Progressive Rentals July-August 2003

Postcard Power by Phillip M. Perry

Latinos y RTO by Kelly McDonald

Enemy Mine: The National Consumer Law Center, RTO and the Military by Ed Winn III

Accessing Your Intuition by Brian Tracy

A Little Less Taxing by Ed Winn III

Postcard Power

Here’s a quiz: You want to invite your most loyal clientele to a customer appreciation party. How do you get the message out? • A display ad is not the answer as it addresses too broad an audience, but how about a postcard mailed to your top 10 0 customers, ranked by total rental contracts over the past year? • Postcards should be part of your advertising arsenal for this very reason: They reach targeted audiences more effectively— and less expensively— than costly flyers or lengthy sales letters.

Postcards are especially effective when your rentals are flat or falling and you need a way to perk things up,” says Sarah White, a consultant at Third Wave Research, a marketing and survey firm in Madison, WI (www.thirdwaveresearch.com). • Postcards also reinforce the message you are communicating through other media such as display ads or Web sites. They create an “echo effect” that resonates in the customer’s mind. • O.K., so you want to mail some postcards.How to do it well? Here are some tips from marketing pro’s.

1. Keep it simple “Postcards are perfect if you have a fairly simple message to convey,” says David Ehrlich, president of Track
Marketing Group in Alexandria, VA. Bear in mind that you have room for only a short headline and perhaps 100 words of text. That’s enough to throw a spotlight on a simple theme—but no more.

Examples of simple messages are:

• Save money by taking action now
• Come to our evening party or seminar
• See our newly arrived line of merchandise
• We’re extending our store hours
• Here’s a special deal for previous customers only
• Bring this card to enter our free drawing

While a simple message is vital, it’s also true that postcards can be used as part of a larger effort to communicate more complex information. “Many times the postcard will be the first step in a sales process,” says Ehrlich. “Don’t try to complete the sale with just the card. Instead, invite the recipient to call for free information or visit your store or Web site.”

Bonus tip: To see if your message is simple enough, ask a friend to scan your card for 10 seconds and then tell you what the sales statement is.

2. Make it compelling Your message must be simple, but it also must stop the show. “Your message needs to have an ‘attention compeller’ element,” says Burton M. Nudelman, president of Nudelman + Associates, a retail management consultancy in Portland, OR.“It could be a photo, a headline or some strong wording in the title. But without one, you are wasting your time.” Half of your recipients will not look at the postcard at all, says Nudelman. You need to worry about the 50 percent who do. “Your message needs to hit them on the head.”

Here are some examples of messages that are compelling:

• Save money
• Get more out of life
• Obtain better quality merchandise that lasts longer
• Enjoy service from an experienced store staff
• Benefit from being a loyal customer
• Act right away to take advantage of the offer

As the last entry suggests, deadlines can further compel the recipient to take action. Phrases such as “This week only” encourage the recipient to bring the card to your store right away rather than post it on the refrigerator to take action “some time.”

Use headline words that catch the eye and lead the recipient into your compelling message. Powerful words and phrases include “Free,”“New,”“For Loyal Customers Only” and “Not Available to the Public.”

Bonus tip: Try reverse engineering on your sales message. If you want to hold a sale on overstock items, for example, run an ironic “This is old!” headline that plays off the usual bid for novelty.

3. Time your mailings Your mailings will be more effective if you give some thought to timing. The postcards should reinforce some larger marketing effort underway. “Take a look at your calendar and decide which promotions you want to reinforce with a postcard,” says Sara Johnson-Bewley, owner of Hill Shepherd Design in Killbuck, OH. “Then plan six weeks back from that time to get the postcard designed and into the mail.”

Bonus tip: Make your message more compelling by celebrating a change of season.

4. Call for action

You want the customer to do something or you wouldn’t be mailing the postcards. Make sure you state that “to-do” in a simple sentence and then include it as a tag line on your postcard. “Every postcard should contain a call to action,” says Ehrlich. “What do you want the recipients to do? Don’t be subtle about the next step.”

