Who Will Survive The Race, The Gazelle or The Lion?

Imagine you are standing on a mountain watching dawn break over the sweeping Serengeti Plains in East Africa. In the distance, a gazelle awakens, shivers, stretches, and warily looks around. The gazelle knows that it must run faster than the fastest lion if it wants to survive that day. At the same time a lion awakens, yawns, stretches, and eagerly looks around, it knows that it must run faster than the slowest gazelle if it wants to eat that day. Who will win the race for life the gazelle or the lion? This story acts as a metaphor for life in this ever more complex and competitive world in which we live. And bye the way, as you awaken, what are your thoughts about the new day that awaits you? To stay competitive in the game of life we must embrace life-long learning, and continue to develop our skills. However, if we over-focus on the pursuit of more and ever more knowledge, it can become a deterrent to action. At worst it can paralyze us or at best it can slow us down. So instead of enabling us to run more swiftly the pursuit of knowledge can act as an anchor. When is enough learning enough? Because winning in life isn't about more learning; ultimately it's about more action, more doing. However we hold the persistent hope, the stubborn wish, that we will discover some shortcut, an easier way. We'd rather work on our 'inner' world for a few days or weeks or months. Until we finally understand that we control this life we live. So, how do we turn what we know into what we actually do? All high performers agree: whenever you decide on a new goal or direction, take immediate and massive action, and just do it! Ultimately, we don't have to, 'reclaim our will' or 'find our confidence' or 'develop our discipline.' We don't even have to believe that we can do it. We just have to do it. Doing what needs to be done doesn't require a change to our internal state. We must just; do it or not! So what stops us from acting swiftly to secure our dreams and goals? What enables us? What blocks us? Self-limiting beliefs are the major cause of inaction. Many people live their life with their brakes on. They see their glass as half empty rather than half full. They dwell on their past rather than their future. They do that in spite of knowing that you can't land on the runway behind you. One way to break free of self-limiting beliefs is to understand and buy into one simple thought. Your history is not your destiny! We are designed and pre-destined for greatness; all we need to do is embrace and expand that thought. Many people learn to 'just do it', after exhausting all the other short-cuts and psychological tricks and motivational techniques. After they have explored subliminal conditioning, affirmations, astrology, visualization, clairvoyants and fortune tellers, inspirational speakers, and positive self-talk. Then we must still answer the question. Will I do it, or not do it? And with that question we confront reality. We can't wait for things to be perfect before we act or we'll never make progress. We must release our brakes. Act, get out of our comfort zone and 'just do it' expecting to be successful. It's better to be eighty percent sure and make things happen than to wait until we are one hundred percent sure, because by then the opportunity may well have passed us by, the prize may be claimed by another. So remember the gazelle and the lion and when you wake tomorrow start running like your life depends on it. It does! And in the words of the great writer George Bernard Shaw: "Never mind likes and dislikes; they are of no consequence. Just do what must be done; this may not be happiness, but it is greatness."

Have a beautiful day and to your success, Lloyd Dobson

Why You Should Have a Home-Based Business?

Why You Should Have a Home Business?

"It is anticipated that by the year 2010, 80% of households in the US alone will be involved in a home business" - Newsweek Magazine -

As you can see, home based business are gaining in popularity in America. This is especially true now because the IRS has recently re-instituted the home business tax deduction which allows home business owners to deduct up to $5000 per year in business expenses off of their income tax.

This means that you can start a home business and not make a dime with it and still be able to come away with an extra $5000 in your pocket at the end of year! "A home based business is the best tax shelter left in America"

Sandy Botkin (IRS Attorney & Tax Reduction Institute Chairman) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is a very serious and important part of your home based Business., I talked with an affiliate and last year she had $14,000 taken out of her JOB check through the year.. By using her home business allowable tax deductions she got a Tax REFUND of over $11,000 that she would not have gotten without her home business deductions.

Michael in Dallas told me that with his and his wife's income last year before applying the home business deductions they owed an additional $6,000. AFTER the home business deductions were taken, they received a $5,000 REFUND, or a FREE FUND! :-) Always consult a PRO-Active Advocate of home based business deductions when choosing your CPA or accountant for the current year update that you are filing for. Marvin D. Krueger, CPA, CMA : April 12, 2003 listed over 50 ways you can document and deduct business expenses from your U.S. Income Taxes, and added 8 overlooked areas. The IRS requires written documentation to qualify for the deductions. NOW is the time to start keeping your receipts!

Where applicable, here is his list of potential deductions for your business:

Your kit :
Any initial starting kit can cost up to $500 to $1,000 or more and is deductible expense that actually starts your business. (Use your Credit/Debit Account documents to document the investment, or your canceled check, etc.)

