Are you opening a dollar store? How big should your business be? How small should your business be? When first opening a dollar store as an independent owner most just set some goals and work to build a business that supports the final plan. But what happens when unexpected events occur?

For most new entrepreneurs the primary factor that determines the size of the store is finances. It comes down to how much business you can afford to open. It is how much money you have and how much will that investment buy. With a little luck this formula works. However, what happens if important costs and reserves are forgotten? What happens if there isn’t enough money to properly open a dollar store and then keep that store running?

When costs and reserves associated with opening a dollar store are forgotten the likely outcome is at the least stress and strain of working feverishly to find more money to keep the business operating during the early stages. It can even mean business failure. The bottom line is that projecting costs and expenses isn’t an area where a new retailer should work alone.

Look to experts to help prepare the projected numbers. A qualified accountant with experience in discount retailing can really help eliminate some of the guesswork. There are also many qualified experts who can provide valuable input as you develop your initial projections regarding opening a dollar store.

Even though emotions are likely running high as you get ever closer to your dream of opening a dollar store be sure that you remain conservative whenever money is involved. Always hold back extra reserves for the unexpected. If the standard wisdom regarding breakeven for your store at you location is six month assume it will take twelve months. If experts are telling you that you will not need to advertise, budget for advertising against industry standards anyway. It will be a much better feeling to have excess reserves remaining at the end of the first year of operation than to be scrambling to find the funds to keep the doors open.

Every new business needs the time to become established. When opening a dollar store sales will grow and profits will come with the right management. Be sure that you have properly budgeted costs and reserves so that your business is given the opportunity to become a success.

Starting an online store is easier than you think. So many people today are so work up over the process of starting an online store. If you are serious about starting your own business, all you need is some time and effort. I will tell you four simple steps to start your own online business legally.

Before I go into details I like to remind you that if want to be successful online you must have a constant stream of product sources. Sources who will sell to you low so you can resell it high. It is a simple logic. You buy low then sell high.

The problem is it is so hard to find real wholesale supplier these days. They either are a scammer or sell to you so high you can’t make any profits from it. You will need to buy wholesale products from real suppliers and the only way to buy from real suppliers is to become a real business. Become a legal business.

To become legal you need to…..

1) File a business name. Be sure to check with your state for more information. Usually they have web sites that can help you get started.

A) DBA (doing business as) this is the simplest form of business name but limit your protection. Cost about $50

B) Corporation – this is the highest form of business name and offers high protections like in case you go bankrupt and can’t pay your debts. This will cost you more to file.

2) Get a TAX ID

With the exception of a few states, you are required to get a TAX ID for tax purposes. Wholesale suppliers require you to present this when you buy from them. They use it as proof to the IRS that they are not required to charge you tax on products they sell you at wholesale.

3) Open a Business Bank Account

To do business you will need a business bank account. They are easy to open and only required $50 to deposit into the account. Your money is still there, just not in your personal bank account.

4) Open a Merchant Account

Finally, you may want to open a merchant account so you can start accepting credits card. These can be expensive but they are worth it. You can also sign up with PayPal for a merchant account. They take out a few percent for every transaction.

After this, you should be able to buy from real wholesale suppliers or drop shippers with no problem. You see? I told you starting an online store is easier than you think.

It does take some work on your end. Believe me your efforts will be reward when you are in the Bahamas sipping champagne with two beautiful girls. Okay I overdid it on the girls but you get the point.

Most experts believe that it is language that has allowed the human being to far exceed all other animals on the planet. Language can also be used to enhance relationships, both personal and business. Here are some techniques to do just that for you.

Words have power because they convey ideas and sentiments. The topics of this article are the sentiment of gratitude and appreciation and the words that convey these sentiments are "thank you."

Let's look at some ways you can use "thank you" to increase your business profits and to build better relationships.

Use Number 1: The Thank You Note.

How often do you receive thank you notes from clients, suppliers, business associate, your boss or any of the other people that you conduct business with? I would guess that it is rare. On the odd occasion that it happens I'm sure that it makes a big impression on you.

Here are some variations of the thank you note theme.

You have a business meeting. Send a short note thanking each participant for their time and point out some contribution that they made that you found interesting or valuable. You can do this easily in an email, which is good, but far better is a written note. If you hand address the envelope it further increases the impact.

