Saturday 30 June 2007

Some Helpful Tips For Remortgaging Your Home Loan

Preparing to remortgage your home loan

Nearly half of all mortgage applications are for remortgages. If you are considering remortgaging your home loan, here are some things you can do to get ready:

1. Check the current interest rates.

Traditional wisdom says you should remortgage your home if the interest rate drops at least two percentage points lower than your current interest rate.

Preparing to remortgage your home loan

Nearly half of all mortgage applications are for remortgages. If you are considering remortgaging your home loan, here are some things you can do to get ready:

1. Check the current interest rates.

Traditional wisdom says you should remortgage your home if the interest rate drops at least two percentage points lower than your current interest rate.

However, if the current interest rate is only 1% or 1.5% less than your current interest rate, you can still save money over the term of your mortgage. You want your interest rate to go down by at least 5/8%, or you won't save enough money to be worth the cost of remortgaging.

2. Consider how long you plan to stay in your home.

The interest rate is not the only factor you should consider when deciding whether go for a remortgage.

Keep in mind how long you plan to stay in your home. You need to stay put long enough to recover the costs of remortgaging.

If your new interest rate is 1.5% less than your current interest rate, you generally need to stay in your home more than three years to make the remortgage worth the fees.

3. Check your credit rating.

Check your credit rating before you filling out any remortgage applications. If there are any problems with your credit, you can take a little time to fix them before proceeding. This is especially true if there are out-of-date or incorrect entries on your credit report.

It's a bit of a chore to send off the letters and keep up the correspondence, but if someone were to say they'd give you a grand to do it (i.e. the amount you might save with a better deal), you'd do it!

4. Check the value of your home.

You will need to have your home appraised. But for now, just check the selling price of similar homes in your area. Has the value of your home gone up or down since you bought it?

5. Decide if you want to use the equity in your home to get cash out.

If the value of your home has gone up, you can remortgage for a higher amount than what you owe, and get cash out for school, vacation, home improvements, or to start a new business.

For myself, I'd only use such money to set up something that would make money, or to fund a child's education; it's much better for your peace of mind to have low monthly outgoings than a fancy holiday or car.

6. Make sure you have cash to cover the refinancing costs.

You will have the same fees and expenses you did when you first purchased your home, including a home appraisal, closing costs, and other fees and points. Further, while you may be able to remortgage with no points or closing costs, your interest rate could be higher. And there is no reason to remortgage if you are going to end up with a higher interest rate!

7. Talk to lenders.

You should talk to several lenders to see what the current interest rates are and how much money you will need. Then figure out what your new payment would be if you remortgaged and how long it would take to recover the costs.

8. Adjust your mortgage term.

When you remortgage, you can take the opportunity to change your mortgage term. Maybe you originally took out a 15-year mortgage, but want to remortgage to a longer loan term so you can have more cash each month. Or (much better) maybe you want to reduce your mortgage term from 30 years to 15 or even 10, and get your mortgage paid off more quickly. Wouldn't that be nice?


Wednesday 27 June 2007

How To Follow Your Creative Flow And Keep Your Business Profitable

Creativity and inspiration are essential to any business venture. Without these, your business will become stale and may even begin to lose profitability. Owning a business means that you will constantly be in a state of change and improvement, and so it is crucial to stay connected with your own creative flow.

Working from home offers the incredible freedom of being able to create your own schedule. The blessing of this freedom is that it can enhance your creativity and ability to follow inspiration. On the other end of things, this freedom can tempt you into time wasting activities, or cause you to flow too much and forget about productivity and the “bottom line”.

Creativity and inspiration are essential to any business venture. Without these, your business will become stale and may even begin to lose profitability. Owning a business means that you will constantly be in a state of change and improvement, and so it is crucial to stay connected with your own creative flow.

Working from home offers the incredible freedom of being able to create your own schedule. The blessing of this freedom is that it can enhance your creativity and ability to follow inspiration. On the other end of things, this freedom can tempt you into time wasting activities, or cause you to flow too much and forget about productivity and the “bottom line”.

