My eBook On Spiritual Entrepreneurship

Finally! My eBook “Lightworker’s Guide to Self-Employment” is ready for your free download.

I feel strongly about self employment. I love being my own boss, and I envision more and more people will be self-employed in the New World. Having made the transition from a corporate employee to a small business owner recently, I also know there are a lot of questions and fear among aspiring entrepreneurs.

This eBook guides you from the embryonic phase of “Can I possibly start my own business? Do I have what it takes? What does it take to be a successful entrepreneur anyway?” to the point you make the leap of faith with a clear vision of your success. It consists of three parts:

Part I: Myths & Reality
Part II: 5 Steps to Self-Employment
Part III: Your Success

A lot of materials comes from the posts I wrote on this Yes to Me blog, but I have added new ideas and insights, and put them all together in an integrated one vision, one process. It discusses paycheck mentality vs risk management skill, our attitude about marketing, very practical suggestions about business names (which is a key to effective marketing), the unavoidable issue of money, our secret fear of success that deters us, and a lot more.

Spiritual entrepreneurship

Throughout the eBook, I point out how spirituality can help you in the endeavor of starting a new business. If you think spirituality has nothing to do with the real world challenge of making money, you are in for a good surprise. If you think spirituality is a drawback, putting you to a disadvantage against those aggressive “practical” type who would do anything to make money, you are in for an even bigger surprise.

I know this from my own experience. I don’t think I had the courage to quit my cushy corporate job if it wasn’t with my spirituality. I don’t think I could survive the transitional phase when nothing much was happening (at least on the surface) if I didn’t have the willingness to contribute to the world. Now, this year, which is my second year, I’m making more than I did in the corporate world and my business is growing. Doing what I love and by helping people.

This eBook is a gift to you and to the world. You can just click on the icon on this page or on the sidebar to download it. You are also welcome to share it with your friends.

Social entrepreneurship

The eBook is free, but if you find it valuable, please consider making a contribution to Kiva. Kiva is not a charity — they help entrepreneurs in the developing countries by lending money for their businesses. Those entrepreneurs will pay you back. You can then take back your money or re-loan to another entrepreneur.

When I think of the many small business owners all over the world, I feel so inspired and I’m sure the feeling is doing me good in my business. Plus, by making them rich, we are developing a worldwide market — for your business.

I appreciate if you could leave a comment with your thoughts on this eBook. Perhaps I will revise and enrich the eBook in the future to make it even better, and your feedback is priceless in such an effort.

My gratitude also goes to those many entrepreneurs who have inspired me through the interviews and other communications. Entrepreneurs are never alone (which is another critical point I make in the eBook). In fact, I will be publishing several more Interviews With Successful Entrepreneurs soon — interviews with some spirited business owners that I came to know recently. (Stay tuned!)

My Spiritual Make Money Scheme

In What The Heaven Is Value?, I pointed out lack is an illusion.  If you want to make money, it’s critical you see this clearly.  So in this post, I am expanding on this concept, and I’ll use my own business as an example.  (It made $6K in January – not a super glamorous figure, but not too shabby for a nine month old one-person business, I guess) (Photo by shoebappa)

For those of you in a hurry (because people seem to be in a hurry when they talk about making money), here is the essence of the post:
The shortcut to abundance is to develop your spirituality so that you see abundance instead of lack.
If you get this, you are done.  If you didn’t quite get it, read on.

Lack is an illusion

In reality, things are just the way they are.  For example, it rains a lot in Oregon.  That is how Oregon weather is – it is not about lack of sunny days.  But in our thinking, we can make it about lack of sunny days if we so choose.  And make ourselves miserable doing so.  Or we can see abundance of rain water and make money. Like these people who make soaps with rain water, which is naturally soft water.

In that lengthy post about value and lightworkers / darkworkers, I described how the same world could be experienced either as the world of abundance and harmony or the world of lack and pain.  There was no real change between the two – in the latter, people just adopted the bad rumor of lack.

