Since when is good not good enough?

In the old days it was good enough to be competent. People wanted quality, they wanted skill, they and they wanted experience. It was good enough to go to school, get a diploma and get a good job until you turn 65 and retire. Life was simple and easy.

If you were competent and qualified, you were guaranteed a place on the assembly line at the factory and you would make a very nice living.

However, the days of competency are gone.

The proliferation of the internet and social media has changed the way we see the world and competency is no longer good enough. We must not just communicate in the new economy, we must connect.

Consumers, business partners, investors, fans, clients, and customers are all bombarded with competency every day. There are millions of quality products, there are thousands of people with integrity to buy from. Honesty is no longer good enough. What our customers are looking for these days is connection.

Our customers not only want to buy from us, but they want to connect with us.

Social media has become a game-changer in the last 10 years where consumers can instantly connect with other consumers to exchange information about another person, product or service. Likewise, these same consumers are not only looking to purchase from their favourite brands, they expect to connect and interact with them online.

Communication has become a two way street where consumers are now able to communicate with their favourite brands and service providers and expect to get real time communication back. There is a global, online, real time conversation happening 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The question is, what are your customers saying about you? And how are you connecting with them?

Your customers are expecting to connect, how are you able to connect to start a conversation?

In my own business, I have chosen the following 3 channels to connect and interact:

1. Facebook: One of the world's leading social media sites, I provide relevant, valuable and original content to my fans and customers regularly through this media channel. I also look to share anything they may find valuable that comes across my feed. My business growth has exploded through Facebook and I find it be an extremely valuable tool for connecting with customers and fans.
   
   
2. YouTube: Youtube is quickly becoming one of the most powerful search engines in the world. The younger online generation is bypassing Google all together and is searching only on Youtube. I am making video and youtube a priority in my business by video taping every deal I do and putting it online. Your youtube channel is your mini television network and your fans and customers are waiting to hear from you and give feedback.
   
   
3. Linked-In: Linked-in is the online “professional” community designed for professionals to connect. I have used linked-in mostly for a branding tool and a tool to collect endorsements and testimonials. The days of a paper resumé are gone and many potential partners or employers will google you and look at your linked-in instead. In my business I use linked-in less as a connection tool and more as an online resumé or track record. Your linked in profile is very powerful, even though it may or may not have the same traffic as Facebook or other popular social media platforms.
   
   

If you are not already harnessing these three ways to connect with your audience, you must do so immediately. The world is changing, the market is changing and we must connect to stay relevant in the new connection economy.

By: Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
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https://twitter.com/stefanaarnio
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stefanaarnio

Get Stefan Aarnio's book "Money People Deal: The Fastest Way to Real Estate Wealth" at MoneyPeopleDeal.com!

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"Loyalty is the fabric that holds relationships together." - Stefan Aarnio

Loyalty is one of the rarest commodities to be found these days. In a world where everyone seems to have their own agenda, where can one find loyalty and how can we measure it?

I have always found it easy to do joint ventures with other business people and investors because I understand one key fundamental. To work together, two parties must share one common goal, or mission. If two people have the same mission, working together on a venture is simple. Loyalty happens when two parties can keep their missions aligned over time.

As my business grows, I have to bring on more and more team members. I have been burned in the past with bad team members, but have slowly built an outstanding team. Entrepreneurs and self employed business people are always apprehensive to add more team members because we want to have full control at all times. However, the larger we get, the more team members we must add.

How do I choose my team members?

I have always believed the mantra of the American billionaire Bill Bartmann "Hire slow and fire fast" and "hire for aptitude, fire for attitude":

1) Hire slow and fire fast: When considering bringing on a new team member, take your time and make the "courting" process long. Have the new team member jump through many hoops before offering them a position. I used to belong to an organization that thrived on having all potential employees work for free before becoming full time staff. The organization had stellar people working for it because the bar was set high. On the flip side, when the disease of negativity is spreading through your ranks - fire fast! As soon as you sense a team member becoming jaded, negative or poisoning the minds of your other team mates, then fire them as fast as possible. Negative energy and negative attitudes are a cancer that must be dealt with quickly if your business is going to survive.

