternative is online services that provide back to front management of the program on your behalf, including affiliate signup, tracking, and payment. The benefits associated with this system are a considerably lighter workload, as well as exposure of your program to all visitors at their central directory. This can be of strong value in making your program effective, and profitable, in a relatively short time-frame.

When developing a program, there are a few key items to keep in mind, to ensure its popularity and profitability. The first step should be to comparison shop other programs selling products or services similar to your own. What are they offering their affiliates? Is it pay per click, a straight fee, or a % of sales? What % are they paying? Are there incentives based on overall volume? What other steps do they take to promote webmaster interest in prominently placing their links?

Submission to Other Key Sites:

Since the dawn of the popular internet, and the growth of interest in being online, there have been those who have dedicated their time and efforts to the review of new web-based properties. These critics have in turn garnered the respect and interest of web travelers everywhere, folks practically begging for information on the freshest new properties.

Submitting your newly developed internet wonder can be rewarding in more ways than one. Firstly, there is the infinite satisfaction of being recognized for the serious efforts applied in the preparation of your web project. Secondly, there exists the potential for traffic…

Award sites that have been in operation for some time can deliver the selected “site of the day” thousands of visitors in a very short period of time. Their online, and email publications are in demand, and those in receipt of the information waste no time in visiting the newest web commodity. Some sites offer no cost submission, while others may charge a range of fees depending on time of review. As in many pay per service internet areas, payment does not promise the featuring of your site, merely its review.

When considering such a submission, it does the business owner good to keep in mind that all things are not what they seem. Many internet-based award sites are merely intended to draw you, and your site visitors to their site, via visual awards that must be placed at your property in order for you to be considered. The traffic given in return is often minimal, and not worthy of the additional download time on your site relative to the added graphics.

Banner Advertising:

In recent years, banner advertising has experienced a plunge in popularity. The reasons for this shift in advertising interest was simple — banner advertising was not delivering on its initial promise to draw hordes of traffic, and the costs then associated did not reflect the true value of the medium.

This is not to say that banner advertising has gone the way of the dinosaur. Certainly, there are other means that have proven to be more effective, with higher pricing that reflects that value, but banner advertising continues to offer an opportunity to introduce and brand your product within your target market. It’s ongoing prevalence in the marketplace is a clear indicator of its potential. The key to the creation of a successful and reasonable campaign is to ensure that the expenditure involved reflects the actual bottom line impact the advertising will have.

When reviewing a potential banner ad campaign, be it through an advertising network, or within a site complimentary to your line, take care to assess the package thoroughly, breaking down costs to an expected price per delivered visitor. This can be accomplished by utilizing a conversion rate from impressions to visits of about .5%. Some campaigns can deliver returns as high as 1%, but in assessment of a marketing expense, it always pays to play it safe.

Once you have determined an approximate cost per visitor, compare that cost to achieving traffic through pay per click search engines, based on the current bids for keywords relevant to your product and/or service. If you find value in the offer, take care to develop a banner that draws the attention of your market, as design can make the difference between a profitable campaign, and yet another wasted expenditure.

Banner exchanges offer an additional opportunity for the internet business owner to create awareness, at no cost. These common systems vary in their offering, but generally guarantee the site owner willing to place the banners of other operators on their site a ratio of 1:2, or one of your banners shown elsewhere in exchange for delivering two impressions at your property.

Though a cost-efficient manner of generating some exposure, banner exchanges have their negative side as well. Many systems have insufficient controls, which can result in direct competitors actually gaining exposure on your site. As well, there is a sense among those experienced with internet business that users of an exchange program are “small time”, which can later impact your ability to negotiate effective partnership agreements.

Content Sharing:

A primary goal in the development of a successful web property is the inclusion of high-quality content of value to your organization’s target market. The assembly of such content can be a significant endeavor, requiring in depth research, writing, review, and editing of the information to be presented to your visitor’s critical eye.

Once the process of developing your site’s content is complete, and the information is placed on your server for consideration by both your potential clientele, and the almighty search engine spiders, many newcomers to the industry presume themselves to be getting maximum value from their efforts. This is, in fact, not the case.

The market for usable content on the web is growing as quickly as the internet itself. Many site operators, heavily focused on either the development side of the business, or the customer satisfaction and retention end, have little time to devote to the continued creation of articles and information. Though they may lack the means, they do not fail to understand the value of presenting fresh material to their visitors on a regular basis. Doing so can have a significant impact on the ability of any site to generate a high level of repeat traffic, a mainstay of any internet operation.

With this key to success so clearly ingrained in the minds of webmasters everywhere, the world of content sharing presents itself, hoping to fill the need for on-site information, without any of the time restrictions that self-development can entail.

Content sharing can take many forms on the internet. Often, deals are struck between complementary projects to share articles, media, or even software-based add-ons, in exchange for mention of the provider’s site address, or a reciprocal provision of some sort. Other available options include the submission of your site’s content to news feed-based organizations who will distribute topical headlines to interested parties across the internet. Included in those articles are direct links back to your project, as a sort of payment for services by the news feed operator. A third potential, one of growing popularity, is the provision of articles to complementary newsletters, who will again feature your site link in exchange for the sharing of your article with their readers.

Utilizing services that provide a means to share your content, thus promoting awareness of your web-based project, can be an excellent means of establishing your company within the minds of potential clients, and industry leaders across your market.

When developing your property’s content management and sharing strategies, keep your goals in mind. Though there exist many large organizations focused on presenting your content to the world, it is often true that the most lucrative of sharing arrangements are those made directly between complimentary properties, both focused on the provision of customer value, and the creation of future growth.

Email Marketing:

Email based advertising has taken the internet eCommerce world by storm. Currently considered one of the best available investments in web-based promotion, email ads have proven themselves to be both affordable, with a strong return on investment potential.

Utilizing email as a marketing tool can involve a wide variety of methodologies, goals, and results. Covering the gambit of advertising intent, email promotions are used to introduce new properties and products, acquire new customers, refresh relations with previous purchasers, announce contests, and in general, develop positive relationships with markets of all shapes and sizes.

Email List Rental:

Email based advertising presents a level of flexibility that is hard to match in other environments. Many available lists are well targeted, with a known demographic, and click through rate. This allows the savvy marketer to carefully research, locate, and sell to a group with a known interest in their products or service. Arranging a company specific mailing to a specific market via a rented list can be an expensive proposition, but done correctly can quickly and efficiently create awareness of your new online property, and sales of your product. Many list managers also provide opportunities to buy ad space within a topical mailing, a means of reducing costs associated by sharing in the expense with other advertisers.

Ezine Advertising:

An increasingly popular form of email-based advertising is the purchase of ad space within one or more of the thousands of regularly distributed ezines on the market. These ezines can have subscriber bases running into the hundreds of thousands, and a well-placed, market specific text ad can draw a strong click through rate to your property, and products. The ezines are generally subject oriented, creating a simple means of targeting a group with a natural interest in your product line. This form of advertising can often provide the budget minded entrepreneur an affordable opportunity to create awareness of their web property. Many ezines even offer free ads to subscribers, as an incentive to grow their readership, allowing for pay for inclusion ad rates down the road.

Keywords:

As the demand for targeted and effective advertising venues continues to grow, so does the ability of service providers to institute ads directed at very specific markets.

Keyword bidding is commonly related to the growing pay per click, or pay per placement search engines, but there exist marketing opportunities that allow for the placement of ads, text based or otherwise, that are sourced only during specific keyword queries.

The value inherent in these advertising options is strongly dependent upon your ability to correctly target, and communicate with your market.

One provider of such a service is Google Ad Words. Achieving a listing is very similar in nature to pay per click-based keyword bidding, with the exception that the end result is a text-based ad to the right of the usual search results relative.

Payment for services is based upon the positioning of your ad, which is dependent upon the number of advertisers who have chosen to associate with that keyword. Google will even generate an estimate of costs associated with specific keywords, based upon previous search volumes for that term.

As in all ad-based marketing efforts, the copy of your advertisement can play a strong role in its overall click through rate, and thus its effectiveness in promoting your property. Take the time to carefully develop your ad, and be willing to experiment with different ads to allow for some response rate comparisons.

Link Exchanges:

The exchange of direct links between internet properties is a time-honored tradition on the web, one that continues today. Doing so can garner two parties with complimentary sites some exposure, increases in traffic, and improved overall link popularity ratings — a key to enhanced listings on certain spider-based search engines.

The end result of a link exchange depends on a number of variables. Visibility of the link. Organization of the links area. The number of links being carried overall. The search engine listings achieved by the link exchange parties.

When searching for a potentially valuable link exchange, keep link popularity top of mind. Look for sites that appear on the spider-based search engines, thus ensuring that your link placement will be found, positively impacting your site’s link popularity. Try to determine sites that maintain a solid traffic base, and an easy to find, and navigate links area.

Placing the expected reciprocal link on your site can also present certain challenges. Many of the larger web properties no longer incorporate link pages into their design, believing that in not doing so, an aura of professionalism is maintained. As well, for many eCommerce-based sites, the idea of representing other sites offering products and/or services of any kind presents a level of competitive discomfort that simply cannot be ignored.

In choosing to incorporate a links area within your site, ensure that a level of professionalism is maintained. Only support listings for properties that are both complimentary, and non-offensive to your client base. Keep the area well organized, and if necessitated by the number of links, categorized. Update your page regularly, to ensure that all links are active.

If you want to participate in the area of link exchange, but are not comfortable in presenting a “links” page within your property, give consideration to incorporating the partner sites into your search results. Utilizing a search engine provider whose software can also spider, and incorporate, results from sites outside your domain is an excellent means of making your partner’s site information available to your clientele, when requested, without clearly advertising that your property maintains a link exchange.

Developing your internet business’ link partners list can be an arduous task, at best. Researching complimentary sites, with sufficient traffic numbers, and listing potentials, can at times seem to be like finding the proverbial needle in the haystack. But don’t despair! There are a number of software available whose specialty is the scouring of the internet; sourcing properties whose nature matches specifications you indicate as of interest. Online has also sourced available services, whose sole purpose is to maintain your links pages, ensuring each link is active, that your link has been activated at the other end, even rotating links to ensure equal coverage for all your partners.

#online #onlinemarketing #melvinFeller #melvinfellbusinessgroup #melvinfellerintexas #melvinfellerinoklahoma #melvinfellercoaching #smallbusiness #melvinfellerrealestate #realestate #internet #internetmarketing #internetbusiness

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Real Estate Investors need goals Too by Melvin Feller MA

As a real estate investor, I want to challenge you to start setting some goals, but remember if a goal is not in writing, it is simply a conversation. It must be in writing and it must have a deadline. Here are a few guidelines for setting goals in real estate investing.

