It’s a distinguished sentence to be an enterpriser—in the last decade, technology has leveled the playing field and motivated an entrepreneurial revolution. As an entrepreneur, you now have more approach to information that enables you to arrive at more intelligent alternatives more promptly. You have an vantage over big businesses in that you’re easier, more flexible, and more profligate on your feet. You can aim new markets more promptly, and you can turn on a dime.
But personifying a successful entrepreneur expects that you look at the big picture and follow a plan through from kickoff to end. Rieva Lesonsky, editor-in-chief of Entrepreneur Magazine gives some pragmatic guidelines that can help you when beginning your own enterprise:
1.Don’t Quit Your Day Job.
Consider starting your business part-time, especially if it’s online, while you’re working and have a steady income. It usually takes six months to a year to get a business going and you don’t want your ability to make your house payment to hinge upon your company being an overnight success. Start with what you can manage, financially and time-wise, and scale up as your business grows.
2.Find Your Niche.
The days of general stores are over. Particularly online, consumers are looking for stores that specialize. You have to find a need—something a specific group of people want, but can’t get at the big chain stores—and fill it. Advises Lesonsky, “You can’t compete with the big guys, so you have to find where the big guys aren’t and go into your niches.”
3.Have an Online Presence.
Even if you’re not planning to start an online retail business, consider that the internet can still play a valuable role in your company. Having an online presence eliminates the limitations of physical location and broadens your customer base by, literally, millions. It’s also a great tool for promoting yourself and letting people, even in your own area, know that you’re there, and what you’re doing.
4.Refuse to Quit.
Successful entrepreneurship requires creativity, energy, and a drive to keep going when you fail. Few people realize that before Bill Gates created the extremely successful Microsoft 3.0, he created a Microsoft 1.0 and 2.0, both of which flopped—but he kept at it. And that determination and refusal to give up is what will separate successful entrepreneurs from unsuccessful ones. Says Lesonsky, “Arm yourself with optimism to get beyond the ‘No’ or the trouble. There’s nothing wrong in failure—just don’t repeat the same mistake!”
Monday, March 29, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Small Home-Based Businesses -- Five Simple Steps to Success
Did you know that, in Australia, 60% of small businesses fail in the first twelve months? For those of us who would like to start a small business -- maybe even work from home -- that’s a very discouraging statistic.
Does that mean that your business idea is doomed to failure? Far from it! There are steps you can take that greatly increase your chances of success. With a little time and some serious research you can hit the ground running. Let’s start from the beginning…
The bright idea
First, of course, you need to come up with an idea. Typically, business opportunities can be divided into four groups:
1. Offering an existing product/service in an existing market.
2. Introducing an existing product/service to a new market.
3. Offering a new product/service in an existing market
4. Introducing a new product/service to a new market.
At this stage of the game the only limit is your imagination. Inspiration can come from anywhere -- maybe you have a hobby that you’d like to turn into a full-time job; you may be on the receiving end of bad service one day and decide to try doing it better yourself; or you may have a talent that you’d like to capitalise on.
Once you’ve come across something that you’d like to do, it’s time to take a look at the market and see what’s on offer.
Passing the test
So you’ve had a great idea and you’re keen to roll with it; now it’s time to put it through its paces. For the purpose of the exercise, let’s say that you have a passion for healthy living, and that you want to distribute a range of lifestyle accessories that promote healthy living with a do-it-yourself approach.
Ask around: Is there a market for products that promote healthy living? What sorts of products are available? Who would you be competing with and what do your competitors offer? Do you have the necessary skills to run such a business and -- more to the point -- what would those skills be? Where would your business be located?
Once you’ve answered those questions you should have a fairly clear picture of what your business will look like.
You source some products and decide to do some further research into the range of lifestyle products offered by a company called Vitality 4 Life. Your own life experience plus some work you’ve done as a dietician has given you the necessary skill sets, and you think that you’ll be able to work from home, giving you more time for family. There is an existing market, but there’s room for expansion. Now it’s time to take a closer look.
To be or not to be?
