The Lincoln Guide to Personal Finance

The Lincoln Guide to Personal Finance by WEALTH BUILDING DAILY

Originally Posted on WiseBread

The Treasury Building is just a short walk from the White House, making it an easy stop for any president to visit.

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President Abraham Lincoln, who invested most of his presidential salary in Treasury bonds, didn’t visit the Treasury Department often. But he did get there often enough to save most of his salary for three years. (See also: Receiving Your Tax Refund in Savings Bonds)

The movie “Lincoln” opens nationally on Nov. 16, and while it provides historical lessons, the former president’s investment methods can be a good study of sound personal finance advice.

Saving almost all of your salary is nearly impossible, but as the president showed, regular investments are a good start to a healthy portfolio.

Lincoln stopped by the Treasury Building each month and “counted out what money he was able to spare from his salary” and invested in bonds, according to then-Treasury official Levi Gould, who helped Lincoln with his investments, as quoted in the 2006 book “Personal Finances of Abraham Lincoln.”

Lincoln invested almost all of his $25,000 annual salary in governmental bonds, with $68,000 in total assets from his three years in office, according to a website run by theLincoln Institute.

One day the president arrived at the office of the Secretary of Treasury and threw a mass of governmental notes on the secretary’s desk, instructing that they be converted into bonds. His holdings in government obligations totaled $54,515, along with a bag of gold worth $883 that he brought to be Treasury Department. The assets were: $16,000 of 7-30 notes, $26,181 of certificates of deposit, $8,000 of 5-20 bonds, $4,044 in salary warrants, and $489 in cash.

Anyone who has received a savings bond certificate as a birthday gift — though they’re now all electronic and can be given as a gift certificate to be redeemed — knows that getting a $25 savings bond is almost as exciting as getting new socks. While the payments for the various Treasury securities aren’t exciting, they do provide long-term interest and give you the satisfaction that you’re helping the country account for its debt. Even children can understand it.

Treasury bonds, for example, pay a fixed rate of interest every six months until they mature in 30 years. The types of Treasury notes that Lincoln bought can still be bought today, though at different rates. T-Notes also pay a fixed term of interest every six months until they mature. They’re issued in terms of 2, 3, 5, 7, and 10 years. Recent rates on bonds and notes ranged from 0.375% interest rate for a 3-year note to 3% interest on a 29-year bond.
Lincoln did well with his bonds. The 7-30 notes, called “seven-thirties,” paid at a rate of 7.3% — two cents a day on $100 — that was payable in gold semi-annually. The government issued $140 million in Treasury Notes in 1861 to finance the Civil War.

The 5-20 bonds that the president bought were redeemable after five years and matured at 20 years. They paid 6% interest payable in gold on May 1 and Nov. 1.

Lincoln followed the rule billionaires such as Warren Buffett have followed — reinvest any interest payments. Whenever Lincoln, according to the book on his finances, was paid interest in gold, he sold the gold to the Treasury Department and used the proceeds to buy more bonds or loans to the government at interest rates of 4 to 6%.

The president received almost $10,000 in interest and premiums on savings from his salary that he reinvested almost in its entirety, according to the book.

Like any busy president, Lincoln apparently didn’t have time to get to the bank often enough. He must have been doing well enough not to need to cash his pay “warrants,” according to biographers, with four uncashed paychecks found in his desk after his death.

If you have four paychecks sitting in your desk that you haven’t deposited yet, follow Lincoln’s likely advice and go invest them in some government bonds.

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4 Cures for Chronic Procrastination

4 Cures for Chronic Procrastination by WEALTH BUILDING DAILY

At a startup or small business, every hour counts. You need to get things done and stay on task if you want to grow your business. As a leader, learning to beat procrastination will make you and your team more productive, more often.

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We all procrastinate occasionally, but chronic procrastinators put off almost everything they have to do. According to Joseph Ferrari, a psychology professor at DePaul University in Chicago, and author of Still Procrastinating? The No Regrets Guide to Getting It Done (Wiley, 2010), about 20 percent of the global population can be classified as chronic procrastinators. They let the gas tank run to empty, miss concerts because they waited to buy tickets, or put off projects until hours before they’re due.

Many others have what psychologists call “decisional procrastination,” meaning they put off making decisions until their back is against the wall or someone else does it for them. “They’re actively, consciously, strategically postponing,” says Ferrari.

To cure chronic procrastination, Ferrari offers four tips:

1. Narrow your focus. Procrastinators often spend too much time looking at the big picture, so a project can seem overwhelming. “They see the forest and forget that it’s made of trees,” Ferrari says. “They think, ‘I can’t do all that.’”

