Recycling an eyesore into a coworking center!

"Improve our community, provide shared workspace, and create jobs!"

 (see our campaign on Indiegogo at http://igg.me/at/NoMoreEyesore) 

Short Summary

This store front with attached house has sat vacant for over 15 years with no maintenance other than some occasional yard work. Like 100s of others in the area I drive by this decaying structure daily wishing someone would purchase it or level it. (There are additional pictures and videos.)

Years of shrubs and trees over taking the area, the building being spray painted and looking terrible it dawned on me no one was going to do anything. If I wanted change it was up to me.

Getting out of the US Army after 12 years I began working for myself. Several years in my daily routine of visiting with other businesses and seeing how they operate it was clear there were areas that needed assistance. For example the local window installer can’t benefit from any advertising/marketing if the phone rings while they are on a ladder installing, they need an assistant but it is not always in the budget. Even for myself, recently my business coach said in order to grow further it was a must that my office move from inside my home. There are too many distractions to be as effective as possible. This and other signs continued to point in a similar direction.  The growing trend of coworking centers, also called community work space or shared workspace.

http://www.freep.com/article/20131124/BUSINESS06/311240053/Shared-work-spaces-grow-popularity 

A client of mine introduced me to Indiegogo after reading others stories my motivation grew into a powerful driving force. Take this eyesore and create something that brings not only jobs into our community but offers others the opportunity to bring their ideas to reality! Our company has always helped startup businesses but now we would have a facility that allows many others to rent physical or virtual office space with many additional perks. 

Giving them an inexpensive way to grow their business. Every business in our coworking center will have a dedicated phone number with many features and a mailbox. With us on staff they will have all the additional support they need in areas from marketing, accounting, business administration and more. Our facility will also have the resources they may need. Private offices available by schedule, conference room with video capabilities, and receptionist as well as the simpler things like a mail room, copier, high speed internet etc.

With your help the local roofer, landscaper, plumber, accountant, website developer etc. can operate their business and allow us to handle answering his/her phone while they are on site. Have deliveries sent to a commercial location where they can be signed for and safely stored until they can be picked up. We will also be able to have several commercial vehicles parked or stored on our property

with security and video surveillance. 

We will also host a location for business networking, teach classes on a variety of topics, and have a very small bookstore that carries only books on business, leadership, and personal development. 

With our conference room capable of video conferencing as well this opens up other areas of service we can provide. 

What We Need 

We began investigating what we would need to turn this project from an idea into a reality. Between the asking price for the structure, the needed repairs, remodeling, and the furnishings we came up with estimates totaling between $250,000. to $300,000.

Current guesstimate, upon successful funding of this campaign in mid-September we purchase and within 3-4 months we are ready for business. A lot of the work can be done at the same time with minimal overlap. We will also build out a full website and Facebook that documents the progress, advertises the business, and its clients, and honors the backers.

·  Building $125,000. bank will not fund must be cash deal

·  New roof $25,000.

·  Dumpster rental and gut the building $3000.

·  Electrical repair and new wiring $7,000.

·  HVAC replace/repair $4,500. - $12,000. furnace is currently under hole in roof

·  Framing up offices, hang/finish drywall, paint $7,500. (current total $180,000)

·  Parking lot re-paved $18,000.

Still need tree and shrub removal, fence repair, exterior painting, new front door, 2 half and one full bathroom need repair/replace, kitchen needs to be replaced, appliances, furnishings, insurance as well as anything we may have overlooked.

We were advised to keep the house with a full bathroom and kitchen keeping the property value up and allowing for potential future sale. 

Through Local Business Network (www.LocBusNet.Com,) where we are members, I have access to all the other business types and contractors I would need and trust. 

In the event we don't hit our total goal we will rent space somewhere else in the area and do all we can to bring in a few new jobs. 

The Impact

Our project will bring 4-5 new full time jobs to the area. Several part time jobs in the form of contractors as well as a landscaper/snow removal person a full-time contract.

With three existing rooms and the ability to frame up for at least two more we will have no less than five offices for rent. 

Our company has helped many businesses that were not doing anywhere near the amount of business they could be or even close to failing businesses turn into thriving companies. With our services in house we can help see to it our coworking center is also successful. 

We have a large and very knowledgeable staff capable of helping in so many areas from mentoring to teaching classes and much more. 

You can find few testimonies on my personal LinkedIn page. 

