Peerpole

Peerpole.com on Amenique Radio Empowerment Zone!

I want to thank Davette Harvey for allowing me to appear on her great radio show this morning. This was my first live recording, what a nerve wrecking experience!

Here is the link to my interview

I really appreciate this opportunity and want encourage everybody to listen to her show. Our once dominant economy was built by entrepreneurs and it's going to take more innovating small businesses to bring it back to prominence.

So if you want to join and be a part of this movement, I strongly recommend you listen to and participate to Amenique Radio's podcast. She offers a lot of practical knowledge and experience on entrepreneurship, not to mention great guests ;)

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I have not posted anything in a while. Usually it happens because I run out things to say or at least interesting things... 

However, this time it's different, I've actually been working around the clock and managed to sign 2 new clients to the agency. It was both a please and an honor to help them leverage technology to expand their businesses.

We wish them all the best in their endeavors and will continue to stand by them to fulfill all their technological needs.

Free Business Advertising!
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The worldwide web is going local, so take advantage of it.

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It's hard to go through a single day without hearing some advice on how to live your life. Cable news is the best example, give anybody a dark backdrop and a scroller and they'll teach you how to solve everything or at the very least what to think...

Is achieving success so easy, someone could just tell you how to do it? With the growing popularity of self-help books, life coaches and tv experts, why aren't more people getting healthy? happy? wealthy?

Probably because success in any field is not a matter of know-how. So outside of providing inspiration reading a book about the Life of Donald Trump or Warren Buffet won't help you.

The World is constantly changing. What worked yesterday may not work today (i.e. selling music on CDs, printing news or flipping houses).

So if you want to achieve anything, just do it. Whatever it is, try and try again until it works. Advice on how to succeed is like a passport to the moon. It says you can go but it won't take you there.

You have to experiment your way to success... That would make a self help book title! 

As I continue to look for clients, I find it very difficult to book first time appointments over the phone or by email unless I've met the person face to face.

Now I have to admit, I'm a terrible cold caller. Real Bad!
"Hello?"
"May I speak with Mr. Owner"  _ Me
"He's  not here at the moment, what is this regarding to?" _ Prospect
"I would like to talk to him about upgrading his website" _ Me
Dial tone...

People have become extremely specious of unknown callers or mailers. Honestly, I can't blame them between the annoying sales pitch and the scams, why should they give me the time of day? Especially since I am soliciting business...

So I came to the conclusion that it's better to approach potential clients directly:

• I can make a better and more lasting impression in person
• I get more time to go over the value of having your own website
• I can more easily tailor the offer according to the prospect

So to promote Peerpole over the following weeks:

• I will attend more local networking events
• I will visit more local businesses
• I will set up a workshop or class about business and web technology

Homeownership is part of the American Dream. From the studios of Hollywood to the Halls of Congress, it is a well marketed and popular dream. People buy houses:

• to have something to call their own
• to settle down with a wife and kid
• to manage their property
• to make a good investment

Nevertheless with every dream comes an illusion and sometimes a scam.

It takes most people 30 years to really own their home...
The average down payment in 2007 was 2% down from 10% in 1989
The typical homes in 2006 sold for $301,000 so with a median income of $50,233 so really a 30 year mortgage is the average family's only option...

Settle down with a wife and kid
When adjusted for inflation, the salaries have been falling since 1999 so committing 20-30% of your shrinking earnings for the next 30 years is not really safe. Renting gives you flexibility to scale up or down depending on your situation. This way there can be money left over to send your children to college, go on vacation or even save. 

Manage your own property
Can't argue this one. Then again, I would not consider decorating a priority.

Low or No Return investment
Adjusted for inflation, home values increased by 0.5% annually from 1950 to 2000. As time goes by, bigger and better homes are built so existing ones grow slowly in value if at all. While housing prices have skyrocketed from 2000 to 2006 but with an excess in inventory and shortage of capital, home values are destined to fall down hard.

There is nothing wrong with buying a house but not at the price of hanging yourself with 30 years worth of debt. Save and avoid long term financing commitments because life is uncertain...

Cash is your only protection because an asset is only worth what someone else would pay for it and that can be a risky gamble.

Data Source

Prospecting for clients is a considerable challenge. The difficult part is not the client who says no because he or she is not interested. I'm used to rejection :). The real problem is the prospect who claims to be interested but wastes my time with all talk and no action.

I've had this experience many times where someone would be interested in getting a website then schedule a meeting with me but cancel literally at the last minute. Although I think it's a rude and inconsiderate thing to do, I can understand if it happens once. However, I've had this happen to me sometimes twice in a row...

It's a bit of a dilemma because clients are hard to come by so I can't be too picky about them. Nevertheless, I work full time on top of managing this one-man band so my times is precious too.

Stonewalling can be a good negotiation techniques. However it would not be the case here since it usually happens before the first meeting, prior to any service agreement.

• Should I ignore prospects who cancel meetings at the last minute?
• Should I tell them not to take my time for granted?
• Should I tough it out and look for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow? 

A 9 to 5 job used to be the standard for stability and success, the cornerstone of happiness. However I often ask myself:

• how safe is the job of employee "UD1445" in today's world? It's not.

I love reading, to me it's traveling for free. One of the most interesting books i've read is The definitive book on body language by Barbara and Allan Pease.

The book illustrates a variety of common gestures and facial expressions and then goes over ther meanings. The first explanations are fairly intuitives: crossed arms signals a disagreement, mouth covering indicates dishonesty.... Morevor, these non-verbal cues are easily controllable so they don't provide reliable insight.

The book really stands out when it details more subtle gestures like female courtship signals (showing the wrist) or cultural differences (Americans stand further apart than Europeans in conversations). My personal favorite is the chapter on legs, since people are less aware of them, they tend to be more revealing. Yes, the feet always point where the mind wants to go.

As if this was not interesting enough, the authors then goes on to explain how to take advantage of those secret body signals in business and personal relationships. Lean forward to show interest, mirror gestures to build rapport and etc.

Overall it's a very informative and useful book that reads more like an encyclopedia than a novel. So even though I've read the entire work, I keep going back to it for refresh my memory and get better analysis. If you've ever wondered what people are really thinking. This is the book for you!

Like Aviator Glasses, Hard times are back and here to stay.

Jobs haven't been cut but chainsawed: -2.6 million in '08, -598k in Jan '09.
So saving is crucial because in the worst case scenario you only want to worry about finding a job, not how to pay your bills...

Before you try to earn more over next few weeks, you can start spending less today!

Here are 7 steps easy steps to saving

Change you can live with
If you look around your place, there is plenty of loose change. A nickel here and there, maybe some quarters. Top places: cars, coats and couches. USE THEM!