Issue #2057
- WEALTHY: The "happy holidays" method of staying ahead of the market (Andrew Gordon)
- HEALTHY: One company’s $1,000 prize for getting fitter (Michael Masterson)
- WISE: John F. Kennedy on physical fitness
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- How many people want what you’re selling? (Paul Smithson)
- Feedback Friday: What our readers think about "Making a Business of Your Passion"
- It’s Good to Know… about hurricanes
- Add "sclerotic" to your vocabulary
Confidential Report: Disillusioned Trader Opens ‘Money-Floodgates’ to YOU…
Rob Banks Legally… With an Inside Job!”
Are You Ready for a “Smash and Grab” on The World’s “Hidden” Money-Mountain?
Great! The getaway car’s leaving…
Why You Should Be Thinking About Christmas
By Andrew M. Gordon
As the economy goes, so goes the stock market, right? Actually, no. The market has been picking up speed recently, even though the economy is slowing down.
This doesn’t make sense, unless you understand that the market is always thinking about the future. Even when it gets tossed and turned over daily events and market news, it’s always about how those things will be affecting the future growth of the economy and various types of businesses.
When the Dow hit new highs at the end of April, investors were betting that the economy would pick up toward the end of the year. Whether it turns out that they were right or wrong doesn’t matter. If they were wrong and economic growth falters through the end of the year, they’ve already moved on to what the economy will be doing next year. For practical purposes, the only economy that matters is the one that exists in their heads.
Try it yourself. Become one of "them," if just for a moment. Sit back and think about Christmas. Ask yourself if you are planning on being generous or stingy… and why. Since two-thirds of the economy is driven by consumer spending, answer those two questions and you’ve got a bead on the psychology of the market for the rest of the year.
[Ed. Note: Andrew Gordon, ETR's Investment Director, has authored several books on energy markets, global countertrade practices, and the hot growth sectors of China and Russia. A former professor of marketing and finance, he is the editor of INCOME, a monthly financial advisory service that uncovers income-generating stocks that promise safety (first and foremost), along with much-higher-than-average profit potential.]
"Physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity."
John F. Kennedy
Are Your Employees Getting Fatter?
By Michael Masterson
MN, the CEO of my largest client, a $300 million publisher, is promoting a weight-loss program for employees. He is giving them financial and other incentives to exercise more and eat less. With good reason.
Obesity is a big problem in the U.S. Disabilities among American workers, The Wall Street Journal reports, are growing at an accelerating pace. One of the main reasons: ever-growing waistlines. "The problem," the newspaper opined, "is increasingly related to unhealthy lifestyles, including poor eating habits and lack of exercise."
Workers who claim Social Security-based disability income grew 4.4 percent last year, according to government figures, bringing the total for the last 10 years to 50 percent. Industry experts say this trend will probably continue as baby boomers try to work past the age of 65 or 70, but fail because of health-related problems like lower-back and shoulder pain, diabetes, and heart disease. All of these conditions are at least partially related to physical inactivity and obesity.
Some employers are trying to accommodate partially disabled workers by allowing them to work from home or work shorter hours. As the demand for skilled workers increases over the next 10 years, The Wall Street Journal predicts, employers will have to be more flexible to accommodate the baby boomers who will want to work full-time but can’t.
In the meantime, some farsighted executives, like MN, are fighting the battle at the front by investing time and money to keep their healthy employees lean and mean.
Typically, companies that establish fitness programs to help improve their employees’ health do it with the expectation that this will, in turn, reduce their cost of health insurance. But MN is hoping for much more than simply saving money. He hopes to help his people make positive lifestyle changes, lose any extra pounds they have, increase their energy levels, and generally feel better.
As much as we hear and read about eating right, it is still something most people truly don’t understand how to do properly. And most companies, even the ones that have an in-house gym, don’t encourage their employees to schedule workout time during the workday.
MN took the initiative to directly address both of these issues. Here is what he did…
The first thing he tackled was motivating people to do something they hear and think about every day but don’t do: eating right. For this, the company created a challenge much like the challenge on the popular TV series "The Biggest Loser."
They measured weight loss as a percentage of each employee’s starting weight. This allowed everyone to compete. For example, Person A weighs 275 and loses 25 pounds, dropping 9 percent of his weight. Person B weighs 175 pounds and loses 18 pounds – 7 fewer pounds than person A, but 10 percent of his weight. So, between the two, Person B would win the competition, despite having lost fewer pounds.
