The Best Bread for a Healthy Diet

By Michael Masterson

When you’re trying to get healthy, fiber is a super-substance that you can’t get enough of. That’s why I try to include 100 grams or more of fiber in my daily diet.

One way I get fiber is in my bread – hemp bread. After I mentioned that in ETR, Charles Lowen of Fort Worth e-mailed me: “I have heard about just about every kind of organic bread there is. However, no one in the health food stores here in Texas seems to know what hemp bread is. Could you please let me know more about it and where to buy it?”

I have been eating hemp bread because it was the only bread I could find with more than 2 grams of fiber per slice. It is a compact bread with a very grainy texture, so it takes a little while to learn to like it.

The brand I eat is French Meadow Bakery’s Healthy Hemp Sprouted Bread. Each slice has 95 calories, 5 grams of dietary fiber, and 7 grams of protein.

You won’t find hemp bread in your local grocery store. But it is available at Whole Foods and many other specialty markets, as well as online at frenchmeadow.com.

Recently, K discovered a high-fiber bread at the grocery store that you might like better. It’s called Nature’s Own Double Fiber Wheat Bread, and it has 50 calories per slice, 5 grams of dietary fiber, and 3 grams of protein. Try it and let me know what you think.

[Ed. Note: Eating right isn't the only thing you should do if you hope to turn your dreams into reality. Many proven goal-setting strategies are just as easy to understand and implement. ]

"Change is inevitable - except from a vending machine."
- Robert C. Gallagher

The Truth About the Vending Business  

By Paul Lawrence

When Steve and his father met with the vending machine distributor’s salesman, warning bells should have gone off in their heads the first time he opened his mouth. “Listen,” he told them, “if you want a guarantee, go get a CD at the bank. If you’re businessmen, then let’s do business.”

That’s when they should have said, “No thanks.” But they had pre-sold themselves on the deal. So they plunked down a quick $5,000 to buy two machines, and they were promised excellent locations.

Now Steve and his father weren’t outright swindled. But the locations they were given didn’t perform nearly as well as the salesman had promised. Steve’s father badgered the distributor for better locations, but they refused. As far as they were concerned, they’d honored the contract – and the lawyer Steve checked with was in agreement.

I’m not going to sit here and tell you that every distributor who sells vending machines in the classified section of your local newspaper will give you lousy locations. But Steve’s didn’t produce enough income to cover his investment in the equipment.

So one of the first “insider secrets” I learned about the vending business is that your written agreement with the distributor must describe the kind of locations you will be getting. It’s unreasonable to expect them to guarantee that a particular machine in a particular spot will bring in a specific minimum income. But you can negotiate for other things. Like traffic – the number of people who work at the location or the average number of people who walk by each day.

If, for example, your agreement calls for the distributor to provide locations in buildings with a minimum of 100 employees onsite, there’s a good chance your machines will be profitable. If you don’t specify the number of employees in your vending location, you could end up in a building with 100 of them… or with five.

You can also negotiate to include a non-compete clause in your agreement stating that no other machines at that location can sell the type of product you’re selling (beverages, snacks, etc.). You may also want to include a pre-approval clause so you can check out the location before your machine gets delivered there.

Admittedly, there are some landmines in the vending business that newcomers have to learn to watch out for. But if you know how to sidestep them, this is a very real profit opportunity. More than 100 million Americans use vending machines every day, National Automatic Merchandising Association spokeswoman Jackie Clark reported to The Christian Science Monitor. And it’s a nearly $30-billion-a-year industry.

The vending machine business is…

Simple: If your machines are at locations that aren’t too far from each other, you (or someone you hire) can easily service your route in one day. And all it requires is loading them with merchandise and collecting the cash.

Lucrative: If you have 10 to 20 vending machines, you can bring in as much as $2,000 a day.

Flexible: Whether you want to be a part-time operator or a major player, this business can accommodate you. You can have as few or as many machines as you want. Some well-capitalized operations have as many as 500 or 1,000 machines.

If you want to get started in the vending business, here are some of the basic steps:

• Decide What You Want to Sell

You can sell gumballs, condoms, ATM services, phone cards, beverages, snacks, health sundries, etc. in vending machines. I’ve even seen machines that sell makeup, iPods, cellphones, headphones, DVDs, USB devices, and more.

• Purchase the Machines

You can buy new or used machines from the distributor who will be supplying you with merchandise. I preferred used machines, because I could buy them at a fraction of the price of new ones – and they had very few mechanical problems.

I began with one used snack machine that I bought for $50. Within a couple of weeks, I’d made enough money to buy a number of small machines that dispensed handfuls of candy. These were also cheap – less than $100 each. Within a couple of months, I had a 100 percent return on the cost of those machines, so I started buying some larger snack and beverage machines. In a matter of months, I had a 40-machine route that made a profit of almost $500 for every day I worked it. When I eventually sold the route, I made a profit of 400 percent on the cost of the machines, because they’re worth a lot more on location.

• Secure Your Locations

Like retail, this business is all about location, location, location. You want your machines in places that have lots of traffic – large companies, auto dealers, hospitals, colleges, airports, etc.

If you buy from a distributor that supplies the locations as well as the machines, follow the advice I gave above to negotiate for good spots. If you’ll be finding the locations yourself, you’ll have to do some work. For my first vending route, that meant marching into business after business and getting a hundred rejections to hit that one “yes.” For my second route, I saved time and energy by using direct mail to get leads that I would then follow-up on in person. You can also hire a third party to scout out locations. Most of them get a flat fee that is negotiable, but it usually ranges from $150-$500 for each spot they find for you.

