Simon’s Notes

Hi guys. I haven’t posted in a very long time, half a month to be exact, and I’m feeling very embarrassed about it. I’ve had quite a number of people asking me if everything was fine with me, and I just want to say thank you for your concern, you really touched me. The fact of the matter is that I have been absolutely swamped with work, that I haven’t had the time to focus on my blog as I would have liked.

Some of you might know that I don’t actually have a job, if I did I would have more energy to focus on my blog, what I do have is a company. I’ve never had a job so far in my life, cause I’ve always figured that if I’m going to work, I might as well work for myself. As a result I’m always busy working on some project, which is really great. Having a company and being an entrepreneur is a very challenging and rewarding life to lead, and I must say that I love it.

Early this year I started my own company (it’s a corporation, never go for sole proprietorship or partnerships because of the broad liability) and I use it as a sort of umbrella for all my projects. I’m still busy ironing out kinks (they buggered up some paperwork in the beginning which I’m having to sort out) so that keeps me quite occupied. Other then that, I have a number of projects that I’m working on at the moment and I’m going to quickly run through some of them to give you a bit of an idea of what an entrepreneur’s life should look like:

• I own (together with my wife) an entertainment company. To be more precise, we specialize in balloon sculpting and face painting for children’s parties and corporate functions, we’ve also bought a jumping castle so we’re expanding a little. This doesn’t take a lot of time as I only do it for a few hours on the weekend.
• I’ve also started a company that deals with computers. We’ve recently relocated to another city so I’m having to start from scratch again. We basically buy and sell computers, and we also do repairs. I’m looking at expanding, I have a few possibilities to start doing some graphic design and web design.
• I love poker, so I’ve just bought some poker sets and I’m getting a table and I’m going to start renting them out for private parties and corporate events. Hopefully this takes off and I can start looking at it seriously.
• I’m working on getting an import/export license so that I can import some goods from China (preferably electronic goods). I’m also looking at some potential suppliers and I’m spending a lot of time reading and learning the ins and outs.
• As if that wasn’t enough to keep me focused, I’ve started network marketing as well. I’ve joined up with the Amway corporation and I’m taking it very seriously.

Now that I’ve put that out there I feel ashamed of myself, a real entrepreneur would have many more projects going on at the same time.

It’s not so much that I don’t have the time to write posts, it’s that when I was writing 1 post a day, all my focus was on my blog. I would spend the day thinking about what I was going to write that evening, it was great and I would love to spend my day doing that, but I have more important things that I need to focus on right now.

I love all my readers and one day I will be back in full force, but for now I have to focus on what is important in my life and the life of my family. I will try to post as often as I can, but please understand that that might not be as often as I’d like. If you have any questions or ideas that you would like me to discuss please leave a comment and I will be happy to write about it. Alternatively, if you would like to guest post on Simon’s Money Notes don’t hesitate to email me with your post.

Thank you for your support.

Simon

Filed under: Personal by Simon Rodrigues
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It’s that time of the month again, time for some juicy stats. The past month has been kind of so so for me, there are good points and some not so good points. I’ll get straight to the stats then talk a bit more about the highs, and lows of last month, and goals for the next month.

Income from Simon’s Money Notes - August/September 2007
Adsense $9.95 - Total $31.92
Bidvertiser $0.86 - Total $3.96
Adbux $3.29 - Total $6.36
Clixsense $5.39 - Total $5.39
Private Ad Sales $50.00 - Total $50.00
John Chow Donations $13.90 - Total $13.90
Total Last Month $83.39 - Total $136.69

Other Stats from Simon’s Money Notes - August/September 2007
Total Hits 5,100 - Total 10,757
Uniques per day 113
Technorati Authority 23 - Total 117
Technorati Rank 43,865
Technorati Faves 12 - Total 44
Blog Reactions 47 - Total 207
Spicy Votes 7 - Total 55
MyBlogLog Community Members 76

Highlights of August/September 2007
Like I said earlier, last month had its fair share of highs and lows. I have been very busy lately with some of my other projects so I haven’t been able to post as regularly as I would have liked. Having said that, Simon’s Money Notes did get a higher number of hits and unique hits last month. My RSS subscriber count has also gone up, and I’ve sold my very first bit of private advertising. But I have to say that the real highs of last month happened when Portugal scored tries against Scotland, and against the mighty All Blacks.

