Small Business

Must Have Business Stationery Items

2009-06-10T02:56:00.001-07:00

If your profession requires you to stamp a lot of documents or correspondence everyday, you probably understand how a stamp pad and other related accessories play an important role in this process. However, it does not mean that to realize this you have to be an office employee or a notary. Many people do like to indulge in stamping whenever they need to send out letters, invitations and even give out gifts. The point is that along with a stamp, the related stationery also demands a certain amount of importance!

When it comes to stamping, most people prefer a stamp that comes with a stamp pad. Better to say they prefer getting a traditional stamp. When you consider having such a stamp, you are bound to take care of all the things that are required to stamp your documents and other correspondence. Thus, like you look for the best stamp, you should also look for quality accessories, like stamp pads and stamp pad ink.

Getting quality stamping accessories means you are making your stamping experience more enjoyable. You will find many shops around you that offer stamp pads and accessories. Their items are very thoughtfully designed in an attempt to give customers a great stamping experience. Along, they are very durable and convenient to use.

When you want to give your stamp a different look, considering new stamp pads and accessories can help you to a great extent. They would definitely meet your requirements. For example, for a different look of the stamp, you can change the color of the ink that you are going to use on the stamp pad. There is no doubt it would look very different and innovative. Likewise, you can discover a lot more things in order to personalize your stamp of approval. Getting a bit creative would help you come up with innovative ideas!

Thus, for different personalized look of your stamps, you do not need to get several stamp pads. Getting a quality stamp pad and accessories can prove to be the best way to do the same. You can use them in your office for authenticating documents and at home to personalize your belongings and gifts. Change the color of ink whenever you feel like, keeping in mind the concept of the events! Isn't it a good idea?

Successful Advocacy Days - Four Tips to Make the Most of Your Association's Advocacy Days

2009-06-10T02:55:00.000-07:00

If your association has decided to have an advocacy day, you're probably wondering where to start. Sending advocates to visit Congress or their state legislature can be a daunting task, from getting the meetings scheduled to making sure your advocates can effectively deliver your message.

Here are a few tips to help improve your advocacy days:

1. Have a clear message. The decision to have an advocacy day usually comes from some legislative activity that is important to your association. But you need to be clear about the purpose of your event. What is the ask? Do you want support for a bill, increased funding for a program? It's acceptable to have "meet and greet" advocacy days, where your group comes in and says, "this is who we are and this is what we do," but you can do that only once. If there is nothing in particular that you want from legislators, why have advocacy days?

2. Hit your targets. Because time is limited during advocacy days, you want to make sure that your legislative targets are covered. Find out which legislators sit on the committees that are in charge of your issue and make them the priorities. That means making sure that constituents from their districts are in attendance. If you see holes in your targets, go through your membership roster and find people from those districts and invite them to your advocacy days. Your database cannot do this for you. You have to pick up the phone and ask. It's amazing what people will do if you just ask.

3. Be flexible. When scheduling meetings for advocacy days, remember that it is not like scheduling a meeting with the dentist. Legislators are busy and your events may be planned for days when members are in special hearings or committee meetings or when they aren't in session until late in the day. Don't fill your advocacy day with luncheons or special speakers. That will make it difficult for you to say yes when you're offered a meeting at the only time the legislator is available. As part of remaining flexible, your advocates need to be available from early morning to early evening. Make sure they aren't planning to leave early or arrive late.

4. Train your advocates. When it's all over, advocacy days are only as good as the training. Your advocates don't need to know the history of the bill or how a bill becomes a law, but they need the background on your ask so that they can be confident in their discussions with legislative offices. Some statistics and financial figures are helpful, but don't weigh your advocates down with information that they don't really need. During the training portion of your advocacy days, it's crucial to show your advocates how to connect the data and their stories to the ask. Many associations use a demonstration, some use role play, but before you send them on meetings, make sure they know what the ask is and how to get to it.

For more information about successful advocacy days and other programs to maximize the potential of your grassroots networks, visit http://SoapboxConsulting.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Angela_R._Taylor

Is Your Business Helping You Reach Your Life Goals?

2009-05-28T22:44:00.000-07:00

People start businesses for a variety of reasons. Some just dream of getting rich. Others are sick of working for somebody else. Still others think they know a better way, so they embark a venture all their own. I even know a few people who simply started businesses because of some happy accident. They didn't really intend to start a business. It just happened through a series of circumstances they never planned.

Over time, businesses change. What may have once been the very passion of their life become a 100 pound weight hanging around their neck. They now feel enslaved to a business that no longer serves their life goals. They're trapped inside their own business, with no apparent way out.

If that sounds like you, this list of thoughtful questions might help you get unstuck.

1. What's changed - in your business?

If your business is no longer scratching your itch, what changed? Think about the changes that have happened. When you first started, what caused the rush of adrenaline? Is that "cause" still around? Or maybe it's you who changed. Maybe the things you once needed have now been fulfilled and you have a new itch that requires a new type of scratch.

2. What's changed - in your life goals?

We all experience changes in our life. Our goals when we start our career are very different than our goals after 30 years of work experience. Make a list of the things you now hope to accomplish. List your current goals.

3. What activities in your business hinder those goals?

Yes, it's a negative approach, but if you're struggling with your present business you may as well face down reality. You could approach it like this, "What activities in your business advance those goals?" We're approaching this from a "what's wrong" approach though - not a "what's right" approach. We're trying to fix things.

4. What can you do about those activities or things that hinder your personal goals?

Brace yourself. The answer may come back, "Nothing!" If that's the case, you likely understand your options. Get out. How? Well, that's a different list and a whole "nother" story.

But, maybe there are things you can do to get the business back on track and in harmony with your personal goals. Not long ago I was working with a dealer who wanted to walk away from his business. However, his goal was a target price that simply wasn't founded in reality. His need, or goal, had little to do with the actual value of the business. Result? No sale. Just one miserable business owner.

A better approach is to figure out how you can realign your goals with your business. You should absolutely make changes in your business to get things back in alignment with your personal goals. However, only do that if it will enhance the business. Don't do anything to put your company at risk because you're having a mid-life crisis.

I've known some 30-something business owners who inherited the business from a retiring father and their personal goal was to buy a $100,000 sports car. The business wasn't helping them reach that goal fast enough, and they got stupid. Putting your business at risk for such selfish goals aren't exactly what we're talking about. We're talking about more "this isn't what I want for my life" type goals.

Change what you can, if it will also make the business better. Face the realities of the things you can't change. Decide if you can live with them. If you can't, start building your exit plan.

5. Be careful what you wish for - you just might get it.

"I want to move to the coast and golf," said the owner. He sold the business and did just that. He and his wife of 40 years sold just about everything they had. They left behind the kids and grand-kids. They moved to their dream house in their dream city. For a year, they did what they wanted. After a year, bored completely out of their mind, missing friends and family - they moved back. The coast and the golfing were only things they thought they wanted.

Make sure that your life goals are truly what you want. There are countless men and women who thought they wanted something, only to have obtained it and found tremendous disappointment. Carefully examine your life goals.

Business isn't just about money. It's not just about the things money can buy. It's fundamentally about something more powerful, desire. It might be the desire to determine who we interact with. Maybe it's the desire to live where we want. Maybe it's the desire to determine our own schedule. It can be a thousand different things. And it's not possible to have it all. Don't believe that lie. Every desire comes with a price tag. Your job is to make sure you're willing to pay the price for whatever you desire.

Businesses exist only because somebody wants them to. Make sure you still want yours to exist. Before you dismiss those thoughts, think about two other groups of people who have a vested interest in your decision: your employees and your customers! Get what you need, but don't be too selfish.

Randy Cantrell is the President of Bula Network, LLC, a business accelerator for independently owned small businesses. Read his blog at http://bulanetwork.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Randy_Cantrell

Proven Tips For Business Finance

2009-05-28T22:43:00.000-07:00

In the last part, you learned some of the very basic facts about business finance. In this part, I will tell you how to deal with the problem of cash shortage and an array of other such factors that contribute to the success and failure of your overall business venture. Here you go.

Cash Is King
When you encounter a cash shortage problem, the first thing that you should do is to inform all the people who are going to be affected because of this. For example, you can start by giving a call to your suppliers and explore your options for renegotiating the credit terms, such as by creating a provision for installments or by extending the due date - something that you can afford. This will not only help you battle the problem efficiently but you will also be able to restore people's trust in your business.

Strictly Follow A Set Procedure For Payment
While you are documenting the terms and conditions for sales, make sure to include payment terms as well. Follow this payment procedure strictly. If a customer is asking for credit, you should grant the same only after checking their background thoroughly. For example, you can do this effectively by getting references from other suppliers that the customers are dealing with.

How To Chase Debts
Chasing the debts the right way is also very important for your business finance. You must follow a set procedure for it as well. For example, an effective way is to sending a duplicate invoice mentioning the due date for the payment and when the due date expires, you can follow up by giving a telephone call to the customer.

Realistic Forecasting
Forecasting can be a good thing for your business as long as you are realistic and not conservative about it. Always remember, realistic forecasting is the foundation for ordering raw materials, negotiating premises, and raising money. While you are estimating about the various components, make sure that your analysis and estimation is based on some facts. At the same time, you also need to be consistent about this forecasting. For example, monthly or weekly forecasting is much better than just one annual forecasting.

Keep Proper Records For Everything
Keeping thorough records for each and everything is also essential for the health of your business finance. If you do not have enough time to do it yourself, you always have an option to hire a professional bookkeeper for this purpose. The objective is to keep a firm track on where your money is going out and coming from. Computerizing your accounts is a good way to do that. There are lots of software programs available in the market that can make the process much easier and more efficient for you.

Last, but not the least, you should always keep in mind that everything is negotiable - whether it is payment terms with your suppliers, the rate of interest payable to bank, and the due date of the debts, and the amount of installments for loans. So, negotiation is also a good part of healthy business finance.

Gaining good control over your business finance is the key to success in your venture. You can visit my website for more business finance tips that will eventually give your business a solid base.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Alexander_Miller

Small Business Loans

2008-09-02T03:48:00.000-07:00

Small business loans are helpful to safeguard business against losses or adversities. They are very beneficial to all small business entrepreneurs. Small business loans provide capital to increase the profit margin and aid in production capacity. To run a small business is a Herculean task, more so when there is such hard competition. It becomes very difficult for a small business to survive among the race without proper fund. Thus opting for small business loan is a smart decision to overcome this hassle.

To apply for small business loans borrower has two options, with or without collateral. Secured small business loan is offered with collateral. Low interest and small monthly installments are its benefits. Long repayment duration also gives relief to the borrower. He can borrow big amount here, as this loan is secured against your property. Unsecured small business loan does not require any collateral. No security is offered. However borrower has to bear high interest rate and big amount as monthly installments.

Small business loans are also available for people with poor credit history. Earlier these people were turned down by the creditors. Their poor credit was a curse to get them small business loan. But bad credit small business loan has changed the scenario; this loan is designed for people with adverse credit. Small business loan can be taken to meet any business requirements. To get in touch with the lender, you should seek help from internet. It will give you all relevant information regarding the loan and its procedure to follow.

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Small business loans

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Joanne_Elizabeth

He Swore That The Check is in the Mail But it Never Arrived

2008-08-25T22:28:00.002-07:00

If you own a small business, as I do, I'm sure that you've often been told, "The check's in the mail." At best, you must wait several days before you get access to the money. This can be a major hardship when the amount is large. What if the check never arrives? Then you have to contact your customer or client and hope that they really intended to pay you. You tell them that their check "must have gotten lost in the mail" and sheepishly ask them to send a replacement. Then the process repeats and you hope that this time the check finally arrives. Even if you do actually receive the check, there is of course a delay until you actually get your hands on it and deposit into your bank account. There has to be a better way!

I've found a great solution to this dilemma. There is now software available that allows you to receive the check information by telephone, FAX, email, web form, or in person and immediately print the actual check, which you deposit right away into your bank account. If the check is from an intra-state bank or the amount is under $1000, my bank gives me immediate access to the funds. Otherwise, there is a 5-day hold, which would also have been the case if I had to wait for the check to arrive by mail. So in most cases, I get immediate access to the funds. Wow! It doesn't get better than that. Using this software has greatly improved my cash flow. It could probably do the same for you.

It works with any laser printer. No special toner is required. Checks produced by this software even have the machine-readable numbers at the bottom and are accepted by every bank in North American and most other places. I recommend that you use the same type of security paper as the one suggested for well-known account software, such as Quickbooks(tm) or Quicken(tm).

That paper is inexpensive and is available at most office supply companies and at the above website. It is specially manufactured with a number of features that help to prevent check fraud. For example, if someone makes a photocopy of the check, the word VOID is plastered all over the copy, making it unusable.

Dr. Rubinstein is a practicing psychiatrist who has replaced the income from his lucrative medical practice through online marketing. He not only offers a wide range of products on dozens of websites, but he also teaches Internet marketing through an online multi-media training program as well as a personal mentoring program.

The software is called "Immediate Check Deposit" and it's available for download at http://immediate-check-deposit.com

Dr. Rubinstein can be contacted at ezinearticles@doctorduplicator.com or (219) 864-2501.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Richard_N._Rubinstein,_M.D.

Commission Agreements - 4 Myths That Can Needlessly Expose Your Small Business to Legal Claims

2008-08-25T22:28:00.001-07:00

Although several of the small business owners I have encountered in the past few years thought they were immune from being sued for unpaid commissions by their salespeople, they learned -- too late -- that New York's Labor laws dictated otherwise. As part of their Monday morning quarterbacking, these business owners came to realize that had they invested a modest amount of additional time and resources into drafting a comprehensive and clear commission agreement in the first place, they certainly would not face exposure to paying commissions at a salesman's wished upon (rather than agreed upon) terms, and perhaps could have prevented litigation altogether. After some further analysis, it seems that these business owners' surprise (and Achilles' heel) was the product of their belief in one or more of the following myths:

Myth #1 - Signing bonuses are inherently discretionary - New York's courts have held that where a signing bonus is guaranteed as a term of employment that is tied to the salesperson's job performance (such as the sale of a new account), and further, is not expressly made subject to management's discretion, the bonus is deemed wages under the Labor Law, and thus, cannot be forfeited if earned prior to termination and/or resignation.

Myth #2 - "If it Isn't Written, It Doesn't Exist - contrary to popular belief, just because a commission agreement is oral doesn't necessarily mean it is unenforceable. In that regard, while an employer can change the terms of an at-will employee's agreement prospectively, it cannot change the terms of the agreement retrospectively. Simply put, once the salesperson has already earned commissions at an agreed upon rate, the employer cannot go back and refuse to pay those commissions.

Myth #3 - Termination for Cause Is Cause for Forfeiture of Commissions - New York's Labor Law clearly states that commissions which are earned during employment (i.e., vested), cannot be forfeited as a matter of public policy.

Myth #4 - If It Isn't Clear from the Contract that a Commission is Owed, the Salesperson Can't Collect - a fundamental, and nearly uniform rule of law is that any ambiguity in a contract is construed against the drafter of the contract. As a practical matter, this means that the courts are obliged to side with the salesperson with regard to any provision in the agreement that does not make it patently clear as to whether, and if so, how much, commissions are owed for a particular sale.

As the foregoing makes clear, it certainly pays to have well-crafted and clear agreements with commission salespeople. The short-term cost in time and money will not only help avert misunderstandings, and thus safeguard company morale, but will likely save you untold sums of money by either minimizing, or preventing entirely, the costs of litigation.

Copyright (c) 2008 Law Offices of Jonathan Cooper

Jonathan M. Cooper is an attorney in private practice in New York, and has represented small businesses and individuals in the trial and appellate courts for over a decade. For further information about his firm, please visit http://www.jmcooperlaw.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jonathan_Cooper

Starting a Small Business - Twelve Questions to Consider

2008-08-25T22:28:00.000-07:00

Here are twelve questions that you should consider when starting a new business.

1. What is your product or service idea? Are you making a product or delivering a service? What is the need in the market that you will serve? This is the "what". If you can define the specific product or service you want to deliver in a paragraph or two, it will help you to focus on the "how". Try not to be too general. Instead of "Photography" consider refining it to "In-home baby, child and family photography" or some other more specific area. You can always broaden it later.

2. What geographic area will you serve? If you intend to run a mail-order business, you may not have geographic limitations. However, if you have a product or service that is locally deliverable, such as a store, restaurant or in-home service, a pin on the map will define where your business will exist, but from what demographic areas will you draw your customers? Will these demographics change during the week or year? If you have a business where you travel to your customers, consider making a map to clarify your served area. Draw a shape to enclose the area where you want your primary market to be, from which you expect to get most of your business. Make another larger one which would be areas you would consider servicing but in which you would incur higher costs or longer times to deliver your product or service. And then define the third area, in which you may consider delivering services for a higher price or other consideration.

3. What is your competition? Do some research. The phone book, internet, chambers of commerce and personal contacts are all good sources of information. Try to identify each of your competitors' strengths and weaknesses, and think of ways you can operate your business that will overcome their strengths and will take advantage of their weaknesses.

4. What skills are needed to operate this business? Think beyond the actual craft or product. You'll need marketing, selling, customer service, accounting and bill paying, web and computer skills and more. beside these tasks and skills, note which things you do well and don't do well. Be honest, and think about a plan that will either improve your skills, or will bring into your business someone who can coach your or will do these things for you.

5. What equipment or resources do you need? Again, thinking in terms of three levels is helpful. First level, what do you need to barely operate the business out of your home or a small space? You may have most of all of these things now. You don't want to go into large debt just starting your business, so keep this level "bare bones". Next level, what would you need to establish a firm base for growth? That may be better equipment, a better place, or more machinery. You can take this list and make it your "grow as you go" list - as your sales come in, you can divert those early profits to growing your business to the second level without incurring additional debt. Third level, think about if your business was making $1 million per year, or per month. What would that business look like? That distant view may help you lay a stronger foundation in the first two levels to support growth.

6. How will you enter the market space? Few businesses succeed without an initial push. Do you have friends, relatives or local businesses upon whom you can count to give you some business and exposure? How about a press release and grand opening celebration? TV coverage is good, as are reviews in the paper and online. You may want to think about some initial marketing and advertising strategies to get your word out there. Also think about the best time of year to start, where your investment is most likely to generate sales and awareness.

7. How will you define and market your brand? Every business has a brand identity. People will associate your brand in different ways. Are you tailoring your product or service to a value market or upscale crowd? Will your customers come from retail, commercial, government or industrial areas? Naming your business and products will impact how people perceive your business. Would you rather buy from "Joe's Cheesecake" or "The Cheesecake Wonderland?" Describing your lower cost offerings as "value-oriented" instead of "bargain" creates a completely different customer impression.

8. What processes to you need to define and standardize? Regardless of what you do, customers will expect you to do it the same all the time. Consistency or the lack of it will very much impact how much repeat business you receive. Some key processes are customer contacts (phone answering, greeting), delivering the product, cleaning or preparing your business, soliciting and accepting customer feedback, pricing and specials, just to name a few.

9. What are your compliance obligations? Do you need to collect sales tax? If so, how much and in what areas? How often do you need to report tax and income? Do you have licensing and permitting to deliver your product or service? Do you have medical or board of health compliance requirements? Do you have to notify customers of any potential risks? Are you required to have specific insurance coverage or law enforcement clearances? Sometimes, a conversation with a similar business owner in a non-competing market will open your eyes to compliance issues that you did not originally know. You may also want to talk about how to structure your business: Sole proprietorship, partnership (lots of risk), Limited Liability Corporation (LLC) or other structure. If you run a business from your home, there are tax, permitting and zoning implications.

10. What pricing and policies do you want? Pricing will of course affect your profitability. Make sure you can clear a profit after all of your costs are covered. As a new business, you probably don't want to be the highest or lowest price in your served area. Set prices too high and you may not get any business. Price too low and you risk being ignored by all but the most value-conscious customers, and being branded as "cheap". Your policies will influence your customers' experiences. Will you refund money? How do you handle scheduling, deposits and cancellations? Will you accept credit cards or bill the customer? How will you deal with past due accounts? Will you offer discounts, and if so, to whom? Will you have employees? What policies do you need to define for them?

11. How will you fulfill the customers' needs? Imagine the moment you deliver your product or service to the customer. How will they receive it? Will there be packaging or presentation technique that must be followed? If you deliver a service, how will your appearance, professionalism and quality of work be observed? Where will you obtain your supplies or services? Can you get samples and make contacts at trade shows or other venues to develop your supply chain?

12. How will you measure your success? Sales and profitability are just two measurements of success. How about customer satisfaction? Will you perform formal or informal surveys? Will it be obvious to you if your customers are happy or not? What is their rate of referring you to their friends and associates? If you don't know how your business is doing from the outside, you can't fix it from the inside.

Don't let these questions intimidate you. Instead, use them to build a more complete business plan, expose your weaknesses and highlight your strengths.

To continue your business journey, consider joining a chamber of commerce, industry group or web forum where other like-minded business people can offer support and feedback. Good luck with your business!

John Huegel is a photographer in the Erie, Pennsylvania area who specializes in Seniors, Dance Studio, Families and other groups. He is active in many charitable and volunteer activities in the Erie area. His work can be seen at http://jhphotomusic.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Huegel

Small Business Achievement Thinking by Stopping the Blame Game

2008-08-04T22:15:00.002-07:00

Don't be a player of the blame game. Your small business will have problems. Errors will happen by your vendors, customers, suppliers, your staff and you. Don't focus on blame. That is a waste of time and energy. Focus on correcting the issue and moving forward. Stopping the blame game is a great way to empower your small business towards accelerated growth.

It is our human nature to divert blame. We never want to be at fault. Accept that mistakes will happen. Not everything that happens in your small business will be a good thing. You can't be perfect and stop every bad thing from happening. What you can do however, is to not play the blame game.

I remember a story from my consulting years. I was a junior consultant on a large accounting project and I remember one of the managers stating that he wanted to bring in a tape recorder to the meetings to record the client comments. He was certain that he had listened to them and did what they had wanted. The client dissatisfaction with an accounting system, was their fault because they couldn't specifically explain what their requirements where.

The clients might not have been specific enough in their descriptions of their needs, but my manager was really missing the point. Do you appreciate it when people prove you wrong? Does 'proof' that you were wrong help the situation? This is a best case scenario of the blame game. This manager wanted to bring in a tape record to help him document the blame. What a waste of effort.

He could have paraphrased, and asked better questions, and repeated their requirements to encourage more effective communications. Assigning blame is a time waster. Collaboration is productive, and a great asset to help you build your small business.

Work to stop the blame game in your workplace. Stopping the blame game is a great strategy to empower you to grow your small business.

Recession Proof Businesses - How to Beat the Current Recession

2008-08-04T22:15:00.001-07:00

Do you like to find out how to beat the current economic recession with recession proof businesses? If your answer is yes then read this article till the end.

There is no doubt that many global economies are in a downturn at the moment or are facing a serious risk of going into a recession. The degree of this downturn or economic recession varies from country to country, but the fact remains that not all sectors of the economy are facing this plight. Globally there are some sectors of the economy that are thriving right now. This article will show you one of the sectors that is thriving at the moment and where to find information on how to build recession proof businesses and beat the current recession.

If you have been watching the news, apart from the US 2008 presidential election coverage then you must have seen headlines like:

Oil prices continue to soar,
Gas prices reach an all time high,
Food prices reach record highs,
Up to US 80,000 employees have lost their jobs so far this year alone,
US bankruptcies up by 50%,

These are all signs of an economic recession, in fact to quote a very prominent US Billionaire Warren Buffett "By a common sense definition, the US economy is already in a recession". We all know that when the US economy is in trouble then the rest of the world Economies will sooner or later follow suit.

The fortunate thing is that not all sectors of the economy are facing an economic recession, one such sector is the eCommerce sector. Indeed online business is booming right now, and there are predictions that this growth will continue till 2012. Here is what some business experts are predicting:

Epsit.net; "Global e-commerce revenues will reach $115 Billion this year"
Forrester Research; "each year every household will spend $3,649 spend online"
Forrester Research; "E-commerce growth is estimated to reach 204 billion US$ in 2008 and to hit 334.7 billion US$ by 2012

As a result online businesses have been rightly termed recession proof businesses.

These are some of the reasons why e-commerce is a recession proof business:

People who shop online are more likely to be wealthier than the average consumer,
Online shoppers are people who face far less economic challenges, and they are generally more optimistic about the future,
There are many reasons why more and more people are shopping on-line now and will continue to do so in the future, these include: Trying to save money on gas, saving time, avoiding crowds, comparing prices, finding any product they want, and being able to buy at any time of day (e-businesses are open 27/7)

With the right knowledge, tools and information, you too can benefit from the booming e-commerce sector. In fact in 2007 thousands of ordinary people with no formal technical training, ecommerce background, or sales experience, set up their own successful businesses and quit their days jobs and are now enjoying a different lifestyle.

What is Your Small Business Technicoloured Coat?