To make the project seem doable, break it down. Write out each step, and scheduled an exact time to acomplish it. Start with the task that seems easiest or most appealing to you. Focus on one small task at a time and before you know it, the project will be complete.

2. Reward yourself for meeting your goals. Connect activities you dislike with ones you love and let those incentives help you stay on task. You might reward yourself with a favorite TV show, a run, or ten minutes of personal time. “Something you like to do becomes a reinforcer for something you don’t like to do,” Ferarri says.

As you change your habits, don’t push yourself to be perfect. “If you meet 80 percent of your goals to change, that’s a success,” Ferrari says, since you’re meeting them most of the time.

3. Hold yourself publicly accountable. Feeling like others are watching will help prevent you from making excuses. You could post your daily goals on Twitter or Facebook, pair up with a friend, or write your current task and start time on a whiteboard at your desk.

This goes for group projects as well. If responsibility is too diffuse, people are likely to procrastinate. Instead, clearly delineate who will be responsible for each task and track progress publicly. You might use Trello, an online task management tool, or morning check-ins–any system where each person reports to the group.

4. Don’t lose momentum. As Newton’s first law of motion says, an object in motion stays in motion. Once you start a task, you’re much more likely to keep working until you finish.

Take the easiest task on your list and force yourself to start. Close your browser, turn off email pop-ups, and make the program you need to use fit the full screen. “Just say ‘now’ and do it,” Ferrari says. “Just start.”

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How to Create a Disaster Plan for Your Business

How to Create a Disaster Plan for Your Business by WEALTH BUILDING DAILY

Originally posted at Entrepreneur.com

Hurricane Sandy left thousands of unprepared business owners in the Northeast without power, phone service, the Internet and access to bank accounts and other necessities. It was a stark reminder of how everything can change overnight.

Careful planning can help you minimize losses and emerge relatively unscathed from a disaster. Here are seven steps that can help you develop an emergency plan and ensure that your business is as prepared as possible for the next calamity.

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1. Work from home for a day.
“The simplest way to perform a readiness test is to stay home,” says Ken Menken, CEO of Capalon Communications, a Maryland-based provider of IT 
and communications services to small businesses. “With your office off-limits, what are you unable to do [remotely] for your business? The answers may surprise you, and you’ll quickly know what you need to move or back up out of the office.” For instance, one Capalon client told his staff to work from home on the day Sandy was scheduled to hit. That’s when he learned that several employees didn’t have a home router for multiple devices or had a firewall blocking Internet telephone service, which was a critical element of the company’s disaster recovery plan.

2. Make a comprehensive list of essentials.
When helping clients develop emergency plans, Adam Zweibel, president of Alpha Technology Group in Livingston, N.J., discusses each item they would need to keep their business running after a disaster. From that list, they then develop various contingency plans. “A client with multiple offices, for example, might need a way to access their calendar and redirect appointments to another location, while a client with an archive of historical files might need to have instant access to those files if a server goes down or gets submerged underwater,” he says. “Our advice is to actually map out an absolute worst-case scenario. What would happen if your entire office was flooded or burned to the ground? Think about everything you would need to keep things moving forward seamlessly.”

3. Appoint leaders.
Brandon Lewis, owner of advertising firm Revenue Jump in Greensboro, N.C., recommends choosing specific leaders to oversee the company in the aftermath of each likely threat, such as a tornado, hurricane or fire. “In the event of an emergency, especially evacuations, you can’t rely on every employee to remember the emergency procedures,” Lewis says. “Leaders must be appointed and they must be trained and retrained regularly on how to implement the emergency plans [for the specific crisis] under their responsibility.”

4. Plan for communications.
Develop several ways to alert employees of an emergency, Lewis says. For instance, you may use email blasts, text blasts and voice broadcasting, which allows you to simultaneously send a voice message to everyone’s office phone and cell phone. Also, install alarms throughout the building and test them regularly. For retailers and other businesses that often have customers on site, consider installing intercoms to issue instructions to staff and customers at the same time.

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5. Move to the cloud.
AppLaunch, a New York City-based PR firm for app developers, kept functioning when Sandy hit partly because all code and project information is in the cloud. “We had every byte of our data
during that week,” says CEO Chris Maddern. By providing employees with portable Wi-Fi devices, everyone could access their cloud-based project information and continue working from wherever they were based whether or not they had power. Moving to the cloud doesn’t have to be expensive. For example, Newtek Business Services, a New York City-based provider of cloud computing and other services to small businesses, can host a website in the cloud for as little as $6 a month and offers data storage for as little as $4.95 a month. Google Apps provides 5GB of backup space for free, while Microsoft, Amazon Web Services and Rackspace also offer cloud-computing space.