2) HIre for aptitude, fire for attitude: When I am bringing new people onto my team, I do not care if they have paper "qualifications". I am more interested in their passion and personal ambition. I want to know if this team member finds their work exciting and enjoyable and if it fits into the larger vision in their life. Happy people are infectious and they attract success. In contrast, a poor attitude of a single team member can destroy an entire team. I was recently going to hire a realtor to sell a house I had just finished renovating; she had all of the qualifications and was recommended by one of my colleagues - she had the aptitude. However, her attitude was so negative that after listening to her talk for 5 minutes, I changed my mind and fired her on the spot. Attitude is everything, especially in selling and business, the right attitude can bring your organization to the stars and the wrong attitude will smash it on the rocks.

Recently, I have been looking for an apprentice to become my successor and take over the daily operations of my real estate business. There are many qualified individuals and many people who would like the have the position. With so many qualified prospects, decision making can be hard, how will I make a choice?

The #1 attribute that I am looking for in an operations manager is loyalty. Loyalty these days seems to be a forgotten virtue of ages past, but I can still find a few loyal people if I look hard enough.

But what does it mean to be loyal?

Loyal people stay faithful in their primary relationships, stay with their employer without "shopping around" for other jobs, and can manage to create relationships for life through exclusivity.

There are far too many business people who will chop of the heads and hands of their partners to get one step ahead. Unfortunately, the world does not need more of these people.

So how do you find the best and most loyal people for your team?

Divide the people you know into three categories:

1) The loyal and trusted - These people are proven, they are loyal and have the same mission as you - they have no reason to change course! When you have someone in this category, do everything you can to keep them happy and keep them on your team. Billion dollar businesses are built by assembling teams of these people. The loyal and the trusted are gold, especially in today's economy.

2) The "watch carefully list" - as soon as I see someone on my team show signs of disloyalty somewhere in their personal life or business, they go on the "watch carefully list". Does this mean I will not do business with these people? No. It just means that I must handle these people with extreme care and know that they will not  be around for the long term. They are short sighted and can't see the big picture. If these people get too greedy or ambitious, they may become traitors.

3) The blacklist - These people are proven traitors. When I am betrayed by a team member and trust is broken, I may forgive, but I will keep proven traitors on the blacklist and they will receive no further business from me. The quickest way to stop bleeding is to cauterize the wound and seal it with fire. As soon as I can sense betrayal, I will quickly move the offending team member to the blacklist from which they shall never return. "Fool me once, shame on you… fool me twice, shame on me".

The lessons I have learned about loyalty, traitors and relationships have been hard fought from the school of life. No business school in the world can teach you how to spot a traitor or how to deal with them. Business schools also cannot teach you about cherishing loyal partners for life. Sometimes the hardest lessons in life must be learned first hand, but once you have weeded out all of the bad apples, you will be left with nothing but the sweetest fruit on the tree.

Thanks for reading,
Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
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http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stefanaarnio

Get Stefan Aarnio's book "Money People Deal: The Fastest Way to Real Estate Wealth" at MoneyPeopleDeal.com!

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By: Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
facebook.com/stefanaarnio
https://twitter.com/stefanaarnio
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stefanaarnio

Get Stefan Aarnio's book "Money People Deal: The Fastest Way to Real Estate Wealth" at MoneyPeopleDeal.com!

Remember: Please share this article if you found it enjoyable!

One of the most common questions that we all hear on a daily basis is: "What do you do?"

For some, this is an easy question; "I'm a doctor" some may reply; or "I'm a teacher" everyone understands that doctors treat sick people and teachers teach. For others, the questions "what do you do?" is much more abstract and hard to answer.

In the past, I had introduced myself as an "entrepreneur". Some people say that "entrepreneur" is a nice word for "unemployed" or "unemployable". The problem with being an entrepreneur is that is that entrepreneurship is so vast and abstract that most people cannot understand what an entrepreneur does.

When you say "I'm an entrepreneur", the common reaction is a blank stare, and then the following question "so, what do you ACTUALLY do?"

In truth, entrepreneurs are responsible for the entire business, or multiple businesses. They hire, fire, delegate, select projects, start projects, finish projects, manage and even sometimes work in the business. However, the entrepreneur has 1 job that only he or she can perform.

A great businessman once said; "there are only two jobs that you cannot ever pay a person to do"; These are the job of the entrepreneur - everything else can be done by someone else.

The two jobs that cannot be done by anyone other than the entrepreneur are:

1) Think
2) Do things in the right order

In Michael Gerber's bestselling book "The E-Myth", Gerber explains that there are three roles that the entrepreneur must play when he or she starts a business:

1) They must be the Entrepreneur, the visionary who paints the broad strokes and has the energy and drive to start the business.
2) They must be the Manager, the person who oversees the operation and ensures that it functions efficiently and sustainably.
3) They must be the Technician and handle the daily transactional work in the business.

