If you are starting a company or a business, the first priority is to develop a product or associate yourself with a product that is of the highest quality. This may sound like an obvious statement, but there are a lot of people who jump headlong into a business because they are in love with the idea of having their own business more than they are with creating a business with the right underlying elements. Some are also so convinced that they have the “right” product because they are the ones who created it. How many have watched the television show “The Inventor,” a reality program based on the “American Idol” format where budding inventors bring their inventions to a panel of judges who determine if their product is marketable? How many of these hopefuls, with the best of intentions and passion for what they are doing, unfortunately have a product that, obvious to everyone but themselves, is going nowhere? If you have invented something, created your own style of pizza, made a new fashionable set of furniture, or whatever the case may be, test your product out with a sample group of people to get their feedback first.
Once you get the feedback, make the improvements that you can until most everyone is in agreement. If after all is said and done, and most of the feedback is still negative, consider trying a different product or service altogether. The main thing here is to be flexible and open to making changes. The winners, in sports and in business are able to make adjustments without taking things personally.
If you are looking to start a business but want the security of working with an established company, there are many excellent opportunities to do so by developing a home based business. In many cases you can find a company to work with that requires very little if any investment and access to a high quality products. Several corporations actively seek budding entrepreneurs to market their products for them, plus give free training and support. It’s more important to find one quality product than a whole line of substandard ones. So, be smart and savvy about the whole process of starting your own business. The chances for success will be that much greater.…
Starting a business can allow you to gain freedom in your life and choice in your lifestyle. If you dream of doing work you love, earning more and creating a working environment that meets the needs of you and your family it could be your ideal solution. Here are 15 rules for starting a business:
It has to be a ‘BIG’ idea that you, your team and your customers ‘get’ in one sentence and a matter of seconds.
When determining your price point, aim to provide at least ten times (and more like 1000 times) the value to your customers. Remember value is what your product/service provides to the customer not what it costs to make it.
In the planning phase make sure you have a reason why customers should do business with you and not your competitor. You need to be unique in some way and offer something new to the market.
Ideally get paid before you provide your product or service. And if possible add recurring income to your business model.
Create your new business around your life rather than having your business dictate your life to you. After all, one of the reasons you are starting a business is probably so you have a better life.
Get your idea out there as fast as possible even if it is not quite ready by setting must hit deadlines. Your market will soon tell you if you have a winner or not. If it isn’t a winner then move on and get the next thing out there and try again.
When finding partners and team members, find people who are strong where you are weak so your skills complement each other
Your reputation is always important. Ensure that you honor your obligations and agreements.
Never ever get paid based on number of hours worked. Always get paid on achieving a goal, completing a task or providing a good.
Know from the outset that you will never have a perfect business and you will never be totally ‘done’.
Provide a meaningful guarantee with whatever you are selling. This takes away the risk from your customers and will lead to more sales. If you can’t guarantee what you are providing then maybe you should not be selling it in the first place.
Develop and build your business personality that stands out. People want to buy from people not from corporations. Just look at Steve Jobs and Apple.
Go the opposite direction to where your competitors are headed. You will stand out, have something unique and more than likely have more success. If you want average results do what average people (and competitors do). If you want outstanding results do the opposite of what most people (and companies) are doing.
Make your business fun and also doing business with you fun. If you are not enjoying life and your business then stop and do something else.
Above all, make sure you have a life. Business and making money are important but your …
Many people rush into business for the wrong reasons. Running your own business can be very rewarding, but it ca also have drawbacks for the unwary. Here are questions you need to answer before making the commitment.
1. Are you prepared for the financial commitment of owning a business?
Buying your own business requires a serious financial investment. If you are the type who does not want risk, you might want to rethink owning your own business. Being personally responsible for the success of a business is not for the faint-hearted.
2. Are you looking for a specific type of business or are you open-minded enough to consider different opportunities?
Sometimes people start out looking for a specific type of business only to find something else they had never even thought of doing. Keep an open mind.
3. What do you really want? That question is at the foundation of all success.
Wanting it badly enough – that you will work through problem after problem and failure after failure, to get what you really want.
I have said it before and I will say it again – If you think you can, or you think you cannot, you are right!
It is best if you are open-minded, especially if you are a first-time buyer. There are all kinds of businesses available, and you do not want to limit your choices. Look for a business that will provide the income you need, (or has the ability to do so). Look for a business that you can realistically afford, one where the numbers add up. And, most importantly, a business that you can visualize yourself owning and operating.
