Archive for Business
August 11, 2008 at 7:18 pm · Filed under Business
Running a pay per click campaign can be a valuable, fast source of online sales - but it can also cost you a lot of money if you don’t know what you’re doing. Many pay per click newbies sign up with a ppc search engine and end up spending lots of money very fast - without making a single sale.
That’s not how it should go - you can make tons of sales using pay per click advertising. I have several websites that ONLY receive pay per click traffic and they make sales on a consistent basis.
The problem is that you have to know what you’re doing. With that in mind here are 3 quick and easy tips to help you get the most from your pay per click campaign:
Tip #1: Pull Them In With An Attention-Getting, Optimized Title
Your web site title is the first thing the searcher sees. Make sure it matches what your web site offers or else you’ll tick your searchers off - and that’s not a good way to start a potential customer relationship!
(How many times have you been looking for something and clicked on a title only to find a porn site or a get-out-of-debt-fast site…talk about bad Internet etiquette!)
Also, try to put the relevant, most popular keywords in the title. Titles with keywords in them have been proven to get up to 50% more click-throughs.
If you can, write a title that lists a benefit to the customer or evokes curiosity. Titles with benefits will pull more click-throughs than stale, factual titles.
“Shed Pounds Fast With Celebrity Diet Secrets” will always beat “The Diets Of Famous People”. One lists a benefit while evoking curiosity - the second just evokes minor curiosity.
Test different titles and see which ones pull a higher click through rate. You’ll eventually find one or two titles that pull in the most clicks (as well as the most sales) and you’ll probably want to stick with those.
Tip #2: Use Your Description to Pre-quality and Pre-sell
If the searcher gets past the title to the description you’re doing well…but you have to hook them with your description. Again, make sure the description elaborates on the title and tells your searcher EXACTLY what they can expect.
This is also a way you can further ‘pre-qualify’ your traffic. You don’t want to spend money on people who don’t fit your perfect customer criteria so be as specific as possible about what your website offers them.
Don’t just say “A website that sells a variety of cheesecakes” Pre-sell and pre-quality your traffic with a description like:
“Gourmet New York Specialty cheesecakes sold exclusively online. From Chocolate Brownie Cheesecake to Bailey’s Irish Cream Cheesecake. Check out our online catalogue if you want to serve your guests something heavenly!”
Makes your mouth water already doesn’t it? And chances are that someone only looking for a free cheesecake recipe won’t click through so you’ve prequalified your traffic and your conversion rate will go through the roof!
Tip #3: Think ‘Niche’ with your keywords
Unless you are Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig, chances are you can’t afford to spend $5.00 on the word “diet”. That’s ok - you don’t have to.
You can pick up a huge variety of more specific keywords that probably very few pay per click competitors have bid on (for example, what about ‘heart healthy diet’?)
Just make sure to do your homework and remember to get the misspellings people use also.
So those are 3 tips to get the most from your pay per click campaign. By grabbing customers with an attention getting title, prequalifying them with a detailed description and choosing niche keywords, you’re sure to get ready-to-buy traffic for pennies per keyword.
Good luck and may you make millions with your online business!
Kathryn O’Neill is contributing writer for Pay Per Click Success - a website dedicated to helping you get the most for your pay per click dollars.
For more free articles and money saving tips, visit: http://www.payperclick.homestead.com
August 5, 2008 at 1:36 am · Filed under Business
Do you really want to change you financial landscape within the next 12 months?
Because if you do, I’m going to tell you how.
You MAY not want to read what I’m about to write because it WILL remove excuses you have. In fact, after this very simple tip, you will no longer have the ready-made excuse that perhaps you’ve used in the past. I will strip it away like Dad rips off the warm covers on a winter morning.
The most common excuses that I hear folks offer for not getting off their duffs and starting their investment careers are (1) time and (2) knowledge. (The number one unspoken excuse is fear.) For this article, I am REMOVING the time and knowledge excuses. I’ll get to the fear part…briefly.
Okay, if you’re still reading, here goes…but I warn you. You may not like it.
Turn off the stinkin’ TV!
I mean, avoid it like the plague! It’s robbing you blind. To be precise, it’s costing you tens of thousands of dollars per year if you are like most Americans and tune into TV or watch movies for 1-3 hours a day.
