Guidelines For Choosing A Guru, Coach Or Mentor

Written by Chuck & Sue DeFiore


The following tips are meant as a guide for those of you who wish to enter into a coaching or mentoring relationship with a Guru, Coach or Mentor.

1. If you are not going to work withrepparttar individual you are paying, don't do it. You need to work withrepparttar 117669 individual who's charging you, so you can have accountability from him/her.

2. Take a very close look atrepparttar 117670 cost/benefit ratio ofrepparttar 117671 relationship. Is similar information or help available at a lower cost or from other sources. Please understand that most ofrepparttar 117672 information needed to succeed in Creative Real Estate or Home-Based Businesses is available for free if you haverepparttar 117673 time and ability to research it yourself.

3. Be very careful of those who claim to have secret or proprietary ways of doing business. The dictionary defines proprietary as made and sold by one withrepparttar 117674 sole right to do so; exclusively owned; private; benefiting an owner; owned by a private individual or corporation under a trademark or patent.

Now ask yourself, does anyone inrepparttar 117675 field of Creative Real Estate own an exclusive method of doing business. The answer is no. It is just marketing hype designed to entice someone into parting with his/her money.

Most ofrepparttar 117676 methods for finding, acquiring, renting, selling, optioning property have been around for years. Can someone bring a slightly different twist to these methods, yes; but this is hardly proprietary.

Take Lease Options, people have been doing options for well over one half of a century. There is nothing new about sandwich leases, assignments, etc.

Wouldn't you think that if someone had a proprietary method and he or she shared that method, that it would no longer be proprietary. Of course! Once shared, it is no longer exclusively owned, therefore not proprietary.

Which really leavesrepparttar 117677 part ofrepparttar 117678 definition about benefitingrepparttar 117679 owner. As we have seen, there are truly no proprietary or secret methods; so who does this claim benefit? Whyrepparttar 117680 one trying to separate you from your money with this hype.

4. Be careful about long term relationships. Be sure any contract you sign can be canceled if you are not satisfied withrepparttar 117681 service being provided to you. You should berepparttar 117682 final arbitrator of whether or not a relationship is worth your money.

Do not pay forrepparttar 117683 entire period up front. Many Gurus, Coaches and Mentors have a non-refundable clause in their contracts. By payingrepparttar 117684 entire fee up front, you lose leverage in case of dissatisfaction withrepparttar 117685 services provided you.

5. Be sure any material supplied to you and any services to be provided duringrepparttar 117686 course ofrepparttar 117687 relationship are covered in detail. Get a listing of what will be covered andrepparttar 117688 order in which it will happen. Do not accept generalities or vague comments like "We'll get to that". Know exactly what you are paying for.

6. Don't be led on by overly high prices. The most expensive is not alwaysrepparttar 117689 best, especially for you. This is one area, where cost does not equal caring or commitment to your needs. Nor, does a high price indicate quality. Don't be fooled byrepparttar 117690 "I'm worth it" line.

7. Speaking of quality and caring, don't settle for lip service that someone cares about your future, make them demonstrate it. Speak to them a number of times. Do they give yourepparttar 117691 bum's rush if you can't afford their services right now, or do they take some time with you. Do you getrepparttar 117692 sense that they are more interested in selling you something? If you do, think very carefully before agreeing to enter any relationship with someone like this. What makes you think that their underlying attitude will change withrepparttar 117693 passing of money.

8. Do they seem to get more benefit fromrepparttar 117694 relationship than you do? By this we mean, do they ask you to help promote their activities or products in your marketing material or promotional material. Do they ask you to do things for them, but are reluctant to do things to help promote your business? If they do, these are warning signs that this could well be a one sided relationship. Don't fall forrepparttar 117695 line "Well, you'll receive some back end benefit from this". Remember, you're in business to promote yourself, not someone else.

9. If your Guru, Coach or Mentor makes a promise to do something for you, get it in writing, particularly if it has a monetary consequence to you. By getting it in writing, you avoid any misunderstandings and you have recourse if he/she does not follow through.

10. When you speak with your Guru, Coach or Mentor, does he/she rememberrepparttar 117696 details of your last conversation or do you need to start atrepparttar 117697 beginning each time. If you need to start over with each conversation, this may be a sign that he/she is too busy to keep track of allrepparttar 117698 people they are working with. Is this what you are paying for? The last thing you need, is to feel like a part on an assembly line. It's common sense that anyone can only work with so many individuals beforerepparttar 117699 quality starts to suffer. You may want to ask before you get started, how many othersrepparttar 117700 person you are considering is currently working with.

How To Realistically Set Your Fees - Part 3

Written by Chuck & Sue DeFiore


Effect of Benefits

We have previously examined realistic billable hours andrepparttar effect of business expenses on your hourly rate. Now we'll look atrepparttar 117668 effect of benefits.

Once upon at time, when we were employed, we received a benefits package from our employer. This usually included health, life and disability insurance. Many firms also had available pension programs, profit sharing, dental and vision coverage. In addition, one-half of your social security was paid by your employer.

As self-employed individuals, we have to provide these benefits for ourselves. This means an additional boast torepparttar 117669 hourly rate we've calculated so far. Forrepparttar 117670 sake of argument, let's figure a standard benefits package consisting of health, life, disability, pension and profit sharing. Let's figure health insurance costs at $300 per month; life at $50 per month; disability at $150 per month; pension (a SEP-IRA) at $500 per month and about 10% for a profit margin.

If we total these up we get a yearly figure of $12,000. Now keep in mind, that most of these will be paid for in after tax dollars. So, we need to add approximately an additional 30% to this number, for a true total of about $15,600 per year. The 30% representsrepparttar 117671 amount of taxes you need to pay to end up withrepparttar 117672 net amount of money needed to pay for your benefits package. Keep in mind that I chose 30% as a completely arbitrary number. Your own tax situation may be higher or lower.

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