These four tips will help you to maximize your creative and intuitive flow, without sacrificing the productivity of your business.

1. Create a plan for the income producing activities that you will do each day, or each week for your business. Once you know that you need to accomplish X, Y and Z in a day, you can set this as a priority and then “flow” around these activities.

2. If possible, accomplish your income producing activities first, then reward yourself with something fun to do. You’ll be surprised at how many women get fantastic business ideas while gardening, playing with the kids or lying in the bath!

3. Schedule some ‘down time” each day for business reading and education. The constant influx of new ideas will foster your own creativity.

4. Create balance in your life by scheduling time daily to care for your body, get outside in the fresh air, and do fun, non-business activities. This balance is essential to avoiding burnout and keeping your creativity flowing.

With some fun, balance, and just the right amount of structure in your business day, you can navigate your business through today’s ever changing business climate, and continue to grow both professionally and personally in the process!


Double your Income in 2 years

If you are a business owner or sales person, this article will appeal to you. You both earn your income from selling, so I guess you want to earn a few bucks more! What is it that sees two equally qualified people going into similar sales calls, with one of them consistently outselling the other?

I did this when I was in sales, but at the time, I did not know what precisely I was doing right. This sent me on a search of a system; so that I could help other people model this success. What you will read here is a summary of a fool proof system, created from the very best life coaches, sales trainers and business gurus on this planet, both dead and alive!

If you are a business owner or sales person, this article will appeal to you. You both earn your income from selling, so I guess you want to earn a few bucks more! What is it that sees two equally qualified people going into similar sales calls, with one of them consistently outselling the other?

I did this when I was in sales, but at the time, I did not know what precisely I was doing right. This sent me on a search of a system; so that I could help other people model this success. What you will read here is a summary of a fool proof system, created from the very best life coaches, sales trainers and business gurus on this planet, both dead and alive!

The Power of Certainty

"You become what you think about", Buddha, circa 500 BC. In fact all the great Gurus, from Buddha, who had it right all those years ago, to the inventors and practitioners of NLP (Neural Linguistic Programming) all share the same toolbox.

Modern Life and Business coaching has moved from the "positive thinking" era, to one of "positive doing". What this means is that you set your goal, visualise it, and take powerful action, towards obtaining it.

As you move along your course of pre-determined action, you must constantly take note of the events around you, and adjust your approach accordingly, with your goal still in sight.

So how does one visualise what a P60, double its current net amount would look like. OK, so you guessed it, it's twice as big a number. No, that's not what I mean, what will that get you, is the real question.

OK, take a moment and write down, what you could do, own or give with that extra money. Now close your eyes and really visualise what that would look like. What can you hear, smell. What does it feel like to be living that life? What is your breathing like, do you feel excited, happy, proud or grateful that you have that extra money.

But can you do it? If you can answer yes, with absolute certainty, then it will happen.

Approaching a sales call with certainty

Once you understand that you can achieve the very best outcome from a sales call how do you go about structuring it?

First you must understand how you will cope with not getting your desired outcome. If for example, you wanted to get the go ahead for a proof of concept trial. You must understand what NOT getting the proof of concept trial will mean to you. You will get a red light for one of the following 3 reasons.

1. The prospect does not want to proceed.

2. The prospect wants the products, but has a legitimate reason for postponing the purchase.

3. You really messed up the call!

Whichever of these 3 rationales you get for not achieving your desired outcome, you must understand exactly what they would mean to you, and how you can take advantage of the situation.

Once you know how to handle NOT achieving your goal, you will no longer have a fear of failure. This almost certainly will remove the 3rd situation, due to your confidence, and make the first 2 outcomes easy to deal with.

What are the 3 stages of a successful sales call?

With a desire to succeed, a certainty of success, and no fear of failure, once you have the simple tools for making all your customer calls first rate, your earnings will start to skyrocket.