If things are just the way they are, you may argue, it is neither lack nor abundance, it’s neutral, isn’t it?  Good point.  However, things “are”, not “are not”.  Abundance exists, but lack does not – it’s the absence of abundance.  Just as darkness is the absence of light.  Thinking lack exists is an illusion.

“All the powers in the universe are already ours. It is we who have put our hands before our eyes and cry that it is dark.”  — Swami Vivekananda

Likewise, we are putting our hands before our eyes and cry we don’t see abundance.

Lack of income?

In the comment section of that post, I conversed with Hunter Nuttall, who I so respect and adore:

Akemi: Really? You still see lack? Give me an example and I’ll incorporate it in my future post. (Be it YOUR lack, not like starving children in Africa. Because that is a different issue. You don’t really know about those kids.)
Hunter: Well yeah, I see lack. For one thing, I have no income. Isn’t that a pretty big lack?

I guess this may be the case for some other readers, too.  And yet more readers are afraid of the lack of income.  So let me make a point here to help you.

First, let me ask you if all your material needs are met with or without income.

After I quit my corporate job in October 2007 and until I started to make money in June 2008, I had no income source.  But I always had roof over my head and foods on the table.  I had a chance to talk with Hunter about this, and the conversation went something like this (quoted with his permission):

Akemi: So are you experiencing any material lack?
Hunter: Well, no.  Not now. . . But I’m afraid I will.
Akemi: How long is your money going to last?
Hunter: Umm . . . I don’t know.
Akemi: You don’t know?
Hunter: . . . No.
Akemi: Okay, then you have enough money.  If you are really short of money, you know exactly how long it will last.

Note about homelessness

People say they are afraid of becoming homeless.  Fear of homelessness keeps people stuck in their jobs they so loathe.  It’s such an effective control system that I wouldn’t be surprised if some exploitative managements were paying those people in the back.

However, I’m pretty sure people who are in alignment with the energy flow of Divine Abundance would not go homeless.  Homeless people are either:

1. Extremely out of alignment and stuck.  Like believing it is possible to become homeless and continuously acting with that fear.
2. Working on some spiritual lessons that can be best learned in homelessness.  For example, the soul may be choosing to experience abundance in an extreme rugs to riches scenario.

And here are three examples of people who rose from homelessness to abundance.

• Alex Smith, owner of Alara Wholefoods in UK, started his business with 2GBP, about $3, that he found in the gutter.
• Chris Gardner, owner of stockbrokerage firm Gardner Rich and who wrote his story in The Pursuit of Happyness that was later turned to a movie, was homeless with a toddler while he was interning.
• Neale Donald Walsch, well-known writer of Conversation with God series, was homeless for almost a year after his car accident.  Yeah, not just a homeless but a homeless with a neck collar.

I’m just listing these people to show the incredible possibilities.  But again, I don’t think we particularly need to become homeless to enjoy abundance.

Limiting thoughts about “income”

Next thing I want to ask to those of you who see lack of income is your idea of “income”.  Is that limited to certain ways, like paychecks or established business income?

Money is just energy and it can come in various ways – if you let it.  But paycheck mentality runs deep in many of us.  Even those who become self-employed carry over this mentality.

Are you comfortable receiving money in unexpected ways or do you want “income source” that seems solid, like employment?  Does it bother you if someone just sent you money, like as donation?  Does it bother if you just picked up a $100 bill?

I’m not saying you should rely on these haphazard incomes.  I’m saying you might want to open up to all kinds of possibilities of income, all kinds of income sources.  So you always have income possibilities – as long as you don’t refuse it by believing you have lack of income.

Seeing abundance everywhere you go

To make money, you first need to see abundance.  You can’t create abundance out of lack – I mean your stubborn belief of lack.  It looks like this:

Dark grim outlook of lack: “There are no good business ideas, people don’t have money and they are not buying anything, and I don’t have any money or connection or expertise to do anything, maybe I’m not interested anyway . . .”

Gee, I just felt really awful.  Let’s get back to abundance consciousness, quick!