 Goals Must be Specific

I want you to be specific and include details but start rough. When you start rough for example, you want a Mercedes. You do not have to get into the details about what color, what options, that sort of thing, just write it down. Make your list huge, what kind of home do you want, what you want for your family, college education, spend more time, travel, anything you can think of. You can come back later and prioritize them and set them up as to what you want in one month, three months, six months, twelve months, then three, five, ten, twenty, thirty-year goals. The more goals you have, the happier you will be, the longer you will live, and the more prosperous you will be.

 Goals Must be Believable

Remember this, your goals must be believable, by you, or you will not pay the price. They must be believable, they must be just out of your reach, but you must know you can reach them if you really strive to do it.

 Goals Must be Measurable

You cannot set a goal to be financially independent. There is no way you can measure that. You cannot manage what you cannot measure. You need to set a goal for the amount of income you want per month, per year, the amount of equity that you want in properties ñ one, three, five, ten and twenty years. It must be measurable. That way you can break it down to what I call practical to the ridiculous. If you know you want to earn $250,000.00 a year, you know that is about $20,000.00 per month. That’s just one flip every other month or 2-3 wholesale a month where I live. One of the things I have learned is, successful people set their goals quickly and they make adjustments as they go along. Just like successful people make decisions quickly, they do not vacillate in indecision or what I call sometimes; get mixed up in a funk of negativity.

 Goals Must be Congruent

Your goals must also be congruent with your actions. You cannot set a goal to work harder, longer hours AND a goal to spend more time with your family. Those are not congruent. They must be congruent with your actions.

 Visualize What You Want

Another good thing that will help you with your real estate investing goals is to visualize what you want. If you see yourself as already having achieved the goal, you will fake out your mind and your mind sees the goal as already having been achieved. It’s called “fake it till you make it”. I used to do this all of the time, by creating a “dream folder” with pictures of all the things I wanted, right down to the car, house, and income.

Just take a minute or two each day and think about life as it is with your goals already accomplished. It’s really easy when you get used to it.

 Work Your Goals

The next thing you want to do is work your goals, work on the priority that moves you closer to your goals every day. Plan your week carefully, focusing on what the late Stephen Covey called “Big Rocks”. The big rocks are the most difficult things to do mentally, not physically, that produce large results. If you wanted to fill a bucket with big rocks, small rocks, and sand, you need to put the big rocks in FIRST. If you don’t plan, the sand fills in first, and the big rocks don’t fit.

 Number Your Goals

Number your goals in the order of importance. Not only is the goal important but so is the reason. Sure, you want a car, but why do you want the car? Sure, you want more money, but why do you want money? You want to be able to spend more time with your family, you want to be able to travel, you want to buy a Hummer, and you want to have an ocean front condo or send your children to the best college. Whatever it is, the reason must be there. The reason is more important than the goal itself.

 Review, Monitor and Make Adjustments

Another thing you need to do is review, monitor and make adjustments on your goals. You have to be flexible. Some things are not going to happen, you have to face that, but you need to continuously strive to get better every day. If you will work harder on yourself than you do your job then you will always be growing. Remember that last sentence and write it down as it is worth repeating.

 The Goals Must Have a Deadline

As I mentioned first, your goals must have a deadline. A goal without a deadline is just a dream. When beginning to set your goals, I want you to set your goals in four basic areas:

 Financial

You will set goals based on income, equity or net worth, and cash flow. All of these are financial goals and are easily measurable. Don’t get overwhelmed with the numbers, though; focus instead on the short-term, intermediate goals that will result in long-term success. For example, if you want to make $25,000.00 on a particular type of deal within a month, focus on how many calls you need to make a day to find such a deal. Learn how to buy real Estate with "Little or No Money Down" or other creative ways.

 Health

If you don’t feel good, chances are that you are not working at your maximum capacity. So, I want you to set some health goals to stay healthy. Remember "an apple a day"? What if this is right and you are not doing it? Start small, though, you don’t try to tackle all of these at once, but you need to be healthy not only for you but for your family as well.

 Family

Set family goals. What is an example of a family goal? Maybe you want to take four vacations a year. Maybe you want to visit a new state, three times a year or five times a year. Maybe you want to go see the Grandparents two or three times a year; but maybe not. Anyway, you get the point.

   Faith

You need to set some spiritual goals, some faith goals. Without faith, life will beat you up, eat you up, and spit you out. Remember, all the “crap” that comes at you is nothing but fertilizer for the harvest about to come.

 Another thing I want you to think about is the people you associate with. Take a minute and think about this. If you think about your ten closest friends’ annual salary and divide it by ten, then that is pretty close to what you make. I’m not telling you to get rid of your friends, all I’m saying is whom you associate with, is who you are like, so please keep that in mind. Don’t get rid of your friends, just get some more that are where YOU want to be in the future.

 As you can see, setting goals in real estate investing takes some work, mental discipline, and THINKING which is why so few people do it!

#melvin feller #real estate goal #goals in real estate #making goals in real estate #goals #melvinfeller #melvin feller facebook #melvin feller in texas #melvin feller in oklahoma #melvin feller business group

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Melvin Feller MA Illustrates How You Can Buy Any Business

According to Melvin Feller MA, if you’re thinking about running your own business, especially in buying a company that’s already established may be a lot less work than starting from scratch. However, you will need to put time and effort into finding the business that’s right for you.

This article was written by Melvin Feller MA in order to take you through the steps of buying an existing business, including how to assess and value a business, your obligations to any existing staff and where you can get professional help.

Actually, there are advantages and disadvantages of buying an existing business and If you get it right, there can be many good reasons why buying an existing business could be the right move for you. Remember though, that you will be taking on the legacy of the business’ previous owner, and need to be aware of every aspect of the business you’re about to buy.

Advantages:

According to Melvin Feller MA, it may be easier for you to get finance as the business will have a proven track record. A market for the product or service will have already been demonstrated.

There may be established customers, a reliable income, a reputation to capitalize and build on, and a useful network of contacts.

A business plan and marketing method should already be in place.

Existing employees should have experience you can draw on.

Many of the problems will have been discovered and solved already.

You can always re-sell the business.

Disadvantages:

Melvin Feller Discusses Starting Your Business. Melvin Feller Talks Buying a Business.

You often need to invest a large amount up front, and will also have to budget for professional fees for solicitors, surveyors, accountants, etc. If the business has been neglected you may need to invest quite a bit more on top of the purchase price to give it the best chance of success. You will need to honor or renegotiate any outstanding contracts the previous owner has in place.

Deciding on the right type of business to buy: .Ideally your business needs to fit your own skills, lifestyle and aspirations. Before you start looking, think about what you can bring to a business and what you’d like to get back. List what is important to you. It is useful to consider: Your expectations in terms of earning — what level of profit do you need to be looking for to accommodate your needs?