All tasks in an organization can be delegated or hired out to either a manager or employee and many organizations can run very efficiently on mostly Technicians and Managers. However, the Entrepreneur is responsible for all of the strategic thinking in the business and he or she must determine the right order of operations and proceedures.

No matter how good your technicians are or how good your managers and employees are, they can never replace you as an entrepreneur. They rely on you to think and create plans for them to execute.

So many businesses fail because the entrepreneur is negligent to think and appropriately delegate: A ship without a rudder always smashes up on the rocks.

I have broken the above rules many times in the past and have learned my lessons first hand. Today, I make sure that I am the only person in charge of the sacred tasks of the entrepreneur. To break this rule is to expose your venture to disaster.

Thanks for reading,
Stefan Aarnio

Freedomway.ca
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https://twitter.com/stefanaarnio
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stefanaarnio

Get Stefan Aarnio's book "Money People Deal: The Fastest Way to Real Estate Wealth" at MoneyPeopleDeal.com!

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By: Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
facebook.com/stefanaarnio
https://twitter.com/stefanaarnio
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stefanaarnio

Get Stefan Aarnio's book "Money People Deal: The Fastest Way to Real Estate Wealth" at MoneyPeopleDeal.com!

Remember: Please share this article if you found it enjoyable!

When I was younger, I used to think that I had to move away to be successful. All of the successful people I could think of (mostly musicians and actors) had moved to a major city like Toronto, Los Angeles, or New York to become the best in their fields. Now that I am a little older and wiser, I can see how flawed my old thinking was.

One of my mentors told me to read a book years ago called "acres of diamonds" by Russel H Conwell. The book is a classic and the story is unforgettable:

1) There is a wealthy man with a successful farm
2) The man is wealthy because he is content with his success and his farm
3) The man hears about diamonds in a far away land and the riches they can bring. He begins to feel discontented with his successful farm. Through his discontent, becomes a poor man.
4) The man sells his farm to chase diamonds in a faraway land
5) The man becomes impoverished, starves and commits suicide. His resources were wasted and he found no diamonds.
6) A second man buys the first man's farm and by chance finds a shining object in the ground
7) The buyer of the farm discovers the largest diamond mine in the world under the ground of the farm and becomes wealthy.
8) Had the first man tried digging on his own farm, he would have become very wealthy and would have had everything he desired.

I absolutely love this story because it perfectly illustrates my old thinking and my new thinking side by side.

I used to be the man who believed that wealth was out in a far away land. I used to believe that wealth was external and that money had to be chased. I used to have a deep feeling of want and discontent with my situation and this led to misery. Through experience I have learned to stop looking for treasure outside of myself and have begun to mine the diamonds inside my mind and my heart.

Instead of looking for wealth outside of myself I have created wealth out of my talents, skills and experiences. Through focus, persistence and careful planning, I have created my own diamond mine through my business and my brand. The most amazing part of my transformation is that all of my wealth and success has been created by "mining" deep inside of myself to find my passion, my love and my essence.

By extracting these powerful inner forces, I have been able to create massive results in the external world. I didn't have to chase riches in the oil fields of Alberta or chase the dream of being a rock star in Los Angeles. Instead, everything I needed was right here, in Winnipeg, the unglamorous, geographical centre of Canada, and one of the least desirable and lowest earning capital cities in western Canada.

What doesn't matter is where you are physically located, or what your personal circumstances are, everything external is irrelevant. What is most important is that we understand that there is treasure buried deep inside of ourselves in our passion, desire and genius. If we can dig deep enough to find the treasure, the potential for wealth is unlimited.

"Wealth is of the heart and mind and not of the pocket." - Pharrell

Thanks for reading!
Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
facebook.com/stefanaarnio
https://twitter.com/stefanaarnio
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stefanaarnio

Get Stefan Aarnio's book "Money People Deal: The Fastest Way to Real Estate Wealth" at MoneyPeopleDeal.com!

Remember: Please share this article if you found it enjoyable!

By: Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
facebook.com/stefanaarnio
https://twitter.com/stefanaarnio
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stefanaarnio

Get Stefan Aarnio's book "Money People Deal: The Fastest Way to Real Estate Wealth" at MoneyPeopleDeal.com!

Remember: Please share this article if you found it enjoyable!

