Nick Yates Chronicles his Travel Adventures

Nick Yates here with another travel adventure; this time about St. Tropez! If the topic is tropical vacations, Saint Martin is deservedly one of the more popular Caribbean island vacation spots.  And not just for its famous naturist beaches — though that might be reason enough for some to plunk down the cost of an air ticket.

Divided as it is between Dutch and French sovereignty, Saint Martin (A.K.A. St-Martin or Sint Maarten or SXM) offers vacationers a two-fer:  The twelve-mile-long island is conveniently divided between a Dutch-themed half that new arrivals first glimpse after getting off cruise ships or scheduled flights, and a French half commencing a bit further along the circular road which perfectly rings the island.

Saint Martin is green.  And beachy.  And pleasant indeed on the senses.

And it exudes just enough European flavor to lift it well above its Caribbean competitors — though imagination may, at times, be necessary to completely carry this off.  This is still the Western Hemisphere, after all.

But with a difference.  French and Dutch street names, European building facades, continental menus and restaurant service, and the sound of something other than pidgin island English are in the air.  A short ferry ride away are the trendy island playgrounds of St. Barthelemy and Anguilla.

There are opportunities for excellent scuba diving amidst coral formations immediately offshore, and far more spectacular ones further dollars out.
But to flesh out (sorry!) the naturism facts a bit — the island’s beaches are mainly conventional as far as clothing.  Orient Beach, situated in the French half (where else?), indeed allows for freedom of bodily expression.  North Americans, especially, seem to find this a compelling attraction — though there are no shortage of other nationalities who apparently also do.

As in many Caribbean getaways, items like imported spirits are duty free and remarkably cheap.  The thoughtful traveler may ponder just how it is that governments elsewhere (our own, for instance) are able to overload the price of spirits with quite so many taxes!

Bad things about the Island?  Hotels are way overpriced by international standards — though not by those of most other Caribbean venues.  The Caribbean region as a whole has long been plagued by some massive delusion which denies tourists their otherwise natural powers to discern correct value in hotel beds.  Why exactly is that?  Nor do locals benefit much from all the overpriced lodging — poverty remains as stark as ever.

But if you’re inclined toward the Caribbean, Saint Martin is definitely one of your better bets.

Author: Nick Yates

At 9,000 feet in the high Himalayas of Nepal, the airstrip at Lukla clings to its bit of mountain at a very precarious angle indeed.

Travelers flying up to this roof-of-the-world spot will find themselves well placed along a highland trail that leads north into the trees and to ever-loftier peaks.  A day or two’s trekking will bring them to the central Sherpa village of Namche Bazaar; the next day’s might see them through to Tengboche and its fabled Buddhist monastery.  Both places sit among soaring mountains that perfectly define the ultimate Himalayan experience for any lucky enough to witness its snowy peaks and singularly crystalline winter skies.

The trek will also introduce travelers to the culture of mountain Nepalese.  Tiny clusters of their split-log, mud-daubed dwellings regularly appear out of the forest and scrub bordering Nepal’s highland trails.  The inhabitants can be seen farming parcel-sized fields, tending the yaks which still serve as the region’s preferred medium of carriage, gathering wood for home hearths that yet fill an essential need in third world countries, and regularly offering shelter to travelers who find themselves before Sherpa doors when the Himalayan nighttime falls.

A very few rupees buys a voyager space within to unroll his sleeping gear.  And sustenance, in the form of the staple rice and potatoes of the mountains with perhaps a more exotic, left-over canned food from some previous Everest climbing expedition.

But even the colorful mountain culture is at a disadvantage competing with the vast panorama that surrounds, even at night.

Among perhaps a thousand spectacular Himalayan sights, the moon’s debouch from behind mountain peaks on a clear Himalayan night will be one sight never forgotten.  The impression is of headlights — suddenly and mysteriously projecting down from impossible heights — and it may be a minute or more before you realize just what it is that has so completely captured your attention, as there will be no tell-tale illuminated haze to identify it.

And should you be so adventurous as to journey all the way up to Everest base camp altitudes, you’ll witness the deep roar of distant avalanches cascading down from the mountain’s heights.  In the nighttime stillness, the effect can be other-worldly.

Morocco was the jumping off point for a Muslim army which conquered all of Spain in the first millennium and held it for Islam through fully eight hundred years.  To this day crafts and decors from Barcelona to Baja California reflect the influence of this conquest. My name is Nick Yates and I would like to discuss my recent trip to this lovely area.