Risks & Challenges

There is no situation I can think of that doesn't present risk this one included. In the middle of repairs we may discover a much larger issue at hand an unforeseen repair. It might take longer than the predicted time frame before we are up and running. It may be difficult to locate clients. These are just a few challenges that could present themselves. 

The resources we have available in house and with the help of Local Business Network (LBN) are more than enough to ease my mind that no matter what situation arises we can find a way to remedy it. 

Other Ways You Can Help

Maybe you can't back our project you can still assist us by...

• Helping us get the word out and make some noise about our campaign.
• Please remember to use the Indiegogo share tools!
• Post about us on Facebook, Tweet about us, show a friend our site!

We thank you for taking the time to read about our project. THANK YOU!

Now offering call tracking to improve your ROI.

Why use call tracking you ask?

• Attach a different phone number to every ad source to see which ones are performing best, eliminate those that aren't. 
• Real time call stats, learn when most of your business calls come in. This can get addictive!
• Call recording, record every call ran through the tracking system. See if your reps are answering them correctly. 
• Full caller ID
• Easily generate reports
• Email alerts
• Caller history
• Call multiple numbers at once, ring your business calls to multiple phones, the first to answer gets the call. 
• Phone coder report, classify call by codes to identify trends. 

...and much more! 

One time setup fee of $300.00 and then only $50.00 a month. 

Call us today (734) 252-9014 

Do You Know How to Resolve Conflict?

By Dan Hawkins

On my leadership journey, there have been so many LIFE and leadership lessons. One of the biggest epiphanies is when you realize that every failure,  problem and or conflict is a chance to learn and get better. We have all been created equal in the fact that we are imperfect, unreasonable and sometimes unbearable. I say this with love and pointing directly at myself as the best example of this! I love this poem about people:

This poem makes it clear that where there are people there will be problems, the key is learning how to resolve the conflict that they create. In Orrin Woodward’s book, Resolved: 13 Resolutions for Life, he covers in detail the art of conflict resolution. “Whether leading a business, church or charitable organization, the ability to resolve conflict is essential.” I encourage you to pick up this book and study this chapter, it will make all the difference in your relationships.

Today I wanted to share just a piece of the book to give you some action steps to apply the next time conflict occurs.

1. Affirm the Relationship - Here is a great way to start a conversation: “I am here, even though it’s uncomfortable, because I value our relationship and would rather be uncomfortable resolving our misunderstandings than comfortable with misunderstandings in our relationship.”
2. Seek to Understand -The key here is to truly hear the other side of the story. Many conflicts are resolved at this step when you are willing to look at the conflict from the other side. “Get curious, not furious.” Orrin Woodward
3. Seek to be Understood -Remember, resolution is the object, not justification. After you successfully get through the first two steps you can share your perspective. Again, not to justify but to create understanding and a plan for future interactions.
4. Own Responsibility by Apologizing – A leader is aware that it is always our fault, even when it is not. We need to take responsibly for as much of the conflict as we truthfully can. Even if the other party is entirely at fault I still apologize for my part in the problem and ask for forgiveness.
5. Seek Agreement - Leave the table on the same side with a plan to avoid future conflict of the same nature. Other problems will arise but the same problems should not persist.

More animals in the barnyard, more “stuff” to deal with. The bigger the following we create the more problems we will encounter. Courage is the virtue that underlies all virtues. It will take courage to apply the five steps and resolve conflict, but the blessings of the strong relationships it will create will be eternal.

The World's first Personal Development "Pandora like" Radio Station

• Featuring preset stations for each of LIFE’s 8 Fs
• Contains hundreds and hundreds of audio recordings
• Includes Customizable channels based upon speaker and/or subject
• Available on the web or your smartphone

Rascal Radio by LIFE Leadership is the world’s first online personal development radio service. Rascal Radio is centered on LIFE’s 8 Fs, Faith, Family, Finances, Fitness, Following, Freedom, Friends and Fun. Subscribers have unlimited access to hundreds and hundreds of audio recordings that they can stream endlessly from both the LIFE Leadership website and the LIFE Leadership Smartphone App.

Rascal Radio features New York Times bestselling authors Orrin Woodward and Chris Brady and other internationally recognized leadership experts including Tim Marks and Claude Hamilton.