The 3 parts of the ultimate sales call are as follows;

1. Thank your prospect for their time, and really mean it with a genuine smile on your face. Next ask them precisely what THEIR desired outcome from this meeting is. And then listen intently to their answer.

2. Find out exactly how long they would really like the meeting to run for, and spend the remaining time, minus 15 minutes, asking questions about their business, needs and desires. Make a note of how these may or may not be relevant to what your offering is.

3. With 15 minutes to go, suggest to your prospect that you summarise the meeting, as you see it, and ask them to correct or clarify any points you may make. You will then finish with an action plan that INVOLVES both you and the prospect. You will then confirm this action plan within a day in written form.

Now how many of you, go into a sales call, and when the prospect asks you why YOU wanted to see them you go into sales mode.

Well from now on, help your prospect go into BUYING mode, and close more sales, raise more finance and double your income in two years.


How to use power questions that create an irresistible urge to buy with your prospects

Did you ever end up buying something that you did not know you wanted, and yet it felt the most natural thing in the world? Can you remember what the sales person said to you? Did it feel like they really understood you? Would you like to be able to get that same reaction from your customers? Read this article to learn how to woo your future customers the same way.

My regular readers, by now will have realised that the art of all successful selling, is to ask the questions. All good sales questions have the following characteristics

Did you ever end up buying something that you did not know you wanted, and yet it felt the most natural thing in the world? Can you remember what the sales person said to you? Did it feel like they really understood you? Would you like to be able to get that same reaction from your customers? Read this article to learn how to woo your future customers the same way.

My regular readers, by now will have realised that the art of all successful selling, is to ask the questions. All good sales questions have the following characteristics;

Ask;

The Right Person

AT the Right Time

The Right Questions

Listen, then have;

The Right Answers

IN the Right Way

With The Right Evidence

At all times have a great Attitude

Whether you like it or not, you are always selling, selling benefits for someone, including yourself. When you go to the bank for a loan, you are selling yourself and your business idea. When you ask someone on a date, you are selling them on spending time with you. When you play a sport with someone, you are selling them on the fact you are an enjoyable person to spend time with.

I am however going to assume for this article that you have an offering that you wish people to buy, and I will cover 4 times that you have an opportunity to sell your concept, by asking the right questions.

Questions to ask at a seminar or networking event

The one-many networking concept, means that you get a chance to speak, while many people listen to you. You are speaking to many people, while they get an understanding of what you can do for them. Everyone always wants to know what you can do for them.

You stand up and before you deliver your irresistible sales presentation, that will have buyers flocking to your door, you must start off by asking them a few questions.

I am going to use as an example, one of my clients, who help their customers dramatically decrease their expenses, by having the experts analyse their spend patterns, and negotiate fantastic deals on their behalf.

In order to maximise your audience's understanding of your proposition, you must involve them in the learning process. The questions they would ask at an event may be as follows;

Would everybody please stand up for a moment?

Would everybody, who is 100% certain that they are fully in control of their costs and expenses, and are not paying a cent over the odds, please sit down.

OK, would everyone, who is happy to continue paying over the odds, please sit down.

OK, you can all sit down again, but I would really like to know why you have not done something about this before. In fact why don't I see which of the three most common reasons, for not doing this, matches your circumstances.

You never thought about it before

You don't have the time to do it, because you are swamped

You need to bring in someone who knows what they are doing and has done it before.

Now can you imagine, in a room of 20 Financial Directors, how many of them, would not want to know more about these guys, and if they could get substantial savings, as a result of their services.

Questions to ask on the phone

Most people on the phone get hung up on their result. In fact some gurus even teach you how to feel good when you get rejected. The main reason that you get rejected, is not because the customer does not want what you have, it is because they don't want to be sold to yet again!

So have a conversation with them. Your end goal should be to find out if there is a match between you and the stranger on the other end of the phone, and to find out what they want to do about it. To get to this ask the following types of questions;

Are you able to speak for a minute?

Would you please be able to help me out with something?

I was trying to understand if you were 100% certain that you were getting the very best value for money from all your suppliers.