A wise man once said: " Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t, so that you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t." -Unknown

Everyone dreams of having the rewards of a successful entrepreneur. We all want more free time, less work, less stress, more money, more vacations, the best spouse possible, a great family, more satisfaction at work, a creative outlet, independence and more cheques in the mailbox than bills. However, everything in life has a price and usually in life, the higher the benefit, the higher the cost.

The truth is that entrepreneurship can provide all of the above benefits that we all want, but it can also become a burden that is far too costly for most to bear. Most employees have dreams and fantasies of quitting their job, firing their boss and living on a beach with lots of passive income. Many employees who have this kind of dream will join a network marketing company, start dabbling in investment real estate or start a traditional business. Some of these employees will dabble with entrepreneurship through all of the above methods and may eventually decide to make the leap and quit their job. However, very few survive.

Entrepreneurship has one of the highest failure rates out of any career path. There is no traditional school that teaches entrepreneurship correctly, and in reality, it is something that cannot be taught or learned from one source. It takes many years, many experiences, many sources of knowledge, coaches, mentors, seminars, books, tapes, mistakes, failures and relationships combined with consistency and a commitment to success at all costs to become victorious in entrepreneurship. The process takes at least 10 years, likely more, and it can never be mastered.

So why do most people fail?

In my opinion, most WANTrepreneurs (aka entrepreneurs who still have day jobs and practice business on the side) are generally crippled by one under-developed skill set.

What is more amazing is that this skill set is not even considered a skill by most educators and it is rarely taught (or poorly) taught in schools and business schools of the world.

The secret sauce that most entrepreneurs are missing is the ability to sell.

When an employee attempts to make the leap into entrepreneurship and then is forced back into his job because he cannot survive, it means that he cannot sell.

I have "quit my job" 3 times in my life. The first two times, I didn't know how to sell and foolishly quit without the adequate skills, credit or cash to survive. The third time I quit and never looked back.

What made me different on the third time? When I was ready to quit the third time, I had worked for a direct sales company and had learned how to become a top performer on the team. I knew how to hire, how to fire, how to train, sell, present, cold call, farm a database, build a database, put on events, sell from stage, fill events and watched my mentor build one of the fastest growing companies in Canada.

The experience was scary at times, it was stressful, uncomfortable and I wanted to quit, but I became successful at my vocation and earned the right to become a full time entrepreneur and never need my resumé again.

When you consider Robert Kiyosaki's cashflow quadrant (as it's displayed in the photo above), there are 4 quadrants. 2 of them actively work for money on the left, (the E for employee and S for self-employed), while the quadrants on the right (the B for large business owner and I for investor) do not work for money.

So many E's and S's dream of being on the right side of the quadrant and they wish they had residual "passive income" to fund their ultimate lifestyle, but they try to "make the leap" to the right side of the quadrant without knowing how to sell.

Selling is the difference between the left and the right. The right side of the quadrant must sell to survive and grow, the left mostly trades time for money.

Too often, people on the left try to go from the E quadrant and make the leap to the B or I without becoming an S or self employed. This, in my opinion, is one of the most dangerous moves a person can make.

The S quadrant is a great training ground for becoming an entrepreneur and it is the place that most professional salespeople live in. Robert Kiyosaki explains in his book that the most natural progression towards financial freedom is to start as an E (or employee), become a salesperson (self employed), then become a B or (Business owner) then finally end up as an I (or investor).

This progression is very natural and the skills learned in each quadrant compound on one another. For myself, I had been in the S quadrant for most of my life and my progression looks like this so far: S E S I

1) My first S - I was a self employed guitar teacher running an all cash business out of my mother's home in university

2) My first E - I was a phone sales employee taking inbound calls in the middle of the night.

I quit this job and tried to become a "B" (or business owner) and failed.

I then became a merchandiser "E" (or employee) stocking chips on shelves for one of the largest chips companies in the world.

I then quit my job and tried to become an "I" (or professional investor) (I failed and had to get a job)

3) After failing again on my own, I became an "S" again, worked for a direct sales company, got the skills I needed and built my own "I" (investor) company.

Today I am out of the rat race and run my own successful business. I work when I want to on projects that I am excited about and have the honour and privilege of growing the business of my dreams. My life is better in every way because I know how to sell. Selling is the #1 skill in my business and I continue to study it meticulously to become a superstar. As my sales skills improve, so does my income, and I love being in control of how much I earn.

Ever since I learned to sell, I have earned the right to operate in the "B" and "I" quadrants on the right side of the diagram and survival is no longer a concern for me. Instead of trying to "scrape by", I use my energy towards thriving, building a legacy of value and anything I set my sights on is possible!