Your Marketing Tools :
In order to understand and market your products, you need to use the company brochures and promotional material as well as the training material, quick start packs etc.. (Keep receipts for all purchases, keep for tax time.)

Your Monthly Fees:
The $XX.XX/ monthly web-site fees, the monthly website charges etc. are deductible business expenses. Since many of the benefits from using your online business come in the short and long-term, we must become a "product of our product", and by using the plan allows us to have our own testimonies and increases our belief and confidence in the value we offer our members.

Your Home Office:
Create one area in your house to do your business from. It can be out of a closet, a desk in the corner of a room, a full room, or an office created out of some of your garage space, the only requirement is that it be used exclusively for business. If your desk is in the TV room, you can’t deduct the whole room, just the area that you actually work in. The percentage of the house used for business calculates the part of the following that you can deduct from your taxes: (Document with receipts.)

Rent: (If you own your home with the bank, the interest, taxes, etc. are applied elsewhere)

Electrical Bill:
Sewer Bill:
Insurance:
(not deductible at all, unless you have a home business!
Cleaning Service:
(as long as they clean where you office is too!
Garbage service:
Water Bill:
House Repairs:
Landscaping:
(if people come to your house on business)
Personal Training Expenses:
(Document with receipts)
Seminars Attended:
Giving a gift? If your company’s product, or company’s gear, treat as Advertising.
Newspaper ads:
County Fair / Expo booth fees.
Flyers Product Samples Company Literature Reproduction costs (photocopies, etc.)
Labor Expenses: Paid to your children for Business related work. Keep track of what is done, and how much paid, pay by check, canceled check is proof. NO SSN OR INCOME TAXES need to be paid on your children! Emptying the Garbage Mowing Lawn, other Landscaping Cleaning your office. Filing. Computer work (Most kids are better at computers than we are!) Envelope stuffing/postcard stamping, other mailing tasks.

Other business related items.
Business Travel:
Convention Travel to pre-arranged presentations.

Going to visit your sister? Put an ad in their local paper two-three weeks before, coordinate several appointments, and your trip is deductible (within some limits). Is your wife /husband going? Are they working with you in the business, and will they be at the appointments? Their trip is deductible too! Air fare, train fare, and car mileage. All "fees" related to travel – parking, tolls, security, etc. Meals while on the trip (subject to limitations).

Entertainment expenses:
(subject to some rules and limitations) Out of area training.
Office Expenses:
Paper clips, printer paper and toner, light bulbs, pens, pencils, highlighters. White boards, easels, presentation flip charts Furnishings (Chairs, desks, lamps, carpet, etc.) Equipment (Computers, printers, fax machines, PDAs, phones, etc.)
Phone bill:
(If you only have one phone, only the long distance calls related to business, the IRS believes that one line is a ‘necessity’ and will not allow that as a deduction). Special services on your phone bill (Three-way calling, call waiting, voice mail)
Second line used for business:
(Document business usage by adding to your business card/stationery)
Cell Phone:
(Document business usage by adding to your business card/stationery)
ISP account and e-mail. (Document business usage by adding to your business card/stationery). (Document fees by printing billing)
Data processing:
Costs for business report.
Postage:
For business mailings.
Business Meals:
When you do a presentation at a restaurant/coffee shop, pick up your receipt! This is a deductible expense (50%)
Celebration Expenses:
Giving a party to celebrate? Make it a business event. Invite your business associates/prospects and deduct the entire cost! (Make sure you celebrate your business!) Document via receipts and invitation list, have attendees sign a "guest book" to document who attended.
In-home expenses:
Baby Sitters:
Product cases:
(for carrying display product in/out of house)
Demonstration supplies:
Assistants: (read: your children, if old enough)
Food provided: (100%). Snacks/Tea/Coffee/Attain Shakes (100%)
Mileage to/from presentations, training events, Product Launches, etc. :
(50¢ per mile this year!) Document with mileage log. Do for three consecutive months, or three like periods, extrapolate totals to full year (multiply by four). IRS requires some sort of logical, written documentation of this. If your day planner does not have a good sheet for this, check out on the web for one, or make your own. It needs Date, purpose, start mileage, end mileage, total mileage on the trip, and total mileage for the month. You will also need the year’s start and ending mileage numbers off of your car’s odometer for the tax form.