Listen to one of the preset stations for each of the LIFE’s 8 Fs or customize your own based on speaker and or subject. Of course, you can easily skip tracks or “like” as many as you want. If you are listening from the website you can purchase any one of these incredible audios.

$49.95 per month

SUBSCRIBE

LIFE-CHANGING Information to help you live the life you’ve always wanted!

Three Principles to Develop Mental Toughness

 

Whether you are an athlete on the gridiron or in the boardroom, a certain quality is always found in the guys who remain standing when the storm winds blow.  When rejection hits these guys it bounces off them like spitballs off of a battleship.  They chuckle at groundless criticism.  They bounce back quickly from setbacks.  They feel energized to try even harder after a defeat.  That special quality these warriors are showing is something called “mental toughness”.  Wikipedia defines this as “a term commonly used by coaches, sport psychologists, sport commentators, and business leaders – generally describes a collection of attributes that allow a person to persevere through difficult circumstances (such as difficult training or difficult competitive situations in games) and emerge without losing confidence.” (Emphasis added.)

Each of us will receive a gut shot at some point in our lives that knocks the wind right out of us.  It’s not a matter of whether you will be struck by disaster, but when.  In my first book, Voyage of a Viking, I describe in detail many of the challenges I faced through my life.  I’ve faced my storms and I know that I have more storms awaiting me.  I also know that you do as well.  Rather than sitting around moaning and complaining when we are being pelted by chunks of hail the size of golf balls, we can put on a suit of armor to deflect whatever life throws at us.  That suit of armor is your mental toughness.

You can’t measure mental toughness; you measure its effect.  You can’t measure what’s going on inside a leaders head, but you sure can measure their behavior!  You see it when they lose their biggest customer one month, and it ticks them off just enough to go smash a sales record the next month.    You can see mental toughness when someone is running a marathon and they are gasping for breath, and the only thing keeping them putting one painful footstep in front of the next is their strength of will.  You see it when someone is totally exhausted, yet they keep throwing hundreds of shots into the basketball hoop to perfect their free throw (like my awesome daughter Mya!).  In fact, Mya had to make 1000 free throws; in order to reach that goal; she had to shoot a couple of thousand.   She wanted to quit many times during that experience, but she had committed to a number of people that she would reach her goal.  It’s amazing how a twelve year old girl will follow through on her commitment more effectively than most adults.  Mental toughness is courage in action.  When you’ve got it, you cope better than your opponents with the demands you face.

How do we develop mental toughness?  Here are a few principles to get you started:

Principle #1: Realize Mental Toughness Can Be Developed.

Some people might be born with a certain personality, like a “Choleric” or “D” personality type, and maybe this personality type handles adversity a little more effectively than others.  But that’s not always the case, and either way, anyone can develop this side of their personality.  Don’t cop out on yourself by selling yourself any victim thinking, like “That’s just the way I am.”  Brothers and sisters, you can CHANGE.  How do you build mental toughness?  The same way you build muscles in the gym: by pushing yourself to new limits and increasing the pressure or resistance you are pushing against.

Principle #2: Mental Toughness in the Gym Correlates to Mental Toughness in LIFE.

The gym is the ultimate proving ground for “tough guys” and “tough gals”.  You really find out what you’re made of when you’re doing hack squats or leg extensions.  Most people get into the gym, start doing bicep curls, and as soon as it starts to get uncomfortable, they say, “Okay, I’ve done enough for now,” and they stop exercising.  This is actually the exact wrong thing to do, if your goal is to develop your muscles.  You see, when it starts to hurt, that’s the lactic acid burn in your muscles screaming, “Great job! Keep going!  You’re making progress!”  But when most people start to feel discomfort they choose to ease off.

You don’t become successful at anything by letting your foot off of the gas pedal when the going gets tough.  This includes the gym, your marriage, and your business.  When it hurts to do even one more rep of an exercise, that’s when the real muscle development starts!  (By the way, I’m not talking about pushing through pain when you are actually injured; I’m referring to the normal discomfort we feel when we are tearing down our muscles during a workout.)  If you throw in the towel on the bench press, you train your brain to quit when things get tough.  When you force yourself to keep pushing the weight even when you want to give up, you are training your brain to keep pushing.  Some people on my business team “run for the tape,” as my good friend and Launching a Leadership Revolution bestselling co-author Chris Brady says.  That means that when there is a fast-approaching deadline to hit a business target, and things look grim, they keep pushing and fighting right up to the last minute!  They don’t give in just because it looks unlikely or difficult to accomplish… they pull a rabbit out of the hat by persevering despite all odds against them.

