The Do's and Don'ts of Starting a Business

by:Bill Albright
This article about How to Start a Business highlights the top ten do's and don'ts of starting any kind of business. Starting a business is not complicated if you are aware of what to do, and more importantly, what to avoid. It is my hope that these two lists will work together and serve as a guideline when you start your own business, no matter what industry you're in.

Top 10 DO's of Starting a Business

In the planning stages of any new business, optimism usually gives the new business owner plenty of drive, but it can be very easy to become misdirected. This top 10 list was developed for business owners to stay on course and maintain proper direction in the beginning stages. Every business is a little different, however, so you may need to make a slight modification to these Top 10 DO'S of Starting a Business when you apply them to your own business model.


1. Live frugally and begin saving up money to put into your own business.
2. Learn how to start your intended type of business by working for someone else in the same line of business first.
3. Consider the benefits of starting a business on the side of your main-paying job first, such as after hours, so you can still eat and pay rent while learning how to be successful in your business.
4. Consider the advantages of starting a family business. (24/7 help, cheap labor, employee trust, etc...)
5. Objectively measure your skills and training against potential competition before your start your own business.
6. If you're starting a business manufacturing a product, consider subcontracting to low-cost suppliers. (China can make anything for less money than you can.)
7. Test market your product or service before putting any substantial money into the business, even when just expanding.
8. Make your own "pros" and "cons" list, describing all the positive and negative changes to you and to your bottom line, including everything you can think of related to the specific business you are considering starting.
9. Talk to lots of people in your intended industry for advice before starting a business. -Sometimes sub-suppliers to your industry have good advice, too.
10. Make a serious comparative analysis of all opportunities you are considering.

Top 10 DON'Ts of Starting a Business

Like the list above, the following are suggestions to consider when starting any type of business. They are designed to work hand-in-hand with the first list so that you can avoid the most common pitfalls of starting a new business.

1. Don't think about leaving your job until you have started to see some monetary results and fully completed your full start-up plans for the new business.
2. Don't consider starting a business in a field you do not enjoy.
3. Don't risk all of your assets. Limit your liabilities to a predetermined amount when starting a business. It can be a percentage of your worth of a dollar amount, but the point is to pick it from the start and to never cross that line.
4. Don't compete with your employer when you start your own business, especially when moonlighting!
5. Don't be in too much of a hurry to get your business started. When learning how to start most any business, there are no real penalties for missed opportunity.
6. Don't start a business that involves too high a risk, or has to major a hurdle. Take on ten 2-foot hurdles, never one 20-foot hurdle!
7. Never start a business in which you must have the lowest price to succeed, established competition can always under-price once it's in their best interest.
8. Don't be afraid to learn about the negative aspects of your intended business when you are first learning how to start it. You can't start a business with blinders on.
9. Don't let your entrepreneur self-confidence outweigh careful diligence.
10. Don't let the promise of a conceptual high reward deter reality testing. You can never guess what people will actually pay for anything until they do so.

Read the rest of this entry »

How To Make Money On Blogs

by:Andrew Nielsen
Making money from a blog requires skill, luck and work. In this article we describe how it can be done.

Let's first look at the sources of revenue which are available for blog authors.

Ads
By placing ads on a blog it is possible to generate revenue from visitors who click on the ads. The most common source for ads is Google's AdSense. By signing up to Google AdSense and placing a small piece of code on your blog, Google will display their ads on your blog. Advertisers who signed up for Googles AdWords program pay Google for each click on ads and Google shares this revenue with blog owners displaying the ads. Google does not disclose how the revenue is shared � they encourage you to sign up and try it out so you can see how much you generate and then decide if it is for you or not. Google places ads on webpages so they match the content on the page. A blog about traveling would therefore attract ads for airplane tickets, hotels etc. Since Google shares their revenue with you and since you want to generate a lot of revenue, you need to produce content for which ads pay well. There are tools available for determining for which keywords there is the most competition among advertisers � content for such keywords will be content that generates the highest revenue. The revenue generated per click can be anywhere from a few cents to several dollars, depending on the advertiser competition. Normally, relatively few visitors to a website or blog will click on ads. There are ways to optimize a blog or website for achieving higher click through rates. You will be able to find varied (and sometimes contradictory) advice on what is the best strategy. Follow the links below, to sign up for Google's AdSense and for tools for finding the keywords for which there is a lot of advertiser competition.


