Tag: Marketing tools

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What Do You Do All Day?

 

As a business owner, you have a lot on your plate. But, in order to figure out how to automate your business, you first need to know in detail what you do all day long so that you know which tasks can be automated, should be automated, and even whether it’s something you should be doing at all.

Review
Stay focused

In every business, you will have daily tasks, weekly tasks, monthly tasks, and even yearly tasks or quarterly tasks. The best thing to do is to get out a calendar and enter the items you know you have to do.

 

For example, you have to pay quarterly taxes, and you have to balance your books at the end of the month. You must buy a business license each October or January depending on your location and the rules and laws in your area. Whatever it is that you know for sure has to be done, enter it into your calendar, blocking off the approximate time it will take you to do it.

 

But there are also the daily things you do that generate your income. When it comes to generating income, it’s essential to specify which actions you are doing that generate income and which actions you’re doing that support generating income. Go through the steps you take in your day and write down what you’re doing, step by step.

What’s Your Job as The Owner of Your Business?

 

Coaches Example

 

Ø  Business: Coaches retired teachers starting a second career as independent course and project designers.

 

Ø  Morning: Checks the mail, email, and Trello to find out if there are any fires to put out this morning before paying any bills due for the day. Calls her group coaching clients for the weekly hour Zoom group coaching session. Writes 7 product educational and nurturing emails for a new one-on-one coaching product to market to her group coaching clients.

 

Ø  Afternoon: Records part of an online course in development. Transcribes the group call and sets up her part as a standalone presentation video.

 

Ø  Evening: Answers coaching client questions for those who signed up to receive daily emails and schedules them to be delivered in the morning.

 

As you can see, this is just one day out of an entire year and is not representative of all the money-making tasks this coach does, nor is it a complete picture of what happens in the business overall. But it does give you a great idea about where to start automating and even outsourcing. Once you see what you’re doing visually written out, it’s a lot easier to figure out places that you can improve your process. Take the time to write out every process you do each day that you do them. Once you’ve documented the different activities you do each day, you can identify what needs to be perfected and then automated or outsourced or both.

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What’s Your Job as The Owner of Your Business?

As a small business owner, you probably think that you have a lot of jobs to do. Some people like to describe the job of a business owner as one that wears many hats. As the saying goes, sometimes you have on your salesperson hat, sometimes you have on your finance hat.

 

It depends on what is happening what your job is at any moment. However, your main job description as a business owner is to plan and organize the daily operations of your business.

 

On any given day, you may be responsible for:

 

  • Developing your business plans
  • Arranging financing
  • Hiring staff or contractors
  • Reviewing sales
  • Developing marketing strategies
  • Overseeing daily activities
  • Identifying opportunities

 

All of these jobs represent your main function as a business owner, which is managing your risk.  In each of these jobs, you really don’t physically do anything other than analyzing what someone else did for you, whether it’s automation or human.

 

Therefore, when you realized that you don’t need to physically do the tasks that you design, your job as a business owner becomes a lot simpler and can be boiled down to risk management.

 

When you realize that your job as a business owner is really one of risk management, it becomes a lot clearer what your main function is as a business owner. Realistically, you may have to wear a lot of hats at first, doing the tasks defined for each, — but it’s your choice to do the projects yourself or not as a business owner.

 

In fact, one can argue that it’s best for a business owner not to physically do the tasks that don’t require them since you only have so many hours in the day. It’s always, or should always, be less expensive to outsource or automate where you can. But you do have to start someplace, and most small business owners start out doing all the tasks themselves.

 

In any case, it can help to understand that finding and setting up automation in your business is one of the roles you play as a business owner. By doing so, you’re going to reduce risks associated with your business because you’re going to ensure those tasks get done in a timely fashion by someone (or something) who knows what they’re doing.

 

The more you can automate, the fewer things you have to outsource, and the bigger and better you can build your business because you’re going to free up your time to do more of what an owner does instead of the tasks involved in each area. After all, one of the reasons you started your own business is so that you can have more work-life balance, right?