Your commitment— are you prepared for all the hard work and money that you will need to put into the business to get it to succeed? Your strengths — what kind of business opportunity will give you the chance to put your skills and experience to good use? The type of business —limited company, partnership etc. — that you’re interested in buying. The business sector you’re interested in — learn as much as you can about your chosen industry so you can compare different businesses. It’s important to take the time to talk to people already in similar businesses. Location — but don’t restrict your search to your local area. Some businesses can be easily relocated. Where to look for a business to buy: Many national and local newspapers carry advertisements for businesses and business locations or lots. Depending on what sector you’re interested in, you could look in trade journals. Or put in your own advertisement, saying what you are looking for. You can get contact details for most newspapers, magazines and trade journals from press directories available on the internet. Melvin Feller Recommends Being Your Own Boss. Some magazines, many of them with their own websites, specialize in buying and selling property and businesses. Of course, do not forget Realtors who use their publications and websites like loopnet.com, Crexi.com, Showcase.com, as well as Marcusmillichap.com and get familiar with their websites, including Craigslist and eBay. How to value a business: Understandably, how to value a business is often the most worrying part of buying a new business. Remember, though, that what a business is worth to you will not be the same as it is to someone else with a different set of priorities and objectives. To get a general idea of how healthy the business is, look at: the history of the business its current performance (sales, turnover, profit) its financial situation (cash flow, debts, expenses, assets) and why the business is being sold The following list of questions will help you discover possible areas where you could financially get hurt. How healthy is the business? Stock: How much is there? What condition is it in? Assets: Does the asking price take into account depreciation? Is anything leased or currently being purchased? Intangible assets: How much goodwill comes with the business? Melvin Feller Talks Valuing Your Business. Are any trademarks registered? Products: What are the profit margins on each product or service? Which products or services account for the majority of sales? Licenses: Which ones are required to conduct business? Are there any outstanding issues with the licenses? Debts: How old are the debts? Which debtors owe the most? Creditors: What does the business owe? What is the credit history like? Suppliers: What are their prices? What’s their credit policy? Employees: Is the business adequately staffed? Is it over-staffed? Do all employees have the necessary skills? Do all of the employees have the necessary equipment to do their job safely? Premises: Do they need refurbishing? Are they leased or company owned? Competition What percentage of the market do the competitors have? Valuation methods: Your accountant can advise on how to put a specific value on the business and do the actual calculations. You can then decide how much you want to offer, or if you want to buy it at all. If you do decide to make an offer, the research you do now will be completely verifiable once you’ve agreed a purchase price and terms with the seller. Make sure the business is worth buying by doing your due diligence: Having done your research, it is important to verify the information you now have. A period of time is allowed for you to access the business’ books and records in order to verify that all of the information that you have discovered up to now is accurate, and this is known as due diligence period. It should give you a realistic picture of how the business is performing now and how it is likely to perform in the future. When to begin due diligence. Don’t start due diligence until you’ve agreed to a price and terms with the seller. For a down payment they may agree to take the business off the market during your investigation. The investigation period is negotiable — but most small businesses need at least three to six weeks. Where to get help You should get accountants and attorneys to help you identify various risk areas but you can also get information about companies directly from the internet. Remember, due diligence is much more than the finances of a business. You need to come out of this period knowing exactly what you are getting yourself into, what needs to be fixed, what the costs are to fix them and if you are the right person to take over this business. Key areas to cover are: Melvin Feller MA Discusses Valuation Methods. employment terms and conditions outstanding litigation major contracts and orders IT systems and other technology environmental issues commercial management including customer service, research and development, and marketing Information sources Dig as deeply as you can and use whatever documents are available. For instance, if you’re looking at employee records, you could check out: payroll records staff files copy of retirement and profit-sharing plans plus financial statements, if relevant employment contracts the staff manual union contracts, if relevant you may also need information from external sources such as the landlord, tax office or bank. A step-by-step process on how to buy a business Get professional advice Professional help is invaluable as you go through the negotiation, valuation and purchase process. You may find it useful to contact the professional organizations to get advice and help on finding a lawyer or an accountant. Research Research the business sector you’re interested in, including the best time to buy. Shortlist two or three businesses. Make sure a business is worth buying: conduct due diligence and verify any information you have been given. As well as checks on the business, your attorney will conduct searches in order to verify relevant licenses etc. If you’re planning to arrange a loan, the lender will insist on carrying out their own survey and valuation at your expense, but you may want to pay for an additional independent survey and valuation. Initial viewing and valuation Be discreet — the owner may not want staff to know they are selling, but be thorough and record key findings. Arrange finance Lenders generally require: details of the business/sales particulars accounts for the last three years financial projections even if no accounts are available details of your personal assets and liabilities Make a formal offer If you make your initial offer by phone, follow this up in writing. Head your letter subject to contract and include this phrase in all written communication. Negotiation Before completing the sale, try to negotiate an overlap period so you have time to become familiar with the business before taking over. Record all the main point agreed. Completion Even after you reach an agreement on the price and terms of sale, the deal could still fall through. You have to meet certain conditions of sale to complete, including: verification of financial statements transfer of leases transfer of contracts/licenses transfer of finance Looking after existing employees: There are regulations that govern what happens to employees when someone new takes over a business. These apply to all employees when a business is transferred as a going concern, meaning employees automatically start working for the new owner under the same terms and conditions. For more information, check on your responsibilities to employees if you buy or sell a business. Inform and consult employees If you do want to discuss reducing numbers of employees or reorganizing the staff it’s a good idea to do this once you’ve completed the due diligence period, but before you take over the business. As the new employer you should inform and consult all employees — including employee representatives — who may be affected. Employee Retirement Plans As their new employer, you do not have to take over rights and obligations relating to employees’ retirement plans put in place by the previous employer. However, if you don’t provide comparable retirement plan arrangements, you could theoretically face a claim for unfair dismissal. Related guides on www.USA.gov: Buy an existing business or franchise www.sba.gov/business-guide/plan-your-business/buy-existing-business-or-franchise Franchising or buying an existing business can simplify the initial planning process. Starting a business from scratch can be challenging. Franchising ... Help Buying a New Home | USAGov - Official Guide to ... www.usa.gov/buying-home Your qualifications to buy a HUD home depend on your credit score, ability to get a mortgage, and the amount of your cash down payment. You can also ... Buying a Business - Small Business Administration Melvin Feller Believes that Employees add to the Bottom Line. www.sba.gov/course/buying-business The process of buying a business and resources to help decide if buying a business is right for you. The process of buying a business and resources to ... Choose your business name www.sba.gov/business-guide/launch-your-business/choose-your-business-name You can find the right business name with creativity and market research. Once you’ve picked your name, you should protect it by registering it with ... Professional and occupational licenses - Wisconsin DNR dnr.wi.gov/Permits/professionalicenses.html Professional and occupational licenses. First time applicants must submit their applications directly to DNR. Renewal licenses can be obtained from ... Start A Small Business - San Antonio www.sanantonio.gov/SBO/Start-A-Small-Business FROM START-UP TO BIG SUCCESS. The City of San Antonio's Small Business Office makes it easy for your start-up to grow into a big success. Take ... Oregon Secretary of State: Starting a Business sos.oregon.gov/business/Pages/starting-business.aspx The How to Start a Business in Oregon guide (PDF) provides a checklist to guide you through the process of registering your business. 2. Create a ... Women-owned businesses - Small Business Administration www.sba.gov/business-guide/grow-your-business/women-owned-businesses The SBA helps women entrepreneurs launch new businesses and compete in the marketplace. Connect with the training and funding opportunities ... Veteran-owned businesses www.sba.gov/business-guide/grow-your-business/veteran-owned-businesses The SBA offers support for veterans as they enter the world of business ownership. Look for funding programs, training, and federal contracting ... Market research and competitive analysis www.sba.gov/business-guide/plan-your-business/market-research-competitive-analysis Market research helps you find customers for your business. Competitive analysis helps you make your business unique. Combine them to find a ... [PDF] How to Grow Your BUSINESS - Small Business Administration www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/files/resourceguide_3158.pdf Welcome to the 2019-2020 edition of the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Wisconsin Small Business Resource Guide. The SBA helps make the American ... Finance Your Business | USAGov - Official Guide to ... www.usa.gov/funding-options Finance Your Business. Explore the variety of government-backed loans and funding programs for your business. Small Business Loans. Government loan ... [PDF] Home Buyer’s Guide - Ohio Department of Commerce www.com.ohio.gov/documents/real_HomeBuyersGuide.pdf Home Buyer’s Guide How to Make the Most of Your Home Buying Experience. ... ensure that they conduct their business in a legal and ethical manner. The ... [PDF] CENTERS FOR MEDICARE & MEDICAID SERVICES 2020 www.medicare.gov/Pubs/pdf/02110-medicare-medigap-guide.pdf Who should read this guide? This guide can help if you’re thinking about buying a Medicare Supplement Insurance (Medigap) policy or already have one ... State and Territory Business Resources | USAGov www.usa.gov/state-business/puerto-rico Open a Business. Learn what it takes to start a business in Puerto Rico. Start a Business in Puerto Rico. Expand or Relocate a Business in Puerto Rico ... Checklist for Starting a Business | Internal Revenue Service www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/checklist-for-starting-a-business Each state has additional requirements for starting and operating a business. For information regarding state-level requirements for starting a ... Small Business Administration www.sba.gov/business-guide The SBA connects entrepreneurs with lenders and funding to help them plan, start and grow their business. We support America's small businesses. The ... A Consumer’s Guide to Buying a Franchise | Federal Trade ... www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/consumers-guide-buying-franchise Will you need the franchisor’s ongoing training, advertising or other help to remain in business? Will you have access to the same suppliers? Could ... Buy assets and equipment - Small Business Administration www.sba.gov/business-guide/manage-your-business/buy-assets-equipment Your business will need special assets and equipment to succeed. Figure out which assets you need, how to pay for them, and whether you should buy ... Starting a Business Checklist | California Secretary of State www.sos.ca.gov/business-programs/business-entities/starting-business-checklist/ The “Starting a New Business in California” brochure should be used as a general tool to help you broadly assess how to start a business in ...

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[melvinfeller]

Do You Understand Who Your Ideal Client Is and Their Purchasing Decisions?

According to Melvin Feller, CEO of Melvin Feller Business Group and online and educational educator, regardless of the marketing program you use (newspaper ads, phone book, flyers, coupons, website, Facebook, Instagram or others, these vehicles succeed or fail on the strength and clarity of your marketing message.

Melvin Feller goes on to point out and explain why is your message so important? It tells people why you do what you do and why you are different than their other choices. It also focuses on the customer’s benefits by conveying the true value of what they want.

Melvin Feller has followed the same process for over 30 years in his various business pursuits. This is his recommendation for you to follow. He goes on to recommend a test that you can do on your own. Think of something you really want as opposed to something you need. So, how do you decide who to buy from?

Customer Value is the level of satisfaction of your customer towards your business. The word “Value” can have a number of definitions or meanings. It’s often related to price for those in business, as well as for many consumers — like if I were to ask you the value of your home when you purchased it. It could also be interpreted as the worth of something, not necessarily tangible products either. Both products and services have value.

This is where you hear customers talking about getting the value for money, used typically when talking about price-sensitive customers. On the flip side, there’s money for value, which means people are willing to pay for the things they see as valuable benefits.

What does the dictionary say about value?

 The regard that something is held to deserve; the     importance, worth, or usefulness of something.

A person’s principles or standards of behavior

Estimating the monetary worth of something

Considering something to be important or beneficial, or     have a high opinion of it because it is beneficial.

While there are different means and the word can be used interchangeably, it becomes more of a technical term when you talk in terms of customer value.

Chances are you will make your decision on some other factor important to you; retailer location, waiting time, reputation of the store, other support from the business, or maybe something creative that I haven’t mentioned. Whatever it is, was this benefit clearly featured in the ad or website page you looked at? If so, this business has clearly honed in on what they know their ideal clients want.

Businesses who know what their customers want and market their product or services with this key benefit in mind are able to convey real value which shields them, to some degree, from price shoppers. So, how do you figure out what your best clients really want so you can create a compelling marketing message that attracts sales and a continuous flow of loyal customers?

First, determine who your ideal client is. Here’s a hint. Their name is not ‘Everyone’ or ‘Anyone’. You not only need to understand their demographics; age, occupation, income level, family structure, etc. but also their ‘psycho-graphics’ as well. Psycho-graphics deal with what they value, what they worry about, what is most important to them and what they want.

Go through your current customer list and identify your best clients. Call them and ask them a few questions. The answers hold the keys to the thoughts, feelings and desires of others like them.

Next, determine what you do differently or better than anyone else who offers a similar product or service. If you ask the right questions of your best clients and listen really carefully, you will learn the reason they chose you to do business with. This is your Unique Selling Proposition- the thing you do or offer than allows people to select you over your competition.

Now, take a look at your current marketing copy. I will bet it’s filled with features about your product or service and very little that conveys real value directed at the people you most want to attract. Fixing this problem is not difficult but many times can be greatly enhanced with the help of a small business coach or marketing consultant.

Customer value is the perception of what a product or service is worth to a customer versus the possible alternatives. Worth means whether the customer feels that he or she received benefits and services over what was paid.

That can be broken down to a simple equation: Customer Value = Benefits — Cost (CV=B-C)

It can’t be so linear as to focus only on price because customers spend a lot more than just their cash when investing in products or services. You have to consider what they pay in time, effort, convenience, energy and so forth.

To the customer, the benefits can also vary which can shift the value. Value for one customer may not be the same as another. What’s important to one may not be important to another segment of your audience. Benefits could include:

Quality of the product

Advantages of ownership

Image

Company brand and affiliation

Access to a solution

Experience

Success from use of the product or service

Long term takeaways (including knowledge)

Prying money from the hands of a generally skeptical, wary consumer base takes more than fancy ads or a barrage of media commercials. If you want people to gravitate to you first, your marketing message must be compelling and loaded with value that the customer will immediately recognize.

When people see value on things they really want, they will spend the money and spend it with businesses that clearly convey this value. Hopefully, consumers are spending some of it with you!

You can’t spread your resources, service teams, and sales force evenly among your entire customer base and expect a good return. You need to focus on the customers provide the greatest value in return. This is another reason why audience segmentation is so important.

Likewise, push a lot of resources towards building relationships with existing customers over acquisition. It costs less to keep a customer than to acquire a new one, and great service will boost the lifetime customer value so each customer is worth more in the long run.