Can you make the ‘leap of faith’ necessary to buy a business? A self-employed entrepreneur needs to focus on opportunity instead of security. This concept can be tough to come to grips with, especially if you have always worked for someone else. It is human nature – WE INSTINCTIVELY SEEK SECURITY. But, is there such a thing as security in the job world?
The days of giving your heart and soul to a big company are over – or at least they are for the thousands who lose their jobs every year through restructuring, downsizing, re-locations, takeovers etc.
In reality, real economic security is generated from within. It comes from knowing you are in control of your own destiny and having confidence in your own ability to create and capitalize on opportunities.
Many prospective business owners do their homework, do everything necessary to begin the purchase process, and then back out of the transaction. They just do not have the conviction to commit themselves or financial resources to business ownership. There is nothing wrong with that – not everyone is suited to running a business.
So, if you do not think you can part with your money and take over operating a business on your own, you may want to take a careful look at whether business ownership is really for you.…
If you are starting a business it’s oftentimes easy to forget what the main focus should be. The answer is an all too obvious–the customer! Even though most everyone knows this, we all can get caught up in a self absorbed, ‘what’s in it for me attitude.’ Of course, no one goes into a business totally selflessly, no matter how philanthropic a pursuit it may be. Even in these cases, an individual is seeking something for what he or she is giving, whether it be personal fulfillment, admiration, a reward in the afterlife.
A search for meaning, etc. Nevertheless, for any endeavor to be successful, the attention should always be on the recipient of your giving, of your product, of your service, or whatever the interaction entails. Put your mind in the head of your customer, and what he or she wants, and your chances for success will be so much greater. For instance, are your customers really interested in how many years you have been located in the same spot, or how cute your kids are in your commercials? No, they aren’t. They care about what’s in it for them. They want their needs fulfilled.
So, the bottom line is that if you fulfill your customers needs yours will be fulfilled also. This is not original advice, nor is it particularly insightful. It’s just a gentle reminder from the author of this article who has sometimes forgotten himself where the focus should be. You can change your advertising campaign, online marketing promotion, decor of your store, or whatever the case may be to increase sales and revenues, but real change won’t happen unless your customers’ needs and desires are met. If they are, you’re in business!…
Starting a business is definitely a risk. But so is remaining an employee. You just don’t always notice it.
Your continued biweekly paycheck is no sure thing. It’s important not to put all of your financial eggs in one basket, especially a basket as precariously positioned as the national unemployment rate.
As a salaried employee, it’s easy to become complacent. But don’t let your biweekly paycheck lull you into a false sense of security. That paycheck could stop at any time. If you’re thinking of your employment as a rock-solid fact, you’re doing yourself a disservice as far as getting an accurate picture of your risk.
There are risks involved in being an employee.
If 100% of your income comes from one single source, what will that do to your family’s finances if that source runs dry? Starting a business is a great way to take your destiny into your own hands.
As an analogy, consider your investment strategy. A diverse portfolio is a strong portfolio — if one of your investments tanks, it’s not going to cause you to dip into your retirement funds in order to survive; you’ll be buffered by your variety of other investments, and your investments will begin to even out again.
It may be valuable to think of your salary in the same way. If you lose your job, without additional sources of income, it’s going to be difficult, if not impossible, to stay afloat.
But I’m a great employee — no one is going to fire me!
How many people caught up in the foreclosure nightmare of recent years though this exact same thing when they signed on the dotted line?
Even if you, personally, are confident in your relationship with your management and could never see yourself being laid off or fired, there’s another risk involved here: the future of the company itself. In the economic upheaval of the times, depending on the size and level of establishment of your organization, your company may suddenly find itself struggling to stay afloat (despite your individual dedication to helping it succeed). In other words, it’s hard for management to retain a valuable employee like you when there’s nothing to manage.
Starting a business doesn’t have to mean quitting your job.
Diversifying your income means just that: diversity. What are your personal strengths and skills? If you’re a graphic designer, consider starting a business on the side that you can manage during nights and weekends. If you’re an English major, consider freelance editing. You might even consider taking some classes to gain knowledge and experience should the unthinkable occur.
If you can build some individual credibility in your field on a freelance or part-time basis, you have a safety net to fall back on if you should suddenly lose your job. Without a second option, you could suddenly find yourself at square one.…
A great many startup “experts” now recommend that new entrepreneurs outsource as much of the noncore tasks as possible. The arguments sound logical – leave the work to the professionals; focus on your core competencies; don’t be distracted by accounting/marketing/whatever details. But there are a few problems with this advice that you should be aware of before you send your business out to be handled by others.
