This article speaks directly to your personality. I don’t discuss planning and budgeting but you should be aware that you will need to plan, plan, plan but don’t get caught up in “paralysis by analysis” and no matter how good your business plan you will not receive money from “angel investors” or banks unless you’ve already started your business and have a proven track record with a large upside – which you don’t have if you are a business startup.
First, here’s the quick synopsis of opening your own business
Register with your county or state as a business.
Start doing business.
Really? That’s all there is to it? Yes, that’s all there is to it. Unfortunately, its so easy that many businesses fail because they do exactly like what’s above. There are a few skills that complement success and generally you’ll either have those skills or will develop those skills over time. Here’s what you can expect.
You’ll work crazy hours.
You’ll be a salesperson.
You’ll always worry about your business.
You’ll become an expert on many things because you can’t afford to hire experts – especially in the beginning.
What many don’t realize is that you are always a salesperson. If you don’t like sales then having a business of your own is not for you. If you don’t have an outgoing personality you’ll need to develop one quickly. Whether you’re set up a booth at a county fair, open a retail mall location, or work from home you will be a “people-person”. You will network with others, attend events, and more. Sounds like fun? For many it is but remember while you’re somewhere having fun someone has to run the business. Here come the crazy hours.
If you’ve got customers or clients then you’ve got projects that you haven’t been working on while you’re out selling yourself and your company. So now after the fun is over you will begin your day’s work. Remember that while you were out networking you were creating your future (and probably spending money) but now you’ve got the present to think about. How do you pay your bills? What about the customer that is late with the payment? Now the worrying begins.
You’ve got bills to pay and customers to satisfy. You may have a payroll to meet or at least you’ll need to make ends meet. Is there enough cash flow or have you extended credit because you are new and the thought of work, any work was too much to pass up? How do you collect on unpaid invoices without offending and thereby cause other problems? Oh the fun never ends.
Lastly (for this article), you’ll need to learn how to be an expert. There’s nobody to do the day to day accounting but you or hopefully, a significant other so you’ll become a bookkeeper and bill payer. There’s nobody to design graphics for your marketing materials so you’ll learn software programs and design principles for creating brochures, flyers, …
How to start a small home based business? Many people ask this question every day. In fact more people are going into business for themselves now more than ever before. Read on to find out how to start a small home based business.
The First step is to Brainstorm
Sit down in a quiet area and really think about what you want to do. Ask yourself what are your likes, dislikes, and talents? What do you do well and not so well. What would you like your business to be about? What are your passions?
Now that you have a better understanding of what kind of business you want to start, you are prepared for this journey.
Why do you want to start a business
You have to make sure this is truly what you want to do. what are the reasons for starting your own company. The perks are nice but can you handle the responsibility?
Reasons most people start a business
More control of work hours, to make more money, being your own boss, controlling your destiny. They prefer working from home, the list goes on and on. Be clear about why you want to be your own boss
What kind of company will it be
Now that we have brainstormed some ideas and know why we want to start a company what kind of business do you want to start? Are you good at gardening? You can write how to garden ebook. There are a lot of people who can use your talents whatever they may be.
Write a plan
Your next step is to sit down and write a step by step plan. How can you get anywhere if you don’t have directions to get there? Once you have a detailed plan you will be on your way to financial freedom.…
There is a great deal of help available when you start in business. You will get help from your bank manager – remember he will be looking after the banks interests first. Business Link is there to help when start ups, depending on what your business there may be funding available to help you obtain a web site or marketing etc. From my experience with both banks and Business Link the people who are advising you have never been in business before – they advise newcomers to business what they should be doing without ever having been in your position.
Will I get help if I start a business? That is a question I hear time and time again when people are thinking about starting up. The answer to the question is YES, help comes in many forms and from many different sources. I have mentioned help from the bank and Business Link. There are other organisations such as the Chamber of Commerce or the Federation of Small Businesses and local business organisations. With these organisations in most cases there will be a fee to join, they will organise monthly meetings giving various information to those in business and with the view of networking.
These days if I am asked the question ‘What help is available” I would always tell people my suggestion would be that they start a business where you have a mentor. You may ask what is a mentor, how will a mentor help me? A mentor has been in the business longer than you so is someone you can turn to if you have a problem because they will have encountered the problem before. A mentor will help you from as your start your enterprise, helping you grow, bringing new ideas to help you move forward. you. In this day and age because of the internet we can have a mentor who lives miles away, we can communicate by phone, mobile, e mail or by Skype. What a great way to start a business with someone to turn to for help along the way. Starting a business hasn’t been so easy.