6. Find an alternative place to go.
AppLaunch’s emergency plan includes an agreement with Regus, a provider of flexible workplaces, to get access to a backup site. AppLaunch pays $500 a month for access to the space on as-needed basis for six employees. Regus and similar companies guarantee a backup space even in the case of a major storm like Sandy. “Even if the closest option is not functional, there are a variety of other options,” says Dan Perrin, senior director of workplace recovery at Regus, which has 1,200 temporary workplace locations worldwide.

7. Ensure workers’ safety.
Be sure to consider what your employees may need in the event of an emergency. For instance, every employee at AppLaunch has a company credit card with $500
 available. These cards are “not for hospitality but for getting to and from work and staying safe in
an emergency,” Maddern says. In addition, he and his management staff checked in regularly with their employees throughout the aftermath of Sandy. “We had one developer staying at another’s house, and my place was on offer if anybody needed it,” he says. “It was important to simply stay in touch and look after each other. Anybody who needed time off could take it without [using vacation days].”

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How to Stop Offering Free Advice and Make the Sale

How to Stop Offering Free Advice and Make the Sale by GRANT CARDONE

Customers will not appreciate you, your company or for that matter, your advice until they pay for it. The greatest challenge for the expert is not giving away free information but that most have not taken the time to become great at closing the deal. Here are some tips that will ensure you begin making the sale.

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First, make sure the prospect knows what you can achieve. Present proof of the results you have obtained for clients or even at a previous job. Do as much as you can to let them know you have a solid record and are going to be a safe “bet.” Include the names or logos of these companies in your presentation and get permission from clients to lists quotes of successes or endorsements.

Next, aside from preparing a brilliant presentation, do your homework about the people you will be meeting and look for ways to find common ground. For example, maybe you both love the NFL or are alumni of the same university. These kinds of personal connections can prove vital, especially if it is the first time working with them. I say this because clients have often confided in me that they work with or buy from the consultant, team, or company they like. Find a way to deepen their understanding of you by discovering what they are passionate about.

Finally, and this is really important, know when to draw a line in the sand. You can’t expect people to respect you, if you don’t respect yourself. Let the prospective client know that you are the most capable, dedicated and solution-oriented consultant they will find and that you normally charge X-amount for your time. Then, go right for the close. Fortune favors the bold and you need to confidently let them know that they will get the greatest results by initiating a working agreement.

Looking long term, undertake thought leadership initiatives like publishing a blog, becoming a contributor to a magazine or trade publications that position you as the go-to expert in your industry. Look for speaking opportunities to raise the awareness, reputation and equity of your brand. Volunteer your time in industry associations that will elevate your value in the marketplace. Remember, customers will not completely benefit until you convince them to use your service — and persuading them to do so is a vital skill. So approach them with confidence, sign them up and close the deal.

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About the Author

Grant Cardone is an international sales expert, New York Times best-selling author, and radio show host of The Cardone Zone. He has founded three companies: Cardone Enterprises, Cardone Real Estate Holdings, and the Cardone Group. He has shared his sales and business expertise as a motivational speaker and author of five books: Sell to Survive; The Closers Survival Guide; If You’re Not First, You’re Last; The 10X Rule; and Sell or Be Sold.

How Young Entrepreneurs Stare Down Personal Crisis

How Young Entrepreneurs Stare Down Personal Crisis by WEALTH BUILDING DAILY

When starting up Gamblino in June, 27-year-old Frank Wilson had a long list of things to do. Getting hit by a car wasn’t one of them.

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A week after filing the articles of incorporation for the New York City based virtual-betting app maker, Wilson was struck by a car while leading a charity bike ride. He broke his leg in multiple places, shattered his ankle, bruised some ribs and it put him out of commission indefinitely. That presented serious problems for the fledgling company.

“The hardest thing has been traveling around our launch cities for our sales efforts,” says Wilson. “Getting through airports isn’t exactly fun and the titanium in my leg sets off the detectors every time.”

Between coping with car accidents and health troubles — and even damages caused by natural disasters like the hurricane that just clobbered the East Coast — the road to entrepreneurship is riddled with personal adversity. Of course, having to overcome such obstacles is fact of life for many, it can be downright hobbling for young entrepreneurs.