A recent trip of mine to Morocco, not my first, took me to some of the North African country’s craft markets.  I started with Fez.  It’s a vibrant enough commercial city in its modern quarters, but one whose history is truly embodied in its huge and intricate old souq (market) area.  Several square kilometers in size, the old souq is a trip back in time.  Its maze of narrow lanes twist their way down a hillside revealing along the way every conceivable manner of artisan, craft and domestics shop imaginable — all peopled by a tide of humanity seemingly costumed for an epic Hollywood production, right down to the donkeys and camels used for supply and shipment.  Turns out that many of the narrow, sometimes steep pathways simply won’t admit wheeled vehicles.  Camel droppings you inadvertently trod in while acsorbing this timeless spectacle are an experience shared by centuries of marketplace wanderers before you!

The seaside town of Essaouira is another gem.  Stone walls surround a picturesque port town offering colorful markets, a lively open-air quay area with seafood restaurants, and an international backpacker contingent which confirm Essaoira’s status as an adventure traveler destination.

Marrakech lives up to its seventies billing (as per the old Crosby, Stills & Nash song).  The large, open area fronting the central market is a circus of snake charmers and other performers actively vying for your attention and dirham contributions:  Take a photo — and you will immediately be accosted by someone demanding some banknotes!

Saharan sand dunes, of the sort made famous by a slew of movies over the years, await you in Erfoud.  And I mean real sand dunes.  An hour’s drive across trails from the town brings you to the edge of the dune desert.  From there you can wander out onto a virtual sea of sand which undulates to the far horizons and offers all manner of dramatic Sahara photography.  Be sure and arrive well before the heat of the day if you’re touring in the summer months:  while the desert dawns are for all, the afternoons are strictly for Bedouins.

Morocco is one third world country it’s a shame not to see by rental car.  The largest cities do require nerve to navigate, but the vast area in between offers sights too numerous to mention or to risk missing.

Nick Yates asks: Are you holding on to dreams of a European vacation that are hostage to the current, unfavorable dollar exchange rates?

International currencies, being living things, constantly take each other’s measure. Any sudden increase in demand for one will likely raise its value vis-a-vis the others; and the reverse is of course true when a currency falls from favor. And that’s about all I’m going to venture as to why most of us cannot go to Europe this season without tapping into home equity!

But did you know that there are some truly excellent travel venues right here in our own hemisphere, and without the high price tags? In fact, all that lies beyond our southern border is fertile ground for your travel imagination. Especially Central America and Mexico. And as a bonus, there are no jarring time zone differences to recover from upon return or Gallic attitudes to try and block out!

Do you have an interest in photography and cultural color? Guatemala offers as vibrant a culture as can be found anywhere: costumes and traditions which will wow your camera lens!  Costa Rica has long been a favorite of environmentalists. And why not? Its rainforest parks, set among scenic mountain backdrops with, yes, volcanoes offer North American travelers a very different world only hours from their own work-a-day jobs. Costa Rica also has fine beaches on both its Caribbean and Pacific coasts, and hotel prices which remain quite moderate by neighboring West Indies standards.

Panama, Honduras, Belize — even El Salvador and Nicaragua — all offer their own distinctive mix of attractions. And then there’s Mexico. I personally favor the southernmost Mexican states of Oaxaca and Chiapas, but much that is pleasant to behold can be found across Mexico’s breadth. And at reasonable prices, once outside the well-past-their-prime gringo haunts.

Asia is an altogether different destination whose time has also come. And though it requires more of an airfare investment, it will make up for it in extra exoticness and much day-to-day thrift.

Who among us would not feel a thrill traveling a slow boat down the mysterious Mekong River, or in witnessing dawn ceremonies at an ancient Buddhist temple complex? Or in photographing the colorful array of an Asian market or sampling the fresh delicacies of Oriental cuisines? Trade vagaries in this corner of the globe have left the dollar in good shape and American tourists therefore still at an advantage in arranging basic amenities.

Fifty dollars, for instance, will secure a quite decent night’s lodging in most Southeast Asian cities Mr. Yates has found, while twenty-five will easily house you in a backpacker-style hotel where the Spartan accommodations will be balanced with a wealth of travel insights courtesy of your fellow-boarders.

Author: Mr. Roman Bernard Sloan

Finding the best home based business opportunity is one of those tasks that may seem daunting at first. But I assure you that it can be one of the easiest things you’ll ever do. You see, searching for the perfect and best home based business opportunity for you can be done in hundreds of different ways but here are 7 to get you started.