 

One can argue whether the idea of balance even exists, but it’s clear that if you’re doing the job of 10 people, it’s hard to find that time freedom, much less anything resembling balance. In fact, you’re very likely to get burned out if you’re a small business owner who thinks that you have to physically do everything in your business. Instead, realize that part of risk management is to find ways to free up your time so that you can devote yourself to discovering new opportunities for your business.

 

 

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TIPS TO SMART WALKING

 

The main thing to remember, no matter what you’re setting a goal for, is that your goals should be SMART. That means they need to be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely. If you make a habit of creating goals for all aspects of your life using this acronym, you’ll be a lot more successful – no matter what you do.

 

But before you get started with your SMART walking goals, let’s talk about some factors to consider as you’re creating your goals.

 

1) Know Your Fitness Level – Almost everyone can walk. This includes people who are very unhealthy, even if they can only walk for five minutes. Start with your fitness level and set your goals accordingly.

 

2) Know What You’re Working Toward – Pretend you stuck to everything you are supposed to on this journey; what is the dream goal you’re working toward? Even if it seems crazy, knowing that final goal is essential for designing your plans.

3) Know Your Time Availability – This is part of being realistic because if you have roadblocks to having enough time to devote to walking for health to meet your goals, you may not succeed

Creating SMART Walking Goals

Walking

Here is an example of a healthy yet sedentary office worker for you to follow:

 

* Specific – My goal is to walk a minimum of 10,000 steps per day by the end of six months, starting where I am now at 1000 steps per day.

 

* Measurable – Every day, I will add 100 steps to my total. It will take me 90 days to reach 10,000 steps per day.

 

* Attainable – I am overweight but with no health problems, so my goal to walk 10,000 steps a day by the end of 90 days and to maintain it for 6 months is entirely doable in terms of my health.

 

* Realistic – Adding in 100 steps a day is realistic because I am healthy, and I have enough time. It’ll take me about an hour and a half at my walking pace to reach 10,000 steps. I plan to walk each morning between 7 and 9 am. I also have an indoor place I can walk when the weather is terrible.

 

* Timely – By adding the goal of reaching 10,000 steps in 90 days, then maintaining that for six months, it makes the goal timely – meaning it has a time limit that you have set for you to reach your goal.

As you see, crafting SMART walking goals will help you set up a plan that is achievable if you simply follow it. Once you have set the plan up, you can put it in your calendar, tell your accountability partner, and then just follow it. You will reach your goal without issue.

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Business Plan Resources You Can Use

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel to create your business plan. There are numerous resources you can use to help you. Use this list to find resources to use to help you create the best and most functional business plan possible.

 

The more you work on this, the more likely you are to be successful. But don’t forget, set a deadline for yourself so that you finish your business plan so that you can get started living the life you dreamed you’d have as soon as possible.

 

  • Small Business Administration – [https://www.sba.gov/business-guide/plan-your-business/write-your-business-plan] In the USA, you can use information from the SBA to help you create your business plan. They have a lot of precious information on their website and in their offices across the country, and most of it is free or low cost.

 

  • Business Plan Software – There are numerous choices, such as bplans.com, liveplan.com, and others. They’re all pretty much the same, so you can choose based on what you need.

 

  • Business Plan Templates – You can find them right inside your MS Office templates and free online. Whatever you do when you do use a template, don’t copy someone else’s information. Make sure you add your own information so you don’t make a mistake. Just use the template for layout purposes.

 

  • A Business Plan Outline – Once you decide the type of plan you want to create, make your own outline, so you don’t forget to add any information. It does help to have the basic structure laid out, so all you do is fill in your own information.

 

  • An Accountant or Other Professional Expert – CPAs, Enrolled Agents (EAs), and some bookkeepers who specialize in a business start-up are professionals you want to have on hand to help you with the financial aspects of your business plan. Plus, they can help you with tax planning. Every small business owner should visit a tax planner before they start their business.

 

  • A Mentor, Coach, or Consultant – There are people who are willing to assist you for free or for payment, depending on your situation. Try going to a local SCORE.org office to get some help with your business plan. You can also find a coach or consultant online. Ask your colleagues for referrals.

 

  • Find an Incubator – Almost every local city with a college or university has a small business incubator that is willing to help. Check out your local coworking spaces for more information about this. They can help guide you through your research and business plan creation.

