Recession Survival Guide

I’ve been a Democrat all my adult life and was happy to see Obama get elected. But I am beginning to wonder, especially considering where the money is going. I sat down to dinner with a group of business leaders Tuesday night and it was not a happy discussion. The bottom line is that the money is not getting down to the people. The economy will not really revive until ordinary people have the money to buy things. Now I know that a lot of people have said this, but giving money to big banks and insurance companies is not the way to get money in the hands of consumers. Not only that, I think this new idea of allowing people to refinance their mortgage at up to 125% of the value of the house is just more of the same: the consumer falls further into debt and the banks get the money. Maybe, just maybe, Geithner is the wrong man for the job. Maybe his first priority is rebuilding the banks instead of rebuilding the economy.

Chances are you have already joined twitter, but If you haven’t been getting the results you want, then here is a system that not only gets you followers, but covers all the basics for making money too. That’s why we are here, isn’t it. Honestly I believe that Twitter will make me rich. I have told that to people for a few months now and it is working. So check out Twitter Traffic Exposed. I know you will find it valuable. So let me know what it has meant to you. BTW, ignore the irritating dropdowns if you try to exit the page. In fact the drop-downs give you the first videos and those alone are worth money because of the tips they contain.

I have written before about Bob Firestone’s sales coaching materials, but it seems like this is a good time to remind people how to make more in this economy. I know I am personally confronted with the need to convince clients more than ever. If you are up on your sales skills, it is much easier. The key is to overcome objections and provide the client with what they really want anyway. For building your business or making sales, Bob’s coaching is a must. Let me know what you think.

Rather than continue with the story provided by my financial advisor, I found a better explanation in Sunday’s New York Times. What’s good about it? I believe it is more accurate and it gives some hints about the recovery. Speaking of recovery, I plan to spend a lot of time on promoting your business and making sure that you prosper during this recession. Here is the link to Alan S. Blinder’s article.

Like everybody else, I’ve spent a lot of time trying to understand what’s happening with the economy. Over the next few posts I am planning to provide some insights I received from my financial planner Jay Bigman.

According to Bigman the trouble started in 1998 when congress told Fannie Mae that they would have to take sub-prime, non-conforming loans into their portfolio. The idea was to make it possible for more Americans to get loans and buy homes. This much is pretty familiar. The problem was and is that investors, not just homeowners, saw this as an opportunity to buy up properties with little or no money down. Then in 1999 the Glass Steagall act was repealed. This was not a good idea because now banks, insurance companies and brokers could get involved with each others’ business. Now before you conclude this is the standard right-wing line that tries to blame the whole thing on the Clinton Administration, continue reading.

After the repeal of Glass Seagall the huge financial services companies like AIG, Citi, Lehman, Bear Stearns and Goldman Sachs could each do what the other was doing and this created more competition and the need for riskier investments to continue making big profits. But there is much more to the story which I will explain in the next post.

I just had lunch with a designer friend and we were talking about, you guessed it, the economy. I told him that my wife and I had made an agreement not to talk negatively about the economy and not to be a part of doomsday discussions. We further agreed that we would avoid watching negative news. As I explained in an earlier post, the recovery starts with us, with our attitudes. One innovation I am recommending is making a stand on the web with a video about your company. Video not only helps with your search engine results, it is a chance to let your customers know how you can help them make 2009 a great year. Happy 2009!

Is this the bottom? Most people seem to think the economy is in a kind of free-fall. Most people I talk to just get a worried look and say something like, ” I hope Obama can turn this thing around.” Others give me their own sad story about what the recession has done to them. I mentioned a few posts back that we can all focus on doing what we need to make things better. I would like to have the luxury to sit around and feel sorry for myself, but it’s a waste of time. My best cure is to talk to my wife, who won’t let me cry about the injustice of it all. I also spend a lot of time promoting myself and other people and it is paying off. I’ve gotten a lot of photography assignments since September of this year. Many of the jobs were a result of picking up the phone and just reminding people that I am available and I enjoy working with them. I don’t spend much time discouraged and frankly this kind of tenacity is something I had to learn from T. Harv Eker’s courses. In particular, he offers a Guerilla Marketing course that changed my life. I hope that course is still available because everyone with a business needs it; especially in this economy.