Here are some sample actions:

• Visit the store
• Participate in a survey
• Send an e-mail
• Place a phone call
• Play a game
• Bring a friend

Bonus tip: Want to convey a simple, compelling message and call the customer to action all in one fell swoop? Here’s how: Design your postcard as a coupon. “Postcards make great coupons,” says Ehrlich. “They promote action and bring customers into your store to buy. This shows you don’t need a long sales letter to create a great direct mail piece.”

5. Spruce it up

Your recipients get lots of mail. Make your postcard stand out against the herd with great graphics. “Your card needs to be attractive physically and emotionally,” says Ehrlich. “You need something that grabs the recipients or they will throw it out.”

One great eye-grabber is color. “Color almost always outperforms black-and-white in terms of attention,” says Ehrlich. “That’s not to say that black-and-white won’t work, but the fact is that it has to be very well done to grab attention.”

Pretty pictures help, too. You might have a beautiful image on the main side of the card, along with a selling headline that ties in to the more complete message on the other side.

Remember that many people look at the address side of the card first. So have some eye-grabbing graphic, perhaps a black-and-white cartoon that reinforces the message and somehow echoes the color graphic on the front. And include your logo.

Finally, use the largest size card that you can, within postal guidelines. While the postal service sells cards measuring 31/2 x 51/2, larger 4 x 6 cards can be mailed at the same rate. “A bigger card will give your mailing more impact,” says White.

Bonus tip: Don’t overlook the stock color photos that are now available from so many printers. (See the sidebar, “Finding a Printer.”) These can add a measure of professionalism to even short run mailings.

6. Mail to the right list

The best message won’t pull its weight in sales if you mail to a poor list. “Using the right list is critical to getting the best response,” says Ehrlich. Since postcards are great vehicles for getting more business from current customers, most advertising experts advise looking to your house list first. If you take the time and effort to build a detailed database, you will be able to customize your mailings to customer wants. “We are seeing more retailers move toward personalization of their mailings,” says White. “Each piece comes out customized with slightly different messages and pictures, depending on what customers have purchased in the past.”While such customization has long been prohibitively expensive, today’s low-cost laser printers allow you to customize your printings even for short runs.

Other lists are available. If you want to increase the number of repeat customers, consider regular mailings to everyone who resides or works within a mile or two of your store. You can obtain such lists, filtered by zip code, from your local chamber of commerce, newspaper or list broker. You can also order lists that are filtered by age, income or parental status.

Bonus tip: As you experiment with different lists, find out which ones work best by coding the cards above the address.Have customers bring the cards to the store and track the resulting sales.

7. Mail regularly and be consistent

Mail regularly to keep stimulating customers and informing them about what’s new, especially to your house list. If you make each message com pelling, recipients will learn to pay attention to your cards. “Since it often takes more than six impressions to get through to someone, consider repeat mailings,” says Ehrlich. “To save costs, over-print the front (glossy color side) and leave the backside blank for future imprinting or print multiple backsides at the original printing. This dramatically lowers the cost per card. Since the back is read first, the same front as not a major problem. Another option is to send the identical card (front and back) to prospects multiple times, perhaps about a month apart.”

Be consistent. Create an echo effect by using the same colors, categories of pictures and types of message time after time. “Once you develop a winning look and feel, stick with it,” says Ehrlich. he tips in this article should help you put together a winning postcard promotion that pulls shoppers to your aisles and encourages customer loyalty. “A well-designed and targeted postcard promotion can zoom right into your customer’s life and propel them to take action,” says Ehrlich.

Phillip M. Perry is a free-lance business writer in New York

Latino

You’ve read the statistics, you’ve seen the Census data—Latinos are the largest and fastest-growing ethnic group in the United States. Whether you live in Los Angeles, where the Latino population is the largest in the country (41 percent of the total population) or in Greensboro, NC (the fastest-growing Latino market with a 674 percent increase since 1990), the Latino population cannot be ignored. It is large, getting larger and, for those in the rent-to-own industry, it means a huge opportunity to grow your business.

The July 2002 Census numbers reveal that there are 38.8 million Latinos residing in the United States. If you’re like me, that’s a staggering number to get my head around. Just how many is 38.8 million? Consider this: there are more Latinos living in the United States than there are Canadians in Canada. The 38.8 million Latinos do not represent the estimated 3 million to 8 million more who went uncounted. The Latino population in this country rose almost 60 percent in the past 10 years, compared to a mere 13 percent increase in the non- Latino population.r Here’s another way to look at the numbers: almost one in seven American residents is Latino. By 2020, this ratio will increase to one in five.And this is having a profound effect on our culture and our society.

