The Strange Connection Between Parking and Business Success
Issue #2633
- WEALTHY: The best cure for tenant problems (Julie Broad)
- HEALTHY: Your cellphone – a new weight-loss tool? (Craig Ballantyne)
- WISE: Willa A. Foster on quality
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- Doing without thinking (Rich Schefren)
- How can The New York Times help improve your sales copy? (Suzanne Richardson)
- It’s Good to Know… about Japan’s jet train
- Add “rictus” to your vocabulary
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Dear ETR: “I have a huge problem getting people to pay their rent.”
“I have a huge problem getting people to pay their rent when due on my rental properties. I get excuses but not rent money. Do you have any ideas on how to handle this?”
Charles B.
Dear Charles,
One of the toughest things to deal with as a rental property owner is collecting rent from a tenant who pays late – or, worse, doesn’t pay at all! When we were just starting out as real estate investors, my husband and I lost nearly $5,000 in unpaid rent and filing fees in an effort to evict one non-paying tenant. It was a nightmare.
Every state and province has different Landlord-Tenant Statutes, so it’s important to familiarize yourself with your local laws. Meanwhile, here’s some general advice:
1. Act immediately. Issue a non-payment of rent notice as soon as the rent is late. Keep records of every notice.
2. Act consistently. Always charge the same late payment fees and file non-payment notices for every tenant who pays late or not at all. Consistent actions create a strong precedent should you ever have to defend your actions in court or try to evict a tenant. It also shows tenants that you are fair, but firm.
3. Move them out. If all else fails, try to negotiate a voluntary move out. Court-ordered evictions are expensive and time-consuming – but, if the tenant refuses to leave, you have no choice but to go through the process.
That said, the best cure for getting tenants to pay their rent on time is prevention!
Put some effort into finding and keeping good tenants, and you’ll find that most of your tenant troubles go away. Five years after our nightmare story, we’ve been problem free.
- Julie Broad
[Ed. Note: Renting properties is a great way to make extra cash in any market. For more strategies for making money with rental property, sign up for Internet Money Club member and real estate investor Julie Broad's free monthly newsletter. Get your free report for making money with real estate here.
Have a question for an ETR expert? Send it to AskETR@ETRFeedback.com.]
“Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction, and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives.”
Willa A. Foster
Why My Wife Can’t Parallel Park – and How It Can Affect Your Business
Last Sunday, my wife Debi, two daughters, and I drove 40 miles north to have brunch with some old friends from New York.
We took the Maserati and raced up I-95. It’s a great car. (Ferrari engine and interior straight out of Architectural Digest.)
With Miley Cyrus, the Jonas Brothers, and the Allman Brothers blaring from the radio, we took turns singing along with them. We were having a blast… until we reached the restaurant and Debi tried to parallel park in a tight spot while I was belting out my rendition of the Allmans’ “Crazy Love.”
Her first attempt was… how should I put it… off a bit. (Okay, maybe off a lot.)
Debi decided she needed to concentrate on the task at hand. So I was told, in no uncertain terms, to “shut up.” The radio was muted. There was absolute silence. And she came in for her second attempt…
This time, she NAILED IT! In fact, it was a better job than yours truly has ever done.
And that, my friend, is where an entrepreneurial lesson is hidden.
You see, there are four stages of learning…
Stage 1. Unconscious Incompetence: You don’t know what you don’t know.
Stage 2. Conscious Incompetence: You know what you don’t know.
Stage 3. Conscious Competence. Now you know whatever it was that you didn’t know, but you have to concentrate to use it.
Stage 4. Unconscious Competence: You know it, and you can use it without thinking about it.
Let’s take learning the alphabet as an example. There was a time when you didn’t even know what the alphabet was (Stage 1). Then, you were told about the alphabet and you realized you didn’t know it (Stage 2). Next, you learned the alphabet, but you really had to concentrate to draw each letter and not confuse a “b” with a “d” (Stage 3). And now (hopefully), you can write words, sentences, and even pages without thinking about the letters themselves (Stage 4).
Back to Debi for a sec…
Debi is unconsciously competent (Stage 4) when it comes to driving, BUT she’s only consciously competent (Stage 3) when it comes to parallel parking. And you know what? That’s good enough.
“So, where’s the lesson in that?” you ask.
Easy chachi, I’m getting to it. First, let me ask you a question: Are you unconsciously competent (Stage 4) at your moneymaking activities? For example, can you write an optimized blog post without having to think about keywords and their placement? Or draft an e-mail with an effective hook and a compelling call to action?
If you’re like most entrepreneurs, odds are you can’t – and it costs you more than you realize. Here’s why:
When you are only consciously competent (Stage 3)…
• You’re more prone to making a mistake.
• You’re forced into doing things slowly, meaning you also make money slowly.
• You can complete the task only in certain places (with your reference material) and at certain times (when you can concentrate), so you don’t make money as often as you could.
• You never achieve mastery, so you quickly fall back into conscious incompetence if you take a few days off.
This is important. Come closer. Listen…
The biggest leap in income happens when an entrepreneur becomes unconsciously competent (Stage 4) in his or her moneymaking activities. When you’re unconsciously competent, those activities become easier and you can do them faster, with better success, and more often. In essence, you can spend your time doing instead of fumbling.
I’m not talking about mastering every business skill. Focus, for now, on those that have the biggest chance of making you money. For instance, start honing your marketing muscle. Put in the time – Michael Masterson recommends 1,000 hours to achieve competence – and you’ll take your skills to such a high level that you could do them half-asleep!
