How to Make More Money: 6 Ways to Think Like a Millionaire

Everybody wants to become a millionaire and get rich. Some people just don’t know where to start. You can get rich in your own way and you can start today.

These tips will get you started on visualizing the road ahead of you and enable you to set goals to make more money than you ever dreamed you would.

Here are 6 different exercises for you to visualize how to become a millionaire and achieve financial independence.

1) How to Make More Money: Start By Writing Down Your Ideas

Buy a spiral notebook. Carry it with you if you possibly can, and write down every idea that comes to you throughout the day. Review this idea log on a regular basis.

Sometimes, one idea that you have while you are driving along, sitting, reading, watching television, or in a conversation may be the insight that will lead to the start of your fortune.

If your goal is to make more money, write down all of your ideas as to how you will achieve this goal.

The rule is, “Catch the idea and write it down.” If you don’t write it down quickly, you will very often lose it.

2) Goal Setting: Relax and Reflect on Your Financial Goals

Take regular time-outs to relax and reflect on your goals and the obstacles that are holding you back from achieving them. During these times of relaxation, ideas will often pop into your mind that can save you hours, days, and sometimes years of hard work.

3) Gaining Financial Independence Using The Magic Wand Technique

Practice the exercise of fantasizing on a regular basis. Sometimes this is called the “magic wand technique.” Imagine that you have a magic wand and you can wave it over your current situation or problem.

Imagine that as a result of waving this magic wand, all the obstacles are removed from between you and your financial goals.

4) Project Forward and Think Back on Your Financial Goals

Imagine that your goal is to build a successful business in a particular field. Project forward three to five years and imagine that you now have a successful business in that field.

What would it look like? How big would it be? What kind of people would you be working with? What kind of reputation would you have in the marketplace? What would be your level of sales and profitability? How would you be running this business?

And especially, what could you start doing right now to make this future dream a reality.

5) How to Become a Millionaire By Practicing “Mind-Storming” on Every Problem

Perhaps the most powerful method of stimulating creative thinking is called “mind-storming,” or the 20-idea method. More people have become wealthy, including myself, using this idea more than any other method of creative thinking ever discovered.

In fact, this technique alone could enable you to gain financial independence.

The method is simple.  Take any problem or goal that you have and write it at the top of a sheet of paper in the form of a question. For example, if your goal is to double your income over the next 12 months, then you would write, “How can I double my income over the next 12 months?” You then discipline yourself to write at least 20 answers to that question.

You can write more than 20 answers if you like, but you must use your discipline and willpower to write at least 20 answers.

6) Save Your Money and Become a Millionaire 

At the very simplest, if you were to save $100 per month, from the time you started work at the age of 20 until the time you retired at age 65, and you invested that $100 per month in a mutual fund that yielded you an average of 10%, you would be worth approximately $1,118,000 by the time you retired.

Chances are, your discipline and your resolve to continue saving, year in and year out, would have such an effect on your character and your personality that you would end up earning far more than 10% per year.  But at $100 per month, anyone can become a millionaire.

Take Action

Focused questions stimulate your mind and provoke creativity. Decide on a goal and then ask yourself, “Why am I not at this goal already?” What is the main reason?

Written by Brian Tracy

8 Musts to Start Your Business With Little to No Capital

Entrepreneurs will often have amazing business ideas, but they put them on hold due to a lack of capital. They assume that their idea will never get far off the ground unless they have major funding behind them. 

It seems that every day there is a new startup receiving millions of dollars from venture capital firms, but what you don’t hear about is the several startup failures that burn through millions of dollars only to fizzle out and shut their doors forever.

If your idea and plan of execution aren’t well thought out from the beginning, no amount of money can turn it into a winner. Have a great idea but very little money? Don’t let that stop you! Yes, there will be ridiculously long days with little to no sleep. Yes, you are going to be stressed. But those that want it bad enough will make it.

Here are eight tips that can help you get your idea off the ground with limited funds.

