Second Wind

Life is starting to beat down. Money is tight and the bills get bigger. My truck is getting worse gas mileage everyday and starting to break down even more with each passing day. The government that I share with millions of Americans is in shambles compared to the dream our forefathers envisioned. My job has become something that I could bear to something I loathe. My future mother-in-law, Debbie, has lung cancer and we're trying to gather the money to go see her. That job that I hate, my last day is tomorrow and I needed to find a part time job to support me through school until my business gets off the ground.

In the midst of every darkness, no matter how big, there's always a light. My sales are starting to pick up with my business, definitely promising. I'm probably going to have enough money to purchase a different, more efficient vehicle. The government's not changing, not for the better anyways. The job ending tomorrow is a good thing as well as a bad thing. My mom offered me a better paying job at her work that will be flexible with my school schedule. Debbie's cancer is operable (AMEN!). The thing that helps me stay focused and to hang tough through the hard times is remembering why I decided to become wealthy in the first place.

Tip of the day:

Purpose, everybody needs one. I want to become wealthy for two main reasons, my God and my family. The other reasons are summed up by these two. Most businesses will fail if they do not have a mission statement, a purpose, a reason for investing ample amounts of time, money, sweat, blood and tears. This one thing will keep you going when you are running on fumes. After you have a purpose for becoming wealthy, surround yourself with people who have achieved great wealth for the same purpose. They will give you the encouragement you need to fulfill your financial goals.

Thanks for reading everyone! I hope you will come back for my upcoming posts. God bless you and keep busting your butts on the path to great wealth.

Vultures and Sharks

I feel like a fish that has been thrown onto the beach. Overhead there are vultures waiting, for me to die, and in the water are the sharks, waiting for me to jump in so that they can dig in. There's so many opportunities to make and earn money these days and with that comes even more opportunities for the sharks and vultures to prey on your assets. The ones that will be preyed upon are the uneducated, the lazy, and the gullible.

I looked into Amway Global. It seems like a great opportunity, if you don't like your time or your friends. If you put nose to the grindstone, put in the majority of your time, turn your friends into business associates, and make little to nothing for the first 5-6 years, then you might be somewhat satisfied. I want you to know that this is my opinion that I have made based on my research and my interviews with people I know. Do your own research, don't take my word for it. That brings me to today's tip.

Tip of the day:

Don't believe anyone when it comes to business. I was listening to Dave Ramsey on the radio today when a man spoke of a business venture he undertook with his brother. The business was his brother's idea and when the business went under, they had $52,000 of unpaid loans and various bills to pay off. This guy paid off his half but his own brother said that he was not going to step-up and pay the other half. In other words, he trusted his own brother on a business opportunity and when it fell threw, his brother became a coward. I believe that you should trust your family with most things, but business is business. If you involve family, you're setting yourself up for immense emotional devastation. Like I said in my last post, do your research, regardless of what your family, friends, or your stock broker says. The only business advice that I would never question or doubt would have to come from God's or Jesus' mouth.

Thank you for reading my blog and I hope that you'll come back for more. Keep busting your butt and God bless!

New business opportunity!

I was at a photo shoot this weekend and I met a man there. He owned the gym that we used to change outfits. I was the last one to get all my stuff out of the changing room. As I was gathering up my clothes, the owner started conversating with me. He asked me about what I do besides modeling. I talked to him about going to college for chemical engineering, my jewelry business, and life in general. He began to talk about Amway Global and I was interested. At first, I was hearing the same spill as I hear from all the MLM (multi-level marketing) cronies. He asked for my number and said that he would set up a meeting between me and the man that introduced him to Amway Global. I gave him my card and he said he would call me this week. I thought about it the whole way home. I did some research. On the internet, you're always going to find someone to talk bad about someone else. I found alot of negative things sites on Google. Most of these sites, however, are outdated or just mirrors of other negative sites. This leads me to my tip of the day.

Tip of the Day:

Research, research, research. If you're going to invest your time and money into somehting, make sure it is worth it. We hear this all the time, but people are so busy, more like lazy, to do our due diligence. Some people do years of research before they decide to invest in a particular business venture. Some see how much they can make and blindly follow. The second group of people would be the lazy fools. I don't know about the rest of my readers, but for now, I work hard for my money. I am sertainly not going to hand over my money to the sharks. I'm going to invest my time and money into something that will prosper. When you do your research, make sure that you are getting your information from a credible source. No, not Wikipedia. I can go to Wikipedia and say that Barrack Obama is blue. I can also say that he has a massive sweat shop underneath the White House that makes t-shirts and bumper stickers. Obviously these things are not true. Check your sources and check out the positives and negatives of every opportunity.

I hope that you found this helpful and entertaining. Feel free to comment or email me regarding any praises or complaints. My email address is jwdhempjewelry@yahoo.com. Thank you and keep busting your rump to live like Trump!

Here it comes!

