We love watching our entrepreneurs discover the heart of their business brand. It’s exciting, it’s fun, and we cherish all those “light bulb moments” when everything suddenly becomes crystal clear. That’s Power Path and Brand Power™ in action!

However, the best-branded company in the world can still fail without a clear and consistent message that speaks directly to the people most likely to buy its products. But how to find those people? And how do you craft that message?

The short answer is . . . Market Power™.

Every business needs it; many never achieve it. BrandU exists to help you get it. Market Power™ is the third and final step in BrandU’s Business Profit System™.

You’ve  developed your easy-to-follow plan Power Path™. You’ve found the heart of your brand through Brand Power™. Now it’s time to launch your products with a repeatable game plan that reaches your best customers and creates sales—over and over and over.

A couple of years ago I invested in a marketing course that was very thorough.  I did lots of work and came away with a notebook filled with ideas and strategies.

I looked at that notebook the other day. As I read through my notes I was struck by much good work I had done.  But none of it went anywhere – I didn’t have the tools I needed to use it properly. It’s just a notebook that I felt overwhelmed by every time I looked at it.

Contrast that to Market Power. I don’t just have a notebook. I have a living, breathing document that actually works for me. During the course, I compiled the information for my product labels and wrote the copy for my complete website. Done!  Just like you promised. I‘ve drafted an implementation plan. I not only know what pieces are still missing, I know how to take every step.

Jan Whitted, ArtBeat Online

Market Power™, just like Power Path™ and Brand Power™, provides step-by-step instruction and detailed exercises to help your find your target market, determine who your best customers are and what attracts them, and teaches you how to talk to them.

The real power of marketing is in the preparation and not the individual tactics. No other program in the world focuses on discovering the best way for your individual brand to connect with the people you want to sell to. Market Power™ delivers just that—the means of becoming a power in your marketplace with your unique brand and products. And it does it in a way that allows you to set your personal “Wheel of Fortune” spinning forever.

If you have not yet added Market Power™ to your set of personal tools for growing your business, there will never be a better time, unless you like things the hard way.

The Business Profit System™ is BrandU’s proven program for teaching entrepreneurs to turn an idea into a profitable business. You know who you are as a company. Now it’s time to take that knowledge to the marketplace.

Complete your journey with Market Power™. It’s time to turn all your hard work into actual sales!

When it comes to developing your brand, you really do get out of it what you put into it. The same could be said for auto repair.

Paul Booker, owner of the highly successful Ooops! Auto Repair shops in the United Kingdom and founder of Ooops.net, knows this very well. When he came to BrandU, he owned a small auto repair shop that seemed to be chugging along but doing nothing spectacular. Paul wanted it to grow, to make more money, to fulfill his dreams. And that, of course, is what BrandU is all about–helping members fulfill their dreams.

In Paul’s case, he took Brand Power as a 13-week tele-course, and gave it 100%. Kim Castle recalls that he and his team brought total focus and commitment to each stage of the process, and really soared. Before long, he realized that he had a proprietary paint process that produced stellar results. He understood from Brand Power that he had a product he could use to draw more attention to his overall business, and that is what he did, by offering it to other shops outside his own small chain.

Through high-profile events and smart marketing, Paul boosted awareness of Ooops! and garnered a lot of positive feedback and attention. The results were stellar.

“We often made losses… but had always been lucky to achieve industry average 2.5% net profit.  Just five months after bringing my business through your process… our May net profit is 19% and June is 23%!  My  team and I have not done anything different except go through your process.  We have just worked hard through this process and somehow, miraculously I have results 8 to 9 times industry average!! WOW!! THANK YOU BOTH!!” —Paul Booker

The passion and commitment demonstrated by Paul during the course were a pleasure to observe and to nurture. We could not be more pleased that Brand Power helped him discover the inner power waiting to come to fruition in his brand.

Do you feel like your business is going nowhere? That maybe launching out on your own was a mistake? Well, you’re not alone—but don’t worry, the answer may be a lot simpler than you think.

Many small businesses fail, not because the idea was bad or the product didn’t sell or the entrepreneur ran out of money, but because the business owner fell into one of the common traps we’ve identified in 15 Mistakes That Kill Business Success.

This free report, available here, offers some surprising insights to entrepreneurs who think they’ve been doing everything right, only to discover their business is failing for reasons that have nothing whatever to do with things taught in business school.

“My name is Deb Craig and I am new small business owner.  I just read your 15 Mistakes That Kill Business Success report and was surprised to discover that I have been making most of them. I am in the process of writing my business plan to obtain financing and am hoping for the best.  I thank you for opening up my eyes as to the mistakes I was making.”

Part of our mission here at BrandU is to make sure you don’t fall into these traps… or, if you find yourself stuck in one, to help you get out of it. Nothing is worse than struggling alone with no idea how to get where you want to go.

See if you’ve fallen prey to one of the 15 Mistakes That Kill Business Success. Download it today, and discover how to recapture the passion and excitement that will set you on the path to creating the successful business you’ve always dreamed of.