The “Latinization of America”

The influence of this exploding population is seen everywhere: our food, our music and entertainment, our sports, our media and our politics. For example, look carefully at your grocery store. New products that cater to Latino tastes now fill the shelves of supermarkets everywhere. Tortillas now outsell bagels two to one. Salsa is now the No. 1 selling condiment in this country. Lays makes a limón (lime) potato chip. Dulce de Leche (caramel) is everywhere: Betty Crocker just introduced Dulce de Leche frosting in June, it’s Häagen Daz’s No. 4 selling flavor of ice cream and even M&M’s has tested Dulce de Leche candies in select markets. And it’s not just new flavors. American brand icons are even creating new products to capture Latino customers. In addition to pudding and gelatin, Jell- O now makes instant Jell-O Flan. The Girl Scouts created a new Mexican-style cookie called Olé Olé.

The influence is seen in other ways, too: Mattel makes Quinceañera Barbie (a quinceaños is an elaborate celebration of a girl’s fifteenth birthday, the equivalent of a “debut into society”).Mattel also makes “Spanish Teacher Barbie” and Capitán Benavides (a G.I. Joe). The Wall Street Journal reports that the top three surnames for new homes purchased in California last year were Hernandez, Fernandez and Gonzalez.

In Texas, the No. 1 name for baby boys born in the state in 2000 was José. In May 2001, George W. Bush was the first president to deliver his weekly radio address in Spanish.Nickelodeon’s bilingual “Dora the Explorer” is the No. 2 pre-school show on TV, leading Anglo as well as Latino children to sleep on Dora sheets that say buenas noches. Fox Television is adding two Hispanic family comedies to their fall lineup, ESPN is launching a full-time sports network in Spanish this year and for the 2004 Olympics, NBC will carry Olympic coverage in Spanish on its Telemundo network.

Republicans recently began Spanish lessons for members of the House and Senate and Republican strategists believe Bush, who captured 35 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2000, can’t lose if he wins 40 percent in 2004.

Latinos and rent-to-own

The Latino market represents tremendous opportunity for the rent-to-own industry for several reasons. To begin with, 70 percent of the Latinos in this country are foreign born.While many foreign-born Latinos arrive with furniture and household belongings, others arrive with minimal belongings due to the cost of shipping or transporting goods. Therefore, as they set up their households here in the United States, they purchase and rent many essential items such as furniture and home electronics. In fact, Latinos spend almost twice as much as non-Latinos on furniture rentals and nearly three times as much as non-Latinos on television rentals, particularly big screen televisions, according to the 2000 Consumer Expenditure Survey study by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. And Latinos spend almost four times what non-Latinos spend on rentals of household appliances.

The second reason that Latino consumers make such valuable customers for your business is the rate of referral business that is typically generated. Just ask Kelly Sayre of Alliance Rental Centers in Texas.

“It has been our experience that our Hispanic customers bring us a significant number of qualified referrals— far more than our non-Hispanic customers,” says Sayre. “By and large, I’d love to have more Hispanic customers. We’ve found that they are generally ready to do business with us with less shopping around at the competition, they pay on time, they’re loyal customers and the referral business is extremely solid and valuable,” he says.

A third, but significant, reason that rent-to-own makes so much sense for the Latino customer is the issue of credit. Remember, 70 percent of the U.S.Hispanic population is foreign-born. That means that the vast majority of Latinos have to embark upon the long road of establishing credit history in this country. Regardless of income, regardless of whether someone had credit in another country, any foreign- born resident of the United States has to build credit history. It’s a difficult process and one that takes time. For an immigrant who has recently arrived, rent-to-own is a terrific way of acquiring the goods and brands they want, affordably and conveniently.

The four Latino mindsets

So how can you capitalize on this large and lucrative market to increase your business? It starts with recognizing that not all Latinos are alike. In fact, saying you want to market to Latinos is like saying you want to market to women. It’s a big group, a broad categorization and to do it effectively, you need to know which subgroup is really your market.