Affiliate programs
Affiliate programs are a type of partnership, where are seller of a product shares the revenue generated from a sale with the affiliate who sent the customer to the seller's website. The percentage of revenue given to the affiliate can be from a few percent to as much as 75 percent. Affiliate programs are often supported by the company handling the online payment, who then takes care of paying the commission to the affiliate the minute the customer makes payment. An owner of a blog can become an affiliate of one or more sellers and send visitors to the sellers' websites, thereby generating revenue for the owner of the blog. Affiliate links (i.e., links from the affiliate to the sellers' websites) are easier to disguise as normal links, than ads provided by Google. The affiliate can create the links, so the customer may not even notice that the affiliate is affiliated with the sellers' websites. For this reason, a higher click through rate can be achieved this way than through ads. You can expect that only a few percent of visitors following your links end up making a purchase. So also for this option, a large amount of traffic is needed to generate good revenue. Follow the links below to learn more about affiliate programs and how to find products to promote.

Getting traffic
No matter which option for revenue you choose, the key to generating serious money is to get serious amounts of visitors for the blog. This means that your blog needs to be interesting for the reader and not just look like something made for you to make money. For this reason, you need to keep the amount of ads and affiliate links to a minimum. You need to produce content which appeals to readers and to add new posts regularly to keep visitors coming back. Topics like politics, religion, gaming, gossip, arts, sports - to name just a few � seem to be popular topics. You need to select a topic which you yourself find interesting as this will make it easier for you to write articles that others will find engaging too. Blogs with a good amount of graphics seem to attract more visitors than blogs with a small amount of graphics. Besides having a blog which is interesting and make visitors return, you can get visitors using advertising, link building and other techniques used also for "normal" websites.

In this article we have explored some of the ways you can make money from blogs.

Read the rest of this entry »

Audiobooks can help to improve your life.

Self help audiobooks come in several categories including creativity, health and fitness, interpersonal skills, motivation, personal growth, sex and relationships, stress management, success, time management, and religious titles. There really is a theme of self help audiobooks for everyone's needs.

read more | digg story

Read the rest of this entry »

10 Easy Steps Towards Stock Market Success

by: Joe Harris

We all need a set of guidelines to help us along the way. This is what I use in all of my investments to ensure that I maximize every profit and virtually eliminate all of my risks. Now you can too�

1. Set Your Goal

You always want to start off any potential investment by thinking about what you want out of it. Ultimately, you're going to be making money off of it�duh. But how much? How quickly? How will this particular investment play into the bigger picture of all your finances? Getting all of this figured out ahead of time will give you a clearer image of your investment down the road.

2. Time to Strategize

We all know there are literally thousands of investment tactics out there. So pick one. Take your time and study up to find the approach that works best according to your financial goals. You can tweak it accordingly as you go through the rest of these steps, but the better prepared you are the smoother the entire process will go.


3. Asses Possible Risks

It is absolutely essential that you highlight the risks your investment will bring up. The key is to look at them realistically, not optimistically. You have to be able to devise an effective and PRACTICAL management plan. This will not only minimize your losses but in turn guarantee you maximize your profits, even if the investment tanks.

Notice how this step comes before profit assessment? This is to make sure you don't get overwhelmed with excitement before you size up the gamble you're taking.

4. Think about Profit Potential

Basically, you have to get paid, but you need to be able to do it at the right time. Most inexperienced investors just go for the cash, but by the time they actually collect their profits have diminished. Know when and how to get out so that the process is smooth and efficient.

5. But Are There Alternatives?

Do a little more homework. Check to see if there are other investments that have fewer risks, a better profit potential, or if there are is another strategy that will make your life easier (or hopefully a little richer at the end of the day).

