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Business Launching Worksheet

Follow through this worksheet to map out a plan to enable you to make money…even if

you’re starting with very little to none.

Go through this sheet and answer all the questions. These questions will force you to

think and engage in the process. They will stimulate your thinking.

Answer the questions here. By the time

you complete this worksheet, your plan

will have almost written itself.

This “Speed Cash” idea is founded on this

fundamental premise: The plan you would

need to implement if you absolutely had to

make money but had little to no financial

resources.

Use the answers on this worksheet to create your plan. Then implement your plan and

make yourself some money!

Think expansively. Be resourceful. For each of these sections, enlarge your array of

resources by thinking about what your associates (friends, family, and co‐workers) also

have access to.

Give every question a pause for thought. Don’t ever give a knee jerk reaction of “I

dunno” or “Nope”. THINK. The more you put into this process, the more you’ll get out

of this process. If you don’t actively participate, you’ll lessen your chances of

success…and sour your chances of making money. You don’t want to leave money on

the table that could be yours, now do you?

Think through each question and answer honestly. If nothing immediately comes to

mind, THINK. A famous quote said, “Thinking is the hardest activity there is…that’s why

so few do it.” Don’t be like that famous quote.

The problem here is I can’t do the thinking for you. You need to do it yourself. I can

lead you to water but can’t make you drink. You must do it yourself. If you will do it, I

promise you it will be well worth it.

How to answer these questions

Answer these questions in the context of “IF YOU HAD TO CREATE RESULTS, could

you?” DON’T answer these questions by asking yourself if you WANT TO. Most people want to do nothing…that’s why they are not successful. That is answering the wrong question.

Here are the questions I’m NOT asking you: Would you like to do these things? Would

it be convenient for you to do these things? Would it be fun to do these things? Would

it be pleasurable to do this?

Forget about that. That is a loser’s mentality. I’m asking you these questions:

If you HAD TO PRODUCE RESULTS, could you make this happen? If you had to get

results (because your back was up against the wall), could you do it?

Answer in THAT context and YOU WILL BE SUCCESSFUL.

Your Sphere Of Influence

Think expansively. What I mean by that is to leverage all your resources by extending their reach. How do you do that? You do that by thinking beyond just yourself and your own resources. Everyone in your sphere of influence is everyone who you come into contact with in your life…either directly or tangentially.

Here are examples of people who might be in

your sphere of influence. Keep these people in

mind as you work through these worksheets.

This will be important because you can

leverage THEIR resources too to help you

make money…multiplying your profit potency.

Your goal is success…so think of your own resources…and be willing to tap into others

resources too.

People In Your Sphere Of Influences:

1. All family members a. Brother b. Sister

c. Mother

d. Father

e. Son

f. Daughter

g. Brother In Law

h. Sister In Law

i. Ex Husband

j. Ex Wife

k. Grandma

l. Grandpa m. Stepbrother n. Stepsister

o. Stepmother

p. Stepfather

q. Stepdaughter

r. Stepson

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2. All co‐workers

a. Coworkers in your office or immediate vicinity

b. Coworkers in the larger office or overall company

c. Business partners

d. Joint venture partners

e. Your boss

f. Your subordinates

g. Ex coworkers

h. Ex bosses 3. All friends

a. Best friends

b. Casual Friends

c. Acquaintances

d. Friends of friends

e. Associates of friends

f. Friends of family members

g. Friends of coworkers

4. All merchants and professionals you buy from

a. Your accountant

b. Your insurance agent

c. Your dentist

d. Your doctor

e. Your tax preparer

f. Your bookkeeper

g. Your dry cleaner

h. Your gym rep

i. Your valet

j. Your waitress/waiter

k. Your attorney

l. Your massage therapist

m. Your financial advisor

n. Your stock broker

o. Your banker

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Knowledge

In this section, we want to uncover what’s in your noggin that could be leveraged for

fast profits. What you know can be valuable to others if presented and sold correctly.

Think about your own knowledge as you answer these questions.