When we started BrandU seven years ago, we made a deep commitment to support entrepreneurs—fostering their own understanding of their innate power to literally create their entire world around them through business.  This commitment extended to how we added folks to our team.

We select empowered people who bring their entire self—full responsibility and all—to our united goals and challenges as if they are working in their own business…because, to us…they are.

It’s certainly been an interesting approach to growing our own team.  One that hasn’t been a straight line.

How do you assemble and unite a group of entrepreneurs, each empowered in their own business to guide and support a vision other than their own and keep them engaged and in the fold?  Honestly…you can’t.

While we do our best to create many opportunities for team members to find themselves fully in our plans to support entrepreneurs worldwide, sometimes it’s necessary for team members to step out and experience that glorious feeling for themselves.

It is with mingled excitement and sadness that we announce that Chris has decided to take this entrepreneurial leap for himself.  He has been a big part of BrandU’s growth and success for the past five years and we’ll miss him. We’re also excited because he is about to join the ranks of the very people we support—you!

Ever since Chris started as a part-time associate in 2005, he has impacted virtually every aspect of our operations, from helping us work more effectively behind the scenes to serving you in MemberCare. As our Head of Operations, he has been our technical guru, who helped advance our business in ways we never dreamed possible.

Under his guidance we put in place the best practices surrounding virtual technology, without which we could simply not operate on the ever-expanding virtual team model that we do. He generously shared his passion for these technologies with our members in our very popular Business Expansion Makeover in the fall of 2009. We’re still getting emails from happy attendees a year later.

Thanks to Chris’s pushing, prodding, and unbelievably detailed research, we have fully embraced social media at our core and are passing this knowledge along to our members. He is the mastermind behind our social networking strategy, which is allowing us to take advantage of all the tremendous technologies available to help us help you better.

Chris is a genius at finding new ways to connect with people and to work more productively. And after five years of getting us ready to fly, he’s decided it’s time to fly on his own. And we’re here support him while he does it.

We are very proud of Chris and everything he has brought to BrandU: his passion, his enthusiasm, his many ideas, his desire to never compromise, his endless knowledge and curiosity, and his never-ending drive to simply do things better. Without a doubt, we will miss him very much, but we are in the business of helping people achieve their own dreams. It’s simply time to help Chris achieve his too.

We’re not saying goodbye, because Chris will always be a huge part of BrandU. Please join us in wishing Chris all the best of luck as he takes the next big step in his life…becoming a full-fledged entrepreneur.

Here at BrandU we are constantly evolving and refining our products and services to better serve our members. As we’ve grown, our members have grown with us, taken wings, and flown with their businesses.

Because you, as a group, have been so successful, we’ve discovered that our lifetime support model is really unnecessary for the majority of our entrepreneurs. So, as of September 1, we are changing our support policy to ensure that each of you gets exactly what you need.

All members who purchase any of our Business Profit Systems Programs prior to August 31, 2010 will continue to receive free lifetime support. Members who purchase our products after September 1 will receive one year of unlimited free support, which we have discovered from experience is generally enough to help you get well on your way to your dreams.

However, if you find yourself needing a little extra mentoring after the first year, it will be available for just $50 per month–an excellent bargain for live, ongoing support that is tailored to your business need.

We have always supported our members to the fullest and will continue to do so. Please don’t hesitate to contact us with questions.

As entrepreneurs, we all want to be successful. We all dream big – or should. But too many of us are afraid to dream big. We call it being practical, or careful planning, or any of a million other excuses, but the real name is fear.

Overcoming fear is the very first thing any successful entrepreneur does. It is also the first thing we teach here at BrandU, in our Clearing the Path program as well as the first process in Power Path™, Step 1 of the BrandU Business Profit System™.

Perhaps you have already worked through Power Path on your way to Brand Power™ and Market Power™, Steps 2 and 3. If so, excellent! But we’ll bet that even if your business is now humming along toward your goals, you still occasionally find yourself stuck in the quagmire of doubt.

Remember Clearing the Path, in Chapter 1 of Power Path™ or the Clearing the Path workbook? Maybe you thought that clearing out all your long-held fears was something you’d only ever have to do once. And maybe you never did that exercise at all, because the first fear on your list was “I feel stupid doing this and it will never work.”

“I have done many other fear techniques and was surprised that this was so effective  considering how simple it was… First I used Kim’s fear processing method to clear the obvious fears that kept me up at night, as those big fears subsided I used the method whenever I was procrastinating—since the root of my procrastination was usually fear! We now recommend Clearing the Path to all our clients.”

- Joyce Welsh, Do-It-Yourself Healing

Clearing the Path is an process that never ever loses its value, because we are forever accumulating new fears.  When you have at your fingertips a reliable way to move through them quickly, you do just that. This frees you up to move forward quickly and tangibly towards your vision. As an entrepreneur this is important.  Your ability to dream and act quickly is your gold.

Rediscover in yourself the power to move past your fears. Keep moving down your power path to success and freedom as a leader in your own business.