6. Scaling the Mountain

This one goes along with devising an initial strategy. Every investment you make will have its challenges to optimize rewards and minimize shortcomings. By anticipating them you can create a strategy that will do just that.

7. Design Your Plan B

Set specific boundaries as to when you should get out of an investment. Whether everything goes wrong and you need to bail out or you've hit it big and need to move on, having explicit limits prevents you from losing returns or just losing more money.

8. Making the Right Choice

Investing takes time, so for one last time look over your new project as a whole. Now you've got all the pieces to see if this investment is really worth your while. And it's ok if it isn't: you'll be better off starting from scratch than losing on a big gamble.

9. Go for the Gold

In choosing to pursue an investment, go after it. Give it everything you've got and you'll come up a winner. Clich�, I know, but even if worse comes to worst you won't be that big of a loser either. Wholeheartedly following through on your game plan will give you the best returns in the long run.

10 Debrief

In the end look back over your plan. If somehow you bombed and lost a lot of money, try to figure out what went wrong. You want to ensure that you don't make the same mistakes next time. Constantly tweak your approaches until you find that perfect strategy. Once you've done that you'll eliminate all that stress that comes with the job.

Read the rest of this entry »

Manage Your Time, Don�t Let Time Manage You

by :Adam Terebeckij

As small business owners, most people who own or operate home businesses will find that they face many challenges along the road to home business success. One of the biggest challenges we face is the need to manage our time in the most efficient manner possible. While we work at home with no boss checking the clock and making sure of our productivity it can be quite easy to get distracted by other things and not keeping to the task at hand. In fact, there are many things that come along to steal our time as the days go by.

Recognizing those time stealers is the first step in understanding what needs to be done in order to overcome them. Each person will have different distractions that prevent him or her from keeping on target for the workday. While you may find that Solitaire provides the most distraction possible, someone else might find being at home (which has its own laundry list of things that need to be doneincluding the laundry) will provide distraction enough to keep him or her from focusing every effort into his or her business.


You must remember that you are now the boss. You are the only one that determines if you work and how much you work. The downside of that is you only have yourself to blame when those low paychecks dont quite meet your expectations. Here are a few things you can do in order to help you manage your office hours more effectively.

���1) Set

office hours. Make a big sign and show it to your family, tell your friends what your office hours are and be in your office during those hours. Wear your business hat from the time those hours begin until quitting time.

���2) Make a list each day of what must be done. While you want to offer yourself a challenge and keep your day busy, you also want to be realistic in your expectations. Don'

t put too much on your list that you will feel no sense of accomplishment at the end of the day.

���3) Mark the things off your list that have been completed. This helps you celebrate the completion of one task before moving onto the next.

���4) Don'

t procrastinate. We all have certain tasks that we enjoy less than others, dont talk yourself in a game of solitaire in order to avoid doing those very tasks. If you are in a position to do so, consider outsourcing some of the tasks that you hate the most. When you think about it in the terms of time is money this is one case where spending the money for someone else to perform the task would be well worth the time it saves you in the form of lost work on other projects while you were procrastinating.

���5) Remove all temptations and distractions. I know some of you have small children and you can'

t lock yourselves away from them for hours at a time, nor can you really remove them as distractions, but you can take the solitaire game off your computer. You can make sure you arent in the same room as the television or at least arrange the room so that you cant see the television.

���6) Don'

t take personal calls during business hours. Family and friends often have a hard time understanding that you are working from home. It's still a foreign concept to many. They will call in the middle of your workday just to chat. Don't allow them to do that. This will rob you of precious time that could be devoted to finishing a task or worse, have you talked into watching someone elses children all afternoon instead of working. If you don't take the calls during your office hours then you wont find yourself in a position where you must choose between your business and your family or friends.

Once you learn to rule your time rather than allowing yourself to be ruled by time, you will find your workdays are much more productive. Having a productive workday means you dont have to work well into the night, you actually get to achieve your goal of having more time to spend with your family, and you have a strong sense of accomplishment over what youve achieved for the day. Not to mention, your income will grow as your productivity increases. Start practicing the positive things you can do in order to manage your time most effectively and soon they will become good business habits.

