SkyQuestCom's Personal Development Blog

Labels: asia pacific, Awards, Business, Business Awards, deloitte technology fast 500, global business opportunities, Information Technology, IT, Online Education, online seminars, SkyQuestCom

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You’ve heard the stories: rags to riches success, phenomenal achievements that change lives. Now, get the secrets from one of the world’s leading authorities in Internet Marketing and discover how it all started. Former car salesman Mike Filsaime is one of the world’s leading authorities in Internet Marketing today. He is the creator of “Butterfly Marketing”, one of the most successful online marketing training programmes in the history of the Internet. In this article, SkyQuestCom speaks with Mike Filsaime about success, making money online and the pursuit of dreams.

(The following conversation is an excerpt from SkyQuestCom’s interview with Mike Filsaime.)

SkyQuestCom: Today, SkyQuestCom is privileged to have with us Mike Filsaime. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Mike: I'm 39 years old currently, I'll turn 40 this year. I live in New York , in the United States . I live on Long Island . I'm born raised there on Long Island . Previously, to the online marketing that I'm doing now, I was in the automotive business. In 1990, I got into the car business and worked my way up to management. In the last few years that I was in the business, I was a General Manager of a Toyota dealership; we were one of the largest Toyota dealerships in the world. While I was doing that, I started looking into some online marketing opportunities. From there, I started having some success that was trumping what I was doing as a General Manager in the automobile business.

October of 2002 was when I first started marketing online. In August of 2004, I gave my notice in the car business and ventured full-time online. At this time, October of 2004, I was doing about fifteen to twenty thousand dollars per month while juggling between two jobs. When I went full-time, I immediately went up to $50,000 per month and I never stopped from there; it always increased from there. Last year, we did about $4.5 million in sales and we do $350,000 a month in online sales.

SkyQuestCom: So you had a very successful job and now you’ve gone into Internet Marketing. Can you tell us how you made the transition from working 9-to-5 for someone else, to now living the lifestyle of your dreams?

Mike: Yes, I chuckle to the 9-to-5 (Smiles)! The car business in United States is, they call them “bell-to-bells” and I worked a lot of 9-to-9s. I worked 28 days a month, 75 hours a week in a very, very competitive business. We were geared to always be #1 in the region. And I was spending some time online; I was doing a lot of training for the sales staff and started to spend some time online while I was gathering some closing materials on overcoming objections. I was getting email solicitations to start an online business and I would delete it every single day. One day I said, "Oh, let me read the sales letter." It was by a guy named Frank Kern who happens to be a very good friend of mine now and he's one of the top internet marketers out there as well. But that was the sales letter I read. It had the typical headline - Scarcity, Urgency, Bonuses, Order Now. I'm glad I made that purchase and from there, I started creating my own websites.

The transition from the car business came at a point when I just had to face the facts that there was so much opportunity for growth in my online business that it was time for me to move forward from there. One of the things I liked that I took from the automotive sales industry into online marketing is the understanding of why people buy- the psychology of the buyer. And that has really, really helped me to create effective marketing campaigns online.

SkyQuestCom: There are probably a lot of other people listening also who are also stuck in a job somewhere and they would also like to make the same transition. What advice would you give to them?

Mike: My advice would be: when you make that decision to take a leap, you always want to do that out of a position of cash flow. I would never recommend just selling the farm; to go into something that you have high hopes for that's not currently generating any income. Or if you're brutally honest with yourself, it's not going to generate the sufficient income that you have.

We have to understand while you have a full-time job, let's just say you're making $5,000 a month and you have an online job that you're growing that's making $500, $1,000, $2,000 a month. So now we have combined resources; we're making $7,000 a month. We have to understand that the online dream is a supplement to the income. And we want to know what our monthly minimum is, what is the cost to run our bills, to pay my mortgage, to pay my car, pay my health insurance or whatever it is. And to know what we need to survive and provide for our kids and food on the table, everything like that. If we know that that's $3,000 per month, we have to say to ourselves, "Well, then maybe it's not time to give up the $5,000 per month and the $2,000 I have here just to go for the $2,000."