1. Build your business around what you know. Instead of venturing off into uncharted territory, make sure that you build your business around your skills and knowledge. The less you have to rely on outside sources the better. When your business is built around your own personal expertise you can eliminate consultants and outside assistance. 

Also, having that knowledge is sometimes all that is needed to successfully take the plunge into entrepreneurship.

2. Tell everyone you know what you are doing. Inform your family, friends, business contacts and past colleagues about your new business. Call, send emails and make your new venture known on your social-media profiles. Your friends and family members can help you spread the word, and past business contacts can introduce your brand to their professional contacts as well. This type of grassroots marketing can help introduce your company to a much larger audience.

3. Avoid unnecessary expenses. You are going to have plenty of expenses, and there are some that just can’t be avoided. What you can avoid though is overspending. Take something as simple as business cards. You could drop $1,000 on 500 metal business cards that give off the “cool” factor, or you could spend $10 on 500 traditional business cards. Being frugal in the beginning can be the difference between success and a failed business.

4. Don’t get buried in credit card debt. There is a smart way and a suicidal way to use credit when starting a business. New computers, office furniture, phones and supplies can all quickly add up. Instead of purchasing everything at once and throwing it all on a credit card, use your company’s revenue to finance your expenses. Eliminating the stress and burden of debt will greatly increase the chances of creating a successful business. 

5. Make sure your receivables policy won’t sink you. If your business is a retail operation then this isn’t going to apply, but if you are providing services such as consulting or products to retailers you need to make sure that your payment policy is well thought out. Can you remain above water with net-15 or net-30 terms? Don’t base your receivables on what you think your customers will want. Base them on what is going to make your business operate successfully.

6. Build up sweat equity. When I first started my business I worked around the clock, handling every aspect of the business as well as the marketing and growth. All of the hard work and long days that you put in isn’t for nothing. You are building a brand and your hard work is essentially increasing the value of your business. Your sweat equity will come into play if you ever decide to sell off a piece of your company or take on a partner.

7. Take advantage of free advertising and marketing. There are several ways to generate a buzz for your business without breaking the bank. Social media is a great way to gain exposure and interact with potential customers. You can also reach out to local media and offer your expertise.

Make as many local media contacts as you can and be extremely responsive with their requests. This can lead to them to branding you as the local authority, generating plenty of free press for your business. 

8. Get ready to hustle. Hard work is an absolute necessity, but when you are starting a business with little to no capital then you must be prepared to dedicate everything you have into making the business a success. This might mean cold calling, handling customer support, dealing with billing and accounting, and every other working part of your business. You will wear many hats and it will require the majority of your time and energy if you are to make it.

Don’t let limited capital prevent you from taking a great idea and running with it. Will it be difficult and will you have some stressful situations? Of course, but that is part of entrepreneurship.

Have you started a business with sweat equity alone? If so, let us know about your experiences in the comments section below.

From Entrepreneur

What I Learned in My First 365 Days as an Entrepreneur

Even with a cool 18 months on the books the designation as business owner, much less founder, still feels as ill fitting as a speedo. Just as ill fitting? The idea that insights I’ve gleaned so far might help someone else who has just made the same lonely leap feels a little strange. And yet, the road from an office in my kitchen to a "real" office with a team of 20 has taught me so much, I can’t help but hope my lessons learned will assist someone else pursuing a similar path. With that in mind, here are six of the six thousand things I wish I knew back when I was sitting in my kitchen wondering how it would all shake out.

You’ve got this. Early on, I visited bookstore after bookstore, buying a dozen business books (and skimming a hundred more in-store) in hopes of addressing the knowledge gap I was certain I was lugging around. That was an incredible waste of time and energy. Those insights, though well crafted and well intentioned, almost never related back to my situation in a meaningful way. That’s why it was so important to stop trying to find a silver bullet and instead focus on the task at hand, embracing the temerity that comes with it. Turns out that building an airplane and flying it at the same time isn’t that bad of a business plan. 