1. What did you study in school?

2. What have you learned?

3. Do you have any hobbies that let you develop specific expertise?

4. Did you go to college? What did you study? What was your major? What was

your minor?

5. Has anyone ever taught you a really cool skill?

6. Have you ever watched an instructional DVD to learn a skill? What was it?

7. Have you ever read a nonfiction book to learn a skill? What was it?

8. Have you ever listened to a non‐fiction audio program to learn something? What

was it?

9. What did you have to know at your last job? At the job before that? At your

current job?

10. What did you have to study/learn to get all the jobs you have had in life?

11. What was your favorite subject in school?

12. Do you have any associates (family, friends, coworkers) that know some cool

things?

13. Do you have any associates of associates (associates of family, associates of

friends, associates of coworkers) that know some cool things?

14. Have you ever taken a course or a seminar on learned something useful?

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15. Have you ever done in‐depth research on a topic on the internet? What was the

subject?

16. Have you ever done in‐depth research on a topic by going to the library? What

did you study? What did you learn?

17. What kinds of books do you tend to read? Has that helped you develop any

expertise?

18. What kinds of magazines do you tend to read? Has that helped you develop any

expertise?

19. Do you ever watch documentary films? What did you learn?

20. What do you tend to talk about with your associates? Are you an expert on this

topic?

Leveraging Your Knowledge

Again, this is about leveraging the knowledge you have access to…whether this be your

knowledge or someone else’s. Knowledge is a valuable commodity. That’s why

nonfiction books, documentary films, seminars, and colleges exist…to peddle

knowledge in exchange for money.

1. Can you package what you know into a how‐to CD?

2. Can you package what you know into a how‐to DVD?

3. Can you package what you know into a special report? Could you write out the

report?

4. Can you package what you know into a book?

5. Could you teach your knowledge at a local college? At the community college?

6. Could you write an eBook on the topic? Could you sell it on a website if you had

to?

7. Could you hire yourself out to show someone how to do what you know?

8. Could you sell your expertise to a business that would find your knowledge

valuable?

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Skills/Abilities

Everyone of us has skills and abilities we develop as we go through life. For whatever

you spend your time on, you’ll tend to get good at if you do it long enough. That’s a

matter of fact.

You have unique skills and abilities. In this section, we’ll uncover your talents that can

be leveraged for fast profits. Don’t be dismissive of these questions. Everyone has

talents…even if you need to do a little digging to find out what they are. You absolutely

have talents too.

Now let’s find them together.

1. Have you ever won any awards in your life? What were they for?

2. Did you ever get a certificate for the ability to do something? What was it?

3. Have you ever won a trophy for something? What was it?

4. Have you ever been recognized in school for something? What was it?

5. What kinds of hobbies do you have? What sorts of talents have you developed as

a result of your hobbies?

6. What kinds of interests do you have outside work?

7. What sorts of talents do you have for your work? Why did your workplace hire

you, for what talents?

8. What is the talent you’re using at work? What talents have you used at all your

previous jobs? What is the common theme among them?

9. Has anyone ever said something like “That’s remarkable” to something you did?

What was it?

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10. What do you like to do the most? What do you feel you’re the best at?

11. What do you do in a normal day? What are all the activities you do? Do you do

these activities different or better than the normal person? What?

12. Do you have unusually effective ways of doing things in any area of your life?

a. At home?

b. At work?

c. At your hobbies?

d. In the kitchen?

e. In the bonus room?

13. What do your friends admire about you? Is that a talent?

14. Who looks up to you? Why do they look up to you? Is that a talent?

15. What’s been your greatest success in life? Has that leveraged your talent? What

was it?

16. What comes naturally to you but is difficult for others? Is that your talent?

17. Have ever had side jobs or part‐time businesses that leveraged your skills?

Leveraging Your Skills/Abilities

In this section, we’re going to spark your thinking to find possible ways to leverage your

talents. Remember, you can leverage YOUR OWN talents or someone else’s in your

sphere of influence.