Make the value/price ratio seem bigger than it is. Go the extra mile, give them a free gift, an extra service. Make them feel that they’re appreciated

Make your services or products easy to buy. Offering different ways to pay for it, delivery, etc.

Create a real Unique Value Proposition. This holds especially true if you’re dealing with B2B. Communicate with your customer why they should buy your product over the competition

Work on your brand. Your company’s name itself should be synonymous with value. Develop a unique method to treat your customers, handle complaints with care, etc.

Provide stellar customer service. At the end of the day, both your employees and customers are people. Treating them as such can be extremely rewarding for both parties.

Take the time to research and understand your market well enough that you can break it down into segments, looking deep into each audience segment to understand their most pressing needs and what they find valuable. Use the unifying characteristics of each segment to build a strong value proposition.

Always be on the lookout for new opportunities in current and new market segments for pushing value. Your competitors aren’t resting, so you shouldn’t be either.

#melvinfeller #smallbusiness #customerservice #businesssuccess #business #ilovecustomers #melovinfellerbusinessgroup #melvinfellerTexas #melvinfellerFacebook #melvinfellerBusiness #MelvinFellerMA #successinbusiness

[melvinfeller]

Melvin Feller Business Group a Business Consultants Company Based in Texas and Why They Recommend Working with Consultants, Any Good Business Consultant.

Melvin Feller almost never uses the word “problem”; instead, he and his company talk about opportunities in order, Feller points out, to enhance value. Ask any consultant what they do, and they’ll likely say “I’m in the solutions business.” Despite criticism that’s sometimes leveled at business consultants, they truly can add value to company, but you need to know when and why to use them. In order to fully get value, you need to know the problems that need to be solved. There is a massive range of business issues that consultants can deliver solutions for, and different types of consultants bring different philosophies and concepts to the table.

It is interesting to note that, consultants come in many forms and skill sets. Here are just a few:

Types of Consultants

Business consultants can generally add value in five major areas of your business:

Management and strategy. Qualified consultants should have a deep understanding of your particular market and bring the best practices from your industry (or even other industries) to your company. If you’re looking to expand your markets geographically, extend your product portfolio, reorganize your middle market company to promote efficiency and cost-effectiveness, buy out a smaller competitor, or increase your overall capabilities, then hiring an experienced management/strategy consultant can make perfect sense.

Operations. Want to improve the quality and efficiency of your production processes? An operations consultant can help you create and implement a new way of doing just that. Many consultants specialize in business process re-engineering, meaning that they come in and map out your existing processes, analyze opportunities for reducing the number of steps in that process while maintaining quality, and re-engineer your processes in a way that reduces steps and costs. Other consultants are experts in quality control systems and can help you make changes that will reduce defects.

HR. If you’re a company needs to improve the overall satisfaction of your employees, recruit top talent, and retain your top performers? Many of these consultants specialize in developing compensation strategies that align with your overall business goals, training, and developing your people in areas such as business communication and leadership. They can help you improve performance-related feedback and evaluation to your team, making your employees work smarter.

Marketing. Whether you need a new logo for your company, a new market position for one of your brands, or a new social media strategy to interact with your customers, marketing consultants can help. Consultants can offer you a creative spark when your employees have run out of ideas, letting you see what other companies have done to attract more customers.

Reasons for Hiring a Consultant such as Melvin Feller Business Group

Now that you know the major types of consultants, why would you need to hire one? Here are five common reasons:

Rent a brain. You don’t have the human resources you need because some internal person has quit or your head count has been slashed, so hiring a consultant for a project or on a temporary basis can fill the gap until a full-time internal person is found. You won’t have to make a consultant a full-time employee, so breaking off the relationship is relatively easy and cost-effective.

Change Management. Many business consultants are experts at fostering change in organizations, so if your midsized company is extensive with internal squabbling concerning imminent changes, bringing in a consultant can break that logjam. The majority of consultants know that they’re often brought in for political cover and will often shoulder the blame for unpopular changes such as reducing head count and other cost-cutting measures. This is normal process.

Teach and Implement best practices. Often consultants are the leading experts in the fields they work in. They not only have academic and theoretical expertise, but they’ve also worked directly with leading companies to implement change. If you want best practices in areas such as IT and management, then consultants are the best source available. Why try to invent a best practice when consultants have already implemented with multiple clients?

Permeate Creativity. Consultants have a fresh perspective on your business, so having an outsider come in and offer ideas can be tremendously helpful. Sometimes your in-house people are too close to your company and don’t have the perspective to examine the bigger picture within your market, but consultants can share valuable insights that boost your internal creative thinking.

Training Deliver. You can hire a consultant to share knowledge about almost anything. Consultants are born trainers, so they’re a natural choice to do a training course or day-long presentation for your company in almost any area. A good consultant blends theory and practice, and this can deliver high value to your mid-market company.

Melvin Feller Business Consultants is also proud to offer this step by step checklist for becoming a business consultant.

Here is a list of things to consider when you are starting or growing your consulting business practice:

Start with your skills. You cannot be an effective consultant if you don’t bring value to the small business owner. Be relentless in your ongoing education. You become more in-demand and can charge higher fees based on the your wider the extent of knowledge and expertise.

Create and Maintain an experience level. It’s rare that a business owner will entrust their business to a business consultant who has never owned a business before, or to a consultant who doesn’t have a high level of expertise in a specific topic area. An expert is defined as having 10,000 plus hours of experience with the topic they claim as their expertise. If you use a traditional 40-hour workweek as your ruler, that means you need at least 5 years’ full-time experience with your business subject matter in order to call yourself an expert.

Always Know Your Why. Before you get down to the nitty-gritty of designing your business and getting clients, figure out why you want to be a business consultant, and why you want to help these owners. Why this specific target audience? What is your motivation? Knowing this will keep you going when you hit the inevitable speed bumps along the way to building your business and serving your clients.

Determine Your own Definition of Success. Keep your eye on the target. The definition of success differs from person to person. Take some time to visualize all the ways that a successful consulting practice will manifest in your personal and professional life.

Develop and Create a Business Plan. Go through all the same steps you would go through with a client, and work on your own business model design. Things to consider: what legal format you’ll use, what are your mission and vision statements, what are your offerings, your pricing and profit models. Include the resources you will need to succeed, like money, time, skills/knowledge, equipment, and people resources. Set goals and milestones for the next 1 year, 3 years and 5 years.

Develop and Create a Marketing Plan. There are countless consultants out there. How will you be remarkable and stand out from the crowd? How will you connect with your audience and build rapport and trust? Will you use traditional marketing techniques only, or combine traditional and internet marketing? Which of the 100+ available techniques will bring the best results? How much will you invest in marketing (in both time and money)? What are the goals of your marketing?

Study Coaching and Mentoring Skills. You will be working with human beings who have their own set of strengths and weaknesses. Learn deep listening skills and how to ask meaningful questions to get clarity and provide focus. Learn how to hold clients accountable for implementing their action plans, and how to deal with difficult client situations. You’ll find that you work as much with the business owner’s mindset as you do with the practical logistics of running a business.

Choose Your Niche. Determine if your specialty requires you to have a license or certification such as financial and tax advisors, legal advisors, insurance advisors. Will you focus on a niche area, like email marketing strategies, or will you be an expert who can help clients with a wide range of challenges and projects? Will you work with a particular size business based on number of employees or revenue? Will you work only with local clients, or will your consulting business be national/international?

Decide if you are going to advise them, or do the work for them. Some consultants are more like mentors and advisors, who work with the small business owner to do planning and strategy work. Other small business consultants provide a specific service as a sub-contractor, to augment the client’s staff such as part-time CFOs, website designers, and copywriters.

Learn the problems that most small business owners have and formulate a strategy to define and solve those problems. Use readily available strategies, tools and assessments to help solve these problems, or create strategies of your own. Consider putting together your own consultant’s toolkit.

Deeply understand the seven areas of a business model to help your clients in the areas that are causing the most damage or have the best return on investment if they make a change.

Systemize your own business so that you have maximum efficiency. Use templates, automation and sales scripts. Take time early in the setup of your business to create these systems to free up your time and attention for more important tasks. Hint: you’ll then teach these efficiencies to your clients.

Get help with the administrative and marketing work. Outsource the tasks that you do not want to do, that you are not an expert in, or that take away from your revenue-generating time.

Get your ego out of the way. While your work can and should be meaningful to you, you are not a consultant to pump up your own ego. You are a consultant to serve your clients. You are going to advise them, help them to determine the pros and cons of each course of action, and then allow them to make their own decisions. You cannot stop them from making unwise decisions or from not following through on an implementation plan. Equally, if your client has a big win, it may be partly due to your advice, but much of the praise needs to go to your client for making it happen. Decide in advance what a “successful client engagement” means to you.

Be honest about your own areas of personal development. No one is perfect. Sometimes we procrastinate. Sometimes we get distracted. Sometimes we let anger or fear get the better of us. Sometimes we don’t communicate as well as we could. Discover your weaknesses and either learn how to overcome them, or hire staff to help deflect them.

Choose marketing techniques that bring qualified leads to the sales conversation. Track your marketing relentlessly. If your marketing isn’t bringing the desired results, revamp it. Do not choose marketing techniques because they are a hot trend if they don’t bring in leads or help build your brand recognition.

Learn problem solving, decision making, project management, and time management skills. These four skills will provide the backbone of the assistance you will offer clients and help you run your own business successfully.

Learn from the masters. Why re-invent the wheel? You can discover savvy shortcuts by paying attention to the leading consultants in your industry. In any small business consulting niche there are always several people who have risen to the top of their profession. Study their offerings, their marketing methods, the way they run their businesses, and the way they work with clients. Determine if those methods would serve you and your clients, too.

The right background for the consultant you select depends on your industry and your needs. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics notes that consultants can be management (business), scientific or technical. If you want someone to help your company develop new proprietary software or computer-based workflow, you may want to engage a technical consultant. But outside of specific needs, companies usually work with management consultants when they want to improve their bottom line, customer satisfaction or employee morale.

Regardless of the type of consultant you work with, their background is critical. It helps you understand how likely they are to improve your business. Here’s what to consider when reviewing potential consultants:

Do they have hands-on experience? This can be especially important in the business world. If someone came directly out of college labeling themselves as a consultant, do they really know anything more than you do? Consider looking for consultants who have successfully owned or run small businesses, enterprise organizations or specific departments.

Is their experience applicable? A former bank CEO may seem impressive, but do they have the knowledge and experience to turn your cupcakery into a profitable small business? They might, but if you’re also considering a former restaurant owner who now makes a living successfully helping small eateries grow, this consultant may be a better match for your business. Look for consultants who have worked in your industry and with businesses that match yours in style, size, needs and goals.