Not only might they not have health insurance, they could be majorly in debt and need to keep their fledgling venture going and growing to meet their payment obligations. Plus, without the right mentality, it’s easy to become despondent — not to mention, lose focus on your startup or even give up on your dream of entrepreneurship entirely.

To figure out how to avoid this fate, we asked three young entrepreneurs who’ve been struck by personal tragedies to kindly share how they coped — and even thrived — due to the experience.

1. Look to your network for support.
Networking isn’t just a way to cultivate professional contacts. The people you know and work with can provide the support you need when a crisis strikes.

After recently quitting her day job, Vannessa Wade was all set to relaunch Connect The Dots PR, the Houston-based PR firm that she initially launched in 2006, when she found out she had sickle-cell anemia. The crisis came out of nowhere, says the 31-year-old. But she powered through and continued with the relaunch — thanks in large part to asking her network for support.

“I talked about my journey, and, in return, I heard stories about how rare and beautiful things came out of ugly situations,” says Wade of her experience networking. That was uplifting, she says, adding: “When you learn about other people overcoming things, it can help you stay on the path to following your dreams.”

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2. Set big goals, but focus on baby steps.
After he was hit by the car, Wilson from Gamblino says he drew strength from aggressive short and long-term goal-setting.

“I decided on my physical recovery goal early on: To beat my last triathlon time by fall 2013,” says Wilson. “In the meantime, I’ve focused on short-term goals, such as making it up and down the stairs to my fourth-floor walkup apartment on my own.”

That strategy also helped propel Wilson’s business. “It has allowed us to break down and accomplish the wide-ranging tasks required to take Gamblino from an idea to a finished product in a matter of months.”

3. Don’t be afraid to pivot.
Micah Daigle, 28, knows the power of resiliency. He’s been suffering from an increasingly progressive digestive condition for more than a decade.

“It took me awhile to realize just how debilitating [the condition] had become,” says the San Francisco resident who had started several businesses that ultimately failed, before admitting he needed to focus on his wellbeing. “It’s impossible to build a healthy business if you yourself aren’t healthy,” he adds.

Daigle is now setting his sights on consulting projects in the crowdfunding space through his latest venture, the Collective Agency. The decision to give up being a full-time founder was difficult, but necessary, he says.

“The hardest decision was to take an indefinite break” from running a company full time, Daigle says. “It felt like giving up.” But, he adds, “I knew it was the right thing to do if I was ever going to get to a place where I’d have the health to sustain projects.”

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About the Author

Logan Kugler is a 22 year-old entrepreneur and technology writer based in Silicon Valley. He’s written for more than 60 major publications including Entrepreneur Magazine, Forbes, Fast Company, Men’s Journal, Autoweek, Computerworld, PC World, and PC Magazine and he’s been hired by Fortune 500 companies including IBM, CDW, BMW, and Oracle. He started his first business when he was 10 and turned a five-figure profit within the first year. He’s currently working on getting humanity into space.

Secrets from the Garage Sale Millionaire

Secrets from the Garage Sale Millionaire by WEALTH BUILDING DAILY

Originally Posted on Yahoo! Finance

As the saying goes, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, and Aaron LaPedis is living proof. Over the years he’s been so successful buying and reselling other people’s unwanted items, he’s earned the nickname The Garage Sale Millionaire and even written a book about it. His most recent gem: photo negatives of Elvis Presley’s famous appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show — the one where Sullivan told him he couldn’t shake his hips — that he hopes to sell for six figures.

I recently visited LaPedis in his hometown of Denver to learn how to spot valuable items.

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What’s Hot and What’s Not

My first lesson came during our visit to his local Goodwill store. There, LaPedis found a signed graduation speech by President Lyndon B. Johnson. While the signature couldn’t be authenticated on-site, if it proved to be real, LaPedis was certain it could fetch at least $100. For a purchase price of $5, he was willing to take the risk. Later, a quick call to a local appraiser proved he was right.

Along with signed presidential memorabilia, the best items to consider purchasing for resale value, according to LaPedis, include fine art, antiques, Beatles or Elvis collectables, coins, toy trains, rare books, antique firearms, antique furniture, china and some baseball cards and comic books.

You should avoid purchasing the following items: autographed sports memorabilia (since so much is fake), antique rugs, old newspapers and magazines, or fad collectibles such as Beanie Babies. His rule of thumb is that if something’s been mass-produced, even if it’s historic, it’s not going to fetch much money since there are likely many more still in existence.

