. . . instead of costing money, I make money buying products. I never realized there was a way to turn my household expenses into assets that make me money. Today, I not only get my products for free, but it pays me as well. Now I would never have known that

Successful business owners produce a profit. They are producers. They make money. Consumers spend money.

A legally blind business man and author from Florida named Bill Quain has coined a term he calls a "Prosumer" in a book he wrote entitled "Prosumer Power". I recommend it to anyone who thinks shopping at discount stores is saving them money.

“ProSumers make money while they spend money. ProSumers have learned to position themselves to create wealth by buying smarter, not cheaper.

Which is better, to rent your home or to buy it? Before you answer, also ask yourself this question - Is it better to own yourself or is it better to rent yourself?

Let's ask that last question a different way: “Do you own your life or are you just renting?”

Let's look at an example first and we'll come back to this issue of whether it's better to own or to rent and how that accepted truth applies to our lives as well as our property.

Here's an example Bill gives that will make this very clear. Let's say that you're faced with a choice in where you'll live. Let's say you're looking at either paying $500/month for rent or paying $1,000/month toward a mortgage.

In a 12 month period, our $6,000 in rent would be cheaper than spending $12,000/yr. for a mortgage. But buying cheaper isn't always buying smarter. We can see this more clearly when deciding where to live, but many people can't see this same principle when it comes to making decisions about HOW to live.

Shopping for a rental house is buying cheaper and shopping at a discount store is buying cheaper. Neither one is necessarily buying smarter, but it is buying cheaper.

“In buying a home we’re buying smarter, not cheaper”

Home ownership is the cornerstone of the American Dream. With each payment, we’re spending money toward interest, but we’re also spending money toward principal. In doing so, we’re building equity in that home.

When we own, we build equity, when we rent, we’re building the Landlord’s equity.

When we own a home:           When we rent a home:
- Getting an investment             - You have an expense
- Home appreciates                 - That appreciation goes to landlord
- We create wealth                   - We spend our wealth
- We get tax advantages           - Tax advantages go to landlord
- We build equity                     - We have no equity

Equity is what leads us to long-term wealth creation.

2/3 of people in U.S. own their own home. Something is probably holding the other 1/3 back.

Tax laws are geared to help protect that American Dream through home ownership. Likewise, business tax laws are designed to stimulate Americans to own their own business. The person who chooses to only be an employee is choosing to forego the advantages of these tax incentives the government makes available to every U.S. citizen.

Who's fault is it if someone doesn't use this tool to get ahead? That's why we say, "You choose your lifestyle in America, and choosing to not learn about business is choosing to become one of the poor or middle class, at best. Wealth will not be a part of your life if you choose to remain as an employee."

Now, let's apply these same principles to another area of our lives, our everyday expenses.

Here's a story about the hazards of renting rather than buying that's from Bill Quain's life:

A guy calls a funeral home and he tells them his Uncle has died and he tells them to 'Give my uncle the best’. He's not able to attend the funeral, but he hears that everything was top notch, first-class.

After the funeral, he gets a bill for $32,000 from the funeral home. He thinks to himself, "That’s a lot, but I told them to give my Uncle the best, and I really loved him, so it's all good."

He pays the bill and thinks that's it. Then, next month he gets a bill for $85. He thinks, what’s this, but he's busy, so he pays it and he lets it go.

Next month, he gets another bill for $85. He pays that, too, but he decides to call the funeral home to ask why is he being billed $85 every month. They reminded him that he had asked that his Uncle receive the best funeral that they could give him. He said, ‘Yes, I did want the best for my Uncle.’

The guy at the funeral home says, “Well, we wanted your Uncle to look good, so we rented him a tuxedo and the $85 is for that.”

Moral: It’s better to own than rent.

“People have to learn to think different. If you learn to think different, you can create wealth. If you think the same, then you’ll always have what you’ve had before.

“If you want to have more, think like a store.”

Here's another story from Bill Quain:
Stan owned a store in a small mid-western town. He had that store for years. It was on Main Street. He gave his customers great service. One day on his way to work, he noticed some construction for a giant discount store next to Stan’s store and on the other side of Stan’s store, he saw a ‘going out of business’ store on the other side.