1. (Define Yourself) -The best home business for you should fit you like a glove. This is why defining your superior and not so superior attributes is crucial to discovering a bsuiness that is tailor made for your life.

2. (You Want Your Business To…) -Develop some selfish thinking here and really ponder about what you want your home business to do on your behalf. What should your business offer you that is unique to what other opportunities offer other people.

3. (Discover What You’ll Spend) - The best home based business opportunity for you will have an ideal budget for initial start-up and operation costs. How much you’re willing to spend on education about the home business, supplies, and marketing is really going to determine if the best home based business opportunity is truly the best for you.

4. (Discover If You Want to Do or Think) - Are you the type of person that likes to work with their hands making things or working with their minds thinking of solutions to problems and then solving them? Answer this question and you will be closer than you think to finding the best home based business opportunity for you.

5. (Parent Organization or Just You) -Would you want your home based business to be associated with a larger organization. Maybe one that offers you ongoing help as you grow your home business.

6. (What’s Your End Game) - How do you want to feel after you satisfied a customer with your product of service? Would the best home business opportunity for you be one where you put a smile on a child’s face or one where you alleviate the stress of an adult?

7. (Future Dividends or One Sale One Pay) -The best home based business opportunity should be one that can provide for your future as well as your present. Finding a product or service that offers a chance for you to get paid a recurring monthly fee may be the best way to ensure future success.

Author: Wim Venter

Many businesses are difficult to harvest. A proper exit strategy, where harvesting is planned for, (e.g. through a listing, merger and acquisition etc.) starts by choosing the right business to acquire or to build from scratch. The following tips can be used as a guideline for choosing the right venture with an exit strategy mindset:

1. Choose a business where the entrepreneurs have the necessary passion and motivation to build it into a successful enterprise.
2. Ensure that the entrepreneurs’ knowledge, experience, skills, risk profile, etc. match the requirements of the new venture.
3. Understand the broader picture - e.g. to run an IT business is totally different from just being a good programmer.
4. Invest in growing industries where the window of opportunity is currently wide open.
5. Avoid to climb on the wagon when everybody is already there.
6. Ensure that there is a gap in the market. Then ensure that there is a large enough market in the chosen gap.
7. Ensure that the economics of the business is sound and feasible. Growth, profit margins and potential return on investments (ROI) need to be attractive and sustainable.
8. Only embark on new ventures where the management team have the potential through know-how, patents, resources, etc. to gain a competitive edge.
9. The business should not be build around the individual entrepreneurs for future maximisation of harvesting potential. Businesses that is build around the expertise from the entrepreneurial corps are more difficult to exit from.
10. Harvesting Potential should be kept in mind from the beginning, e.g. it is easier to sell businesses that have patented products and a manufacturing plant than those that just do distribution or sell services.

Author: Cari Vollmer

Attention gifted solopreneurs everywhere: even though you CAN come up with a million great ideas for your business doesn’t mean you SHOULD.

I see it time and time again. Gifted solopreneurs everywhere trying to do this, that and the other thing only to be left lacking focus and clarity, feeling stressed-out and overwhelmed.

I know, from personal experience, what it’s like to let your creative juices run the show in your business. Creativity is probably one your gifts and let’s face it, anything you’re good at doing FEELS GOOD doing. But this can lead to trouble for your business if you let your good ideas run roughshod over a sound business model that will stand the test of time.

The solution: set an intention to find the simplicity in your business. When you do you’ll give your business more power. Here’s how:

· Go Deep

First let me say, get out of your head and into your heart and gut. Certainly your mind can come up with a ton of good ideas. But what is your heart and soul calling you to create? Pay attention to THAT.

Why? Because those ideas are the ideas that will resonate because they come from the Core of Who You Are. Those ideas will be packed with your energy and that energy will touch others.

Yes, your mind-ideas carry energy too but are they aligned with the Core of Who You Really Are?

Go deep and allow yourself to be inspired.

· Brainstorm & Choose

Now that you’ve had a chance to LISTEN to what your heart and soul want to create, choose a few ideas to start with. Not just one you ask? No and this is why.

It’s hard to know what’s going to stick unless you try it on for size. You need to experience it, as well as your target market.

And that leads to…

· Test

I know the idea of “testing” your ideas isn’t very sexy but it’s a good mindset to adopt if you want to save yourself time and money over the long haul.

As I said above, in order to know how your ideas FIT the landscape of your business you need to test them out. Create a simple offer around one of your ideas and give it a try. In the long run you’ll be glad you did.

What comes after testing?