I have won many difficult clients and succeeded in many difficult business negotiations by using a simple thank you note.

Use Number 2: A Thank You To Your Staff.

Most bosses are quick to criticize and slow to praise. One businessman that I know personally told me "why should I praise my staff for doing a good job? After all, that's what they're paid for."

It is true that your staff is paid to do a good job, but you will find that in most cases they will gladly go the extra mile if they feel that their efforts are appreciated.

Use Number 3: If You Are Being Criticized.

Most people receive criticism from time to time in their life. Sometimes the criticism is justified and at other times it is not. But the good negotiator will generally handle criticism in the same way whether it is valid or unjust.

He will say something along the lines of; "you know, now that I see it from that point of view I think you could be right. Thank you for bringing it to my attention."

In most cases the effect is dramatic. The aggressor will suddenly feel uncomfortable and to ease their own discomfort they will start to downplay the criticism. Quite often they will say that they could have been over reacting and then they will defend the very person they were criticizing.

Use Number 4: A thank you, in advance, to produce good service.

Thank your service supplier for the service that they are currently giving you and tell them that you really appreciate it. There's a better than 90% chance that the next time you have dealings with that person that their service will be twice as good. Your thank you produces the very quality of service that is worth being thanked for.

Those a just a few simple ways that you can use thank you effectively in the business world. Why not write a list of ways you could use thank you to improve your situations. Don't just restrict it to business either. A thank you goes a long way in your personal relationships too.

As the owner of a small business you often have to wear a number of different hats; manager, technical expert, marketer, problem solver and more. Which role you believe to be the "real you" will determine how much net profit your business makes.

Most people start their business in a "technical" area in which they are qualified in or skilled. They could be a builder, a chef, a musician, an inventor, an accountant, a computer wizard, a writer, or any number of other professions. Let's refer to this as being an expert.

Initially you spend most of your time working in that area of expertise but as the business grows you might find yourself spending more time in management and administrative roles.

Is it more profitable to focus on being a manager or on being an expert? The answer is neither! Your business will make the most profit if you think of yourself first and foremost as a marketer.

You are a marketer who also builds houses or a marketer who also runs a restaurant or a marketer who also plays music or a marketer who also does whatever your business entails. If you think of yourself first and foremost as a marketer and develop a passion for it then you will make every decision and take every action based on increasing your share of the potential profit from your market place.

A builder who thinks of himself as a builder will build well for personal pride or to keep the customer satisfied. If that leads to more business it is almost a happy accident.

A builder who thinks of himself as a marketer who also builds will build well as a marketing strategy to gain more business and higher profit business. He will have a system in place to capitalize on the quality of work and gain referrals. He will take before and after photos to use as marketing material. He will hire workers with good people skills as well as good building skills, because he understands that everything he does can potentially build his business or break his business financially.

The business owner who is first and foremost a marketer is focused not only on cost effectively providing the customer with what he wants but also on making sure that the customer is fully aware of all the benefits he is getting by dealing with this particular business. He knows that every customer is potentially repeat business and that every customer knows other potential customers.

A business owner who sees himself first and foremost as a manager or as an expert will rely on the technical expertise of the business to generate customers. The business owner who sees himself first and foremost as a marketer believes that his primary responsibility in the business is to ensure that the business is gaining more customers and better quality customers, then to use the technical expertise within the business to service those customers' needs.

A business owner who is first and foremost a marketer will make a priority of investing a percentage of the business profits into a marketing campaign that builds the size and quality of the customer base. He will also ensure that the business is getting the best returns for each marketing dollar spent because he judges his effectiveness in the business by the growth rate of annual profits.

All self made billionaires are first and foremost marketers and all small businesses that grow into big businesses are the ones that are owned or run by people who see themselves first and foremost as marketers. I wonder how much more profit your business could generate if you became passionate about marketing.

If you need to publicly speak, preparation is key. If you are totally prepared then you have researched the audience, you know your topic thoroughly, your visual aids are clear and simple, and you have rehearsed and rehearsed again.

Hot tips: 1.

Know the room. Be familiar with where you will speak. Arrive early, walk around the speaking area and practice using the microphone and any visual aids.

2.

Know the audience. Greet some of them as they arrive. It's easier to speak to a group of friends than to a group of strangers.

3.

