Les Proctor Direct

Do you have what it takes to succeed in business?

Yes, you do… if you’ll just get over yourself and do what it takes.

From my experience, you’ve got everything you need. The only thing holding you back is yourself.

It’s all about actions…. creating a presence, promoting yourself, finding someone who has a need, showing them you can fulfill the need, confirming that they understand you can fulfill the need for the price you’re proposing, creating a formal  proposal and closing the deal.

Yes, it’s important to have a website, business cards, and a cell phone… that’s it.

Just remember the Cowardly Lion. He followed the Yellow Brick Road and finally met the Great Oz, only to learn that he already had courage… that he always had it… he just needed to use it. 

Just like you already have everything you need to succeed.

Once you come to the realization that you’re completely in control, then you can quit looking to others for permission, or for their approval, or whatever is in you that is holding you back from doing what you need to do to be successful.

Call 20 businesses per week, ask to speak with the owner, and offer something for free that shows off your expertise. If they take you up on it, perform your analysis, and create a two-page report. You’re almost guaranteed an engagement. If they don’t take you up on your free offer, send a follow up email to say thank you. Move on. That’s only 4 calls/follow-ups per day.

You have the power, you probably just need to push yourself to do things you haven’t done before.

You most certainly have what it takes. The question is: “Will you do what it takes?”

Small Business Stimulus Package

I am funding a Small Business Stimulus package of my own. If you refer someone to me, or me to them, and they engage me for a project, I will write you a check for 10% of the engagement fee (the average fee is $2,250 which means approximately $225 in your pocket). 

Marketing on the Internet can be a challenge.

There are so many options. And most of the options require a technical knowledge that most companies do not have in-house. You can overcome the challenge if you know someone who can help you navigate the complexities. That’s something that I do, and I do well. If you need a resource to make the best choices that will save you time, money, & aggravation–and boost your sales and profits resulting in a measurable ROI, then contact me.

Here are seven most common mistakes that I see on people’s websites:

1. Not built to help achieve strategic objectives
2. Not built to get search rankings
3. Not written to get responses in the form of inquiries or sales
4. Not following standards of usability
5. Posting email addresses on the contact us page (gives spammers your email address)
6. Hyperlinks that link outside the website inviting people to leave
7. Telling not selling

If you happen to know anyone who could benefit from this, please forward it to them.

Anyone you refer me to, and who engages me, I will 10% of the engagement and write you a check.  If you decide to donate the money to Donors Choose, I’ll match it. Making it 20%. And I’ll make a contribution in your name. I offer a comprehensive website design/search engine marketing for small business that’s $4,500. Typically I split this into two payments $2,250 upon engagement, and $2,250 upon launching the website. That means either I’ll write you a check for $225, or I’ll donate $450 in your name to Donor’s Choose, and you get to decide where it goes.

Thank you!

All of us are Americans now (again)

“We’re all Republicans now. We’re all Federalists now.”

[...] “All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.

Let us, then, fellow-citizens, unite with one heart and one mind. Let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty and even life itself are but dreary things. And let us reflect that, having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered, we have yet gained little if we countenance a political intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody persecutions.

During the throes and convulsions of the ancient world, during the agonizing spasms of infuriated man, seeking through blood and slaughter his long-lost liberty, it was not wonderful that the agitation of the billows should reach even this distant and peaceful shore; that this should be more felt and feared by some and less by others, and should divide opinions as to measures of safety.

But every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called by different names brethren of the same principle. We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists. If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.

I know, indeed, that some honest men fear that a republican government can not be strong, that this Government is not strong enough; but would the honest patriot, in the full tide of successful experiment, abandon a government which has so far kept us free and firm on the theoretic and visionary fear that this Government, the world’s best hope, may by possibility want energy to preserve itself? I trust not. I believe this, on the contrary, the strongest Government on earth.”  [...]

~ Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address, March 1, 1801

Mommy Fuel: Giving and Living with Intention

“You are what your deepest desire is.
As your desire is, so is your intention.
As your intention is, so is your will.
As your will is, so is your deed.
As your deed is, so is your destiny.”
 ~ Upanishads

For an ambitious blogger and hard-charging entrepreneur, a goal of a million clicks a month begins with the proverbial first post.

My wife has launched her new Mommy Blog called Mommy Fuel. While there are a plethora of Mom Blogs out there, her “unique angle” is to create a place where Moms can reconnect with who they are,  with what they are called to be, with their ultimate purpose, and to ”live and give with intention”. 

This is what Mr. Webster has to say:

in⋅ten⋅tion / [in-ten-shuhn] / noun

1. an act or instance of determining mentally upon some action or result.  2. the end or object intended; purpose.

Mommy Fuel. Giving and Living with Intention. A website dedicated to energizing a Mommy’s body and brain with useful family and home product reviews plus earth-friendly, affordable and high-quality products and services designed to enhance and ease a Mom’s demanding day.  We are partners with our readers, our community and our environment. Our motto is “Enriching Mom’s Life Benefits Everyone.”

She’s onto something, and believe me I know this first hand. And that’s why she’s already getting the attention of national sponsors. To come full circle, she is intentionally and purposefully offering something so good, of such great value to Moms, and carving a big market out of a seemingly small niche.

She also has the conscious intention of creating a million clicks a month for her sponsors. Now that is a really big idea.  I think she may show us all a thing or two about entrepreneurship. It’s going to be an interesting journey.

10 Things I’m doing for the Holidays

1. Turning the computer off, and leaving it off until 12/29.

2. Staying home, planning, and preparing our Family Dinner

3. Taking the Family to Mass on Christmas Eve Day

4. Simply letting go, and enjoying some well-deserved time off

5. Being thankful for all that I have, and not worrying about what I don’t have

6. Sleeping in (at least one morning if the kids let me)

7. Scheduling a spa treatment (o.k., it’s for my wife, but she deserves it)

8. Playing with my kids and their new toys

9. Not worrying about the economy (I can’t do anything about it anyway)

10. Doing my absolute best to create some fun memories

B2B Lead Generation Systems

Ok it’s official I’ve officially transitioned from owning a consulting practice to owning a business with the launch of B2B Lead Generation Systems.

You can get a 20%-30% response rate on prospecting using our lead generation systems, and you can double or triple your sales on existing leads using our marketing automation systems.

Discover how!

Having an open mind is good for the bottom line

If you sometimes feel like you’re stuck, or that your key employees are stuck, and that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, then you’d probably be interested in a fascinating piece in the New York Times that was entitled: “Can You Become a Creature of New Habits?”

In the article, it affirms that ”brain researchers have discovered that when we consciously develop new habits, we create parallel synaptic paths, and even entirely new brain cells, that can jump our trains of thought onto new, innovative tracks.”

Moreover, “rather than dismissing ourselves as unchangeable creatures of habit, we can instead direct our own change by consciously developing new habits. In fact, the more new things we try — the more we step outside our comfort zone — the more inherently creative we become, both in the workplace and in our personal lives.”

“The first thing needed for innovation is a fascination with wonder,” says Dawna Markova, author of “The Open Mind”. Dawna, in case you don’t recognize the name, co-authored what many people call one of the most inspirational little books of all time: “Random Acts of Kindness“, and she is now an executive change consultant with Professional Thinking Partners.

“But we are taught instead to ‘decide,’ Markova says, ‘just as our president calls himself ‘the Decider.’ ” She adds, however, that “to decide is to kill off all possibilities but one. A good innovational thinker is always exploring the many other possibilities.”

Undoubtedly, Ms. Markova would agree and appreciate that the concept of testing in Direct Mail and e-Marketing is not only a good way to stimulate brain cells and foster innovation, but that it can also help lower the costs of acquiring and keeping customers, and improve your bottom line.