Read the rest of this entry »

Is Small Business Ownership Right For You?

Many people are very attracted by the prospect of starting a small business that will help them have a better life. Unfortunately, not all of them have the skills and the mind-set needed to achieve their goals. There are some important things to carefully consider before you embark on starting your own business.

First of all, what will be the goal of your business? A standard definition would say that a company is an organization made up by one or more persons which strives to obtain profit by economic means in general. A business can be considered a small business if it meets certain requirements which refer to: hired personnel, the income, and how certain aspects of the business are represented.

The role played by small businesses world wide is enormous. Generally, the smaller a business is, the smaller its' potential market is. Still, small businesses form the great majority of all businesses, being the "locomotive of competition."


Usually, the competition between small businesses has at its center the services or products they deliver to their customers and the quality of those products and services. Prices are only third in placement on a hierarchy of the importance of the competition factors.

There are also some hurdles that small businesses have to overcome on their way to becoming an economic success. The most important one seems to be the lack of a well-trained, skilled work force. Secondly, accessing the funds necessary to start up and operate a small business can be difficult. Third, many small businesses operate on a poor if not substandard infrastructure.

One of the most important categories for small business development and growth in the past few years has been the high tech industry. These companies usually create and implement technical innovations and contribute to raising the life standard. They also have great potential in creating work places and raising the incomes of from several to many employees.

Also, with the internet revolution, the number of small businesses accessing the World Wide Web has grown very fast over the last decade. Other means of communications are: cell phones, e-mails, computer networks, etc. All have had an impact on the develoment of small businesses.

The internet provides small businesses with an easy way to communicate. This is a mandatory action for a small business nowadays, and various ways of reaching both clients and employees can be used, such as w-mail and FTP.

Just a cursory consideration of these aspects of starting and operating a small business reveal how complex a process it truly is. It takes more than a dream, it takes action, commitment, determination and creativity to make the dream come true. If you are not a person who enjoys tackling challenges, then starting your own company is simply not for you.

But if you possess these characteristics and feel driven to succeed, you can learn how to run a company even with no formal management training. All you need is dedication, determination and research. You need to design a good business and marketing plan and put your ideas into action. Then you will begin building the foundation of your successful small business.

Articles Source - Free Articles

Read the rest of this entry »

10 Reasons To Start an Online Business

By Kevin Cooper
1: Anyone Can Do It.

It’s true; it has never been so easy to start a business. Think about it, in the past you were confined mostly to brick and mortar businesses. You would need retail premises or warehousing. Now you don’t need any of these. You don’t need experience. Everything you need to know is out there on the World Wide Web. Get yourself a notepad, put the coffee pot on and hit the search engines. Be methodical, visit message boards, user groups and article directories. Subscribe to ezines. (Online magazines). Ask lots of Questions.

2: Low cost.

This has to be one of the cheapest ways to start your own business. You’ve got a PC and an Internet connection, what more do you need? Web hosting? You can even get this for free! You may need to upgrade at a later stage, which will cost you money, but even then it won’t be really expensive. A web site? Maybe, it depends what type of business you start. But again you can do it yourself with Microsoft Frontpage, or similar software. Even free web hosting may come with a Wizard to help you build a site. Content for your Web page? Again it depends what sort of business you want but this could even be found for free. As above, hit the search engines!

3: Work from home.

Didn’t you always dream of working from home? No more daily commute, sitting in traffic wondering where you’re life is going. More time for yourself and your family. You can wear what you like, work when you like. If you want to get up at 5 am, and work while it’s quiet, go ahead. A word of caution! You must be disciplined when working from home. If you got a space to call an office, then use it. Tell you family and friends not to disturb you except in emergencies. (Running out of ice cream is not an emergency).

4: No Staff.

Can you imagine running a store without staff? Or a repair shop, or almost any ordinary business. In most cases it can’t be done. If you need three staff, ones on vacation and another calls in sick, you’ve got a real headache. But working from home you shouldn’t have these problems. If you need help with some tasks, like copy writing, or web page design, You can hire people’s services online at sites like elance.com
5: Part Time.