Know your material. If you're not familiar or are uncomfortable with it, your nervousness will increase. Practice your speech and revise it if necessary.

4.

Relax. Ease tension by doing exercises.

5.

Visualise yourself giving your speech. Imagine yourself speaking, your voice loud, clear, and assured. When you visualize yourself as successful, you will be successful.

6.

Realise that people want you to succeed. Audiences want you to be interesting, stimulating, informative, and entertaining. They don't want you to fail.

7.

Don't apologise. If you mention your nervousness or apologise for any problems you think you have with your speech, you may be calling the audience's attention to something they hadn't noticed.

8.

Turn nervousness into positive energy. Harness your nervous energy and transform it into vitality and enthusiasm.

9.

Gain experience. Experience builds confidence, which is the key to effective speaking.

PowerPoint ideas : Visual aids – such as videos and PowerPoint slides – are a good way of keeping the audience focused on your message and they’re essential for longer presentations or speeches. But there are traps for the unwary. The most obvious is when the equipment refuses to work and your entire speech is built around audiovisual elements.

When it comes to designing a PowerPoint presentation, Adam Griffiths, Interactive Communications Manager at Aon Consulting recommends keeping the message on each slide simple. “Variety is important too – using images not just words. One of the worst techniques is to have 20 slides with an essay.”

Adam suggests charts, graphs, and photos to spice it up. And for the more adventurous, it’s possible to embed digitised videos in PowerPoint.

But don’t go overboard with bells and whistles just because you can. Keep to one or two fonts, one or two colours and a single, simple image per slide.

“I’d say to people, think of the top three to five points you want to make and make sure those are made consistently and simply,” he says. “It’s often useful to come up with a theme for the presentation – say, for example, ‘Reach for the stars’, and then use a rocket labelled with your five key points or other visual metaphor and come back the image at the end to tie the message to your theme.”

“Definitely try to avoid using only text,” Adam continues. “Imagine you’re pitching to prospective clients who have to sit through five different presentations in a day. If you don’t do anything different, at the end of the day the words merge into each other. If it’s a really important presentation, have a consultant work with you. You wouldn’t design a brochure on your own, so don’t assume you should design your own presentation.”

The next thing is to integrate your slides with the message. “You can do a lot with PowerPoint in terms of building messages on a slide,” Adam notes. “You can build images, charts and graphs dynamically, but don’t over-use them. Don’t have text flying in from the side, the bottom and the top, all in different fonts. That’s an obvious mistake people make when they first get into the technology.”

Be critical during your rehearsal, says Bob Hughes. Read the presentation out loud, accompanied by your visual aids. “You have to think 'what can I cut? What do I really need to say and what don’t I need to say? How tight can I keep this?',” he says.

After working with many business owners and several holistic practitioners I have come to the conclusion that the seed of business is vision. Before you can build an abundant practice or business you must have a clear and compelling vision. The vision is the seed that you grow.

It goes beyond the daydream of success and deep into what that business will look like. How you as the owner visualize it. Am I talking about using visualization? Well certainly that can't hurt and can even help you in manifesting what you want. But more importantly I am talking about having a clear vision, written down of where you want to go. Your vision statement becomes your road map. It guides you on your journey. A clear vision helps you to make good decisions for your business. Often there are tempting distractions that get us off course. We decide to add a new product line or create a new service, and down the road we find that it doesn't feel like the right fit. When we look back at our vision, there it is clear as day. The new service or product wasn't a part of the vision. That's why it didn't fit or wasn't successful. It didn’t fit into the company mission, vision and values.

Sure, we want to be creating new services, new products, new opportunities for business growth, but we want to stay on our path. If the new service takes us too far off the path then it might not be the right choice and as the owner it's your role to evaluate that.

Do you have a compelling vision? When you write a compelling vision statement it inspires and motivates. It has the detail you need to move forward.

Business owners that have been working with me will tell you that I keep coming back to this with them and in my own business. What is the vision? What does the company look like? What are the services, the clients, the products? What growth has the company experienced? What does it feel like, sound like? Writing a detailed vision that includes all of the emotion helps you to develop a clearer plan. I recommend writing your vision statement in as much detail as possible. Write it in the present tense, as if it is happening now. Include the details of who, what, where, when, how... And the emotional details – the feelings you have living that vision, the feelings of the clients/customers/staff, what it looks like, sounds like, and smells like.