Having been in business for many years the one thing I like about today’s opportunities is the help you get from a mentor, recently I started a business in internet marketing. Not a field I was familiar with but realised that this is the way forward in business. Having taken the first step I was amazed how much help and guidance I was given from my mentor. I only wish this help had been available years ago.…
Many people do not consider the amount of time that must be invested in a start-up internet business. If you are looking at business opportunities on the internet, narrowing down the opportunities may be very difficult. Many business opportunities look as though you will not have to invest time or money in the effort except for an initial start-up. However, starting a business on the internet is just as time-consuming as starting a land-based business and it will be important that you follow a few tips for deciding on the most lucrative and satisfying venture for you.
If you are the type of person who would not get involved with an MLM in a land-based business, you will probably not want to invest the time required to start an MLM online. Remember, that the basic structure of an MLM is the same whether you are doing it in your local neighborhood or doing it online. You must both sell products and recruit a downline to take full advantage of the financial opportunities available.
There are many MLM opportunities offered on the internet and if this is a business you are considering, it will be important to research the company carefully before committing to the business. Some MLMs on the internet walk a very thin grey line between being a legitimate MLM and being a Pyramid scheme. An easy way to tell if the MLM opportunity is legitimate is to look at the products. The products that are sold should be able to stand on their own, be tangible, and be made of quality materials.
The cost of joining an MLM will vary, but should not exceed the cost of the products that you receive. And, you should “receive” products. An MLM that sells “education” or “information” is not selling a tangible product and must be researched thoroughly to make sure your income will not be dependent on recruiting a downline.
Some people find that they can develop a very lucrative business by selling other people’s product through a web-store. When you are considering starting this type of business, you will make more money and be able to develop a greater customer base if you keep your products in a specific niche market. For instance, selling products that are related to your hobbies or interests will make marketing your website through articles and advertising much more enjoyable.
Marketing your website is critical in establishing your presence and visibility on the internet. Developing an effective marketing strategy is going to take time and, if you choose to use an article distribution service, money. Calculating your budget for your business and defining your goals before starting your website will help you to establish a good foundation for growth.
CONCLUSION
By thoroughly investigating business opportunities that are related to your areas of interest and passions, you can effectively incorporate those things you enjoy doing most with your business. The internet is a great way to reach a global audience that has the same interests …
When people talk about starting their own business, the fear of the risk involved is often the key factor holding them back. There is an assumption that launching a business is akin to gambling – one unlucky roll of the dice and everything will come crashing down. They believe that anyone willing to go out on their own must have an incredible tolerance for risk or a substantial lack of fear. In fact, the most successful entrepreneurs are relatively risk-averse. There is a lot at stake when you put everything you have into the next great business idea, and true entrepreneurs work hard to mitigate every potential threat before it becomes an issue.
Four of the most common risk-related concerns are financial, lifestyle, career, and ego. Of course, there is some inherent risk in going out on your own, but there are legitimate ways to manage and mitigate those threats. This article discusses the realities of lifestyle risk and what you can do to manage that risk before you dive in to the world of entrepreneurship.
The perceptions of lifestyle risks tend to be relatively accurate. Most people understand that starting a business requires sacrifice – time, spending habits, heightened stress. During the early stages of any new business, the founder is going to spend every waking moment and a good portion of sleeping time obsessing about all that needs to be done. Your time may be more flexible, but for every one of your kids’ soccer games you attend, those hours of work will likely be made up in the wee morning hours. The responsibility of entrepreneurship can weigh heavily as well, leaving many business owners a walking ball of stress. And, depending on your financial situation, you and your family may be enjoying Ramen noodles for every meal during the earliest stages of your venture.
The trick to handling these lifestyle changes is to acknowledge their reality and consciously manage them as best you can. Keep the lines of communication open with your spouse or partner, family and friends. Become obsessive about managing your time and what needs to be done next and work through your to-do lists as efficiently as possible. Know that you will be working 82 hours a day most days and that you will constantly feel under pressure. Then make a plan to deal with those facts.
Give yourself a break. Do the things that you need to do to take care of your physical and mental health. Block out time to exercise, schedule important family events and treat them like mandatory meetings. Keep a pen and notepad with you to jot down ideas or tasks that are distracting you. If you are feeling particularly stressed, take a step back and do something that relieves stress for you. At the start or end of each day, reset your priorities and make a plan. Be realistic about what you can accomplish in a day and focus on completing those tasks. Reward yourself when important milestones …
Any online business knows just how important business marketing is. Business marketing is simply indispensable for any business because it gives website owners a chance to convey their image and message to the public. There are a lot of unique ways for online business owners to market their website. We can’t really say what the best marketing strategy is for your particular business, but there are quite a few ones that are across the board successful. Some of them are article marketing, commenting on blogs or on forums, and creating content on various web 2.0 sites. The reason as to why these marketing strategies are highly preferred is because they are free. All you would need to do is work hard and everything else will fall into place.