2008-08-04T22:15:00.000-07:00

Firstly, it is very important to have a Technicoloured coat, because this is what sets you apart from other businesses, so if you don't have one already, this is something that you need to work on before moving to the next step. Secondly, you can only have one Technicoloured coat, in metaphorical terms, anything else is a T Shirt that goes underneath. Your TC is the ONE thing that differentiates you, you can have other points of difference, but they are not as strong or as important.

Here are a few guidelines on choosing your Technicoloured coat (TC).

If you are a lawyer or a gardener, a real estate agent or a florist, I realise that there are a lot of others in the same market, so your technicoloured coat is not going to be that you are a florist. But what about the fact that you may specialize in roses for weddings, or that you are the only florist in Southport, or that you are the only florist with 20 years of experience in making gift baskets. This is not the only thing that you or the only advantage or selling point that you have, but this is the major one that stands you out from other businesses.

Let us look at some areas that can stand you apart from the rest.

Location

Are you the only Pilates Physio in Ellerslie, are you the only Mens Barber in Bethlehem? The only business to specialize in offering something in a certain region. A location based Technicoloured Coat is something that will make you stand out from people within that region, for example if you are the only school uniform suppliers in Whangarei, then great for those in Whangarei but people in Sydney don't care about that. This is quite fine if you are only selling to people in Whangarei, but don't make your Technicoloured coat location based if you are trying to sell outside of that region. There is one case though where you can break this rule, when the location is something beneficial in itself eg. The only Hawkes Bay Pinot Gris grown on the slopes of Te Mata Peak and is sold all around the world, the fact that it is NZ made is appealing to foreign buyers and Hawkes Bay has other certain attributes in the wine industry.

Experience

Have you been a painter for 30 year or have you travelled to 10 different countries researching the residential architecture? Are you the only nutritionist to have written a thesis on the continued affects of childhood obesity? The only specialist in tropical fish to have worked in a famous aquarium before starting your own business. Experience is a strong Technicoloured coat to have as it is very hard to replicate by the competition eg. you cannot get 30years experience over night. Make sure that your experience is relevant though, if you have 30years experience in signwriting, then great, especially if you could say we have been in business for 30years and still have clients since day one. This all shows that you must offer great service and know what you are doing as you wouldnt be in business otherwise. It is when a business shows that they have 30years experience in painting and yet they are pitching for my car signage that I wonder about their credentials. So make it relevant or dont make experience your technicoloured coat.

Specialty

Is there an area that you specialize in? Specalise in residential property sales over 1million dollars or specialize in selling Mountain bikes and equipment. This TC is one of the easiest to control, but everything you do needs to be focused around your specialty to build up the reputation. If the Mountain Bike shop also stocked kids bikes and some road bikes and some touring cruisers, then they are muddying the waters of their specialty. Be careful not to specialize too narrowly eg. Selling only Downhill Mountain bikes. This can narrow your market too greatly, the upside of it is that the Downhillers see you as a specialist store. My word of warning here is to ensure that you have enough people within your market to specialize that narrowly, if yes, then fantastic you have found yourself a Technicoloured Coat.

Price

I do warn you that price is a dangerous one, because it is easy to be undercut on price and you are then left with little differentiation. Price can help back up your specialist area, but it shouldn't be your only point of difference. A cheap price can often undo the perception of your expertise or specialty, so do be careful here. Price can be your under-shirt as in you are a specialist Running Shoe store, and you have some of the best prices in town. It is not your Technicoloured coat though, that is being the specialist in Running Shoes.

Package

It could be that you are the only business to package together Roofing, Plumbing and Electrical. Packages can often be easily replicated unless it is your experience and knowledge that is your point of difference. Packages can be a great way of becoming a one-stop-shop for consumers so therefore you are selling the convenience, if I could go to one place to get my hair, nails and facial done, it saves going to three different places, if a real estate agent, lawyer and mortgage broker all combined forces, it could make the house buying process a lot easier. So what is a way in which you could package your own products or services or combine with others to create a package that stands you out from the rest.

A Guarantee or Warranty

This can be a Technicoloured coat, if you are the only Plumber to guarantee no leaks in your shower installations, or a business coach who guarantees a 20% increase in a customers bottom line. Maybe you are the only nutritionist to guarantee that if you dont lose 10kg you will get your money back. Be careful though that you can follow through with the guarantee and that it isnt going to make you bankrupt. If you are not willing to put your money where your mouth is in terms of your warranty to back it up, then it could do your business a lot of harm in the future.

Brands and Range

You may have exclusivity on a certain brand for a certain area, this does fall into Location too, stocking certain brands can make you stand out. So too can having the widest range or an exclusive range. Some brands can back up a Specialist Technicoloured Coat too, if that is a sort after brand or range of brands for that specialist area. With a service it could be one person's brand that stands them out from the rest, this is generally based on experience or speciality. So choose the strongest of the three for that to become the Technicoloured Coat.

So, do you now have a Technicoloured coat? To be able to use this Technicoloured coat it needs to be in a strong sentence.

This becomes your mantra in terms of letting the world know how you are different. For example:

- We are the only Plumbers with a 10year no leak guarantee.

- We are the only qualified physiotherapist, pilates business in the central Auckland region.

- We specialize in cost effective marketing for small businesses

- We specialize in high end NZ and Italian furniture.

This statement becomes your internal Marketing Mantra. When you are putting together an ad, an editorial or your website, you need to ask yourself, am I conveying my Technicoloured coat. In hindsight you could even create your brand name around this statement. It must become the basis from which you promote your business, product or service because this is the thing that stands you out from the crowd.

Why, promote yourself as being the same as everyone else? If everyone was selling banana cakes made from the same recipe at the same school fair, it is going to be pretty hard to stand out, but if you were the only one with chocolate cake you have a point of difference, so that point of difference is what you would promote on the sign on the table. We have to get this right, and from the beginning otherwise we are merging in with the competition rather than standing out and having an advantage.

10 Tips to Help Your Small Business Web Presence

2008-03-11T22:45:00.001-07:00

If your a small business owner and are wanting to gain a large presence across the globe you know that you need to improve your online visibility. Offering another place for your customers to see your product is a great opportunity to gain valuable business, but if someone is looking for a product and doesn't know were to go how will they find you?

New business owners need to add SEO to their vocabulary. That is Search Engine Optimization, which means being visible through organic content on search engines. You can also gain visibility by advertising through keywords on certain sites like Google. Being on the first page based on your particular keywords is a necessary if you are trying to gain web traffic.

How can you make your site more efficient when it comes to SEO? 10 tips for small business owners to optimize their site

1. Build keywords into the title of each one of your pages, don't put welcome to...
2. Make sure you have meta tags on each one of your pages.
3. Make sure your headlines in your site help summarize your article and make sure it helps draw out keywords for your site.
4. Make sure you submit your site to google, msn, & yahoo in their submission galleries. This will allow them to crawl your site.
5. Have a blog on your site that allows people to comment. This blog should be daily or weekly tips to your customers.
6. Write articles and submit them to ezinearticles.com and goarticles.com. These are free places to submit your articles.
7. Have press releases sent out over the web and locally with your site address on the release.
8. Digg your articles or have someone stumbleupon your site.
9. Create a myspace and a facebook to gain customers in the social networks.
10. Write a monthly newsletter and send it out through your email list. Make sure you have a place for people to get on the email list.

These little tips are just a start to help your business website, but i suggest you checkout highrankings.com. Also, checkout hubspot.com.

If you have any questions or need advice on getting a consultant please email us at questions@businessonthemound.com.

Blogging and SEO - A Perfect Small Business Internet Marketer Match

2008-03-11T22:43:00.000-07:00

It has become pretty obvious that blogs have been become an important part of marketing for almost any type of online business. They are unmatched resources when it comes to connecting with customers and potential customers.

But, there is an additional benefit that shouldn't be over-looked: there impact on your Search Engine Optimization efforts. Blogging can greatly enhance any websites natural search results through regular postings, and natural keyword placement. There in fact is no stronger way to market ones website for free than by blogging with natural keywords.

Similar to article marketing, posting daily blogs with the keywords of your business included can have remarkable effects on the ranking of your site in any given search engine, and thus net you more traffic. One key to gaining more traffic from keywords is to use 'niche' keywords. These are keywords or keyword phrases that may be searched for less often, but that have less competition. This means you may be able to rank much higher for these keyword. An example: The keyword term "baseball" is certainly searched for often, but there are millions of websites optimized around this keyword. However a keyword phrase like "Atlanta Braves pitcher John Smoltz news" would have fewer competitors. The longer keyword also increases the likelihood that your blog contains exactly what the visitor is looking for.

Getting picked up in search engines can lead to increase volumes of traffic heading to your site every day. There are top keyword placers that use blogs to retain huge amounts of daily traffic to their sites just by integrating a variety of niche keywords into their posts. The amazing thing about blogs is they are often picked up by the search engines almost as quickly as one posts to it, which makes it an even more powerful tool for SEO purposes. Our experience has been that blogs that take advantage of Google's Blogger or Wordpress are quickly indexed.

Another way blogging can help your site's search engine ranking is by the quality score. Most search engines, including Google rank sites with a quality score, the more unique, user provided content, the higher it appears the quality score becomes. If a website is just a sales page, and a few pictures, the quality score will most likely be low. But if a site has a blog on it, with fresh, daily posts, the quality score becomes much better, and thus the site gets ranked much higher when people are searching for your niche, or keyword terms.

If you haven't considered a blog for the pure marketing aspect of it, it's probably time you considered it from the SEO perspective. You've got nothing to loss but website visitors.

Business Negotiation Tips For Small Business

2008-03-02T21:22:00.001-08:00

Negotiations are things we do almost every day of our lives. However, many of these negotiations do not make much difference to us in the big picture, so we tend to take them lightly. However, when you are negotiating for the business as a small business owner, then it will be very useful if you follow the business negotiation tips for small businesses. These are very important for getting the outcome that is beneficial for everyone concerned. A successful business negotiation can make a great difference for you and your business.

Do Not Shy The very first business negotiation tip for small businesses is that you should be willing to negotiate. There is no point in avoiding talking about money. At other times, people may be right when they believe that it is demeaning and rude; but when a business negotiation is going on, you cannot afford to be unwilling to talk about money. On the contrary, it may become an expensive affair.

Do Not Show Emotions Another business negotiation tip for small businesses is that you should not involve yourself emotionally in the deal. Attaching yourself emotionally to win the deal will produce a negative impact. Emotionally involved people even start shouting, threatening and wanting to get their way by using any means necessary, resulting in a negative exposure of their image. Here, you should keep in mind that a deal can take place only when both parties believe that they are gaining something from it. On the contrary, such intense emotional behavior may force the other person to walk away from the table.

Don't Be Deceived By Rules Tricks One more business negotiation tip for small businesses is to not let the other person deceive you by showing you any type of rules. For example, if you make some changes in the contract before signing it and the other party tells you that you cannot make such changes, then you are stuck. In this situation, you must tell them categorically that since both the parties are signing the contract, it is not possible that only one party has the rights to make changes in the contract. Many experienced negotiators use these tactics because they understand that most of the people do not wish to break any rules. If it happens to you, then ask the other person to show you the proof of existence of such rules. However, if the other party has any objections, then they can be resolved by sitting together.

A very important business negotiation tip for small businesses is that you should not open your mouth first when it comes to naming the figure. For successful business negotiation, you must learn how to make the other person say the figure first. Once he speaks his mind, ask for an even better figure, even if it is above your expectations.

Web Advertising for the Small Business

2008-03-02T21:20:00.000-08:00

If you run a small business, advertising costs must be figured in as part of your overall expenses. If you have received quotes for phone directory ads, business association block ads, and mostly any other print media, these costs are quite high. So, what if your budget is small, perhaps negligible? Will you be left outside of the advertising arena or are there other avenues to help you get the word out? The answer in one word is: yes. Let’s explore ways you can “get the word out” through online means…yes, via the internet!

The rise of the internet has spawned an entire industry with it. You may remember in the late 1990s stories of dot.com companies who made a fortune and then went bust. The “irrational exuberance” of that era has, thankfully, passed by and in its place is a much more rational, but very lively market.

Today’s biggest players online are search engine providers led by Google, Yahoo!, and MSN. Between them, these three search engines dominate the market. Mostly everyone today searches the internet for products sold by small businesses to large corporations and these are the people you want to target. Indeed, while Christmas season sales typically increase around 4% year over year for “brick and mortar” retailers, the internet has been seeing year over year increases of 30% and higher! No small business operator should exclude the internet when crafting a marketing plan.

Speaking of the search engines, both Google and Yahoo! have their own advertising networks. Google has its AdWords program while the Yahoo! Publisher Network is a comparable, though newer program. This is where you, as a small business owner, can do some of your advertising. By selecting the advertising plan that works for you, you can have your ads appear on web sites in your local area or across the world and be charged a small amount per click. In other words, you don’t pay for advertising unless someone clicks on your ad and goes through to your site. To keep clicks from getting out of control you determine the price per click and the amount per day, week, or month you are willing to pay. No busting of your small business budget!

Banner or text ads on select sites can also be helpful for your small business. If there is a web site you like and you suspect that a lot of your customers would frequent that site, contact the webmaster to learn what his advertising charges would be. Perhaps in exchange for submitting a few helpful articles, the webmaster would waive your advertising fee altogether. Or, at the very least, accept any other help you could provide [moderating a forum, answering questions, etc.].

Another way of getting the word out is through your own web site. No, you don’t need a web professional to establish your site, but it does help to have someone who can guide you through the set up process. At the very least a few pages is what you will need, so set up costs shouldn’t be terribly expensive. In addition, figure on paying monthly hosting and domain name fees but these expenses should be no more than $100-$125 per year. Pay a little extra for a web professional who can help you optimize your site [make it search engine friendly] and you’ll get your money back much quicker. Finally, check with your accountant for small business tax deductions.

You can also generate plenty of attention by writing articles, just like the one you are reading now. No, you don’t need to be a professional writer, but if you can clearly convey your thoughts and present a plan of action for your readers [such as: buy my product] you can get what amounts to be free advertising. How so? By submitting what you write to article submission sites for wider dissemination. By including helpful links in the author resource box you can cause search engines to make your web site much more visible as your article gets reprinted on other web sites. Furthermore, readers will perceive that you are an “expert” and will likely inquire to find out just what you are all about. You can call this, “small business advertising on the cheap!”

No, as a small business owner you don’t have to be strapped by high advertising costs -- who has the cash to spare? Instead, the internet offers to you several cost effective ways of informing people about who you are, what you do, and where they can find you.

Select the marketing plan that works best for your small business. A mixture of all four points is a great plan of attack for many small business owners…just like you!

Starting a New Business Requires More Than Just A Good Idea!

2008-02-29T21:47:00.000-08:00

The most important thing you can do to prepare for starting and operating your own business is to develop a business plan. This can take time and energy, but it forces you to really solidify your business idea. You can carefully plot exactly what your business, financial and expansion goals are. And this will help you progress in all other areas of starting your business as well. Without funding for startup costs, many successful businesses would never have been able to even open their doors.

Once you've done this, you will realize the significance of unsecured start up funding. Rarely does an individual have the savings or personal resources to put a business plan into action completely on their own. Often, even when one thinks this is the case, deeper development and planning dissuades this initial thought.

Small business funding can be a rather involved subject, filling shelves upon shelves of books at libraries and bookstores. The truth is though, you don't need a how-to book to get good funding. You simply need a good lender. Being able to determine once is what really counts.

A unsecured small business start up loan gives you the startup funding you need, but getting a startup business loan can sometimes be more difficult than it seems. Most lenders today require collateral for small or large start up business loans, but collateral may be something you have never thought of before. When you obtained a mortgage, your home served as the collateral. When you got a car, the vehicle was the collateral. But when you're seeking a new business loan, you probably don't have the commercial collateral you need yet. Your only option then is to offer your personal assets as security for the loan-which is a risk you understandably may be hesitant about.

Collateral is often the biggest obstacle to the prospective business owner. Not only does a new business not yet have any commercial collateral to provide; but it is asking a lot for an entrepreneur to put his hard earned personal assets at risk in order to start a new business venture. Yet, without collateral, getting a unsecured business loan can sometimes seem impossible.

The good news is, though rare, some companies have specialized programs for exactly this scenario. An unsecured business start up loan can get a new business owner the funding he needs to cover initial business costs, without having to provide collateral and place his or her assets risk. With this type of financing plan, the lender utilizes something the borrower has worked hard for and should be able to take advantage of - his good credit. With this approach, the lender can still an unsecured business start up loan at great rates and with a variety of programs.

The small business loan application process can also be made difficult by the imposition of restrictions on how the loan proceeds can be used. This takes away the borrower's freedom to use the funds as he or she may have seen fit. You can escape these hassles by using an online application for a unsecured small business loan.

Today, web lenders offer a new window of opportunity for small businesses and individuals that need a fast start up loan approval process. Time is money! Lenders now offer cash in as little as 72 hours, with no tax forms, no business plans, and no collateral! Such lenders offer the straightest line to unsecured business loan funding, at great rates. In the modern world, financial products as efficient and dynamic as the business world must be available.

Applying for a unsecured small business loan is easy, all the business owner need to do is just go on line and submit their loan details. Then the lenders will refer back to you with the loan decision in a few days.

Outsourcing Services For Small Business Owners

2008-02-29T21:45:00.000-08:00

If you are an owner of a small business (1-4 employees), chances are you do not have enough time to prospect for new clients, as well as take care of your current clients. Generally, you are faced with daily administrative tasks, which are very time-consuming. You barely have enough time to focus on developing your business. This is where a Virtual Assistant (VA) comes in. If you retain the services of a VA, you will gain valuable time. With this extra time, you can concentrate on growing your client base. In addition, you will have more time to provide your current clients excellent customer service.

Examples of tasks that you can outsource are: bookkeeping, scheduling appointments, returning phone calls, answering phone calls, managing e-mails, making reservations, typing and mailing correspondences, creating and managing your database, updating your website and blog, etc. These are just a few examples of projects that can be farmed out. Tina Hilton of Clerical Advantage wrote a four-part series post on Home Office Warrior's blog, "The Top 100 Ways a Home Office Warrior Can Utilize a Virtual Assistant." Her post gives you an idea of what type of projects you can outsource. Virtual Assistant Networking Association (VANA) also has a series of top10 reasons to use our services.

Nonetheless, the business world has been conditioned as to the role of administrative assistants. In the past, administrative assistance was generally performed at "the office." With the advent of technology, services are now performed from our offices. However, the previous type of working relationship or the role of traditional administrative assistants still exists in the minds of some business owners and/or employers.

We are independent entrepreneurs, as well as small business owners, not employees. We do not report to you; we work with you. We don't have interviews with you; we have meetings with you. If we have to directly report to you or have to go through an interview process, the relationship becomes that of employee/employer. If this is the case, you then are required to pay employee-related fees. If you hire an employee at $20.00 per hour, the average cost will be $76,960 a year. If you retain the services of a Virtual Assistant at $35.00 per hour, the average cost will be $36,400 per year, a difference of $40,560. Please visit http://www.rjswordprocessing.com/vacost.html to see a cost comparison chart.

There are still some business owners and/or employers who are accustomed to the traditional methods. We have to get used to the concept that we are business owners. As business owners, rather than employees, we are aware of what is involved with your small business operations and what it takes to grow a business. This experience and knowledge can be beneficial if you are attempting to develop your business.

Our industry has grown significantly, because of the exponential growth of small business owners. We are the perfect solution for small business owners who need administrative assistance. There are many benefits, including saving money, space, and time, if you outsource your administrative tasks.

Can You Afford To Employ A Dual Agent In A Business Sale?

2008-02-26T02:01:00.000-08:00

The pitfalls of hiring a dual agent in a business sale transaction

Most people have heard of dual agency in the context of a real estate transaction and have some awareness of the issues surrounding dual agency. In spite of the inherent conflict of interest, many people do not mind transacting residential or commercial property using a dual agent. The reason is pretty straight forward - while there is risk of not getting good representation, the downside is typically small. Property values are driven by comps and cap rates and in most cases, the amount of money left on the table is a small percent of the transaction value. The commodity nature and relative liquidity of real estate also helps make buyers and sellers comfortable with the risk level.

But does this logic apply to business sale transactions? Businesses, compared to real estate, are illiquid and the valuations and the ultimate closing prices vary dramatically from business to business. The deal amount can also change dramatically through the duration of a deal. In Business sale transactions, not having a fiduciary agent working for you can cost you plenty.

Let us start with an explanation of "fiduciary duty". An agent used to represent a buyer or seller in a business transaction has a fiduciary duty. A fiduciary duty is the highest standard of care imposed at either equity or law. A fiduciary is expected to be extremely loyal to the principal. Among other responsibilities, a fiduciary must not put their personal interests before the duty and a fiduciary must not profit from the fiduciary position without express knowledge and consent of the principal. A fiduciary also has a duty to be in a situation where there is no personal conflict of interest and where there is no conflict of interest with another fiduciary duty.

In light of large sums of money at stake in a business transaction and these fiduciary responsibilities, let's look at the three key issues faced by a dual agent in a business sale.

1. Conflict of Interest

This is by far the most obvious and most damning part of being on both sides of a business sale transaction. A business intermediary is obligated to serve the best interests of his or her principal. Buyers and sellers by definition have conflicting interests. Who should the intermediary be loyal to? Is the agent looking after your best interests? Some agencies will tell customers that they will assign separate individuals to the buying side and selling side and create a Chinese wall.

In practice, the wall between the two sides in the same company, even in a large company with processes to cover this type of conflict of interest, let alone a typical small to mid market intermediary, is more akin to a sieve than Chinese wall. An agency in this situation is in violation of the standards of being a fiduciary.

2. Advocacy

Any competent agent will tell you that, when two principles' interests are in direct conflict, the agent cannot advise, advocate, or give allegiance to either party if such counsel gives one party an advantage over the other. Not remaining neutral or showing favoritism would be illegal and can make the agent liable to potential damages. A careful dual agent would shun the risk of advocacy and will tell you that they will be extremely careful to represent both parties equally and fairly. In other words, both parties lose "advocacy" for their best interests! Is this what you pay your agent for? Wouldn't you rather pay an agent that advocates your interests?

In practice, providing equal service to two parties is difficult and, even if the agent is highly ethical, agent's biases and self interests may tip the scales in difficult situations.

3. Sensitive Information

A business sale can take an extended amount of time and the seller or buyer may experience one or more personal events which, while not affecting the performance of the business being transacted, may have substantial impact on the negotiations. The agent may become aware of this sensitive information which, if disclosed to the other party, could harm one party and benefit the other. If the agent has one principal, clearly the agent will develop a strategy to minimize the impact to the principal. How does a dual agent handle this type of information about a client? Would you trust your sensitive information with a dual agent?

In practice, the agent ends up playing favorites or in a worst case scenario, one or both of the parties' interests are sacrificed in the interest of "getting the deal done".

Summary: Business sellers and buyers need to carefully pick their agent in a business sale transaction. Providing equal service to both clients is practically impossible in most deals. In the best case scenario, neither the seller nor the buyer is getting an advocate. In the worst case scenario, one or both of the parties are being sacrificed. For this reason some states do not permit dual agency. Much can be lost by employing agents who put themselves in the position of being dual agents and thus not living up to the fiduciary standards.

How To Make Selling More Really Simple

2008-02-26T01:59:00.000-08:00

How many friends, family and associates do you know who have been employed in sales at some time in the past? How many of them weren't very good at it?

The answer to the first question is easy, probably quite a few. At some point or other in their lives many people have had a go at selling even if only as a student or in their first job. You may not know the answer to the second one... it's probably most of them!

Probably most of them.

Oh, for sure, they'll tell you that they did well. They'll tell you that they sold bucket loads! They'll tell you that they were a top sales performer. They'll even talk knowledgeably about how to sell. It's amazing what a good game people who only sold for a few weeks and never had any sales training can talk! They'll talk about open questions and wants and needs like they know what they're talking about but... seriously... most of them failed!

Not all, but most!

Top salespeople lead an enviable life. They earn great money. They win promotions. They have job security. They have respect, opportunity and friends. They have freedom, career choices and financial independence. They have fun, challenge and variety.

So if you had all of that, why would you leave? Mostly only if you weren't getting those things at all! I met a friend of a friend in the pub the other night and he looked scathingly at me when I said that I was a sales training expert and told me that he left sales for "more security" and opportunity. He earns in a month what I earn in a day. I recently heard that his company are looking to "cut back" in his department. Nuff said!

But why this tirade? And why today?

Simple. This week I worked with a really great team of salespeople. They were enthusiastic, interested, open and up for it. They embraced the fact that selling is simple and they wanted to master those simple skills. Sales is so simple in fact that nearly anyone could be very successful in sales. Selling is straight forward enough that everybody in the training room could achieve phenomenal success if they commit and take action...

So if selling is so simple why can't everyone do it?

Because selling is about attitude. Selling is an attitude. Selling is an attitude that leaves behind a trail of techniques. Now don't get me wrong here... sales skills are very important, very important indeed. Anyone who has been through a sales training programme with me or who has attended one of my sales seminars will know just how important I believe sales skills are...