With Latino marketing, it’s not just about translating a message into Spanish. Sure, Spanish is a critical part of reaching Latinos, but to reach them effectively, you have to understand their level of acculturation. Acculturation is defined as the process of adapting to and acquiring a new culture while retaining the old culture. Or, put another way, the “merging of two cultures in close contact.” Acculturation is what happens when a person moves to a new country or is exposed to a country’s culture, values and lifestyles. There are four distinct Latino mindsets that reflect the varying levels of acculturation among Latinos.

The first is the “cultural loyalist.” The “loyalist” is foreign-born, a recent arrival who has been in the country less than five years. This person is Spanish-dependent or Spanish-exclusive and tends to have very traditional values.

The second mindset is the “cultural embracer.” The “embracer” is also foreign-born, but is a U.S. resident and may have lived in this country for many years. This person tends to be more professional, more educated and ambitious. He or she may be bilingual, but prefers Spanish.

The third mindset is the “cross-culturer.” These Latinos are U.S. born, first generation and are bilingual and bi-cultural. They easily live and work in two worlds: English and Spanish. They are equally comfortable in both Latin and Anglo culture, hence the label, “cross culturer.” They are fashion-forward and urban, but very much in touch with their Latino roots.

Finally, there is the “cultural integrated.”This is the fully acculturated Latino. U.S. born, second, third or fourth generation, this Latino may not speak Spanish or perhaps does not speak it well. “Cultural integrated” are Englishdependent or English-preferred.

Cultivating the Latino customer

What are some ways that you can put the welcome mat out for Latino customers in your area? It starts with a bilingual staff. A Spanish-speaking employee can really help your business grow with this target market, by wordof- mouth within the Hispanic community and also by assisting those customers who are Spanish-dominant or Spanish-preferred.

While it’s always difficult to find good help, Kelly Sayre believes that a bilingual staff is critical to his business. “We have not done a very good job of recruiting bilingual staff and we should. It definitely helps to have someone in the store who speaks Spanish. It’s not too hard to get a deal done in English with someone who speaks Spanish, but it certainly makes the Spanish-speaking customer more comfortable and eases the transaction when they can speak in Spanish,” says Sayre.

From an advertising standpoint, laws and regulations vary by state, so be careful. In Texas, for example, Sayre points out that advertising cannot be done in Spanish unless the rental agreement is also in Spanish. For this reason, in select markets, Sayre has taken a unique approach. He’s advertised on Spanish-language Tejano radio stations, but his commercial is in English. “We used radio remotes and had success with them, despite the fact that the ad itself was in English. The station comes out to the store and holds a remote and it generates excitement and customers.”

A third avenue to consider for cultivating Latino customers is your product/inventory mix. Latino culture is steeped in faith and this plays a major role in family life. Sayre states that he first noticed this when he realized that he could not keep paintings of “The Last Supper” in stock at his stores.

In Mexico, the patron saint of the country is the Virgin of Guadalupe—many retail stores catering to Latinos carry religious paintings depicting the Virgin and religious scenes. It makes sense to stock these types of paintings if your store is in a high-density Latino area or has the potential to pull a significant Latino customer base. And don’t overlook furniture fabric colors as the Latin culture embraces life and flavors are bolder and colors are brighter. This is often evident in the color schemes of the home. Consider adding a brightly colored furniture set to your mix to appeal to Latinos who may prefer a color choice other than neutral.

Latinos are “el futuro”

The Latino population in America offers everyone the opportunity to expand their businesses substantially.As the Latino population continues to grow, smart companies will need to reach out and connect with this lucrative consumer base emotionally, rationally, culturally and relevantly. Taking the time to learn more about this lucrative opportunity will pay dividends, today and mañana.

Kelly McDonald will be speaking at the 2003 APRO Convention and Trade Show in Reno, NV, on August 15. Her seminar is entitled U.S. Latinos: A Marketer’s Dream.