Article Marketing
Articles marketing is considered to be one of the pioneers of internet business marketing. Essentially, online marketing works by creating a lot of high quality articles and distributing them to different article directories. At the end of every article is what’s called a resource box. The resource box contains the information regarding the author and a backlink to the site that is being optimized. Article marketing allows the site to be exposed not only to the viewers of the article directory but also to different search engines by increasing its page rank. This is doubly beneficial for the site and makes business marketing more blossoming.
Commenting on Forums and Blogs
Commenting on forum and blogs is less popular than article marketing but is just as effective. In essence, forum and blog commenting are executed by posting comments on related forums and blogs. The comments are proceeded by a link that points back to the website. This is highly effective when executed on related blogs and forums because it specifically targets an audience for the site. Posting on random forums or blogs will just make it confusing to the people and won’t yield any meaningful results.
Content on Web 2.0 Sites
Creating content on certain web 2.0 websites is also a highly beneficial form of business marketing. You see, web 2.0 sites have high page ranks. What this means is that they have good credibility and they’re highly regarded by search engines. Search engines put a lot of emphasis on web 2.0 websites simply because they’ve got a good reputation that they’ve maintained over the years. Search engines put a lot of importance on web 2.0 sites simply because they have a good reputation that they have maintained over the years. Content can come in a lot of different forms. Content can come in the form of an article, a picture, or a video. Similar to article marketing and forum and blog posting, a back link is attached in order to expose the site.…
Back in 1981, I was just starting my career in television production, and working as the Unit Manager on a location drama. One day, I learned a lesson that would serve me well some 20 years later, when I came to develop a small business. The lesson that I learned in 1981 was that any small detail can really screw up a production. This is how I described it in my book entitled “Don’t Let Your Dream Business Turn Into a Nightmare”:
One day, one of the lighting guys wasn’t feeling well and left the set early. At the end of the shooting day, word was sent out to the set from the production office that the call time for the following day was being moved up from 7 a.m. to 6 a.m., because the production had fallen behind schedule, but the lighting guy didn’t hear the announcement because he had gone home early.
And you, as the Unit Manager, didn’t think of calling him at home to inform him of the scheduling change.
Ordinarily, that might not be a big deal, but this time, it was.
Because -the next morning, as the convoy of production vehicles was pulling out of the television station to make its way to the set – a small town about an hour north of the station -the huge lighting truck remained in place – and a bolt of white hot terror ran from the top of your head down to your toes, as you realized that the driver of the lighting truck was still in bed, because you hadn’t thought to call him to tell him about the change in call time.
Soon there would be 40 people standing around on the set while the lighting crew was waiting for the truck to arrive so that they could set up for the first scene- and whatever time they had hoped to pick up by virtue of the earlier call time would be entirely lost.
So you got into the truck yourself – and without a license to drive a rig that big or any idea of where the gears were – you willed the vehicle to the set – sweat pouring down your face -and you never forgot how that felt, for the rest of your career in television production – or the rest of your life.
The fellow whom I forgot to call was named Mike, and everyone called him “Mikey”.
Forgetting to call “Mikey” almost ended my career in television production before it began.
But the lesson that I learned stayed with me -and so, when I was developing my small business, which was a spa for men, I made a list of everything that I felt could go wrong – every single small detail that I could think of – that had the power to ruin my business.
And I checked that list every single day.
If you are developing a small business, or if you are already running one, ask …
Does that sound like you? Always wanted to go to business on your own, yet never took the first step? What the hell are you so afraid of? What’s the worst thing that can happen? Remember: if you don’t take risks in your life, your life will forever be the same.
This article is actually not really an article. I simply wanted to share with you two insights I gained over my years of entrepreneurship. So here goes.
There are two conversations I will always remember. The first one was with a good friend of mine, one Saturday perhaps 15 years ago. I was born and raised in Tel-Aviv, Israel and the whole concept of Saturday morning with friends is a big thing. My friend had an idea for a new business, and me being an entrepreneur in heart, was listening and giving pointers. He was going on and on about the business model, what the steps were, how big the market is etc. in his head he was already going public and retiring to a little island he just bought off the coast of Greece.
