July 15, 2009 - Day 2: Pollenating My Business

Metaphors are flying all around me, but they're hard to catch. I wait for one that isn't a bee. The seven-year-old version of me caught one once while standing in the Melnick's front yard after it spent a few seconds trying to crawl into my ear. Hearing spared, the bee committed suicide between my right hand's lifelines. Sometimes I can imagine the bee's still there, determined to impale me with another stinger. Building a new business sometimes has that bee-in-the-hand feel.

Right now I'm looking for ways to pollenate my newest business endeavor, Efusjon. Today I opened a new account over at Blogspot and deposited my post from yesterday there. It's still got that new blog smell. While I managed to throw some content into my Blogspot profile, I haven't pieced together the links that transform it from a virtually invisible website to a giant blog beacon on Google. Although I'm relatively new to the Google blogosphere, I started doing them a year ago at Gather.com and MySpace where about five people followed them. I may be a flyspeck for awhile insofar as my blogging goes, but as my site gets keyworded and linked to other blog feeds, my level of exposure will take on some buoyancy and move up to where more people can read my notes.

As a new member of Efusjon, I'm part of a huge matrix. Already, almost 50,000 people have swarmed to sign up in less than a year. Since I have just begun to pursue a marketing plan using social networking, I will be working a lot of late nights helping others to start making the 'm' word that rhymes with honey.

If you'd like a closer look at my company, give me a buzz on Facebook or send me an email at rickchilds@roadrunner.com.

Gotta fly.

July 14, 2009 - Day 1: Drinking It All In

A year ago, I jumped onto the blog bandwagon and typed away for about a month on MySpace and WordPress trumpeting my debut with a network-based business that didn’t quite work out the way I had intended. After a couple of dozen entries and nearly 30 videos that I posted on YouTube, my bank account had stayed pretty much the same as when I started. Also, my wife Debbie was beginning to drop hints that I might need to get fitted for a straightjacket if I continued with my business. Even my sponsor jumped ship a few weeks later for a new opportunity.

The lesson that I get from endeavors like the one described above is this: if you are a dedicated entrepreneur, find a better network marketing business and make it work. If it doesn’t, keep looking, because eventually one of them will be successful. Oh yeah, and don’t quit your day job until you have a track record of success with a home-based business.

Since I licked my wounds and soldiered on last summer, I’ve become involved with four other home-based businesses. One was a complete bust and I’m still trying to extricate myself from its subscription fees. Since one of them is a two-year contract for a videophone, that’s been a little dicey. The problem is, I like the phone, but the company that markets it really drove me nuts insofar as their marketing plan and customer service was concerned. Another company I joined markets some great nutritional products. I even make money with them: just about enough to cover my monthly autoship orders. The last time I checked, I even had 128 people in my organization and, amazingly, I didn’t sign up any of them. The third company I joined markets a bunch of services, a few of which are pretty enticing, and a lot of others I could care less about. It might pan out, but it doesn’t excite me anywhere near as much as the business I became involved with today. That company is known as Efusjon.

I won’t attempt to make a long-winded description of Efusjon, but it’s a company that has invested itself in the fast-growing market of energy drinks. Currently, it produces two versions of a health-conscious, slightly carbonated energy beverage that is radically different than its sugar-saturated competitors. Its key ingredient is the açai berry. Think of it as a blueberry from South America that a mad scientist took to his laboratory and transformed into an even more outrageously healthy fruit.

My introduction to Efusjon came by way of a friend of my sister-in-law Michele named Brigitte. Even though Michele wasn’t thrilled at first at being drawn into a type of business she had no prior experience with, I thought it would be worth the effort to make her a part of this enterprise.

I have a lot more to write about, so stay tuned. Today was Day 1 of my journey with Efusjon. As my business evolves, I’ll explain how it’s making an impact on my life, my family’s and those who take the plunge and give me the opportunity to help them turn a corner in this messy economy that we can overcome if we work at it diligently.

In case you would like to visit my Efusjon website, contact me on Facebook or email me at rickchilds@roadrunner.com.