For example: “My practice is booming, new clients appear each week, easily and effortlessly. My clients love the service that they receive and they tell their friends and family. During each session with a client, I feel totally present and connected to them and their needs. I am able to easily provide the exact service they need that day....”

Once you've created a written vision story, next make a picture. The picture doesn’t have to be that of an artist, just one that represents where you are headed. Hang it on your wall where you can see it. Read your vision regularly, every day if you can. This keeps you inspired and excited about the business that you are building. If you vision story doesn’t inspire you then you need to rethink it, rewrite it. Your vision of your business and life should make you feel great!

Share the vision story and picture with your staff, your colleagues. Letting people know what the vision is gives them the opportunity to help you achieve the vision. Visions don’t just happen because your vision them or visualize them, write them or draw them. They happen because you take action. Reading your vision each day keeps you inspired and on track for taking the inspired actions that must happen to realize the vision. Develop strategies based on your vision to move that vision forward. The vision is the seed that you have planted. Now you have to grow the garden. The strategies become the tools that help you grow the garden and get you to your destination.

Set your strategies in terms of goals. Goals are set based on your values, your lessons learned and a clear and positive mindset for moving forward. Focus this year on your top 10 priorities. Write goals that are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time Bounded. With SMART goals you can track your progress and see your success. Selecting the top ten helps you stayed focus on what's really important. Keep your plan in front of you and work it. Working the plan and making it happen is the real key to producing the results that you want.

Break down your goals each month into smaller monthly goals, and even better is to break them into weekly goals. Establish a system of accountability. Most people start out the year with a great plan and great strategy and as the year moves on, they lose focus and the plan drifts. Our coaching provides you with the ongoing support and accountability to produce results.

Staying focused on goals and the things you desire is one of the greatest challenges many of us face. Perhaps you set a goal or a desire this year but in the day to day of our busy lives we lost track of it and as a result we end up abandoning it until next year. Keeping ourselves accountable can be accomplished in a few ways. Here are our 11 tips for creating a focused and fun approach to success:

1. Take the goal and break into smaller steps and review it each week , even giving yourself a score.

2. Make a chart, to chart progress, each step of the way

3. Hang signs around the house, in the car, at work --- saying: "Stay Focused".

4. Tell family and friends about the goal and intention

5. Create your own mastermind group to help you stay on track and support your ups and downs

6. Partner with a friend or colleague to be an "accountability buddy", share your plan with them and talk once a week to let them know how you are doing

7. Hire a coach to help you identify your goals and keep them on track all year towards extraordinary success.

8. Create celebrations of success, reward yourself -- gold stars, dinner out, a new something!

9. Meditate each day on focused goal attainment

10. Write your vision and goals down and read them everyday

11. Have fun with each success and acknowledge it!

To move yourself into the success you desire spend some time now, creating your vision and focused plan for success. Building the business that you want is possible. With a focused vision, strategic plan and implementation plan you can achieve what you set out to.

How do you create a breakthrough in your business or your life? It's hard to see the possibility, to see that you can create a breakthrough, especially when times feel hard or tough. What it comes down to is getting out of your own way. How do you stop your own success? Do you sabotage yourself?

Jinny Ditzler, in her book, "Your Best Year Yet" outlines a process for shifting your paradigm. As a program leader of the Best Year Yet program, I have seen this shift happen over and over. What I have witnessed is people creating break throughs by looking at themselves, their beliefs and their behaviors. How do you do this?

First is understanding: Beliefs lead to behaviors which produce results

So often, when we aren't achieving what we want and need we change our behavior. Underlying our behavior are our beliefs. If those beliefs are limiting beliefs then we must shift and change the belief. Since we are in charge of our beliefs we do have the power and the ability to make this change. First, look at your behaviors. What are the behaviors that limit your success? Some limiting behaviors that I see with business owners are: procrastination, not following up with leads, not asking for referrals.

The next part of the process is to look at the underlying belief. What do you say to yourself about the behaviors? In essence what do say to yourself, that inner voice, that justifies the behavior, the excuses for the behavior. Now, some of these excuses are things that you believe to be true. Perhaps you are telling yourself -- they are only going to say no, or I'm not good enough, or they won't buy. What are your limiting beliefs?