1. Who would like to have your skills but doesn’t now? Are there a business? A person?

2. Who could apply your talents in their business? 3. Who could apply your talents to help them in their non‐work lives? 4. What kind of people would like to have your skills? 5. How are people with your talents employed now? In what capacity do they

work? What do they do?

6. Who typically hires people with your skills? Where are they? How much do they

pay?

7. What products could you create to leverage your talents? What products could

you contribute to creating? If you had to create a product that leveraged your

unique ability, what would it be?

8. What services could you render to leverage your talents? Where would those

services happen? Who would buy those services from you? What would you

do if you absolutely had to provide a service? What service would it be?

9. How could you organize others in such to leverage their assets so you could

make money?

10. How could you leverage the talents of others? How could you leverage the

skills of others in a service? How could you leverage the skills of others in a

product?

11. Could you organize others to work together in some meaningful and profitable

way?

12. Have you ever made money with your talents? When? How? Who paid you?

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Possessions

In this section, we’ll catalog what you own. What you own are fixed resources that

you’ve already paid for. The problem is you don’t use all your assets ALL THE TIME.

That leaves you with possessions that you’ve paid good money for but are not being

used 100% of the time. By putting your belongings to an alternate (and more

profitable) use, you can make yourself some money. Stop defining your possessions in

such a narrow sense of what they are. Think outside the box. Start to see your

possessions as things that provide value for you and possibly others. Because they

provide value for you, by using them in a different context…you can make them

valuable to others…and get paid for it.

9 These questions may seem very simple and obvious but they are here for a reason.

They’re here to spark your thinking in a new and more profitable way. Answer each

question honestly.

We first must uncover WHAT you have. In a later section, we’ll provoke your thoughts

into figuring out HOW TO APPLY what you have for profit.

1. Do you own a TV? A DVD player? A Blue Ray Player? A Big‐Screen TV? A Tivo

or some equivalent?

2. Do you own a car? Do you own a motorcycle? Do you own a bicycle?

3. Do you own a jet ski, boat, or quad four‐wheeler?

4. Do you own a computer? Can you access the internet? What software programs

can you use? What programs are you good at?

5. Do you own a video camera?

6. Do you own a photo camera?

7. How is your kitchen? Do your stove and oven work? Do you have a microwave?

8. What kind of stuff do you have in your closet?

9. What kind of stuff do you have in storage?

10. What kinds of things do you have that others would find valuable in using?

11. Who else buys the stuff that you already own? Where are they? How much do

they spend to buy the stuff you’ve got?

12. Do you have a spare room in your place that could be put to alternate use?

Walk around where you live with your eyes wide open. Note everything you have. Be

careful not to overlook things. Look at your possessions as if you have a completely

fresh pair of eyes. Pretend like you’re seeing your place for the first time. Look at your

possessions. Catalog them…at least mentally but preferably in writing.

We can use the laundry list of all your possessions to devise a plan to leverage those

into fast profits. If you’re not physically present in your place while you fill out these

worksheets, walk around your place in your “mind’s eye”. Stroll through it and

document what you own.

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Leveraging Your Possessions

Here, we’ll spark your thinking about leveraging your possessions. Your possessions,

put to an alternate use, can be made profitable for you.

1. Have you ever used any of your possessions to make money? Which ones?

How?

2. Does anyone use any of your possessions now to make money? How do they use

them? What do they do?

3. For each of your possessions, why did you purchase them? What problem were

you trying to solve when buying them? Who else has this problem (that your

possessions solves)? Who would pay you good money to use your possession to

solve their problem?

4. Are there any possessions you could rent out to others for profit? Who? Where

are those people located? How can they be reached?

5. Are there any possessions of yours you could use to help solve someone else’s

problem (and get paid for it)? Grabbing your snow shovel and going up and

down the street offering to shovel people’s driveway for a fee is an example.

6. Who would find your possessions so valuable they would pay you to utilize

them? Where are those people at?

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Marketplaces

In this section, we’ll cover the marketplaces to sell to. A marketplace is a fancy name for

a group of consumers with a common buying interest.