What’s their track record with consulting? You don’t just want a consultant who has the right experience; you want a consultant who has demonstrated success with companies like yours. Ask for a portfolio or list of brands the consultant has worked for, and request references. Look for a consultant who has helped businesses overcome the types of challenges you’re facing or who has grown businesses very similar to yours, and reach out to those companies to find out if they were satisfied with the services.

The bottom line is that you cannot depend on your consultant for ever, and, once they leave, your team members will need to take responsibility for the project. Your team members will be the ones fixing problems or making adjustments in the future, so they must understand the consultant’s work, and develop the skills that they will need to continue it.

Include developing a knowledge management plan in your consultant’s tasks, and involve members of your team to ensure that this plan is a success. Make sure that the consultant cross-trains the members of your team on their techniques and their approach.

Build a knowledge transfer process into the project, to ensure that you are not caught out when your consultant finishes. The earlier this process begins, the more questions your team members can ask, and the more skills and knowledge they will gain.

It is essential to remember that consultants are professionals who provide short-term expert help and advice in a particular fields or industries. They have high levels of expertise and they can work differently to the rest of your team.

The key to working successfully with them is to be clear about expectations and deliverables. This includes monitoring the scope of the project: be aware that projects and budgets can grow, and that consultants may encourage this!

Any time you find yourself working with consultants, you must give detailed instructions, clear feedback, and the resources they need to work efficiently. Always, work to maintain positive relationships between them and their permanent co-workers.

By following these guidelines, you and your company will continue to maximize every opportunity and employee to the maxim thereby increasing your brand awareness and your bottom line.

#melvinfeller #melvinfellerma #Melvinfellerbusiness #business #businessconsultants #melvinfellertexas #melvinfellerOklahoma #melvinfellerbusinessgroup #melvinfellerfacebook #doingbusinessintexas #BusinessCoinsultantsintexas #melvinfellerintexas

[melvinfeller]

Melvin Feller MA Discusses How to Start Your Own Business in Texas

Melvin Feller MA knows that there’s a lot to love about Texas. The abundance of Tex-Mex, Texas people, and the Texas Life-style. But one of the most important is the state’s staunch support of its business community. Melvin Feller MA points out that starting a business in Texas has the advantage of the nation’s second-largest population and a number of fast-growing metropolitan areas.

Melvin Feller MA asks “If you are new to business and wanting to start your own business in Texas. Do you know what you want to do?” Therefore, if you’re thinking of starting a business in a Texas location and a field of business that’s new to you. Melvin Feller MA believes that you will always be successful in a business that you have a passion for especially in a Texas friendly environment.

Texas’ support for small business is evident in its low business licensing fees, its lack of red tape, and a profusion of relatively low-priced real estate. Few states can boast a similar lack of regulation that lets businesses be born almost as soon as they are thought of.  Best of all is that starting a business in Texas can be done with a small investment.

Best of all you don’t have to go it alone in Texas. A number of state and federal resources, such as the U.S. Small Business Administration, offer business advice, low-interest loans, and grants. Their programs are geared toward helping veteran-owned businesses, minority-owned businesses, and women-owned businesses, and they’re worth exploring if you qualify.

Melvin Feller MA, Educator, and CEO, states that during stressful times and times of distress and economic hardships, more businesses are created and more people are actually successful in rendering products and services that are vital to our economy.

In order to have a successful enterprise, you should address a number of topics. Many of these items will be incorporated into your business plan, so consider the use of this list as a preparation for business and market planning. In each of these topic areas, determine which apply to your enterprise and then address those issues. However, there are basic steps in starting a business that can make a positive impact. It is best to start by asking and answering critical questions pertaining to you, the business owner and your business concept. Melvin Feller MA goes on to state that these are the must have and hard questions to really ask yourself:

Have you determined what products and services you are going to offer?

Have you determined that a market exists for your offerings and is accessible to your selected location?

Have you determined if there are any names, logos, or other intellectual property that must be covered through patent or trademark registration?

What is the legal form of the business? (proprietorship, partnership, corporation, limited liability company)?

Have you registered your business name?

Have you determined a formation for your business (i.e. sole proprietorship, partnership, S-Corporation, C-Corporation, Limited Liability Company, etc.)?

If you have chosen your business to be a corporation, have you filed a Certificate of Incorporation?

Have you addressed, if necessary, a Partnership Agreement or Limited Liability Company Article of Organization?

Have you researched local, county, and state license and permit requirements?

Have you selected a physical site for your business?

Have you addressed local zoning regulations to see if your business conforms or if you will need to seek a variance?

Have you researched Federal, state and local regulatory agencies to determine what you need to address?

Have you determined your insurance requirements?

Once you have these questions answered and have a solid plan then it is time to think about your business location. There are many things that must be considered during this period. In fact, according to Melvin Feller MA, most of these things are never considered and could actually hinder a budding entrepreneur’s success.

Melvin Feller MA compiled this list of the key issues to keep in mind when you’re deciding whether a new city is right for you.

Workforce. In today’s labor-tight, knowledge-based economy, this is far and away the single most important factor to examine, according to relocation experts and several executives who have recently moved their companies. If the location doesn’t support your ability to recruit and retain a world-class workforce, everything else is secondary.

Will your company be able to offer employees’ salaries and benefits that are competitive in the region? If not, you may not be able to recruit the best talent. Remember that people often have families. Is the local economy deep enough and diverse enough to support careers for employees’ spouses? How is the quality of life in the area? How are the schools?

Sources of funding. “Venture capital is a contact sport,” according to Melvin Feller MA. “Be near sources of financing.” Is there a venture-capital or angel-investor community in the region? Is there a network of lawyers, accountants, or other professionals that can help you develop a business plan and market it to potential investors? Are there formal and informal networking opportunities in town? Are low-cost loans available from banks and other lending institutions?

 Economic-development incentives. Does the city or state you’re looking at have aggressive policies — including tax incentives and low-cost loans — to recruit and retain businesses in your industry or start-ups in general? Be on the lookout for places that have developed economic strategies for attracting the kind of business you’re in.

Transportation. Air service is particularly important in today’s economy. How many flights go into and out of the nearest airport? Is there a hub airport nearby, making it easy for customers and clients to get to you?

Manufacturers should check out trucking routes and other transportation needs that support their companies’ logistics. What will it cost to get the supplies you need to your new location and to ship your product to your customers? Will you be able to deliver your product at a competitive price?

Technology. How wired is the area you’re considering? Are broadband services available for Internet access? Such offerings are important both for web-based companies and for those that use the Web just to enhance their brick-and-mortar business.

Cost of living. This issue has major implications for both your employees and your company. Can your staff find affordable housing in the area? In terms of commercial real estate, Melvin Feller MA suggests that you look at both cost and flexibility. He recommends negotiating a short-term lease that gives you options to acquire more space as needed.

Universities. “All the hot zones have great universities,” says Feller, founder of Melvin Feller MA Business Group. Universities provide cheap but knowledgeable part-time labor (students), as well as readily available consultants (professors). When the students graduate, they help form a skilled talent pool from which to draw employees. Many universities also host small-business development centers and programs.

Character of the local economy. What sectors are strongest in the region? If you’re a manufacturer, for example, you probably don’t want to go to a tourist or service-oriented economy, since it might not have an appropriate workforce, essential suppliers, and other resources.

Personal preferences. Do you have friends, family, or professional contacts that keep you in one area or draw you to another? You want to be happy in the place where you do business. As your company grows, the personal aspects of running a business may have to give way to more practical considerations, so think about such factors now, while you are still in control.

Melvin Feller MA knows that opening up your own small business can bring a host of benefits — more freedom, flexible working hours, more career opportunities and many of your dreams realized.

 Statistics show small businesses started by women have a greater chance of success — experts think it’s because women plan more, and take things step by step. A recent study on factors influencing career success conducted by Accenture, a global management consulting company, found that women feel juggling family support, planning and ambition is important for them to advance in their careers.

 Melvin Feller MA also knows that planning is important? Because he knows and has proven that a great business starts with a great idea. But there’s so much more. Often, would be entrepreneurs get so excited about their idea that they forget to find out whether it’s viable or not.

Small businesses make up more than 99% of the businesses in Texas. Small businesses, in particular, rely upon funding and financing to get their new and current businesses off the ground.

The Governor’s Office of Small Business Assistance works closely with a variety of partners to highlight the various avenues for accessing capital. The Governor’s Office cannot recommend or suggest specific lenders but we invite you to visit the following nonprofit lenders and chartered banks. At this time, the Governor’s Office does not have a program for grants available to start-up businesses.

The partners included below have a state-wide presence, but there are many local options available depending on where you are located.

NONPROFIT LENDERS

ACCION ACCION is dedicated to providing the tools entrepreneurs need to operate, grow or start their business. They offer a community of support and are dedicated to increasing access to business credit, making loans and providing support.

BCL of Texas Established in 1990 as a statewide not-for-profit, BCL of Texas successfully promotes business and community development and provides business capital and commercial real estate loans throughout Texas. In addition to providing businesses with counseling and technical assistance, BCL of Texas originates, underwrites, processes, closes and services business loans for healthy, growing businesses.

LiftFund the mission of LiftFund is to provide credit and service to small businesses that do not have access to loans from commercial sources, and to provide leadership and service to the micro-lending field on a national level.

PeopleFund provides loans and technical assistance to people who are left out of the financial mainstream. PeopleFund provides flexible loans to small businesses, startups, and nonprofit organizations across Texas. They also provide business consulting, technical assistance, and a variety of other programs.

FINANCING RESOURCES

To find a Texas financial institution, visit the National Information Center’s website.

For international financial institutions in the state that enable international trade by issuing letters of credit, providing currency exchange, and making trade related loans, as well as financing projects in various countries, please visit Texas Bankers Association and the Independent Bankers Association of Texas.

Credit Unions: Cornerstone Credit Union League, a nonprofit that seeks to inform on the operating environment and strength of credit unions throughout the central southern U.S., provides information on the various chapters throughout Texas.

Banks: The Texas Department of Banking provides a list of Texas state-chartered banks and holding companies.

CROWDFUNDING AND EQUITY CROWDFUNDING

In the past few years, crowdfunding and equity crowdfunding have become very popular methods of raising capital. Kickstarter and Indiegogo are two popular crowdfunding sites in which individuals are able to give small donations with the goal to partially fund a project. In exchange, the crowd receives different items depending on the size of their donation. Equity crowdfunding is when individuals invest in an early-stage company in exchange for shares in that company.