Goals for September/October 2007
Some of my other projects are starting to take off quite nicely so I won’t be able to put as much effort into my blog as I’d like to. Having said that, I’d like to continue to post at least once every two days, and once a day as much as possible. I would also like to see a steady increase in stats such as hits per day and unique hits per day. I would definitely like to see my RSS subscriber count rise substantially, and of course a bit more money is always nice.

And to go a little off topic, I’d like to see Portugal put up a very good show against Italy, and perhaps even beat Romania.

Simon

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Filed under: Updates and Stats by Simon Rodrigues
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Selling is an integral part of any business, whether we like it or not. Sometimes we try to come up with different names for it, or maybe we disguise it as something else, but when the crunch comes you will find yourself selling something in one way or another. In some instances selling is when you’re trying to grab that huge account, or in other instances it might be convincing prospective investors to fund you.

Lets face it, we all hate the close. I used to get so caught up in my sales talk, and I would blabber off a bunch of nonsense just so that I could avoid the close. But there comes a time when you have to stop the chit-chat, or the sales talk and just cut to the chase. You have to close that sucker. As time went on I started looking forward to the close, and hopefully, with the following tips, you will to.

• Don’t put yourself in a position where you’re dependent on your prospect. Develop the mindset that, if the deal doesn’t go through, he will miss out and not you. If you have this attitude you will find it much easier to pin him down.
• Your job is not to make a sale, your job is to help your client or prospect. Find out what they want by asking lots of questions, then tailor your close to their needs. This works just as well if your prospect is a potential investor, find out why it would benefit him to invest in you.
• Don’t be afraid of awkward pauses. As long as you don’t break the silence, you are in control.
• Avoid “yes/no” questions. Instead of “are you interested in *******”, you could say something like “in what way could you see your company applying *******”. You want to get the prospect involved so that instead of feeling that you sold him something, he will feel that he bought something. There is a difference.
• Certain “yes/no” questions can help you lead the prospect to the close, but you should use questions that you already know the answer for. For example, you could use a question like “it’s impossible for your company to completely avoid taxes legally, right?” The obvious answer would be yes, or right, which would then lead you to the next question such as “But you must know that with proper planning you could minimize your taxes quite considerably, right?” Nobody wants to be the idiot, so the answer to that one will also be yes. With questions like these it’s quite easy to make the prospect feel that he is the one having all the ideas, and eventually you will lead him to making a purchase, instead of chasing him to make a sale.
• When the time is right, just go for it. Honesty is always the best suggestion. Start peeling away the objections. Ask something like “can you see any reason why you wouldn’t want to do this?” If he gives you an excuse then say “if we could solve that problem, you’d get on board, right?” Repeat that question till he gives you the real objection, then solve it, once you’ve done that you’ll have the prospect hooked.

The important thing is not to be phased by negative prospects. Seldom will the meeting be perfect, and if you get a negative prospect that just means that you’re one closer to the positive one.

These tips won’t guarantee a sale every time, but hopefully they will stack the odds in your favor.

Simon

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Filed under: Money and Finances by Simon Rodrigues
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Are you a shy person? If you are you need to learn to get over it, otherwise you won’t succeed in business. I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again, it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. As a business person you have to develop the habit of always looking to build your network. I read somewhere that every person in the world is only six people away from knowing everybody else, I’m not sure how true that is, but it’s something to ponder.

Most people know at least 100 people, so your direct network of friends and acquaintances would be at least 100. But now imagine that each of your 100 friends knows another 100, suddenly your network has grown to 10,000. You can imagine how fast this can grow, and how useful networking can be for your business.