But they're not the key factor in this equation. They're only a part of the equation. And on the other side of that equation is attitude. Without the right attitude you won't be able to access your skills. Frankly, without the right attitude, you're in trouble. If you can get and maintain the right attitude then you will make a success of yourself in sales and selling. Period. If you can't, you won't. It's goodnight sweetheart!

I would far rather hire someone with all of the right attitudes and potential and train them on the skills side than I would wrestle with someone with all of the skills and experiences who cannot be bothered any more! The former salesperson I can train because they want to learn, the latter I have to re-motivate and re-educate. Possible but much harder...

You've probably worked with or recruited a salesperson who had all of the right attitudes but was light on skills. They probably did pretty well. It usually gets put down to "beginner's luck" but it's not "beginner's luck", its "beginner's attitude".

And it's at this point that many people not in sales might be tempted to conclude that sales and selling is easy. Something for thickos, something that anyone can do.

Just so wrong!

The hardest thing in the world is getting, keeping, maintaining and improving the right attitude. In sales you never know when you might run into someone who is going to be your best ever client. You never know if the next sales call is going to win you a multi-million account. You never know which meetings are going to convert and which aren't...

And this makes it hard because you have to be on top sales form for every call. Top sales form for every presentation. Top sales form for every meeting. Top sales form for every negotiation. Top sales form for every conversation. Top sales form for every communication. Top sales form. Top sales form. Top sales form.

Not for you the mindless "going through the motions" that some non-salespeople can get away with for periods of time. You have to be switched on, tuned in, fully focused, up for it, raring to go, playing from a 10, on the ball...

Salespeople often say to me that cold calling (for example) is repetitive and boring...

Wrong attitude! You have to be on top sales form for every call. It could be your umpteenth call of the day but it is the initial contact with you for your potential clients. You have to be on top form, you have no safety net!

To make matters worse, salespeople get faced with problems and challenges every day. Problems, complaints, rejections and client objections are something we have to deal with every day and we must stay on top sales form.

So if selling is so simple, why can't everyone do it?

Because selling is about taking personal responsibility for your own attitude, your own behaviours and your own results. Selling is about smiling when you don't feel like smiling. Listening when you don't feel like listening, Caring when you don't want to care. Standing up when you feel like lying down. Pushing on when you feel like giving up. Firing on all cylinders when you feel like throttling down. Taking responsibility when you want to pass the buck.

Selling provides virtually unrivaled opportunities for anyone who is prepared to commit themselves. Your degree won't help you. Your qualifications and exams won't help you. Your CV won't help you. The only person who can help you is you. And that's too much of a leveller for most people.

Small Business and The Bush Administration

2008-02-19T02:14:00.001-08:00

Small businesses are the lifeblood of the United States of America and our economy. There can be no doubt that this great nation's productivity is owed to the small-business people. 10% of all Americans are small-business people and enjoying their American dream and ownership of a small business. In the United States of America 76% of all jobs come from small businesses.

Many people believe that it is the large corporations, which provide the most in our economy and that is simply not so. The large corporations do have lots of money flow, the stock market, investment banks able to channel money to help them grow fast and strong. But in the and it is the small businesses of America that make this country so great.

President George Bush reiterated this truth to the American people in a speech at the Meyer Manufacturing Co. in Ohio in September of 2006. He indicated that he was impressed with what they were able to do and believed a good part of it was because of the employees and the strength of leadership in that small business.

President Bush has been very good during his administration’s terms in office on making sure that taxes were kept low for small business. Additionally, put forth more investment incentives such as the bonus depreciation schedule to buy new equipment and help small businesses.

To commemorate the 20 year anniversary of Metal Gear Solid, here is the Metal Gear franchise. The very first Metal Gear was a stealth game from creato

2008-02-19T02:11:00.000-08:00

This article is for those of you who are considering the possibilities of opening up your very own small online business in hopes of a successful establishment. There are so many different things that you should learn about regarding what it takes to manage any type of online business because within any online business, large or small, there are very important factors that help in determining whether or not your small online business will be successful or not. Throughout this article I want to provide you with some very interesting and hopefully very helpful ideas for anyone out there that is considering the possibilities of opening up their own small online business. Hopefully you can retain this information and use it throughout the duration of making preparations to do something such as this. If you can do enough research about what it takes to manage a small online business, including all other aspects of that online business, you can be better prepared for a much more successful future.

Once you have chosen to open your own small online business there are so many questions that you should consider asking yourself beforehand, that will be very helpful in the long run. Some important things that you should think about asking yourself before opening your small online business would include things such as, how bad do you want it, why do you want it, what are your expectations, what are your wants and desires of owning your small online business and how long will it take to achieve all of this?

Bad Credit Small Business Loans: Possibilities Beckon

2008-02-18T03:38:00.000-08:00

You wish to finance in your small enterprise. But, your present financial situation does not permit you for that. You can arrange cash by availing small business loans. Again you have a problem for that…your bad credit score. Do you know that arranging small business loans is also possible for those borrowers who have a bad credit score? Bad credit small business loans are available in loan market.

A wide range of usages made bad credit small business loans popular among those businessmen whose credit score is bad. You can use these loans for gearing up a new venture, escalating present business, purchasing equipments, repaying business debts, setting up new office or as business capital.

Two types of bad credit small business loans are available in loan market; secured and unsecured. Secured option is available against a security. Any valuable object can be used as security. It could be your personal property or commercial property. On the other hand, unsecured option does not claim anything against the lending amount. However, with secured option, you can borrow the amount, ranging from £3000- £75000. This option is obtainable for 3-25 years. And the unsecured option allows you to borrow any sum in between £1000-£10000, which is repayable within 1-10 years.

However, bad credit small business loans offer chance to all types of bad credit scorers to finance in their business. So, whether you are facing CCJ, IVA, arrear, default, bankruptcy or late payment, you can easily finance in your small enterprise with bad credit small business loans.

You need not face much hassle to avail bad credit small business loans. Many lenders like banks, lending companies offer these loans. You also can opt for online option in order to avail bad credit small business loans. But do remember to compare various loan quotes in order make the interest rate affordable.

Small Business Loan - Small Business Loans Are A Real Business Boon

2008-02-18T03:37:00.000-08:00

It offers a number of products that are designed to aid small businesses but the most frequently used is the loan guarantee, wherein the agency is not the actual lender but it offers a guarantee to the lender which enables the business to obtain the loan it needs. The SBA programs specifically try to aid woman and minority entrepreneurs in establishing businesses.

The SBA offers small business loans and also offers small business grants that are awarded in response to a grant proposal written by the small business operator. These products are awarded without a requirement for repayment. However, if the business does not qualify for one of these grants, there are plenty of small business loan packages that will fit the needs. To apply for a small business loan you will need to have EIN or Employee Identification Number and a Certificate of Limited Partnership. You will need a copy of the business plan and you will need to list each and every existing creditor, in addition to the accounts receivable. For a small business loan you will have to demonstrate that the business is basically solvent and that the incoming cash flow is sufficient to repay to loan without tapping the business assets, For example, if your own the retail space in which the business is located, it cannot be sold in order to raise the necessary funds to repay the loan.

A small business loan may be an alternative to a form of debt consolidation or other debt management product. It can be used to pay off existing debts or at least pay down the debts to reduce the amount of interest owed and ultimately paid. However, taking out a small business loan will mean that the business is assuming a new debt. It will be to the benefit of any business person to confer with a debt management consultant prior to taking out a small business loan. Speaking with a trained business debt management consultant about the business debts can allow the business owner to put them into perspective.

Additionally, the business debt consultant will be able to educate the business owner regarding the many various options to deal with business debt. This will make the individual aware of all of the options and in a good place to make an informed decision regarding taking out a small business loan or making use of any other business debt remedy.

To React Is Human, to React Positively Is Divine

2008-02-13T02:46:00.000-08:00

Irresistible forces drive enterprises in directions that are usually unanticipated and unplanned for, which means that the organization can become disoriented, as sometimes happened to sailing ships rounding Cape Horn during monster electrical storms with gale winds and towering seas. Reactions like shock, amazement, curiosity, smugness, groundless optimism, defensiveness, distrust, reckless risk-taking, and confusion are among those that can result in the face of such forces.

However, employing positive reactions can turn the power of irresistible forces to your advantage, like building a wind farm with pivoting propellers to generate electricity in unpredictably windy areas. Confronting your very human (and usually inappropriate reactions) to irresistible forces is the beginning of helping your enterprise to use irresistible forces in a more deliberate way to create beneficial results.

Dealing with irresistible forces can be very time consuming and emotionally demanding. Those strong emotions can easily distract you from acting in the ways necessary to turn the irresistible forces into your favor. When the emotions divert you from pursuing your own or your organization's best interests, you have just experienced a stall (a bad thinking habit that delays improvements).

Psychologically, irresistible forces tend to take us back to our childhood, when almost every aspect of our lives seemed to be controlled by someone or something other than ourselves. Resisting that temptation to become overwhelmed like an enraged two-year-old shouting "No!" to an apparently hostile universe is important for organizational progress.

While automatic habits of any kind can delay organizational progress, these behaviors become much more harmful when they arise because of strong emotions. The magnitude of irresistible forces will often cloud clear thinking with negative emotional reactions that are experienced by those who have to lead and manage. And the danger is increased by the tendency of the individual or organization to be immobilized by the magnitude of the power involved when first perceiving the irresistible force, a little like the victim who stared entranced by a cobra and failed to retreat to safety.

In addition, enterprises often view irresistible forces as temporary aberrations that must simply be "overcome" for the time being. The most common approach is to work longer and harder, and to cut costs to overcome the effects of the trend on the business involved. This approach is like trying to keep the Titanic afloat by bailing water by hand.

Appreciating that irresistible forces must be dealt with from a long-term viewpoint, being aware of the dangers, and recognizing the stalls that are likely to result in response to irresistible forces are the foundations for irresistible growth breakthroughs.

He Was Promoted To Manager

2008-02-13T02:45:00.000-08:00

In the beginning of year 2007, he was thinking of running marathon, he wrote down this goal and pasted it on the wall. Steven also told all his friends, colleagues, relatives that he wanted to participate the marathon race. Ironically, he just said only but no action.

One month later, Steven was involved in the car accident and his left arm was injured, he needed help from colleagues to write reports for him because he was left -handed.

At that time, he thought he could use this as an excuse, but after some deep thought, he felt embarrassed not to run marathon.

Luckily, he met a marathon group, the group leader encouraged him to start running marathon, he finally made it .

He feel motivated whenever he see motivated words on other participants' shirts. Since then, he run regularly and build up his confidence level.

Because of the positive mindset, it helped him hit the sales target and was promoted to manager. He now encouraging people to run marathon.It can test your endurance and maintain the positive mindset towards work, life. Note: The Marathon is a long, grueling race which traditionally closes the Olympic events. It is taken from the amazing achievement of the Greek runner Pheidippides, who ran over twenty-six miles in for hours, taking news to Athens of the Persians' defeat at the Battle of Marathon in 490 B.C.

Is Your Small Business Model or Idea Viable?

2008-02-11T04:19:00.000-08:00

If you employed people including managers to run every aspect of your business would you still be in profits? If you answered yes, then you passed the first test of being a viable business for the longer term.

1st Test of Viability

Most businesses make or show a little profit mainly because their owner and founder is working a 90 hour week and taking out very little. Will your business still make profits if you removed yourself from the equation and paid proper salaries to your managers?

Business is all about making money. It is great to be in a business that you love, but if the money isn't pouring in by year 3 then it is definitely time to look at other ideas.

2nd Test of Viability

Can you sell it? If you have a business model that can only work if the buyer has a lot of specialised knowledge then it is going to be difficult to sell.

If the reason for the profitability is all in your head and hard to duplicate then it is really not viable for any purchaser. Speak to your accountant and find out how easy or difficult it would be to sell your business.

3rd Test of Viability

Is the marketplace for your products declining? Is the competition getting fiercer by the day? If you have a small business then perhaps you can get away with being in a declining, mature and competitive market. However if you control a larger company then it is time to start diversifying and enter a market place that is also viable for the longer term.

Starting a New Business?

If you are thinking about starting a new business the first step in evaluating your business idea is to create a business plan. This is the first step in working out if your business idea would pass the viability test of your accountant and bank mangers.

You will need to ask yourself some key questions like:

* What size of premises do you need initially?

* How many staff will be required in the first year?

* How much money will you require to inject in the business?

* How will you raise extra funding?

* What are the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors?

* What qualities to do you bring to the business?

The more detailed your business plan is the more likely you are to raise funding. Remember that the banks do not get a share of the profits but instead make small margins by charging you interest and bank charges.

They do not care if you stand to make a fortune. They are mostly concerned with your ability to repay the loan and therefore your business idea must be viable and make economic sense.

They will also evaluate you as a person to see if you have the qualities required to take your idea from paper and turn it into reality. You will need to demonstrate that you have the required knowledge to enter the market place and if required the right people for the key positions like sales and marketing.

Small Business Payroll Solutions

2008-02-11T04:18:00.000-08:00

If you were to gather a room full of small to medium sized business owners and ask them what task they least like and understand, payroll would be at the top of the list for almost everyone in the room.

Because most business owners are not accountants and were not math majors in college, the responsibility to pay your employees while being compliant with government regulations is generally confusing and cumbersome. All of the current state and federal regulations can give you a real headache.

Thankfully, for small to medium sized businesses, there are services that offer outsourced small business payroll solutions. Businesses can choose to outsource just their payroll accounting, and payroll processing, to firms who specialize only in this field.

Payroll service companies can easily handle small business payroll tasks with ease and accuracy, allowing small and medium sized business owners to better utilize their administrative time growing their businesses and making more sales.

Payroll accounting is one area where you, as a small business owner, can really benefit from the outsourcing trends of today. Payroll processing, through outsourcing, insures that the job is done correctly with all of the latest rules and regulations taken into account.

Payroll accounting companies devote their time and care to keeping up to date on all of the latest requirements. Because this is their area of expertise performed daily, they do it very well.

While many of us think of payroll as simply a paycheck, there is so much more to the task. Payroll accounting includes: payroll checks, direct deposit, debit cards, federal and state withholdings, tax liability registers, check registers, unemployment taxes, tax forms, and so much more.

By outsourcing this responsibility, you can free up your time and still stay on top of all of your reporting and filing deadlines. The payroll service company will keep you apprised of everything you need to know and make sure that you stay in compliance. That is what you pay them to do for you.

In the online age, no matter your location, from New Orleans, Louisiana, to Juneau, Alaska, an experienced small business payroll service company can serve you wherever they are based.

Another wonderful benefit to contracting this job out is that you can have a bookkeeper to process your accounts payable and accounts receivable, while at the same time they do not have to have the specialized knowledge required to process and file your payroll.

This means your bookkeeper can be paid substantially less, and this is an efficient savings for your bottom line. Payroll service companies charge very reasonable rates and are well worth you considering.

No matter what industry you are in, if you have employees then you have a need for payroll to be processed. By attempting to do your own in-house you might find that your bookkeeping staff will be expensive and still will miss something that they were simply not aware of.

By outsourcing your payroll services you can insure that the job is done correctly and in a timely manner. Your payroll accounting company will insure that you meet all guidelines and timelines as well.

How Small Business Exporter Can Grow

2008-02-08T03:46:00.000-08:00

Small and mid-sized business represents the greatest base of potential exporters in India – business that could export but do not. The challenge for these small enterprises is to recognize the opportunity to expand their participation in international business by moving effectively into the international marketplace.

As a major part of the economic adjustment mechanism in the Indian economy, small firms discover new market, create new products, find new markets for old products and find new ways to accomplish old tasks. The same qualities that make small firms succeed in domestic markets can be brought to bear on their ability to export.

The agencies represented on the task force on trade are committed to being full and active partners in efforts at the national, state and local levels to increase small business exports. Our goal is to identify the needs of the small business exporter and develop a public-private sector partnership that will increase the competitiveness of small business in the international marketplace.

As a country that believes in the spirit of entrepreneurship, our challenge is to create an environment where entrepreneurs are able to use their creativity. We need to eliminate barriers to free enterprise, to unfetter our enterprising citizens and to encourage competition by small business in the world economy.

Our goal is simply stated: we seek more small business exports. We hope the coordinated efforts of the Indian Government agencies responsible for export programs will provide encouragement and support to small business across the nation as they move into the international marketplace.

Bad Credit Small Business Loan: Your Business Savior

2008-02-08T03:44:00.000-08:00

Small business loan are a great financial help for small business owners. Without monetary support, a business, whether it is big or small, can not be run smoothly. With a small business loan, financing in small business is always possible. Can a borrower with bad credit score apply for a small business loan? Yes, they can. With the availability of a bad credit small business loan, a bad credit borrower can also finance in his small enterprise.

In the loan market, a bad credit small business loan is available both in secured and unsecured form. The secured option claims a security against the lending amount. Borrowers can use any sort of valuable object as a security. It could be commercial or personal. Oppositely, the unsecured option comes without any such requirement. This option is appropriate for those entrepreneurs who are not interested in pledging their property against any loan.

A bad credit small business loan can be availed by all sorts of bad credit businessmen. Whether you have CCJ, IVA, arrear, default, bankruptcy or late payment problem, it won’t hinder you in availing a bad credit small business loan.

A small business owner can fulfill various purposes with a bad credit small business loan. With this loan, they can start a new business, they can expand their present business, they can purchase some necessary equipment, they can buy a new office premises, and they can repair their present office. Even more, they can use a bad credit small business loan as business capital as well.

The interest rate of bad credit small business loan is a bit higher, as it is offered to bad credit borrowers. But there are some ways to make the interest rate pocket-soothing. Incase a businessman opts for the secured option, he can avail the loan at an affordable interest rate, as in this option, loan amount is secured on borrowers’ property. In addition, using a high valuable property can provide borrowers some extra edge in lowering down the interest rate. The unsecured option can also be availed at a better interest rate and for that you need to make some research.

Small Business Loans To Take Care Of Your Finance

2008-02-07T03:30:00.000-08:00

Financial backup is very important in the development of small businesses. Without financial assistance, your innovative business plan will never be implemented. If anyhow, you implement your plans, you will never get success in your business. Small business loans play a big role in building the financial backup for many small businesses. If you are willing to start a small business of your own, you can obtain finance through small business loans.

It is very difficult to start a business of your own. Proper planning and financial backup is must. However, apart from that, you should have a definite business strategy. Small business loans help you boost up your finance, but it is also necessary to repay the loan amount of time. So, implement your ideas in a better way and run your business successfully.

Small business loans come in two different forms: secured and unsecured. Secured type of small business loans need security as collateral. Nevertheless, if you do not have any property or if you are not willing to put your property as collateral, you can look for unsecured small business loans.

Many businesspersons face bad credit problems, for them, bad credit small business loans could be the best option to look for. Bad credit problems are becoming common now-a-days and lenders ore also aware of the general causes that leads to bad credit situations. However, most of the lenders ask for a high rate of interest, but you can also obtain interest rates at competitive interest rates. Search the market trends through Internet, gather information, and choose the right kind of loan as per your requirement.

Low APR Small Business Loans – Trim Cost Of Starting A Business

2008-02-07T03:22:00.000-08:00

Small business people are more worried about the cost of business as it is crucial in determining their profits. And so in taking a loan, every small business person ensures that the loan cost remains low. His concern is well met by low APR small business loans. On taking the loan, a business person’s burden on purchasing raw material or equipment, furniture gets reduced which goes long way in establishing the business.

Low APR small business loans means that these loans are provided to small business people at lower Annual Percentage Rate. In turn this results in easy repaying of the loan amount and is seldom on the borrower. But in order to avail low APR small business loans, the business persona must offer some security in the form of home or any valuable property to the lender. On securing the loan, lender are willing to lower the interest rate. For business people having excellent credit history and repayment capacity, the rate of interest can be reduced by the lender. Low rate APR small business loans are approved under fixed or variable interest rate. The fixed rate should be preferred as the business persona would be paying a fixed rate as installments throughout the repayment duration and saves him from any escalation in the market rate. Variable rate of interest is decided on the base of market rates and initially they may be lower but may jump up later, inflicting losses to the small business persona.

The loan amount as low APR small business loans depends on equity in collateral and also on income generating capacity of the business. The repayment duration is larger as per convenient of the business person. Bad credit of small business person does not come in the way of the loan as his property is with the lender as security. Take a convincing business plan to the lender for increasing chances of the loan approval. Compare terms-conditions and interest rate of as many lenders as possible for selecting a suitable low APR small business loan provider and apply online to him for faster approval.

Marketing a Small Business Successfully

2008-02-06T03:22:00.000-08:00

Successfully marketing a small business is a specialised undertaking that can't be left to any Joe Soap marketer. To survive and prosper, a small business should have a marketing plan that is based on an in-depth knowledge of the nuances and trends of the market in which the small business operates.

That sort of knowledge is usually only available from those that run the business. This means that picking a ready made marketing plan off the internet or bookshelf is likely to be a recipe for disaster because the inputs will have been non specific generalisations. As the old computer adage goes: Rubbish in = rubbish out!

In comparison to Big Business, small businesses are particularly vulnerable to even minor cashflow fluctuations as they simply do not have the financial resources to survive through a lean period. It is therefore vital for a small business to formulate, construct and follow a practical marketing plan that gives the business the best possible chance of obtaining and sustaining a positive cashflow.

The fundamentals of marketing a business are the same regardless of the size of the business, but a small business usually doesn't have the same financial and human resources available to it that big businesses do. On the plus side, decision makers in a small business usually have closer contact with customers and a better feel for the market in their particular niche.

In order to capitalise on these strengths, and avoid being hurt by any lack of budget or manpower, a small business owner needs to be directly involved in formulating a marketing plan that is specifically tailored for his or her business.

Florida Small Business Health Insurance

2008-02-06T03:20:00.000-08:00

Florida small business health insurance policy is easier to qualify for than an individual health insurance policy, even if you are not in the best of health. There are different health insurance laws concerning Florida small businesses. These laws require Florida health insurance companies to sell any small business a group health insurance policy. The State of Florida defines small groups as firms with at least 2 employees but not more than 50.

In order to qualify for Florida small business health insurance, an employee must meet certain eligibility requirements. The employee should be employed under an employer who runs a legitimate company. Government rules prevent health insurance firms from denying insurance coverage to individuals within small group policies. Additionally, as a security for groups insured under Florida small business health insurance, the state health insurance rules do not permit plans to be canceled as one among the insured individual’s might require it.

A small business medical insurance policy has countless advantages. In addition to providing the best medical care for business owners and members (employees), Florida small business health insurance plan lowers the financial risk of individual members. Lower premiums and widespread coverage are some of the salient features of these types of policies.

The price of Florida small business health insurance is based on a standard rate, which is an average of the risk associated with each individual in the group. Within a small business health insurance plan, individuals can pay up to 15 % more or less the standard value, depending on their medical conditions. Healthy individuals could end up paying more in a small business health insurance scheme than on an individual health insurance scheme. This is because the composition of the whole group determines the rates.

Small Business Loans - Financial Precision To Your Vision

2008-02-05T02:27:00.001-08:00

Financial forecasts are good indicators to business owners of how their funds are to be raised cover the start up cost for their businesses. All this includes covering fees such as rent, rates, electricity, wages, stationery and any items that are necessary outgoings for your small business that must be paid each month. Yes, it is a time to cheer up, since for all the prospective small business plans, small business loans have configured to assist the emerging entrepreneurs.

Although preparing small business plan is often an extensive and small business loans online intimidating task. Nevertheless, the business owner gets a new perspective by the end. The business plan is even though only for banks, but it also helps you succeeding in business.

Importance of research in preparing for your business Plan:

• The research must be the core element of every step you intend to take. Start researching through your business plan to guarantee success in it.

• Abandon it, if you find after your extensive research that it cannot be a good plan.

• Choose another small business idea and small business loans online work through it again.

It is a good idea to go through with at least some business plans at hand. Again it is good to research and small business loans online work out before you find the business idea that flourishes into the successful business you want to run.

Consequently, for better financial feasibility, small business loans have been bifurcated into secured and unsecured forms. If you want to start a home-based business, overlook the home-business available on various websites or in periodicals. Indeed, there is no shortcut for starting a successful home-based business. To the contrary, the unsecured forms of small business loans, on processing these loans done without any sort of pledging placing.

Why is a Small Online Business Better For You Than a Big Online Business Part I

2008-02-05T02:25:00.000-08:00

Believe it or not, often times having just a small little quaint online business is much better than having a huge, flashy one and there are several reasons why. Learning more about the small online business is very beneficial because if you are considering ever opening your own small online business, perhaps you will not have the pressure on you of thinking that it might not be quite as successful as a larger online business would and the fear of that could be holding you back somewhat.

Educating yourself on all of the great advantages of having a small online business will really be helpful and if you are interested then you should definitely continue reading this helpful article. I want you to learn more about what all good things could come from owning a small online business compared to owning a larger one. Also, I am wanting to help give you the motivation and confidence that it is going to take to open up your small online business.

A small online business does have many advantages and some of those are really quite obvious. One thing of having a small online business is that you do not ever have to worry about being overly crowded. You can have that little quaint online business that you had always dreamed of having and often times people enjoy going into a smaller place of online business than one that is larger and much more crowded.