And when you do have questions, it may be better to turn to people, not books, for insights. Look for other founders that have gone down the same path as you have or mentors that have years under their belts.

Always bet on talent. If I could take back any investment of emotional energy over the past year, it would be the investment in wondering whether to pull the trigger on talent during times when cash flow was tight (which I later found out was always).

In the end, I’ve ended up making the gamble, and each time I’ve been rewarded in ways I’d never have thought possible. It’s hard finding the people whom you know can step in and make a difference, which means that it’s imperative that you grab them up when given the chance

Addition by subtraction. To that end, I'll never again let someone who isn't a good cultural fit drag down our team. I waited too long in one instance, only to see an immediate benefit after making a cut. It wasn’t just a cultural lift that we experienced, our actual work got better once the pallor was lifted -- with measurable results the very first day after the change. It was a hard lesson but one I’m grateful to have gotten early on.

Thanks (for nothing). I went to 10 banks in the first month, looking for a line of credit and a bit of financial air cover. Turns out that banks don't quite like the service industry, much less a youngster with little other than seven figures of purchase orders to show. I can still feel the doors slamming in my face. While the money it didn't come to me, I later realized it was a blessing in disguise. Not having that security blanket made me think scrappy from day one -- and to adopt financially conservative habits that I’d never ever had before. Sure, it would have been great to get a check on day one, but it turns out we never really needed it anyway.

The best new-business strategy? The business. It might sound like a cliché, but it has emerged as a core truth to the business: Doing great work is the best new-business strategy there is and investing in the work vs. fancy marketing or a biz-dev staff has been central to our success. I always thought the hard part would be getting new customers, but I was wrong. The hardest part is keeping the level of excellence up -- every single day -- in a way that inherently drives new business, keeps clients happy and the team engaged and energized to do great work.

Ask for feedback. And then ask again. There is an HR saying about how having an open-door policy doesn't mean that people automatically walk into your office to talk -- an insight that has been spot on. It has taken much more proactivity than I thought it would to get people to share their views, especially given our transparent culture. That said, giving team members every avenue I can to share their feedback with me has been an incredibly worthy endeavor, as I’m always pleasantly surprised by how actionable their insights are. 

I’m looking at an editing room floor with another couple dozen tidbits, from the value of supporting greater good, the importance of getting everything -- and I mean everything -- in writing up front, when to forgive debt and when not to, and on and on and on. But perhaps it’s best to end with the most important thing I’ve learned. It’s ok to stop, slow the spinning wheels of future casting, and go get a nice cold beer. In fact, it’s advice I think I’ll take myself this very moment.

From Entrepreneur

Starting Up Is Hard. Here Are 8 Ideas to Make It Easier

You cannot control how the world will react to your next idea. But there are a surprising number of things you do have control over.

This post is going to be all about you, but to get there I have to spend about 42 seconds talking about me.

I'm in the midst of an 18-month experiment in which I will try to reinvent my career. (The details why are boring.)

I knew going in the reinvention process was going to be difficult. And I also knew there were going to be countless false starts and failures.

And I thought I knew how to handle those failures.

I would follow the advice I had given people for years: I'd make sure that the failures (should they occur) would not hurt me too much financially or in terms of opportunity cost--it might have turned out that the time I spent on X (that didn't work out) would have been better spent trying Y (which might have been a smash).

Well, I was right about the approach, but wrong about having a complete handle on how to deal with the setbacks.

As a result, I have come up with a list of rules that I am now following. They probably will evolve before the 18 months are up, but here's where they stand now.

The idea of taking small steps was right. As was never risking too much money. And so they remain my first two "rules." Here are six others I have come up with.

3. No one cares about your journey but you.

When you are trying to start something new, it would be nice if people were supportive. I have found that they are not. No one has been rude, evil, or mean. People don't care enough to invest in that much reaction. They are concentrating on their lives, and not mine. Understanding that makes the rejections (slightly) easier to take, which leads me to the next point.