I read a great article today on the Huffington Blog. The author, Richard A. Smith argued that job searches in this economy may be met with frustration, and that the key to a new job is to identify a problem that a company has. Once you know the problem you can start working on possible solutions. Finding a solution to a company’s pain could get you a new job. I agree with this post in principle, but I don’t think it is any easier to solve a company’s problem than it is to solve your own issue of finding a new position.

I also think that this presents an overly pessimistic view of our future. Having said that, there is merit in doing research to make money. When you do get an interview, you will need to know everything you can about your target company. And of course the web is a great place to look. In particular, I would begin looking at their website. But don’t just look at the home page. Poke around and see if you can find the annual report. If you can stand it, go ahead and read it. You could learn where the company is going and even if you really want to work there. Then, if you think you’ve learned all you can from the website, set up a Google alert for the company. You have to point your browser to Google.com and set-up an alert that sends you an email when articles or blogs mention the company on the web. It works pretty well and you’ll be surprised at what you can find with some help from Google.

Now if you are turned off to working for someone else and want to start your own thing, you will still benefit from research on the web. More Money Rules is a good place to start because I’ll continue to feature business opportunities every week. One area that has worked for me is earning money with a web based business. In particular, there is a lot of money to be made in affiliate marketing. But here again, it is not a get rich quick solution, regardless of what some people promise. The more I get involved, the more I realize that it takes work and it takes doing your homework on the web.

One program I have explored looks pretty good. It’s called Affilorama and presents a huge amount of information in a series of videos. It also provides a pretty realistic time frame for developing an affiliate business instead of the usual pie-in-the sky. I am planning to go through the program myself to see if there are things I could still learn to do better. This is not the only way to make money on the web, but I know some people who are doing pretty well marketing affiliates.

Some of my readers already have a business. If that’s you, we need to talk. Promoting a small business is something I know a lot about. I have been a small business owner for over 20 years. More importantly, I’ve worked in advertising as a graphic designer and web marketing specialist. But I think this economy is so different, it requires a new promotion strategy. For example, the old method of flooding the market with mailers, brochures and TV spots is not going to work very well. People are making fewer frivolous purchases. They know what they want and need; and they are saving money for those items and services. That’s why offering them something they don’t really want is a waste of time. So how can you reach these new economy customers?

Find out what they want. The answer is online. Now that’s not to say that every other type of advertising is worthless, it’s just that companies also need to learn more about their customers. And this is more true every day, because young families are very is web-savy.

It’s possible to learn an amazing amount about your customer’s behavior by using the tools on Google and a few other widgets. Then you can apply this knowledge to your website provided it’s search friendly. I will sharing a lot of tips and tricks about online promotion over the next few weeks, so if you are feeling lost I can help. In fact, I’m planning an e-book that will be your roadmap in this new territory. For now, take a look at your website and see if it’s up to par. Then do a few Google searches with words you think your customer might use to find you. If your site doesn’t show up near the top, you’ve got some work to do.

I’ve been struck in the last few days by the imbalances in the our economy. Now when people can buy a beautiful retirement house for a song, they don’t have any extra money. The deals on cars are getting better every day and more recently I’ve heard vacation package rates are falling like December snow. I keep thinking about how I can come up with enough money to buy a vacation house in Florida or Puerto Rico, because I know in a few years they’ll be out of reach again.

The good news is, some areas of the economy are very healthy, like healthcare for example. I don’t mean insurance. I mean nurses, lab techs and hospital staff. Accountants and financial analysts are also seeing boom times. And believe it or not, education is booming because in a recession, folks feel the need to retrain. But what if you don’t want to be a nurse and don’t have the time to learn accounting or finance? What about something practical, like becoming a plumber? I haven’t taken the course myself, but John White’s Guide To Passing The Plumbing Exam promises you will pass the license exam if you download and study his course. You can also buy the book, but it’s more expensive and you have to wait for shipping.

If you download the e-book on your computer, you can have it immediately and can start training for your new career. Personally, I think it could be a good move, because more people are having to keep their homes. If they want a change, they will have to remodel. That creates a big demand for plumbers in repair as well as remodeling.

In future posts we’ll look at other practical jobs for the new, smaller economy, so stay tuned.