. . . okay, I think my vision is restored.  I see abundance now.  I see lots of people, with lots of dreams and desires, and therefore tons of opportunities to serve these people.  Energy is flowing, and all I need to do is to get in this flow.

Do you see it, too?  Look around and say out loud what you see abundantly, whether they are visible stuffs or invisible needs / wants / etc.

When you notice “lack”, take a moment and think if you can change your viewpoint to see abundance.  For instance, you see lots of people losing their jobs?  Means there are lots of people who will benefit with support services in their job search or businesses development.  Think you live in a small town where there isn’t enough market for your business?  Can you go online?  The population is exploding globally, you know.

Share abundance to get more abundance

One excellent way I know to tap into increasing abundance is to share the abundance.  Come up with a win-win game plan that make everyone better off – that will attract more people and money.

I just started promoting my new eBook by affiliate program.  Affiliate programs are easy way to share abundance.  My affiliates make money by promoting great products that improve customers’ lives, I make money, too, and customers are happy to easily find such great products.

Do you know other win-win game plans?  I’d be interested – let me know in the comment ; )

How I started my business

I had a pretty good job as executive admin before.  My motivation to go into business myself was more about the sense of service and increasing love and freedom for all, including myself.  In other words, releasing the light energy trapped in darkness.

I knew there were many many people who would benefit from my Akashic Record Reading service because I was one of them myself.  I had struggled many years trying to make sense of my life, always felt as if there were invisible walls around me.  So I saw abundance of potential customers – all I do is to reach out.  And by doing this, my lifelong experiences, many of which were troubling at the time, become my assets – another abundance.

I also write for this blog.  This is a free access blog and I hardly make money with it right now, but I enjoy writing and sharing my thoughts, so I do it.  I have abundant resources within me.  And I sense there may be yet another abundance that I may be able to tap in by doing this.  I’ll see.

Okay, enough about me.  Here is another person working to release light from darkness, or “eliminate the chain and changing the fucking world”, in her own way.  While making good money herself (reportedly $200K last year)  And yes . . . a lightworker can use bad words – be quite good at it, for that matter ^_^

Do you see abundance now?  And with that empowered vision, what are you going to do?  If you are not doing what you aspire to do, what is stopping you?

What To Do When A Customer Makes Unreasonable Demands

In “Are Customers Stupid?”, we discussed how important it is to listen attentively to customer complaints and inquiries even when such feedback seem negative or trivial.  As business owners, we can improve our business system by listening to such feedback and possibly make more money.

One reader commented on that post, saying

“Sometimes (not often), they (my note: customers or prospects) do need to be put in their place for consuming too much time and resources, even to a point of letting them go from your business. But I would hope this is the exception rather than the rule.”

Another said,

“There are just some people out there who will complain for the sake of complaining. There are also those who are just trying to get something for nothing and play the system.”

This is a critical issue all businesses are aware of but not very willing to discuss.  There are customers who make unreasonable demands.  In this post, I’d like to explore this sensitive issue with the highest level of honesty and integrity I have in order to help other entrepreneurs.

(Hey, I’m keeping my promise to write a post on this issue.  Although writing this now, after almost five months may not qualify as “soon” )

Which demand is reasonable and which is not?

I fist started thinking about this issue when I read about Nordstrom’s customer service training in Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die.  For those of you outside North America, Nordstrom is a major department store chain that is famous for its excellent customer service.  It’s a high end department store.

On page 73 (BTW this book itself is a great read.  A must read for writers), there are some stories that are meant to illustrate the extraordinary customer services by “Nordie” (Nordstrom’s customer service representatives) such as:

• The Nordie who cheerfully gift wrapped products a customer bought at Macy’s
• The Nordie who refunded money for a set of tire chains – although Nordstrom doesn’t sell tire chains

Now as you can see in my aforementioned post, I take customer service seriously.  I don’t really know if it’s Japanese thing like some commenters pointed out, but anyway, I do.  I believe money follows when I deliver value, and customer service is a significant part of any business offer.