What a country we are. The average American buys a TV and then that TV costs many times more than the cost of the set per year in opportunity loss. We buy, bring it into our homes, and give it a place of prominence, and let it steal from us!
As many of you already know, I boldly say you and I can make an extra $10,000-$50,000 per year on a mere 10 hours a week by rehabbing real estate. I know this because I do it.
A little math…let’s say you watch TV a mere 1.5 hours a day on weekdays, and sports on the weekend at 2.5 hours a day. If you give up all TV, that’s 12 and a half hours a week.
In other words, you can watch a game on the weekends and STILL have 10 hours a week to devote to a real estate investing career.
Let’s say you are someone who is on the LOW end of American TV watching habits and you watch an average of 1 hour of TV a day. (Which means you probably don’t watch sports.) In that case, turning it off means you need to invest a mere 3 hours a week. Do you have 3 hours a week if it pays $10,000-$50,000 per week?
Reality check. If you watch football, you probably watch a college game on Saturday, a pro game on Sunday, and Monday Night football. In that case, that’s a minimum of 7 hours per week of the 5-month season…gone! Many football fans watch more!
So what could you do with that time? Get the knowledge you need to start with. How many books or courses can you work through if you honestly devote 10 hours a week? Since the process of rehabbing real estate isn’t rocket science, it’s a process that must be learned, it isn’t going to take many weeks to be flush with knowledge and ready to put a business plan into action.
There will be a few reading this that don’t watch much TV at all. (You are rare indeed!) Examine your habits and see where you time is going. There is often time sinks that you can capitalize on by changing your habits. Do you surf the net for hours on end? Do you spend 2 hours a day pumping iron.
Or…oh, this one might hit close to home…do you sleep 10-12 hours a day?
Chances are there is a way to eek out some hours by a relatively minor change in habits.
I can hear it already…GIVE UP TV?! That’s not a minor adjustment!
Baloney.
Let’s see how important TV really is to you. There are two ways to think about this.
Approach number 1:
Let’s say I knock on your door and wave ten thousand dollars in front of your face. All you have to do to get it is give me your TV for a year. Would you go for it? What if I offered you twenty grand?
Approach number 2:
Let’s look at what giving up TV would mean to you.
- You wouldn’t be able to talk about what happened on TV last night at the water cooler at work. I mean you could, but you would not have watched it.
- You would miss seeing first hand who beat who to a pulp on the field, or on the court.
- Shows will come and go, and you will have never have seem them.
Perish the thought! You’d miss stuff on TV, but the sun will continue to come up, the Earth spins, and your financial picture gets a lot rosier!
Is the time you spend in front of the TV really worth what it’s costing you? $10,000 or $20,000, or even $30,000 or more…every year?
I’ll go a step further. You could stop watching all your favorite programs and guess what, your life would be unchanged. If you did something positive with that time you spent watching them, your life will be changed for the better.
For you sports fans…Let’s say “your” team wins the championship this year. Does that change your life in any way? Do you get a raise? Do you move into a better house? Does it really change anything that matters? Sure, you get to tell folks that they are “your” team even when they aren’t and nobody on the team knows you from Adam. In fact, if “your” team wins you will probably be even more into them, spend more time watching TV, so the cost to you goes up!
I don’t mean to sound like I’m on my soap box, but there are many folks who need a wake up call. Capturing TV time and using it to your financial benefit is a relatively minor habit adjustment that can result is some serious financial gain. Spend a month learning, then put a plan into action. That’s how things get changed.
My close friends and family know that I rarely turn on my TV. Years ago, I made the commitment to use my time better and since I have improved my life immensely by doing so. So, I want you to know that I am living my own advice. While it’s true that I’ve never seen a minute of “reality” TV, and I prefer to see my sports live, my life is quite different now! I’ll never look at TV the same again!
You can do the same. This minor habit adjustment can mean you take the reigns of your financial future and drive it where you want to go.
I knew some of you would not like it, but there it is…the formula to free up a LOT of time and how to gain the knowledge you need to make this coming year the most profitable yet. Will you do it?