Consider the Source.
Much of the outsourcing advice comes from those who benefit from you choosing to outsource. For example, “free” websites with startup information are making the ad clicks and paid advertisements of outsource professionals! Check out the ads on and around these they convince you to hire one of those advertisers to do your work, they earn a piece of your fee. It’s not always bad advice, but be aware that they aren’t really providing you valuable information for nothing in return.
Is an Outsourced Business Really Yours?
Being a business owner is all about taking control of your work life and financial future. How much of that control are you willing to hand out to others? The job of an entrepreneur is more than just being your own boss. You are also your own accountant, attorney, sales staff, secretary, and janitor. If you only really want to play one of these roles, you might be better off working for someone else. Turning over too much responsibility to outsiders can be a huge mistake, especially if you don’t know exactly what they are doing for your business!
What you don’t know…
Many new entrepreneurs do not have a strong background in finance and accounting, or just plain don’t like to deal with numbers. Some figure it would just be easier to have someone else handle the marketing. Many believe the legal paperwork is just too complicated to do for themselves. The thing is that all of these skill sets are part and parcel to owning and running a successful business. It’s OK that you don’t know everything right now, but the trick is to use the startup process to learn all you can. After all, how can you pick the right professional to outsource to if you don’t know what you are looking for? Don’t let anybody tell you that it’s a good idea to let some stranger make important decisions for YOUR need to have your hand in everything, especially during the early stages.
The reality is that in business the bottom line is the bottom whole point is to make money. Turning over all responsibility to an outsource professional can be an enormous, irreparable mistake. They can’t possibly understand your business like you do, they can’t make the best, most strategic decisions for growing your company, and as long as you pay them their fee, there isn’t much motivation to go the extra mile. Business owners, especially those who want to make some serious money, must master the money matters on their own before handing it off to an …
Evolving Web 2.0 Tools Make Branding a Reality For Anyone
One of the challenges to starting a business from home is advertising. That is why network marketing has been a popular way to get into business for oneself. The cost of advertising is replaced with sweat-equity. Instead of taking out an ad a person could become a walking billboard for a company or product.
Advertising has long been difficult for the small business person. Large companies spend many millions of dollars branding their names in people’s memories. So when it comes time to buy, these companies hope the customer will think of them.
But how does the small business person compete with that? How can anyone brand themselves without spending huge amounts of money that may never be recovered? Especially if this person is just getting started and is forced to build a business on a shoestring. The answer…
The Internet
We all know the internet has been around for a while. But its recent evolution is making it very feasible for anyone to brand themselves in a particular niche while spending very little money.
This is a dream come true for the small business person.
Now anyone can target a niche and brand themselves as an expert in that niche while spending very little money. How is this possible?
Software developers continue to create tools that require absolutely no technical knowledge to use effectively. You can simply drag and drop items and create professional looking web pages, blogs, and other social networking pages. And you can write articles that ezine publishers will use including a link to your site or blog. You can create informative videos and broadcast them for free.
This is wonderful news for the home based business owner. But as great as all this is, keep one thing in mind…
You Need More Than Tools to Be Successful When Starting a Business from Home
Great as they are… they are just tools. They are free (or very cheap) and easy to use. They are powerful when used properly. But they are just tools.
The real power is in what you do with them. And it all hinges on identifying what people really want. Simply taking a sales message to the internet is your weakest option. As suggested above, your best option is to use the available tools to brand yourself as an expert in a particular niche.
Because that is want people are looking for… experts.
Products and services are means to ends. People really want solutions to their problems. And better yet – they want experts who can help them solve these problems.
Your biggest opportunity for building a home based business is to brand yourself in the eyes of thousands of people as the one expert they want to follow in solving certain problems. The tools help you do that in a marvelous way. They help you get the message out.
But you still have to have a message. What is that message?
It …
There are a large range of choices when you start: start from scratch, buy a franchise, buy an existing business.
Now what about home businesses?
The benefits of starting a home business are many:
– convenient: no commuting, can work in your time and very flexible, wide range of possibilities
– can be done in your own time while you still have a job
– no employees, less compliance and administration
– no expenditures and can be low starting cost (as opposed to expensive franchise or existing business or brick and mortar businesses). Bear in mind though any business requires some form of investment and little things add up quickly
– some can actually provide good income, BUT do not be fooled like any business big income will mean hard work at the start in most cases
some recent stats showed that a decent part of incomes generated by small and micro businesses in Australia is coming from stay at home mums who produce some income to support the family.