Not only can you work from home but you can work part time. It is possible to run a very successful online business in just a few hours a week. Maybe in the early stages of creating your business, you’ll burn the midnight oil. But with so many repetitive tasks being done by software packages, e.g.; autoresponders, once you’re set up you may need to do little more than regular maintenance. Or create new products.

6: A portable business.

One of the great things about your online business is that being run from a computer means it can be run from a computer anywhere. If you’ve got a laptop, you can work in the garden, or from bed. As long as you can get an Internet connection, you can go on vacation and still do some work.

7: No stock or Shipping.

If you choose a business selling information products; such as ebooks. They can be downloaded by your customer, which means you don’t have to carry stock, or deal with packing and shipping. If you want to sell a physical product, search the internet for drop shippers. These are companies who carry the stock and do the shipping for you. There are drop shippers carrying an amazing variety of goods.

8: 24/7 Income.

This has to be one of the best things about your online business. You don’t have to pull down the shutters at 6.00pm or any time at all for that matter. If you’ve set things up with lots of automation built in your web site can be pulling visitors night and day. And from around the world. You can earn money while you’re sleeping.

9: More fun than work.

It’s a good idea to base your business around an interest or hobby, something you’re intimately involved with and knowledgeable about. Whether it is Koi carp, computer games or wedding planning, if you are passionate about it, you won’t feel like you’re working. You will want to get up in the morning, and get on with it. No more Monday morning blues.

10: Control your own destiny.

There is nothing quite like taking charge of your own life. You may only start part time, but when you’re successful in your business, that extra income can be a real boost, and not just in spending power but in your self esteem. Maybe you like your job, but a little extra money every month will give you freedom from worrying about bills and the pleasure of spending more on your family. A few treats now and again can work wonders for your morale. If you hate your job, then looking forward to getting home to work on your own business, sure helps you get through the day. And looking forward to the day you quit, spurs you on to be successful.


I hope I’ve given you something positive to think about. If you’re inspired to start an online business, but still worried about the nuts and bolts of it, remember, the World Wide Web, is full of free advice. There are thousands of ebooks available, thousands of articles, thousands of products to help you, much of it low cost or free.

Read the rest of this entry »

How to Find the Billion-dollar Opportunities

Author: Holly Beitel
How many times have you kicked yourself because you had the chance to get involved with a new business opportunity, and you passed it up because you just didn't want to take a chance? Well, you don't have to leave your success to chance.

There are clues that the next billion-dollar companies give you. There are some very specific indicators that a company is destined for greatness. The purpose of this article is to help take a little of the guesswork out of determining the potential of an investment opportunity in the network marketing industry, or any industry for that matter. Your time and your hard earned money are precious commodities. However, life is too short to pass up on the real opportunities that, on the average, come around about once every ten years. These indicators apply to any company in any industry, but are especially true when evaluating a network marketing company.


Be first to market with a new product, new market, or an innovation to an existing product or market.

The luggage industry is the perfect example. Everyone has luggage. It was a large, but stagnate, market for many years. Then, someone put wheels on those heavy suitcases. Do you ever see anyone carrying a suitcase now? An existing market redefined by innovation!

How about redefining a market? Music has always been around. However, every time an innovation is made, fortunes are made. Vinyl records begat eight-track tapes which begat cassette tapes. Then came CD's and now iPods. Get the idea? The drivers of those innovations enjoy huge financial success.

History shows that the company that is first to market with such innovations always maintains the lion's share of the business. Can copycat companies be successful? Absolutely. Look at all of the "me too" juice companies out there. However, if you are looking for the billion-dollar opportunity, go with the first to market!

The company must be in a high-growth market.

If the market a company is in doesn't exceed a billion dollars, it is going to be impossible for one company in that market to do a billion dollars by itself. Look for industries that are being driven by the baby boomers. They are by far the largest consumer group, and they are spending money! They are going to define much about our economy for the next twenty years.