Action Step: Can you survive on your sales skills alone? Have you become a student of selling? How can you benefit from improving your sales skills? Please share your comments below!

By: Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
facebook.com/stefanaarnio
https://twitter.com/stefanaarnio
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stefanaarnio

Get Stefan Aarnio's book "Money People Deal: The Fastest Way to Real Estate Wealth" at MoneyPeopleDeal.com!

P.S: Please share this article if you found it enjoyable!

By: Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
facebook.com/stefanaarnio
https://twitter.com/stefanaarnio
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stefanaarnio

Get Stefan Aarnio's book "Money People Deal: The Fastest Way to Real Estate Wealth" at MoneyPeopleDeal.com!

Remember: Please share this article if you found it enjoyable!

The brilliant American entrepreneur Bill Bartmann once asked the question: "Where do you go to catch a fish?"

He remarked that most people would say "a lake", "a river", "a stream", "the ocean" etc. and all of these are bodies of water do indeed contain fish.

Most entrepreneurs and real estate investors try to catch fish randomly in the ocean. They spend thousands of dollars on fishing line, casting nets, driving their fishing boats far away from land to catch the proverbial fish in their business - the customer.

The time spent chasing the fish, the money spent on the gas, the risk of bad weather, the cost of the boat and the crew are often too much for an entrepreneur to bear. Many businesses are bogged down with too much overhead because we think that we need to own the boat, spend the money on the gas, own the nets, own the fishing rods, hire a crew and take all the risks of the storm.

Oftentimes, these entrepreneurs will venture into the water and come home empty handed with no fish. The ocean, the lake, and the river all vast bodies of water and the chances of catching fish can be slim.

Catching fish, and catching customers in the traditional sense has a very high risk and a relatively low chance of success.

I once spent $2700 on a magazine advertisement that only produced 1 phone inquiry for a business that I just started. The expense wiped out my business and my boat capsized. The salesperson who sold me the ad told me that it would be a great investment and that I would get lots of customers. The only person who made money on the transaction was the salesperson and the magazine. In my foolishness, I was the fisherman who had bought the expensive boat, bought the nets, bought the lines and hired the crew to catch no fish. I may as well burned my cash because my money was never coming back. I told myself I would never do traditional advertising again.

But how would Bill Bartmann catch a fish? The question he asks has an answer better than all others. While most people say a river, lake, stream or ocean, Bill's answer is smart. If Bill were to catch a fish, he would go to a fish farm.

Some of you reading may say "that's cheating", but I can guarantee that Bill would catch more fish at a fish farm than most would by taking their chances in the ocean.

Of course, going to a fish farm may be associated with a premium, but the premium would be well worth it. The fish at the fish farm are trained to swim to the surface when it's feeding time, they can hear your footsteps at the edge of the tank and are ready for the food you are about to give them. They are fed throughout the day and any amount of fish can be harvested with no risk and all for a small fee.

Outside of fishing, where can an entrepreneur find a proverbial fish farm for customers? Anyone with a list of customers, or a group, or a club, or a media outlet can be a fish farm. Anyone who is a centre of influence can be brought into a  joint venture in which you offer your product or service and pay the influencer a fee on all sales generated.

If it's so easy, then why doesn't every entrepreneur skip traditional advertising, forget the fishing boat and run straight to the fish farm? There are two things that hold most people back:

1) Most entrepreneurs and investors don't know about joint ventures or the "fish farm" mentality.
2) Most entrepreneurs are too cheap or greedy to pay the fish farmer his fee to access the fish.

The biggest expenses in life come from the opportunities that are not capitalized. It is time to change the way we think about lead generation, get creative and explore new avenues for growing our businesses!

Action Step: Analyze your ideal customer and begin to search for centres of influence or "fish farms" where these customers congregate. Do some research and figure out how much it would cost per sale to access this new audience.

Thanks for reading!

Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
facebook.com/stefanaarnio
https://twitter.com/stefanaarnio
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stefanaarnio

Get Stefan Aarnio's book "Money People Deal: The Fastest Way to Real Estate Wealth" at MoneyPeopleDeal.com!

P.S: Please share this article if you found it enjoyable!

By: Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
facebook.com/stefanaarnio
https://twitter.com/stefanaarnio
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stefanaarnio

Get Stefan Aarnio's book "Money People Deal: The Fastest Way to Real Estate Wealth" at MoneyPeopleDeal.com!