Pretty soon, Stan’s customers started going to the other stores. "What to do?", thought Stan.

One day, a former loyal customer walked into his store and said, ‘Oops, I’m in the wrong store. I’m in Stan’s store.” and he left the store. A light bulb went on for Stan.

He thought, ‘You know, my customers think of this as being 'Stan's store'. What I want them to do is think of this as being 'their store'.’

So he thought of a way to give people money back and help them create income by doing two things - either shopping at his store and he would give them rebates or referring other people to his store and he would give them commissions based on the purchases that these referral customers made at 'their store'.

He went a bit further than that as his customers starting coming back.

He decided to give them commissions on the purchases of not only their friends, but he also decided to give them commissions on the sales on their friends’ friends purchases, too.

So, as his customer’s started coming back, Stan offered a commission to them to refer other customers and he paid them commissions on all the sales each generation of referral created. He let his former customers become owners at “their” store!

They soon started shopping at 'their own store'. They had a reason to shop at Stan's store other than just to get products at discount. Stan's customers became part owners in 'their store'. Stan remained a producer and he turned his former customers into prosumers.

As a Prosumer, you’re buying from your own store, rather than the other store.

They were still buying the things they were buying before.

“Consumers spend money – that money is outgo."
"Stores make money – that money is income."

“Would you rather think like someone who’s creating outgo or like someone who’s creating income?”

The difference in these 3 groups is in the way they think:

Consumers – They trade dollars for things which depreciate later on. Credit card debt has doubled in debt in the past 5 years. Consumers think short term.

Producers – They think long term. They have what's known as 'business owner mentality'. They think building equity, rather than going into debt. They’re focused on income, not spending.

Prosumers – They realize that they spend money, but they think about where and how do they spend their money. They know that they either spend it to create debt or they spend it to create wealth. They make money while they spend money.

Moral: Change how you think and you can change your financial position and your lifestyle.

Price – Consumers think that price is what they’re paying in money.

Here's a great definition I heard Bill Quain say one day, "Price is everything that you give up to get what you want."

Stores may be offering a discount, but they are thinking like a producer, not a consumer. business owner mentality or call it store mentality.

Consumers fall prey to the producer’s thinking.

Prosumers get opportunity when they buy an item. And then they act on it.

Consumers get only the product.

4 Steps People Must Take In Order To Create Wealth As A ProSumer

1. Find a system that’s already in place. You don’t want to reinvent the wheel.
2. Partner with producers to create a store where you and other people can shop. It doesn’t mean putting up walls.
3. Buy from your own store. Become loyal to your corporate partners. “If you owned a K-Mart, you wouldn’t shop at Wal-Mart!”
4. Refer others to this store. They’re going to get the same benefits that we got. The reason they’ll become loyal is because they to will get opportunity along with the shopping.

3 ways to participate:
1. Shop for rebates,
2. They can grow the business to create some part-time income,
3. Throw yourself into this thing and you can strive and achieve financial income. Building equity in their own business.

The level of participation is up to the individual.

The road to wealth provides a U-turn

Many people are still caught in the old paradigm, i.e. study hard, make good grades, graduate from college, get a job and buy save money, but what happens is they focus only on saving money by shopping the discounts and they end up discounting their lives in the process.

Conclusion:

ProSumers position themselves to create wealth by buying smart rather than cheaper.

Shopping for discounts does S-L-O-W down the rate of spending, but you’re still spending money.

“The choice is yours. Would you like to get rebates, part-time income or full-scale financial freedom, or do you want to spend another 15 or 20 years doing what you’ve done so far?”

“People have to learn how to think different. If you learn to think different, you can create wealth. If you think the same, you’ll always have what you had before.”

“Enlist in the ProSumer revolution and win the fight for financial freedom.”

The above thoughts came from Bill Quain and I can't think of a better way to educate yourself about how you think about how you live your life than to read his books. He has written many of them and you can do a search at any of the online book stores to find his books, tapes and CDs.

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Register To Become A Pro-Sumer

    Kurt Gross