Imagine the leap of income you’ll have when the skills you need to make money are hardwired into your brain like that. When getting joint venture partners is a snap, writing copy is a breeze, and growing your business becomes your healthiest habit.
I can’t promise you’ll be a better driver or parallel parker – but I can promise that you’ll be driving and parking in front of your bank to make bigger deposits, more frequently.
[Ed. Note: If you're going to be successful in 2009, you need to start honing your business-building and moneymaking skills. Not sure where to start? ETR's Internet Money Club Independent Learner Edition gives you everything you need to get your own online business up and running. And it gives you a head start on mastering the marketing, copywriting, and business-building skills you need to make big profits. Get all the details here.
Rich Schefren - one of the world's best small-business strategists - knows a thing or two about what it takes to be successful online. His businesses have done over $500 million every year - piling up more than $1 billion in sales every two years. Visit his blog to learn how to streamline your business while skyrocketing profits.]
Want a Quick Way to Get Your Prospects’ Attention?
“Of all the things you do to produce a sale, nothing equals your headline when it comes to pushing response through the roof,” says expert copywriter Clayton Makepeace.
“In my 33 years in this business, I’ve seen great new headlines produce 25 percent, 35 percent, even 45 percent lifts in response and ROI (return on investment).”
A recent list from The New York Times seems to prove the power of one specific technique for writing attention-getting headlines. See if you can spot it below:
40 percent of the above headlines are questions. As master copywriter Bob Bly pointed out during ETR’s Secrets to Selling on the Internet seminar, asking a question in your headline is a great way to pique your potential customers’ interest. And if they are interested in or curious about what you have to say, they’ll keep reading. Which means you’ve got a good chance to win them over with your sales copy!
[Ed. Note: Have you tried using a question in a sales letter headline or e-mail subject line? If so, let us know what it was and how it performed right here.]
Fat Loss by Phone
First the Internet, and now cellphones. Thanks to technology, it’s getting easier and easier to get support from others to help free yourself of belly fat.
In a Finnish research study, a group of overweight subjects used a weight-loss program delivered by text messages over their mobile phones. The researchers instructed the subjects to reduce their food intake and report their weight daily. When they replied, the researchers provided immediate and tailored feedback.
The study ran for one year. At the end of that time, the group using the text messaging had lost an average of 4.5 kg (almost 10 pounds), while a control group lost an average of only 1.1 kg (about 2.4 pounds). Subjects who lost the most weight tended to lose weight quickly and used the text messaging service the most. They also made the most changes to their diet.
Not a huge amount of weight loss. But if you’re trying to lose those last few pounds, or just take better control of your fitness and diet, this is a good system to set up with your trainer or a diet buddy. You could even use Twitter to post your meals via your cellphone and get immediate feedback from other users.
[Ed. Note: It can be tough to lose weight on your own. Make sure you have plenty of support from loved ones. Or join an online support group. You can join ETR's free SpeakOut Forum and exchange exercise techniques, healthy recipes, and motivation right here.
For an exercise routine that builds muscle and burns fat, try fitness expert Craig Ballatyne's Turbulence Training program.]
It’s Good to Know: Japan’s Jet Train
High-speed passenger trains in Japan are already mighty fast. (Max speed these days is around 186 miles per hour.) That’s more than double the top speed of American rail transport. But the Japanese are not satisfied. Plans are in the works for a network of magnetically levitated “bullet” trains that will run up to 310 miles per hour. That’s approaching the cruising speed of passenger jets (at around 500 mph).
The network will run on elevated tracks, eliminating the need for railroad crossings or sharing tracks with slower moving trains. It is expected to be in place by 2025.
(Source: Los Angeles Times)
Word to the Wise: Rictus
“Rictus” (RIK-tus) – from the Latin for “to show the teeth” – is a gaping grin or grimace.
Example (as used by James Joyce in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man): “A rictus of cruel malignity lit up greyly their old bony faces.”
[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.]
Copyright ETR, LLC, 2009
Hi Suzanne,
I’m not actually a copywriter but I did try my hand at a piece recently for an unusual investment marketed by MLM for a short period of time. It was somewhat like a venture capital type investment.
Being in Japan all the company information was in Japanese. So I wrote my own “sales copy” in English for Caucasian colleagues here. The title I chose was “XXXX XXXXX: A Compelling Investment Opportunity?”
It was very well received and I’ve managed to sign up enough people to make me quite a bit of money from it starting this fall. I was very pleased with this first attempt because I’m not a sales oriented person in speech. I find writing easier than talking.
I asked advice on whether the question mark should be there or not and was informed that because we didn’t want any legal come back or to give any false promises it would be best to make the title a question.
This is another plus for making the heading a question: you can’t be accused of making a false promise.
Anyway it seemed to work a treat.
Chris
Re: Questions in headlines: Many years ago I was a pioneer in the contact lens industry and built a very successful mini-chain of optometric offices. One of my most successful ad campaigns used a headline question. Remember this was when contact lenses were new, but the METHOD still works. Headline:
” Wouldn’t YOU rather see WITHOUT GLASSES ?”
Call for your FREE consultation appointment to see if you are a candidate,NO COST, NO OBLIGATION, but an appointment is needed. Just call xxx-xxxx. It worked extremely well. Dr. Jay
So sorry you drive such an expensive car. Who were you bragging to?