Now, what about the fear part? This article is getting kind a bit long, but I have written a six part set of articles to help in that combat fear. I encourage you to click through to my website and click on the “Nothing Held Back” newsletter. There you will find out how to get the articles, or mini-course I call it, at no cost.
Bruce W. Ford publishes the "Nothing Held Back" newsletter, a free service of Rehab Real Estate Central. Get a free copy of his mini-course entitled "The Mind of the Real Estate Investor" at www.Real-Estate-Rehab.com
August 4, 2008 at 6:52 pm · Filed under Business
A powerful reason for making the switch from using the
unlimited autoresponders that come free with your web
hosting account to paying a monthly fee for an
autoresponder service is the building of customer
relationships through sequential autoresponders.
Although many web hosts offer unlimited autoresponders,
each autoresponder is only capable of sending one response.
Building business relationships that will increase your
sales begins with the use of sequential autoresponders
from a paid autoresponder service.
For example, if you want a copy of this article e-mailed
to you, an ordinary autoresponder will do the job. But,
what if you want me to send you a seven-part e-mail course?
At the end of each autoresponder, I could refer you to the
next autoresponder, but having you request all seven
e-mails with just one action makes more sense.
Additionally, marketing experts generally seem to agree
that a person needs to be exposed to your message multiple
times before they respond or buy. If someone subscribes
to your autoresponder because of their interest in a
subject, you can then supply them with helpful information
on a regular basis.
Thus, you establish trust and a relationship with your
prospective customers. When they trust you, they are
more likely to act on your recommendations and buy from
you.
This type of relationship is pretty hard to develop with
just one e-mail. However, several e-mails from a
sequential autoresponder will help you to build such trust
as your prospective customers get to know you over time.
As well, people have so many things clamoring for their
attention that many just forget about you and your
products and services unless you periodically remind
them.
So, by paying a modest monthly fee, you can have unlimited,
sequential autoresponders working for you. Yes, a paid
autoresponder service can help increase sales by building
trust and business relationships.
RESOURCE BOX:
J. Stephen Pope, President of Pope Consulting Inc.,
has been helping clients to earn maximum business profits
for over twenty-five years.
For profitable Work at Home Small Business Ideas, visit
http://www.yenommarketinginc.com
To see how autoresponder services can improve your profits,
visit http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/autoresponders.html
August 4, 2008 at 5:45 pm · Filed under Business
Small town, big town, it doesn’t matter, if you have a small area in your backyard that you can use for planting, then you can make money growing small plants at home. Actually you can make pretty good money on 1/40 of one acre. That’s an area about 30 feet by 40 feet.
You will be amazed at how many plants you can fit in an area that small, and at how much money you can make. Even apartment dwellers can do this! If you live in an apartment, just to get a feel for how fun and rewarding a tiny nursery can be, find somebody with a little piece of ground that they will either let you use, let you rent it, or do a joint venture with you.
Is there really a market for small plants? The market is huge, something like 4 billion dollars last year alone, and the demand is tremendous. As a small grower, you have a tremendous advantage over the larger nurseries, their overhead is very high. As a backyard grower, yours will be almost nothing.
You might be asking; “I live in a small town in a rural area, how many plants can I really sell?”
Tens of thousands if you want to. Most people don’t realize it, but large wholesale growers are the largest buyers of small plants in the country. They sell so many plants that they just can not produce them fast enough themselves, so they buy them from wherever they can find them. Just pack them up in a cardboard box and ship them anywhere you want.
I routinely buy large quantities of small plants and have them shipped thousands of miles to my house. Why do I buy plants if I know how to grow them myself? There are a lot of reasons, but one is because I am impatient and don’t like to grow Japanese Maples from seed. I can buy Japanese Maple seedlings for as little as 75 cents and all I have to do is pot them up and watch them grow.
I also buy large quantities of flowering shrubs that I would like to start propagating myself. I buy them for 50 cents, pot them up, and often sell them the next year for $4.97. But in the meantime I take cuttings from them to propagate for next year’s crop. Then I never have to buy that variety again.
Those are the same reasons that many wholesale nurseries are always looking for great deals on small plants. When they find someone like you, growing in their backyard, they are delighted because they know they can buy what they need for less money from a small backyard grower than they can if they buy from a large nursery.