Becoming an instant networker can be a difficult habit to develop, especially if you’re shy or not used to talking to complete strangers. But once you get used to it, it becomes as easy as riding a bike. Here’s a list of helpful suggestions that might get you on your way:

• Make an attempt to notice people.
• Don’t just stand in the queue, be active with somebody around you.
• Don’t be afraid to make eye contact with people, you might have to force it at first but it’s a good way to connect with people.
• Always have business cards handy, ALWAYS, you will look very unprofessional otherwise.
• The best accessory for any business person is a smile, don’t be afraid to share yours with the world.
• Look for common ground. For example, if you are standing in queue for a long time and there is someone else there with you, you might mention something about how annoying it is to stand in long queues.
• There are 4 things that can easily start a conversation, those 4 things abbreviate to F.O.R.M. Family, occupation, recreation, and money.
• Ask lots of questions. People are never interested in you, they are interested in themselves, and they will be your instant friend if you show interest in them as well.

Today I was standing in a queue waiting to pay my cell phone account and there was a guy there also that looked like a very successful person. This guy was maybe in his thirties, he was wearing a suit, had a nice laptop with him, and was on his fancy phone, he gave me the impression that he was a very busy and important dude. I looked like a bum, I had a pair of shorts, a dirty T-shirt, and a pair of slippers that were ready for the garbage. I was certainly not in the networking mode, I didn’t even have any business cards. But I started talking to him anyway, we spoke about his business, my business, his family, and the rugby. By the time I left he was more than happy to give me his details and take mine. He is an important person in his firm, and you can bet that I will be following up on him.

Networking is an asset, cultivate it and you will see tremendous results.

Simon

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Filed under: Money and Finances by Simon Rodrigues
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So the rugby world cup has started, a couple of days ago actually, but for me it only really kicked off today, and that’s because it’s the first time ever that my country plays a game in the WC. I’m more of a soccer fan myself, and I usually watch games where I expect Portugal to win, so it was a refreshing change to watch a game knowing that we would lose and simply enjoying it.

I’m very pleased and very proud of Portugal, even though we got beaten 56-10, we showed a lot of courage, passion, and tenacity. Portugal’s efforts weren’t completely in vain, we scored out first ever try in a rugby WC and would of scored another if it weren’t for the ref. All in all, I had a lot of fun watching my country in action. I previously had very little interest in rugby (even though I live in a rugby crazy nation), but I think that now I might take a little more interest, after all, Portugal is a WC nation :)).

I don’t know enough about rugby to make this a very informative post, so I’ll leave that up to the pros:

• Rugbyworldcup.com
• Worldcupweb.com
• BBC.co.uk
• Sportinglife.com
• Sundayherald.com

All we need now is to see Portugal in the next cricket WC, then I’ll be at peace :))

Simon

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Filed under: Blah Blah by Simon Rodrigues
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What is the most important element, yet sometimes the most subtle, of any business? Two words, cash flow. When you first start a new business there are two very deadly traps that you can fall into, one of them is too little business and the other is too much business. Obviously, one of the traps might not make much sense… at first.

Too much business? How can too much business be a problem? Too much business can sometimes lead to a shortage of cash flow. What happens is that a lot of times new entrepreneurs get a little over eager especially when they see a lot of business. Here’s a scenario, you start a new business and your business takes off, you quickly run out of stock so you make another big order. Maybe you have a few clients that are ordering a lot of stuff from you, so you have to buy more. In your eagerness you don’t pay much attention to the payment plans that some of your prospects are offering (business is a cutthroat business), maybe you accept a few checks. The end of the month comes around and you find that you’ve sold a lot of stuff but you don’t actually have any money, the creditors won’t care, they want their money now, and you are screwed.

You might think that that scenario sounds a little silly, but it is a very common occurrence amongst startups. The way to avoid the pitfall of too much business is the same as everything else, plan your heart out. If you have a proper plan in place with regards to payments and orders, you can avoid these types of problems altogether.

A good idea would be to start small, make a commitment to not over commit yourself. If you’re starting a small business it might be a good idea to only accept cash, at least until you have a proper system in place. Don’t get tempted by the prospect of making thousands of dollars, it’s not worth the risk.