In your marketplace, you want three things. It’s important to consider these criteria

when formulating your plan.

You want a marketplace that has passion for what you’re selling. Your marketplace

must have a problem big enough that they’re willing to shell out some cash to you to

solve it. There must be enough pain for them that they’ll pay to get out of pain (by

buying your solution [your product or service]).

Example of good marketplace: Someone with a toothache, in an enormous amount of

pain, will spend good money going to the dentist or on a pain ointment to kill the pain.

Example of bad marketplace: Selling $10,000 gold plated, ornate front doors to middle

class homeowners. They won’t care enough about having a gold‐plated door and won’t

their spend money to make that a viable business.

Next up, your marketplace needs to be accessible. You need to be able to sell to who

you have access to so you can get paid fast. You can’t screw around with an inaccessible

marketplace.

Example of good marketplace: Some club you belong to that is meeting tonight.

They’ve got a problem you can solve and you will see them all tonight.

Example of bad marketplace: Importing something from China to resell.

Finally, your marketplace must have money to spend. If they don’t have money to

spend, how can you expect to get paid? If you want to get paid, your marketplace must

have money.

Example of good marketplace: Affluent homeowners with discretionary income, even

in a recession. If they have discretionary income and you can solve their problem

(through your product or service), you can get paid.

Example of bad marketplace: Selling to up‐and‐coming, but financially struggling poor

musicians. They have no money to pay you so you can’t make money selling to

someone who has no money.

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Now let’s dive into the checklist.

1. What clubs do you belong to?

2. What associations do you belong to?

3. Are there any fraternal organizations you belong to?

4. Do you ever go to parties? How often? Who is there?

5. Who do you primarily associate with?

6. What sorts of places have you gone in the last month?

What kinds of people are there?

a. The gym

b. The tanning salon

c. The grocery store

d. The hair salon

e. The bank

f. The pharmacy

g. The electronics store

h. The supplement shop

i. The mall

7. Where have you gone out to in the past year? Where is the location? What kinds

of people have been there?

8. Do you belong to any organizations? 9. Do you contribute to any charities?

10. What kind of individuals do you mostly spend your time with?

11. What kinds of people does your “sphere of influence” know? 12. What clubs, organizations, and groups does your “sphere of influence” belong to?

13. Who do you know that has access to groups of other people as an “influencer”? What kinds of people are they?

Marketplace Evaluation

Now that you’ve thought over what kind of people you have access to, let’s analyze

which of those would be the best marketplace for you to sell to.

1. Which of these groups of people is the most accessible to you? Which is the least

accessible to you?

2. If you wanted to make money today, which group could you contact immediately

and sell to?

3. Which of these groups complains the loudest about a problem? What is the

problem? How loudly do they complain?

4. Which of these groups is the most passionate group? What could you do to help

them with their passion? Is there a product or service you could offer to help

their passion?

5. Which of these groups of people is in the most pain?

6. Which of these individuals is in the most pain? Could you solve their problem?

7. Who has the most money to spend here? Who has the least amount of money?

8. Who already spends money solving a similar problem?

9. Can you come up with a new/different/better solution to their problem?

10. Could you sell to one individual to make money instead of a group?

11. Who needs what you’re offering the most? How much would they pay? How

soon do they need it?

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Problems To Be Solved

It’s important to think of everything in terms of problem solution. Products and

services are nothing more than solutions to problems we face in our lives. To make

money, you need to offer a product or service that solves a problem. The bigger, more

painful, more pressing a problem you solve, the more money you’ll tend to make.

Creating products and services no one wants to buy is usually the result of not fully

understanding the marketplace and/or offering them a solution that is either

inadequate or doesn’t truly solve their problem.

1. What are the biggest problems of the marketplace? What are the minor

nuisances?

2. What are the unmet needs of the marketplace? Why aren’t the needs being met

now?

3. How often do people complain about this problem? What do they say? What do

they propose as a solution?