 

Finally, you can also hire someone to create your business plan for you, but this can be expensive. It depends on your situation whether you do it alone, go the volunteer route, or hire someone. The main thing is to learn as much as you can about creating a business plan, read other people’s plans, and then get yours started and done.

How To Build A Wildly Profitable Income Stream From Home Without Lies, Hype, Manipulation or Pressure…

 

https://flawlessfreedom.com

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Information You Need to Know for Your Business Plan

 

There are many reasons to write a business plan. You may need a plan to borrow money, attract investors, or to validate your ideas. Plus, creating a business plan helps work out operating procedures and can put your business at a strategic advantage over other businesses.

 

To create your business plan, work on collecting the following information and documentation.

 

  • A Description of Your Business – This is simply what you do, who you do it for, why you do it, how you do it, and when you do it.

 

  • Describe the Problem(s) Your Customer Has That You Solve – Make a list of each problem you solve for your customer. Describe them fully and why they need to be solved. It can help to attach the product to the problem for reference.

 

  • Describe Your Solution – Explain how this solution solves the problem for your ideal customer. Try to write this from their perspective to ensure that you are putting the customer in a central place.

 

  • Describe Your Target Customer – You may need to describe more than one target depending on your products and services, especially if you have different levels of products, depending on their place in the customer buying journey. This is a good place for customer avatars.

 

  • Describe Your Competitive Advantage – This is all about how you are different from the competition. It may be due to price, service, innovation, operation, or something else. Some people also describe this as a unique selling point or unique selling proposition. It’s all about your place in the market and how you can leverage it to your advantage.

 

  • Describe Your Selling Process – Website, storefront, affiliates, distributors or salespeople, door-to-door, or something else? For example, perhaps you’ll set up a squeeze page with a freebie to build your list then nurture your relationship with them in email. Be specific and thorough.

 

  • Describe Your Business Model – This is a list of your revue streams and how you’re going to make money. If you have no revenue stream potential, you have no business. For example, starting a blog is not a business until you monetize it.

 

  • Describe Your Start-Up Costs – What are the funds you need to get started? List each expense and why you need it.

 

  • Describe Your Goals and Benchmarks – If you don’t set deadlines, it won’t happen, so make sure you match a deadline or benchmark to each of the goals you’ve set for your business. For example, “I will get 100 new customers each week by hosting two-hour long webinars each week.”

 

  • Describe Your Business Setup – For example, if you’re a sole proprietor who outsources to contractors, state that; if you are an employer with a management team, state so. If you plan to buy human resources, as time goes forward, mention those benchmarks so you know when this will happen.

 

  • Describe Resources You Have and Need – Make a list of the resources you have available now and how you’ll use them and a list of resources you need to buy, and when you’ll do so based on benchmarks.

 

As you work on creating your business plan, it can help to understand fully all the information and data that you need to complete a business plan that is useful for you. Use this list of information you need for your business plan to guide you as you create the plan and build your business.

How To Build A Wildly Profitable Income Stream From Home Without Lies, Hype, Manipulation or Pressure…

 

https://flawlessfreedom.com

 

 

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Are You Being Realistic About Your Goals?

People often struggle in both life and business with the process of goal-setting—more than likely, you’ve read a lot about creating SMART goals. SMART is an acronym for: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely. Being realistic is one of the criteria for setting goals that will serve you, but the truth is, the rest of the acronym helps ensure that your goals are realistic.

 

It’s fun to fantasize about starting a business, and it’s not uncommon to imagine becoming a millionaire or making a high six-figure salary while sitting on the beach. The problem with this is that it’s just not that realistic. It’s not to say that no one has ever done it, but more than likely, they already had tons of resources like money and contacts that allowed them to simply delegate while they’re lying on the beach.

 

This is not an uncommon happening. Even the neighborhood dog walker probably had high hopes for how much money they can earn. When you come up with a figure or a measure for your goal to track, you want the number to be realistic and not just pulled out of thin air.