I can speak from personal experience, except that my experience went a little further. I started a computer business not too long ago. I was so excited by the first large order I received that I didn’t realize that the client had deposited a check into my account and not cash. I lost a lot of sleep over that check (I had already delivered the merchandise), and eventually I was slightly relieved when it was all over. That didn’t change the fact that the check was stolen and I had been scammed out of quite a bit of money.

All that to say, be very careful not to fall prey to too much business. Take a good hard look at every large order that comes your way, and don’t feel pressured into committing before you have analyzed it from every angle. Be wary of the guy that says he wants his stock right away, but is not willing to pay right away. Remember, if it’s too good to be true, it probably is a lie.

Simon

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Filed under: Money and Finances by Simon Rodrigues
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The day has finally arrived, and it’s even a little earlier than I expected, Simon’s Money Notes has been approved by PayPerPost. I wrote a review on PayPerPost not long ago, so I will try not to repeat much of the same things here, if you’d like to check out that post go to ‘earn some blogging money with PayPerPost‘. First off, I’d like to acknowledge a mistake I made with the last post, I said that you had to pay half of your review fee to PPP, but what really happens is that the person ordering the post has to pay an extra 10 percent that goes to PPP, so you don’t actually lose anything.

I’ve heard some people say that they’ll wait till their blog meets the PPP criteria before they consider signing up, I think that’s a mistake. I’ve had this blog for almost 3 months now and only today it’s been approved, but I signed up right away and started promoting PPP through my affiliate link.

PayPerPost has a very generous affiliate program. If you refer someone to PPP and their blog gets approved, you will get paid 15 dollars into your account. Another option you have is to use the “get paid to review my post” tool (you can see it at the bottom of my posts), if they sign up, do the review, and get approved you will get half of the referral bonus and they will get the other half, so you’ll be left with 7.50 dollars.

Does it really work? Yes it does. Simon’s Money Notes is still quite a humble blog, but in a very short period of time, and without doing much advertising, I’ve managed to sign up quite a number of people. If all of the blogs that I’ve referred get approved I could be sitting on a potential 90 dollars. Is it worth it to sign up even if my blog doesn’t meet the criteria? Yes it is.

Simon

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Filed under: Make Money Online, Reviews by Simon Rodrigues
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I was listening to a CD the other day by a guy named Robert G. Allen where he uses a very interesting analogy. He says to imagine that your financial life is like a giant bathtub. When we turn on the faucet, it’s like getting a job. The problem with most people is that they turn the faucet on but they don’t realize that they haven’t plugged the drain, not only that, most bathtubs have many drains that are letting the hard earned money waste away.

What’s the normal mentality in this situation? Most people want to look for ways to turn on more faucets, or maybe they can make more money flow out of the faucet they have, so they try to get a raise or something. The problem with this mentality is that the drains are still unplugged, and if you’re not careful you could find yourself with more drains then you had before.

So what’s the solution? You have to do a bit of both. You have to look for more faucets to turn on, and you have to plug your drains.

As an entrepreneur you have to always be on the lookout for opportunities. They are everywhere, and when an opportunity comes your way, you have to be ready to identify it and turn on that faucet. But if you want to be a millionaire, you also have to think like one, and millionaires hate leaks. Take a good hard look at your monthly budget (if you don’t know how to do a budget, don’t worry I’ll be doing a post about it soon), see what you can cut out, and cut it out.

Turn on faucets, but don’t forget to plug those leaks.

Simon

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Filed under: Money and Finances by Simon Rodrigues
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For those of you that don’t know, I’m doing a little begging, you heard correctly, I’m collecting contributions for a John Review. Well I say I’m begging but I’m actually offering something in return, I’m offering a very good mini-review for any one who cheerfully chips in :)). If you want to read my previous batch of reviews check out “mini-reviews for John Chow chippers - Batch 1“.

Since doing the last batch of mini-reviews, I’ve received two more contributions from two very lovely bloggers. So without further ado please take a few minutes to check out these great blogs.