4. Are you solving a problem they want solved?

5. Are you solving a problem that they would pay good money to have solved?

Have people in this marketplace demonstrated spending money to buy

something to solve this problem?

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Selling To The Marketplace

Having a product or service is great. Yet without a way to actually sell it to your

customers and collect the cash, it’s as good as a car without an engine in it. You need to

sell your product or service to the marketplace to get paid.

This section will help spark your thinking into how to reach your marketplace… and sell

them the solution you have.

1. Where does this marketplace congregate?

2. What do they do?

3. Where do they go?

4. When do they all come together?

5. Who already sells to them? How do they reach the marketplace? What

advertising media do they use? Could you partner up with that person to sell to

them?

6. What do they buy before, during, and after they purchase your product or

service? Could you partner up with another merchant to get your product or

service in the hands of your end consumer?

7. What is the best channel to reach your marketplace? How could you reach them

today if you had to?

a. Calling them on the phone

b. Emailing them

c. Visiting them in person

Getting Paid

Once you’ve helped someone out (through your product or service), it’s necessary for

you to get paid. Your hard work has paid off. You deserve it. You need to think about

getting paid before implementing your plan. Doing this will prevent false starts. It will

help make sure you get paid for your efforts.

1. How will your customer pay you?

2. Can your customer write you a check?

3. Do you need to collect all cash?

4. If offering a service, can you get them to prepay you?

5. Can you sell them a bunch of stuff and give them a volume discount if they buy a

lot?

6. Can you bundle what you’re offering with something else and raise the price?

7. If a customer wants to pay with credit card, can you show them how to get a cash

advance?

8. When does your customer pay you?

9. If you need money right away, can you offer a prepayment discount for paying

NOW and then deliver the products or services at a slightly later date?

10. Is there anything else you can sell your customer before, during, or after the

transaction? What else do people solving this problem typically buy? Could you

get your hands on that, mark it up, and sell it to your customer?

11. How much will you get paid?

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Narrowing Down Your Ideas

You’ve done a lot of thinking to this point. You’ve come up with some good ideas. It’s

now time to narrow those ideas to your best choice and finely tune your plan so you’re

ready to roar.

1. Which of your ideas has the best chance to succeed? Why do you think that?

2. Which of these ideas has the best marketplace to sell to?

3. Which of these marketplaces is in the most pain (and/or most passionate)?

4. Which of these marketplaces is the most accessible to you?

5. Which of these marketplaces has the most money to spend?

6. What are your most valuable possessions that could be put to good use?

7. What is the most valuable knowledge you have that could be put to good use?

8. What is the most valuable talent/skill you have that could be put to good use?

9. How much would each of these ideas cost to implement? Which of them are the

cheapest? Which are the most expensive? Are they FREE to do?

10. What would it take to actually pull off your plans?

11. Which of your plans could you do alone? Do any of your plans require the help

of others?

12. Do you want to work alone? Do you want to team up with someone else to help

you?

13. Which of these plans is best for this time of year?

14. What sorts of companies have success selling to this same marketplace? How do

they do things? Could you emulate them on a smaller scale?

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Defining Your Plan

From your idea, it’s now time to turn it into an actionable plan. You can do this. You’re

in the home stretch now. Keep going. We need to take your idea and map out a

blueprint for you to follow.

Select your very best idea of all of your ideas and use this checklist to fashion your plan.

This is very important: WRITE OUT YOUR PLAN. The goal for you is to plan your work

and work your plan.

1. What exactly are you going to do?

2. When are you going to do this?

3. Who is going to do this? Is it only you? Or you and who else?

4. Where is this going to take place?

5. How are you going to sell to your marketplace?

6. How much are you going to charge for your product or service?

7. How much money do you want to make? By WHEN do you want to make that

amount of money?

8. What resources do you need to carry out this plan? Do you already have those

resources? For resources you need but don’t have, how are you going to get

them?

9. How will you know when you’re successful at this project?

10. Can you practice doing this on a trial basis?

11. How can you spend the very least amount of money to accomplish the results

you seek?