When In Doubt, Search eBay

While perusing a yard sale or your local thrift store, LaPedis’ shopping tip is to keep your mobile device handy and search online for clues about an item’s worth. Consult sites like Worthpoint.com and, of course, the ever-popular eBay, where you can search its “completed auctions” section to judge whether the item in question has potential value.

Spotting Fakes

Fake antiques contain glue, staples, modern screws or nails. Examine items like paintings, pottery, china and Depression-era glass with a black light to see if they’ve been repaired or restored. Glue and residue from cleaning agents will typically glow under a black light. Depression-era glass will glow, as well, but that’s usually a sign it’s the real deal.

LaPedis has a few tricks for spotting real antique silver. “A lot of real silver, somewhere underneath, will say ‘.925.’ Another nice, really cool trick is to put a magnet to [the silver]. If a magnet attaches itself, it’s not real,” he says.

Be an Early Bird

Timing is everything when it comes to scoring the perfect treasure, says LaPedis. Shop garage sales early to get first pick, and swing by at the end of the day, about an hour before closing, when sellers are desperate to unload. Visit thrift stores regularly and kindly ask management to give you a heads up when deliveries are made.

Don’t Show All Your Cash

When trying to haggle, LaPedis says it helps to pretend you only have a limited amount of cash. For instance, if a yard sale item is marked $15, but you only want to pay $10, show the seller you only have a $10 bill.

Dress the Part

Presentation goes a long way when trying to score a deal. It’s less likely you can get a discount after driving up in a fancy car and carrying a designer handbag. “Dress the part,” LaPedis urges. “Wear jeans, tennis shoes and maybe a teeshirt. You don’t have to look like a bum, but you shouldn’t look like a millionaire, either. If you have a nice car, park it down the block.”

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How to Get Funding? Act Like You Don’t Need It

How to Get Funding? Act Like You Don’t Need It by WEALTH BUILDING DAILY

Originally Posted on Entrepreneur.com

Here’s one way to raise more money in a seed round: Say, “No thanks.” That’s what Zain Jaffer and Jack Smith, founders of the Vungle mobile ad platform, did when a bevy of heavyweight investors clamored to get a piece of their company as it exited the hot San Francisco incubator AngelPad.

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The two say they weren’t initially interested in securing funding; they didn’t want to deal with the pressure of fighting for control with investors. But as tech luminaries like Google Ventures, AOL Ventures, Crosslink Capital and angel investors SoftTech VC, SV Angel, 500 Startups and Tim Draper started knocking on their door, it was tough to turn down the cash. They closed on $2 million in January.

“When we said we didn’t have any more room for investors, they thought it was a bluffing tactic, so they pushed slightly harder,” says Smith, who moved with Jaffer from London in 2011 to take part in AngelPad. They launched Vungle in beta this year.

The investors wanted in on the duo’s ability to tap into the rapidly growing world of mobile advertising, a sector worth $1.45 billion in 2011 and expected to reach $2.61 billion this year, according to eMarketer. Vungle takes screen grabs and video from apps in action to build the equivalent of a movie trailer for its clients. Because the spots are structured like trailers, they “give you more of a flavor of the application’s features and appearance,” Jaffer says.

Vungle’s app trailers are absurdly cheap and easy to make. Armed with experience in video production, the founders can turn around a finished production in as little as 24 hours–no need for pricey designs and programming. The cost: free (for now) with a commitment to buy a mobile ad campaign that starts at a few thousand dollars.

Distribution comes from developers who’ve embedded a simple Vungle code into their apps so that the trailers can appear at natural breaks in the action, such as the completion of a game level or task. That’s how it works on faceBlocker, an app that allows users to blur certain faces or details on a photograph. As users make their way through the app, a 15-second Vungle trailer will play at a natural pause point.

David Silverman, partner at San Francisco-based Crosslink Capital, loves Vungle’s take on in-app advertising. He says the ability to capture a segment of this market is “the fundamental piece” to what will be a profitable business.

Smith and Jaffer are hard at work expanding Vungle’s client base beyond the 20 or so it has now and getting themselves on the radar of app developers whose business models depend on advertising. “Until now, if you wanted to run a video ad campaign for or in your app, good luck,” Jaffer says. “We figured out how to make it easy.”

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5 Ways to Quit Your Job Peacefully and Professionally

5 Ways to Quit Your Job Peacefully and Professionally by WEALTH BUILDING DAILY

Originally Posted at Business on Main

Thinking it’s time to quit your job so you can venture out on your own or seek out new opportunities? Here’s how to handle your departure with integrity so you don’t burn bridges.