4. You are allowed to feel bad for 14.2 minutes.

I simply overlooked the fact that failure makes you feel bad, no matter how you try to rationalize it. Since saying "well, don't feel bad" doesn't work, I now give myself about 15 minute to wallow, and then I try to move on.

5. Take even smaller steps.

I am the world's biggest advocate of taking tiny steps toward your goal, pausing after each one to see what you have learned, and bundling that learning into the next step. I have had that idea confirmed for me during this experiment. But there is a natural tendency to always want to move faster, and that is where I have gotten into trouble. The best way to deal with failure is not to experience it. Taking even smaller, slower steps mitigates potential damage.

6. Assume no money is going to come in.

I figured things might be slow at first, but I should have been even more conservative. The assumption going in should have been that there would be no money coming in during the entire time I was getting underway.

7. It's okay to keep the old stuff that works well.

Just because you are heading off in a new direction doesn't mean you have to jettison everything that you did well in the past. Keep a strong core, if you can, and go from there. Efficient back-office strategies, for example, continue to work well no matter what you are doing.

8. Yes, you certainly want to learn from failure.

But make sure it really is a failure first. Just because the first potential client, or first couple, said no doesn't mean it is truly a bad idea. Only give up on an idea when there is a clear pattern of rejection.

Keeping these thoughts in mind are making my journey a bit easier. They may help you as well.

From Inc. Magazine

How to Know When You Should Start a Company

Five questions you need to ask yourself before you make the leap.

So it has come to this, eh?

Your day job is getting a little dull, the drive across town to the corporate office is a total bear, you can't seem to stop thinking about that new app. Having an idea and an incentive is one thing, but knowing when to start a company is often the hardest part. Should you wait until you have all of your debts paid off? Until you have a more reasonable mortgage? Until the kids are finally out of the home? There are many reasons to start a company. The challenge is knowing when. Here are a few questions to ask yourself.

1. Are there people you know who will benefit?

I'm convinced one of the best reasons to start a company has nothing to do with market trends, or your personal motivations, or even financial gain. Starting a company might benefit people in some tangible way. Let's say you have an idea for a water filtration device that will help people in developing countries. Or maybe it is an app that will finally solve a problem for accountants. Well, why are you standing still? Some of the greatest joys you will experience in life will come from helping people, and a company makes that possible on a grand scale. It's also important to think about whether people you hire will benefit--do a lot of your friends and business associates need a job? That's another good incentive.

2. If you wait, will someone else steal the idea?

This might sound selfish at first, but waiting to start a company might not make sense if someone else swoops in and "borrows" the idea. The key is to determine why that business idea is novel and worth pursuing, which might require some market research. However, don't let the research fool you--if your gut says the idea is novel, it is worth pursuing. You'll need that motivation once you get started. Market research won't create the motivation--it has to come from a place deep inside of you and spur you on. If you embrace the idea as profound, and you race to realize the idea before anyone else, you'll have the personal incentive to keep pursuing it. It's just the fuel you'll need.

3. Is the call so great that you can't not start a business?

Some things in life can't wait--like marriage or getting a college degree or paying off debt. A few of us have an insatiable desire to start something. If you are so firm in your plans to start a company, and absolutely nothing is going to change your mind, you have the motivation you need. Do it. Get the funding, ask friends for help, design a logo. That nagging sense that you have no other option (and I don't mean because your bank account is empty or you are living on the streets) is exactly what you need to run with the idea. If the insatiable desire does not exist, you might be on a fast track to failure.

4. Is your personality a good match?

Skills are important, but they can be learned. Your DNA determines your personality. If you are someone who tends to need constant direction or who gets stuck easily on a myriad of details or who needs some assurances about success, you might be better off sticking with a normal job. Being someone who can't handle the insecurities and intangible nature of starting a company doesn't make you a bad person--it just means you are better off working for someone else. Entrepreneurship is a special kind of risk. If you are the last person in the world who would ever go bungee jumping or try that spicy marinara sauce at that new Italian eatery across town, it's possible you won't enjoy waiting for checks to come in the mail every day or depending entirely on Quickbooks to run a business.