Small Business Loans - Financial Precision To Your Vision

2008-02-04T02:06:00.000-08:00

Why is a Small Online Business Better For You Than a Big Online Business Part I

2008-02-04T02:01:00.000-08:00

Small Business Marketing Tips

2008-02-02T02:20:00.000-08:00

Small business marketing tips are guidelines regarding potential opportunities in small business marketing. They help to plan and implement an effective marketing strategy. Small business marketing faces many constraints such as poor budget and lack of essential resources. Marketing tips serve to overcome these constraints. They help to improvise the marketing strategy with a step-by-step planning process. Tips can be the short cut to utilize and benefit from a particular situation. The ultimate aim of these ideas is to enhance the business. Marketing tips are also a guide of do's and don'ts in the marketing field. Small business marketing tips come up with innovative and practical ideas for a cost effective marketing strategy.

Small business marketing tips attempt to enhance the marketing according to the prevailing conditions. It helps to choose effective resources for marketing, suitable to attract the attention of customers. The tips are available for all the steps in marketing including planning, formulation of the strategy, selection of marketing materials and effective marketing procedures. It enables a product to grab consumer attention and to position itself in the market. Effective marketing tips will generate sales quickly.

Small business marketing tips also aim to maintain product identity. Most of the tips prefer branding of the products for a unique selling proposition in the market. Creative marketing ideas such as newsletters, business post cards and trade booths are provided. It explores alternate marketing strategies such as bartering system, mail outs and offers. Tips suggest that referral marketing is one of the best techniques to highlight a product. Cause related marketing is also harnessed as a marketing opportunity.

Small business marketing tips are usually formulated from the experiences of people. Many provide free tips through Internet sites and newsletters. Books on marketing tips are also available. They impart a fresh perspective on business marketing as a whole.

Bookkeeping For A Small Online Business Part II

2008-02-02T02:19:00.000-08:00

There are many wonderful advantages that you should know about, when it comes to bookkeeping. One advantage of proper bookkeeping is the fact that your small online business and everything going on within it will always logged and accounted for, no matter what. In order for your small online business to be legal and financially established, maintaining proper bookkeeping is an absolute must and will improve your chances of managing a very successful online business, which is what all online business owners anticipate.

Bookkeeping will make things so much easier for everyone, as long as it is done accurately and always managed properly. With bookkeeping you will have the ability to see exactly what is going on with your small online business, including any of your losses, gains, any amounts owed to creditors as well as any amounts due from all debtors. Keeping track of everything within your small online business is seriously of great importance and without this kind of quality management, your small online business will totally be doomed. Do some more research over the internet so that you can gain even more information regarding the importance of bookkeeping within your small online business and also remember to talk with other online business owners that are more experienced, they are surely to have some sound advice that you could take note of. Maintaining proper bookkeeping will definitely be worth any amount of time spent working on it because knowing where money is going and how much is coming in is seriously important.

Small Business Owner Health Insurance

2008-02-01T01:49:00.000-08:00

If you are a small business owner, it is wise to offer your employees some type of health insurance. Group health insurance is very helpful to employees, because we all know how expensive it is and how important it is to have. But to be able to get inexpensive health insurance, you have to enroll in a small business owner’s health insurance plan.

To have your business considered a small business, there should be a minimum of two permanent employees to a maximum of fifty. If for instance you have fifty-five employees among who five are freelance and part-time employees, then your business is still considered a small business.

The small business owner health insurance assists proprietors and owners in cases of health emergencies. Once insured, a small business owner can make use of the benefits listed under the health insurance. Often times, what the health insurance does for the small business owner is pay for any hospital, medical and professional fees incurred during hospitalization or check-ups due to illness.

However, for most employers and small business owners, the thought of getting health insurance own their own is still something to think about. It may be very useful if the insured is plagued by ailment or illness, however the costs for acquiring and enrolling in a plan can prove to be quite expensive.

Due to the high cost of small business owner health insurance, some owners form group’s s to be able to purchase health insurance. Purchasing group health insurance is much easier on the pocket than acquiring one as an individual.

Choosing Your Small Business Health Insurance Plan

2008-02-01T01:47:00.000-08:00

Health insurance plans can be a very large expense for many small business owners. But offering a good health insurance plan can be a good selling point when you look to higher quality people to help expand your business.

So what can you do about getting quality small business health insurance plans?

In order to qualify for small business health insurance plans your small business needs to hvae at least two employees. The maximum number of employees to still be eligible for small business health insurance plans varies from insurance company to insurance company.

However, it will usually be within the 50 and 100 employee range. Usually, your employees also have to be full time employees and not temporary or independent contractors.

More specifically, small business health insurance plans require that your employees are not covered by other health insurance plans and that they work at least 30 hours per week in order to qualify.

On the positive side, you can qualify for small business health insurance plans with just you and your husband or wife as employees.

So how much is a health insurance plan for your small business going to cost you? That depends on a lot of different factors, which is a good reason to do your research. You should start by getting quotes from a variety of health insurance companies that cover small businesses.

Plans Works! Even with Small Business Loans

2008-01-31T02:45:00.000-08:00

Do you crib every morning while going out for office, you are sick and tired of the files piling up on your office desk. How many times did you think of leaving the job and starting up your business and being your own boss? Then what is stopping you? Is it the finance? Now it’s the time to give up your worries and avail a business loan. A business loan would provide you with the opportunity to provide skin to your skeleton of ideas.

SMALL BUSINESS LOANS can build up the capital you need to start a small business. With so many online sources for small business loans, you don’t need to rely on family for capital. For getting your loan application approved without any hassles all you need to do is little homework. You should pay attention to your business plan and its feasibility, which would act as a catalyst even in case you have a bad credit past or whether you are using collateral or not for indulging in loan.

Starting with a small business means that you need relatively less amount and if you keep any collateral then you will surely get a good deal in form secured small business loan. The good deal carry with it low rates of interest, easy repayment plans and long tenure of loan. However, equity is also noteworthy. The equity will be in the form of wealth you devote in your business. If there is enough equity in your business to payback the loan, the small business loan will be yours.

If your credit report is without the red marks, then the biggest beneficiary would be you as you can get the business loan without much tribulation. So if you have a great idea, great people to work with and a well written business plan – you have everything, almost everything. All you need is a small business loan to make it a winner. So, how can you begin to write the success story? Of course with a small business loan.

Fund Your Business with Fast Small Business Loans

2008-01-31T02:43:00.000-08:00

Innumerable entrepreneurs start up new business and several business firms shut down due to failure everyday. No matter what kind of business plan you conceive. Whether it is a small one or a bigger project, everything requires funds. However, the worst type of business failure is due to undercapitalization, which implies lack of operating capital. It is a well known fact that success of any small business depends a great deal upon financial planning. So the financial strategies hold utmost importance in any business plan. Thus, there are fast small business loans to give new heights to your business.

We all are aware of the importance of time in financial matters. If financial needs are not catered in due time that cash may hardly be of any use to you; thus, while opting for any kind of loan make sure, you will get it approved within the required time. If you are really short of time, then fast small unsecured business loans can prove to quite beneficial for you. As for unsecured loans, there is no need of evaluation of property, which automatically trims down the time.

For fast small unsecured business loans, you will not have to offer any of your assets as collateral to secure the loan amount. The risk factor will be covered by higher rate of interest. However, with proper search you can surely find some lender, offering fast small unsecured business loans at nominal rates.

For fast small business loans, it is recommended to borrow up to a limit, which you require and can repay easily. You can attract a large number of lenders by presenting your business plan to ensure credibility. For best rates, search through various online sources. There you can find innumerable lenders offering fast small unsecured business loans at nominal rates due to sharp edged competition in the market.

LTL Freight A Term Used For Less Than Truckload Freight Can Be An Afforbable Way To Ship

2008-01-29T02:38:00.000-08:00

Less Than Truckload Freight or LTL for short is a growing business that has strong demand. The need for businesses to have access to LTL freight carriers can be often confusing for those new to the freight carrier business. This niche business continues to grow primarily due to two main reasons. First, parcel carriers usually have a max weight of 150 lbs and the other being motor freight carriers wanting full truck loads. So, LTL fits obviously in between for those shipping a mix of packages.

Less than truckload shipments usually weigh between 75 lbs and sometimes north of 10,000lbs. Groups of smaller packages consolidated together at the various terminal hubs to fill other enclosed trailers for line hauls to specific locations. LTL can be a valuable addition to your business offering an economical way to ship goods quick and affordable. Usually freight is moved daily as drop offs are in the morning and pickups are done in the afternoon. The down time in between stays busy. This is usually when freight is offloaded and inspected for weights and measurements that conform to the bill of lading which is the paperwork for the various shipments.

Transit times for LTL are generally a little longer than full truck load carriers. Usually the location of terminals of the various companies plays the most important role in determining the time frame for delivery. The reason for this is multiple sorting and reloading which can add days to the overall transit time. When selecting a LTL shipper please remember to consider if that particular carrier services that region and doesn't have to hand the cargo off to another regional carrier.

In summary, shipping less than truckload freight is an afforable way to move freight across the country. Don't forget volume pricing is available for those shipping larger amounts of freight.

How To Upsell & Cross - Sell To Achieve Rapid Sales Growth

2008-01-29T02:36:00.000-08:00

January has been a busy month of sales seminars, sales training and motivational speeches so I hadn't had any time to think what I was going to write about this week until about half an hour ago...

I was sat at my PC in my home office, tidying up some emails when one of my good friends called. It's been a while since I have spoken to him so I was delighted to hear from him. It was great to catch up and find out everything that my friend had been up to! He said that he has something he thought I would be interested in hearing...

This story starts with my friend's 18 year old son who is currently enjoying a gap year, getting his head down and working. He has a job in major UK supermarket and he is really enjoying it.

Based in South West London the store he is working in is busy, affluent and diverse. It's not huge but it's a decent size. They have around about 150 staff and shifts would mean that at any one time there might be 40 or more people working in the store.

Like most retailers the store chain in question are keen on their customers owning and using store cards. This creates loyalty, allows the store to compile details on personal shopping habits and group trends and, perhaps most importantly, allows them to extend credit to their customers.

And as any business who has cards like these knows, customers on credit are worth far more than those paying cash!

So back to our little store...

Like most stores they have targets and goals and their most recent "push" is on encouraging customers to sign up for more store cards. Each member of staff, whether individually or as a group, is trained to "upsell" these cards and are then let loose on the customers. Not particularly ambitious, their target number of take ups is 4 cards per week... for the whole store.

So for the next week our young hero, despite not being on the till much of the time, asked every customer he could if they would sign up. Despite his lack of experience or formal sales training and techniques our hero signed up... 18, in one week. Now I have to admit that I have no idea how this rates or how many you or I would have signed up but it is obviously well over the target of 4 that was set for the whole store.

At the end of the week our young salesperson goes on his holidays, returning two weeks later to find out that in his absence the whole store, 150 people remember, have upsold exactly ... zero.

Zero in 2 weeks. So what do we learn from this?

1. Upselling and cross-selling to existing clients is critical if you want to sell more and make more money.

Clients who have already bought off you, who are in a buying mood and who believe in and see value in what you do are great prospects for upselling and cross-selling. There is every possibility that they will buy something else if you make it known to them.

I remember as a young salesman one of my best clients buying something off someone else. I spoke to my client some time later and he apologised to me saying that he did not know that I could supply him with what he wanted! Ouch! I never made that mistake again!

2. Know what you can upsell and cross-sell.

Up to date knowledge of what you can upsell is critical. Upselling the wrong or irrelevant products or services will just alienate your clients. Upselling and cross-selling the right stuff at the right time is your duty. How many times have you bought something only to get it home and realise that you wish you had bought the more expensive option because it has features or benefits that you would have preferred. You would have liked to have known about it!

A reader rang me yesterday to tell me that he was running a short training session on upselling. The first thing that he had done was outline for his team all of the options they had for upselling and how these would benefit the client. This information is important if you want to boost your sales.

3. Make sure that you ask.

Perhaps the biggest block to upselling is that salespeople do not ask. Maybe they feel scared. Perhaps they feel cheeky. Maybe they think that they don't have the right. Perhaps they "already know" that the client will say, "No".

Whatever! The biggest problem with upselling, as with asking for referrals, is that most salespeople quite simply just do not ask.

Call it the McDonalds affect if you like... you have to ask! They upsell on everything and they get a lot of "Nos" but they also get a lot of "Yeses"! Asking every time should be a key component of your sales approach too. You could significantly increase your sales results over night.

Yesterday morning I met my sister and her kids in the afternoon. I only wanted a cup of tea. As I ordered the woman said, "I've just baked some home-made scones. They're still warm. Can you smell them? Would you like one whilst they're still warm?"

"Yes please". An easy sale!

4. Learn how to "ask" properly.

Once you know the benefits of upselling and cross-selling, know what to upsell and commit to asking you need to improve your upselling techniques. McDonalds ask if you want a bigger drink or fries but they have no idea whether you are thirsty or hungry or neither. That's fine in Mcdonalds, they don't have the time but you do. And you have the relationships to do this too.

As you are selling ask questions that uncover the need for an upsale. They needn't be complex but they do make a huge difference to the relevancy of your upsell and the final result.

When booking keynotes I don't just suggest that people buy the books or audios as well, I ask a few questions first to identify what exactly is needed and how it would add benefit for my client.

5. Keep it simple.

I've said it before and I will say it again but 80% of selling is about turning up, maintaining the right attitude and playing the game.

Many salespeople walk in to my seminars and demand the advanced stuff because they are so experienced yet, when you follow them around, they have forgotten or are not doing many sales basics.

Small Business Selecting a Good Manufacturer

2007-09-22T04:43:00.000-07:00

Using a manufacturer from China is saving you how much? The most recent barrage of manufacturing snafus coming out of China ( i.e. contaminated pet foods, use of lead paint in children's toys, orders mislabeled or poor quality items) is a universal problem for all manufacturers, no matter where they are located.

These mistakes are costing your business a major premium. It started out you were saving 50-40% on manufacturing vs. using someone else. Many times unit cost does not include the landed costs to the USA. Landed cost include shipping, tariffs and any taxes. The lowest cost is based on shipment by sea which takes about 6 to 8 weeks, not the 1 week or express by air. Don’t have the right docs, your merchandise is frozen in customs limbo for as long a they deem necessary.

If you have a major problem, you might have to travel there to resolve it, which means your paying the highest price airline ticket ( can’t wait 3 weeks for a fare to drop a few thousand dollars, it could cost you millions). Now you have merchandise you can’t use and will be waiting 8 weeks for the next shipment.

Now you really have limited options. 1. Don’t sale any merchandise for 2 months, layoff employees if this is your only product? 2. Pay extra to ship by air and pay the premium for deviating the pre=arrange schedule ( these extra cost might wipe out all your profits ).

So you have fixed the problems quickly but your customer base is spooked and your getting flooded with returns. Now you are pulling your hair out and thankful that your contract agreement covered these contingencies in your favor [ You did get a valid enforceable contract?].

Careful preparation and due diligence should avoid or mitigate these problems with any manufacturing vendor.

Check List for Success

1. Do your research. Do not short change the process it could easily cost you millions. Visit the manufacturing site, the production floor, meet the workers, managers and decision makers. Face to face still goes a very long way in the communication process.

2. Check with their references and clients who have a long history with your proposed manufacturing vendor. If your using a broker to negotiate for you compile a list and check out their track record.

3. Quality controls should be agreed to and followed ( i.e. like a periodic inspection on site and when the product is received for distribution ).

4. Clause in contract that the process used to create the qualified product can not be changed without being re-qualified and the results being signed off by you. Acquiring parts from a different vendor or changing process steps to lower cost may effect the quality and performance of your product. Be wary because you supplier is looking to drop his costs to increase profit.

5. Check your quality frequently and randomly with your own quality control office or trusted third party.

6. Know all your possible cost scenarios in regard to shipping by sea, air or land (truck or train). You should send a small quantity of prototypes by all your possible shipping methods to confirm time frame of transport and documentation process. { piggyback real world packaging test too }.

7. Best to have at least two suppliers shipping you product. But if this is impossible have one pre-qualified in the wings ready to produce if necessary. Qualifications should include:

a. Ability to make product to specifications
b. Ability to deliver on time
c. Ability to turn over changes quickly.
d. Communicate effectively and timely

Other factors to consider, who are their other customers. You don’t want to be ignored because you’re a small client and you may not want to be a pioneer as the only client. Financial exchange rates long term and short will critically affect low margin products.

Starting A Daycare - 3 Concrete Steps

2007-09-22T04:42:00.000-07:00

We will assume you know nothing about the industry except that it involves children but you have always dreamed about quitting your job and starting a daycare. That is pretty much the position I was in when I started my day care 10 years ago and I spent a year and a half researching and learning before I got going. But, no panic. Allow me to cut short the research time a little with some pointers on how best to prepare for the exciting journey that is starting your own child care business.

Every successful venture starts with a well thought out business plan thus enabling the entrepreneur (you) to get a clear, overall picture of what your business will entail. This is the vital, unavoidable first step if you are to have any chance of understanding what it takes for your idea to succeed. Many people get to the business plan stage and no further due to a realisation that the project is unfeasible for whatever reason. So, use your business plan as the first step in your research to figure out if your business will be viable.

The vital elements of starting any business are covered by your business plan. Introduction/description,benefits, market research, key financials and conclusion. Like a good teacher it provides the questions and ensures you fill in the blanks. I found it to be a great checklist of things to do as I worked my way methodically through each of the required steps. Areas I might have omitted or glossed over were covered leaving me with thorough and accurate vision of my business. Here are some suggestions for business plan templates.

Arrange a meeting with your local licensing representative, have them visit your premises and find out what they will be requiring in terms of premises layout, contents, play area and general health and safety issues. They are the experts and responsible for granting your license so, you want what they want. Get them to give you guidelines and tips on policies and paperwork. Do not be afraid to ask questions. Go to this meeting prepared and armed with a list of questions so you can learn as much as possible.

When I was researching my business I received some of the best tips, hints and advice from other providers, in fact, I still make information gathering visits once a year and learn something new everytime. Existing daycare owners are an invaluable resource for practical advice. Call up a couple of established providers (preferably not too close to your proposed venture, they might not be too enamoured of the impending competition!), explain your situation and set up a day to go visit. People are usually delighted to help aspiring entrepreneurs and love discussing their own business. There is nothing quite like the advice of people who are on the ground, doing the day to day business.

Be sure and bring materials to take notes while you observe and ask questions. Notice daily routines, room layout and equipment, methods for dealing with behaviours, staff and child interaction, health and safety procedures, hygiene practices, peruse paperwork (ask for copies of the paperwork to help guide you when formulating your own). Get tips on advertising, pricing and suppliers. Attempt to speak to different members of staff and management so you get a good overview. Don't just ask them what they do but also ask for their opinion on how things could be better. These open questions will provide you with an immense wealth of knowledge, all of the practical, hands on variety.

Taking just these three steps and seeing them through to completion will give you a fantastic headstart in terms of researching your business. Your confidence in yourself and your ability to achieve your vision will peak and you will be propelled into further positive action. So, what are you waiting for...get researching.

Process Development and Your Business

2007-09-22T04:39:00.000-07:00

When you sit down at your desk and get ready to send a packet of information to a potential client you go through a process to complete the task. Webster’s defines a process as a series of actions, motions, or operations leading to a result. Processes are meant to be developed and refined during periods of growth, and even periods of stagnation. All are developed to increase efficiency and best business practices.

A new process does not mean, however, adding more to an already overloaded schedule, in the terms I’m talking about. It means making decisions—deciding what stays and what goes. There are processes you have that are automatic, mailing informational packets or taking information from a potential client over the phone. It’s what happens to that information that you have acquired that you have to decide, do you take the next step right away and enter the information into your contact management system as a lead, or do you just wait for them to call? When do you follow up or even who follows up? Those are the types of questions to be answered during any process evaluation. Some larger companies use things like process mapping and programs like “Six Sigma” to develop their best business practices. As a small business owner you don’t have the staff or the luxury of a program like that. However what you do have is desire. Desire to grow and be the best in the field you are in. And this want and need for success is what will drive your company toward developing processes that will open your schedule and bring in the clientele and growth you want.

Mapping out your current processes whether in a calendar form, a process map form, or just a brain dumping a list of steps and next steps, you are taking the jump to eliminating possible chaos from your day. The first step you have to take is setting aside some time to examine where you are right now. One thing I always stress with every individual I talk to about developing a new process is, “To eliminate any missteps and even possibly just cut 15 minutes from your day of busy work, you must spend 4 to 8 hours developing a new process.” When taking the jump to process development, you want to make sure that you know what’s wrong.

Remember the question I posed above. What do you do when you mail/or email a potential client an informational packet? Where does that information go? Do you have an assistant that takes that information and enters it for you? Do you create a potential client folder with their information for follow-up? What is your process? Do you have a process for this? In developing a new process, you look at your issue. In this instance, it’s that you don’t have a system down for follow up and organization after a mailing. The potential client information gets lost in the shuffle, until they decide to call and purchase your services. So what about all the potential business you lost? Here’s an example of what a developed process list for above scenario can look like: Following Up with Potential Clients

1. Mail the packet of information
2. Contact information entered as a lead in contact management database
3. File created with checklist of to do’s added to file and information on the potential client
4. Follow up call entered into your schedule
5. Follow up call made

Keep in mind, there is definitely more or less to this process depending on your services and your field, and how much you information you require or don’t require for your record keeping. The next step is evaluating how much time you as the person in your company who works solely with the clients actually completes in the above process. Is it all of it or none of it? That’s where delegation comes in. What can you delegate to someone else to make it easier for you to focus on the growth that matters so much to your business? In my professional view, the first four steps are what your “Assistant” can take care of. That’s a good ½ hours worth of work, during which you can be selling to another client. Can you afford not to develop processes and delegate? You may think yes, but in the long-run, your best business practices are what may stand out to a client. Efficient processes will bring change, and again, “Growth is contingent on change.”

The Name Of The Game Is To Stay In The Game

2007-07-09T02:36:00.001-07:00

Hopefully your goal for going into business is one of longevity. It is important to establish yourself and to stay around so that your clients and new prospects can find you. How do you stay in the game until your efforts pay off? It really boils down to your promotion and marketing efforts which is not very easy to do when you have little money at the beginning.

What it takes is for you to be virtually a marketing machine. When business is good and when it is off, you have to promote yourself, and the services you offer in as many economical ways as you can. Writing articles, distributing flyers, cards, postcards, advertise with cheap ads, attending networking events, have a web presence, newsletter, joining forces with another business owner for mutual benefit of cross promotions, referrals, making phone calls sometimes including cold calling, faxing, and as much as you can think of doing.

It also comes from a place deep in your heart to keep on plugging until you push through. The statistics of new business failure is staggering. Most loan sources such as banks and independent loan companies insist that you have a track record of at least three years before they will take a chance on you and your business and give you a loan.

Three, five, ten, twenty years, and more are miles stones that are very important. You have to have tenacity like a pit bull. You have to learn how to adapt, quickly change when you need to and commit to your idea with every once of fiber in your being.

Many people think that they have to do new and exciting things but some of the best companies just keep doing what they have been doing every day for years. That is the tenacity that it takes to be successful and to stay in the game. Even when you may not see immediate results you have to keep plugging away and keep at promoting and marketing every day. Marketing doesn’t have to be in your face but more of hey I’m still here when you need me.

Here is an example of something that I do nearly every day. I write various articles and then at one time submit ten to thirty articles to various article databases on the internet to promote my website. I locate more places where I may offer my yoga services. I fax my information sheet around to my niche market which for me right now is locations that offer children’s yoga classes or may consider it. All my clients that I currently have I have gotten through cold faxing and follow up calls.

Another example of something that I am doing everyday is I continue to work on several aspects of establishing joint venture partnerships through which to promote my products. I’m calling, e-mailing, following up, writing the newsletter, getting the auto responders in place, organizing the website details, going back and forth with the copywriter and web designer and so on.

Another thing that I do on a weekly basis is I check my pay per click ads, and other on-line ads I have running. I replace or refresh the ads when they run out. I make sure that promote special occasions. That takes me some time, but when orders start coming in form these ads, I know it was worth it.

All these could be very mundane but they all have to be done on a daily basis if you want to build your business and reputation. You have to look at the long term picture and many times even though you are not bringing too much money in on a daily basis you have to have vision and faith that your efforts will pay off. It is a steady build up of income and business success that is a good barometer. You have to have patience that the mundane ordinary things are part of the greater picture. Promote and market every day. Consider writing articles one of the greatest and cheap sources of self promotion out there. Keep promoting and marketing and fight to stay in the game—that’s the only way to win.

Make Money From Lost Data

2007-07-09T02:35:00.000-07:00

Computers are meant to make our lives easier, or so they say. They are extremely useful, the majority of the time, that is undoubtedly true. However, when they go wrong, they can be the bane of all of our lives. Of course, it is always the computer that goes wrong, never anything to do with the person using it! However, one of the most common problems that people have with their computer, or notebook, is losing important data or information. Most people think that, if something is deleted, it is gone forever. Nothing could be further from the truth. It still exists on the hard drive; it has just had its regular link removed so that the user cannot see it, or access it anymore.