Would be interested in knowing how much we saved for XYZ Company?

Now I am not sure if we could do the same for you unless we took some time to explore this together, how would you suggest we proceed from here?

Questions to ask in a prospect meeting

Very similar to those above, your questions should be aimed at getting the prospect to tell you in their words, what their problems are, and how they believe you can help them, with your offering.

At minimum, you should ask the following questions;

Thanks for taking the time to see me, how long do we have?

Great, now that I am here, what precisely was it that made you want to see me?

Could explain to me in detail; how that is impacting what you do in your business?

If that were solved, what would you be able to do then?

How would you put a value on getting that?

When would you like to start getting this value?

What has stopped you up to now, from getting this value?

Conclusion

Just try these questions out, modified of course to your own business. They may seem a little strange at first, but then again, so did walking when you were 12 months old! Take a note of the results, I would love to know how much more business you win.

If you need any help in crafting these questions for your business, why not avail of our free sales and marketing assessment. This way we will know together, whether or not I can help your business reach the levels that you really desire.


What are the 3 vital parts of a winning sales call?

The two greatest problems facing all small business are;

How do I get more qualified leads?

How do I convert more of those leads into customers?

Focusing on the second issue, if you have got that vital first meeting, you should really be in with a very strong chance of closing it. You will need to have 3 to 5 power questions prepared in advance,

The two greatest problems facing all small business are;

How do I get more qualified leads?

How do I convert more of those leads into customers?

Focusing on the second issue, if you have got that vital first meeting, you should really be in with a very strong chance of closing it. You will need to have 3 to 5 power questions prepared in advance,

So why do so many business owners and sales people alike, have problems securing the deal with a hot prospect. This article helps you unlock your magic code, to securing far more business at sales meetings.

The human brain has difficulty seeing more than 3 things at any one time. In fact to see 5 objects, we actually process that as a 2 and a 3. It is the same when we hear, see or do things.

So we break meetings into 3 precise parts. You might remember being told in school, that when you write a story, it should have a clear beginning, middle and end. Your sales call is no different, though what you do in each of those 3 parts is vital.

The first part of the sales call - the opening.

Smile! This is so essential, if you don't smile, you might as well not turn up! Then in your most honest, open and gracious way thank your host for taking the time to see you.

Next ask how much time they have allocated to spend with you. Write it down and make a note of what time, 15 minutes from the end will be. Because that is when you finish the second part of the call and move onto the all important 3rd section of the call.

The second part of the sales call - Power questioning.

So what is a power question? I define it as a question which you ask your prospect about their business, that uncovers a need or desire that your offering can fulfill.

You will need to have 3 to 5 power questions prepared in advance, and you will use the questions as jump points, to lead your prospect or buyer along, with a series of questions.

Say you were selling a drill. Some power questions would be as follows.

What do you need to make holes for?

Where will you be drilling the holes?

Say, the prospect had told you that he wanted to put up a shelf, against a concrete wall.

You could then ask him;

Would you be putting up a lot of shelves?

What sort of things would be on the shelves?

Have you any price in mind?

Now and only now do you have enough information to show him a drill, since you now have an idea of what sort of drill would suit him.

The third part of the sales call - the close.

Some sales, the close will mean an actual sale, in many however it will require a follow-up action or call.

It is key however to start this process, with 15 minutes to go. Start by summarizing all of his issues, what he wants, what solving his problems will do for them, etc. Basically regurgitate all that you have learned about his business.

Confirm that they do want to own your offering. Check with them, as to how they would value your product or service.

Agree any actions required on both parts. This might be that you will go and write a draft proposal, they will read it, and you will meet again to discuss it and move forward.

Seems simple enough - guess what, most people assume the other person will have time to read your proposal, ask if they do and ask that they promise they will schedule it in.

Finally SET A DIARY APPOINTMENT for the follow up call, which could be a phone call, but ensure that it, is in the other person's diary!

Just try it; you will be amazed at the results.