• My Blog Contest - Are you looking for a one stop competition shop? Then look no more, Simon’s blog is blog where you can find it all. Looking to win some freebies? You came to the right place. There’s some other cool stuff also like a list of SEO software that you can download, and a few suggested online money makers. Check it out.
• Buzzing with Ange - I feel that this mini-review doesn’t really do Ange justice. Not only is she my biggest contributer to date but she is also a good friend of mine. Ange is a mother of two and she lives in Australia, Ange’s blog is all about wealth creation. Who wants to be wealthy? Then check out Buzzing with Ange. With Ange you come to realize that wealth is an attitude, and once you develop that attitude, wealth is attracted to you.

Hope you enjoy reading these two great blogs and if you find them as helpful as I did, go ahead and subscribe to the RSS feed.

If you’d like to get one of my great mini-reviews to your blog, all you have to do is chip in towards my John Chow review. There is no minimum, you can contribute as MUCH as you like. It’s really quite a bargain since my full reviews will set you back 30 dollars.

See you around.

Simon

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Filed under: Blogging, Reviews by Simon Rodrigues
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I’ve been getting into competition mode lately, I figure that if I enter enough of them I should win something eventually. My buddy Shaun over at ShaunLow.com has tagged me for this competition, its kind of like a competition/linktrain thing. I don’t normally go for linktrains and stuff like that, cause I like to try and get links the good old fashion way, but this prize is too good to pass up. The competition is the innovation of someone over at CashForComments.com where you can learn about internet marketing and get paid to leave comments.

What’s the prize? The prize is a copy of the much coveted “4-hour workweek” book, and a chance to get featured on blogging the movie. There will be 10 winners, and the first one has already been chosen and that was Suzan Suarez who has an online journal where she blogs about creating successful sites.

***** start copy here *****

Prizes

1. Win the 4-hour work week book copy for yourself.
2. Sign the Contest Jet Train Winner List on the another 4-Hour Work Week Book for the records. Then send this copy back to me to link up the photo of the book. You’re name will be forever part of this book and part of Blogging the Movie.
3. Be on the Contest Winners List, this list will be so popular because the contest will reset 10 times.
4. A short mention about your blog in movie, “Blogging the Movie” - a featured documentary about 10 bloggers all over the world. This contest will be mentioned however they are currently casting for bloggers.

Rules

1. Write a short blurb on at the beginning of blog using the following links:

• -Link to CashForComments.com using “get paid” and “internet marketing” to CashForComments.com/contest-jet-train
• -Link to Bloggingthemovie.com using the anchor text “blogging“.
• -Link to SusanSuarez.com using the anchor text “online journal“
• -No Duplicate Content or Forum Submissions will be counted as an entry.

2. Next, copy the list of originals below COMPLETELY and add it to your own blog. If you’d like a different keyword for your blog then change it, when you do your post, and it should pass to most blogs with that keyword, provided the train keeps on spreading.

3. Add at least three new favorite blogs of yours to keep the contest jet train going. Make sure you contact the bloggers and insist they participate so they can keep this going.

4. Contact Cash for Comments dot com by sending an email, letting them know you have entered.

Deadline for the second winner is 09/19/07.

Disclaimer: If you win and do not properly sign the book correctly and send it back you will be removed from the winners list and not be mentioned in the movie. We will be happy find a replacement for your spot on the infamous winners list.

Contest Jet Train Winners

Susan Suarez | Second | Third | Fourth | Fifth | Sixth | Seventh | Eighth | Ninth | Tenth
(only 10 will win, then be mentioned in movie - Blogging the Movie)

List

Blogging the Movie | Cash for Comment | Susan Suarez | Gregg Hawkins | Shaun Low | BlueJar | Why Go Elsewhere | ePursuit | Things By Mike | Random Jabber | Bloggrrl | The So Called Me | Thatedeguy | DayJobNuker | Preblogging | Cybersurge | Zm0ney | Simon’s Money Notes | Brown Baron | Sizzled Core | Shman | Opal Tribble | Kassper | Buzzing with Ange |ProMoneyBlog | Add your 3 blogs here

This Contest Jet Train is the innovation of the Sneaky Bastard at Cash for Comments dot com.

***** end copy here *****

Lets see what happens.

Simon

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Filed under: Competitions by Simon Rodrigues
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