Enemy Mine

In May 2003, the National Consumer Law Center published a new study entitled In Harm’s Way—At Home: Consumer Scams and the Direct Targeting of America’s Military and Veterans (available as a PDF download at www.consumerlaw.org). The main thrust of the lengthy exposé is the practice of buying veterans’ military retirement benefits for a lump sum payment made to the veteran. The NCLC decries this practice as depriving retired soldiers of their retirement benefits for a fraction of what they are really worth.

In addition, the piece goes on to chronicle other businesses located around military bases whose main customer base includes military personnel. Some of these companies use military sounding names in an apparent effort to seem affiliated with the armed services and, thereby, enhance their credibility with soldiers. The kinds of businesses criticized in the article include pawnshops, payday loan companies, small loan companies, title pawn and auto pawn companies, “buy here, pay here” used car lots, tax refund services and, yes, an RTO store. These are businesses that exist everywhere in the country and also exist around military bases. 2 In the 66-page article, the discussion of RTO takes up one paragraph, exactly six lines, in which the business is attacked because of its high prices when those prices are compared to retail. It is at best a glancing blow and in no way the focus of the exposé.

WHAT IS THE NCLC?

The National Consumer Law Center is a non-profit corporation based in Boston, MA, that is primarily funded by federal tax dollars and describes itself as “America’s foremost advocate for low-income consumer justice and its leading expert on low-income consumer issues.” The NCLC can best be described as a legal think tank for legal aid lawyers and other consumer advocates around the country and is no friend of the RTO business or any other industry whose customers can ever be identified as “low-income.” In times past, the NCLC has been sharply critical of RTO and has included anti-RTO information in its 16-volume Consumer Credit and Sales Legal Practice Series, the cornerstone of the NCLC’s consumer advocacy work.

Twenty years ago, RTO industry representatives met with the NCLC in Boston to discuss the then-fledgling RTO industry and its efforts in Washington, D.C., to gain legal recognition. There have not been a lot of such meetings, but there have been several over the years and always at the request of the industry in an effort to establish communication across the consumer protection divide and to learn what, exactly, were these consumer lawyers’ complaints against RTO and whether they could be meaningfully addressed.

Then, as now, the chief complaint was that RTO pricing is “too high.” One of the staff attorneys for the NCLC opined that there should be a law in America capping all corporate profits at 15 percent. That was the mindset of the opposition then and it has not changed much over the past 20 years.

Whenever RTO issues have ripened in legislative or legal forums around the country, the NCLC has used resources to oppose whatever it was that the industry was supporting. The NCLC has appeared in a handful of state legislative RTO initiatives over the years, but because its consumer protection issues are many and its funding more limited since the Reagan era, the NCLC has confined itself mainly to the federal debate, at least insofar as the RTO issue is concerned.

The NCLC was there during the Gonzalez hearings in 1993, speaking out against the industry and was there again during the hearings on HR 1701 in the House of Representatives in 2001. In this latest scuffle, the NCLC joined forces with the Consumer Federation of America, Consumers’ Union and U.S. Public Interest Research Group to oppose the Jones- Maloney bill.

The position of these four groups at the hearings was that they were “unequivocally and unalterably” opposed to the industry-supported federal initiative.Nothing short of legislation making RTO transactions subject to Truth-In-Lending and every other consumer credit protection statute at both the federal and state levels will ever get the NCLC’s support. They are ideologically opposed to how the industry does business and do not want RTO to be an option in the marketplace for consumers, at least not their consumers.

Rent-to-own is not the only industry in the NCLC’s sights. The group has other, often larger, and to them more villainous, industries to attack. The payday loan industry, in particular, and the subprime lending industry, in general, has attracted a lot of NCLC ink and wrath over the past few years.

BEARING THE BRUNT OF FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

This most recent study addresses some valid issues about financial strains on military personnel due to the nature of their work. Soldiers are often young, inexperienced, mobile, away from home for the first time and may not have developed disciplined financial habits yet. The piece argues that it is still the case that financial trouble for a soldier means career trouble in the military, which can add to the pressure that a soldier already feels, especially during wartime.