Business just isn’t what it used to be. No, we’re not talking about the recession! We’re talking about a fundamental shift in how more and more highly successful entrepreneurs now view the role of their business. It’s no longer just about making money.

“Conscious business” is a term used to describe what is shaping up to be the dominant trend of 21st century business. Put simply, it is the practice of incorporating personal values or social goals into the business practices of your company to accomplish more than simple profitability. Companies that have embraced the concept are among the fastest-growing businesses today, even in this recession.

“At BrandU we have always taught that your brand arises from your values and your vision of yourself and your company. Conscious capitalism simply takes it a step further, to bring those values into how you operate your business. We’re not talking about donating one percent of your revenues to charity. We’re talking about choosing a way of doing business that exemplifies your values.”

W. Vito Montone

The Conscious Entrepreneur Experience (CEE) is a new program from BrandU designed to:

• Help entrepreneurs understand conscious business
• Assist small business owners in applying the principles of conscious business to their own company
• Provide step-by-step instructions for building a successful business built around these principles

A 50-minute free video explains CEE and is available as a download at www.brandu.com. For those of you just a little bit dissatisfied with how you are approaching your business, this may be 50 minutes that kick-starts you into a whole new level of success and personal fulfillment.

Sometimes, even when we know who we are, figuring out how to communicate it can be hard. Even an established brand often struggles to understand its core message.

The Reverend Dr. Michael Bernard Beckwith, founder of Agape International Spiritual Center, knows that from personal experience. He established the center in 1986 as a place of unconditional love embodied in the Greek word “agape” (pronounced uh-GAH-pay). It drew a large membership that practiced “visioning” as a means of moving forward in life, and that is also how the center tried to shape its marketing.

However, marketing often requires a more tangible approach, and thus Dr. Beckwith turned to BrandU for help. In a series of live private mentoring sessions over three days, Reverend Michael brought his executive director, his music director and 16 of his heads of ministries together in the same room at the same time for the first time ever.

This dynamic group worked through all eight stages of the Brand Power process, and were “blown away,” in the words of Kim Castle, by how quickly the program took them to a succinct understanding of where they were growing, how they were communicating, and exactly what they wanted to communicate.

“Your process allowed us to crystallize our twenty-year history in such a way that clarifies and anchors our goals to accommodate our future growth… It is my pleasure to wholeheartedly recommend BrandU to those who are serious about offering their talents and skills through their business—where it’s headed, what it represents, and how it’s going to arrive and thrive.”

- Dr. Michael Bernard Beckwith

Today, Agape International Spiritual Center has grown far beyond its local Los Angeles beginnings, with a true international presence and a worldwide reach. Reverend Michael himself has appeared on Oprah, is one of the teachers in the movie, “The Secret,” and has established a strong personal brand separate from the Agape center, using the principles he learned in Brand Power.

It was a distinct honor and great privilege for us here at BrandU to assist Agape and Reverend Michael in clarifying their vision and to watch them grow as a result.

Welcome back! We know you’ve probably noticed that our PowerPlay site has been out of action for the past few weeks while we shifted things to a new server and got ready to launch some major new initiatives. But we’re back, and we want to say… hang onto your hats! Things are getting very exciting.

With so much happening in the BrandU universe, we wanted to make sure that we never, ever forget the main focus of our business… you. The entrepreneurs we mentor are the whole reason for our existence, our pride, and our joy. You have the power to change the world through your business and how you operate in it.  That’s why YOU are our focus, and this blog is for you.

We’ve decided to dedicate PowerPlay to focusing on the very special entrepreneurs and micro business owners we help develop and grow in their business, and on what we can do to continue to help you all prosper in your businesses and in your lives.

Each week, we’ll spotlight one of you to understand how you’re using what you’ve learned from BrandU and how you’re applying it. There are many, many success stories to tell, and you have wisdom to share, too!

PowerPlay is now the forum for you to share your experiences, to pass on what you’ve learned, to help your fellow entrepreneurs avoid pitfalls and to showcase things that you’ve learned that could help them as well. It’s a great way to take stock of where you are as well as show off your business and your success to an appreciative crowd. Yes, we want to showcase the business you’ve developed as well.

Didn’t we teach you that free advertising never hurt?

In keeping with shining a light on you, our members, we will also be showcasing new programs we’re creating to continue helping you grow. We’ll provide you in-depth understanding of the programs we’ve developed and tested over the past seven years, as well as give you the inside track on program updates and improvements.

So stay tuned – we’re building one of the most successful and tight-knit communities of entrepreneurs in the world, and we’re very proud that you’re part of it.

Hang on! It’s going to be a great ride! AS we change the face AND the soul of business.

Kim, Vito and the entire BrandU team

P.S.— You may wonder what happened to all the great information, articles, general business tips and strategies we previously shared in PowerPlay. Not to worry! We are creating a companion blog called Ascertainment, coming within the next week or so, that houses all those great insights,  business information articles, and much, much more. It’s designed to help you find answers to questions on a wide range of subjects. Be on the lookout – it’ll be available real soon!