 

For example, let’s say that you are a virtual assistant. You plan to work as a VA full time. At first glance, you may think that means you can bill at least 40 hours a week. We often choose 40 hours because that’s what we’re used to in terms of work. However, it’s not really that realistic. There are other things you need to do for your business aside from the direct and billable work you’re going to do for them.

 

To be super accurate and realistic about how much you can earn, you need to figure out the order of operations at your VA business. What will you do all day? More than likely, once you figure out, you’ll realize you can work four or five hours a day that is billable, and the rest of the time, you’ll need to work on marketing and other aspects of your business.

 

After you’ve organized your day, you accept that you have five hours a day, Monday – Friday, that can be considered billable hours. That means you have that much time to work directly for a client that you can bill them for the time. How much money will you earn with that criteria at the rate you planned to charge? If you only charge $20 per hour, you’ll only make $500 a week before taxes or expenses. Is that enough?

 

You can raise your rates, or you can find other ways to earn more money, such as by going to a flat fee per service and finding people to outsource to or by hiring a full-time employee to help. Perhaps you can automate a lot more than you have so far to free up more billable hours. Maybe you develop an app that does what you would do automatically that you sell to your audience or that you use to serve your audience.

 

The main thing is that you should not leave these numbers to chance. Design your entire day and figure out what is realistic for your goals in each case. Don’t just pull a number out of the air. Think about the number and how it can happen or not happen before you put it in writing.

How To Build A Wildly Profitable Income Stream From Home Without Lies, Hype, Manipulation or Pressure…

 

https://flawlessfreedom.com

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I work from home. Do I still need a business plan?

 

Home business owners often underestimate their business. If you start a home business, respect the importance and value of your home business. A home business is not a fake business. A home business can be more stable than a wage job. A home business can earn millions. Where the business is located really doesn’t matter as much as you may think. The location doesn’t define either legitimacy or potential.

 

Many people think of business plans as a document you create if you need a bank loan or investors, but the truth is, the business plan is a lot more useful than that. A business plan helps you evaluate whether your idea is feasible or not.

 

Plus, your business plan will also inform your marketing, operations, and pretty much everything you do. Not only that, but the business plan can also be used every single year as you update parts of it to make it even more accurate.

 

So yes, the short answer is that if you’re going to start a successful business that you enjoy, you need a business plan. Studies show that if you have a well-thought-out business plan, you boost your chances of success by more than 30 percent. Since most businesses that start from home either go nowhere or do not succeed, this is a big deal. Because here’s the truth, businesses don’t fail for no reason.

 

If your business fails, most of the time, it will be due to a lack of planning. More than 70 percent of successful businesses had a plan before they started. The other successful businesses usually develop a plan after the fact for the future, or else it’s hard to replicate success. Understand that a business plan that boosts your success potential is not something you will make in one day. It takes time and effort to create a quality business plan that truly sets you up for success.

 

However, as a home-based business, you can create a smaller plan where the summary and outline fits on one page with attachments (appendices and supporting documents) making up the rest of the business plan.

 

The important parts of the business plan that you need include:

 

  • Your Business Vision – Answer the question about what you are building. Include specific information, including time, expertise, and the who, when, what, why, and how of the business and customers you’ll serve. “Build a worldwide network of support for women who need to get healthy and lose weight.”

 

  • Your Business Mission – Develop your business mission statement. The mission statement needs to include your target audience, the product or service, and what makes this product or service different. “Motivate overweight and unhealthy women to become healthier by teaching them how to change to a healthy Keto diet.”

 

  • Your Business Objectives – All the goals and objectives you develop need to have a number attached to them. List everything you plan to measure, from reach, to list members, to sales, and so forth. For example, if you’re an author who wants to sell a specific number of books, you’ll state how. “Speak about once a week for a target of at least 40 speaking events this year.” “Generate revenue of $75,000 in 2021.”

 

  • Your Business Strategies – At this point, you’ll want to describe fully in chronological order each milestone and success you’ll experience over time. For example, “I want to become known as the go-to source for Keto Diet information.”

How to Pick a Niche You Can Succeed In

 

  • Your Action Plan – This is one of the most important parts of your business plan as a home-based business. This is the work you’ll do. Make a list of each thing you’ll do over the next year, at least including deliverables, deadlines, and results. “Develop a Keto Cookbook for Two by 3/21.” “Complete building of my studio kitchen by 2/22.”