Remember: Please share this article if you found it enjoyable!

This last week I have been officially closing a previous chapter of my life. I have been selling off all of my music gear; guitars, basses, amps, speakers, cords, mixing boards, cases, microphones – everything! I used to be very heavily involved in writing music, performing music and teaching music. I used to derive 100% of my income from music and was a professional in the field. Today, I am selling off all of my music gear and I did receive some backlash from my girlfriend and my mother.

“Why?” they protested.

“Won't you be sad?” they wanted to know.

The answer, is “no, I will not be sad.” and the reasons are simple.

Years ago, when I quit basketball in high school, my coach, whom I will never forget said to me “there is nothing wrong with quitting, as long as you take all of the energy you put into basketball and put it into music.” Music was my passion at that point in my life, not basketball, and it was what I wished to do professionally.

Today, I am officially quitting the music chapter of my life and I'm using the energy to pursue my path as an entrepreneur. Selling all of my music gear is a way of clearing my mind, my space and my path.

But what happens to the years of my life, and all the money that I spent accumulating knowledge and equipment in the music business?

In physics, energy is never lost, the same holds true in real life. The skills, the experience and the wisdom I gained in the music industry carries over to my real estate career and the best part about skills and experience is that they can never be lost.

True value does not lie in the musical equipment. True value lies in the skills I learned from the equipment. I will always know how to sing, how to play instruments and perform. These skills can get rusty, but they never go away.

But how does this apply to real estate?

In real estate, so many investors cling to their buildings and are terrified of losing material wealth. Most of us think that our buildings are assets, when in fact, they are just lifeless bricks and mortar. Real value, even in real estate lies in the experience and the knowledge of building and operating the business.

Years ago, Henry Ford, the founder of Ford automobiles was asked by a reporter “Mr. Ford, you're a billionaire – so what? What would happen if you lost it all tomorrow?”

Mr. Ford smiled and replied “I would have it all back and more in 5 years!”

I truly understand what Mr. Ford meant by these words and I feel the same about the music business or even my real estate business. The knowledge I have gained by building the business from scratch will never leave my mind and the wisdom is the true asset – not the equipment or the buildings.

In the classic book “The Richest Man in Babylon”, the characters in the book are given a choice between a large sack of gold and a clay tablet with wisdom inscribed in it.

The book explains that the man who chooses the gold will quickly lose it, whereas the man with the knowledge will eventually get the gold.

Henry Ford and the Richest Man in Babylon both agree, true value is in the knowledge not the gold, the money, the buildings, or the companies.

Early in my real estate career, I made of point of investing in my education through seminars, coaching, training, mentoring, books, audio files etc. To build my education as fast as possible. Education, knowledge and experience form the backbone of business and entrepreneurship. Where most people rely on their job, their salaries and the government to survive, entrepreneurs rely on business acumen thrive.

It always startles me to see young investors and entrepreneurs forgo business and real estate education and jump into the field with both feet. I have made this mistake in the past and it is extremely costly to experiment with real world dollars.

If you are in business, real estate investing or entrepreneurship, please ensure that you allocate a portion of your earnings to ongoing education. For myself, my education has made all the difference and has allowed me to grow my real estate business from a one time investment of $1200 to a multi million dollar portfolio.

Thanks for reading,
Stefan Aarnio

Freedomway.ca
facebook.com/stefanaarnio
https://twitter.com/stefanaarnio
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stefanaarnio

Get Stefan Aarnio's book "Money People Deal: The Fastest Way to Real Estate Wealth" at MoneyPeopleDeal.com!

P.S: Please share this article if you found it enjoyable!

By: Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
facebook.com/stefanaarnio
https://twitter.com/stefanaarnio
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stefanaarnio

Remember: Please share this article if you found it enjoyable!

Why do some businesses grow to enormous while others fail in the first five years?

90% of businesses fail in the first five years and of the survivors, 90% will fail in the following five years. Business is not an easy game.

Consider the average realtor; Average realtors make less than $40,000 per year and do 12 transactions or less. You see realtors printing their faces on park benches, printing their faces on note pads and mailing them to strangers, and sending letters that say it's the "perfect time to buy and sell your home" (which makes no sense). If it's the perfect time to buy, it's not the perfect time to sell and vice versa. However, because Realtors make such great commissions, buying and selling is always good for them (perhaps not for you).