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The most difficult aspect of quitting your job isn’t figuring out what to do next. After all, you could go climb a mountain. Build out any number of 100 business ideas you already have. Sit on a beach in the tropics for a month. There’s no shortage of things to do with free time.

No, the hardest part of quitting your job is often the simplest: telling your current employer that you plan to leave.

It doesn’t matter if you’ve been working there for six months or six years — when you’re spending more time at work than with your own family, it can be an agonizing endeavor to tell your employer you want to go elsewhere. It’s almost like going through a breakup after years of dating. In the three years I’ve been working with people to help them quit their jobs and build sustainable businesses, I’ve seen all kinds of different ways to approach that fateful day when you march in and say, “Hey, boss, I’m outta here.”

Sometimes it goes really well.

Other times? Well, not so much.

Here, I cover five different approaches to leaving your job, the potential objections/responses to each, and how you can prepare yourselfbeforehand to give yourself the best shot of remaining on good terms after your last day.

1. The quarter-life crisis
One of the most common approaches to leaving your job comes from those who have graduated within the last five years and are often still in their first job out of college.

This is a tough place to be. I’m willing to bet your first job out of school wasn’t your dream job, yet here you find yourself, still working away without much to show for it. Even worse, you may have a completely unwarranted sense of obligation to your employer. I did. I felt like since they took a shot on me, I had to stick around forever.

False.

You can use the quarter-life crisis approach in numerous ways. Tell them you need more life experiences, that you need to figure out what gets you excited. This is the absolute best approach when the only thing you know is school and this one job. You need to have a myriad of experiences so you can figure out what’s actually right for you, not just what’s easiest.

Common objection: Are you sure you know what you’re doing? You’re just going to have to start over again in six months.

Reality: Taking time off to travel and figure out what you want out of life is only going to make you more marketable to employers in the future. If you get back and have realized exactly the type of work you want to be doing in the future, they will have more confidence in your long-term commitment to the organization.

2. The entrepreneur
If you’re anything like me, you want to own your own business. You want the freedom, responsibility and rewards that go along with being an entrepreneur. And if you’re stuck working for someone else, regardless of how sweet the job is, your lust for entrepreneurship will never be satiated until you give it a shot.

Until you do it, you’ll always be left wondering “What if?” — a feeling no one should have to experience. So if this is you, think long and hard about the type of business you want to run. Get started on the weekends and in your spare time, and once you’ve got some proof that the idea is viable, it’s time to break the news.

Talk to your boss and share your entrepreneurial visions. This works especiallywell for small businesses where they are also entrepreneurs — they’ll get it, trust me.

Depending on the types of services or products you’re offering in your new business, your current employer could potentially be a great first client.

For instance, my friend Zach quit his job as a developer so he could focus more on the projects he was actually passionate about. His company couldn’t stand the thought of him leaving, so he was asked to continue working part time. He now gets to work remotely, works half as many hours, and still makes almost as much as he was making before. Talk about a linchpin.

Common objection: In this economy, you’re lucky to have any job at all — why would you want to throw that all away?

Reality: Even if you stay, there are no guarantees. They can sack you anytime they want, so by working for yourself you’re beginning down the path of true job security, or job security 2.0 as I call it in Location Rebel.

Worst-case scenario? You go back and get a job when you need to — but at least you’ll no longer be wondering “What if?”

3. The remote work agreement
This can be a great approach, depending on a few key aspects:

– Your job is 80 percent “remotable.” Meaning, given a computer and an Internet connection, you can theoretically do your job from anywhere. Note: Working remotely could entail major changes to your routine, but if this rule holds true, there are always ways to make it possible.

– You’re willing to leave sooner rather than later if it doesn’t work out. I once pitched a remote agreement and got this back: “We will not accept your proposal, but we will accept this as your resignation.” Be prepared for this response.

– You’re truly committed to working hard if the agreement is accepted. If you just want to use this as an excuse to slack off, don’t bother.

I love the remote work agreement because it gets you one step closer to becoming a location rebel. It allows you to go somewhere new and set your own schedule (usually), and it shows you what it’s really like to be on your own. This can be a great test case for whether or not you’re really ready to branch out on your own accord.

Common objection: Why should you be able to take off to Bali, Belize or Boise while we’re still here in the office? You’ll be way less productive.

Reality: If you’re serious about this, your remote work can actually be a huge asset to the company. It has the potential to save the firm money (depending on the agreed-upon terms), bring its business into the 21st century with improved security and remote computer access,and open up a whole new client base due to your new location.

If you work for a small company in the U.S., it could even use you as its “international” office to make itself seem like more of a global institution.