Rental dealers with a heavy military customer base, of course, know that RTO can actually relieve a soldier’s financial pressure. In every business analyzed in the NCLC piece, the soldier is taking on debt, sometimes at high interest rates. Defaults can have serious consequences to lifestyles, finances and advancement in the military. With an RTO agreement, however, the absolute worst thing that can happen is that the soldier returns an item because he or she can no longer keep making payments. Loss of a big screen television may have a negative impact on lifestyle, to be sure, but it will in no way affect the soldier’s finances or chances for career advancement.

The NCLC’s military exposé is predictably hyperbolic. One would think that the country’s military infrastructure was on the verge of collapse because small loan companies have set up shop outside military bases and are advertising in military newspapers. Amid the hysteria, the piece nonetheless raises some valid points about financial responsibility, military pay and the culture on military bases.

Finally, soldiers old enough to bear arms in defense of the country are old enough to decide how to spend their pay without the government stepping in to declare that otherwise legal businesses are somehow “off limits” to soldiers, which is one of the recommendations in the article. Therefore, the thesis of the piece finally fails. A part of military training might well include some rudimentary financial schooling, but soldiers should already have this information from having lived for at least 18 years and the main thrust of military training is and must be that of learning to be a good soldier.

Rental dealers should know that while RTO is surely always on the NCLC’s radar and the industry will never get a thoughtful and balanced appraisal from this group, for the moment, the NCLC invective is aimed elsewhere.

Ed Winn III is APRO’s general counsel. His e-mail address is edwinn@e-bylaw.com

INTUITION

It has been said that men and women start to become great when they begin to listen to their inner voices. Your intuition is your direct connection with infinite intelligence. Intuition is so powerful that it has been studied and written about by the greatest men and women of history for thousands of years. When you begin to use it regularly and systematically, there is virtually nothing that you cannot accomplish. N Your intuition has often been called the “still small voice” within. You may experience your intuition as a gut feeling, as an inner sense of what is right or wrong for you. Sometimes your intuition manifests itself as a hunch or an inspiration. Often it comes as a flash of insight. Your intuition leads you to new ideas, concepts and breakthroughs. Sometimes, an intuitive flash will enable you to see a situation very differently and solve it on a completely different level. Einstein was referring to intuition when he said, “No problem can be solved on the same level at which you meet it.”

In breakthrough thinking, we are taught to redefine a problem and take it to a higher level in order to find a solution for it. Since the more you do of what you’re doing, the more you’ll get of what you’ve got, trying to solve your current problem at your current level is often an exercise in frustration.You can unlock your intuition by using your imagination to think about your problem in a completely different way.

Solving the puzzle

There are two major types of imagination that you use continually, both of which require the highest use of your intuitive powers. They are synthetic imagination and creative imagination.

Synthetic imagination is your ability to assemble existing pieces of knowledge and information into new forms. It is very much like taking all the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, having a clear idea of the picture or goal that you want to accomplish and assembling them into a single piece.

This form of imagination is often called, “integrative intelligence.” It is one of the highest forms of intelligence for success and achievement anywhere. Integrative intelligence is defined as your ability to integrate a large number of different pieces of information into a single precept for decision and action. It is your ability to recognize and sort many different facts and insights together, emphasizing some and discarding others, in the process of making the correct decision. This form of intelligence is extremely valuable in fast-moving, fluid situations that require you to consider a large number of different pieces of information in making a decision.

It has been estimated that you need between 20,000 and 50,000 bits of information at your disposal to be really successful in any field of endeavor. We live in the information age and knowledge is the raw material of production and value in this age. So the more different bits or “bytes” of information that you have, the more effective your integrative intelligence, or synthetic imagination, will be.

The people who rise to the top of any field of endeavor are invariably those who know more than others. In fact, the division in our society today is not between those who “have more” and “have less,” but between those who “know more” and those who “know less.” One of your jobs is to be continually gathering additional bits of practical and useful information so that you have plenty of different ideas and concepts to draw upon when you are wrestling with any problem or striving toward any goal. Your intuition then goes to work for you by helping you quickly sort out the relevant facts and giving you the answers you need when you need them.

The more ideas you expose yourself to, the greater the probability that the right idea will appear at the right time. When it does, your intuition will help you to recognize the idea and integrate it into everything else you are doing.