· Track Results

What is your target market responding to? What are you responding to? How many sales did you get from one of your ideas? How much money did you make? How did your target market respond to your offer?

These and many more questions will help you gain clarity about which offer resonates with your target market.

· Pay Attention

As you move along PAY ATTENTION to everything you’re attracting in your business. What kind of clients are showing up for you? What opportunities seem to appear out of nowhere? How do YOU feel about your offer? Does it make your heart sing or does it feel a little monotonous?

Pay close attention. By doing so you’ll gain even more CLARITY!

· Keep Tweaking

Don’t be afraid to “tweak” or “evolve” your offers, especially the good ones that are resonating with your target market.

Ask every client that enrolls in your offer what they liked/didn’t like about their experience. Also ask them for their ideas - they’ll come up with great ones!

Feedback is golden to your business so don’t be afraid to ask for it and then implement changes as you see fit.

· Create Your Irresistible Offer

After spending some time testing different offers, is there one that stands out from all the rest? Is there one offer your ideal clients flock to? If the answer is yes then you have yourself an irresistible offer!

Once you find your irresistible offer you’ll have clarity and focus for your business. You’ll also have an offer you can leverage over and over again in different ways.

For example: Let’s say you created a successful tele-coaching program. After a period of time and after working out some of the kinks you can then create a home-study course out of it. Not only that, you can also create a workshop or other specialty programs based on your core irresistible offer.

At this point - and not before - your business will have simplicity and power.

Final thoughts: does all of this sound like it will take too much time? It does take time discovering the power in your business. But hang in there, it is time well spent!

Author: Stu A McLaren

One characteristic that all creative thinkers and entrepreneurs share with each other is that they embrace the unknown.

I had the fortunate ability to participate in a mastermind group Platinum and one of the members on there was Rick Raddatz. He shared something with us that really hit home to this point.
Rick if you don’t know came up with Audio Generator, located at audiogenerator.com, with Alex Mandossian and Armand Morin. The service allows you to put your voice up anywhere over the web. People call into a number using the telephone and the file is immediately recorded and ready to be put on your website.

He said when he first had the idea for Audio Generator, it was actually a completely different service. It was actually to help married couples. When he presented the idea and was talking to and got the advice from Dan Kennedy, Dan said to him, “It’s not as profitable in the mode that you’re trying to use it.”

When Rick was faced with the decision of whether he keeps pursuing that concept or try something completely new, he was at a crossroads, and he decided to try to use Audio Generator as a marketing tool versus a tool to help married couples.

He was going in to the unknown. He had no idea whether it would be successful. He had no idea how to market it to that kind of industry. He was going where he had never gone before, but he embraced that. That was the exciting part of it all.

Remember, when we’re choosing between mediocrity and unlimited potential for your success, the difference boils down to doing what’s comfortable and doing what’s risky.

What are you going to do? Are you going to settle for the comfortable or are you going to try to take a chance and go where no one has gone before and embrace the unknown?

The difference between creative thinkers and the rest of the world is that creative thinkers are not afraid to explore the unknown.

The people who discover new countries or new product ideas or new businesses or try completely different markets with an existing product or service, are the ones who decide that they want to explore uncharted territory.

The people who invent new technology are the ones who believe that a better solution is out there.
You see, creative thinkers have this confidence, this quiet confidence in their abilities to generate ideas, no matter what problems or obstacles they face.

They don’t fear failure, but they still fear it a little bit. The reason they don’t fear failure as much is because they have the confidence in their ability to generate solutions for whatever problems come in front of them.

That quiet confidence enables them to tackle all kinds of new opportunities, to go in to new territories, to develop products that have never been developed before, because they don’t worry about what could happen, their focus is on the potential of what could be.

I want you to imagine yourself standing in front of two doors. Behind the first door is the road well traveled. It’s well groomed, there’s lots of sign posts, there’s not many twists and turns, and you’re pretty much guaranteed an easy journey. But you already know where this road is going to take you, and the destination that you’re looking for is not too exciting.

What about door number two? What’s behind it is limited only by the reach of your imagination. If you choose to take this path, you can expect it to be wild and completely unpaved. You’ve got to be a true trailblazer, swinging your machete through the branches. But in return, you’re going to go down in history as the one who created the road instead of just following it.

People say that instead of standing idly by and watching others pass before you, you made things happen. For you, for your business, for your family, and for your future.

Behind door number two is your reputation as a calculated risk taker; a person of great courage, someone who gives a lot in order to get a lot. Door number two is your gateway to your boundless success.