More Forex Marketing and Training Questions Than Answers

The industry I came from was mortgage finance. Having spent 18 years in the mortgage industry, I saw its growth from a conservative and stodgy business into a phenomenal business opportunity. One of the core competencies of the mortgage industry as a whole was the abundance of great trainers. This leads me to more questions than answers.

One, where are the trainers for the foreign currency industry?

Two, is there an organization that fosters, mentors, and trains the future leaders of the retail spot market Forex community?

Three, if there were a company designed and founded to make the training of these future leaders a part of its core business, what that company look like?

The foreign currency retail spot market trading industry was until recently was relatively unregulated.When your author was first introduced to the Forex business, there were few regulations on who could train, trade, and most incredibly, trade the money of others. Thanks to a Farm bill becoming law in September 2008, the world of Forex spot market trading by individual investors is far more regulated that before. The Forex dealers where individuals and companies open their accounts and make trades is far more regulated than before. The Introducing Broker, who doesn't take possession of money or make trades for their referred traders to a dealer has to now be a legitimate business with financials, audited financials, a Series 30 broker on staff and considerable research into the Principals of the organization. All this serves to lay a foundation on which a real company could begin to form to organize a plan to train future instructors and leaders.

There were several organizations that served to train mortgage professionals during the time I spent in the mortgage industry.The associations were active and mortgage trainers were in abundance. The mortgage training industry was more that a cottage industry in size with different companies specializing in different areas. Sales, compliance, operations, marketing, government guidelines, and secondary marketing were all industry training topics that entire companies built their businesses around. A similar model could be built in the Forex market. The individual investor may have interest first, in just the basics. Babypips.com is the closest thing I have seen to effective, high grade, professional but basic training meant to reach a mass audience. As to the use of EA's, expert advisers, mechanical trading systems, trading methods, systems, software, and so on, there are few, very few, real options for the individual or corporate investor desiring a real training on what to do to succeed in the Forex market.

A company or two could step up and capture legitimate market share with some thoughtful strategic implementation of a plan to meet the needs of an investing public. Larger Forex Dealers or FCM's can't seem to do this for fear of violating certain regs that have them tied up. Investment advisers know nothing of the industry to speak of. What is a person to do?

A great training company equips leaders. It instructs its students, not on get rich quick schemes, but real tangible ways to empower students and learners to become success stories.The Forex training success story, if one is to come, will be built on the success of the students that pay the trainer or provider of the training. The company may have a global network of support. The company may end up piggy backing on the platform of an online education system that is already in place. The company will undoubtedly be a social media friendly company with an understanding that it takes a local presence to really train someone to succeed in the Forex trading market place. This company should have a strong team of trainers who aren't afraid to share the real risk of the Forex market place and therefore end up providing risk management strategies that lead to real success stories in the industry.

At this point, I can name perhaps two companies that truly train people to succeed in trading the foreign currency market. Both of those companies are years in the making and share as much about the mindset of a successful trader as they do the techniques and systems used by that trader. In other words, they know success in business, trading, and life are indeed interconnected. These two companies are likely on the verge of something significant. I would like to think my company is as well but only time will tell.

In the meantime, it should be the goal of all of us in the foreign currency spot market business to reach out to others. We should share the potential of this market, and remember, that only if an individual's account stays open long enough for them to make marginal gains until they can truly thrive will we have an industry with a true future.

Business Plans - How to Start Writing a Plan For Your Business

Your business map should expand your mind and get you thinking about what your business is going to look like and what you're striving to achieve. This small business map should really get you excited and motivated to make it all happen.

A business map (i.e., business plan) is your 9 to 12 month map of what you want to accomplish in business.

Usually, business maps contain many items, but remember you're not going to do them all at once. You're going to do them over a period of time - just as Rome wasn't built in one day, your business won't be built in one day. Just keep clearly and strongly focused on what you want to accomplish and stick to your goals at all times.

Usually, there are 5 key parts to any business map or business plan. If you are going to a local bank for a loan, most loan managers are more than willing to tell you the parts of the business map, but most of the time, the parts are left without explanation, so you fail to understand what is required of you.

The first part is the core message which is a one sentence to at most one paragraph statement about what your business and product has to offer that makes it unique and stand out from the rest of the products. Spend some time thinking about this and write it down (try to get it down in just one sentence to one paragraph at most).

Once you have your core message into one sentence, expand a bit on it - usually about half to one page long just on the one sentence you managed to construct. In this elaboration, you have a chance to get very clear up front about what you're offering, with what benefits, before you even create your product. This is very fundamental in helping you to focus on customers and what you will deliver. Call this elaboration an elevator pitch if you want. As an example, in less than 30 seconds, what will you say to get across to the person you're talking to about what you do and what you have to offer?

The clearer, more specific and succinct you can make this elevator pitch, the better it is going to help when you start doing your marketing, sending out emails, getting affiliates, and all the people you want to have rally around you. Let's be realistic here: the better you get at this, the better off you will be. So listen to any feedback you get along the way and tweak it until everyone just says, "Aha, I get it!"

The second part is asking how you are going to generate revenue by questioning your product line. What are you going to market? What is your entry-level or front-end product, continuity product, backend product?

When I refer to a continuity product, I am referring to a product people pay you every month to receive. It is an extremely important aspect of a successful online business because it provides that consistent and dependable income.

What are your backend products going to be? In other words, what are the bigger packages that sell at a higher price you can offer your customers who are passionate and want more of what you have to offer, and where you make more money?

Most of the time, the people on your customer list will want more if you have to offer it. What are those other products going to be?

You will be wanting to add a short description of each product -- of what that product is going to look like, the benefits offered to people, the price, the bonuses it could include and similar things.

If you are an affiliate, this is a good source of generating your revenue. Remember, this is your 9 to 12 month plan, so you're not going to have all these items on your list from the very beginning. At this point, it is imperative to keep in mind that if you don't know where you're going, then you will never get there!

Part 3 is answering the age-old question of how are you going to generate traffic to your website?

What about a blog (if you haven't already been blogging about your business, then you better get busy without any more delay!), SEO traffic, pay-per-click advertising, affiliate traffic.

Just keep in mind that you must describe briefly your sources of generating traffic (thereby generating revenue) and the expected results from each of your traffic sources in your business map.

Part 4 is outlining your marketing plan. Basically, the marketing plan is simply creating the right habits. If you want your business to be successful over the long-term, it comes down to doing a few simple things on a consistent daily basis. That's what success in business comes from, especially an online business.

Your marketing plan is something you're going to be consistently doing, working on, implementing, testing, refining, tweaking and improving. Some of these activities could include posting to your blog, promoting your blog, submitting to article directories and/or making contacts and networking with other people in your marketplace. Be creative; add to this list on a daily basis.

Part 5 is all about showing the projected numbers in your business. Start with the 3 month projection, and then move onto the 6 month, the 9 month and finally the 12 month projection.

At this point, you should be extremely excited because you will see that you can have that money from your business by following your own business plan or business map if you will.

This may sound silly to some, however; your business plan, your business map or whatever, should be fun and innovative. When you approach someone with that plan or map, you should project excitement, not insecurity or indecision, show fear or any other negative behaviors.

When you present this plan to anyone, it should be with a smile on your face, hope in your heart, and your whole body conveying confidence!

Is it time to rethink your business plan or business map with a more positive outlook on your business?