Putting the pieces together

The second form of imagination is creative imagination. This is a higher form of imagination where intuition plays an even more important part. Creative imagination refers to your ability to come up with completely new and different ideas and concepts to solve your problems and achieve your goals. It is the highest form of imagination and is responsible for all the great breakthroughs in science, technology, art, music, literature and medicine. The most successful men and women of all time have been those who have deliberately trained themselves to tap into their creative imagination on a regular basis. And so can you, if you learn how.

Your creative imagination is the source of all hunches, inspirations, imagination, flashes of insight and new understandings of complex concepts. The cultivation and development of your creative imagination can enable you to make more progress in one or two years than the average person might make in 10 or 20. And your creativity—your intuitive sense—is like a muscle. It grows with use. The more you practice with it and rely on it, the stronger it becomes and the faster it acts for you.

Men and women who have highly developed imaginations have often reached the point where they completely trust their intuition, their inner voices, to guide them in every situation. They never speak or act until they feel an inner urging to do so. They know that their intuition will always bring them exactly the right answer, at exactly the right time.

Your intuition is your direct pipeline to a form of intelligence that is completely beyond your conscious brain. It is accessed by your subconscious mind, which is controlled by the thoughts you think and the beliefs you hold in your conscious mind. The more you affirm and visualize your desired goals in your conscious mind, the more readily they are picked up by your subconscious mind and the more rapidly your intuition or creative imagination is triggered. Successful, effective, happy people are those who have gotten onto the beam of their own intuitive senses and who rely continuously on their inner guidance. And they seldom make mistakes.

The wisdom of that nagging “inner voice”

In your lifetime, you have made a lot of decisions, some of them right and some of them wrong. But when your intuition tells you to do or to not do something, it is always correct. If you have ever gone against your inner voice, haven’t you regretted it? When you have pushed aside that nagging inner feeling, hasn’t it come back to haunt you? This is because your intuition is always correct. It always gives you exactly the right answer for you at any given time, in any given situation. One of the smartest things that you can ever do is to listen carefully to your intuition and to postpone making a decision until you have an inner sense of what choices are correct.

You will often find that your intuition will urge you to either speak up or to remain silent in a social or business situation. Later, it will turn out that that was exactly the right thing to do. In retrospect, you will find that your intuitive learning has always been more accurate than anything that you could think of with your conscious mind.

By the way, research shows that men and women, tested separately, have intuitions that are equally accurate. They seem to come up with the same intuitive answers for complex problems and questions. Why is it, then, that women’s intuition is more respected than men’s? The answer is simple. Women listen to their intuition more, while men have a tendency to brush it aside.

When a woman says, “This situation doesn’t feel right,” she views this feeling as a valid and important assessment of whether the situation is right or wrong.Women are very respectful of their intuitive feelings and generally refuse to go against them. Men will often put aside their intuitive leanings in favor of shortterm advantage, only to pay the price later.

The benefits of solitude

Perhaps the best method for stimulating your intuition is by learning to practice solitude on a regular basis. Throughout the ages, the greatest thinkers of all time have practiced solitude as a regular part of their work and life. They have taken time to be alone with themselves. They have gone off and sat quietly prior to any situation of importance.Most of the great thinkers of today use solitude as an essential tool in developing the creative insights and intuitions that often have the power to change our lives.

Most people have never practiced solitude because they wrongly believe that they have no time for it. However, one good idea that comes to you in the silence of solitude can save you a year of hard work. You cannot afford not to practice solitude on a regular basis. Here’s how you do it.

First, find a place to sit where you can be completely alone, in silence, without interruptions. You want to avoid any activities that will disturb your reverie, such as eating, drinking, listening to music or getting telephone calls. You can sit in your basement, your backyard or on a park bench. The main objective is to be completely alone with yourself.

And second, force yourself to sit without moving for 60 minutes. The first 25 or 30 minutes will be excruciatingly difficult. You will have an irresistible urge to get up and walk around. But you must persist. You must force yourself to stay still.

After 25 or 30 minutes, a wonderful thing will happen. You will start to feel very good about yourself and your life. You will relax completely. Your mind will become calm and clear. You will feel energy flowing through your body. The situations and difficulties of your life will seem to fade away; you will begin to get tremendous clarity on how to reach your goals.