Today was extremely hectic. I came home from a crazy day at work just to look forward to a crazy afternoon with my business. I began to package an order and when I went to put the product in the package, I couldn't find it. I hate it when people go into your work area and try to organize and clean up. My mind works a little differently than most people, don't mess with that. I finally found it after looking for 20 minutes. I take care of all my emails, site updates, and checked the efficiency of my marketing techniques. Before I knew it, it was time to jump in the shower and get ready. Jenna, my fiance, arranged for us to go to a special screening of "District 9" when it opens to the public on Friday. While I was getting ready, I considered calling her and telling her that I wasn't going. I knew that would entail some serious consequences and it would put some distance between us, not good. All I could think about was my business and what still needed to be done. Jenna could tell. While we were on the interstate, she grabbed my arm, pulled my face to hers, gave me one of her gentle, yet amazing kisses, and from that point on I was able to think about her day and the movie ahead of us.

Tip for the day:
TAKE TIME TO LIVE!!! If you stress all the time about your business then you will be stressed all the time. Now that's a brilliant concept! Whatever it is that you love, don't forget to spend time with who or what you live. Chances are, you're probably trying to be wealthy so you can spend more time with what you love.

To all those first time readers, welcome and I hope you'll come back. To all the repeat readers, I greatly appreciate your willinginess to read my new posts and hope you'll keep coming back. Thank you and have fun making money!

Success! Better than any drug on the market.

When I started my hemp jewelry business, I had sales, but they were from family and friends. It's great that they like what I'm making, but it's not enough. I need people, complete strangers, to buy my product. I need the satisfaction of knowing that people like my designs for the basic fact that they're trendy and cool. Yesterday, I received that satisfaction.

I came home, checked my email, and I noticed an email verifying receipt of an e-check. I look through the email, I saw etsy.com in the email, and before I knew it, I was signing in to my Etsy account. Then I saw it under the "Sold/Orders", I made a sale! The pure joy that I experienced in saying that was comparable that of a little boy on Christmas day when he received what he wanted. There's nothing like it. This is one of the reasons why I decided to start a business. The feeling that you created or did something that people you've never met before want your service or goods, and they're willing to pay for them!

Tip for the Day:
A good practice for turning first time customers into loyal customers is to provide something free to go with they're purchase. In my business, when I sell my jewelry, I will offer free shipping or I might through in a pair of earrings or a bracelet to go with a necklace. If I detailed cars and someone paid me to wax their car, I might throw in a complete wheel and tire cleaning and polish. It shows the customer that they're getting more than what they paid for and, therefore, adding extra value to my products. I still make a profit and I'm setting myself up for more profits in the future.

Thanks for stopping by and sorry for being so late with the post. Get out there, bust your butt, and make some money! Have a wonderful day!

Artist's Block

I stayed up until 3:00 AM on Sunday night. I woke up at 10:00 AM put on some clothes, and went to church. My mind racing so much that I couldn't even realize when to stand up. I came home and tried to inspire myself to make new jewelry. No luck. Nothing. My solution to this problem was right around the corner. I haven't worked out in a month and a half. I grabbed my shorts, shoes, and a water. Before I knew it, I was halfway between my house and the YMCA. It was exhilariting. All the anger, the stress, the pent-up emotions that caused me to turn into the monster I was when I had to confront anyone for anything, gone. I pushed them from head and my heart all the way through my veins, down to my feet, out of the soles of my shoes, and into the unrelenting road. As the endorphins rushed through my body, calming the throbbing muscles in my lower body, a subtle calm came over me. It was gone. The blockage was gone and I could begin to handle life and my business by the horns.

Let's get down to business. If you have any kind of website, blog, online business, even if you use your myspace or facebook as your webpage, you need to use Google Analytics. Here's the link: . Google Analytics allows you to track all the traffic that come to or thorugh your website. It tells you where the traffic came from, when it came, if this traffic repeats itself, and many other tools. It's completely free, not a free trial, you use their services with no cost to you.

Thanks for reading and I hope I reached out to someone tonight. All the dream-trepreneurs out there struggling to get their businesses off the ground, I'm with you. We can get through this together. Until next time, God bless you and keep on bustin' your butt!

Another day, another dollar

I wake up to the annoying ring of my alarm clock. It says 3:30 AM. Why do I do it? Good question. Is it the money? $9.50 an hour, I hear that's good. Oh well, my last day there is August 21. I hate it, but it's easy, it pays, I have bills, and I have a business to get off the ground.

I just received my business cards from Vistaprint yesterday. While I was at work, I took 50-60 business cards and placed them in many different locations in the factory I work in. Tomorrow I will check my Google Analytics to see how effective this marketing strategy was. I also approached people I know in the factory to post my business cards where ever they saw fit. If you get 10 people to post 4 business cards on bulletin boards or where ever, that's 40 opportunities for a sale that only cost you 40 business cards and 2-3 minutes per person.

I've had 3 sales so far. Oh yeah! I'm just raking in the dough, lol. I'll be honest, I hate it. Getting on the computer everyday, checking emails, checking all my accounts, researching, marketing, advertising, and then I can finally sell the product. What I do love is making my jewelry and making money. I feel so tired after everyday, but it will pay off. I need it to pay off.

Well I hope that my experience today helped you in some way. If it did, stay tuned for tomorrow's blog. If you hate it or you just don't care, then why are you still reading? Well if you have time to read something you hate or don't care about then stay tuned for tomorrow's blog.