No matter how you find good locations for your machines, you’ll have to use the powers of persuasion ... to convince the owners or managers of those properties to let you set up shop. ] Some of them will want a percentage of the profits. (What you agree to is negotiable, but I would suggest no more than 10 percent.) Others will just want to make sure you will keep the machines well-stocked and in good working order.

• Service the Machines

Machines in really hot locations may need to be serviced more often, but for my vending business, a weekly visit to the machines to collect the money and restock them was enough. The distributor you buy the machines from will train you on how to do it. It’s not hard. I’m not a very mechanical person, and I had no problems.

So give a little thought to the vending machine business. If you do it right, it’ll be a nice source of side income for you.

Lower the Bar

By Noah St. John

To succeed in business and your personal life, you often hear that you need to be more competitive – that you need to keep “raising the bar.” But is that really necessary… or even a good idea?

“Raising the bar” is a metaphor that was borrowed from the sports world. So let’s see how it works there.

Let’s say you come to me because you want to be a world-class high jumper. I’ve written a best-selling book called How to Be a Champion High Jumper, so you ask me to coach you. You come out onto the field all excited and ready to go.

I set the bar at seven feet, because that’s what the world’s best high jumpers can do. So you stand there looking at the bar waaaay up there.

I say, “Come on, you can do it! Think positive! Get psyched!”
You, being the trooper you are and not wanting to disappoint me, take a few steps back, then run as fast as you can, jump up with all your might… smack!

Not even close. You miss the bar by a mile.

“That’s okay!” I say, clapping my hands. “You’ll do better next time!”

You gamely try again and again. I try to keep you encouraged and motivated. But you miss that damn bar every time.

Do you realize how many people put themselves in a similarly impossible situation? They raise their “bar” so high that even when they do accomplish something, it never seems good enough. Sound familiar?

That’s why I often tell my clients to lower the bar. Here’s the difference…

“Raise the bar” means:

• Close more sales.
• Finish writing your article.
• Make a million dollars.
• Find the right person.
• Lose 20 pounds.
• Don’t make a mistake.

“Lower the bar” means:

• Listen more than you talk.
• Start writing your article.
• Learn about smart investing.
• Be the right person.
• Exercise for 15 minutes today.
• Give yourself permission to be human.

Write down five ways you can lower the bar today, this week, and this month. Write down how and where you’ve expected yourself to be perfect the first time out. Then lower the bar… and give yourself permission to succeed.

[Ed. Note: Noah St. John is founder of SuccessClinic.com and author of the book The Secret Code of Success. He's been featured on CNN, National Public Radio, and in The Washington Post.]

The Language Perfectionist: Same Difference?

By Don Hauptman

A frequent language question concerns the use of different from and different than. When do you use one or the other, and why?

The answer is easy - except when it's hard! But let's give it a try...

The phrase different from is correct when a noun or pronoun follows: "Girls are different from boys."

Here's the explanation. A comparative adjective, such as bigger or better, takes than. But contrary to what some people assume, different is not a comparative adjective; it draws a distinction. So from is the right word.

But suppose a clause rather than a noun or pronoun follows. Here, different than is usually the superior choice: "The situation now is different than a year ago."

The common-sense reason is that when different from precedes a clause, it requires additional verbiage, and the result is often cumbersome or awkward. To be correct using from, the above example would have to be reworded as: "The situation now is different from what it was a year ago."

As with many disputed language issues, some permissive authorities insist that both different from and different than are "standard" and it doesn't matter which is used. But I suggest taking the more cautious route and observing the above guidelines. What's more, if you develop a good "ear" for language, that skill will often help you determine whether a construction is right or wrong. If it sounds bad, it probably is - and it should be rewritten.

[Ed Note: For more than three decades, Don Hauptman was a direct-response copywriter. He is author of the wordplay books Cruel and Unusual Puns and Acronymania, and is now writing a new book that also blends language and humor.]

It's Fun to Know: The Brightest Light in the Universe

The brightest light in the universe isn't some star billions of light years away. Nor is it any other astronomical phenomenon. The "Brightest Light" title belongs to the world's most powerful laser, created by physicists at the University of Texas.

The laser generates 1 petawatt (1 million billion watts) of power, which is more than all the power plants in the world combined. That level of power, and the resulting brightest light ever recorded in the universe, is sustained only for trillionths of a second.

The laser is being used to study the intense conditions of stars.

(Source: New Scientist)

 

* Highly Recommended *

Take Charge of Your Future

You don't have much spare time... you're not exactly rolling in the bucks... and you're no Bill Gates when it comes to technology.

We've heard you... and that's why we asked Marc Charles to be our "advance scout" for profit opportunities that you can run from a kitchen table, your desktop, or out on the road.

They've got to be inexpensive and easy to start, without a lot of red tape or technical know-how, and still have great income potential.

There's a reason they call this guy "The King of Business Opportunities"...why not take a look at what he's got for you?

- Charlie Byrne

Word to the Wise: Paucity

"Paucity" (PAW-sih-tee) - from the Latin for "few" - is scarcity or scantiness.

Example (as used by Jordan Robertson for Associated Press): "The paucity of iPhones for sale in some markets comes as Apple is hustling to meet its goal of selling 10 million of the hybrid iPod-cellphone-Internet surfing gadgets by the end of 2008."

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These articles appear courtesy of Early to Rise [Issue #2364, 05-24-08], the Internet's most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com/.