But these examples are a bit different.  Why does Nordstrom refund money for something it didn’t sell?  Is it because this customer makes other lots of purchases?  Or is it because he made a fuss?  Do they do this to anyone who wants money for unwanted tire chains?

And where does that money come from?  From other customers, of course.  So Nordstrom is spending their profit made off from honest customers and making dishonest customers happy.  Is this really an example of outstanding customer service?

In my opinion, this is the case of unreasonable customer demand.

How about gift wrapping Macy’s products?  This is less of a problem . . . wrapping paper cost is pretty negligible. Still, Nordstrom is using their employee time to do this.  And their paycheck comes from – again, from the money customers pay.  I think this is a borderline demand that is very close to being unreasonable.

Where is the healthy boundary?

I like Nordstrom, but after reading this story, I was baffled.  And I think twice when I buy anything there.

Personally, I think Nordstrom is making a mistake.  There is great customer service, and there is brown nosing.  I’d be happy to pay for great customer service, like sales reps helping me find the right stuff, but I don’t want to pay for some jerks who make money with lies.

As a business owner, I understand the fear you may have when dealing with the kind of customers who make unreasonable demands.  It’s not just the loss of sale to that customer.  They can spread bad words about your business.  These days, they can post unreasonable reviews on the internet and affect tons of unsuspecting prospects.  And people who make unreasonable demands are likely to write unreasonable reviews.  They are good at pushing people’s buttons.

I still think businesses are better off in the long run to have the healthy boundary and make that clear to everyone.  Like clear refund policy.

What we can do as customers to promote and protect good businesses

And I think, as customers, we are better off to protect good businesses that treat all customers fairly. When you see or hear negative reviews, be sure to check the facts.  Contact the business to check if the said problem is true.  Like in any dispute resolution, hearing both sides’ stories is important.  By doing this, you are ultimately protecting yourself and your money from being spent on the few unreasonable customers the businesses have to deal with.

If you automatically sympathize to all the stories of “OMG I got ripped off by that business, they are horrible.”  watch out.  Check if it’s true.  Likewise, don’t just trust the reputation that Nordstrom is a great place of shop.  Check it out for yourself.

The dark manipulative energy

And then, there are people who are not customers, not really prospects, but just want to make fuss.  People who likes to use the dark manipulative energy.

In online world, one way this happens is negative comments.  By negative comments, I don’t mean comments that disagrees.  That can be constructive feedback and I love them.  What I mean is comments with name-calling.

For example, check this out in which the proud Lord Chartland got called prostitute. (It’s the second comment there.)

This is the post James talked about money, and because the word money pushes many people’s buttons, it wasn’t a surprise he got some difficult comments.  Most, however, were trying to come up with good ways to deal with the sensitive issue of pricing.  For example, Tony showed off his peacock feathers and took the side of free offer.  He was disagreeing James but with great logics = great feedback.  But calling James prostitute?  That’s just pointless name calling.

What is this person’s motivation?  He does seem to have bought anything from Men with Pens.  Doesn’t sound like he ever wanted to hire them.  Subscribers are kinda like customers, but still losing one subscriber probably didn’t hurt Men with Pens.  So why is this person doing this?

To make people feel bad?  I guess.  There are souls like that.  Watch out.

The line between seemingly negative feedback and really negative feedback

Knowing the difference between the complains / inquiries we discussed in “Are Customers Stupid?” and the unreasonable demands discussed in this article is wisdom.  As an entrepreneur, we need to be mindful about this.  When you encounter difficult situations, refrain from reacting it – whether the reaction is the “No way” kind of rejection or “Whatever you say” kind of brown nosing.  The first step to solution is to keep your calm.

So what do you think?  If you are an entrepreneur, will you please share how you handle with customers who make unreasonable demands?  And as customers (which, we all are), what do you think about this issue?  Have you ever stood up to protect your favorite business? Do you think some (few, hopefully) customers who make unreasonable demands are hurting you indirectly? (Photo by Denis Collette)

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