It is actually extremely difficult to delete something permanently from a hard drive, and not something that a user is likely to do by accident. This is where you can make yourself a good little income, by offering your services as a data retrieval expert. You might be thinking that you are no expert, but you really don’t need to be. The fact is that you only need two things to be able to recover data that was thought to be lost, from a hard drive. They are a hexadecimal editor, and a viewer. You don’t even need to pay for these as you can download them for free from a number of different sources on the Internet. CNet.com has a great website with lots of downloadable pieces of software, including the free ones that you need to become a data retrieval expert.

Once you have made yourself familiar with the software, you need to advertise your services. Of course, you can use the Internet for this, and the majority of ways that you do it will be free. You could write an article on an associated topic that promotes your service, in a discreet way of course, and links to your own web page. This article could then be submitted to a large number of website article databases. That’s just one of the methods of advertising you could use. However, it is worth considering what you would do if you found that you had deleted something important, before you knew what to do yourself. You would, more than likely, look in the local business directory for data retrieval. That’s exactly what a lot of other people will do too! You need to get yourself listed, and it is worth having a company name that will get your listing near the front, as the majority of people simply call the first number they see.

You should contact an established data retrieval expert in your area to find out how much they charge. This will give you a good idea of the amount of money you could make, and help you set your rates too. You can devote as little, or as much, time as you like to this new venture. It can be a side-line to make some extra cash, or you could turn it into a full-time business, it is your choice!

Profit From Other People's Laziness

2007-07-07T02:39:00.001-07:00

There is no doubt that Britain is a nation of sandwich lovers. After all, it was a British Earl, the Earl of Sandwich, who they are named after – no surprise there really. Making and selling sandwiches can be a very lucrative business, especially if you offer a made-to-order service. The number of businesses that do not have their own staff canteen is growing, especially with more stringent health and safety regulations. Maintaining a staff cafeteria has become too expensive and many companies have dispensed with them altogether and installed drinks machines instead. This could be to your advantage as a large number of business premises are in business parks, and staff do not have enough time during their lunch breaks to go to the nearest shop and buy their lunch, or prefer to eat at their desks so that they can leave the office early. There are also a lot of employees who don’t have time to make their own sandwiches in the morning because they are trying to get their kids off to school or the childminder, or simply can’t be bothered. These are all potential customers for a sandwich business.

You can meet this demand in a number of ways. The simplest, and most efficient, is to start a delivery service. Approach your potential customers with flyers that have a list of popular sandwiches, their prices and a telephone number for placing orders. If possible, make an appointment with someone working at the company - the head of personnel or human resources for example. Take along some sample sandwiches and ask if they would post your flyer on the staff notice board, or other suitable place. On the flyer you have a deadline by which orders need to be placed, and a time and place that they will be delivered to. When you are approaching a number of businesses in the area, it is important that you stagger the delivery times, to prevent disappointed customers and cancelled orders. When you deliver the sandwiches, you take payment. It really is as simple as that.

Another way of opening a sandwich business is to have a van from which you can sell a selection of sandwiches. Prawn mayonnaise, cheese and pickle, ham and coleslaw, tuna and cucumber and egg salad for example. You then visit the companies in the area, and let the customers come to you. Again, if you can have a flyer advertising the fact that you will be outside at a certain time each day placed in a prominent place inside the company that is the ideal. However, if you park outside each place at the same time every day then the staff will soon know when to expect you. You may want to sell other items too, such as packets of crisps, chocolate bars and canned drinks. If you are an avid baker then you may even want to sell cakes and biscuits. The choice is yours, and you will soon get a feel for what sells, and what doesn’t.

Once you become established in an area then you can branch out and expand the business by hiring staff to cover more areas, even let staff take over all the sandwich work and you just manage you growing empire!

How To Make Money As A Chimney Sweep

2007-07-07T02:38:00.000-07:00

While the demand for chimney sweeps has dropped over the last century, there is still a significant market for the service. Anyone who has a wood stove, or fireplace that gets used for actual warmth generation has a regulatory requirement to get the carbon and creosote cleared from their chimney at least once every other year, as it's a fire hazard otherwise.

What this means to you is that there's a definite demand, and that the demand must be met, giving you a shot at a second income, or even a job to replace the one you've got. Chimney sweeps perform a specialized task; you'll need to apprentice under a current chimney sweep, which can take some time to find one willing to teach you. Once you've done that, you can take on clients of your own and do the work – typical fees for a chimney sweep are about £60 or £120 or so for a basic service that has to be done once a year. On the job, sweeping a chimney takes about two hours, tops, and can be much less than that.

Now, to run your own business, you need a bit of business savvy, and some common sense. The business savvy comes from advertising. You'll need to let people know you're offering the service; this can be done as simply as going door to door in the late summer and early fall, which is when most folks have their chimneys swept. However, it's probably more efficient to take out an advertisement in the local telephone directory; the odds that someone has a chimney and doesn't have a telephone are pretty slim in this day and age. Similarly, running advertisements in the local newspaper, or in the local weekly alternative paper is probably worth doing.

The common sense, sadly, is less common than the business savvy. You need to be prompt, professional and tidy. While chimney-sweeping is a dirty job, there's no need to go tracking soot across someone's floor or rug. You're making a professional appointment – be timely; show up when you're supposed to. If you are unavoidably delayed, do have the courtesy to call ahead and let your client know.

All that said, there are some other factors to consider. First, you'll need to buy some specialized equipment; it's not terribly expensive, generally a few hundred pounds, but it is a capital investment in the business. Still, with a bit of pluck and some hard work, you'll soon be sweeping in the money on a part time job where you don't have to answer to someone else. That in itself is often a significant benefit!

Registered Office - An Address Your Business Cannot Do Without

2007-07-03T02:33:00.001-07:00

Registered office is an address which is registered with the Companies House in UK, when you have your own business establishment. It is at this place that all the records of your business are kept. It also serves as the official address where you receive your official mail communication. From a legal point of view, you are required to undergo this formality by the Companies Act of 1985. It is also a rule for this address to be quoted on all company correspondence and also on the company's letterhead. Other products of this company should also carry this address, and so also should it be on the signboard outside the office.

A registered office in a famous area can work wonders for your company. This is because of the visibility factor. The address of a well-known place associated with your company's name catches the attention of people and of course, your target customers. This thus brings prestige and business to your company.

All said, the registered office need not be in the place from where you run your business. And this is very helpful for all those small firms which cannot afford to set shop in a uptown commercial area. So for the same, there are services available from providers who specialise in this. They provide you with an address to help you with publicity by the very virtue of your address while also fulfilling the legal requirement.

Besides small and medium-size business owners, the other people who can benefit from this service, are the overseas businessmen who wish to establish business in UK.

Most providers of registered office also have a mail forwarding service, which means that they ensure that all your mails are safely delivered to you. And all it involves is complementary charges. Not only this, they also have the expertise and the experience to help you out with your business-related matters.

The Company Check-Up - A Financial Examination for Your Company Part II

2007-07-03T02:32:00.000-07:00

It’s time to take a look at your assets, current assets (those expected to be used in a year or less) need to be re-examined quarterly, fixed assets (those over a year) should be dealt with at a minimum annually, semi-annually if you have the time and you purchase a fair share of fixed assets within a year. What you want to look for here is the return on assets. How are your assets contributing to making a profit? If they are not or if the number is lower then the industry average you may have to consider purchasing new assets. Check each fixed asset against its accumulated depreciation, is its useful life nearly depleted? Your accountant made an assumption for how long that particular asset would be useful, chances are that asset may still be able to provide years of production to come, so this is not a rule of thumb, but simply a way of determining whether a course of action needs to take place.

Included in your assets are your receivables. Review your credit policy; examine your customers and clients. Is your bad-debt expense too high? Are you allocating too much write-off? This is the second biggest cancer to cash flow (sales is number one, if you don’t make a sale, you have no cash, period). Re-examine who you extend credit to, do they continuously pay late? If you have a large quantity of write-offs it may be time to consider collections, or factoring (selling your receivables at a discount).

(VI) Liabilities

This section is really fairly simple. You want to watch your debt load carefully. Too much means too high interest expense, and too low could mean you’re not expanding your company, a sign of stagnation. Watch you current ratio, and the quick ratios. They’re a good gauge of your use of cash, and receivables collection.

(VII) Strategy

Every year at the beginning of the fiscal year you should be meeting with key member of your team to discuss strategy for the year ahead. This should actually be the final meeting about strategy setting as it should have been started six months ago. Everything from day one of the fiscal year on should be monitoring your strategic implementations.

It’s time to review your goals, short-term, intermediate, and long term strategies. Where is your company headed, and where does it sit compared to your competitors. It’s a great time to break out SWOT and begin reviewing. Is your company headed in the right direction? Where are your products in their life cycles? Do you need to add a line, diversify your business, and acquire a competitor or a business in another market? Or is it time to get bought out?

(VIII) Your Team

Your support staff is a crucial part of your business. Do not neglect them. They need to be led, nurtured, reviewed, given direction, given vision, and in some cases let go. Firing is difficult and letting an employee go could lead to a legal battle. Do not let this affect the decision to release an employee because they fail to meet standards, expectation, and code of conduct. Morale can be weakened by a “bad apple” why let them spoil your bunch.

Take the time to review each staff member, or at least key members and allow managers to review others. Motivation to work harder, smarter, and more creatively doesn’t always get solved by waving more green in front of them. Some employees desire different incentives, take the time to get to know what makes them tick, you may find that a key staff member may want to take half-days on Friday as an incentive, and you had planned to offer them an equity position. You may save yourself some money.

Also consider nurturing their gifts and talents, look into professional development. Seminars, books, tools, courses, training, and certifications can lead to a better staff. Pour into them, and they’ll pour into your company.

Small Businesses and Employee Incentives

2007-06-29T02:47:00.003-07:00

There will always be differences between large and small companies. Businesses with unlimited resources can always fall back on money. Internally, employees can be enticed to remain at a job by a big raise or a bonus. Owners of smaller enterprises must find creative ways to keep their employees happy. There are plenty of ways, even with a smaller budget, to make your workers feel like their hard work is really appreciated!

The employees of smaller companies, in general, live near the workplace. What better way to make them feel at home than by being involved in the community? An employee might have a child playing little league baseball – help the team out by getting them personalized jerseys! Find a popular local eatery and have them deliver lunch as a monthly reward for helping in making your business a success. By showing that you are dedicated to their community, your employees will feel like they’re part of something special.

Community involvement is a great start. You can make the bond with your employees even stronger by involving their families in your incentive project. Custom imprinted water bottles are a great handout. Put your company’s logo and a ‘Fun with Family’ message on the bottles. There are also quality-made yet affordable fun kits available, containing items such as Frisbees and koozies. They’ll come in handy during weekend trips to the park or the beach, and the whole family will know that you were thinking of them.

It’s great to be involved with the family and community, but don’t forget about the workplace itself. Little things can be done around the office to make your employees comfortable each and every day. Keep pens and other supplies around. There are fun and useful items that your employees will love, such as brush buddies. Keeping the office efficient with thoughtful ideas is a great way to keep morale high.

Your budget may not be on the same level as the bigger companies. However, by using your resources wisely, the return can be better. Your employees will feel like they matter, and it will show in their work.

Just What is Profit?

2007-06-29T02:47:00.001-07:00

While the question "what is profit?" seems to be innocuous enough there is a much deeper meaning to the word profit than simply how much money is made on the sale of goods or services. From the general standpoint we consider profit to be the proceeds made after we subtract the cost of doing business. There are references to gross profit and to net profit within the business world of which net profit in it's most rudimentary form is the actual amount of money that is left over at the end of the business year for distribution or for reinvestment in the company. Successful business owners understand the need for a high net profit to continue growing their business and having the necessary capital to do so.

So the word profit is bantered around continually in the business sector as a financial goal that everyone has. But when we talk about a deeper meaning for the word profit we actually have to go to the etymology of the original word now used as profit from about 1303 where it was converted to a verb from a noun in the Latin profectus meaning to progress. There is also a synonym used with the word profit often and that is to "improve" coming from the Latin word prode which literally translates advantageous, meaning to raise to a better quality or condition. So if we look at profit from the standpoint of these original meanings we understand that profit implies more than a monetary gain. As business people we look at a company and try to determine its progress by the profitability has expressed in dollars.

Perhaps it's time we evaluate further indications of profit and whether or not the company has raised a better quality or condition for both the owners and the employees. This statement does not mean that we cannot pay attention to the financial ramifications or importance of the word profit as it replies to a monetary increase in our business. We do however have to look at our companies in the light of whether or not the organization is draining us emotionally, physically, as well as financially thereby offsetting any financial profit.

Some business owners are content to make a smaller net profit than other companies desire but they enjoyed the better quality or condition of life associated with successfully running their company in a way that doesn't cause undue stress or strain on their personal lives. Perhaps these business owners have found the real key to the word profit and have in fact raised their life to a better quality or condition by understanding that money is not always everything in the business world

Laws of Business Attraction

2007-06-27T02:02:00.001-07:00

There is nothing more important to business owners, sales professionals and marketing consultants than attracting new business. The same holds true for solo professionals such as authors, speakers and entrepreneurs. The ideal situation would be having new customers or clients who purchase from you for life.

Think about the possibilities...

You won't have to invest as much time, energy and money marketing your business. You get to choose the clients you want to work with—and turn down those you don't. You make faster sales when promoting a product, program or service. And you get the satisfaction of knowing what you do, say or produce has meaning, adds value and positively impacts people's lives.

So how do you get to this place of satisfaction? To this place of joy, fun and seasons in the sun? What do you have to do to get there?

It begins with you...

Your reputation and everything you represent. Your goals, dreams and desires. And your ability to attract an endless source of clients.

Let's start from the beginning and review what I call the Fundamental Laws of Business Attraction:

1) Professional marketing materials. Everyone starts out with business cards to promote their enterprise. Then you may opt for brochures, flyers and one or more websites. Then you might incorporate ads, online squeeze pages, e-mail marketing campaigns and direct response mailers.

All of these promotions must appear congruent to the business you're representing. You don't have to look slick if it's not necessary. A seminar company such as SkillPath uses clipart graphics to promote their workshops. They promote two-day, medium-priced seminars nationwide without the need to showcase their speakers.

One costly mistake to avoid is using clever copy that has little pulling power. If you're promoting cuteness and humor over making sales and generating leads—there are numerous ad agencies that would love to pocket your money.

But I'd bet you're in business to make money. Then you'd probably want to try direct response marketing. You're in business to attract as many qualified prospects to respond to your offer as soon as possible. Direct response compels people to take action and can quickly bring you income and build your database.

2) Looking sharp. You've got to look and dress appropriately for each occasion. Which translates into proper grooming, hygiene and dress. Now that doesn't require you to always dress in business suits. Today's casual business environment created a category for casual business attire.

But if you're making a presentation, then you'd probably want to dress one notch above your audience. And if you're attending a networking event, you'd want to project a professional image. Bottom line is: the more professional you look, the more professional people desire to speak with you.

It never fails. The next time you attend a two-day business event, dress business casual one day and standard business attire the next. I bet you will attract more quality leads and opportunities when you dress professionally.

I'm going to stick my neck out and go one further...

Wear the most expensive looking outfits you can afford. They really make a difference in how people perceive you. And have them pressed and ready to wear. If your outfit looks tired, it may leave the wrong impression. Believe me—people do notice.

3) Positive attitude. If you want to be known as the expert who offers solutions to people's problems, you must not let your guard down to appear as if you're consumed by problems. People must perceive you as someone who has been through it all and can now help them.

If you whine about gasoline gouging, cry about Paris Hilton being unfairly confined, or incredulous of all governments—you'll soon find yourself all alone. They will clear a path for you as you're making your way to the restroom.

Just as you exercise and take supplements to boost your internal organs, you must exercise at improving your inner-you. Replace your negative thoughts with powerful positive programming. Today's problems are nothing more than tomorrow's memories. So smile and put on a happy face.

4) Credibility. If you have enough of this, you'd have to turn away more business than you can handle. Really. Wouldn't this be a nice problem to have?

One easy way to build credibility is to ask for testimonies or comments from clients, satisfied customers and meeting attendees. Other ways to establish credibility may include producing books, demo videos, CD albums, garnering endorsements and word-of-mouth marketing. Of course if you are good at speaking, your platform presence is a huge credibility-builder.

People want to know if you've been interviewed, in what media, and by whom, if you've hosted your own show, if you're a syndicated columnist, if you have a website, been on American Idol, and how they can reach you on MySpace. The more you expand your universe and the more you reach inside people's consciousness—the more business you will attract.

5) Are you approachable... or not? Do you have gatekeepers? Do you screen your calls? Are you easy to reach? Do you smile? Do you give hugs? Have you hired an answering service?

To avoid looking amateurish: stay away from no-cost e-mail accounts, P.O. boxes and complimentary website hosts displaying those unwanted ads. Serious prospects won't take you seriously. You have to appear as legit as an American Eagle gold coin.

When I joined the Chamber of Commerce the representative suggested I switch to a local phone number to accommodate local callers. I didn't take his advice. I didn't want to attract the kind of clients who would make a big fuss about a long distance charge.

So you decide how approachable you want to become. You decide whom you want to work with. You decide because you call the shots.

Can You Handle a Home Business ?

2007-06-27T02:00:00.000-07:00

A home based business is a coveted opportunity that few of us really get to take advantage of. The lure of being able to work between household chores, children activities, and miscellaneous functions is often the driving force to starting a home based business. However, it is important to remember that the more time you spend on your non-work activities, the less time you spend on your business. Self discipline and the willingness to work hard are two necessary factors to starting a home business.

Starting a home based business is not without its challenges. The most asked question is "what can I do at home". Simply put, the answer lies within yourself. Ask yourself what it is you like to do. Do you think you will still enjoy doing this a few years down the road? Once you have decided on what you want to do, a bit of research is necessary. Each state has rules and regulations that must be followed for specific types of businesses. Starting a catering business, for example, may have a different set of guidelines for the state of Michigan than it does for the state of Florida.

Naming your business, choosing a business structure, and registering your business are typically the next steps to follow. A business plan is necessary for securing financing and insurance. Marketing and promoting your business is a never-ending task that is required to keep your business name in the foreground.

Now that you are well underway to achieving your desire of home businessship, try to remember your reasons for this venture. While there will be trials and tribulations, keep focused on the goals you have set for yourself.

Solve the Mystery of Lost Business

2007-06-22T02:49:00.002-07:00

A new home construction subcontractor was seeking advice about the mystery of lost business because their book rate was less than 20%. This person was an electrician, yet the principles I present in this article apply to just about any small business. The opening remark began with a statement that they thought they knew why, so this theorizing meant they were actually uncertain and probably needed a trusted neutral opinion. Don't guess the reason for lost business when you don't know. Find out.

Many solo small business owners cannot state why they get business or why they lose business. We make assumptions, or just don't ask. Until you make it a priority to get both these questions answered, you'll never understand your strengths and weaknesses. Consider the dynamics of conscious marketing and sales efforts.

After the marketing is done and you find prospects the sales cycle is preapproach, approach, presentation, trial close, answer objections, and final close. Ask a trusted friend to tell you bluntly if you are weak in any of those areas. If you lack knowledge of basic sales techniques, it's time to learn. Marketing extends into the preapproach to understand how decisions are made and the price structure. The more you prepare and form a strategy, the more likely you are to succeed.

The small business owner in this instance felt his bid invitations were received to leverage the existing contractor on price. For some of the new home construction jobs he was told his proposal was cheaper, but they awarded the contract based on an established relationship. People buy based on trust, not just price. To win over an existing source you need to demonstrate outstanding credibility and trust. The mystery of lost business for this contractor was still elusive because the right questions were never posed.

People without any intention of ever buying from you may tell you outright to save both parties time, or perhaps they like you and keep you hanging on just to be polite. You could be the pawn they use to drive down the price, but I doubt it. Years ago US Air Force procurement officers proved that even on sole source items, just stating there was competition produced lower bids by an average of 10%. The new home construction companies in this case study already made it known that their quote requests went out for competitive bids. The final decision was not about price. In similar circumstances, any theory is not as important as finding out the real reason why you lost a contract. If a customer stalls without making an immediate buy decision, here are some follow up tips before an award is made.

My sales tips and advice for small business owners when calling about proposals that are pending is assume the contract is open. It must be because they didn't call you. Be positive. If your steps in the sales cycle are "hat in hand" then the lack of confidence factor could be killing your efforts. If you call about a proposal saying "Is the contract still open?", then your client is off the hook. The only answer to that question is either "yes" or "no", and the wording itself is an admission you didn't expect to win it anyway. These subtle differences in what you say could make or break your sales success.

Try open ended questions at each step in the sales cycle. Start your inquiry with phrases that encourage your customer to open up. For example, "How would you describe...", or "What steps do I need to take...", or "What would you like improved...", etc. These cannot be answered with one word replies. After your proposal is made, and at an appropriate interval for follow up, contact your prospect and state a new benefit that you offer that they may not have considered. Express your interest to do business, and finally ask for the order. "I'm ready. When can we get started?" is much more effective than asking if the order was placed.

Handle disappointments in a professional manner. After you know you lost a contract, or in this case 80% of the bids, keep your dignity and continue with the open ended phrases. State with confidence your ability to do quality work at a fair price delivered on time. Never accuse or complain about their decisions once they're made. Find out what you could do differently next time to become their subcontractor.

Finally, you may want to consider your niche. If customers don't open up when asked open ended questions, then it's probably time to admit the opportunity is not worth the effort. Your time studying quote requests and preparing proposals is costly. When a prospect is repeatedly indifferent, perhaps solo work with smaller contracts or individuals would allow you to grow even if it's in smaller steps.

In conclusion, show interest by asking about the needs of the client. Open ended questions or statements allow the customer to provide details that you may not get with a "yes" or "no" answer. Apply the open ended principles to be prepared in the marketing and sales cycle, and then deal with and learn from disappointments. If necessary, revise your strategy and redefine your market to deal with people who truly appreciate what you offer.

This Secret Formula Opens a Floodgate of Cash to Your Home Based Business with 2 Hours of Work

2007-06-22T02:49:00.001-07:00

Whenever you and your home based business need money, think about using this secret formula. It is so powerful, you may be surprised at how quickly it works. If you work at home and want to make money like magic, this may be the one secret you need.

As you will see, the formula is easy to use. You can make it work for you in any work at home business – from a one-person operation to a company with over 500 employees.

Hold on, though. I want to take a moment to tell you the surprising way I discovered this formula.

I noticed a friend of mine was doing extremely well in his home based business. Even though the service he offered was expensive, he was swamped with new clients. He eventually hired two assistants and was making money hand over fist.

What was his secret to success when so many other work at home businesses were just hanging on? When I asked my friend about this, he said he did not think he did anything special. He did some advertising and had a Web site with a pretty good sales letter – and that was about it.

I looked at other home businesses similar to my friend’s. None of them was doing nearly as well as his. What is more, they were spending a lot more on ads than he was. The big difference, though, was that they worked at least 3 times harder than my friend did. I mulled over this puzzle.

Then, one day, it hit me. I had an idea what it was that was triggering his big sales. I went to see my friend right away. I told him I wanted to spend a couple of days with him at his office to see what his typical day was like. I also wanted to see how he dealt with customers.

He agreed. And, I was astonished at what I saw. We spent barely an hour at the office in the morning. After that, we sped off in the car to play golf. In the afternoon, we spent even less time. He told me it was like that every day - except when he was on vacation.

That was it. I now had an idea what his success secret was – even if he did not

The secret formula my friend used was the “scarcity factor.” Everything he did and thought was governed by scarcity – his time, his energy, and his money.

The other home business owners poured all their time, their energy, and their money into the business.

How can you use the scarcity factor and get the same spectacular results my friend did? Check out the 3 most important things he does:

1) Scarcity of Product. My friend lets prospects know that he has only a limited amount of product left. What is more, the price is going to rise. In order to get in on this great deal, they would have to order by a certain date. After that, the price was going up.

2) Scarcity of Time. My friend’s time is limited. He has only an hour in the morning to check messages, answer them, monitor his account, verify his warehouse figures, and record instructions to his assistants. In the afternoon, he has just enough time to write and send out an article, make a couple of telephone calls and pay bills.

3) Scarcity of Money. My friend seldom makes small purchases. He invests larger amounts in his business. Every month, he expects and usually gets higher returns.

There you have it. This is the secret formula to help you make money in your home based business with only a couple of hours of work. It is the same secret my friend uses without realizing it. It works like magic for him and will do the same for you.

What To Look For When Buying A Business

2007-06-18T22:29:00.001-07:00

Buying a business is an important move and a life changing experience. Checking the financials of a business is the first step of course when making a decision to purchase. Ensuring that there is adequate cash flow to support the business, support you as the owner, and pay off the debt in a reasonable amount of time makes sense. But the next step that is at least equally important is making sure that the business is the right fit for you, the new owner. Make sure that you wake up in the morning say to yourself “I get to go to work today” not “I have to go to work today.”