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12. Is there any way you can make this all happen for FREE?

13. What are the pitfalls that might trip you up? Can you think up ways to overcome

or preempt these “gotchas” even before they happen?

14. Are all the right pieces in place for you to execute your plan? If not, what needs

to be done? When are you going to do that?

15. What is your deadline for doing this?

16. Are you absolutely committed to creating results? Do you have a do‐whatever‐

it‐takes attitude?

Executing Your Plan

With your hand firmly in hand, it’s time for you to spring into action. You need to

execute swiftly and decisively to achieve the result you want. Let nothing stop you. Act

as if there are no limits to your ability. Hark unto me – YOU CAN DO THIS.

Focus like a laser on your outcome you desire. Work relentlessly to achieve this. You

can make this happen. For any obstacle you encounter, there is a solution that exists

and you’re committed to finding it. You need to blow through any obstacles.

You can always find a way if you want something bad enough. If a door slams shut, go

through the window. Take massive action, never quit, and I guarantee you’ll be

successful.

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Barter Bonus

I want you to begin to think expansively. Instead of selling your solution to the

marketplace, you can leverage the ancient art of barter to get what you want. In fact,

before there was paper money, that’s all that people did. They exchanged goods and

services.

To effectively barter, take an inventory of your knowledge, your talents, and your

possessions. Then pinpoint what you want from others and who has what you want.

Then you go to them and negotiate a trade. This is pretty straightforward.

Here’s a barter checklist to help you out.

1. Who has what you want?

2. How much do they sell it for?

3. Where are those people located?

4. To whom do they sell this?

5. If a service, who does the service?

6. Who do they do the service for?

7. How much do they sell the service for?

8. What is the wholesale cost of the product?

9. What is the wholesale cost of the service?

You can barter goods for goods, services for goods, or goods for services. It is entirely

up to you. You have the world at your fingertips now that you know this.

Appendix: Shifting Your Mindset

Shift your mindset. Results derive from actions. Actions derive from thoughts. The

better you think, the better results you’ll get (because you perform better actions).

Here are some fun mental exercises to stretch your mind to think in new and more

profitable ways.

Exercise: Looking at products/services and working backwards to figure out what

problem they solve.

Look around you at every single product you see. This could be products in your place

(that you own) or at a store. Think about all the services people perform for you and

other people.

Then think backwards…and come up with what problem the product or service solves.

Knowing that every product or service solves some problem, you can decipher what

problem it actually does solve….or attempts to solve.

Think problem/solution all the time and you can’t help but notice enormous amounts of

opportunities popping up before you. Those opportunities you grasp (and the

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problems you solve) can be converted into fast profits for you.

Here’s another great exercise for you.

Exercise: Listening to complainers…identifying the problem they want solved.

People naturally love to moan and complain about things. It seems like they are

hardwired to do that. When someone bemoans something to you, listen for the

problem they’re complaining about.

.

Instead of giving into their idle negativity (and lack of proactively solving their own

problem), listen for the problem to be solved there. Think about how you could or

would solve their problem with hypothetical products and services. What could you do

to squash their problem like a bug?

Here’s another great thinking exercise for ya while we’re at it.

Exercise: Becoming aware of common nuisances

As you go about your day, and lead your life, become aware of common nuisances.

What has got you muttering under your breath? What frustrates you?

It could be anything…large or small. Then realize that every problem…even down to

the tiniest nuisance…represents an opportunity…that if solved…could be worth money

to someone, somewhere. It may as well be you.

Exercise: Innovating hypothetical solutions to the common nuisances

After identifying the common nuisances in your life, dream up hypothetical products

and services that would solve this problem for you. What would you create to solve this

problem?

In a perfect world, what sort of product or service would completely eliminate this

frustration for you? How much would you be willing to pay to permanently knock this

frustration out of your life?

Once your thinking expands, it can never again contract. You’ll start to see

opportunities everywhere. When you have these “opportunity goggles” locked on you

firmly, the sky is the limit for you. Now get out there and make yourself some money!