 

As you can see, the point of the plan is to help you know what you need to do to build and grow your business. Without the plan, you may be very busy all the time, but your busywork may not be accomplishing anything without a plan.

How To Build A Wildly Profitable Income Stream From Home Without Lies, Hype, Manipulation or Pressure…

 

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Describe Your Ideal Customer or Client: Create a Customer Avatar

One of the parts of your business plan that is essential is to describe your ideal customer or client. As you get to know your customers, you’ll find answers to questions such as: Who are they? Where do they hang out? What do they want? What do they need? What are their pain points? What keeps them up at night. Where do they get their information?

 

One practice that has become popular due to the fact that it works is to create a customer avatar from the information you collect that best describes your ideal customer. When you first begin, you’re going to create one avatar that best describes your most ideal customer. You’ll use that information to inform all the products that you create.

 

A customer avatar is simply one document that succinctly describes who your customer is, how they live their lives, and what they want and need in terms of your expertise.

 

The information you need to complete a customer avatar is as follows:

 

  • List Places Your Customers Get Their Information – Make a list of websites, journals, magazines, blogs, newspapers, books, and so forth that comprise where your ideal customer likes to get their information. These are all excellent options for networking and advertising.

 

  • List Your Ideal Customer’s Goals – Make a list of your customers’ goals for the solution you are trying to sell to them. The goals have to be in line with your expertise and your offers. For example, if you’re a Keto Coach, their goals will be about succeeding on a Keto way of life.

 

  • List Your Ideal Customer’s Values and Principles – Most people make decisions based on their morals, values, and principles. It’s the way they judge if something is true or not. The more you can relate to these values and principles with your words and actions, the better.

 

  • Describe Your Ideal Customer’s Demographics – Demographic information includes things like age, race, income, education, and so forth. Include everything relevant that will help you with targeting ads and content.

 

  • List Your Ideal Customer’s Pain Points or Challenges – As it relates to your experience and offering, list their pain points and challenges. What wakes your customers up at night? If you’re a Keto Coach, maybe your customers have diabetes, but maybe they just want to lose weight. You may have more than one ideal customer, too, but you should differentiate them so you can laser target the information you provide.

 

  • List Any Objections Your Customer Might Have at The Point of Purchase – Take the time to go through and make a list of each objection your customer may have based on who they are. When you list the objections, find facts and information that can overcome the objection.

 

You’re going to have to ask and answer numerous questions to fully gather all the information you need to create a well thought out and effective customer avatar. Once you do that, you should give your ideal customer a true persona and name. You can draw a picture of them, or you can cut out pictures from a magazine or use clips online to build your customer avatar. It’s up to you, but you want the avatar document to be as specific as possible. Once you start your business and start to collect more data information, you’ll be able to create more avatars based on their buying journey.

 

How To Build A Wildly Profitable Income Stream From Home Without Lies, Hype, Manipulation or Pressure…

 

https://flawlessfreedom.com

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What Is Your Business’s Financial Outlook? How Can You Know?

As you are creating your business plan, the part about understanding your industry and business’ financial outlook can seem daunting. But the truth is, while the numbers are assumptions based on what you studied, if you do a good job, your projections should be pretty close. Let’s look at how you can know and document your business’s financial outlook.

 

  • Study Your Industry – Remember that killer technologies are always being invented that can impact your business and even end your business. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it, but you should keep up to date so you can mitigate or change course as needed.

 

  • Study Your Competition – If you keep aware of your competition and what they’re doing every day, you’ll also see signs of issues in the industry or with your customers, especially if you’re in business by yourself and not a huge multinational corporation. If big businesses are worried about something, you should be too.

 

  • Project Your Expenses – Make a list of all the potential expenses you’ll have for your business—for example, website hosting, software updates, contractors, employees, supplies, and so forth. Before you make one cent, you’ll have a few expenses.

 

  • Project Your Income – After you know how many customers you can go after and how many you think you’ll convert over time, you can now project your income. You do that by figuring out how much they’ll buy per purchase, whether or not they’ll be repeat buyers, and how you’ll get more customers over time.