Think you can manage that on your own, if you need more help, maybe you would like some sales coaching or mentoring, we can run sessions specifically tailored around your needs, desires, time and budgets.


Sales Process: Repeat Success and Avoid Failure

Good sales people are naturals. They just get on with the job, their customers love them and they keep bringing home the bacon. But what is it that they are doing right? Do you know? Can you pass on those lessons to other members in the team? If you can get the whole sales team to consistently follow best practices, your sales revenue will increase dramatically.

Why bother with a sales process?

Good sales people are naturals. They just get on with the job, their customers love them and they keep bringing home the bacon. But what is it that they are doing right? Do you know? Can you pass on those lessons to other members in the team? If you can get the whole sales team to consistently follow best practices, your sales revenue will increase dramatically.

Why bother with a sales process?

By having a good sales process, A process is defined as: “A series of actions, changes, or functions bringing about a result” you will be able to ensure that all of your team can repeat best practices to ensure success. You will also have a record of what went wrong with those sales or leads you failed to win. By analyzing how you lost, you will learn how to avoid mistakes in the future.

What is a sales process?

A process is defined as: “A series of actions, changes, or functions bringing about a result”. That result should be a successful sale, done in the shortest possible time, with minimum discount. Upon becoming a customer, that company or person, should become a reference, create a testimonial and refer business to you. Understanding the set of actions that led to that sale, documenting them and ensuring your team follows them, is creating a sales process.

How do you get a sales process right for your business?

Assuming you understand how to track all steps leading up to a sale for a given product and customer group is the first step. You then need to do this for all of your products and customer target markets. Now examine the commonalities within those processes and clearly document them.

Sometimes it is good to base your process on a proven template. However it is important to remember that you know your products best. The key elements you need to incorporate are as follows.

Who is your target market?

What problems does your product solve of needs and desires does it fulfill?

How do customers generally put a value on these capabilities?

Who is the final decision maker within your potential customers?

Who are the influencers of a buying decision within your customers?

How do customers evaluate your products?

Does your customer have a budget in place?

Who is your competition, how do you deal with them?

Now ensure that the steps in your process cover all of these elements and others particular to your product and industry. This way, you can ensure that you are continually getting the right message to the right people.

What are the benefits of automating a sales process?

How often have you contacted a company to get information, only to wonder why you had heard nothing a week later? If you did get an information pack from them, did they follow it up with a phone call? When your sales people meet with a prospect, do they always set up the next appointment before leaving? Do they always summarize the points discussed in a meeting with a follow-up email or letter? By implementing technology that prompts your people to always to the right things, little is left to chance. What is more, the business owners are able to forecast sales, which keep production and your bank manager happy.

How do you get sales people to use the process?

The one common trait that all successful sales people seem to share is that they seem to hate and are particularly bad about paperwork, but who cares anyway? You care and so do your customers. If you have pre-sales support staff, how do the sales people get to use them? If they can only book them based on sales that have reached an appropriate stage in the cycle, they have to keep up to date. If sales people find it easier to prepare a proposal and mange their time, based on a system that you give them, they will use it.

However the most important factor of all, in getting sales people buy-in to any new process or system, is to ask them to help you design it. If they feel they have created a process that makes their life easier, and enables them to earn more money – they will use it. And you all win.

How to implement a sales process!

Either follow the steps outlined above or call in someone who can help you. What you do not want to do is to go straight to a vendor who offers an automated system. You need to ensure that if you do go down the technology route, you choose the correct solution. Remember, you know your business best, so work with someone who understands that and who will help you
implements something that works for you.


Money For Free

Yes that’s right money for free, no this is not a mistake or a misprint, and this is how you can get money for free.

It is the latest idea on the internet, all you have to do to get your money is what you already do and that is surf the internet, you also get paid for referring other people who sign up for free and they get paid for surfing the net.

Yes that’s right money for free, no this is not a mistake or a misprint, and this is how you can get money for free.

It is the latest idea on the internet, all you have to do to get your money is what you already do and that is surf the internet, you also get paid for referring other people who sign up for free and they get paid for surfing the net.