4. The bluff
The bluff isn’t really a tactic for quitting, but rather understanding the importance of your place in the company.

Jennifer did this and didn’t even realize it. We’d been talking back and forth on strategies for building her new writing business, while also getting her to the point where she was willing to take the nerve-wracking step of quitting her cush job.

After finally getting to the point where she worked up the nerve to do it, you know what her boss said? “No. I can’t let you quit.”

How’s that for a momentum killer?

She was already nervous, and then her boss took away all her confidence and she didn’t know what to do. She agreed to stay on for a month, which gave her boss more time to plan out what was next.

She realized in that month just how valuable she was. So after some back and forth, she agreed to a big raise and to stay on for the rest of the year. All the while, she’s still been growing her business, and has landed a couple HUGE writing gigs.

Now, not only will she have the money to really pursue her new business early next year, but she’ll already have the brand, contacts and confidence in place to do it.

Common objection: You can’t quit — no one will ever hire you again. You need this.

Reality: You don’t need any job — however, there’s a very good chance your employer needs you. If you know this is the case, leverage it and consider a bluff. That said, you should be prepared for your employer to call it. If you aren’t in a place where you’d follow through with your resignation, then you should probably stick around for a while longer or try a safer approach.

5. The budget cut
Ah, the dreaded budget cut. The re-org. The downsizing. Whatever name you want to give it, it can be a terrifying thing for a lot of employees.

But what if you were already thinking about quitting? Then maybe it doesn’t have to be such a scary thing. In fact, maybe it can be a positive for both you and your boss.

If you know there’s a round of layoffs coming, go to your boss or whoever is in charge of making the layoff decisions and have an honest conversation to see if it would help them out if you volunteered to be laid off. That’s one less person they have to break bad news to, and it could also mean you’d be eligible for severance, or at the very least, unemployment benefits.

Approach this one delicately, as your boss could simply fire you (justly) on the spot. If you have a good relationship, maybe go out for a drink or coffee. Tell your boss what you’re thinking and see what the response is. When executed properly, this is one of the best ways to leave because every party wins, and you get some help financially while you start your business or figure out what’s next.

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Common objection: Why are you telling me you don’t want to work here anymore? You know I can fire you now because of that?

Reality: If you do it right, they should sense the empathy you have for their situation, as well as your desire to make a change in your own life. Worst case is they fire you and you don’t get severance. Best case, you stay good friends, and get a head start on your new path.

Moving forward after quitting
Quitting your job is never easy. Emotions will almost always be high, and even if you have something else lined up or a good business in place, the uncertainty can be brutal. Stay positive — the worst-case scenario almost never happens, and remember, you’re leaving for a reason. Even if things get temporarily more difficult, I promise they won’t stay that way forever.

What did I miss? How did you break it to your boss that you were heading elsewhere?

A version of this post originally appeared on Location 180.

Sean Ogle is currently doing the things that most people just talk about doing — traveling the world, building businesses and helping others do the same thing via Location Rebel.

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How to Delegate Control of Your Finances

Richard Branson on How to Delegate Control of Your Finances by WEALTH BUILDING DAILY

Originally Posted at Entrepreneur.com

Q: How can I delegate financial duties and responsibilities to my colleagues at work without turning into a lunatic who’s always balancing accounts with a scientific calculator?
–Elias Nyaga, Nairobi, Kenya

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As the head of a company you’ll find that there are many areas that need your consideration. Trying to divide your time sensibly and fairly across them all while you’re balancing the books and steering the company is a real test.

That’s why top finance directors are paid high sums to keep track of a company’s profits (or, indeed, losses). It’s no simple task.

It’s understandable that you might choose to spend a lot of your own time focusing on the accounts when you’re starting up your business. After all, every penny counts. After we launched Virgin Records, we often worried about where the next paycheck was coming from. I regularly spent months reviewing and signing every check we paid out.

I vividly recall a time when we were facing great financial difficulty at Student Magazine, my first business venture. John Lennon had promised to record a single in connection with our publication, but it hadn’t materialized. I paid John and Yoko Ono a visit and found them mourning the loss of their baby. They had recorded its heartbeat — they offered that recording to me as an alternative. Perhaps foolishly, I decided to turn it down and scrap the edition.

In hindsight, one thing that I learned from that experience was that there are many other important factors to contend with besides the pressure of worrying about finances. Money might be the last thing you should be thinking about.

