What’s that the title said? Did it say there’s a plan I can use to play it safe and build wealth at the same time?

This budgeting plan won’t make you wealthy, but it will optimize your position for creating wealth while setting you up for retirement even if you don’t hit the jackpot. It also will provide protection during a slow economy when people hurt for money.

I was inspired to write this post because a) I know this stuff and b) I just finished reading an article on CNNMoney.com which left a confused grin on my face. The link I clicked on to read the article was entitled Making A Budget.

Sounds great, right? Well it taught me nothing when it comes to making a budget.

So here’s the budget I know and love.

This is Lindsey’s first post. Lindsey is a wedding planner and for some reason decided she wanted to marry me!

Never say NO to Fluffy!

Recently, my husband John and I bought an investment property. While going through the renovation process I learned from him it never hurts to ask for something even if you think the answer will be no.

Every time a new contractor would come in to do something he would ask them to also do something else (without charging any extra). Since he was willing to do this we were able to get a lot of things done for nothing that would have added up to a lot of additional money out of our pockets.

What you need to keep in mind whether it be dealing with contractors, sales people or other entrepreneurs is that you need to know what you want before you talk to them. Have a game plan ready, know where you are going to start and what compromises you are willing to make.

Some people pay a lot of attention to it. They toss and turn in bed at 3am thinking, what else could I do?

What is it that soaks their pillows at night with sweat?

PageRank – our official stamp of approval our buddy Googlebot gives our sites.

Some people work really hard at obtaining a good PageRank while others ignore it and just focus on what they do; and if a good PageRank comes of it, so be it.

My philosophy is I write for my website’s visitors and not search engines; however, I try not to do anything that would piss off our little friend, Googlebot. When creating a title I make sure to put them in those header tags search engines love so much.

The eVentureBiz Community Forum has a sub-forum titled “Search Engine Optimization” where I posted a topic about the best kinds of sites to exchange links with. This can help your Google’s PageRank if done right.

It’s 11:59pm and I can’t sleep. I have the type of mind that rolled off the production line it seems without an off button.

I maintain control over the content on eVentureBiz. I like that. It’s not the typical web development company or hosting website that looks like one big ad that never changes. Some parts do stay the same but other areas, such as The Relax Café and my blog, are areas I’m always thinking about and updating.

We’re also about to launch a host of other services such as web design, content writing, logo design, incorporation services, and more. Obviously, you can see why my mind never turns off.

So is the life of an entrepreneur.

Yes, this blog is about learning how to think and grow as an entrepreneur. And I don’t just mean you learn and grow, I’m included in the equation.

Image Courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Bruce Lee once mentioned how the way martial arts were designed, you had to keep training or you lost your skill over a short time. As long as one trains, they can maintain their skill, but as soon as they quit, they immediately start to decline in their abilities.

And after two years of quitting, they are only a mere shadow of themselves.

For me, to stay on my A-game I need to constantly be pushing myself to learn new concepts and practicing those that I have already learned. This doesn’t mean I set aside time for practice like I use to do when I was a student of Kung-Fu, but it means my mind rarely rests.

The following are some techniques and good practices I use to maximize my potential. Many of them I don’t think about and thus my wife has pointed out to me that I do.

Image by Commack Guitars

I first began learning persuasive skills when I was 15.

I worked in a guitar store and sold, you guessed it, guitars. Rarely did someone walk in and say, “I’ll take it.” I typically had to do a little convincing to get them to buy. No wait, not just convince them to buy, the owner wanted me to sell them the most expensive guitar they could afford.

At the time, he was the entrepreneur, not me.

Since then, I’ve learned the value of being a persuasive person and how it relates to business. Whether it be content sales or face-to-face sales, there is an art to persuasion and there are key
components to the trade.

My 5 keys to being a persuasive person consists of being observant, knowledgeable, listening, timing, and making use of storytelling.

I’m really getting tired of hearing people say how much they learn from their failures and they don’t learn from their successes.

No. Don’t believe it. You DO learn from your successes. And you DO become successful by remembering them.

The first line of my popular post 8+ Ways To Train Yourself To Be Creative which landed me smack dab on the front page of del.icio.us was:

To be creative, you have to first believe you are creative.

To parallel that, I’d like to say:

Success breeds Success.

Personally, many times I learn nearly just as much from both my successes and my failures. My ways to train yourself to be creative article ended up getting the recognition I wish all my articles could get. Don’t even begin to think I didn’t go back and take a look at my article.

What was the first line? It must have captured attention. How?