The downside:
– you can become insular and you need to be self motivated. That is not given to everyone and it can be difficult when there is a difficult time to face in the business
– no team environment: harder to learn, to motivate each other, to stay at the top of your game is always harder when on your own
– the scope is not always as big as for some other more traditional businesses where you can delegate and or leverage, but some do well. as usual it has a lot to do with the owner
– most importantly there is a lot of junk out there and people who are not very experienced can burn capital or energy in things that make it more challenging
– a lot of home business opportunities sell dreams and emotions and misconceptions like you will make money while you sleep. Yes that can happen but before it gets to there you’ll need to DO things. Too good to be true is usually right
– difficulty to address some large corporations or markets which do not really like to do business with people in their pyjamas, however internet, virtual offices and so on can cater for that problem
If you want to hear more make sure to visit regularly my posts on my site. I will cover other categories of business depending on comment on my posts to address the most burning topics and questions…
Accounting is one the most commonly outsourced competencies in small business. Busy entrepreneurs either don’t want to spend the time or aren’t confident in handling the books and decide it is easier to have an in-house bookkeeper or professional accountant in charge. It is also very common for these same entrepreneurs to pay dearly for that decision.
Accounting is the function that records the financial history of the business. Managed correctly, it provides an accurate record of money in and money out, such that it is easy to identify many internal problems through the financial reports produced by these records. Managed incorrectly, it is a waste of time, a misleading mess of false information, and potentially the difference between the ultimate success or failure of the organization.
Like any other profession, there are certainly tricks of the accounting trade that are best managed by, well, the professionals. But the fundamentals of accounting should be familiar to every entrepreneur. The way your books are set up and the accounts that are used to track income and expenses should be well known to the business owner, such that you could take over the tasks if necessary (or at least train a new bookkeeper).
The position of bookkeeper in a small business is the number one opportunity for don’t assume that just because your bookkeeper is “like family” that they won’t rip you off. It happens all the time. There are a million reasons that people skim cash from their workplace, and not all of those folks are hardened criminals. The best way to avoid any potential of employees or contractors stealing from you is to understand what is going on with your accounting system. Embezzlement is far easier for an employee or outsource professional who holds all the ‘t let someone else set up and manage your books on their own. At an absolute minimum, sit side-by-side with your bookkeeper or accountant while the accounts are established and make sure you absolutely understand every line.
In addition, accounting must be completely accurate to be useful. In many cases, business owners rely on periodic financial reports from the bookkeeper to assess the health of the venture. However, if the books are not kept correctly (all entries correctly assigned to appropriate categories, entries checked for accuracy), the reports are completely useless. And, should you need to secure second round financing, you could spend up to thousands of dollars to hire an accountant to clean up the books before a bank will even talk to you.
There are all kinds of horror stories that start with the business owner relinquishing all responsibility for their own accounting system. Embezzlement is a common one, as are tax problems and employee issues. One business owner in Chicago learned the hard way not to trust others with every detail of his accounting system. After 13 years in business, his home theater installation venture was growing at a steady pace. When the recession hit, the owner reviewed his financial statements …
The ideal business for people who enjoy helping others. That is what Robert Kiyosaki has to say in his book Business School. The author makes an excellent case for the network marketing industry and refers to MLM as the business with a heart.
Robert Kiyosaki did not make his millions in network marketing. However he has spent a few years investigating it and has even joined a few companies. He then became friends with several leaders to get to the core fundamentals that he lays out in this book. Namely that the education you attain through network marketing is the highest quality business and personal development education available today.
I have often wondered why so many people that have already created great wealth have decided to become network marketers. The people I’m talking about are professional athletes and CEOs of big corporations. I have even heard the names of a few celebrities from the entertainment business that have started their own businesses this way.
I believe that it is our duty to open people’s minds to the possibilities. This book makes it easy for us to share the educational aspect to all of those that are stuck and feel there is no way out of their job or their debt. I know that I am going to purchase a few copies of this book myself to lend out to others. I think it is the perfect, non-invasive approach to get permission to share my opportunity with people that I know.
This book explains all of the benefits that are usually neglected in the business presentations generated by the various network marketing companies. It is written in an easy to understand language that is a joy to read. It is also a quick read at only 123 pages. It is perfect for lending out on a weekly basis with a built in reason for a follow up.…