They also grouped folks into teams. MN hopes that, by doing this, some friendly rivalry will nudge everyone to work a little harder to meet their goals.
The competition is set to take 12 weeks, at the end of which there will be awards – $1,000 each for the most weight lost by a man, a woman, and a fitness group. So a top-performing male or female employee who is also a member of the top-performing team can win $2,000.
But the money isn’t the real draw to the challenge, which currently has over 25 percent of the staff participating. The real draw is the personal trainer who doubles as a nutritionist / dietitian offering counseling on site before, during, and after work hours.
Employees are encouraged to work out three times a week for a minimum of one hour with the personal trainer (in addition to having group time with him). And the company has made arrangements for exercise classes on the weekend, too.
In the first four weeks, employees shed 450 pounds. With a goal of losing a total of 1,500 pounds, they are right on track.
"This is just one component of some new programs we will be launching for our employees to get healthier this year," MN told me. "Coming soon is a stop-smoking program, and a new-and-improved employee supplement-purchase program. We will also be developing a wellness library to make sure employees have easy access to information for whatever health problems they and their family are facing."
In the end, MN’s company will spend more than $75,000 for the weight-loss program. Statistics show that there is a 4-to-1 return – in the form of reduced health care costs – for every dollar spent on health programs. So even if they don’t accomplish their main goal, this will be money well spent.
You don’t need to spend $75,000 to encourage your employees to be healthier. Ask around. With little effort, you’ll find that at least 25 percent of them will support each other in their weight-loss goals. (Here at ETR, for example, a group of staff members have been getting together after work to exercise.)
Recommend that staff members walk or bike to work, and park their cars in the farthest corner of the parking lot. Suggest that they use the stairs rather than elevators. You can also encourage your employees to bring or order in healthy salads for lunch, and maybe take a quick walk during their lunch breaks.
Even these small steps will go a long way toward improving your company’s health.
[Ed Note: In the coming weeks we’ll be giving you insider reports on our staff’s own weight-loss efforts and results. Stay tuned to find out who is ETR’s “Biggest Loser”.]
How Does a Former Flat-Broke Landscaper Collect Over $12,000 Every Month in Passive Income?
At the beginning of every month, this former landscaper walks to his mail box and pulls out checks totaling more than $12,000. That’s each and every month. Rain or shine. Whether the stock market’s up or down. Regardless of the economy. In fact, at this point, the only thing he does for these checks is pretty much take a trip to the bank to drop them in his account.
The Secret to Finding the Hottest Products to Sell on the Web
By Paul Smithson
You’ve come up with a fantastic product idea. Now you’re ready to churn out some sales letters and sit back while the profits roll in.
Sounds good. But unless you’ve taken one very important step, your product could be destined for a speedy failure.
Many marketers don’t understand this key to making money online: making sure you have a market for your product… before you start selling.
The easiest way to find out what billions of Internet users are searching for is to use a Keyword Selector Tool, like those from Yahoo/Overture, Google, or WordTracker.
Here’s how it works…
In the dialog box, you type in a keyword related to your product. If you’re thinking of selling diet supplements, for instance, you’d try out a few different keywords that you think your potential customers would search for.
Typing "weight loss supplements" in Overture’s dialog box gets you 13,542 results, which means about 13,500 people have searched for those keywords (or similar keywords) in the past 90 days.
This gives you just a quick indication of how popular weight-loss supplements are. More people may be searching for the same keywords on other search engines – but when you get such a large number of results for those keywords on Overture, you know there are a lot of people who will be looking for your weight-loss product.
If, on the other hand, you have a different kind of product… and the keywords related to your product don’t get many results… you may want to ditch your idea in favor of something with a bigger market.
So before you spend a dime on developing your product, make sure you know that you have a market full of people who are ready to buy it.
[Ed. Note: Ready to step up to the plate and start your own Internet business? If so, online marketing expert Paul Smithson and ETR's team of friendly experts are standing by to help you. We've partnered with Paul, creator of the XSitePro website-building program, so you'll be able to come to ETR's 5 Days in July conference with nothing - no product, no marketing skills, no technical know-how - and walk out 5 days later with your own online business. No experience required, and it only takes a few minutes to get started!]
Feedback Friday: "Making a Business of Your Passion"
You may be so passionate about something – gardening, art, politics – that you want to find some way to turn that passion into a career. But, as Michael Masterson pointed out in his article "Making a Business of Your Passion," doing so can be a shortcut to failure. Here’s what some of your fellow readers had to say on the subject…
"Thank you for providing the daily ETR newsletter. I have always enjoyed reading it on a regular basis, and generally think your advice is very practical.