Now for some "general" tax issues that you should be looking at, if not using:
401K: Usually set up by an employer, often with matching funds. If you have the option, you should be contributing. Start low on the percentage scale and move up with each raise (add 1% to your contribution). Your contribution is not taxed until you take it out, and if your company is matching a percentage of your contribution, you are almost guaranteed to come out ahead!
Hope Credit: Designed to help pay for the first two years of college for yourself or your children. 100% of the first $1,000 and 50% of the next $1,000, for a total credit potential of $2,500! Student must be enrolled at least halftime, and in a program leading to a recognized credential or degree.
Lifetime Learning Credit:
Covers up to 20% of the first $5,000 spent on updating or learning a new job skill. Maximum credit per year of $1,000 per family (Husband/wife).
Car Lease:
Look at the lease/purchase decision VERY carefully! Usually the lease option is best for those that do not drive a lot, because the lease penalties for going over the anticipated mileage are very severe. (We have a friend who parked his leased car for a year to get the mileage back into the lease zone, and he still had to pay the lease and insurance on the car!)

Want to help your grandchildren who don’t live with you? Set up a Coverdale Education Savings Account for them. You can contribute up to $2,000 per year, and the money can be used for college or qualified Kindergarten – 12th grade expenses also (read that "Private School".

Also check out your State and Federal "Section 529" savings plans. If you’re concerned about Capital Gains on the sale of your home. Don’t take the depreciation part of the Home Office Deduction. Up to $500,000 of the Capital Gains is fully tax sheltered, if you have lived in the house for at least 2 years.

Staying at a Friend’s house while on business? Give them a gift in return, and deduct the amount as lodging for the trip. Cash or product are both OK (of course, give a gift of your business, especially if they are not yet customers, it breeds interest!) Limitation: Cannot exceed the cost of average hotel room in the area. (You can get the government’s idea of "average" for an area by searching for the US Government "per diem" rates on the Internet).

Taxes are a VERY complex issue, & no widespread communication like this would be complete without the "boiler plate" disclaimer:

All of the above information is advisory and educational. It MAY NOT apply to you and your circumstances in any given year. If you have any questions about your specific situation, consult a qualified Tax Professional. Finally, YOU know your personal situation better than anyone will from a 45-minute interview at tax time.

I would highly suggest that you purchase a copy of TurboTax or its equivalent and prepare your own taxes, for organizing yourself before visiting your tax professional for the final "tweaks" and areas the program does not cover. It will save you LOTS of money, either way, and is tax deductible to boot. ALWAYS interview and do your Due Diligence in finding a Pro-Active advocate of Home Based Business deductions! I learned of the Hope Credit through the tax program: $325 credit. (1,000% return on the TurboTax investment!)

If you have your taxes "done" each year by a professional, the time spent organizing your paperwork for a computer tax program will: Reduce your fees, because the accountant will save time by not having to organize them for you. Raise your knowledge level so you can give your accountant all he/she needs to qualify you for ALL the deductions you deserve.
Allow you to better evaluate your accountant’s services, as they relate to your situation.

Improve your filing system to reduce your time and fees even more for next year! Congress GIVES us these deductions to ENCOURAGE small businesses! Please use all the deductions you are qualified to receive! I learned of the Hope Credit through the tax program: $325 credit. (1,000% return on the TurboTax investment!) If you have your taxes "done" each year by a professional, the time spent organizing your paperwork for a computer tax program will: Reduce your fees, because the accountant will save time by not having to organize them for you.

Raise your knowledge level so you can give your accountant all he/she needs to qualify you for ALL the deductions you deserve. Allow you to better evaluate your accountant’s services, as they relate to your situation. Improve your filing system to reduce your time and fees even more for next year! Congress GIVES us these deductions to ENCOURAGE small businesses! Please use all the deductions you are qualified to receive!