These self employed salespeople do some of the most ridiculous things to hunt and "kill" new prospects every month. It's a proven fact that it takes 7x more effort to sell to a new customer than an old customer and yet, most realtors, business people and entrepreneurs are running around chasing new business when they should be focusing on their existing business. Existing customers are much more likely to do business with you than new customers, yet most of us do not consider the lifetime value of an existing customer.

This year I did 12 joint venture deals and I learned very quickly how valuable pre-existing customers are. I was originally planning on doing 12 deals with 12 different partners. However, after acquiring 6 partners, my existing partners were lining up to do more deals with me and I didn't have to pick up the phone to call on new business; such is the magic of existing customers.

My goal in this upcoming year is to strengthen my current relationships with my partners and grow my business organically by emphasizing my new mission to create partners for life. If we do the math, we actually do not need very many customers to make a decent living. I saw a book a few years ago targeted towards independent musicians and the premise of the book was "you don't need a record label". The message of the book was that with 1000 paying customers, you can make a decent living in the music industry. Many bands have more than 1000 fans, yet the bands do not bother to create ongoing relationships with those 1000 people. Since most bands don't build 1000 relationships with their fans, the band members have to work at McDonalds to keep the music dream alive.

If you are in real estate investing, you need less than 10 customers to make a very comfortable living and can even become very wealthy by establishing less than 5  partners for life. The lifetime value of a few good relationships is more than enough to send both you and your partners to higher levels of wealth.

Build your relationships vertically rather than horizontally, keep in touch with your customer base, know your audience and give them what they want. We are all standing on very fertile soil, we just need to work the land and reap what we sow.

Thanks for reading,
Stefan Aarnio

Thanks for reading,
By: Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
facebook.com/stefanaarnio
https://twitter.com/stefanaarnio
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stefanaarnio

P.S: Please share this article if you found it enjoyable!

By: Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
facebook.com/stefanaarnio
https://twitter.com/stefanaarnio
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stefanaarnio

Remember: Please share this article if you found it enjoyable!

This morning I was having breakfast with a colleague of mine and we were trying to find ways to compliment each other's respective real estate businesses. Sometimes it can be difficult to find ways to compliment another person's business due to personal similarities or differences and we spent a considerable amount of time talking about our business philosophies and dreams.

My philosophy in business has predominately been: it is better to sell one $1,000 hot dog than sell one thousand $1 hot dogs. 

Selling one hot dog for $1,000 makes much more money, requires less effort and has a completely different clientele and resources required to sell one thousand $1 hot dogs. 

However, we don't often see any hot dog carts selling $1,000 hot dogs… Why?

Years ago on the Celebrity Apprentice, one of my business heros Gene Simmons sold a $5,000 hot dog to one of his friends for charity. The context of the sale was a battle between two teams of Celebrities to see who could raise the most money selling hot dogs for charity. The business models of the two teams varied greatly with one cart selling $5 hot dogs and the other cart selling $5,000 hot dogs. The results for the two teams was vastly different with the $5 hot dog making approximately $17,000 while the $5,000 hot dog made closer to $52,000.

All of the money was raised for charity and both teams were loaded with celebrities. Both teams did very well, but the huge difference in money raised was that one team was thinking bigger by asking for more dollars per hot dog.

Years ago when I was in the music industry, I wanted to find a way to do business in a bigger way. Naturally I got into real estate because in music I was selling hundreds of $1 "hot dogs" whereas in real estate I could sell a few $1,000 "hot dogs" and make a much better living. Real Estate in general when compared to a music business has much better margins, takes less time, less work and is much more sustainable because there is usually only one customer instead of 1000 for a similar profit.

After I had mentioned that I would rather sell one $1,000 hot dog, my friend replied that his philosophy has been to sell one thousand $1,000 hot dogs. He elaborated by saying that he was working on a multi-million dollar land subdivision deal where he would sell nearly 100 lots of land and metaphorically speaking sell one thousand $1,000 hot dogs. His thinking was clearly bigger than mine.

When we had met that morning, we were looking at a house that I was going to buy to flip. I had clearly illustrated my $1,000 hot dog thinking with my current business model of flipping houses one at a time. My colleague had a much greater plan to take the profits of my plan and multiply it by 100 with the same effort.

But what do the hot dogs mean?

There are two ways to build a business model. One is vertical and the other is horizontal. 

HORIZONTAL BUSINESS - $1 hot dogs x 1000

A horizontal business will have lots of customers with low transaction volumes. The business relies on having a high amount of customers and transactions to make a profit. This is the hot dog cart with $1 hot dogs.