"I believe your article, "Making a Business of Your Passion," offered excellent advice. However, I believe you did it at the expense of LG. I was disappointed that the tone of the article sounded malicious in nature toward LG and his idea. While I agree with your assessment of LG’s business idea, I felt you could have made your point with less harshness.
"I realize you did not ask for my opinion on this. However, as a regular reader of ETR, I felt compelled to let you know my thoughts. I will continue to be a loyal ETR reader in the future, and I wish you and your staff all the best!"
- Eric J. Penvose
Tampa, FL
"Everyone always says follow what you love, but sometimes, if you are looking to make money at it, you have to redefine ‘what you love’ along the way.
"Three years ago, I left my job in New York City to start my own company. Armed with Early to Rise information on starting your own consulting business, I thought I would take my sales experience selling children’s TV to Asia, and do a reverse business by bringing Japanese animation to the U.S. market (which was booming at the time).
"Thanks to lots of good friends in the industry, I was quickly able to land my first series to sell back to Asia. But the most I could make selling one show, based on my 10 percent commission, was about $10,000 per year. I thought, ‘If I can just build the number of series I represent to 10 by the end of the year, I’ll be all set.’
"As luck would have it, an old boss landed at one of the top animation production companies. I offered to handle the smaller Asian countries for her on a sublicense basis at 10 percent, and she gladly accepted. All of a sudden, I had 30 series to sell!
"She left the company a year later, and I was doing so well the animation company gave me ALL of Asia to sell – and now I’m able to make six figures working from home.
"I want to thank Michael and ETR for helping me make the mental leap to running my own business from home. I know I could use some of your other ideas for expanding businesses, but right now I am enjoying the small size of my business and the freedom it gives me to spend time with my 10-year-old son and be a stay-at-home mom (of sorts). It is a win-win.
"Your article, "Making a Business of Your Passion," kind of justifies for me the path I’ve taken with my business. Yes, I’m following my passion, but in a way that makes good business sense. It is a sign of real intelligence to be able rethink and redefine your own advice. Hats off to Mr. Masterson yet again!"
- Kerry Novick
Mamaroneck, NY
[Ed. Note: How has reading ETR helped you - maybe even changed your life? Send your comments to ReaderFeedback@gmail.com. Include your name and hometown... and we may print your e-mail in a future issue.]
It’s Good to Know: About Hurricanes
If your name is Barry, Karen, or Wendy, watch out! You might just wind up feeling like Public Enemy #1. Why? Because those are among the names chosen for this year’s hurricanes.
Today marks the beginning of the 2007 hurricane season. With past monsters like Katrina and Andrew making headlines, you’re well aware that "tropical disturbances" that’ve reached hurricane status get a name. Though hurricanes in the West Indies had been named after saints for hundreds of years, the practice of naming hurricanes in the U.S. didn’t begin until 1953. The National Weather Service started with women’s names and added men’s names in 1979.
Hurricanes are named in alphabetical order (although the North Atlantic list skips names beginning with Q, U, X, Y, and Z) from a set of six lists that are rotated and reused. If a hurricane is deadly or costly, the name is retired. Up this year for hurricanes in the North Atlantic are Andrea, Barry, Chantal, Dean, Erin, Felix, Gabrielle, Humberto, Ingrid, Jerry, Karen, Lorenzo, Melissa, Noel, Olga, Pablo, Rebekah, Sebastien, Tanya, Van, and Wendy.
The Internet Money-Making Secret of a Desperate Housewife.
More bills than money. Dave, bless his heart, was trying, but he just couldn’t keep their heads above water.
Vicky and her husband Dave were caught between a rock and a hard place.
Vicky couldn’t stand to see the pain on Dave’s face.
That night fate intervened… Vicky got her hands on something very special.
What she saw changed her life… forever!
- Patrick Coffey
Word to the Wise: Sclerotic
Medically speaking, "sclerotic" (sklih-ROT-ik) – from the Greek for "hard" – refers to a condition in which tissue is hardening or thickening. The word (which, by the way, was recommended by one of our readers) can also be used metaphorically.
Example (from an article by Steven Goldberg in Kiplinger): Japan has made huge strides toward remaking its sclerotic corporate structure."
[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker ... build your self-confidence and intellect ... increase your attractiveness to others ... just by spending 10 VERY enjoyable minutes a day with ETR's new Words to the Wise CD Library.]
Michael Masterson
Copyright ETR, LLC, 2007
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