 

  • Know Your Break-Even Point – Your break-even point is when your basic expenses match your income. Knowing this is going to help you know where you can cut back in hard times.
  • Understand Your True Financial Needs – The business plan only includes how much you are going to make, how you’ll make it, and how you’ll spend it per your business, as a small business owner who wants to make a certain income, you can include that figure for your own needs.

 

  • Document the Potential Income and Expenses For 12 Months – Once you have the information, create a spreadsheet to enter the income and expenses you’ll have for your business over the next 12 months.

 

  • Use the Figures for Planning – Each of the numbers you generate can be used for future financial planning and business planning. For example, you can set up benchmarks that inform you when you add to your business. “When my net income is $5000.00 per month, I’ll hire a virtual assistant for $1000 a month.”

Know your number

  • Be Ready for The Unexpected – One thing that is always good to do with any financial projections is to have contingencies in place if your plans don’t work. For example, what will you do if there is a natural disaster? What if you can’t do business in the way you are used to? Can you change and how will you do it?

 

  • Monitor the Reality – While you’re making projections, understand that reality will happen as you grow your business. As reality happens, update your projections to account for that reality.

 

  • Update as You Know More – Update your projections any time you have new information that will make your numbers more accurate.

Use a spreadsheet to enter the figures you discover so that you can easily update it and change them based on new knowledge or assumptions. As you grow your business each year, your projections will become more and more accurate. This means the planning you do, based on those projections, will also become even more useful.

How To Build A Wildly Profitable Income Stream From Home Without Lies, Hype, Manipulation or Pressure…

 

https://flawlessfreedom.com

 

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How Will You Find Your Customers and Clients?

 

As you research your customers, you’re going to figure out where they like to hang out, what keeps them awake and worried, and more. It might help you to know some of the processes of finding your customers and clients as you move forward with creating your business plan.

 

  • Create Products and Services They Need and Want – Before you design any products or services, you need to know who it’s for, why they need it, and how they can afford to pay for it. When providing your audience what they want, it will sell itself.

 

  • Know Where Your Customers Hang Out – The reason you need to know where they like to go for fun and work is that you can then go there too. You can run ads where they are, and you can network with them and speak at their events. The more you are around your customer, the more you’ll appeal to them.

 

  • Know Where Your Customers Like to Get Information – Which magazines, publications, and shows do your customers like to find out the facts of something? Wherever they go is where you need to go as well. Again, you can pay for ads that they’ll see where they go. You can sponsor events. Speak at events and more to get to know them better.

 

  • Optimize Your Website – Learn about search engine optimization or hire someone to build your website in a professional way that helps bring people to your marketing funnel so that you can get more customers.

 

  • Be Present on Social Media – Expanding your branding by using social media platforms is important and a good boost to your website SEO. It provides backlinks and an opportunity for you to network with and get to know your customers better.

 

  • Network and Get Referrals – Online and offline spend time wherever your audience spends time. Try to stand out, so they notice you but don’t be a salesperson at the wrong time. Give them the information but do it professionally, focusing on providing value to your customers.

 

  • Partner with Complementary Business Owners – One great thing about networking and studying your competition is you will meet some fantastic people who will want to work with you. You can find Joint Venture partners even who are your competition to work together to serve the customers better.

 

  • Form Strategic Alliances – Another way to expand your reach is to join forces with others, including your competition or anyone in your industry, to raise money for a cause you all care about.

 

  • Study Your Competitors – Always study your competition so that you can learn what they’re doing right, what they’re doing wrong, and also notice the gaps in their coverage. The gaps are where you may find the sweet spot.

 

  • Advertise – Once you know who your competitors are, who your audience is, where they hang out, and understand the point of your product or service, it’s time to start investing in paid advertising. You can boost your business much faster if you set up an advertising budget.

 

Use this information in your business plan when you talk about your customers. Showing that you know who they are and how to find them is an integral part of crafting your business plan. It shows that you can get your products or services in the hands of the people who need it most, which also shows that you can earn the money you want to earn that will enable you to live your best life.