GRANTS.GOV:

A centralized location for grant seekers to find and apply for federal funding opportunities. The website houses information on over 1,000 grant programs and vets grant applications for 26 federal grant-making agencies.

SMALL BUSINESS INNOVATIVE RESEARCH/SMALL BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER FUNDING (SBIR/STTR):

The federal government allocates over $2 billion annually to SBIR and STTR. These programs encourage small businesses to capitalize on commercialization opportunities.

The SBIR program is a highly competitive program that encourages domestic small businesses to engage in Federal Research/Research and Development (R/R&D) that has the potential for commercialization. Through a competitive awards-based program, SBIR enables small businesses to explore their technological potential and provides the incentive to profit from its commercialization.

The STTR program expands funding opportunities in the federal innovation arena. Central to the program is the expansion of the public/private sector partnership to include joint venture opportunities between small business and nonprofit research institutions.

To find local resources familiar with SBIR/STTR and can support small business commercialize, please visit their website.

With over 2.6 million small businesses, small business is big business in Texas. The Texas economy has continually outpaced the national economy in overall growth, low unemployment rates, and high consumer confidence. Highly ranked healthcare, exemplary education, low living costs, a strong heritage, and hundreds of miles of rivers and coast make Texas the perfect spot.

Small businesses make up 99.8% of the Texas businesses. Texas is consistently ranked at the top of business climates in America and has been ranked highly for over a decade. Texas is recognized for its strong economy, skilled workforce, low taxes and fair legal system, extensive infrastructure, and high quality of life. In 2019 Business Facilities recognized Texas as the #1 state for business climate and infrastructure. Area Development ranked Texas as #1 for overall cost of doing business, competitive labor market and corporate tax environment.

Out of the 2.6 million small businesses in Texas, more than 866,000 are women-owned small businesses and 1.1 million are minority-owned small businesses. The Texas Historically Underutilized Business (HUB) Certification offers certification that increases the exposure of a business especially as it concerns supplier diversity programs in both public and private sectors. 4.6 million Texas residents, or almost half of the state’s private workforce, are employed by a small business. In fact, small businesses created 218,436 net new jobs in 2019.

All types of businesses flourish across Texas. Many regions in Texas boast large, existing concentrations of companies in a particular industry which creates a trained labor force from which other businesses can draw. As a result, regions with existing labor pools continue to spur new business expansions and relocations in those same sectors.

Cost of Doing Business

With no individual income tax, Texas has one of the lowest tax burdens in the country, ranking as a Top 15 Best State in the Tax Foundation’s 2019 State Business Tax Index.

Exports

Texas has been the #1 exporting state for 16 straight years. 93.1% of all Texas exporters are small firms and are responsible for 37.6% of all Texas export value.

Finally, Feller states, “Researching your idea or talking to a neutral business advisor keeps your goals on track”. However, Feller also says that when he first started, nothing happened so I got impatient. But Richard Branson’s book “Losing My Virginity” was inspiring, as he stuck it out and found opportunities where others said there were none.

It was through trial and error and lots of education, that he reached the pinnacle of success and was able to create a business which has gone on to help thousands of people to start the business of their dreams and fulfill their legacy.

#Businessfinancing #startupbusiness #startupbusinesstexas #texasstartupbusiness #smallbusiness #melvinfellerfacebook #melvinfellerintexas #melvinfellerinoklahoma #melvinfellbusinessgroup #melvinfeller #melvinfellercoaching #melvinfellerbusinessgroup #texas #doingbusinessintexas

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Melvin Feller Business Group and How They Measure Up

What should a great business group do when your business needs help.  According to Melvin Feller, CEO and founder of Melvin Feller Business Group, to be fully appreciated, sustainability cannot be an add-on, it needs to be combined. A strong and successful business group should deliver made-to-order sustainability strategies that become part of a company’s everyday operations, policies, procedures and company culture.

Those include and are not limited to:

Vision and Goals - We will help you develop your True North and SMART goals to achieve sustainability goals in both the short and long-term.

Materiality and Stakeholder Engagement - Connecting with Purpose. A true Business Group specializes in helping companies engage its key internal and external stakeholders to understand what issues are important to them and most impactful. Melvin Feller Business Group does this through a combination of facilitations, focus groups, surveys and summits.

Strategic Plans - Whether you need a 3-year plan or a 1-year plan just to get going, the right thing is to create and develop a plan to get you there.

SWOT Analysis – A great sustainability SWOT analysis must focus on ways to reduce risk and drive business value by using a unique lens that focuses on market, consumer and industry trends and pending regulation on social and environmental issues.

Industry Benchmarking – A business group must analyze a company’s peers and industry leaders to benchmark your sustainability efforts to highlight points of difference and competitive advantage.

Sustainability can and should enhance a company’s brand and serve as a differentiator in today’s competitive marketplace. Melvin Feller Business Group will help you tell your story – authentically – in a way that elevates your brand.  That is why it is called Brand Enhancement.  

Brand Enhancement includes:

External Reporting - Reporting sustainability performance is a valuable management tool for organizations to communicate social and environmental performance to customers, suppliers, employees and investors. The reporting process also helps you to:

Assess your impacts

Manage risk

Leverage opportunities, and

Increase transparency

Supplier/Investor Questionnaires – Most business groups offer and do sustainability questionnaires which are increasingly prevalent from customers, investors and suppliers. A strong business group helps clients navigate this complex process by gathering the necessary qualitative and quantitative data to answer them as well as to build a company capacity to do it efficiently without external support moving forward.

CSR and GRI Reporting – Many business groups work with their clients to develop sustainability reports that authentically tell their stories. From content development, to data collection and copywriting, the business group MUST partner with their clients to deliver the best products in order to share their sustainability story.

Internal Communications Support - Your good work is known only if you communicate it. A strong business group will help develop strategies and create customized materials to share with employees in order to tell your sustainability story. They will help you leverage your efforts and maximize return by amplifying your message through your social media platforms and creating inspiring and engaging case studies to be shared with various audiences.  That is a MUST in today’s world!

Finally, capacity building should go beyond just being an extension to your team, they should help you build your internal capacity and knowledge base for your organization moving forward especially through customized trainings and cutting-edge online videos.

Therefore, the bottom line is a first-class business group should and will start every project with a simple conversation, getting to know you and your business needs. Then create a customized work plan to bring your sustainability needs and vision to reality.

#goals #businessgoals #business #businessstartup #growing a business #growingabussiness #melvinfellerbusinesgroup #melvinfellerbusiness consultants #melvinfeller #melvinfellerma #businesswithmelvinfeller #melvinfellerbusinessconsultants #melvinfellerinoklahoma #yourbusinessconsultantmelvinfeller #melvinfellerrealestate

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Marketing — Getting the biggest bang for Your Buck as Discussed by Melvin Feller MA, MBA

According to Melvin Feller, MBA and business owner as well as an online educator, marketing is an ever-changing, sometimes elusive activity. Even the marketing experts are continually tweaking their strategies in order to remain focused on attracting the customers they want. So, what should typical small business owners do, whose expertise is in delivering the product or service they started the business for?

First, understand that marketing is simply the message you send out to connect with people who want what you sell. Communicating this message is actually easier than creating the message itself. And herein lies the problem. Most business owners focus exclusively on the type of transmission vehicle that carries the message instead of crafting a compelling message that entices their customers to want to do business with them. When this happens, most marketing programs are equally as effective and tend to deliver the same poor results.

 Melvin Feller teaches and analysis marketing messages and believes that the fact is, that business have an identical marketing weakness as do most industries where there are tons of competitors with virtually no obvious differentiation.

Most competitors’ web sites or marketing messages make the same-sounding claims, describe the same-sounding services, and make same-sounding lead generation offers.

Some try to break from the pack by making either of the three big marketing mistakes:

Mistake 1: Boasting about leadership. “We’re the leader in…” Even if it’s true, unless you’re a household name it sounds fake, and no one cares except your CEO. It’s not a key differentiation point.

Mistake 2: Making up terminology to describe yourself. “We use the unique A.B.C. process to…” If prospects never heard of it, they don’t care. They are not here to learn about you — they just want to know if you can solve their particular problem.

Mistake 3: Broad customer description. “Everyone from the Fortune 500 to small businesses use our services.” Prospects don’t think of themselves as generic (even if they are), so they don’t want to buy generic services even if it would suit them.

Melvin Feller’s bottom line advice is to focus your positioning on the customer — not yourself!

Feller recommends that you start by reviewing what you have received for the money you have spent on marketing programs. While every business has unique qualities that may favor particular approaches, here are some of the more common forms of marketing and some tips on how to evaluate their effectiveness.

Local phone books- Most of these directories have been replaced by more robust on-line services. Still, a tremendous number of businesses continue to advertise in ‘yellow page’ style books. Look at the section of the book you occupy. Based on competition, the size you select and cost you agree to pay, the listing should be big enough to have one main message plus contact information. Anything more and the cost associated with it can be put to better use.

Newspaper ads- Unless you do a substantial volume business or rely on holidays for the majority of your business, forget them. The cost grossly outweighs the benefit.

 Coupon mailers- These vehicles are acceptable for car washes, haircuts and pizza but not much else. Most people don’t even open the envelops and if they do, they usually don’t look through more than 4–5 on the top. In any case, the coupon redemption is less than 1% so figure out how much you will pay to get 2–3 people to call you.

Online local listings- Several companies sell services to place you in all local listings for an ongoing monthly fee of anywhere from $99 to $499. If you have the know-how, you can do 90% of this yourself and save some money.

Door flyers- Most of the cost of this promotional approach is in the cost of delivering the flyers. They can be very effective if combined with something free. Real estate agents do very well by advertising themselves on pads of paper. This way, your name stays in front of your prospect for some period of time.

Mobile Text Messaging- A relatively new advertising medium, this service sends text promotions and offers to people who sign up using a text message code. They can work very well for low cost purchases or time specific offers like free sodas with any sub during the lunch hour. Other than that, I predict this program will fade as people will tire of getting ads sent to their phones.

Radio- Broad reaching but can be expensive. Depending on the time slots, you may or may not even be talking to your potential customers. All times are not equal so ask lots of questions about the schedule you buy into.

Billboards- Predominantly dependent on your message and the location. Unless your business has a visual component, I would pass on this sort of advertising.

Networking events- An excellent way to build visibility and referrals but it can be time consuming. You may need to test a few different groups to see which ones attract the types of referral partners and customers you are looking for. For most quality networking groups, look at WWW.meetup.com

Websites- One of the single biggest marketing expenses for a small business, your content, appearance and functionality must all work together or your designer and hosting costs are going down the drain every month.

Be very critical of your returns with any of these marketing approaches. If you are spending $500 to $2,500 per month on a variety of programs, make sure you can message the business you get with the right message. If the return is poor, cancel the agreement.