It’s time to get down to the nuts and bolts. You don’t want to jump into something feet first and find out the hard way that the budget just doesn’t work.
To get started, sit down and work out if you need to hire staff, which means paying wages.
If you lease a premises you’ll need to be able to pay the rent, and your location will have to be suitable for your business and target market (which also means that you’ll have to think carefully about just what that target market is). You’ll also need to work out the likely demand for your product/service.
Ok… you’ve worked out that there is enough demand for good quality juicers, sprouters, water filters and other high end accessories to take a shot at a distributorship as a home-based business opportunity. Now you need to make some marketing decisions.
Look at me! Look at me!
Advertising can be costly so you’ll want to be sure that your advertising budget is spent wisely. That means more market research, this time one-on-one. Profile your customer groups so you can aim your marketing at the right group/s of people.
Draw up a questionnaire (a short questionnaire -- people run out patience if you ramble for too long) and hang around outside a few of the local gyms (for our particular example). Come up with a mixture of open questions (What do you think of……..?) and closed questions (Do you have a gym membership? Yes/No.); sliding scales can be useful too.
For our health accessories business, a good question might be ‘How did you hear about this gym? Radio, tv, newspaper, word of mouth etc…’ Such a question would then give you an indication of the types of media that your target group responds best to.
Choose a business name, print up some business cards, buy some stock and get ready to trade!
Measure it, manage it!
A teacher of mine made the point that, in business, if you can’t measure it you can’t manage it.
You need to be able to plan ahead, and to do that you need to know -- or to be able to accurately predict -- your total sales. The equation is simple: number of customers x average sale x frequency of visits per customer per year = total sales. Remember it, revise it often, measure your business and you’ll be able to manage it!
Keep an eye on your bottom line and, most importantly, always be aware of your cash flow -- the cold, hard cash that you have in the bank. Allow for invoice periods (14 days, 30 days etc) when you’re planning your budget.
The market place has a life of its own, and no one can prepare for every contingency. Put some thought into your idea; make sure that there’s a market for what you’re offering; research, research, research; promote your business effectively; always know what’s going on in your bank account and don’t forget about cash flow!
It’s not perfect but, if you follow these few simple steps, you’ll be miles ahead of many new small business ventures. If you’ve heard of a great home-based business opportunity, or have a product or service of your own to market, you’re off to a great start!
Does that mean that your business idea is doomed to failure? Far from it! There are steps you can take that greatly increase your chances of success. With a little time and some serious research you can hit the ground running. Let’s start from the beginning…
The bright idea
First, of course, you need to come up with an idea. Typically, business opportunities can be divided into four groups:
1. Offering an existing product/service in an existing market.
2. Introducing an existing product/service to a new market.
3. Offering a new product/service in an existing market
4. Introducing a new product/service to a new market.
At this stage of the game the only limit is your imagination. Inspiration can come from anywhere -- maybe you have a hobby that you’d like to turn into a full-time job; you may be on the receiving end of bad service one day and decide to try doing it better yourself; or you may have a talent that you’d like to capitalise on.
Once you’ve come across something that you’d like to do, it’s time to take a look at the market and see what’s on offer.
Passing the test
So you’ve had a great idea and you’re keen to roll with it; now it’s time to put it through its paces. For the purpose of the exercise, let’s say that you have a passion for healthy living, and that you want to distribute a range of lifestyle accessories that promote healthy living with a do-it-yourself approach.
Ask around: Is there a market for products that promote healthy living? What sorts of products are available? Who would you be competing with and what do your competitors offer? Do you have the necessary skills to run such a business and -- more to the point -- what would those skills be? Where would your business be located?
Once you’ve answered those questions you should have a fairly clear picture of what your business will look like.
You source some products and decide to do some further research into the range of lifestyle products offered by a company called Vitality 4 Life. Your own life experience plus some work you’ve done as a dietician has given you the necessary skill sets, and you think that you’ll be able to work from home, giving you more time for family. There is an existing market, but there’s room for expansion. Now it’s time to take a closer look.