It only stands to reason, your overhead is almost nothing, you don’t have to raise the price of your plants to pay for buildings, hundreds of acres of land, trucks, tractors, and dozens of employees.
How much money do you need to get started?
Almost none. All you have to do is root some cuttings, and you’re on your way! There are dozens of easy plant propagation techniques that are so easy to learn that young children can do them, and with great success I might add.
This propagation information is available to you free of charge at www.freeplants.com
The size of the area you need to get started is really up to you, but an area about the size of a picnic table is a start. I’m serious. I root my cuttings in flats that are about 12″ by 15″, and can get between 100 and 150 cuttings per flat. In an area about the size of a picnic table you should be able to root several thousand cuttings at a time.
And guess what? As soon as they are well rooted, they have a value and can be sold immediately! Isn’t that cool? Typically a rooted cutting is worth about 50 cents. Let’s see now, 1500 cuttings at 50 cents each, that’s $750.!!! Wow!!! The wheels should be turning now.
But you don’t have to sell 50 cent plants. You can grow them until they’re bigger and get more money for them. That’s what I do, I pot them up in small pots and they sell like crazy right from my driveway at $4.97 each.
This spring we sold over $25,000 worth of $4.97 plants right from our driveway. One of the people that bought my Backyard Nursery E-book held a sale this spring and sold $2,800 worth of plants her first weekend. She was ecstatic! Of course we also sold plants for much more than that. I used to grow Japanese Red Maples and we sold those for $45 each, and they sold like hot cakes!
This is one of the most fun and rewarding home businesses you could ever get involved in. My kids have learned work ethics, the value of a dollar, and skills that will last them a lifetime. Any time they needed a little extra money all they had to do was step out the back door and earn the money they needed.
It costs very little to get started, and the rewards can be quite high. It’s certainly not a get rich quick plan (because there is no such thing!), but plenty of people have done very well in the nursery business. All it takes is determination and hard work. You can learn it as you go along. It’s much easier than you think.
You are welcome to use this article on your website or in your newsletter as long as you reprint it as is, including the contact information at the end. Website URLs must be active links. You are welcome to use this article with an affiliate link, http://www.freeplants.com/resellers.htm
Michael J. McGroarty is the author of this article. Visit his most interesting website, http://www.freeplants.com and sign up for his excellent gardening newsletter. Article provided by http://gardening-articles.com
August 1, 2008 at 2:21 pm · Filed under Business
Whether you’re a startup or an established small business, one of the toughest decisions that you will make is how much money you are going to spend on your advertising and marketing communications. Prospects need to be acquainted with you, need to know what you do and how your product or service will benefit them. They need to know where to find you, and how to contact you. But how much should you spend to get that word out?
For companies who are just beginning a communications program, the tendency is to decide where you think you need to advertise, and then spend whatever it takes to get to be there. You rely on your instincts to tell you what communications vehicles you ought to be using, and then price out what it costs to use them. Perhaps you do know your market very well, and you won’t waste a lot of time, money and energy in the wrong places. However, this approach has a definite flaw. You are not taking into account either what your company can really afford, or the dynamics of the marketplace, both of which are important factors that should play strongly into your thinking.
There are other, better ways of determining your marketing budgets, and at least one of them just may fit better into your company’s strategies.
1. Take a look at what your competitors are spending, and establish your budget based on the competitive marketplace.
This approach works well when your competitors are around the same size that you are, and when they are pitching the same size accounts that you are pitching. If everyone is spending at a fairly similar rate, then you can be comfortable that you know what the price of entry is into the market. You don’t necessarily need to use the same promotional vehicles that your competition uses, but you do want to try to capture a comparable share of voice in your prospect’s mind. The downside of this approach is that it really cannot be implemented effectively if there are only one or two very big spenders in your particular area. As a smaller business person, you cannot outspend or even match their big budgets, and so you must find a more creative way to gain mindshare among your prospects.