#Marketing #Small business #smallbusiness #smallbusinessmarketing #onlinemarketing #lowcostmarketing #increasemarketing #websitemarketing #smallbusinessprofits #business #entrepreneur #melvinfeller #melvinfellerintexas #melvinfellerinoklahoma #melvinfelleroklahoma #melvinfellerbusinessconsultants #melvinfellerbusinessgroup #melvinfellerfacebook #melvinfellerlinkedin

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Melvin Feller MA Explains How to Knowingly Choosing A Positive Attitude in Life

After 35 years in the trenches and years of personal research, Melvin Feller MA, has proven that it is important to realize that you determine your reality by the way you respond to the outside world. When something transpires, you get to select whether it’s a positive or negative experience and therefore react accordingly.

Melvin Feller is a public Speaker, Author and Business Owner who strives to motivate, uplift, and inspire you to make your dreams a reality. He is the Founder and CEO of Melvin Feller Business Group to help you on your journey. He has presented both locally and internationally!

Do you knowingly choose your attitude each day? If you’re like most people, probably not. Most of us tend to allow our circumstances determine our attitude for us. We’re in a good mood as long as we get up on time, the boss cooperates and get to work on time, or our workload is manageable, etc. This system can work fine as long as everything runs smoothly in our lives and according to our plans.

But that’s not always the case in life, is it? Circumstances don’t always adhere to our expectations. Accidents and delays happen. Spouses and bosses can be difficult to please. Vehicles break down. What happens to our attitude then? If we don’t make the effort to knowingly choose a positive attitude, we run the risk of developing a negative attitude at random.

How would our lives change if we knowingly chose a positive attitude each day? For starters, we’d feel much happier about our lives. We’d feel more motivated about pursuing our dreams because we’d believe in the possibilities for making them a reality. We’d be able to enjoy the time spent with our friends and families more, because we’d want to share our joy with others. We’d feel strong and empowered in our ability to do anything we set our minds to. We’d be able to overcome challenges with ease because we’d have a strong belief in our own skills and abilities. We would be able to love deeply and completely without fear of rejection or treachery. We would pause to enjoy the smaller, more precious moments in life, without feeling pressured to do more, be more, or prove our worthiness.

Wow, it sounds awesome, doesn’t it? Is it really possible to feel that way all the time? Yes, but probably not in the way you’re imagining it. Just because we select a positive attitude doesn’t mean that our lives will transform into smoothly-flowing works of ease and stay that way forever. Choosing a positive attitude is a process. We don’t just choose it once and expect everything to be perfect from that moment on. We will always experience setbacks, delays, accidents, frustrations, arguments, fatigue, and fears. The secret is how we select to react to these experiences. Do we want to let them ruin our day, or do we select to pick ourselves up and look hopefully to the future again? We do have the power to knowingly choose.

You may be asking what the point of a positive attitude is. If we’ll still experience negative circumstances, why bother with selecting a positive attitude? However, that’s the true beauty of the creative process. What we choose to focus on the most, we create in our lives.

By choosing a positive attitude each day, we are actually attracting more positive experiences, and reducing the probability of negative experiences. You may have noticed that each experience often determines the quality of the next experience, causing a chain reaction in our lives. If one little thing goes wrong, it can throw off our plans for the rest of the day. In this setting, it’s easy to see how a positive attitude would be powerful. Rather than allowing one little thing to ruin our day, we would be able to shrug it off and continue on without a missing a step.

Over time, this resiliency begins to strengthen and empower us, which will show through in our demeanor. We begin attracting people and experiences that more closely match our attitude, and our lives eventually transform into more confident, satisfying expressions of joy.

And it all begins with a little thing called attitude! Again, this is a process, so go easy on yourself if you’re trying to adopt a more positive attitude. Simply focus on developing a stronger awareness of your attitude moment to moment in your daily experiences, and begin choosing a more positive one more often. It takes time to realize the full benefits of this type of mindset, but it is time well-spent.

Before you know it, you’ll be one of those people you used to respect and appreciate for their tenacity and their strength, and in return your life will change in astonishing ways.

#personaldevelopment #attitude #positiveattitude #negativeattitude #melvinfeller #melvinfellertexas #melvinfelleroklahoma #melvinfellerma #melvinfellerbusinessgroup #melvinfellerbusinessconsultants #life #lifechallenges #melvinfellerlifechallenges #leader #leadership

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Melvin Feller Discusses How To Avoid Negative People Whenever You Can Because It Translates to Success!

Melvin Feller as both an educator and public speaker has made a point to avoid negative people whenever and however he can. There are times that it is virtually impossible but you can make point of choice even of that means not speaking to them or acknowledging them. Life is short and both life and business deserve the best you have to offer. Your family deserves it!

If you’re trying to make any sort of change in your life, to take yourself or your business to a higher level, there’s a certain kind of person that you should avoid like an epidemic.

They’re the pessimists, the negative people who see life through glasses colored with their own limiting beliefs and low self-esteem.

These are people who can never see the good side of things… who insist that someone or something is out to get them.

Who have so much self-loathing, that the only way they can feel good about themselves is by judging others. So little self-esteem that they end up pulling you down with them.

They don’t seem to understand that negativity and hate only breeds more of the same. And what you give out, you get back.

Some of them try to cover it up with arrogance, masquerading as over-confidence. I’ve met a few of these types, and I avoid them like the plague…

Why, you ask? Do I not want to help them?

Well, yes. I used to feel sorry for them, until I realized that you can only help someone who WANTS to be helped.

And the pessimists don’t want to be helped. Because there’s a payoff for their behavior.

And that payoff is — not having to take responsibility for their lives. Not having to take action to drag themselves out of the morass of their mind.

So they continue being negative, pulling others down and feeling sorry for themselves.

They justify their negativity as being realistic. And continue to attract more of the same.

Then they wonder why they’re in the miserable situation they’re in.

And if you have someone like this in your life. Someone who always makes you feel worse, I’ll give you some very good advice.

Cut them off from your life! Right now!

Because like a blood-sucking leech, they will drain you of all the positive feelings you have and drag you down into their miserable little world.

And if you happen to be a pessimist, here’s some advice for you.

Change your attitude!

You can choose to think negative thoughts or positive thoughts. Guess which ones will help you grow?

Melvin Feller has noted that in his readings and his teachings on Success Strategies that after researching the daily habits of successful and wealthy people for over ten years. He came across another author that had been studying for over years, author Thomas C. Corley who also found that these same people also avoided one type of person at all costs: pessimists.

“Self-made millionaires are very particular about who they associate with,” Corley writes in his book, “Change Your Habits, Change Your Life.” “You are only as successful as those you frequently associate with. The successful people in life are always on the lookout for individuals who are goal-oriented, optimistic, enthusiastic, and who have an overall positive mental outlook.”

Eighty-six percent of successful people in his study made a habit out of associating with other success-minded individuals. On the flip side, “they also make a point to limit their exposure to toxic, negative people,” he explains.

The importance of substituting negative friends and acquaintances for positive individuals stems from the fact that positivity was a hallmark of the rich people he studied — and we emulate the people we associate with.

Melvin Feller has determined that the bottom line is that “long-term success is only possible when you have a positive mental outlook and positive people in your life.”

You can choose to judge people or see the good in them. Guess which attitude will build better relationships?

You can choose to interpret life events in a way that dis-empowers you or one that empowers you. Guess which attitude will help you recover faster from tragedy?

You can choose to blame others or take responsibility for your life. Guess which attitude will help you take action and grow as a person?

If you still do not grasp the importance of the topic, then use an example from Melvin Fellers personal business presentations and check it out for yourself.

It has been noted by, journalist Napoleon Hill, nearly a century ago, after researching over 500 self-made millionaires. “Men take on the nature and the habits and the power of thought of those with who they associate,” he wrote in his 1937 bestseller, “Think and Grow Rich,” and “there is no hope of success for the person who repels people through a negative personality.”

The bottom line: Negativity will derail you from pursuing success, and like attracts like. Avoid the pessimists and start hanging out with the optimists.

It is imperative to note that he drew these similar conclusions after researching over 500 self-made millionaires. “Men take on the nature and the habits and the power of thought of those with who they associate,” he wrote in his 1937 bestseller, “Think and Grow Rich,” and “there is no hope of success for the person who repels people through a negative personality.”

The bottom line: Negativity will derail you from pursuing success, and like attracts like. Avoid the pessimists and start hanging out with the optimists.

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Published by Melvin Feller Business Group

Melvin Feller Business Group prides itself in creating actionable insight is which is a term in data analytics and big data for information that can be acted upon or information that gives enough insight into the future that the actions that should be taken become clear for decision makers of any business. View all posts by Melvin Feller Business Group

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Becoming Better Through Life's Bad Times As Discussed by Melvin Feller

Melvin Feller asks, Do you ever struggle with negative thinking? If you have a harsh inner critic or get caught in worry, stress, anxiety, depression or wrestle with low self-worth, then you know some of the symptoms first hand.

Negative thinking patterns can have a strong and sometimes devastating impact on our relationships, our health, our work… our lives.

Melvin Feller personally knows that people often try many different ways to get rid of their negative thoughts, including distractions, diversions or ‘drowning their sorrows’ only to later mentally beat themselves up for being still stuck in their negativity. It can feel like a real internal battle. These are common strategies that attempt to stop the thoughts and numb the pain in the short term but they only make things worse in the long term. It doesn’t fix the problem at its core.

The research shows that struggling with, arguing with, trying to drown out or push away unhelpful thoughts only amplifies them and makes things worse.

Negative thought patterns are repetitive, unhelpful thoughts. They directly cause what we could describe as ‘negative’ (unwanted or unpleasant) emotions like anxiety, depression, stress, fear, unworthiness, shame etc.

Once we learn to recognize and identify negative thought patterns as they occur, we can start to step back from them. This process of stepping back from thoughts is called ‘cognitive de-fusion.’ In cognitive de-fusion we learn to see the thoughts in our head as simply that—just thoughts. Not reality. You see when we are fused with our thoughts (cognitive fusion) we tend to take our thoughts very, very seriously. We believe them. We buy into them and we obey them. We play them out.

When we are not fused with our thoughts—when we can step back into cognitive de-fusion, then we do not take our thoughts too seriously. We hold them lightly. We only listen to them if we find them valuable or helpful. We certainly don’t take our thoughts to be ‘the truth’ and we don’t automatically obey them or play them out. We see our thoughts as simply bits of language that pass through the mind. Mental events if you will, that move through the mind all the time just like the weather passes through the sky. We have a choice in how we choose to respond to them.