This is about to become the biggest thing on the internet as not only do you get free money when you surf the internet but you also become a part owner in the company when you sign up.

Take note if this idea becomes as big as the experts think it will be as big as you tube which google just bought for 1.8 billion dollars, now that’s interesting.

Could the same thing happen with this that is very possible?

The only things we have to do is sign up surf the internet for which we get free money, and refer others to sign up who then get free money for surfing the internet.

It’s that easy.

So lets look at this, it costs us nothing to sign up it costs us nothing to refer other people to sign up it costs those other people nothing to sign up and so on, we then all get free money for doing what we do anyway, plus we become part owners in a company that has the possibility to become as big as you tube and therefore worth as much money.

I know what my feelings are on this, Show Me The Free Money, And in the future maybe even a lot more free money.

So if you like the idea of getting free money the same as i do, then I think it is time for this idea to become very succesful, don't you agree.


Tuesday 26 June 2007

Today, running your own business from home is not just possible, it�s profitable!

Can you really make six figures a year with an online business that doesn�t require a degree? Tanya Watson says, �Of course!�

Tanya is a part of an online phenomenon called Online Business Systems � an opportunistic company for an online Business.

Can you really make six figures a year with an online business that doesn�t require a degree? Tanya Watson says, �Of course!�

Tanya is a part of an online phenomenon called Online Business Systems � an opportunistic company for an online Business.

Tanya�s life before Online Business Systems was that of any other people who work in the corporate world. She relates tons of hours and overtime, no thanks or appreciation, and a bad boss who carries around a coffee cup and pretends like he cares. Tanya had little time to spend with her family, and most importantly, her infant baby girl. �I wanted independence,� says Tanya. Turning to Online Business Systems, Tanya and her husband Warren became the CEO�s of their own online business.

Now Tanya works from home, spending time with her daughter and running a successful independent company with her business partner, best friend, and husband Warren. This is a dream any working mom would want and any person can have.

It�s normal to be skeptical, but the important thing to remember is that this is not a get-rich quick scheme, and it is definitely not a job, it is a business. �I was skeptical at first, but we wanted to give it a try, and I�m glad we did!� says Tanya about first seeing the ad for Online Business Systems. Online Business Systems requires hard work and effort to begin your company that will continue on to build and manage your company. Many people may find themselves thinking �Is it really possible to make six figures a year, as the business claims?� Online Business Systems works as well as you want it too, depending on your own personal drive, motivation, and attitude. So if you have a great attitude, and a willingness to work and learn, being an Online Business Systems distributor can create a whole new avenue of freedom for your life.

�The business sounds great so far, but what kind of business is this exactly?� The company that Online Business Systems is affiliated with is an established, respectable 27 year old company that specializes in skin care products, nutritional supplements and weight loss management, and gives an unmatched business opportunity to people around the world. Their nutritional products have helped many people internationally and have been growing since 1980, with annual sales of $3 billion.

Along with its success in the nutritional market, the company that Online Business Systems is affiliated with is the sponsor for a number of sports events, venues, and athletes. Our affiliate was the Nutritional Advisor for the AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour for seasons 2005 to 2007,. They were the Presenting Sponsor of the Chase Open WTA tennis tournament in 2005 and 2006 and are the official nutrition company and shirt sponsor of the LA Galaxy Soccer team and Tour of California Bicycle race, along with many other triathlons and their athletes. They have created a family foundation in 1994 which is committed to offering support to children to escape poverty, hunger and abuse so that they can receive adequate medical care and education.

Leaving the supposed security of a JOB to venture into a BUSINESS can be a scary proposition. You must research. You must weigh your options and you must look deep into your self, identify your goals and make a personal commitment to succeed. To begin this journey of research and self discovery toward personal success and inevitably happiness, independence and wealth visit www.loveyourworkathome.com You will learn why Online Business Systems is one of the few online business opportunities backed by the Better Business Bureau Online Reliability Program.