Determining that the business is a right fit for you is varies from person to person. If you’ve been in the auto repair business all of your life, then owning a muffler shop or a quick lube service might be tailor made for your personality and life style. But, if you are thinking of buying a pizza parlor and have never worked in food service before, that’s almost like buying a three piece suit without ever trying it on, or a new sports car without taking it for a test drive first.

If a business is new to you, then work in it for a while before you make your decision. If you’ve picked out a business in which you think you have some interest, tell the seller your offer is contingent upon first working in the business with him for 30 days to determine that the fit is right.

If you haven’t yet picked out a business and are just curious about an industry, nothing replaces getting an entry level job in that industry to get a feel for it.

If you buy a business you’ll own it for years to come, and perhaps for the rest of your life. Making sure that you truly enjoy what you are doing is the real American dream, so take the business for a test drive.

Small Business Owners - Customer Gathering?

2007-06-18T22:28:00.001-07:00

Do you have enough information on your customers to give a brief description of them in three minutes or less? If not, start immediately paying more attention to the customers that purchase your products or use your services. The following are sample descriptions: age, sex, style of clothing, colors they like, type of food they eat, where they live, with or without children, and whether or not they shop with friends and family or alone. These and other data will allow you to get a good profile of the people that buy your products. You can do much more for the customers when you take time to find out more about them.

It is suggested that you take the following steps to collect data on your customers. While at the next craft show, write down as much information as you can about your prospective customers. Now based on your observation, you should be able to get a good profile of the customers who buy your products. You can use the profile to create many products and sell them as a package deal to your targeted customer market. It is easy to target a particular market and find more customers if you use your collected customer profile. Also, a company’s customer profile can be used to provide helpful information when purchasing lead sheets so that you can get more sales. Most companies that sell lead sheets categorize and list people by name, address, age, income, zip code, and other data.

Take time to think about all the different products that could be sold to each market. Make a list of all the products you can produce and sell to each group in that market. This will help to identify and target your market. Once you have identified who the customers are, the next step is to find out what they want. There are many ways to determine what the customers want. Once you determine what your customers want it is easy to produce new products because you are fulfilling a need in their lives. Three ways to determine how you can get your customers what they want are to listen, talk and agree with them.

The customer is still considered as the king and should be treated like one. Remember that old saying . . . “The customer is always right.” So, greeting him properly is a way to build the relationship before selling him the product. Relationship building is one of the secrets to keeping good satisfied customers.

Professional Image and the Small Business

2007-06-12T03:50:00.001-07:00

A small business owner faces many challenges when starting their business. One of the most important is presenting a professional image. This is especially difficult when you work out of your own home.

Whether you have just started your home-based business or have been in business for years, there are some simple things you can do to have a professional image with your customers. It may take a little work, but is well worth the effort.

Phones
For the most part, you will first meet your clients through your telephone. A professional tone and attitude when answering and speaking with your clients and potential clients will show your business in the best light possible.

Locate your office away from the family room so any noise your children might make is not heard during your conversations. If you are going to allow your children to answer your business phone, teach them the proper way to do so.

Consider having a separate line for your business, with an answering machine or service. This way, you will not have to worry about your family tying up your business line during business hours. Also, change your voice mail message daily indicating the date. Make it a point to answer as many messages as you can the same day.

Make Appointments
When a new client wants to meet with you be sure to make an appointment. Let them know if they cannot make the appointment they will need to cancel within 24 hours. Your time is valuable and you should make it clear to your clients.

Get their contact information when you make the appointment and call them the day before to remind them of their appointment time. Make sure they realize that if they miss their time, they will have to reschedule for a new appointment.

Office Space
If possible you should have a room designated as your office. This room should be clear of toys and have a clean, professional appearance. Having a door is a plus, but is not completely necessary. It should be a quiet room away from family distractions.

You will need a desk, bookshelves, and file cabinets. Also you will need a computer, printer and any other accessories your business requires.

Credentials
Make sure your diplomas, certificates and credentials are displayed in your business space. You have worked hard and should showcase your efforts.

How to Write Professional Business E-mails

2007-06-12T03:48:00.000-07:00

Being professional when speaking to your client is only half the effort. You have to be just as professional in your written correspondence. One poorly written e-mail could ruin your professional image with that customer, and anyone they speak to regarding the kind of work you do.

Small business owners are spending more time on the computer today. Some of this time is spent receiving and sending e-mails to potential client, clients, and vendors. What are some of the things you can do to ensure your e-mail correspondence is professional?

Proofread
Before you hit that send button be sure you have proofread all correspondence. This means not only doing a spell check, but reading your writing to make sure it is concise and accurate. Do not waste your recipient's time or attention by sending a poorly written, error riddled e-mail.

Appearance
A business e-mail is not the place for cute cartoons, artwork, jokes, or wacky graphics and fonts. It is the place for professional business information. E-mails are the new business card and since you cannot make a first impression again, be sure your e-mails convey what you want it too.

Format
Use business format rules even in your e-mail correspondence. Salutations, body format, and proper closings should be the standard in your business. Be sure every e-mail you send out has your contact information: name, address, phone, fax, and e-mail address. Make it as easy as possible for your client to contact you.

Offensive Content
Certain topics should never be used in a business e-mail. Off-color jokes, sexual comments, religious or ethnic insults, or trashing a competing business are only some of the offensive topics many business people send over their company's e-mail accounts.

As a small business owner, you have to be extra diligent not to send your clients and vendors these kinds of e-mails. Do not tolerate it when clients and vendors send them to you. Be sure to respectfully request they do not send you offensive e-mails in the future.

Business Content
When you have written an e-mail to send, before you hit the send button, ask yourself if your client really needs this information. Are you sending this just to keep in contact with your client, or are you informing him of valuable information? There is nothing more annoying than receiving extraneous information for a business. It is just an e-mail waiting to be deleted and a possible lost client as well.

The Personal Touch
While e-mail is a wonderful business tool for keeping in contact with your clients, do not forget face-to-face communication. Talking with your clients is the best way to avoid the miscommunications that can happen when using e-mails. Especially when there are problems. However, always follow up a phone conversation with an e-mail stating what you thought the problem, and solution, was. It will make sure everyone is on the same page.

Future E-mails Procedures
Even in a small business, your e-mails could be public record. While you will not have the kinds of troubles corporations have had in the past, you should keep all e-mails you receive in a computer file for future reference.

Consider having an internet policy in place before you hire any help, especially if your employees are going to be using your e-mail to contact customers and vendors. Have all new employees sign the policy at the time of hire so they are clear on your position.

Using e-mail as a tool to further your business is great. Making sure you do it in a proper and professional manner is the key to successful business communication.

Working From Home - Is It Right For You

2007-06-07T03:13:00.001-07:00

The work at home lifestyle is often idealized - more time with the family, a 60 second commute and working in your pajamas. Before you take the leap take some time to consider if working at home is really for you. For some, working it home is the ideal situation; it suits their family, financial situation, skill set and personality. But for others it can be a nightmare that ultimately leads to financial troubles and unhappiness. Here are a few things you might consider before make the move.

Your Ideal Work Situation

When, where and how are you most productive are three important questions to ask yourself. Do you need a pristine office, absolute silence and the input of fellow colleagues? Do you need to be allocated work, pushed to meet deadlines and generally encouraged to stay positive? These are hard questions to answer but in order to make the best decision possible it’s important to be honest with yourself.

To be successful working at home you’ll need to be highly motivated, a self starter and have excellent time management skills. Depending on your home situation you might also need to be able to work in a noisy environment, be capable of working odd hours and staying focused with many interruptions.

Respect

The status symbols of the old economy might be falling away all the time, but they are still very much alive in the minds of some people. Working at home doesn’t necessarily mean you will get less respect from business people and friends. Some will admire your move to cut costs, work for yourself and create something remarkable. However others will look down on you as being lazy and unsuccessful. If you are someone who takes great pleasure from putting a suit and tie on everyday, working at home probably isn’t for you.

Personality

Working at home requires a special kind of personality. As with any new venture success can take many years or not come at all. Your first venture might not be successful or you may have to confront many failures first. How do you handle failures and setbacks? Do you accept that all successful people fail, learn from your mistakes and get right back up? Or do your cringe at the thought of failure and only tackle projects where you know you can be successful?

No one is a perfect work at home entrepreneur. If you didn’t quite match up to these ideal traits, never fear. Identify the areas you would like to improve and make a conscious effort to get better at them. Work at home success is within your reach.

Opening a Dollar Store - Cost Management is Forever!

2007-06-07T03:12:00.000-07:00

Many entrepreneurs who are opening a dollar store forget that aggressive cost management is one of the keys to the success of their business. They don’t realize that cost management will be required from the time the very first purchase is made in preparation for opening their store and it includes every purchase that is made as long as the store is open and operating. While low cost items may not warrant a huge investment of your time and energy, other costs will require continual scrutiny.

Those who are opening a dollar store often assume that major expenses should be examined as they prepare for opening a dollar store. While they might look for methods to reduce the costs of store fixtures by buying used fixtures rather than new, they fail to understand the costs of merchandise and ways to reduce those costs as they create their first orders.

Those same entrepreneurs forget that cost management must occur on a daily basis. When opening a dollar store the goal of achieving breakeven status will remain a high priority. That means that costs such as labor must be measured against store sales. While it is nice to have extra cashiers so the owner can be away after the store first opens, that likely will be a cost that store sales cannot cover at the beginning of operation.

Likewise it will take focused effort to reduce the cost of goods sold during the early months of operation. Yet that is exactly what the entrepreneur must do after opening a dollar store. Every means of reducing the cost of goods sold must be utilized. It might be negotiating for lower prices, increasing quantities, negotiating freight costs, or buying similar merchandise locally. All options to reduce cost must be examined.

In a tight margin business such as will be faced when opening a dollar store cost reduction is a high priority. It is a high priority that must be started even before the store opens. It will remain a high priority for as long as the store is open and in operation.

To Your Dollar Store Success!

Why Your Business Needs An Intranet

2007-05-25T03:21:00.002-07:00

One thing I like about running a small company is the ability to act quickly.

Decisions are not bogged down by layers of management. In fact, most moves are made with the interested parties meeting around a table.

But there can come a point when your business outgrows this arrangement. You need constant, reliable and secure communications with others in the company to ensure successful growth. You need an intranet.

An intranet is similar to a website, and it uses internet protocols, but it's an internal network exclusive to one company. (An "extranet" also is an internal or private website, but access privileges are extended to designated customers, partners and/or others.)

Most large corporations use intranets. Information distribution is a huge task when you have 10,000 or more employees. Intranets can help cure that headache.

Your business probably has nowhere near 10,000 employees. But I can give you three major reasons why your small business should invest in an intranet:

1. Communication Suffers When Dealing With More Than One Person Even a very small company has communication issues. Most people find out what's happening while gossiping around the coffee pot. Stories change as they spread, leading to a misinformed and disgruntled staff. If you have telecommuters, off-site workers, employees who travel a lot or a "virtual" company, communication issues become even more challenging.

In order for a company to succeed, everyone must understand its goals. Neither long- nor short-term goals should be confined to upper management meetings.

An intranet is the perfect place to post weekly reports, memos and goals. This way, everyone is up to speed.

Toby Ward, president of the intranet consulting firm Prescient Digital Media, notes that even a company with few employees benefits from an intranet. Even if you don't have people working remotely, your sales staffers or consultants aren't always in the office.

Building an intranet can enhance communication through message boards, instant messaging and moderated chats.

Let's take a typical business scenario. Your three sales staff have to come up with a presentation on increasing sales in the next fiscal year.

They enter a conference room, eat pizza, drink coffee and talk for hours. The first meeting turns into a three-hour, brainstorming session. The second meeting starts with a review of the best ideas from the first. The participants hash out why they will or will not work. By the third or fourth meeting they have some definite proposals.

By using an intranet's discussion board in the days before the meetings the process could have been improved. Ideas could be debated beforehand. Participants could have come into the sales meeting more focused.

2. Time Is Money An intranet allows you to post critical information for all employees to see. Even having human resources information posted is valuable. One of my employees said workers in his former office once spent 45 minutes trying to find out if public holidays were paid. The personnel manager was gone and no one else knew.

Posting of calendars, company policies and benefits is a great start. They reduce wasted time. But the interactivity of an intranet means it can be used for more than basic information.

You can save time (and paper) with interactive forms. Vacation requests, supply orders, changes to benefits and more can be handled quickly and efficiently.

Make sure your intranet follows good design principles. Make it as user-friendly as possible. You're trying to save time, not frustrate people.

3. It's Better Than E-Mail You may be thinking, "Why not just email the form?" Or, "I communicate well with my employees already".

According to Ward, e-mailing multiple versions of the same document or presentation leads to confusion and sometimes information overload.

Let's take that same sales group we envisioned earlier. They've decided on three major ways they will increase sales. They are now working on a PowerPoint presentation.

Three people collaborating on one PowerPoint file can lead to disastrous results. Confusion over who's working on what can lead to one person's work being overwritten by another.

By using an intranet, people can work on a shared file and have a central location for the most recent version.

Getting Started Before you set up an intranet, make sure you understand what you want it to do. Understand how employees will use it. Finally, adhere to good design principles. If it takes five or six clicks to find a particular request form, it's too complex.

Repeat Customers - Increase Sales And Grow Your Business By Motivating Your Current Customers

2007-05-25T03:21:00.001-07:00

It costs the average business five times more to attract a new customer than to keep an existing one satisfied. A good Leverage Marketing strategy includes techniques to motivate your customers to purchase from you repeatedly. Turning one-time customers into repeat customers is essential for transforming a surviving small business into a thriving small business.

What if you could employ a tactic to address this issue? With a little creative thinking it is possible to implement a cost-effective tactic that:

* turns one-time customers into repeat customers.

* provides an inexpensive vehicle for product promotion.

* adds a valuable tool to a new product marketing plan.

* motivates customers to tell their friends and family about your company.

* and helps grow your business with as little time, effort, and expense as possible.

Achieving success as an entrepreneur requires thinking outside the box. Resources are often limited and the competition is often better armed than you are. It takes creativity, aggressiveness, and sound strategies to overcome these disadvantages. Making the most of the customers you already have is vital to your success.

Imagine if you could focus your efforts on cultivating the relationship you have with current customers instead of constantly trying to attract new ones. You would talk to your customers, learn their likes and dislikes, and better understand the problems they struggle to overcome.

By spending more time working with current customers you can become a trusted partner, someone who they turn to in times of need. Because of this you will have a better understanding of the dynamic motivations your customers have. You will be able to respond quickly to an ever-changing market. You will out-maneuver your competition by responding quicker.

This relationship is not something that you have to imagine. You can get to the point where your business will sustain itself and grow because of your current customers. It’s easier than you think.

Of course you will always need to attract new customers – that goes without saying. However some of that hard work can be done by your current customers. Through word-of-mouth marketing and formal referral programs your customers can lend a very powerful hand in attracting new buyers.

And as was mentioned previously, it is possible to motivate customers to purchase from you repeatedly. What a great way to generate more revenue and drive profits. Turn one-time customers into repeat customers and watch your business soar.

Who Will Buy Your Business - Part 1

2007-05-25T03:20:00.001-07:00

If you want to get the best price, terms, and structure when you sell your business, it is critical that you know who the potential buyers are and what they are looking for. This information will allow you make strategic decisions and position your company to increase its value in the eyes of prospective buyers.

In that light, let’s discuss some of the types of buyers you might encounter when you decide to sell all or part of your company. We can first divide the buyer universe into Insiders and Outsiders. It will depend on your goals for yourself and your business as to which group you will want to sell your business to. Insiders include family members and employees. In order to transition your business to family in the most tax efficient manner, your goal will be to minimize enterprise value and obtain the lowest defensible (should the IRS choose to question it) valuation.

A method for selling the business to employees that is gaining popularity is the ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan). ESOPs can be a great way for you to transition ownership to your employees in an extremely tax-efficient manner. They are not for all companies, however, and I would highly recommend that you enlist professional help in evaluating their viability for your company and setting up the plan. Compliance costs can be high, so your company should be large enough for these costs to make sense (payroll should be at least $1 million annually). Also, if you the owner want to walk away with cash, the company will need to borrow money to fund the ESOP – so there has to be collateral and cash flow available for the loan to happen. A great source for information about ESOPs is the website of The National Center for Employee Ownership: www.nceo.org.

Insider sales are generally motivated by reasons other than financial but they often fall apart because of financial realities. Keep in mind that insiders usually don’t have a lot of cash, so you will likely still need to depend on the business for your retirement income after the sale. In Part 2 we’ll discuss the buyer types – Outsiders – who usually bring the most cash to the closing table.

Tom Gledhill has over 35 years founding, building, buying and selling companies. He is a partner in Delta Capital Group, a Business Sales and Acquisition firm specializing in the preparation and sales of companies in the lower middle market with revenues of $1 Million to $20 Million.

Are You Committed With Your Online Business?

2007-05-25T03:19:00.000-07:00

All enterprises have high and low business oriented cycles. Today the people want certain things. Yesterday they wanted others and tomorrow they could want different things still more.

You, many other people and I are involved in an eddy of emotions, therefore all moments we are willingly submitted to the opinions of other people. These opinions bind to our sense of mood directly. It affects and makes us unbalance emotionally.

These critical sorts of things point directly to our personal belief. And if you are not mentally strong enough you lost your enthusiasm and withdraw from your recent business.

When newbie starts an online home business it becomes enraptured. The first experience is height emotively in most of the case. Eventually it is time it knows it could not fail. We positively think that at this moment upon our life is going to change to a new way of life.

But the reality comes true as soon as possible. Your sales do not occur at first attempt. You feel yourself without forces, with low respect and nothing is equal to that as it was in the beginning, when you have known the business and the world would go to change its favor, as if you have been the center of it.

It is the real time to know if you are committed with your business. But how do you evaluate your commitment?

It can be do by analyzing your personal belief. Your belief is different from your enthusiasm. If you have high enthusiasm and low belief you will not have a business for a long way. On the contrary, high belief and low enthusiasm you maybe will not make money at the first time but its possibility will increase when your personal belief will push and to animate your enthusiasm.

To turn your dream into reality you will have to pay attention on your personal belief. Because when you start a new online business, specially a new work at home online, you significantly will increase your odds to make money online.

But your financial freedom, besides the product and company you have became an active associated it will depend on you, of how you will strongly increase your connection with yourself.

You must create something to be awesome, to say the least. It means not only to create or resell a product. But it is mainly to create, or to work you as awesome person.

Your personal belief can be build. It is the secret. You can build your own respect and love for yourself. Do it in your mind and heart.

In that way each time you get yourself frustrated with no sales, no prospects, you can find in your personal belief the why you have chosen to be on this business.

STEP 10 - Small Business Startup Guide in 10 Easy Steps

2007-05-21T03:08:00.001-07:00

Read any autobiography or business success story, you’ll notice one common denominator for success - sales. You need to take whatever action possible to ensure that sales are consistently growing to allow you to gain profit.

Again, a word of caution; do not target everyone! In today’s competitive environment, consumers are becoming more demanding and many would seek out products/services that meet their specific need or want.

First and foremost, I need to identify (and do some in-depth research) my specific target market. Next, I would develop sales and marketing blueprint ( similar to the one shown in DAY 8 ) to attract the kind of customers I wanted and meantime, to retain existing customers.

No matter how I intend to plan and execute these strategies, I must understand the formula - executing these plans is like playing a game. What game…? Yes, you are correct - the number game. The higher the number of sales agents/staffs, or the higher is the amount of advertisement posted, or the higher the amount of distribution channels, or the more attempts I personally made to seal a deal, the bigger chances I have in winning. I know for sure, a prospect or a client may say “no” to my product/service today. But, it doesn’t mean a “no” forever! According to LIMRA (a research center for financial planners and financial advisors in America) findings, a potential buyer usually says “no” seven times before making the actual purchase!

Before we move on, let’s understand first the relationship between sales and marketing. Marketing is the process of bringing awareness to the product/service, while sales is the process of making the customer buy the product/service. Therefore, I am going to analyze eight sales and marketing strategies to increase my probability of winning:

1. Myself
2. Network marketing
3. Affiliate marketing
4. Online sales
5. Marketing materials
6. Direct mail
7. Advertisement
8. Outsourcing

Myself

The first approach is the most affordable yet effective strategy. It is made up of all the possible resources that I already have to generate sales and create awareness. These are some ideas that I would usually work on:

* Preparing a list of 200 or 300 list of target prospects, call them up, present to them how the product/service could benefit them and seal the deal

* Getting referrals from existing customers and reward them once the deal is closed

* Designing, printing marketing materials (i.e. brochure, flyer, discount card) and distributing them at local businesses, schools, community centers, newsstands, cafes and fitness centers

* Writing an article and pitch it to local publications as well as posting it online to newsgroup/newsletter

* Giving out trial services or free product samples

* Talking about the business to everyone that I come to interact. To do this I must place my business passion before my ego. If not, I’ll have difficulty in opening his mouth

Networking Marketing

The sky is the limit when it comes to marketing and selling the benefits of the product/service. Networking is a great, super low in cost to connect with potential customers as well as strategic business associates and spread the news about the business.

The chamber of commerce, local business association or elite business club are great venues for networking. They can connect me to an ecosystem of members who are all looking for business opportunity in addition to getting the right sources of product/service. Often times these associations hold events, offer industry-specific education and message boards online, and provide an opportunity for members to list their businesses on their Website.

Affiliate Marketing

This is not a new jargon. It means engaging freelance agent to do the promotion and sales, online. It is a popular marketing approach where E-commerce Website owners engage existing customers, visitors or even organizations that are willing to promote and sell the product/service for a stipulated commission. The role of a freelance agent (known as affiliate), is to direct traffic to the Website and ultimately when a sale is made, commission is credited into the affiliate’s account.

Website owners usually recruit affiliates by simply advertising online (usually through Google Adwords; a per-per-click search engine advertisement), and placing interesting ads (with bombastic headlines) or sending out recruitment announcement to thousands of bulk emails (purchased from database provider). This is a powerful yet cost effective method of generating sales if owners are involved in Internet-based business.

Online Sales

Regardless of the kind of business these days, I always find a Website is essential. And depending upon the business niche and objectives, it can be a major part of the company’s sales and marketing initiatives. Designing a Website can be made fairly simple by working with a company that specializes in helping small businesses create their Website or get Website DIY software available online.

It’s vital to own a Website that is effective in content. It’s not what the contents say, but how the contents say it that makes all the difference online. Establishing credibility is the formula - attach as many testimonials as you could. Usually, I would give out my product/service to people that I already know, get them test it and immediately get their testimonials. I never wait till I launch the product/service in the market to get testimonial - too time consuming!

Customers expect the world and are suspicious of almost everything. The content (words) must be crisp and intelligent. What the Website says should grab visitors’ attention, pique their interest and motivate them to action - to click the “buy now” button.

Search engine optimization and search engine advertising are two ways to get the business marketing message out on the Internet, and there is a big difference between the two in terms of cost. Banner ads are another way to do online marketing, although the opinion on their effectiveness is very subjective. If owners lack Internet knowledge, it is highly recommended to employ a company or a freelance Website designer to get the job done.

Marketing Materials

This may sound a little basic but it is vital to have all the basic marketing tools. Printed materials like business cards, letterhead and brochures should be a staple in any business. It’s essential for business communication and networking. The key to developing good marketing materials without breaking the bank is to identify an affordable graphic designer and low-cost printer. I normally engage a freelance designer to get all of them done.

Direct Mail

For many fresh entrepreneurs, there is no better way to reach their target market, than mailing literature directly to homes. Based on effective market research, entrepreneurs can identify their core market, assign them certain codes and obtain mailing lists to directly send them literature on the company profile, discount, coupons or other information. To optimize any direct mail strategy, entrepreneurs should consider retaining a direct mailer or bulk mail house company. Alternatively, entrepreneurs can collect the information themselves by:

* Getting customers sign a guest book

* Obtaining customer feedback

* Purchasing mailing lists from community newspapers, chambers or other associations

* Retaining a list broker to customize a list

Advertisement

Advertising is one of the fastest ways to create awareness of the company, product or service. However, it can be relatively expensive for many startup owners. Before anyone spend money on advertising, however, it’s crucial to understand what advertising can and cannot do for the business, and draw up a blueprint for moving ahead. Here are four main functions of advertising:

* Triggering the curiosity of the public and attract new customers

* Persuading existing customers to spend more or keep coming back

* Establishing credibility, elevate branding status and creating unique business identity

* Reinforcing customers and prospects on the benefits of the brand, product or service

Advertisement cannot do one thing for sure - guarantee sales. Hence, placing up an advertisement campaign doesn’t mean a surge in sales or revenue.

Assuming budget is not an issue, I would definitely invest in an effective advertisement campaign. Therefore, I would create an advertising plan that fit into my budget plan in advance before committing to it.