So make sure you can save some money and you're in a position of cash flow. I recommend saving at least 3 months' salary when you're ready to take the plunge. And it's ok to go backwards a little bit because you're making this much here and a little less here. You take the plunge here, you have the opportunity to really leverage that and have some explosive growth. But you definitely don't ever want to be in a position where you didn't plan properly! And the next thing you find is you gave up a good job and you have to go back and maybe you can't get that job because it's not available.

It will crush you to leave something to pursue something that doesn't work out and a few months later, find that you have to go back into the real world. So I think the important thing is to save some money, and have at least 3 months' salary. Make sure there's enough cash flow coming in when you start to pursue your dreams.

To listen to the rest of the conversation, watch a clip of Mike Filsaime's recorded interview at http://learning.skyquestcom.com.

With over 200,000 subscribers around the world, SkyQuestCom is Asia's largest multimedia e-learning company. SkyQuestCom offers online video seminars of the world's best personal development experts and business gurus including Anthony Robbins (Unleash The Power Within), Robert Kiyosaki (Rich Dad, Poor Dad), Brian Tracy (The Psychology of Selling), T. Harv Eker (Secrets of the Millionaire Mind), John Gray (Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus), Jay Abraham (Getting Everything You Can Out of All You've Got), Bill Gates (Microsoft), Warren Buffett (Forbes' "Richest Person in the World") and many more. To learn more about SkyQuestCom, visit http://learning.skyquestcom.com.

Labels: butterfly marketing, how to make money online, Information Technology, Internet Marketing, Interview, mike filsaime, Online Education, self help, Success Blog, success secrets, the butterfly effect

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Why is a global business so important?

A global business creates the ultimate freedom of earning income wherever you go.
It also gives you the competitive advantage over businesses that are limited by language and location.

The Internet as the ideal business platform for a Global Business

The Internet has grown explosively in the last ten years as it has become more widely available and used. To date, many entrepreneurs, small startups and corporate enterprises have used it as the ideal business platform to grow a worldwide business.

How is an internet business different from a typical “Brick and Mortar” business?

Problems of Traditional “Brick and Mortar” Businesses -

Convenience: Tangible products require physical delivery and increase the need for added manpower. Recruitment and the expense of additional manpower can be a hefty operating cost. Product shipping and negotiation of consignment deals with distributors demands a lot of time and patience - Business is a hassle.

Costs: Establishing a brick and mortar business in a popular location, easily accessible to customers is costly – The more people the location attracts, the higher the rents! As sales increase, there are costs to produce the additional products. Throw in other factors like huge packaging, advertising and employee costs and - Business is costly to maintain.

Criteria for a Profitable Global Business

As computers and technology become more affordable, populations with Internet access are greatly increasing. With it comes the opportunity to extend the reach of your business to these populations.

As recommended by the experts, here are the Top 3 criteria you should consider when starting a profitable global business:

# 1. You need a multi-lingual business website that attracts daily web traffic

Unlike a traditional business, which is restricted to a limited geographic area, an online business can have customers located around the world. A multi-lingual website allows you to reach all of these people who are potential customers for your internet business, and their numbers are constantly expanding exponentially. It is also a cheap way to provide global customers with information, instead of catalogues or advertisements that have high development and publication costs.

# 2. You need a hot selling information product that doesn’t need delivery

As opposed to physical products which have production, packaging, storage, and shipping costs, the cost of providing information is primarily in the time spent to create it. An information product removes the need for manufacturing and physical packaging. It is also more convenient for customers to download the information from your website rather than you going through the hassle of delivery or shipping it to them.

# 3. Set up a fully automated business system that runs even while you sleep

Nearly every aspect of an internet business can be automated. Order processing, credit card processing, and electronic delivery can all be automated. Your business can operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with little or no human intervention required.

Auto responder software, which automatically sends emails to customers, provides an opportunity to remain in contact with customers, and nurture them toward repeat business.

Visit http://www.skyquestcom.com/learning to see an example of a successful global business that is able extend its reach worldwide by combining the 3 criteria into 1 cohesive business system that works.

With over 200,000 subscribers around the world, SkyQuestCom is Asia's largest multimedia e-learning company. SkyQuestCom offers online video seminars of the world's best personal development experts and business gurus including Anthony Robbins (Unleash The Power Within), Robert Kiyosaki (Rich Dad, Poor Dad), Brian Tracy (The Psychology of Selling), Harv Eker (Secrets of the Millionaire Mind), John Gray (Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus), Jay Abraham (Getting Everything You Can Out of All You've Got), Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and many more.

