When You Shouldn’t Fire Your Weakest Link
As an executive working for a business I didn’t own, I fired employees right and left. It was clear to me that my primary duty was to the business — and when someone working for me couldn’t cut the mustard and could be replaced rather quickly by someone better, I…
READ MOREPromise #9 for the New Year: To Become Wiser by Reading ETR Every Day
You are a very busy person. And so I appreciate the fact that you take the time each morning to make reading ETR a priority. The single most productive thing I do each day is the work I do writing ETR. It’s energizing because it gets me thinking positively first…
READ MOREBecome Wealthier by Developing a Second Income
Today, I would like you to resolve that — if you haven’t done so already — you’ll develop a second stream of income this year by getting yourself into a side business. The business can be home-based or housed in an office. It can be run by you or someone…
READ MOREResolution: Increase Your Income
Let’s start with some simple arithmetic. Joe Ordinary is 25 years old, makes $28,000 a year, and gets ordinary 3% to 4% yearly increases. Over a 40-year career, he makes approximately $2.3 million. Elwood ETR is not satisfied with ordinary. He follows the advice he gets here every morning and…
READ MOREWhat Is the Biggest New Idea in Your Market?
“Who in Europe could have thought of the disappearing bed, a bed during the night, a handsome wardrobe during the day? Where else [than in the United States] could the rocking chair have been invented, in which a man could move and sit still at the same time?” –…
READ MOREMake Your New Project or Business A Big Winner by Focusing on the Highest-Margin Sales
Every business (or business project) has a unique potential for success that is realized when all the key elements are put together in just the right way. Once you understand this recipe, profits come to you reliably and regularly. The challenge for new ventures is to keep the cash flow…
READ MOREBusiness Checkup: The Four Ps
“It is not enough to understand what we ought to be, unless we know what we are; and we do not understand what we are, unless we know what we ought to be.” – T.S. Eliot (Religion and Literature, 1935) There are at least four critical aspects to any business…
READ MOREHook Your Prospect in the First 25 Words
Want to write something that will grab a reader’s attention and get them—and keep them—reading? Then pick up a copy of Leads & Conclusions by Marshall J. Cook. One interesting tip he offers comes from the Direct Mail Marketing Association. They wanted to find the point where people stop reading…
READ MOREInvent a Product – And Then Make it Obsolete
“We cannot remain consistent with the world save by growing inconsistent with our past selves.” – Havelock Ellis (The Dance of Life, 1923) Very few products — and very few companies — can survive without change. What works today in the current market will almost certainly fail 10 years…
READ MOREHow to Start a Multi-Million-Dollar Catalog Business, Part 2
“Watch the turtle. He only moves forward by sticking his neck out.” – Louis Gerstner, Chairman and CEO of IBM I asked SL, “Is it still possible to start a successful business like yours working from home?” His quick, sure response was, “Yes — even in today’s tough business…
READ MOREHow to Start Your Own Multi-Million-Dollar Catalog Business
“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin. Boldness has genius, power, and umagic in it.” – Goethe SL and his wife began their catalog business together 15 years ago with a tiny display ad for a reading lamp — and have grown it into one of the…
READ MOREThe Hooker’s Conundrum: What to Do When Business Falls Off
“It is always the latest song that an audience applauds the most.” – Homer (The Odyssey, ninth century B.C.) MN, who has recently taken over my role as head butt-kicker for a $90 million business, is — despite his best efforts to the contrary — starting to act more and…
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