VERTICAL BUSINESS - $1000 hot dog x 1

The other model is the vertical model. This model has less customers, but makes more money per customer. It relies on having a few great repeat customers who account for 80% or more of the business. This is the model I am building in my business today. This is the hot dog cart with the $1,000 hot dogs.

DIAGONAL BUSINESS - $1000 hot dog x 1000

There is a third model, and this model is the diagonal model that uses both vertical and horizontal strategies where we sell $1,000 hot dogs to 1000 customers. This model is much more advanced and requires the customer care of the vertical model with the systems and velocity of the horizontal model. If you can build a diagonal model, you will be rich - guaranteed. However, this model is the most difficult to create and few people know how to actually build a horizontal business model that works.

After examining the $1 hot dog cart and the $1,000 hot dog cart, which hot dog cart would you like to own? Which cart are you running in your current business? Is this where you want to be today? What is holding you back from building a diagonal business?

Thanks for reading,
By: Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
facebook.com/stefanaarnio
https://twitter.com/stefanaarnio
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stefanaarnio

P.S: Please share this article if you found it enjoyable!

By: Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
facebook.com/stefanaarnio
https://twitter.com/stefanaarnio
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stefanaarnio

Remember: Please share this article if you found it enjoyable!

Robert Kiyosaki defines intelligence as “the ability to make distinctions”. For example, an interior designer will be able to make distinctions between 15 shades of blue giving them specific names like “azure”, “indigo”, “sky blue”, “royal blue”, “navy blue” etc.

A cigar connoisseur will know the difference between a fine Cuban cigar and a fake.

An investor should know the difference between money and wealth. Unfortunately, most investors do not know the difference.

Everyday we wake up and chase the pursuit of happiness. For most people, money is part of the equation. Everyone would like to be rich and rich means an abundance of money. However, there is a huge distinction between money and wealth.

A person can be wealthy and not have any money. Logically, the opposite is true as well; you can have lots of money and zero wealth.

Sports stars that make millions of dollars per year and lottery winners are examples of people who can make lots of money but have zero wealth.

On the other hand, a retiree with a solid income from their investment portfolio may have wealth but very little money to throw around.


What is wealth? What is money?

Wealth is measured and defined in time. The question we must ask is “if I stopped working today, how long could I survive?” If the answer is “forever”, then you have wealth. Many people who live paycheque to paycheque could only survive for a few months if they stopped working. These people have very little time to survive and very little wealth.

I recently heard a statistic that over 50% of American households are 1 paycheque away from bankruptcy. This may or may not be true, but it paints a grim picture of the lowest level of wealth. One paycheque is only 2 weeks worth of wealth and a very low level of survival.

Money on the other hand is much easier to define. Money is measured in dollars and all we have to do to measure dollars is count. The key with money is to learn to exchange dollars for wealth.

Traditionally speaking the rich are very good at trading dollars for wealth (assets that produce passive income), the middle class are good at trading dollars for liabilities (houses, cars, cottages) and the poor are good at trading dollars for expenses (flat screen televisions, booze, rent).

This year in my Real Estate portfolio I focused mostly on wealth rather than money. I built wealth this year through multiple income streams of both business and real estate. To myself, I consider it important to build income streams early in my life. I wanted to create wealth and the ability to survive “forever” without a paycheque so that I could become creative in my free time.

At the time of writing I have multiple income streams and can survive “forever” which means that my passive income is greater than my expenses. However, wealth alone is not enough to win the game of money. We need both cash and wealth to get the most out of life because dreams aren’t cheap.

In the words of the American billionaire Bill Bartmann “Cashflow buys you time, profits buy you praise”. Both cashflow and profits are required to win the game, the question is which one do you focus on today.

For most people with a paycheque, they should focus on learning to create wealth and multiple streams of passive income through real estate, dividend bearing stocks, internet businesses, traditional businesses, or joint ventures.

For people with wealth, they may be interested in creating more cash and liquidity through business, real estate and joint ventures.


The game of money is a game of balance and this year for myself, I will be starting the year off with a “cash” strategy; I have achieved a level wealth, which has freed up my time and will be pursuing my strategy to take my brand to the next level.

What are you doing this year to take your game to the next level? Will you be pursuing cash, wealth or both? Please discuss your strategy in the comments below.

Thanks for reading,
Stefan Aarnio

Freedomway.ca
facebook.com/stefanaarnio
https://twitter.com/stefanaarnio
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stefanaarnio

P.S: Please share this article if you found it enjoyable!