To be or not to be?
It’s time to get down to the nuts and bolts. You don’t want to jump into something feet first and find out the hard way that the budget just doesn’t work.
To get started, sit down and work out if you need to hire staff, which means paying wages.
If you lease a premises you’ll need to be able to pay the rent, and your location will have to be suitable for your business and target market (which also means that you’ll have to think carefully about just what that target market is). You’ll also need to work out the likely demand for your product/service.
Ok… you’ve worked out that there is enough demand for good quality juicers, sprouters, water filters and other high end accessories to take a shot at a distributorship as a home-based business opportunity. Now you need to make some marketing decisions.
Look at me! Look at me!
Advertising can be costly so you’ll want to be sure that your advertising budget is spent wisely. That means more market research, this time one-on-one. Profile your customer groups so you can aim your marketing at the right group/s of people.
Draw up a questionnaire (a short questionnaire -- people run out patience if you ramble for too long) and hang around outside a few of the local gyms (for our particular example). Come up with a mixture of open questions (What do you think of……..?) and closed questions (Do you have a gym membership? Yes/No.); sliding scales can be useful too.
For our health accessories business, a good question might be ‘How did you hear about this gym? Radio, tv, newspaper, word of mouth etc…’ Such a question would then give you an indication of the types of media that your target group responds best to.
Choose a business name, print up some business cards, buy some stock and get ready to trade!
Measure it, manage it!
A teacher of mine made the point that, in business, if you can’t measure it you can’t manage it.
You need to be able to plan ahead, and to do that you need to know -- or to be able to accurately predict -- your total sales. The equation is simple: number of customers x average sale x frequency of visits per customer per year = total sales. Remember it, revise it often, measure your business and you’ll be able to manage it!
Keep an eye on your bottom line and, most importantly, always be aware of your cash flow -- the cold, hard cash that you have in the bank. Allow for invoice periods (14 days, 30 days etc) when you’re planning your budget.
The market place has a life of its own, and no one can prepare for every contingency. Put some thought into your idea; make sure that there’s a market for what you’re offering; research, research, research; promote your business effectively; always know what’s going on in your bank account and don’t forget about cash flow!
It’s not perfect but, if you follow these few simple steps, you’ll be miles ahead of many new small business ventures. If you’ve heard of a great home-based business opportunity, or have a product or service of your own to market, you’re off to a great start!
Friday, March 19, 2010
Quintuplet consideratenesses for the Home Worker to establish income from internet
With a computer and high accelerate Internet access, the possible for the home base worker to attain income online is almost boundless. When it pertains ascertaining the right home based commercial enterprise chance, there are several things to look at. Here are the top five:
1. Are You a Salesperson?
Some people have a inherent gift for sales, while others couldn't sell water to someone stranded in the desert. For the home based worker who has the ability to sell, network marketing may be the perfect home based business. Network marketing typically involves selling products in one or more niche markets, as well as selling the opportunity. Also known as multi-level marketing, network marketing pays commissions based on a percentage of your sales and on the sales of your "downline," or those you have recruited to sell the product. Each opportunity has its own commission plan, and many pay bonuses on top of commissions.
2. Are You Experienced?
If you have years of experience being a home worker, you probably have a good idea of your strengths and weaknesses. On the other hand, if you're new to being an entrepreneur, you probably need training. Look for a company that offers the tools and training you need in order to succeed. The type of training you receive can encompass everything from weekly conference calls or webinars (Internet-based seminars), to one-on-one coaching from your upline, to training manuals and other written materials.
3. Are You Internet Savvy?
If you know your way around the Internet and know something about setting up and hosting websites, the possibilities are endless. You can create your own websites, for example, and start generating affiliate revenue and Google AdSense revenue.
If you haven't the foggiest idea of how to set up and host a website, be sure to find a company you can partner with who will do the heavy lifting. There are many Internet-based opportunities for the home based worker from companies that provide what are called "replicated sites." They'll design and host your websites for you, so that all you have to do is work on marketing in order to drive traffic to your site.