At the end of your 60 minutes, get up and do exactly what your intuition told you to do. Don’t worry about whether or not people will like it or approve of it. Just take the action, make the commitment, do the deed.You will find later that this was exactly the right thing to do. Solitude requires no energy, no effort, no trying at all. It simply requires a state of relaxed awareness where you open your mind to infinite intelligence. And at the right moment, exactly the right answer you need will come to you in exactly the right form.

You can overcome any obstacle, solve any problem or achieve any goal by tapping into the incredible powers of your mind and by trusting your intuition in everything you do. Once you begin to develop and use your intuition, you will become more alert,more aware, smarter and more effective in everything that you do.And your potential will begin to unfold at a speed that you cannot now imagine.

Brian Tracy is legendary in the fields of personal development, management, leadership and sales. He has produced more than 300 audio/video programs and has written 28 books, including his just-released books Create Your Own Future” and Goals! He can be reached at 858/481-2977 or www.briantracy.com.

TAX CUT

The President’s new tax package has at least three nifty provisions that will save rental dealers some tax dollars. These changes do not apply only to rental dealers, but also apply to business entities, in general, but will prove quite helpful to many rental dealers.

The First provision appears as an amendment to Internal Revenue Code section 179 concerning the expensing of personal property purchased for active trade or business. The rule beginning after 2002 was that a company could expense a maximum of $25,000 worth of personal property purchases. This amount was phased out dollar for dollar when the company placed into service qualifiedtangible property in excess of $200,000. So, if a rental dealer purchased less than $200,000 worth of property held for rental and other personal property, the company could expense $25,000 worth of purchases.

The new law applies to tax years after 2002 and before 2006 and raises the expense limit from $25,000 to $100,000. There is still a dollar-fordollar phase out, but it does not kick in until the dealer has purchased $400,000 worth of personal property. What this means is that the higher expense allowance goes away completely when the company’s investment in personal property reaches $500,000 in a given year. Under the prior law, the expense allowance went away after $225,000. Both the $100,000 and the $400,000 limits will be indexed for inflation for the tax years 2004 and 2005.

Also, there is no alternative minimum tax adjustment for use of this expense election. There are also higher expense limits for qualified zone property, qualified renewal property and Liberty Zone property, which may have some beneficial impact for a few dealers.

The bigger news, perhaps, for rental dealers is the expanded first-year depreciation bonus. Rental dealers should already be aware that after 9/11, Congress stepped in to give rental dealers and others a 30 percent bonus first-year depreciation deduction in an effort of stimulate the economy. The just-passed tax law increases the first year bonus from 30 percent to 50 percent. Rental dealers get to take 50 percent depreciation of new rental merchandise placed into service after May 5, 2003, right off the top and then take additional depreciation for what is left of the value of the merchandise in accordance with the three-year MACRS rules. This expanded depreciation bonus goes away for assets placed into service after December 31, 2004.

The full 50 percent bonus depreciation applies no matter when the property is placed into service during the tax year. There is no AMT depreciation adjustment if dealers use this bonus. Use of this depreciation method is voluntary and rental dealers are not obligated to use it for any tax year if their personal circumstances make it disadvantageous to do so. Rental dealers can still claim the 30 percent bonus or they can elect not to claim any additional depreciation beyond that dictated under three-year MACRS.

The third benefit, smaller than the other two, increases the first year depreciation for passenger automobiles by $7,650 instead of the $4,600 allowed under the 2002 law, as long as the automobile is qualified property and is also 50 percent bonus depreciation property. The requirements for an automobile to qualify for the higher depreciation are that its original use begins with the dealer after May 5, 2003, that it is acquired after May 5, 2003 and before January 1, 2005 and is predominantly used in the business. Presumably, dealers will have to use the 50 percent bonus depreciation on the automobile before being able to take this first year increased amount. This rule may or may not apply to a dealer’s new Lexus, depending on whether is qualifies as an automobile used predominantly in the business.

The overall good news is that the new tax law should allow rental dealers to keep a little bit more of their money for a few years, anyway.And they say that the government never does anything for the little guy.

For more information, contact Ed Winn III at edwinn@e-bylaw.com or call the APRO office at 800/ 204-2776 for a copy of the new legislation.