Outsourcing

One simple and straight forward method that I would not miss out is outsourcing the sales of my product/service to an outsider. It’s easy, get the yellow pages (online or offline), search for marketing agencies, call them up and propose a joint venture (JV) with them in selling my product/service for a commission in return. The JV works perfectly as I am in charge of promoting and marketing the product/service as well as providing after sales service, and the agencies are only responsible for selling them. Most marketing agencies just want to focus on selling.

I would discuss with these agencies to attain a win-win joint venture - a remuneration system that allows them profit from each sale, while I could earn a healthy margin from each sale made. When it comes to negotiating an agreement, the rule is, the higher the commission I offer, the more excited these agencies are in taking up the JV. In the ten-step process, I spend most of my time in preparation. Preparation is more important than rushing to getting the business open. Thus, if you are already in the process of starting up your business, stop whatever you are doing and put on your thinking cap. Sort out all the preparations you need to do for your business to ensure an effective startup.

10 Step-by-Step Business Startup Guide- Step 5

2007-05-21T03:07:00.002-07:00

STEP 5: Create Key Assets

I definitely would not startup a business without any key asset. But it doesn’t stop here. My key assets are only as good as my ability to protect them, especially when intellectual property is concerned.

I have summarized five key assets that are crucial to all businesses - regardless of its nature:

* Website
* Trademarks
* Copyrights
* Patents
* Confidential Agreements
Website
As we live in the world of information, businesses are turning to the Internet for retailing opportunities, marketing and servicing. Every business should have a Website regardless how big or small the operation and the key to establishing a Website is securing a domain name i.e. www.yourbusinessname.com or www.yourbrand.com. Once a domain name is established, anyone can create their own Website using DIY software or engage a Website designer to get the job done.

Trademarks
My brand name, logo, and any other symbol that distinguishes my company or goods from others are classified as my trademarks. Trademark is one of the most important business assets I’ll ever own. I need to register my trademark with the local authority to ensure that I am the official owner of the mark, which gives me the sole exclusive rights to use the trademark.

Copyrights
A copyright grants me the exclusive legal rights to my creative work, which can include anything from literary or Website content to artistic compositions. I need to file a copyright with the local authority before I reserve the rights. Once granted, it prevents others from copying, performing or using my work without my permission. Don’t confuse copyright with trademark. Trademark is used only to protect intellectual property such as company names, brands, logos and symbols.

Patents
Assuming I start a business because I have a creative yet “best-selling” idea and I want to turn it into a commercial success. Therefore I should quickly protect my invention so I can have a head start. The best way to protect it is to get a patent on it. A patent is a legal property right granted by the government of the country I want to trade in, to the inventor to have the sole exclusive rights to exclude others from using, manufacturing or selling the invention for a limited time. In the United States, a patent will last for 20 years in exchange for public disclosure of the invention when the patent is granted.

Confidential Agreements
They are legal documents that allow me to keep my company’s secret once I have exposed them to my staffs, business associates, or any authorities. The documents will legally disallow them to disclose such information to the public indefinitely. For this reason, it’s important that I get the relevant parties to sign the agreement before disclosing any information to them.

The One Small Business Marketing Tool you Can't do Without

2007-05-21T03:07:00.001-07:00

It constantly amazes me how much time and money small businesses waste on marketing. Time and again you will find a small business owner spending time and/or money on the latest gizmo or fad without any idea of how it will benefit the business - in other words the decision is a straight thumbsuck. Very often it's a case of the business surviving despite the marketing!

You need to realise that your small business is impacted, either positively or negatively, by your marketing. This marketing might be the result of a conscious decision on your part,such as deciding to sponsor a golf day, or it could happen by default e.g. you forget to attend the AGM of your local business association.

Either way, you have sent a message to your potential clients about your business.

The trick then is to ensure that all your marketing actions, and inactions, are designed to benefit your business. Enter the one small business marketing tool you cannot do without: The humble Marketing Plan.

Before you yawn and reach for the TV guide, let's briefly consider how this business tool can benefit your small business.

1) A properly constructed and considered marketing plan defines what your target market is. It tells you who you should be targetting with your marketing efforts. If you know that, then you are not going to spend time and money on marketing efforts that aren't going to reach your target market. Result: Marketing Plan 1, Thumbsuck 0.

2) A marketing plan gives you control. You know ahead of time what, where and how you are going to do your marketing. This allows for better allocation and control of budgets and human resources.Result: Marketing Plan 2, Thumbsuck 0.

3) A marketing plan ensures that feedback mechanisms and measurables are in place so that you can quantify the results of your marketing efforts and make improvements for the next time.Result: Marketing Plan 3, Thumbsuck 0.

I hope you are beginning to get the picture. A Marketing Plan is the critical small business marketing tool that you can't do without if you are going to grow your business successfully.All other marketing tools and marketing activities are implemented in terms of the marketing plan. Final score: Marketing Plan 4, Thumbsuck 0!

Success Leave Trail - Don't Reinvent The Wheels

2007-05-21T03:06:00.004-07:00

Many people envy the financial and time freedom of online marketers and home based business owners and complaint about their 9-5 work, and wanted to get out of the rat race. However, when asked why they don’t start their own online business and homes based business, their answer is always,

I Don’t Know How to start an Online Business?

But when asked further, “Do you know people who don’t know any thing about Internet is making a comfortable living online?” Most answer is affirmative, either their have friends or know someone who have earn extra income online. They just never ask them how they started and build their online business. And when they are asked to emulate their successful friends foot path, they back off and given the excuse that online business is for the technically savvy and not for the ordinary people. And they continue to envy the online businessmen or women who own an online business and wish that they also have this freedom of spending time with their family and at the same time running a lucrative business at home.

If you are one of these people, there is something that you need to know. When online business is concerned, a lot of people just freak out when they saw the technical jargons on domain, url, html, java etc etc,. They believe that online business is for the technically competent people who had learned the programs language. To many, it is like rocket science and only those limited privilege people can succeed in online business.

So if you are one of these people stop your wishful thinking and land yourself on the ground! Ask again, “Do I know any person who doesn’t know any thing about Internet is making a comfortable living online?” If the answer is affirmative, you will have a good start, just ask this friend or associate how they do it. Many people are reluctant to ask for fear of being ridicule, if you are one of those, discard this thinking. Just remember, most successful people are more than willing to share their success stories and how they make it. Wealth grow faster when share. Make an appointment to meet them, or perhaps buy your friend a good lunch or dinner to listen to his success story.

If your answer is negative, do some research online, you will be able to find lots of cases on ordinary people making a living online and enjoying time and financial freedom. These people know how the online business works. They knew very well that they do not need to know everything to start a business, let alone online business. All you need to know is what success in online business can bring to you and your family.

Creating an online income and start an Online Business is not rocket science and anyone of average intelligence, willingness to learn and have the desire to succeed can and will make it. It is like driving a car, you don’t need to know how the fuel is being burn, how the pistons being push by the burning fuel and move the engine. All you need to know is; start with the ignition keys, press the accelerator, you will be able to reach the destination of your choice. When you learn to master building an online business like mastering driving your car, you will realize that many of the driving skill is subconscious, as in Online Business, many of which is on autopilot when you set it up properly. That is the beauty of Online Business.

Author Note: This is article 3 on series of articles on Get Your Life Back! For Part 3a with work solution, please visit enlightening Your eBusiness Direction a blog that share the resources and information on making extra income on Internet.

Why a Business to Business Marketing Strategy for Small Businesses?

2007-05-21T03:06:00.003-07:00

One of the ways in which a small business can leverage income is to do business with other businesses, rather than with individual members of the public.

There can be several advantages such as: potentially bigger and more consistent orders for your product or expertise; Increased visibility for your business in the business environment; usually (but not always!) less hassle getting paid etc etc.

There can also be serious disadvantages for a small business doing business with other, especially bigger, businesses. These include a squeeze on monetary and human resources when suddenly faced with delivering your biggest ever job;prolonged credit terms - you will get paid but possibly only in 120 days!;increased collateral damage to your name and image if things go wrong, and so on.

It is the classic capitalistic conundrum - high stakes with high rewards if you get it right, but a big, potentially fatal, problem if you get it wrong.

Most small businesses, if they are to grow, will have to adopt the "nothing ventured, nothing gained" attitude and become involved in doing business with other businesses. But they need to load the bases in their favour as much as possible beforehand.

This is where a business to business marketing strategy comes in. In reality a small business should re-look it's marketing plan and recognise that there must be a difference between their marketing strategy for individuals and their marketing strategy for other businesses because they represent 2 entirely different target markets.

By taking the time to relook their marketing plan and adjusting their marketing strategy to deal specifically with other businesses, small businesses will benefit through recognising new marketing opportunities and restricting the wasting of resources on marketing efforts that might not be appropriate for businesses.

Trump,Kiyosaki,Pilzer,Allen and Proctor - All Advocate MLMs

2007-05-16T04:06:00.000-07:00

It seems that what was once considered a “Pyramid Scheme!” and a Marketing “Hoax.” is now evolving into the type of entity that has everyone – including some of the top Financial and Business Gurus in the industry taking a second look! The sudden credence seems to be redefining the over all idea and general interpretation of MLMs of days gone by. The reemergence of working at home employees is taking on a life of it’s own. According to the 2000 Census Bureau there were over 4,000,000 people who consisted of working- at- home income earners at that time. There is every indication that the number of individuals who are choosing their own path outside of the typical office- employment venue most commonly utilized for the average worker is now on the rise.

Recently, Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki – two of the most famous Real Estate and Finance experts in the country, teamed up to write a book telling people why taking control over their own lives – using MLMs is the perfect way to create residual income and as a leveraging device for a more prosperous future. Kiyosaki himself wrote yet a second book supporting this networking system as a wealth- generating device. Robert Allen has two books out that address this process towards financial freedom. His books are Multiple Streams of Income and The One Minute Millionaire. Bob proctor has a great audio CD out entitled "What Would You Change If Your Annual Income…Suddenly Became Your Monthly Income?" Lastly, Paul Zane Pilzer has several books out supporting the whole Network Marketing/MLM industry. His latest book The Next Millionaires gives a refreshing out look to the opportunities we have available to ourselves in joining in on this sweeping rage. He is one of the most enlightened experts in the field of Economics, and this guy really knows his stuff.

We are talking the “Cream of the Crop” here, these guys have too much at stake to put their names on something that has no merit or long term benefit to offer their wide base of staunch supporters. Now then, if you had to rely on the word of someone you know who is struggling themselves who was telling you “That stuff doesn’t work!” or “It’s all just a big waste of your time!” to make a decision as to whether or not this is worth taking a better look at, or…if you had available to you these gentlemen in this article - to seek out their advice instead, which of the two do you think would be the wiser choice? They have not gotten where they are at because they have bluffed their way into the Millionaires (or Billionaires) Circle. They all researched this particular field of interest before deciding to endorse it.

So, if you have come to the place in your life where you are asking these questions: “Is this all there is” or “How can I make more money?” Then perhaps heading down to your local bookstore or library to see for your self if this is a road worth venturing down -it just might be worth all the effort involved. Educating yourself in this area can’t hurt and it may prove to be the way you’ve been looking for to not only change but to improve your current way of living and thinking. Is now the time? Is today the day? Now, you can finally decide for yourself!

Small Business Proposal Development

2007-05-16T04:05:00.001-07:00

Small Business Proposal Development There are companies that espouse, and make a good living teaching a very comprehensive and workable proposal development methodology. This methodology constitutes the menu of proposal “best practices.” If you are one of the big guys like Northrop, IBM, Booz and a few others, you can follow the best practices and get great results because you have the necessary resources and bench strength to fund them. You can start before the RFP is released because you have a marketing and sales group whose job it is to develop long lead time accounts. And you more than likely have sales engineers whose job it is to develop solutions on spec.

In smaller companies everyone has to be direct charge, there is no budget for sales and marketing groups or sales engineers. Everyone bills the customer and very often everyone is working on a customer site. When a new opportunity is identified there is no one to work it properly until the RFP hits. Notice that the company isn’t caught flat footed or bidding out of the CBD they’re just doing all they can do with the resources available. Because Small Company Inc. wants to grow and prosper they’ve sent people to be trained by those companies espousing the best practices and they would like to emulate those they wish to become. All that Big Company Inc. may have been doing for a year or more to get ready to bid, Small Company Inc. now tries to squeeze into a 30 to 120 day period. It would be stressful to do this once or twice in a year but some companies go through this insanity perpetually.

The few good people that get stuck on proposal teams burn out quick. Between the proposal and the customer and other company responsibilities the quality of work suffers; the proposal, the customer or the company. The best practices need not be abandoned or specifically re-written for small companies. It’s the responsibility of the small company to identify which best practice will get the greatest bang for the buck when there are very few bucks. If you only have 30 days to develop the solution, assemble the team and prepare the proposal something has to be left out. For instance, storyboarding is a very good technique when properly used. However, the day the RFP is released is not the day to begin teaching the technique to a group who has never used it or is reluctant to use it because they’ve never experienced its value. There is no time for multiple formal reviews.

Structure the review cycle to reflect the compressed situation. Past performance and team resumes is also a stumbling block for many companies. A Project Manager that’s had to tailor the project description five or six times in the last month won’t be real enthused about having to do it a seventh time. Resumes follow the same pattern. The solution lies in accepting reality and designing process and procedures to reflect it. You can still go to your association meetings and claim to follow best practices to the letter but in the long run you will have reduced your B&P cost, produced better proposals and helped retain your better people by not burning them out trying to keep up with the big guys.

Dan Light, Principal, Dan Light Consulting, LLC is considered one of the world’s leading management consultants and advisors. He specializes in business development, turnarounds and business coaching.

His focus has been to double smaller companies, often in weeks, and to similarly increase the output of his larger clients by identifying root causes and removing the obstacles that have prevented their success.

A Common Small Business Problem - Bad Checks

2007-05-16T04:01:00.000-07:00

Is it worth taking personal checks from customers? Many business struggle with this question because of returned checks. The answer to this question is “yes.” Businesses should accept checks from customers as this is still a preferred way for many customers to pay.

There is another reason for accepting checks from customers. Of all the checks a business accepts, the national average for returned checks is VERY low (only 1-2% of all accepted checks will be returned). Most of these checks will be returned as NSF (non sufficient funds) and can be quickly and easily recovered by a check recovery service. A good check collection service can often recover most NSF checks (close to 90% of them) within a period of one to three months.

Most business owners outsource bad check collection because there are collection services that offer free check recovery for all U.S. businesses. Established check collection companies often have resources that small business owners do not have (the means to engage in electronic check recovery, offer negative data base reporting, and make repeated contact by letter and phone). A few will even work with local District Attorneys that have a bad check restitution program. Business owners may also want to look for a check service that will report to the major credit bureaus for check writers who refuse to pay what they owe.

How To Create Chances To Sell Your Jewelry (Part One) - Developing The Habit Of Selling

2007-05-16T03:59:00.000-07:00

There is nothing like a dream to create the future.
Victor Hugo

I’ve heard and read many times the “I’m not the selling type personality, I don’t have the character” argument. I thought that of myself actually. I was even so childish to think that yes, I could make great jewels, but I would never sell them or live from it. I was so wrong! I couldn’t see I was expecting for “something to happen” without noticing nothing would happen if I didn’t make it happen myself.

Opportunities are not casualty or good luck: opportunities are the result of knowledge and awareness. Every succeeding crafter in this world is not only a skilled master in her/his technique, but also a succesful seller. There are the same chances to succeed for almost everybody; why some do while others don’t?

This is very simple: a seller makes sales happen and does not wait for sales to come. When we believe we are not something, we are just stating we believe we cannot be something. It is not a fact but a belief. It can be changed then. Changing your point of view about yourself is the key to become a successful seller.

And NO, you don’t have to have a specific type of personality. You don’t have to a cold salesperson, nor start lying or covering any truth, because you already are something: a Jewelry Artist. Isn’t that enough to make you proud of yourself? You have a wonderful profession, you work with your hands in beautiful noble materials, and you make people look more beautiful and magical with your creations. Your work is bought with love as a gift to another, becoming a messenger of affection and generosity. You are probably self-taught and are thinking of starting your own business in a very competitive field, which means you are brave and are prepared to be steady and learn well the foundations of this business/vocation.

Sounds admirable, ah? Well, that is YOU! Don’t you see how lucky you are? Having that amazing conditions, it is only a matter of habit to start creating your own opportunities, and only a matter of habit overcoming all your self-inflicted obstacles. So, from now on, let’s say Jewelry Artist instead of seller, and I will show you how it’s only a point of view question.

A Jewelry Artist loves jewelry, jewelry making and wearing jewelry. When someone compliments the necklace you’re wearing, do NOT answer: “oh, that’s…nothing…I…made it …when I was bored”. How are you going to make someone want to own a piece like yours if you’re not proud of it? Instead of the former answer, you better say “Thank you! I made it myself – I’m a jewelry designer! Look, this is a fumeé czech bead and this are freshwater japanese pearls… I have an online business… would you like a business card?”

Believe me, the first time I did it I was sweating! Then you realize that not only nothing bad has happened, but also that the person in front of you is smiling and admiring your work. Admiring you. In a few words, you’ve told that person that you are a professional, that you sell your jewelry, that you have a business going and that you know what you do and what materials you use. After a few tries, it has become a habit – and that has meant a very good quantity of appointments and purchases! In fact, this happened to me last evening at a new rock shop that I visited, and when the owner praised my bracelet I started a conversation like the one above that leaded to a discount because I was a pro – they wanted me to come back and buy more because I sold myself well.

A Jewelry Artist does not underprice. You will not become respected by your customers if you don’t respect yourself. Though I always advice to be humble on you pay per hour of work as your skills grow, humble does not mean stupid. It is a business psychology law that slight overpricing increases the perceived value of things. You are selling jewelry, probably one of the items with a higher perceived value, so respect yourself! People would tend to think that there is something wrong with your jewels if your prices are low; if you want to cover a wider range of prices, work on your designs to make them more simple or look for cheaper materials. And if a customer just wants something that is unacceptable for you, just say no.

A Jewelry Artist always offers help and alternatives. Listening to your customers is essential. If someone asks you for a product that you don’t actually make, but would consider making, immediately ask for feedback. Almost everytime customers are more than happy to have their opinion asked. Email them with questions and ask about everything you’d like to know BUT the design. You’ll be surprised to see how customer suggestions can become best-selling items. You are here to fill a need, so listening to other people’s needs should be a main target.

A Jewelry Artist promises less than asked and delivers more than asked.
This is a very important point in what comes to custom orders and repairing services. If someone wants a piece I’ve made in another colour or wants me to fix or alter a broken piece, I always answer “I will try” instead of “yes”, even though I know if I can repair the piece with a glance. If I need three days to make it, I will ask for five days and then I will deliver it in the three I knew I would need. Most of the times are very simple things like adding a little chain on a necklace or making a new jumpring for an earring so I don’t charge nothing – which usually ends in my customers looking at the new creations while I fix the piece and, quite a few times, a purchase.

Is this so difficult? Really, I don’t think so – you need commitment in developing the habit of being successful but it really worked for me, so I’m sharing it with you. Once you’ve overcome the “firsts”, you become more and more confident, and as a result, more aware of the opportunities around you. And yes, there are more opportunities in front of me than the few I have time to explore… many more. That means that not only I have a Plan B, but also a C, a D, an E….and those opportunities are there for you too! In the second part of this article, we’ll look closely at some simple strategies to increase your opportunites in everyday life. Till then…be proud of yourself and go make some wonderful jewelry!

Born and living in Tenerife (Canary Islands) Full-time jewelry artist and owner and designer of NeoVamp Jewelry, a OOAK fine bijouterie business. Expert in wire-wrapping and former illustrator and tattoo artist. I have also extensive knowledge in symbolism and healing properties of stones and colours. Every piece I make is completely handcrafted and unique, often recycling vintage jewelry.

I've published a free course about Doll Customizing, a personal passion, and was interviewed by Rena KLingenberg in January for the Success Stories section of her site. In November last year I was interviewed by the Canary Islands TV Channel on the live show Canarias Directo.

Why Your Small Business Needs A Small Business Marketing Strategy

2007-05-16T03:58:00.000-07:00

Many small businesses grow organically, that is the size and direction (and often speed) of their growth is mostly shaped by trying to meet all the needs of all their customers.

While it is fun and encouraging to see your business grow, this sort of growth is rarely good for your business in the long run.In fact it can be a major reason for there not being any "long run" but rather a swift and painful dive into insolvency.

A small business marketing strategy will help you avoid many pitfalls that might otherwise derail your small business.Lets look at just three ways that having a small business marketing strategy can help you. These pointers deal with ensuring that you attract the right sort of customers.

Firstly, no business, let alone a small business, can be all things to all customers.Your marketing strategy will help you determine what your business is good at, and that will define more accurately for you the segment of the market you seek to attract.

Secondly, not all customers are equal. Some are a pain in the butt and take up a lot of your time but rarely buy anything. Others don't pay on time or just don't pay at all. Others are a pleasure to do business with. Your marketing strategy will aim to attract only those customers that you want to do business with.

Thirdly, having defined what segment of the market you can competently service and the type of customers you would be willing to do business with, your small business marketing strategy should determine where you can find these customers and how you can reach them with your message!

These are just three advantages you will have if you take the time to work out a marketing strategy for your small business.There are countless other marketing considerations in your business that would also benefit from you investing in a well thought out and practical marketing strategy.

Opening a Dollar Store - Inventory Management

2007-05-10T05:57:00.001-07:00

One of the biggest challenges faced by those who are opening a dollar store is associated with inventory management. While sales may only be in the hundreds or low thousands on most days, that still means that an equal number (100’s to 1,000’s) of items have been sold and need to be recognized as no longer being available for sale. Faster selling item inventories need to be managed to insure that adequate inventory is maintained to allow sales to continue. Slowest selling items need to be recognized to determine the right steps to take in increasing sales or liquidating those specific items from your future sales inventory.

For most who are opening a dollar store the costs associated with inventory management software cannot be handled. There simply is not money in the start up budget to purchase the software. For those entrepreneurs plans should developed to use early profits to make that purchase.

All entrepreneurs who are opening a dollar store must put some kind of inventory management tools in place before their store opens. For smaller store that can be as simple as manual inventory sheets with specific timing for physical inventory scheduled. Focus should be placed on higher selling departments as well as the fastest selling items in the store.

Failing to maintain a constant inventory of in-demand items will result in sales losses. Not having in-demand items readily available will also motivate shoppers to move on to other stores that routinely maintain adequate inventories of those items. Once a customer is lost the time and expense associated with regaining that customer can be significant.

Are you opening a dollar store? No matter how big or small your store will be never forget the importance of adequate inventory management. Inventory management can help to insure that your store sales continue to grow and that you are carrying the right products to meet your customer needs.

To Your Dollar Store Success!

Conflict At Work? The Power Of A Third-Party In Family Business Conflict

2007-05-10T05:56:00.000-07:00

Discord is normal within families. Add to it the pressures of owning and running a business and conflict often rises to severe proportions. Not wanting to jeopardize the family or the business, significant problems are ignored with the hope that they will resolve themselves. The resulting bitterness leads to enduring arguments and painful family encounters. The prevailing desire is to escape and keep things as quiet as possible. This is no time to have a party!

In fact, it is time to have a party…a third party. Most family enterprise owners do not know that there is a systematic approach that will relieve tension immediately and begin the process of long-term accord and civility. A third-party intervention with a dyadic approach invites a trained professional to help those in conflict address long-term resentment and face disputes as they occur. The good news is that if you are still arguing, you are still engaged in communication and that opens the door for resolution. It takes two people to create conflict; it takes a third party to stop it.

It is important to note that stopping does not mean ending conflict altogether. You cannot eliminate disagreement. You can, however, manage it, handle it, replace it and learn the techniques to diffuse it. Unfortunately, conflict management skills do not come as naturally as one might think. We were never actually taught them. If we want peaceful relationships at home and in the workplace, we have to learn what they are and how to use them.

A dyad facilitator can change the entire dynamic of a dispute and show you practical skills to stop painful arguments. The third-party offers a neutral perspective and can actually suppress the escalation of conflict. In front of a third party, we tend to control our hurtful words, curb our attacks and, with guidance, stay focused on the real issue at hand. The goal shifts from confrontation to cooperation. It is no longer about your way versus the other way, but the best way for both parties to have an agreeable relationship. In this safe environment, you will be encouraged to speak out, speak up and speak often. You will have the opportunity to state your full position without interruption and diversion. The objective third-party has the ability to see both perspectives and respect each person’s needs. The third-party does have a personal interest too…peace. This does not necessarily ensure resolution, but it does offer a more promising outcome than continuing nonproductive battles. This is the third-party solution.

How does it work? The dyad consists of two people in controversy and a dyad facilitator. The facilitator asks each party to come to the table with one or two critical issues regarding the other party. Each issue is addressed separately and for as much time as is necessary to reach mutual understanding of each aspect of the issue. Often the issues are as simple as longstanding misunderstandings due to inadequate communication. Other issues are more complicated and will require compromise, or trading.