4. How Much do You Want to Work?
Before selecting a home based business opportunity, honestly assess how much you want to work. If a stay-at-home mom needs extra money, she may only want to work two or three hours a day. If someone wants to quit the rat race and work full time as a home worker, money for moms simply won't be enough income. Sometimes a single home based business will provide all of the revenue a person needs, while other times you have to embark on several opportunities to diversify and multiply your revenue streams.
5. How Hands-On do You Want to Be?
Some home based business opportunities require that you be actively involved on a day-to-day basis, either in order fulfillment and customer service or in marketing your websites or businesses. Other opportunities are more passive in nature, in that you have to spend a lot of time initially, but they become self-perpetuating. If you're a home worker who enjoys being an ongoing active participant, choose an opportunity that requires you to interact with other people. If you prefer to be hands-off, select a business that will basically run itself.
1. Are You a Salesperson?
Some people have a inherent gift for sales, while others couldn't sell water to someone stranded in the desert. For the home based worker who has the ability to sell, network marketing may be the perfect home based business. Network marketing typically involves selling products in one or more niche markets, as well as selling the opportunity. Also known as multi-level marketing, network marketing pays commissions based on a percentage of your sales and on the sales of your "downline," or those you have recruited to sell the product. Each opportunity has its own commission plan, and many pay bonuses on top of commissions.
2. Are You Experienced?
If you have years of experience being a home worker, you probably have a good idea of your strengths and weaknesses. On the other hand, if you're new to being an entrepreneur, you probably need training. Look for a company that offers the tools and training you need in order to succeed. The type of training you receive can encompass everything from weekly conference calls or webinars (Internet-based seminars), to one-on-one coaching from your upline, to training manuals and other written materials.
3. Are You Internet Savvy?
If you know your way around the Internet and know something about setting up and hosting websites, the possibilities are endless. You can create your own websites, for example, and start generating affiliate revenue and Google AdSense revenue.
If you haven't the foggiest idea of how to set up and host a website, be sure to find a company you can partner with who will do the heavy lifting. There are many Internet-based opportunities for the home based worker from companies that provide what are called "replicated sites." They'll design and host your websites for you, so that all you have to do is work on marketing in order to drive traffic to your site.
4. How Much do You Want to Work?
Before selecting a home based business opportunity, honestly assess how much you want to work. If a stay-at-home mom needs extra money, she may only want to work two or three hours a day. If someone wants to quit the rat race and work full time as a home worker, money for moms simply won't be enough income. Sometimes a single home based business will provide all of the revenue a person needs, while other times you have to embark on several opportunities to diversify and multiply your revenue streams.
5. How Hands-On do You Want to Be?
Some home based business opportunities require that you be actively involved on a day-to-day basis, either in order fulfillment and customer service or in marketing your websites or businesses. Other opportunities are more passive in nature, in that you have to spend a lot of time initially, but they become self-perpetuating. If you're a home worker who enjoys being an ongoing active participant, choose an opportunity that requires you to interact with other people. If you prefer to be hands-off, select a business that will basically run itself.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
5 Lessons I Learned About Building a Home Based Business While Watching a Master Violinist
Do you ever so lived in consequence wherever you recognised that your perceptual experience of something would never equal as is? Well that's exactly what happened to me when I attended BB Kings Restaurant to hang out and listen to a violinist for an upcoming CD release.
Much to my surprise I walked away with 5 lessons that I could use to take my home based business to the next level. Within moments of world renowned jazz violinist Karen Briggs (formerly with Yani) taking the stage the quote from Tony Buzan rang my head.
"Whatever your discipline, become a student of excellence in all things. Take every opportunity to observe people who manifest the qualities of mastery."
Here are lessons I walked away with that you can use to
successfully create a business you can work from home.
1. Change an idea or business by 10% and you can be a leader in what you do. Ms. Briggs is not the only violinist but she is one the first to become known as a "Jazz Violinist." She took traditional classical music and put a jazz twist on it and made it her own. She created a fortune by doing so. You can do the same thing. Find a work at home business you love, add your unique slant and become an expert.
