A Word of Caution for Factoring Brokers

A word of “Caution” – don’t get stuck with your head in the sand!

I promised to share a special note of caution. That message begins with telling you 1 in 3 Americans are obese and nine in 10 Americans say their diet is healthy but, only a quarter limit the amount of fat or sugar they eat, and two-thirds don’t eat enough fruit and vegetables, a poll published Tuesday found.

“Americans tend to give themselves high marks for healthy eating, but when we asked how many sugary drinks, fatty foods, and fruits and veggies they consumed, we found that their definition of healthy eating was questionable,” said Nancy Metcalf of Consumer Reports Health, which conducted the poll.

Of the 1,234 American adults polled, 89.7 percent said their diet was “somewhat” (52.6 percent), “very” (31.5 percent), or “extremely” healthy (5.6 percent). But, 43 percent of the survey respondents said they drank at least one sugary soda or other sweetened drink every day, and just one in four said they limited sweets, sugars or fats in their diet, the poll conducted in early November found.

Four in 10 Americans said they ate “pretty much everything” or “mostly everything” that they wanted, the poll found. Few count calories or weigh themselves, but when they were asked to self-report their weight, four in 10 were off-track.

A third said they were at a healthy weight when they actually had a body mass index (BMI) of an overweight or obese person, while eight percent thought they were overweight or obese, but their BMIs suggested they were not.

One in three adults is obese, and losing weight is the second most popular new year’s resolution this year after quitting smoking, according to a poll published last week by the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion.

Three in 10 Americans surveyed by Consumer Reports said they eat five or more servings of fresh fruit or vegetables daily, as recommended by health officials.

When they were asked why they didn’t eat more vegetables, the most common reason given by the poll respondents was that they thought they consumed enough already.

The next most commonly cited reason for not eating the recommended amount of veggies was that they are hard to store or spoil too quickly — an excuse given by 29 percent of Americans.

Seventeen percent said someone in their household didn’t like vegetables, the same number said vegetables take too long to prepare or are too difficult to prepare, and 14 percent said fresh vegetables are too expensive.

Thirteen percent said, quite simply, they don’t like vegetables. Did I get your attention? I hope I did!

Do you know why I am sharing this information with Factoring Brokers?

Taking an excerpt from last Tuesday’s article (2011 The State of the Factoring Industry) “Wealth is not all about money, it is physiological, spiritual, emotional and physical. You can have all the money in the world but, if your health is gone Your are done.” What are you doing to stay healthy? A strong body creates a strong mind. A strong mind forms a positive foundation to work your (any) business in an organized, persistent and determined manner. I am often asked by Factoring Brokers what is the single most important thing that they should do in their business to make it successful. My answer….Creating and maintaining momentum!

Don’t get stuck with your head in the sand!

What are you doing to make money in 2011? It doesn’t matter to me what business you are involved with understanding the power of Social Media/Social Networking versus building your business off-line is crucial to success. Attracting prospects, developing new customers, signing up new clients translates into making money an important component of creating wealth. This is not a big secret “the world has changed!” I have been studying social media / social networking for the past 16 months. Social Media involves sharing a message, educating through video like YouTube, Vimeo or Slideshare.net (power point presentations) or Flickr.com (photos) or scribs.com (printed material). Social Networking engages in conversation or associating with somebody else (Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin etc). This Social technology creates “reach” giving your business the ability to communicate your message to countless groups and individuals.

When I joined the factoring industry in 1999. The internet was just picking up. I made use of technology back in 2001 when I created a landing page (www.bizline.biz) that served as my net to capture prospects. By Harnessing the Power of the internet, I was able to drive prospects and educate them at the same time. I was able to duplicate my efforts through technology while I was away doing something else. The way businesses are prospering is changing – today marketing is not measured on the size of your wallet but, on the content, education, information, relationships that you develop. This is a fact!

It doesn’t matter to if you are an entrepreneur a small, medium or large company. You should consider creating a “VOICE” for yourself / your company i.e. Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube. Pay attention to the tone of your “Voice” i.e. funny, serious, sarcastic  make it you! It may even help you find a job if you are unemployed. Understand this it is not about spamming or selling it is about creating value of information. Make use a website – don’t have a website? No excuse – there are so many inexpensive website developers out there, type in (website development inexpensive) into Google or visit www.99designs.com.

Need help with developing an award winning logo visit www.logotournament.com for about $250 you can have hundreds of companies submit the creative high quality design for your logo. You pick your logo and the company that developed it is paid the $250, compare that to a graphic artist wow! Need help developing a blog? There so many free blogging sites ie. www.wordpress.com. you can use your blog site to act as your website. Oh in case you didn’t know, this blog site is a word press site 🙂

How will you respond?

This is a vital next step in any conversion process. Developing a one to one relationship with your prospects translates into cultivating customers/clients. How are you going to respond? What channel of communication are you going to use phone, email, comments section etc? Are you suffering from some anxiety, lack confidence, terrified in the thought of communicating with people? Understand that email and the telephone are never going to go away. Don’t know what you are going to say?

Don’t worry I will have more on this over the next few articles.

We are living in an “Information & Knowledge” economy. It is my opinion that the intelligent person wins in a “Knowledge” economy. How do you become smart? Do your homework research your industry, learn from your industry experts, invest the time to know your business in and out – It is the person that has immediate access to content wins in an “Information” economy. Folks whether you like to admit it or not we are living in a knowledge economy, the marketing and networking world has changed it is content, content, information driven.

If you are proactive and you understand this axiom  “Either You are going to learn and teach your competition how to win or they will teach you!” You are on your way toward taking the next step. Your New Year’s resolution should include learning about all the FREE technology that is out there. How you will fit in? We are all unique in our contacts, professional skills and background. Start somewhere it is better than not starting at all – You will be one step closer to Capitalizing on Your Potential!

Tunnel Vision vs. Funnel Vision

What type of business person are you?

Tunnel Vision – An individual that:

• Focuses on today’s and monthly results
• Focuses primarily on execution
• Is ignorant to Trends
• Is hard to change the way they do things
• Views future investment as a negative

Funnel Vision – An individual that:

• Is Proactive
• Pays attention and understand Trends
• Willing to try new things – experiment
• Has a vision and realistic attitude
• Budgets accordingly

Try to look through the Windshield and Not the Rear View mirror

Don’t dwell on the past – we all make mistakes. I recognize some of you may be out of work and right now it seems like a monumental hill to climb. I get it and I understand. Don’t get stuck with your head in the sand. Like I said before,  “if you learn to anticipate what is going to happen, you can learn to take advantage of the hard times and profit during these hard times. Take time to learn – set aside some time each day to be proactive. It is your investment of “TIME” that is what I am talking about. Don’t be naive understand the trends, learn to Funnel your prospects in and create momentum. However, a lot of things go into creating and maintaining momentum in today’s economy! More to come over the next few articles.

About the Author: Michael Ponomarew joined the Factoring Industry in 1999. He brings with him more than 27 years of experience in entrepreneurship, marketing, and business management. Mike can be reached at mikep@millenniumfunding.com or by calling 888.652.8298 ext. 45.