Happy savings on your taxes and to your success!
Lloyd Dobson

A Continuation Making Sure Your Ladder Is Against The Right Wall

This is a continuation of the previous blog titled: 'Make Sure Your Ladder Is Leaning Against The Right Wall.' The fourth step is building a team: The key focus here is to attract and build a team of people whose gifts, insights, and strengths are different but synergistic to yours. They should add what you can't provide, and have experience different to yours. Choose people who will challenge and expand your thinking. Team members don't need to be employees. In fact, it's often better to develop a strategic alliance of independent team members, each of whom can contribute their own expertise, and bring new perspectives. Remember too that a fully aligned team takes time to form. Teamwork develops best when people feel they are valued, are willing participants, and operate within a supportive environment. Seek every opportunity to develop open communication. And most importantly build mutual trust. The process of building an effective team will lead you to engage in self-examination and ask yourself critical questions. Particularly to identify how you can become a better leader. Its one skill to lead a team of employees, it is leadership of a higher order to lead a collaborative team of independent people. The key here is to work harder on self-development than you do on business development. The fifth step is creating synergy: Synergy is where 'magic' happens. Most businesses fail to achieve their full potential. Often it's because the person who owns the business is skilled at their technical work but doesn't truly know how to build a business that works with or without him or her. The key is to work 'on' the business where possible; not 'in' the business, learning how to leverage the skills of the team so that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Synergy is a result of listening, building mutual trust, tuning into your intuition, being flexible, having compassion, and a total commitment to action. The sixth step is achieving results: although up to ninety percent of new start-ups fail within one to five years they often do so because they haven't made the necessary distinctions that distinguish them from others. Optimal results are achieved by ensuring you spend a significant percentage of your time on whatever are the measurable revenue producing activities in your field, and delegating or outsourcing everything else you can. In life we choose to either have reasons or results. Commit yourself to engage and move boldly forward, embrace a willingness to make mistakes, and don't become frozen with fear. When you decide to become an entrepreneur and to play the game of business some days will be testing and some days will be triumphant. However spectacular results will occur as you fully focus on creating success in your niche and when all the elements of the model are in place. Remember that scarcity only exists in the mind. The universe is designed to deliver abundance when we follow universal laws. Don't deviate. Always define, refine, and refocus. Results will then occur at a obtained tangent to your stated intention, because when you plan, commit and take action on your plan, its like dropping a pebble into a pond, the ripples spread and have far reaching effects well beyond what you may dream. All that's left is to celebrate your success. "The process for establishing a successful business is: find a master, together identify a niche, learn how to leverage that niche, develop a team; with that team generate the power of synergy, then create results." - D.C. Cordova of Excellerated Learning Systems. This article is based on a concept taught in the 'Money and You' seminar facilitated by Robert Kiyosaki and Blair Singer.

To Your Success, Lloyd Dobson

Strategies for Success - Make Sure Your Ladder Is Leaning Against The Right Wall

Climbing the ladder that leads onwards and upwards to success is assured providing your ladder is leaning against the right wall. Jim Rohn teaches us: 'Profits are better than wages. Wages can make you a living but profits can make you a fortune.' When you invest your life in pursuing the dream of another; whether a business owner, or corporate shareholders; you are in effect abdicating your own dreams, putting a ceiling on your potential, and delivering your life into the control of another. You know what they have planned for you? Not much. The best way to develop the 'life of your dreams' is to create your own business. This allows you to leverage your intention, your attention and your time. So how do you do that? Six steps comprise the process: The first step is finding a master: In your chosen field there is always one easily identified pre-eminent person who has mastered the area of expertise in which you wish to excel. This person is the master practitioner who can provide clear distinctions and teach you the lessons you need to learn. Identify and then seek to apprentice yourself to them as your mentor. Connect closely, subjugate your ego, and commit to learning. Work with your master to identify your passion and align your expertise with your personal purpose. If you don't yet have a master you should now identify and engage with one. This is a vital first step. Mastery is only gained through experience. When you commit to doing whatever you need to do to learn all you can, you will become an expert in your particular profession or discipline. The second step is identifying a niche: A niche is simply an area of business that few others are engaged in. There are niches within niches, things that others are not doing, or not doing well. Work with your mentor to identify a unique niche. This could be found within: your profession, your area of attraction, your geographical area, your ethnic grouping, your circle of influence, your circle of concern. But it will inevitably be something for which you can develop passion. Another way you can identify an unfilled need is by examining where people are seeking to: move towards pleasure, or move away from pain. Look for a 'problem' or 'issue' where your expertise can create a unique solution? Most successful businesses are focused on an area where someone has first identified and then exploited a niche; as a result they have little competition. Work with your mentor to establish the distinctions that will define your offer and set it apart so that you stand out from others. As you do you'll see more clearly what you want to achieve and the reasons why you want it. Once you select your niche, fully focus, and learn more about it than anyone else; fall in love with every aspect of it; the process, the products, the customers, and the suppliers. The third step is developing leverage: Successful business entrepreneurs put in place replicating systems that can be implemented by others. They continually question and refine the way they and their business operate. They continuously search for more effective systems, from concept to creation, from research to reality, from idea to implementation. Remember it's a simple task to make things complex, but a complex task to make things simple. And according to W. Edwards Deming: That which can be measured can be improved. Businesses succeed by adding value and by doing more with less. Here is the final thought for now. "The process for establishing a successful business is: find a master, together identify a niche, learn how to leverage that niche, develop a team; with that team generate the power of synergy, then create results." - D.C. Cordova

To Your Success, Lloyd Dobson Join Me On People Search: http://LloydsPeopleSearch.yolasite.com