The dyad process skips over the angry interchange that may have blocked negotiation in the past – and goes directly to negotiation. The mediator manages the disruptive interference of open expression of emotions and keeps the process focused on the key issues while chipping away at the underlying layers of anger, frustration and resentment.

It may sound painful, but the process is powerful, positive and enriching. It can be the first time you are listened to without interruption. You find that you are shocked that you can discuss the issue and not be distracted by the associated emotions. And, most often, it is the first time you are heard and understood. You will start to notice that you “save” your arguments for the dyad sessions instead of erupting at each exasperating situation. It is this “planned conflict” that gives you a safe time to address business and personal issues with the objectivity of a third-party, and thus, allowing you the opportunity to enjoy being a family.

It is no secret that contention in the family enterprise often results in the end of the business, the demise of the family or both. So, yes, it is time to have a party. Invite a skilled, trained third-party into your business and family and feel the effect of immediate relief.

10 Step-by-Step Business Startup Guide - Step 4

2007-05-10T05:48:00.000-07:00

STEP 4: Organizational Structure

This is the step where I need to select an organization structure that best fits my business model. I personally find there is no “best” structure for all businesses. However, I normally prefer to select one that provides me with high autonomy and low tax liability. Again, this will also depend on the national, federal or local tax structure for each business entity in the country or state I conduct my business.

Before setting up my company, I would do insight research on all the options available for my particular business model, particularly the advantages and disadvantages of each formation, paying special attention to the tax implication and government formalities as well as red tape in the location or country where I operate. I never assume all countries are similar.

Let’s take a look at four common forms of business ownership:

1. Sole proprietor

2. Partnership

3. Corporation

4. Limited Liability Company

Before selecting the form of business, I always find it best to work closely with a lawyer or a financial planner to ensure I have the right information, compliance and resources that allow me to make the right choice.Sole Proprietor

This is a very popular form of business in many countries (i.e. America, Canada, UK, India, Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, etc.) because so little is needed to set up a sole proprietorship. Apart from local business licenses, there are minimal government fees and paperwork. It is instant, cost effective and minimal (or even zero) compliant requirements by local authorities.

On the other hand, there is also considerable risk to consider. The owner’s personal assets are vulnerable to creditors and other liabilities. Sole proprietorship doesn’t get the advantage of certain tax breaks that are reserved for Corporation or Limited Liability Company.

In short, this form of business is very ideal for home based business that has no massive inventory or a high number of staffs.Partnership

Similar to sole proprietorship, this form is very easy to set up and maintain, requiring minimal government fee and paperwork. The initial setup cost and maintenance fees to run a partnership are very low. Moreover, no capital is required to form a partnership. Each partner is not required to raise any capital to start this form of business.

On the downside, each partner is required to account full responsibility for all the company’s debts. If one of the partners defaults on a company loan, creditors can actually go after your personal assets and belongings. Besides that, capital raising is also very limited in a partnership. Just like sole proprietorship, partnership doesn’t get much tax incentives.Corporation

There are a few types of corporations available depending on the location or country the owners conduct business. However, most corporations (in many countries) share similar characteristics.

The key advantage of incorporating a business is that it shields equity holders (owners) of the company from personal liability. In other words, if business hits hard times, creditors cannot go after the owners’ personal assets to make up for any company debts. Yet, most creditors nowadays would require the owners of the corporation to guarantee the shortfalls if the company goes under. Besides that, a corporation offers significant tax savings (usually not extended to sole proprietorship or partnership), greater business flexibility, company name protection and better opportunity to raise capital via venture capitalist or financial institution.

Bear in mind that corporations are not cheap to set up. It requires some initial set up fees and certain amount of regular maintenance. With a corporation, you have to keep a proper set of financial records, audited by a certified accountant. Depending on where the business is conducted, some government or local authority would require a minimum set of compliance and would also require regular fees to be paid.

There is one option that a corporation possesses - that allow owners to sell their shares of stock to the public (known as public listed corporation). Then this will involve higher startup capital (usually runs into the millions), more legal and meticulous accounting compliances to adhere to.Limited Liability Company

As for many new entrepreneurs, choosing a business structure comes down to liability protection, low startup costing, tax savings and convenience. This form of business requires fewer formalities and less on-going paperwork than corporations while offering the same personal liability protection and tax flexibility. Just as with a corporation, the company name is protected, and the other members of the company are shielded from creditors and other company liabilities such as lawsuits. A limited liability company only requires the owners to keep minimal company records, and there is no limit to the number of equity owners.

Nonetheless, this form of business is dissolved when a member dies or undergoes bankruptcy. In comparison to sole proprietorship or partnership, it has more paperwork and complexity to set up and to be maintained.

Disclaimer - This article may be freely reprinted in its entirety in any e-zine, newsletter, blog or website. The author’s name, bio and website links must remain intact and be included with every reproduction.

Dave J, is an E-preneur, NLP-Certified Business Coach and Author. Within a decade, Dave J has served as an advisor to countless small-level to high-level business leaders around the world. Despite such a short span, Dave J has becoming a highly-respected authority on the psychology of business leadership, business startup, management and marketing. His forte is coaching ordinary people to attain professional and financial breakthrough.

10 Step-by-Step Business Startup Guide - Step 3

2007-05-10T05:47:00.000-07:00

Once I have done all the preparations, I would start creating a detailed business plan - a document that will provide the priorities, strategies, agenda and sanity I’ll need to startup my business.

In my experience and observation of the business world, the “activity” of creating a business plan is as valuable as the end product itself. Just remember that the most important audience for a business plan is ME. I am accountable for all the statements, claims, statistics and facts. So if I try to “twist” the figure, I am actually lying to myself!

The business plan can also aid me as a tool to generate interest from financiers, venture capitalists, staffs, suppliers and strategic associates.

Regardless of the structure or format of my business plan, I will ensure that my business planning must contain answers for the following twelve questions:

1. What’s my business idea?

2. How does my idea address consumers’ needs/wants?

3. What business model suits me best?

4. What’s unique about my business idea over the rivals?

5. What is the market opportunity and potential?

6. What is my role and responsibility?

7. Who are the key staffs or workers (skip if I do not have any)?

8. What price will the customer pay and how will they buy?

9. How much money do I need to start and run the business?

10. What’s the source of my capital?

11. How will I measure the success of my business?

12. What are my key milestones?

While preparing my business plan, I would cover all the elements of a business plan shown in DAY 3. Just for your study aims, I have attached a sample business plan at the end of this section.

I must ensure that my business plan is concise and neatly formatted (i.e. Microsoft Word document for the bulk of the plan, with any financial documents as attached spreadsheets in Microsoft Excel), and need not include fancy graphics, flowery language or photos. The easier I make it to read, the better.

Alternatively, there are occasions I work better with business plan templates and wizards. Hence, I would search online as there are many business planning software packages available that only cost in the neighborhood of $100, as well as a few free online business plan templates. I would normally spend some time searching for the right software or templates to aid me in constructing my business plan.

Disclaimer - This article may be freely reprinted in its entirety in any e-zine, newsletter, blog or website. The author’s name, bio and website links must remain intact and be included with every reproduction.

Dave J, is an E-preneur, NLP-Certified Business Coach and Author. Within a decade, Dave J has served as an advisor to countless small-level to high-level business leaders around the world. Despite such a short span, Dave J has becoming a highly-respected authority on the psychology of business leadership, business startup, management and marketing. His forte is coaching ordinary people to attain professional and financial breakthrough.

10 Step-by-Step Business Startup Guide - Step 2

2007-05-10T05:39:00.000-07:00

Once I have selected the kind of business I want to do, I would brainstorm how to run the business. In today’s technology, there are many business models to choose from i.e. part time or full time, at home or totally mobile, online or brick and mortar business.

But the key is to choose a business model that fits into My Ultimate Plan. I do this to make sure that I spend the right number of days each month, take the right level of risk, investment wise and attaining the level of satisfaction that I want.

First thing first: How much time do I want to devote to my business?

If I only have three days to spare in a week, I cannot start and run a business full time. I will need to do it part time, to adapt my business to time consuming obligations that I already have, such as my day job, parenting responsibilities or other activities that would refrain me from doing it full time.

Once I have determined whether I would do the business full time or part time, I will need to identify the right type of business models to fit into my current situation.

I have complied six common business models here:

1. Home based

2. Brick and mortar

3. E-commerce

4. Franchising

5. Licensing a product

6. Multilevel marketing

Home based

Using the latest technology, anyone can create a legitimate and competitive business from home. In fact, this is the cheapest and fastest way to start an enterprise. It can be run full time or part time, Internet or non-Internet based.

Brick and Mortar

It simply means a business with a physical location outside the home, either leased premises or purchased. It involves a dedicated facility, whether retail, wholesale, service or manufacturing. This model usually involves relatively high capital.

E-commerce

There is no foot traffic in this business model. All the customers will purchase online, from A to Z of the transaction. The owner can sell and service the product/service through an Internet portal capable of collecting payment. This can apply to business that sells directly to customers or to other businesses.

Franchising

This model refers to buying a successful business model, which makes the buyer the “franchisee”. Usually, there will be a franchise fee upfront and a portion of the revenues over time to be paid to the franchisor. Everything the franchisee needs to know on starting and running the business is provided by the franchisor, including the equipment and sometimes, goods and services.

Licensing the Product

Any designer, expert, innovator or anyone creative enough to conceive a product or invention that people would buy but do not want to run the business, can still take advantage of a great product idea or invention by licensing it to another company that has the entire infrastructure in place to effectively manufacture, market and sell it.

Multilevel Marketing (MLM)

This is another business that could be started instantly and with low startup cost. However, to excel in MLM, one must have traits of perseverance and determination. MLM is a marketing and distribution structure. People at the top sell to those below them, who in turn sell to those under them. The higher one achieves in the structure, the more income one derives. Anyone chooses this model must be cautious before deciding to jump into the bandwagon as some MLM attracts its members using “greed tactics”!

Whichever option it may be, I would definitely do some research on its pro’s and con’s as well as the level of suitability to the kind of business I am going to venture into.

Disclaimer - This article may be freely reprinted in its entirety in any e-zine, newsletter, blog or website. The author’s name, bio and website links must remain intact and be included with every reproduction.

Dave J, is an E-preneur, NLP-Certified Business Coach and Author. Within a decade, Dave J has served as an advisor to countless small-level to high-level business leaders around the world. Despite such a short span, Dave J has becoming a highly-respected authority on the psychology of business leadership, business startup, management and marketing. His forte is coaching ordinary people to attain professional and financial breakthrough.

10 Step-by-Step Business Startup Guide - Step 7

2007-05-08T03:14:00.002-07:00

STEP 7: Support Team

I found out that many businesses went bust before they even went fully operational because they did not start right. Starting right can mean the difference between success and failure. It simply means I should have all the tools, information, facilities, contacts, money management and government compliances all fully prepared and organized. The four key professionals who could help me in getting all these logistics organized and put my organization on a path to starting up smartly and cost effectively, are listed below. They will also be instrumental as my business grows.

1. Accountant/Financial Planner – I need a qualified accountant’s expertise to ensure that my cash flow is in good order, expenses are well managed, tax liability is minimized and book-keeping is well organized. In some cases, a financial planner could cover a wider scope than an accountant.

2. Lawyer – An experienced lawyer will ensure that all agreements with my associates, staffs, and third parties are placed under well drafted contracts to protect my personal and business interests.

3. Banker – A banker can be helpful as the business gets running because I may need some financial facilities (i.e. short term loan, credit facility, checking account, treasury management) that can be useful from time to time.

4. Insurance Professional – I need an experienced insurance professional to identify all possible risks that I may encounter and insure all those risks cost effectively. I won’t attempt to cut corners in this segment and land myself into any possible financial liability.

In addition, there are other supports that may be vital to certain types of business. Of course there is a long list of people who can help an entrepreneur along the way depending on the nature of the business. However, I manage to sum up four important supports that all business entrepreneurs should not miss out. The four are listed below:

1. Website Designer or Programmer – These folks could help me build my multi-functional Website that would be the backbone of my entire business if my business depends heavily on online transaction. A web presence is also essential for my company’s brand positioning and customer after sales service.

2. IT Specialist – This kind of consultant could assist me to set up a paperless office system and an effective computer system to minimize office operational expenses. Besides, an IT Specialist could also ensure all business data and client database are well managed, hassle free and accessible.

3. Real estate agent – When owners are venturing into a brick and mortar business model, they definitely need an experienced real estate agent to advise them on the overall cost of leasing or purchasing, location suitability for their particular business, amenities and parking facilities, monthly maintenance and whatever hidden costs.

4. Local business council/association – I would definitely join a local business council or association (usually there is a small joining fee) and find out what kind of support or advisory they could provide. Normally the group members conduct a regular forum or meeting, where members could seek out solutions to many of the existing problems and foreseeable roadblocks. Many of them would have walked through the problems and could share with me some valuable insights.

Before I start my search for any form of assistance and support, it’s crucial to know what I want to accomplish with each of them and prepare a well-defined budget to meet my goals. However, I would be cautious as certain supports may be expensive! Once I hired them, I would work closely with them to attain my business goals in a strict timeline.

Regardless of who I retain, they should be well versed and experienced in the field of business I am involved in. Most importantly, I must be able to trust them, therefore I usually select my service providers through referrals, their years of experience (which is a key factor) and I must be comfortable dealing with them.

10 Step-by-Step Business Startup Guide - Step 6

2007-05-08T03:14:00.001-07:00

STEP 6: Funding

This could be a very important step for businesses that require capital to startup and funding to keep overheads and inventories on track. Finding funding is not difficult. But getting the right funding is crucial. Of course there is a saying that goes, “beggars can’t be choosers”! Nonetheless, startup owners must be smart when seeking funding or it could turn their dream business into a nightmare.

I would normally identify my short term and long term business goals and the kind of business I am planning to launch. Once I finalize my directions, I would then identify which form of financing is right for me.

As money comes in many forms, let me tackle the available options to fund any kind of business:

* Oneself
* Debt Financing
* Grants
* Friends and Family
* Venture Capitalists

Oneself
First of all, I believe startup owners should look no further to find the funding they need i.e. savings, emergency accounts, credit cards, equity pulled from their home, extra cash from downgrading their car, etc. The upsides are owners get to maintain full control over their businesses, no equity holders to pay off if they made it big and there is no responsibility to report to anyone.Nonetheless, if the business fails, they will face a lot of personal debts, high interest to pay off that could burden their monthly expenses and it limits the growth of their business (especially when they need more outlets or inventories for strategic growth).

Debt Financing
It refers to traditional bank loans. The lending process is inherently a tough one, but it’s also a system that has been the catalyst of success for many small-and-medium-scale business startups. The advantage of debt financing is owners don’t have to give up part of their business equity or control. Besides, they have instant access of capital when they need most throughout their business operation.
The core disadvantage - not many “new kids on the block” will qualify for bank loans because it typically goes for business with 2-5 years of history. Moreover, personal collateral is usually required to obtain any bank loan and if they failed to pay the loan they may end up filing for bankruptcy.

Government Grants
Grant is a very subjective form of funding because its source usually comes from government. Different governments at different times would launch different funding programs, but they all share one commonality; it is free money program designed to fuel the innovative fires of small businesses, and typically target specific groups or types of businesses. Of course the greatest advantage of getting a grant is owners need not payback even if the business failed.Then again, the competition is stiff for grants as there is a high level of rigid red tape to be complied with and the usage of the grant (after being approved) are usually well defined.

Friends and Family
Just like it describes, a simple and direct way to raise capital in exchange for equity or as a loan to be repaid. The good side of borrowing from friends and family is, it’s less hassle, quicker and has less contractual obligations. The bad sides are the fund size is limited and the consequence of losing their money could lead to a sour relationship.

Venture Capitalists
They are made of individuals or organizations with large amounts of capital to invest in your business in expectation for higher returns. Getting investment from venture capitalists is equally as demanding as borrowing from the bank. They are demanding because they only invest in established companies. They usually get involved in the company’s decision making, and they must have an aggressive exit strategy to sell the business. Usually, they prefer a fast growing company i.e. Internet-based company.

Nevertheless, the upsides of venture capitalists’ funding are they can provide owners with powerful networks or contacts and owners need not payback if the business failed because they have big reservoir of money for owners to tap into.

Networking Madness

2007-05-08T03:13:00.000-07:00

It was 4:30 in the afternoon at a Chamber of Commerce networking event. Health professionals, insurance agents, brick and mortar businesses, recruiters and guests gathered inside the House of Blues to take part in the hoopla. Announcements, Chamber news, door prize results and up-tempo music blared from the speakers.

Two dozen display booths formed at the center while others hugged against the walls. I was busy ogling at the finger foods, salads and refreshments. You couldn't walk five feet without someone assaulting you with their business card in your face.

Everybody was intent on selling you their product, package or program. They wanted you to notice them. Whether you wanted to or not. And maybe one person in one hundred seriously wanted to trade notes, share ideas or look into a profitable partnership.

Which made the whole affair a big yawner...

These are total strangers trying to convince you they have the secret tool that will make you more money and save you more time. They believe relationship selling is conducted by them giving you their 30-second commercial, and then something clicks and a bright light bulb appears above your head and you respond with, "You have exactly what I need for my business. I've been looking for your product forever. Why haven't we met before? Give me a call so we can do business."

Which isn't so bad in itself...

Because lurking in the shadows are the energy-zappers. They love to go phishing at these functions. They usually hold a low-salaried day job—which is not quite affording them a luxury lifestyle. So they work these events attempting to sell you on their promises.

I got prospected with one deal that recruits others to promote a postcard mailing service. And then there was the embedded video e-mail that's the first to arrive in my area. (Give me a break.) And how about recruiters attempting to recruit you to become—you guessed it—their recruiter.

Do you know what's even more hilarious? These flim-flam artists recruit one another into each other's program. They sign up underneath each other creating some sort of incestuous business village. And within a few months, they'll abandon that deal when they've finally found the Mother of All business opportunity.

Their goal is to enlist you beneath them by pressuring you with, "Success is timing. You've got to get in now. Before it's too late."

Does any of this sound familiar?

What's unfortunate is that a lot of decent people get swooped into these deals. They get sucked into the latest opportunity vortex not knowing they could be harming themselves. There are certain warning signs that always appear.

Let's look at some of these red flags:

1) When there's a little too much excitement. Enthusiasm is a must for any opportunity, but when it gets overboard—be careful.

Let's say the opportunity recruiter tells you this elaborate story of how the founders are saving the world with their product. And how you can get in on the ground floor. And all the money you can make if you joined today. And how the founders are setting all sorts of income records in their industry. And all you have to do is get the Deluxe Executive Package to lock-in your position.

Well, the opportunity may be solid, but you may not want to join under this recruiter. Locking you in doesn't automatically pay you lots of money. Hard work does.

Invest the time to research the company, its funding, the products, the pay plan, the owners, and listen to a teleconference or attend a local meeting before making any decision. Please don't make a rash choice.

2) Getting sucker punched. One of these slimy vermin requested, "Let's do lunch. That way I can find out what you do and tell others about you."

In the meantime he wanted to run a direct mail campaign (to every local real estate agent in the county) and wanted me to critique his letter. He didn't have the money (they always say that) to pay for the critique. So I didn't cooperate.

I conduct business on a value for value exchange. If I don't get my price, I don't do the deal. Never cheapen your services for anyone unless you are giving back for a good cause.

By the way, we did do lunch. I made a few brief comments about his letter. But he never tried to thank me. I seldom saw him afterwards. Good riddance.

3) The dizzy entrepreneur. You are held hostage by an opportunity presentation. She tells you how this supplement has cured her cancer, removed her wrinkles and made her into an Energizer Bunny in the bedroom. This is the Holy Grail of nutritional supplements. Then she hands you a sample.

But of course she has different calling in life...

And she can only do this business part-time. Besides she works the retail position at Sears for the medical benefits, volunteers for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, chauffeurs her kids, and her cuddly poodle always needs attention. But YOU can really take-off with this opportunity because of the unlimited income potential.

Great Wholesale Business Habits To Own!

2007-05-08T03:12:00.001-07:00

Has building a wholesale business become a total challenge for you? Have you recently bought a package and ask yourself in silence, what do I do now? You are not alone- it happens to all of us one way or the other. There are simple solutions that you should implement in order for your online wholesale investment prevails for years and years ahead.

Whether you are 30, 40, 50 or 60 years of age or more with life expectancy being on average for men 74 years of age and a whopping 82 years of age for women as of most recent 2006 data- you do have plenty of years to initiate or grow a business for a more healthier and increased quality of life.

The facts are overwhelming if you get to educate yourself first, before committing to invest into something unknown. One of the best things many of us could do right now is get into a business we both love, know and share a passion for. It would be much simpler to work on and faster to finish deadlines.

Why get into a business that you do not know anything about? Only one reason comes into my mind, because of the wide profit margins. Such issue can be resolved easily if you have the budget or the time to invest in it.

You could either hire someone to do the routinely jobs on the net for you or you can work everything yourself in the beginning stages. While it may not be prudent to work everything yourself, you have more than acceptable options if you want to enroll or buy a business mainly because of the great profit margins the market currently carries.

One of the initial stages you should be in is the education start up stage. You should educate yourself first before believing anything said or confirmed on the Internet. Taking educated decisions obviously should reduce your risk, so it should be your start. Secondly, in order to make wise decisions you should only trust authority and reputable sites that know exactly what they are publishing.

Believing what many nuts in this world will get your pocket dry, if you are skeptical about certain people or certain expert figures- ask questions first and then make proper conclusions if a worthwhile investment should be met. In a nutshell, make your own due-diligence, ask questions and get answers from proper sources. And it is a period for the day.

Are You Prepared For Baby Booming Chaos!

2007-05-08T03:10:00.000-07:00

Could you allow your family to pay a potential 30 percent to 50 percent of increased taxes from the already current tax rate, so the upcoming baby boomers can hit the golf course at sixty-two while they drink gin and tonic all the way till they hit 85 years of age? Building a business or better yet, a wholesale business these days have never been so crucial for many of us than ever before.

The lack of discernment and consideration from our U.S government was to be expected. Those who were born from 1946-1964 are expected to cash-in for the baby “Boomsday” year. When many of our family members and friends hit the age of 62 years of age, as of now, it could mean $2.7 trillion in federal budget debt that would have to be paid up for generations to come!

Can you imagine what could be having the baby boomer generation- about 77 million and counting- turning 62 and 65 years of age from all US states and territories in this up ahead booming years, year 2011? With Iraq being a total mess and global warming being the spotlight for the potential years to come-what could your paycheck, savings and income mean to you and your family for the foreseen 2011? Will you leave that to George Bush, Al Gore-faith?

Get to know even more facts that could affect your job, investment and wholesale businesses. What are the approximate ages of today’s authority politicians in our US government? There is no need to perform much research for it, it sure is easy to deduct. With a quick realistic minimum view, more than 50% in positions of power are baby boomers. Do you think any politician with power or those who can be heard by others who outrank them will want their Social Security or Medicare plan to be affected in cost, upon them getting to retire?

Right now it sounds like first class tickets to Carnival Cruise are going to be fully booked for 2011. If nobody with higher ranks in our US government does something enlightening to fix this huge loophole of upcoming increased tax rates thanks to the millions of Baby Boomers that are up for retirement cashing in their social security and millions upon millions getting granted the maximum coverage of Medicare- many will hate the market, others will definitely love the market.

The rich will get richer, the poor will get poorer. Inflation all the way through every industry, a regular sandwich costing more than Kennedy Space Center dinner for two and if you are between the ages of 18-35, instead of having 2 jobs like many people in the medium class have, you will have to get either an acceptable pay raise at your job to survive, potentially work on 3 jobs or in more calm ways of writing it without counting possible realistic up-ahead additional drama or for say, sounding too cynic- you build businesses online as the potential solution!

You have a plethora of options to choose. Would you like to work harder and more, or would you rather work harder for a proper amount of time with financial purposes counting family and stay relaxed when the bad days come? The facts are all over, will you be swept away by hope and belief in our current government or will you carry the torch for the years ahead with so many facts about our upcoming 2011 “Boomsday” year. You should ensure your financial future for the years ahead, make smart decisions based on the already available facts and you should be more than fine!

Opening a Dollar Store - Be Fair to Your new Business

2007-05-04T03:25:00.001-07:00

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

2007-05-04T03:24:00.002-07:00

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.

Four Ways To Profitably Use The Most Powerful Two Words In The English Language

2007-05-04T03:24:00.001-07:00

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.

Double Your Business Profits

2007-05-04T03:23:00.002-07:00

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.

Deliver Amazing Presentations

2007-05-04T03:23:00.001-07:00

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.

Growing the Seeds of Your Business

2007-04-30T02:27:00.001-07:00

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.

Creating a Breakthrough

2007-04-30T02:26:00.002-07:00

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.

Why Is In Serbia Relatively Low Percentage Of Women In Managerial Position?

2007-04-30T02:26:00.001-07:00

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.

Empowering Women in Developing Countries

2007-04-30T02:25:00.002-07:00

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.

How to Choose the Best Home Business for You

2007-04-30T02:25:00.001-07:00

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!