I remember vividly sharing his enthusiasm, telling him how I thought it was a good idea, where he should get the initial funding, how I thought the product should be designed etc. We had a lovely talk and then said our goodbyes, going back to the daily grind on Sunday (in Israel, people work on Sunday, but mostly have Fridays off).
After a couple of days I was talking to him over the phone, chit chatting about life the universe and everything, and asked him how he was moving forward with his business idea. His response was, and I quote: “I don’t have time right now; things are really hectic at work”. It hit me like a thunderbolt. My friend is a Saturday entrepreneur. In his head he build up a fantastic scenario made of the things he believes can bring him joy, then comes the start of the week and he is back on his daily routine. Saturday entrepreneurs will never take the leap to becoming real entrepreneurs. That takes guts, risk and a little bit of uncertainty.
The second conversation I wanted to share with you was a talk I had with my late grandfather. He was an old school businessman, filled with wisdom and insight. At the height of his ventures he actually owned a bank that he sold to another bank, making a nice bundle in between;)
I was 17 years old and had just failed my third driving test. I remember sitting with him in his house, telling him that I will probably never have a driver’s license. He looked at me, smiled and very calmly said “go take a look outside, see how many idiots drive a car, then come back in here and tell me you can’t do it”. I had carried that sentence with me all my life. Whenever someone tells me entrepreneurship is hard, I …
Many people do not consider the amount of time that must be invested in a start-up internet business. If you are looking at business opportunities on the internet, narrowing down the opportunities may be very difficult. Many business opportunities look as though you will not have to invest time or money in the effort except for an initial start-up. However, starting a business on the internet is just as time-consuming as starting a land-based business and it will be important that you follow a few tips for deciding on the most lucrative and satisfying venture for you.
If you are the type of person who would not get involved with an MLM in a land-based business, you will probably not want to invest the time required to start an MLM online. Remember, that the basic structure of an MLM is the same whether you are doing it in your local neighborhood or doing it online. You must both sell products and recruit a downline to take full advantage of the financial opportunities available.
There are many MLM opportunities offered on the internet and if this is a business you are considering, it will be important to research the company carefully before committing to the business. Some MLMs on the internet walk a very thin grey line between being a legitimate MLM and being a Pyramid scheme. An easy way to tell if the MLM opportunity is legitimate is to look at the products. The products that are sold should be able to stand on their own, be tangible, and be made of quality materials.
The cost of joining an MLM will vary, but should not exceed the cost of the products that you receive. And, you should “receive” products. An MLM that sells “education” or “information” is not selling a tangible product and must be researched thoroughly to make sure your income will not be dependent on recruiting a downline.
Some people find that they can develop a very lucrative business by selling other people’s product through a web-store. When you are considering starting this type of business, you will make more money and be able to develop a greater customer base if you keep your products in a specific niche market. For instance, selling products that are related to your hobbies or interests will make marketing your website through articles and advertising much more enjoyable.
Marketing your website is critical in establishing your presence and visibility on the internet. Developing an effective marketing strategy is going to take time and, if you choose to use an article distribution service, money. Calculating your budget for your business and defining your goals before starting your website will help you to establish a good foundation for growth.
CONCLUSION
By thoroughly investigating business opportunities that are related to your areas of interest and passions, you can effectively incorporate those things you enjoy doing most with your business. The internet is a great way to reach a global audience that has the same interests …
Today, more than at any other time, with the uncertainty of job security it is important to have a “Plan B”. Even without the economic termoil, you may find some comfort in developing a secondary stream of income. But what can you do?
Almost everyone has hidden talents that are obvious to those around us but we do not recognize them ourselves. The easiest way to decide what your talents are is to look at your friends and ask yourself “What do my friends and family ask my advice about, or ask for my help with, most often?”
The people who know us best already know the hidden treasures within you. If you can’t figure this out yourself, ask for their advice on what they think you would be best at. Do they always come to you when they need some baked goodies for a party? Are you the one they come to to plan a family event? Are you the yard sale and thrift store queen? Do you love to shop and know the stores so well in your neighborhood that you can find virtually anything you need in one outing?
You may not see these as hidden talents or having a potential for income, but those very traits are necessary if you are considering a catering service, an event planning business, an eBay business or a personal shopper business. Not only can you make money from providing these services to others, you can have fun doing it! Obviously you already really enjoy these activities which is why you have gotten so good at it. Why not turn it into a part-time or full-time business?
Creating a secondary stream of income will take the stress of these economic times away as you will always have that Plan B in place.…