Have you ever heard, “You have to have money to make money?” I suppose it’s true. But you don’t have to have much. We started christinesbooks.net in 2003 with $500.00, haven’t incurred a single dollar of debt since, and grew it organically. How did we do it? Persistence, patience, and a lot of frugality.
In America [...]

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In this post, I am going to detail my experiences finding the right place for our business at the right price.
We found it, and last week, we signed the lease. We are remodeling and moving in over the next six weeks.

We’ve been planning to move christinesbooks.net from our home to a commercial bricks and mortar [...]

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Have you heard that 50% of small businesses fail in the first year and 95% fail in the first five years? Let me tell you why.
Most small businesses fail becuase they can’t handle debt, get buried by rent, or get pushed into risky decisions by impatient investors.
I’ve seen a lot of business fail taking the [...]

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Jonathan Fields was kind enough to interview us on Career Renegade TV. We loved doing this interview. Jonathan is a great guy and makes you feel at ease. We planned to do audio only but at the last minute we decided to go for the video. Let us know what you think.
We talk mostly about [...]

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Safety is a trap. It is also an illusion that is turning many of us into spineless blobs.
Safety watches re-runs. Risk writes the next smash hit.
Calculated risk turns mediocrity into excellence.
Life reminds me of crossing the Missippippi headwaters on stepping stones when I was a kid.
First you must decide to get to the other side.
Then [...]

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Financial intelligence is mostly counter intuitive. Take everything you feel about the economy and turn it on its head.
You’ve heard “buy low, sell high,” right? Sounds easy enough, but how do you do it? Most people buy high and sell low.
This is why the rich are rich and most of us aren’t.
The rich…

Sell when everyone [...]

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I struggle with this question everyday, “What am I going to do with all my opportunities?”
Sometimes I ask, “What am I going to do?” But I wonder if that’s the right question. Maybe it is “What do I need to stop doing?”
You can’t focus on everything that has potential. If you try, you’ll spread yourself [...]

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Christine and I are experimenting with video. We just made this one and added it to an auction Christine is running on Ebay. We’ll probably do more. What do you think? I’d appreciate your feedback.

Thunderbirds DVD Set auction on ebay

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Have we been trained not to enjoy ourselves?
Are work and play really different or is the differentiation simply a choice we make? Do we choose drudgery as work, so in contrast fun seems that much more fun? Aren’t we simply engaged in activities we choose to label?

This activity is play
That activity is work
Another activity is [...]

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When I find something that cranks me up, I have to share it. In this video Jonathan Fields interviews Gary Vaynerchuk. They talk about:

Education and how it’s out of touch with the present economy and society
Building a business – going from 0 to $50,000,000
Finding your passion
Being true to who you really are
Balancing family life
What it [...]

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