Shift the beliefs
The key to the breakthrough is to shift the belief. This is more than positive affirmations. This is taking control of your inner dialogue and changing it. Often our inner voice is saying things to us we wouldn't allow people to say to our children. The trick is to replace the inner dialogue with more empowering dialogue and stop the negative talk. If you are telling yourself you aren't good enough, then how will people believe you are? In Jinny Ditzler's book she recommends creating a new empowering paradigm that is positive, short, written in the present tense. A new paradigm for the example we have been working on could be: "I am more than enough".

How do you live the new paradigm? Because that is really the key. It is a great first step to identify how you are getting in your own way or sabotaging yourself, but that alone is not enough. Creating the new paradigm is another great step. Living the new paradigm is the real key. Read the new empowering belief everyday, several times per day. Use the new words for your inner dialogue when the old inner chatter appears. Take control of the inner dialogue. Post the new empowering paradigm where you can see it several times per day. You can also write about how it is impacting your life.

Journal about how changing your paradigm produces different results. Always write in the present tense, as if those results are happening right now. Practice your new paradigm. You can also create a CD with a brief meditation that talks about your new paradigm and the changes that have taken place. I love the CD's because it gets the new dialogue into your head in an auditory way.

The bottom line is that you are in control of creating the breakthrough. A coach can help you figure out the paradigm, and keep it on track. Ultimately, you are the one that has to do the work. Use the tools that you have to create your breakthrough results.

The question is, whether what is happening in managerial jobs is against or past the desires of women? Are women naturally less interested in power and less possessed with the pleasures and risks, which it brings and are aware of their avoidance of managerial positions? What is the relation between women’s’ social status about real position in the family? How can conditions in different life spheres influence each other, because women do not wish to be locked in family, but on the other hand they feel a responsibility to commit completely to it”.

Answering some of these questions needs analysis and research, which exceeds the scope of this paper and deserves a separate study. Therefore, without any need to consider these questions in further detail, it can be said that even though women have been equal to men for a long time, there is still a huge gap between equality of women in our society de iure and de facto. "Double load on woman, her job’s work and maternity in every way and household work occupy her so much that she has no time left for expertise and thus for advancing in her career, for taking over managerial position… ". Thus, the determining influence on the women’s social role has maternity, socialization of children and specific family duties. This position influenced on forming opinions that woman is not interested to advance at work and to take over managerial and leading positions in a company, in other words “anatomy determines women’s fate”.

This stereotype lasted for a long time and was one of the barriers for women to achieve the very top in business hierarchy. Not being able to adequately promote themselves in business and great load of family problems both influenced on women to be in the gap and permanent conflict between roles in family and in a job. In that continual profit of traditional and cultural inheritance and exposing in professional meaning on jobs, which offer wide spectrum of possibilities, but which, due to their complexity, need “whole woman”, she found herself in a position in which she cannot affirm in both business and family plan. "Working woman is forced to make great efforts in order to carry out her role, because woman’s needs grow faster than capabilities which society and family offer.

Our society, which is in crisis, seems to be more suited with closed family, and family members, except for a woman, prefer traditional roles”. Maintenance of traditional and patriarchal family model, especially in some parts of Serbia as well as “macho culture” domination, is also making it difficult for women to fight for “men’s jobs”, as entrepreneur and manager. For these reasons, an adequate family support is needed (both moral and material), but also in macro plan, a wider support from the society through various programs for helping women who decide to engage in this sort of activity. We suggest the foundation of agencies which will have consulting role and on which women can depend on, from generating business ideas to their operating in practice. That support is also important as a support to the family, because it has can create a base and offer security to women in their intention to be independent again and to fulfill their society promotion.

Although the need for strong development of private business is more than important, it still does not develop in such a way to be a function of economic growth of our society. For private economy, in order to grow, a wider action of society is required. Therefore, our country is not being separated anymore from its own entrepreneurial roots, intoxicated by politics and still not focused on matters that are not important for life itself. Instead, it is necessary to turn to world economy, which is the place where nations compete with the whole of their authentic values, which they are able to create. Not long ago, we witnessed another game where our economic elite were not able to communicate with the economic elite of the world.