Labels: Business, Education Online, global business opportunities, Information Technology, Internet Marketing, Learning, marketing strategies, Online Business, online video seminars, Success

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What do the rich and famous have in common that we don’t have? Dr. Denis Waitley, bestselling author of "The Psychology of Winning" and "The Seeds of Greatness" shares the secret behind the successes of famous names such as Steven Spielberg, Walt Disney, and even William Shakespeare.

Swim with the Sharks (Without Being Eaten Alive) is the New York Times' #1 bestseller that teaches its readers to stay competitive in the cut-throat world of business. Harvey Mackay, author of the book, talks to SkyQuestCom about Networking, Web Education and actionable strategies to stay ahead of your competition in the fast-moving digital age.

SQC: SkyQuestCom

HM: Harvey Mackay

SQC: It is our privilege to welcome a good friend, Harvey Mackay. He wrote one of the most famous business books ever written, Swim with the Sharks (Without Being Eaten Alive) and is one of the world's best motivational speakers. He is also the founder, Chairman and CEO of Mackay Envelope Corporation, whose story he tells in anecdotes sprinkled throughout his books. Harvey, thank you so much for joining us tonight. Peter Drucker (legendary management consultant) says that online education is the next great growth opportunity, what is your take on that?

HM: He is the final thought when it comes to business and business transition, and I agree with him 100%. In the last several hundred years, not a lot of concepts have changed. But what has changed is the way they are delivered and received.

SQC: We heard a speech recently that said that every college graduate would have between 12-14 jobs and 3-5 career changes. How should we respond to these changes?

HM: This means the age of specialisation might be coming to an end, at least in the near future. If you are in sales, you had better be knowledgeable on the computer. If you are in computers, you had better be knowledgeable in sales. And if you are in human resources, you had better be knowledgeable in public speaking and in communications.

SQC: In the area of business, how would you build a network of contacts?

HM: Individually and by industry, you need to find a creative way to keep in touch with your network and know what is going on in your associations and your industry.

SQC: We couldn’t agree more, so how do you stay close to your customers?

HM: By routine conversation and observation. This means we find out what our customers are like as human beings. In Swim with the Sharks (Without Being Eaten Alive), I have a 66-question customer profile. I’d recommend that. We also take the information we get and we humanise our selling strategy by building long term relationships with our customers. Of course, if you perform and build a long term relationship with your customers, that’s the best of all possible worlds!

SQC: The environment is constantly changing, how do you keep on becoming more creative?

HM: Think outside the box. Push the envelop and find a new or better way to do anything.

SQC: You said that the one thing all successful people have in common is a mentor. Would you elaborate on that?

HM: You have to study successful people. Read every self-help and self-development book you can get and yes, I highly recommend getting a mentor. You need to have a mentor and do exactly what that mentor says and that will help you avoid the traps on the road of business and in life. You also need to have somebody whom you can talk to all the time. You need to have training and you need know what strategies work in every economy.

SQC: How will the computer change the work environment?

HM: Everyone has to become knowledgeable about the computer regardless of their age. It will help people to conduct businesses globally. Moreover, websites can present an image of a company without anyone ever having to see that company. It will help the small business sector immensely.

SQC: What are your best tips for networking?

HM: Become a volunteer and always go for the quality, not the quantity of your contacts.

SQC: Contacts. How do you maintain friendships and communicate effectively with people when you have developed and moved on?

HM: Help them. Teach them what you have been taught.

SQC: And you have taught us so much tonight! Harvey, we wish you all the very best. Thank you so much for joining us.

HM: I’ve had a wonderful time tonight with all of you who have been on our broadcast tonight, I wish to thank SkyQuestCom and the whole team for making this possible.

SQC: Harvey Mackay, bestselling author of Swim with the Sharks (Without Being Eaten Alive). If you’d like to learn more from Harvey to stay competitive in the often cut-throat world of business, be sure to visit http://www.skyquestcom.com/learning to watch a video seminar of the man they call “Mr. Make-Things-Happen”.

Labels: Business, Harvey Mackay, Information Technology, Interviews, Success, Swim With the Sharks, The Psychology of Winning, The Seeds of Greatness

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