In network marketing, consumption is key.

For a network marketing company to survive the long haul, marketing consumable products is a must. Network marketing is driven by volume, and volume only increases through new customers and/or increased consumption. Eventually new customers become hard to get. However, repeat consumption can drive a business for a long, long time.

If a company wants to expand they have two options. The first is increasing the number of customers. The second is increasing the amount of volume being sold. Therefore, a company that only has one product to offer handicaps themselves because they are primarily relying on increasing their number of customers month after month year after year. This becomes very difficult in a relatively short period of time. It is not a good choice for the person looking for long time residual income.

A company that has developed a loyal consumer base can increase volume by introducing new products to existing satisfied customers. Do not underestimate the importance of this difference.

Cash flow is king no matter what the business or industry.

Many great ideas die a painful death at the hands of debt and depleted capital. Look for companies that are profitable quickly. Financing its own growth gives a company huge advantages over their competitors and allows it to survive the "bumps in the road" without so much as a hiccup.

The experience and expertise of key management is a real clue to long-term viability.

A company can have all the right ingredients, but if the management team doesn't have the correct recipe for success it is all for naught. Look for years of experience in the industry. Look for management personnel with experience in taking other companies to the billion-dollar mark, international expansion experience and large operations and customer service experience are a few important areas.

Finally, take a hard look at field leadership.

Who is out in the trenches training the troops? Have they had success in the past? Do they have a good reputation within the network marketing industry? This is where the rubber meets the road. The foundation of network marketing is "word of mouth advertising." The distributors ultimately determine the success of the company. So, how well they are developed and trained is paramount. Look at this aspect of a company very carefully.

In summary, can you make money with companies that don't meet all of these criteria? Sure you can. However, if you are looking for an opportunity that is going to give you the best shot at achieving long-term residual income and financial freedom, I would locate a company with these characteristics, secure a place in their organization as quickly as possible and be one of the reasons for their success!

Read the rest of this entry »

Best Home Business - Array the Perfect Home Business for All

Author: Monica Hendrix
This business can be done by anyone in under an hour a day, does not require above average intelligence, needs a small amount of money, gives you free money to use to buy stock and never has a recession. What is it lets find out.

The business is becoming a forex trader from home – STOP! I can’t possibly do that well consider this story first and you will be intrigued.

Richard Dennis a legendary trader in the eighties, selected a group of people with no trading experience and from a variety of backgrounds and taught them to trade a simple method in just 14 days.

The result?


They made him $100 million dollars!

Now could you make money at forex trading?

Well the answer is everything about trading can be learned you just have to have the right mindset to succeed – consider this as well.

- Leverage

Deposit $1,000 to a forex broker and they will grant you the ability to trade $100,000 so you gains are magnified there are no credit checks – you are granted this when you open your account.

Forex trading is not just for the rich and you can open accounts with a few hundred dollars and before you trade you can trade a live demo account to PROVE The potential for yourself before you risk real money.

- Consider these advantages to!

Also consider these advantages:

Forex trading takes about an hour a day, can be done from home with just an internet connection and a computer, you don’t need any stock and there is NEVER a recession – as one currency rises another must fall and vice versa, meaning you can trade at anytime for big profits.

Is it really that easy?

The answer is yes and no.

It is for some and not for others but is really down to each individual trader – You need to have the mindset to succeed a burning desire and discipline to run profits and cut losses – but these are LEARNED skills.

Anyone can become a successful trader but it is up to you – the challenge is there and its one you can win - but like anything in life it’s not just a walk in the park you have to accept responsibility for your destiny.

If making money was easy everyone would be rich and their not.

If you want to be rich you will find a way and a method and this is the perfect method for those people who want and desire to be wealthy.

If you are prepared to put in the effort this business will give you the opportunity to make money quicker than almost any other you may not become as rich as the turtles but their the perfect example of the potential

Now a Final Question

The potential is there and it’s up to you what you make of it – Are you ready for a challenge that could make you a lot of money?

Then consider becoming a forex trader from home and you maybe glad you did.

Read the rest of this entry »