5. Do you know how to persevere through adversity?

The final test for those who are thinking of jumping into entrepreneurship is also the most important one of all. You have to be relentless. The drive to succeed is only a part of the equation. Even more important? The drive to persist. Great companies are started by people who want to succeed, and that's important. Lasting companies are built by people who want to persevere. You'll be dealing with a ton of diversity--the brother-in-law you hired turns out to be a deadbeat, the tax program you used didn't warn you adequately about home-office deductions, the thumb drive you left at Starbucks ends up in the hands of a well-known criminal and he is now demanding a payoff. The desire to succeed won't help you through those scenarios. Only persistence and perseverance will.

From Inc. Magazine

How To Build Habits That Could Make You Rich

Regular exercise is a habit worth building.

According to a 2006 Duke University study, 40% or more of our daily activities are habits.

Habits have a very important purpose: They save the brain from work by relegating certain repetitive tasks to a walnut-sized area in the middle of the brain called the "basal ganglia."

By isolating certain repetitive functions to this very small, almost fractional area, the brain frees itself to expand and perform higher level functions. 

Habits control our lives, unconsciously moving us either toward success and happiness or toward failure and unhappiness.

In my five-year study of the daily habits of 233 wealthy people (those with an annual income of $160,000 or more and a liquid net worth of $3.2 million or more) and 128 poor people (those with an annual income of $35,000 or less and a liquid net worth of $5,000 or less), I uncovered ten keystone habits that separate the rich from the poor.

I call them the Rich Habits.

Those who learned the Rich Habits from their parents, mentor, or through the school of hard knocks, excel in life. Those who never learned these habits, and instead are saddled with what I call Poverty Habits, eke out a living, struggle financially, have poor health, and live unhappy lives.

In order to better understand the process of adding and removing habits, it’s important to understand how habits are formed and removed physiologically within our brains.

Habits compete within the brain.

Neurons (brain cells) compete for something called "cortical space" inside our brains. Think of cortical space as brain real estate. Just like there is strong demand for waterfront property, there is a strong demand for this brain real estate. In order to learn a new skill or fact, or introduce a new habit, we must create a new neural pathway inside our brain.

Creating a new neural pathway, however, is not that easy to do. This is because old neural pathways are very greedy, and don’t like to give up any of their brain real estate. They fight to keep that real estate from other intruding neurons. New activities that are trying to create new neural pathways have to compete for this brain real estate with old neural pathways (old activities).

This is why breaking an old habit is so hard. There is a brain real estate war waging inside our heads when we introduce new habits.

When building new habits, think of them as passengers on a train.

Use your old habits to build new ones.

The best way to co-opt brain space taken up by old habits is to stack a new habit on top of an old habit.

Think of an existing habit (existing neural pathway) as a train on a track, except it's inside your brain. If you add your new habit to that same train, as if it were a new passenger, the brain won't put up a fight because you're not trying to take control of the train or the track. You're just taking a ride. When an old habit does not perceive a new habit as a threat, no brain real estate war occurs. And viola, a new habit is born.

Here’s how it works: Let’s say you want to add a new Rich Habit of reading 30 minutes every day for self-education and let’s say you have an old habit of exercising aerobically on the Stairmaster 30 minutes every day. If you were to put a book on the Stairmaster and read that book while you’re exercising, you would form a new joint habit that sticks.

Another example: If you have an old habit of drinking coffee every day and you want to add a new Rich Habit of drinking a glass of water every day, you could drink a glass of water either before or after every cup of coffee. That new joint habit would also stick.

By using this habit formation strategy, you can effortlessly form new, wealth-building success habits that stick. Each habit you add to your life has a cumulative effect. They are like an investment in your success. Over time these success habits move you closer and closer to achieving success in life.

The more good daily success habits you add over time, the closer you get to success. And wealth will eventually follow.

From Business Insider

8 Qualities That Make Great Bosses Unforgettable

I remember all of my bosses. Some were bad. Most were good.

