The concept of the carrot and the stick is something that most people should be familiar with. The earliest recorded use of the phrase was in December 1948 in The Economist magazine. The concept is drawn from the idea of a cart driver using a carrot suspended in front of his or her horse, mule, etc. just out of reach to motivate it to constantly move towards it, while holding...

In a previous article, we discussed how important it is to be honest with yourself. Today, I'll be getting in to more detail on a point I raised back then, which is the importance of being honest with your clients. We all know repeat business is the key to maximizing your Personal Independent Earnings. This is irrefutable cold hard fact.  But in order to earn the repeat business you desire,...

You've crunched the numbers. You've fine tuned your product. Every i has been dotted, every t crossed. Every conceivable thing you can think of has been taken care of. You've planned, you've budgeted, you've built your team, your marketing is ready to go. It's time for you to put your business out there in the world for all to see. Nervous? Don't be. This is probably the hardest part of...

Burnout is one of the worst things that can happen to any small business owner. Your focus and motivation all but disappear, your desire to work goes out the window, and the thought of getting down to business can actually become a depressing one, rather than exciting, as it should be. Obviously, this is bad news, and something to be avoided. For the 9-5ers out there, it is somewhat unavoidable....

It's very easy for anyone in any industry to think that competition is a bad thing. After all, there's somebody else out there offering a similar product or service and making money on it. Money that could be going to you. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Competition is actually a very good thing. You see, with a competing service out there, it inspires you to try...

If you're like me (and you must be at least a little, if you're walking the path to PIE), you are a highly motivated, self-starting individual. You have an unending drive for success. You are tenacious. You have a tendency to go-go-go, until you attain your goals. The word stop just isn't in your vocabulary. And that is completely fine. But there's a difference between stopping and slowing down a...

I want to tell you all a story. A long, long time ago there was a man. This man was, much like all of us, a very highly motivated and driven individual. He worked unbelievably hard at everything he did. His goal was simple: to push the boundaries in everything he did. More than that. To break those boundaries. To go above and beyond what any human being before him...

As I've become so fond of saying on this blog, there's an old saying. "When it rains, it pours." Anyone who's ever, well, lived, knows this is true. When things go wrong, things tend to go really wrong. Often multiple things at once. In the most extreme of cases, this can lead to the flat out failure of your business. But that doesn't always have to be the case, and...

I want you all to think about a hypothetical situation. For some reason, the government has decided they want to audit your business. They want to see sales reports, payroll, the whole nine yards. There's just one problem. All these necessary reports are scattered about your home office, strewn haphazardly across multiple areas on multiple computers, or both. You know you have all the reports requested (or you think you...

A very wise man once said, "With great power comes great responsibility." Most of you may recognize this quote from the Spider-Man film series as spoken by the character Ben Parker, but it was originally written in 1962 by Stanley Martin Lieber. You will probably know him better by his pen name Stan Lee, the creator of Spider-Man and most of Marvel Comics' other major characters, and the most recognizable...