Principle #3: Champions Fall in Love with Discomfort

Winners know that the path to success is steep and rocky, and the path to defeat is like a sign pointing at a waterslide that says, “Slippery, Fun and Easy to Reach the Bottom in a Jiffy!”  Bad habits are easy to slip into, like a warm bed when you’re exhausted.  Good habits are pretty much guaranteed to feel tough for most people because you end up denying yourself luxuries and pleasures. You must learn to do what is uncomfortable for you. To develop the psychological edge, you must have extreme discipline to give up the comfort zone that you train and live in. Delaying immediate satisfaction is the ultimate sacrifice that all warriors must choose.

My mentor, New York Times bestselling author Orrin Woodward, recounted a story of arriving home one day in the wee hours of the morning.  He had been driving for hours from a business meeting, and had to get home to get to work the next day.  It was so early in the morning that he knew he would only get a few hours of sleep.  But Orrin’s viewpoint of this was a feeling of pride!  He actually said to himself, “I’m losing sleep!  I’m fighting harder to help my family than my neighbors, who are all getting a nice sleep right now!”  His brain normally connected feeling tired with unhappiness, and now his brain connected fatigue with a feeling of honor.  That’s what winners do!

RESOLVE to become a champion and develop mental toughness in your business, your health, your relationships and in LIFE!

By Tim Marks

Job description: Outside sales representative for “Get Found Local”

Job description: Outside sales representative for “Get Found Local,” a division of “Get Found on Google.”

Business-2-business commission sales position

Get Found Local is looking for talented, enthusiastic people to help us maintain the highest levels of customer satisfaction in every area of our business.  We are a company that recognizes talent, provides encouragement and the opportunity for training and development for your career growth.

Purpose

Develop new prospects and maintain contacts with established customers for the purpose of maintaining a working relationship; customarily and regularly interact with prospects and customers in person at the customer's site of business or other off-site locations.

We set goals for each member of our team based on their strength. Beginning goal is an average of 2 sales per week. We base goals on 48 work weeks in a year. This leaves one month for vacation time or enough time to catch up on your annual goal of 96 sales on average.

Closing two sales a week with a twenty percent close rate requires ten presentations or two office calls daily Monday – Friday. Typically less than 20 hours per week.

We strongly encourage business networking, chamber functions, along with additional KPI’s or key performance indicators to track success.

All leads/referrals will be entered into a detailed lead tracking sheet we provide.

If you don’t have a CRM or customer relationship management system in place we can provide you with one.

Requirements

Valid driver’s license

Strong desire to read, learn, and grow

Ability to pass a background check

No experience in sales necessary  

Summary

We provide a packet for you a few pages go over what we provide, page to gather information from the client and a page that covers payment information, the last two to be returned to the home office. 

$62,000. annual income projection below.

Create a Culture of Learning!

The Fifth Discipline

Peter Senge stated in an interview that a learning organization is a group of people working together collectively to enhance their capacities to create results they really care about. 

Senge popularized the concept of the learning organization through his book The Fifth Discipline. In the book, he proposed the following five disciplines:

1.    Systems thinking: Organizations are a system of interrelationships. To become more successful we need to analyze these relationships and find the problems in them. This will allow an organization to eliminate the obstacles to learning

2.    Personal mastery: An individual holds great importance in a learning organization. Continuous self-improvement holds as much important as commitment and work for the organization. Employees need to grow and work on their own goals.

3.    Mental Models: This is the company culture and the diverse theories and mindsets that serve as a framework for the functioning of the organization. Learning organizations look for how these affect organizational development.

4.    Shared Vision: A learning organization's employees all share a common vision. Personal goals must be in sync with the goals and vision of the organization.

5.    Team Learning: The importance of dialogue and group discussion. For a team to learn, they must be in sync and reach agreement.

Benefits

The main benefits are:

·         Maintaining levels of innovation and remaining competitive

·         Being better placed to respond to external pressures

·         Having the knowledge to better link resources to customer needs

·         Improving quality of outputs at all levels

·         Improving Corporate image by becoming more people oriented

·         Increasing the pace of change within the organization

Learn MUCH more by visiting www.Developing-Leaders.Org and subscribing to the self paced leadership program based on the principles above as well as many others!