2. Give your customers more than you can expect and you will create raving fans. We were told the concert would go 90 minutes. However, when Ms. Briggs surprised us with an additional 45 minute jam session it blew everyone away. When you under promise and over deliver you will create screaming fans that will tell others about your business. The ultimate form of flattery is a referral. (By the way, I highly recommend you see
her).
3. When you are operating in your unique gift it will appear effortless to others. Ms. Briggs was one with her instrument. As a former violinist myself, I know first hand that it is not an easy instrument to master if you don't have the aptitude or attitude. However, when the talent or gift is innate your presentation appears organic and effortless to others.
Most people spend their life looking for the "magic bullet" to create wealth. And the truth is if you were to look at the gifts and talents you have, your million dollar idea is innately a part of you. If you are not sure what it is think about what are the things you do that appear easy for you and difficult for others. Your unique talent harnessed with discipline and commitment will be unstoppable. Unleash your talents and discover how to turn it into a profitable work at home opportunity.
4. When you are a master at your craft people will pay for it and you can name your price. Being an expert in business is much like a top paid artist. When you have specialized knowledge or a skill people are willing to pay a higher price to have access to it.
5. Surround yourself with talented and supportive people and you all can go to a higher level of success. Ms. Briggs had a band around her and with their support her talents were showcased even more. No one creates success by themselves. Make sure you have people around you who support you in your business. Consider a Mastermind Group.
If you are starting or currently building a home based business
take one or all of these lessons, implement them in your business and watch it grow. I am always amazed how lessons about
being successful are always around us if our mind is open and
our ears in tune. These lessons if implemented will sound like
music to your ears.
Much to my surprise I walked away with 5 lessons that I could use to take my home based business to the next level. Within moments of world renowned jazz violinist Karen Briggs (formerly with Yani) taking the stage the quote from Tony Buzan rang my head.
"Whatever your discipline, become a student of excellence in all things. Take every opportunity to observe people who manifest the qualities of mastery."
Here are lessons I walked away with that you can use to
successfully create a business you can work from home.
1. Change an idea or business by 10% and you can be a leader in what you do. Ms. Briggs is not the only violinist but she is one the first to become known as a "Jazz Violinist." She took traditional classical music and put a jazz twist on it and made it her own. She created a fortune by doing so. You can do the same thing. Find a work at home business you love, add your unique slant and become an expert.
2. Give your customers more than you can expect and you will create raving fans. We were told the concert would go 90 minutes. However, when Ms. Briggs surprised us with an additional 45 minute jam session it blew everyone away. When you under promise and over deliver you will create screaming fans that will tell others about your business. The ultimate form of flattery is a referral. (By the way, I highly recommend you see
her).
3. When you are operating in your unique gift it will appear effortless to others. Ms. Briggs was one with her instrument. As a former violinist myself, I know first hand that it is not an easy instrument to master if you don't have the aptitude or attitude. However, when the talent or gift is innate your presentation appears organic and effortless to others.
Most people spend their life looking for the "magic bullet" to create wealth. And the truth is if you were to look at the gifts and talents you have, your million dollar idea is innately a part of you. If you are not sure what it is think about what are the things you do that appear easy for you and difficult for others. Your unique talent harnessed with discipline and commitment will be unstoppable. Unleash your talents and discover how to turn it into a profitable work at home opportunity.
4. When you are a master at your craft people will pay for it and you can name your price. Being an expert in business is much like a top paid artist. When you have specialized knowledge or a skill people are willing to pay a higher price to have access to it.
5. Surround yourself with talented and supportive people and you all can go to a higher level of success. Ms. Briggs had a band around her and with their support her talents were showcased even more. No one creates success by themselves. Make sure you have people around you who support you in your business. Consider a Mastermind Group.
If you are starting or currently building a home based business
take one or all of these lessons, implement them in your business and watch it grow. I am always amazed how lessons about
being successful are always around us if our mind is open and
our ears in tune. These lessons if implemented will sound like
music to your ears.
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