The example I like to use often to illustrate the difference between cognitive fusion and cognitive de-fusion is this…imagine waking up one day and looking out the window and seeing rain. It’s possible that a thought might come into your head that says “what a dreadful day”. Now is it true that the day is dreadful? No, of course not, it is simply raining. However if you believe the thought “what a dreadful day”, in other words if you are stuck in cognitive fusion (literally fused with the thought) then guess what you will probably have? That’s right, you will probably have a dreadful day! In other words if you believe a thought like that, it can generate what we might call negativity.

It’s completely normal to have negative thoughts! It’s part of our evolutionary history. There is nothing wrong with you. We all have minds that have evolved to be constantly on the lookout for problems and dangers, so most of us have minds prone to have many negative thoughts.

The problem is not that we have negative thoughts. The problem comes when we believe our thoughts are true. When you are no longer entangled in thoughts they lose their grip on you and lose their power to generate unpleasant emotions.

Let’s go back to the example above. Imagine you’re laying in bed in the morning, you look out the window and you see that it’s raining and once again the thought arises “what a dreadful day”. If you are not fused with the thought (you don’t buy into it) then your experience would be like this. You’re watching the rain falling, then you also watch the thought (as simply a mental event) “what a dreadful day” arise and fall away just like the rain is falling…and since you don’t take it seriously or believe it, it generates no negativity, passes by easily and you’re free to lay there relaxed and at ease, enjoying the hard drops of the rain on the roof.

As you can see, the ability to recognize unhelpful thinking and step back from it is incredibly liberating! It can change the quality of your whole day and indeed your whole life.

Worry is when the mind projects into an imagined future and conjures up scenes and thoughts about what could go wrong. Here it often creates ‘what if’ scenarios.

Sometimes it takes the form of imagining or expecting that bad things will happen or that nothing good will ever happen for you. You might fret about your health deteriorating, your relationship going downhill, your car breaking down or your career being ruined—even though nothing has actually happened yet.

You might focus on the lack in your life and believe that nothing will ever get better for you. Stress related to your financial future, the welfare of your children or your partner leaving you fit into this category.

Do you have a harsh inner critic? Are you always trying to whip yourself into shape, mentally beating yourself up for not being good enough yet? Are you on a perfection mission? Another pattern of negative thought is to constantly criticise and ‘self improve’ because you’re not good enough yet. You may be very harsh on yourself, focusing in on all of your weaknesses and perceived flaws.

Likewise, you may extend this habit of criticism to others in your life. This can be the cause of tremendous strain on relationships. Negative self-talk and self-criticism often results in low self-esteem and a lack of confidence.

One way some people cope with low self-esteem is to compensate for these feelings by attaining status, achievements and recognition. Others may feel completely debilitated by feelings of unworthiness, becoming depressed or even suicidal.

There is nothing wrong with having goals and aiming to get fitter or healthier and the like—we can simply choose to do those because they are good for us or we want to stretch and grow. It’s a very different headspace to be doing those things because we don’t feel like we’re enough yet.

When the mind continuously hones in on what is wrong with yourself (and your life) and disassociates from what is going well and is good, we can become stuck in negativity.

Negative thoughts often revolve around what’s wrong with your life. Your attention becomes fixated on, and exaggerates the so called negative aspects of your life. Here your mind will often downplay what is going well.

If you have this habit of lamenting over your sorrows and problems you may constantly feel frustrated, anxious, depressed and apathetic. When you’re so absorbed in what’s wrong, you’re unable to notice what’s right.

Looking out for and recognizing these common negative thinking patterns when they arise will help you be aware of when to use the tools below to work with them skillfully and break free from their grip.

People trapped in negative thinking often tell me they feel hopeless because they often wrestle or argue with the thoughts or push them away, but the research shows that trying to struggle with thoughts in these ways just amplifies them as you may have noticed in your own life. What you resist persists.

So how do you move through life in a way that is practical, peaceful and authentic without getting stuck in negative thought patterns?

Here is the first step. It’s a very powerful, simple, tried and tested technique for untangling from thoughts without struggling with them. It’s called the ‘name it to tame it’ technique.

‘Name it to tame it’ is a phrase coined by author and psychiatrist Dr. Daniel Siegel. Here’s the basics of how ‘name it to tame it’ works:

Melvin Feller recommends that an unhelpful thought pattern and the associated emotion arises you simply mentally ‘label’ the story. You’ve probably noticed many of our thoughts are repetitive and involve the same story lines. For instance one of my stories often is, “Who am I to be putting myself ‘out there’ teaching mindfulness. Aren’t you supposed to be perfect first!? Have it all totally together?!” I find this story unhelpful so when thoughts come up along that story line, I simply mentally note to myself, “Ahhhh the ‘who do you think you are’ story is here again” and then I let it go.

By ‘let it go’ I simply mean, I stop giving it all my attention and stop taking it so seriously. I realize it’s just a thought, not reality, then I open my awareness to the world around me again—the birds in the trees, the sounds, the breeze. I get out of my head and into my life

As soon as you name the mental story or pattern, you have now stepped back from being caught up in it. In other words you have initiated cognitive de-fusion. From a neuroscience perspective, when you name the thoughts you stop being hijacked by them from the negativity they create because you bring the smartest part of your brain online (the frontal cortex). The frontal cortex is reflective and helps you step back and get a greater perspective. You can do the same thing with emotions, naming them to tame them like “ahhh anxiety is here” or “oh shame has arrived”.

When naming or labeling your thoughts or emotions, one important tip. Make sure when you mentally label, to do it in a soothing, kind tone of voice. This is important as it helps you to settle and invite compassion and soothing into that moment instead of aggression or struggle. We’re not going to battle with the mind here. We are gently training it into new neural pathways of peace and ease. At a biological level, when you ‘name it to tame it’ in a soothing voice you even get a squirt of soothing neurotransmitters in the brain! This brings feelings of calm and ease and comfort.

Notice that many negative thoughts mostly flow from two directions. The first is dwelling on the past—maybe you ruminate over mistakes, problems, guilt and anything in your life that’s did not go the way you believe it should have gone. The second is worrying about the future—fear of what may or may not happen for yourself, others or the planet.

This may take the form of stress over whether or not you will achieve certain goals or anxiety about the security of your finances or relationships. Or perhaps you may worry about getting old. Whatever your particular negative thoughts are, notice that in order to engage in negative thought patterns the mind needs to cast its focus mostly into past or future. Either that or we judge and mentally label things in the present moment to be ‘bad’.

When lost in negative thinking we tend to be so engrossed in thoughts that we completely lose touch with what is actually happening in the present moments of our lives. We miss the little pleasures of living each day. The sunlight on your skin, the taste of the food we’re eating, a real connection with someone we love while they are talking. When we’re lost on our heads we lose touch with the world around us….and we lose touch with ourselves.

To become more present, and able to step out of negative thinking, one powerful method is to ‘come to your senses’. To do this simply redirect your attention out of the thoughts in your head and bring your focus to your sense perceptions.

Whether you’re in your home, at the office, in the park or on a subway, notice everything around you. Use your senses to their fullest. Don’t get into a mental dialogue about the things you see, just be aware of what you’re experiencing in this moment.

Be aware of the sounds, the scents, the sensation of the air on your skin or the contact points with the seat beneath you. Be there fully in the moment.

At the core of each one of us is a space that knows deep peace. As we grow up, we tend to get more and more drawn into the mind – our problems, our goals, our hopes, our fears and desires. We tend to get so busy, caught up and lose touch with this deeper sense of self…this pure unconditioned awareness.

It becomes easy for us to get more drawn into negative thinking the more we lose touch with ourselves in this way and lose ourselves in the mind. In fact research from Harvard University shows that most people are ‘mind wandering’ 47% of their day and this is the root of what causes cognitive fusion which is entanglement with thoughts.

Mindfulness is the practice of waking up to that wellspring of wholeness and peace. It’s waking up out of mind wandering (where we are lost in our heads, our old beliefs, habits, reactions and thinking patterns) so that we are able to live deliberately. Through mindfulness we build our capacity to live from that deeper awareness and tame the mind.

Each time your mind wanders in meditation, your task is to notice it and then detach from your thought stream and come back to your senses, in the moment. This is a practice of untangling from thoughts over and over again, a habit which translates in the rest of your life too. It becomes a habit to notice and let go with ease.

Each time you let go of the thought stream and come back into the present moment you tap into the stillness and wholeness at the heart of who you are. A sense of peace, lightness and joy arises more and more with each time you practice.

Each time you are kind and gentle with yourself when your mind wanders, instead of criticizing yourself, you are strengthening your self-compassion for challenging moments in the rest of your daily life. You become more resilient to stress and cultivate a kinder mind.

Each time you observe the mind that is an opportunity for ‘insight’ into your mind’s habits and patterns so you grown in what we might call wisdom or self-awareness.

Some kinds of negative thinking patterns can be quite ‘sticky’. You may find that you try to ‘name it to tame it’ and come back to your senses but the thoughts continue to have a grip on you. If you find yourself in this position there are some further tools you can use to untangle from your thoughts and change your focus. These are called the helpful questions for unhelpful thoughts. These are drawn from ACT (acceptance and commitment therapy).

You can use some of these questions to mentally question negative thoughts and use others to change your focus.

Here are some questions you can ask yourself to help you untangle from the thought. You ask them and then you can answer them in your head. Usually you would just pick one of these at any given time.

Is this thought in any way useful or helpful?

Is it true? (Can I absolutely know that it’s true)

Is this just an old story that my mind is playing out of habit?

Does this thought help me take effective action?

Is this though helpful or is my mind just babbling on?

Then you can (mentally) ask these questions below to create new focus and new possibilities. These questions will help you focus on constructive thoughts and actions and help you effectively face your day-to-day challenges and move towards living a more meaningful life. Again, you may only use of of these at a time but you could always try more than one too.

What is the truth? My deepest truth?

What do I really want to feel or create in the situation? How can I move towards that?

How can I make the best of this situation?

Who would I be without this negative thought?

What new story or thought can I focus on now?

How can I see this in a different or new way?

What can I be grateful for in this moment?

With these powerful questions you can change your focus from being stuck in negativity to being focused on what’s going well. They will also help you take constructive action and move towards living a more meaningful life.

Constructive thinking allows you to be happy when things are going good, and puts problems in perspective when times get tough so you can stay calm and clear headed and deal with them in a practical efficient way.

The more you practice these tools, the more they will become like second nature to you. It’s like building a muscle—the more you use them, you become mentally fitter and stronger. In time the old habits are worn away and rather than being preoccupied with negativity, you’ll become more calm, centered and self-aware, leading to better relationships, greater overall happiness and a sense that your life is being fully lived.

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