If you don’t have a head for numbers, it’s probably a good idea to let someone who is experienced in finance tackle the books. You should instead focus on the areas of the business you’re best at and those you enjoy. But even if you are an expert at accounts, it will certainly benefit your business if you let colleagues help you out. While it may take some time before you fully trust others to take responsibility, the sooner this happens, the sooner you can start doing the real job of running a business.

It’s clearly important that you keep a close eye on the numbers when you’re starting up a business, but it may become less of a focus for you over the years. I’ve found that if you ensure that your staff and customers are happy and that your product or service is of good quality, the finances often take care of themselves.

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This has been particularly important at Virgin Active, our health club business. The sector is riddled with failed businesses and small companies that have survived but are unable to expand. In contrast, our management team, led expertly by Matthew Bucknall, has built a successful health club chain that is now operating in six different countries. They followed this formula: Each CEO at the national level is allowed the autonomy he or she needs to build the business — a strategy that takes into account the need for local intelligence and local touches.

So my advice is to delegate, but keep your eye on how the business is doing. There’s no better way to do that than through personal visits to staff and customers. It is crucial that you get out there and meet them. My family taught me to always look for the best in people, to enjoy the time spent together and to learn from such experiences. These are useful skills for any business leader, and they can’t be exercised from behind a desk.

When we launched Virgin Money, I met with staff members at branches up and down the country. The insight those visits gave me were priceless. If I ever needed convincing that investing in a bank was the right thing to do, well, the stories I heard that week confirmed it. To see so many employees enthusiastic and proud to be working for Virgin made me even more excited about the future of our bank. We very much wanted Virgin Money to be the start of something different, and it was great to see that everyone was onboard.

None of us has the answer to every challenge, but you can rest assured that if you have a question, there’s likely to be someone on your staff who has the right answer. Delegate and see

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4 Ways to Discover Your Strengths

4 Ways to Discover Your Strengths by WEALTH BUILDING DAILY

Mad Men‘s Don Draper is exceptionally good at saving a deal gone sour. When a client dislikes an ad campaign, he can weave the perfect tale to change their minds. His storytelling ability is a gift that no one else at his agency has. To become a successful business leader, identify your own strengths and talents and foster them.

Your strengths are ultimately the keys to your success. “When we do things we’re already good at, our business acumen is quicker,” says Todd Kashdan, a psychology professor at George Mason University and author of Curious? (William Morrow, 2009).

“When it comes to the best way to leverage your ability, it’s (best) to go through your strengths.” he says.

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Using these four tips, you can learn to recognize your core strengths. Here’s how:

1. Watch for signs of excitement. When you engage in an activity you are truly good at, your excitement is visible. Your pupils dilate, your chest is broader, your speech is fast and fluid, and your arms spread wider. “You can see someone feels alive and motivated when they’re using a core strength,” Kashdan says.

Related: How to Train Your Creative Mind

Ask a close mentor when you appear most animated or observe yourself for a day. When do you feel most engaged? Most energized? “When people are using their strengths, they pop out of the backdrop,” Kashdan says.

(If observation sounds tricky, you can also take an online survey, like the VIA Character Strengths Test to help you identify and rank your greatest strengths.)

2. Break away from job titles. To uncover your gifts, you need to explore new roles. “Think of your company as a laboratory,” Kashdan says. Encourage flexible roles and see how it goes. “If people are excited about trying something else and you have some evidence that they could be good, then experiment with it,” he says.

For example, one executive wanted a more creative, innovative workplace but wasn’t the man to do it himself. Kashdan helped him identify a maverick on his staff — someone creative and unconcerned with others’ opinions — then put that person in charge of innovation. By assigning roles based on strengths, rather than job titles, they were able to create a stronger team.

3. Notice what you do differently than everyone else. In a situation where you are truly using your strengths, you will stand out from a crowd. Your approach will be unique. To name your strengths, you want to identify those moments and articulate how you are different.

Related: 5 Ways to Rekindle the Passion for Your Business

Kashdan recalls one executive at an early morning meeting who told an animated story about letting his kids run free at a crowded aquarium. “His focus was not on safety but on promotion,” Kashdan says, highlighting a support for autonomy that would help him manage independent workers.

4. Describe your strengths creatively. When naming your strengths, avoid what Kashdan calls “wastebasket terms,” meaning overused words like ‘passionate’ or ‘dedicated.’ Instead, come up with a unique term that captures your specific strength.

“By coming up with an exciting word, you avoid all the typical connotations,” Kashdan says. He uses terms like storyteller, autonomy supporter, investigator, energy incubator, and battery. That specificity helps leaders apply their gifts. “Once you can put a word to your strengths, it becomes much more embedded in your everyday life,” he says.

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