But only one was, in the best possible way, truly memorable.

Unforgettable bosses possess qualities that may not show up on paper but always show up where it matters most -- in the minds and even hearts of the people they lead.

Here are some of the qualities of truly unforgettable bosses:

1. They believe the unbelievable.

Most people try to achieve the achievable; that’s why most goals and targets are incremental rather than inconceivable.

Memorable bosses expect more -- from themselves and from others. Then they show you how to get there. And they bring you along for what turns out to be an unbelievable ride.

2. They see opportunity in instability and uncertainty.

Unexpected problems, unforeseen roadblocks, major crises... most bosses take down the sails, batten the hatches, and hope to wait out the storm.

A few see a crisis as an opportunity. They know it’s extremely difficult to make major changes, even necessary ones, when things are going relatively smoothly.

They know reorganizing an entire sales team is accepted more easily when a major customer goes under. They know creating new sales channels is a lot easier when a major competitor enters the market. They know reorganizing manufacturing operations is a lot easier when the flow of supplies and components gets disrupted.

Memorable bosses see instability and uncertainty not as a barrier but as an enabler. They reorganize, reshape, and re-engineer to reassure, motivate, and inspire -- and in the process make the organization much stronger.

3. They wear their emotions on their sleeves.

Good bosses are professional.

Memorable bosses are highly professional and yet also openly human. They show sincere excitement when things go well. They show sincere appreciation for hard workand extra effort. They show sincere disappointment -- not in others, but in themselves. They celebrate, they empathize, they worry. Sometimes they even get frustrated or angry.

In short, they’re human. And, unlike many bosses, they act as if they know it.

Professionalism is admirable. Professionalism -- with a healthy blend of humanity -- is inspiring.

4. They protect others from the bus.

Terrible bosses throw their employees under the bus.

Good bosses never throw their employees under the bus.

Memorable bosses see the bus coming and pull their employees out of the way often without the employee knowing until much, much later... if ever, because memorable bosses never try to take credit.

And if they can't, they take the hit. (And later speak privately to the employee in question.)

5. They’ve been there, done that... and still do that.

Dues aren't paid, past tense. Dues get paid each and every day. The true measure of value is the tangible contribution we make on a daily basis.

That’s why no matter what they may have accomplished in the past, memorable bosses are never too good to roll up their sleeves, get dirty, and do the “grunt” work. No job is ever too menial, no task ever too unskilled or boring.

Memorable bosses never feel entitled, which means no one feels entitled to anything but the fruits of their labor.

6. They lead by permission, not authority.

Every boss has a title. That title gives them the right to direct others, to make decisions, to organize and instruct and discipline.

Memorable bosses lead because their employees want them to lead. Their employees are motivated and inspired by the person, not the title.

Through their words and actions they cause employees feel they work with, not for, a boss. Many bosses don’t even recognize there’s a difference... but memorable bosses do.

7. They embrace a larger purpose.

A good boss works to achieve company goals.

A memorable boss also works to achieve company goals -- and achieves more than other bosses -- but also works to serve a larger purpose: to advance the careers of employees, to rescue struggling employees, to instill a sense of pride and self-worth in others. They aren’t just remembered for nuts and bolts achievements but for helping others on a personal and individual level.

Memorable bosses embrace a larger purpose, because they know business is always personal.

8. They take real, not fake risks.

Many bosses, like many people, try to stand out in some superficial way. Maybe through their clothes, their interests, or a public display of support for a popular initiative. They do stand out but they stand out for reasons of sizzle, not steak.

Memorable bosses stand out because they are willing to take an unpopular stand, take an unpopular step, accept the discomfort of ignoring the status quo, and risk sailing uncharted waters.

They take real risks not for the sake of risk but for the sake of the reward they believe possible. And by their example they inspire others to take risks in order to achieve whatthey believe is possible.

In short, memorable bosses inspire others to achieve their dreams: by words, by actions, and most importantly, by example.

Written by Jeff Haden