As women entrepreneurship plays an important role in the development and growth of developed countries, the importance of promoting women in economic activities is being increasingly realized in all developing countries, too. Empowering women by bringing them into the mainstream of development and by improving their economic status and providing them with new employment opportunities for income generation, self-employment and entrepreneurship in different socio-economic sectors is noticeable.

Experience demonstrates that there are a large number of women in most developing countries, capable of and willing to be involved in economic activities. An important tool of women empowerment is micro credit, which has been accepted as an effective tool for poverty alleviation and an approach to development. Micro credits have become exceptionally popular especially in developing economies.” A specific solution for solving women’s difficulties in obtaining financing has been micro financing. Micro finance appears therefore to offer a “win-win” solution, where both financial institutions and poor clients benefit (Murdoch, 1999). “

Women in Africa today represent 52% of population that is 805 million. Therefore, they should be seriously considered and investment made towards their education as well as in their employment in the formal sector of the economy. Micro credits are especially important for starting their own businesses, considering the increasing interest among women who tend to become or already are entrepreneurs. Studies of Yoruba women in Nigeria, has revealed all of the attributes of women entrepreneurs. These women have been engaged in commercial or trading activities since pre-colonial times (Akinwumi, 2000). Akinwumi mentioned two types of women entrepreneurs: “Aljapa” (who are itinerant traders) and “Alarobo” (who are described as petty traders). Actually, they are described as very prudent businesswomen. These women have started to take important political positions in their environments, thus increasing their status and positions due to the wealth gained through trading activities. Interestingly, these women entrepreneurs started micro or small businesses with minimum finances and without sufficient knowledge about new businesses. This research also shows that women develop their businesses but mostly in informal sector with certain exceptions.

According to United Nations Development Program (UNDP), 2004, it could be concluded that Africa has only 6% of female work force on higher positions, like managers and executives in larger companies. In addition, 23% of women in Africa work in service branches and 5% had employed in industry. Namely, women in Africa, work in agriculture and in food production 5 and much less in non-agricultural branches. This is understandable, because there is on the one side the deficit of food in many African countries and on the other side, there is woman’s need to support and to help family to survive. Accordingly, women do very hard work without specified working hours on the estate, by doing household work, selling on the market, etc. Despite that, African women still did not gained respect in society which they, by their work engagement, deserve.

Beside difficult working conditions, African women face another problem. According to statistical data from, Addis Ababa-based Economic Commission of Africa (ECA) – provide around 58% of all African women are HIV infected (Akinwumi, O ,2000) .Despite this problem, a number of women still manage to fight for greater rights and to take part in politics in their countries. These women have demonstrated their abilities and showed that they should be seriously considered as important in the political and economic spheres in their societies. Therefore, nongovernmental organizations around the world are now creating and implementing projects to encourage entrepreneurship as a pathway out of poverty. Many programs specifically target women in Third World countries. This organization has helped dozens of low-income women start their own businesses.

It may sound difficult, but it does not necessarily have to be so. You will make your choice much more easily if you take the time to examine the advantages and disadvantages of each potential business. If you are still in the “choosing stage”, below are a few factors which will make your journey easier.

1. The money needed to start the business
The high startup costs is one of the most common drawbacks to home based businesses. No doubt there are many “business opportunities” out there claiming to get your business started for “free”. Don’t believe everything you hear. Costs are always involved when setting up a home business. Look for one with minimal start up costs, but beware of those with unrealistically low costs.

2. Allow some time to become profitable
Another drawback of home business opportunities is the period of time necessary for gaining a profit. It can anywhere from days to months - and sometimes years – so make sure you know what you are getting into. You should probably aim for a business which turns profit sooner rather than later.

3. Starting while maintaining your regular job
No matter how fast your home business becomes profitable, you will still have to deal with a period when no profit is coming in. You will have to find the right balance between working in order to pay your living expenses and devoting the necessary time for the development of your home business.

4. Operating the business
You will need cash not only for starting your business, but also for dealing with operating costs. As such, you should choose a business which brings a reasonable profit after deducing the operating expenses.

5. Demand for your products or services
No matter how good you are at what you are doing, you will never recoup your initial investment or enjoy success if there is little or nearly no demand for your product of services. Before enrolling in a home business, make sure you have a sizable market for whatever it is that you are selling.

In short, start analyzing your options with a critical eye. The best home business is already out there for you… you only need to find it!