2. Take Approach #1 one step farther, and factor in your relative position in the market compared to the competition.
For this method, you still have to be aware of what your competitors are doing, but now you must also acknowledge that you need to be spending somewhat more if you are a late-comer to the market, or if your goal is to improve your market position. Conversely, you can spend less if you are already one of the leaders in your market. Take a look at what the average spend rate is in your product category, matching your geography and target audiences, if you can. Then think about using a dollar range that is 5% plus or minus that average, depending on whether your position is where you would like to be or not. Once again, you can be successful here if everyone in the market is around the same size, and you can be comfortable in their spending patterns.
3. Base your communications budgets on a percentage of your projected gross revenues. Now you are taking into account what kind of monies you will have available for communications, and also you are leaving yourself the flexibility to revise and adjust your budgets as your situation changes. If your program is very successful and sales increase, you can increase your budgets. In slow times, you can cut back, but still maintain a presence in your marketplace. You won’t spend yourself out of business, but you still need to take into account your particular market. The percentage that you will want to work with will vary by industry, but you should think about what it will take to be visible in the advertising media that your industry uses.
Any of the three methods outlined above will bring a sense of discipline to your marketing program. Whether you choose one of these options, or choose to work out a combination of techniques, you can feel more confident that your marketing efforts reflect a prudent business base, and that they integrate well into the personality of your company and the dynamic of your marketplace. And those are ultimately the keys to a successful marketing communications program.
Linda Riley
Linda Riley Media Services
http://lindarileymedia.com
For over ten years, we have been providing our clients with creative media strategies and cost-effective media buys. We don’t stop until you have the best possible program for the lowest possible media costs.
For more information, email Linda at lriley@lindarileymedia.com.
August 1, 2008 at 4:33 am · Filed under Business
RSS for the Rest of Us
I don’t know about you, but I’m seeing a whole bunch of articles and websites telling me that I need to get into this RSS thing.
Is it really time?
RSS (it stands for “Really Simple Syndication”) is the latest wave of internet technology designed to take advantage of the “Content is King” mentality. Imagine getting direct access to the content you want, without having to give out your personal information. Wouldn’t that be nice?
Here’s how it works: You find a website you like and look for the little orange XML button, or a link that says “Syndicate this site”. When you click that link, you get the raw feed of content from that site.
An example:
My Simplified Selling site allows you to syndicate my content. That means you don’t have to remember to visit my site to discovers articles of interest, but instead they are fed to your preferred RSS reader (more on this in a moment) at your behest.
That means you no longer have to open your browser and visit a particular website to see what’s new, to find out if anything interesting has been posted. All you have to do is open your RSS reader and content from all over the web is gathered into one place and presented for your review. An RSS reader is one-stop shopping for online information.
RSS Readers
There are hundreds of RSS readers on the market. You can collect RSS Feeds on your “My Yahoo!” page, or your “MyMSN” page. Current, updated content from your preferred sites is presented for your reading pleasure. Check the first few lines and if you’re interested, just click and you are instantly transported to that particular article. No more hunting around on a site looking for an article you like.
Newsgator (www.newsgator.com) is a third-party add-in that turns your Outlook mail client into an RSS reader. Not to be outdone, Microsoft has incorporated an RSS reader into the latest release of Outlook.
You can also get stand-alone RSS readers from Bloglines (www.bloglines.com) and RSSReader.com (www.rssreader.com). A quick Google search for “RSS Reader” returned over 2 million pages. You’ll have no trouble finding an RSS reader that you like.
But why?
That’s really the question. Of course we know why the internet folks want you to subscribe to their content, but why would the average websurfer want to go through the hassle of setting up and subscribing to RSS feeds?
Privacy
RSS feeds are more private than newsletters. Unlike when you subscribe to newsletters (where you must give your email address to the content provider so that the information can be emailed to you) when you subscribe to RSS Feeds, you don’t have to give your email address (or any personal information) to the site owner, because they aren’t mailing you their information.
Something to consider - it is possible that content providers will start asking for personal information when subscribing to an RSS feed. It hasn’t happened yet, so subscribe today before they start!
Portability
When I change email addresses or work on a different computer, I don’t lose the content I like, because my RSS reader is keeping track of the content I want to see - without the involvement of the content provider. It’s like radio stations on your Walkman. The station manager doesn’t know when you change the station and if you move across town, you don’t lose the stations. It’s all in your Walkman. When you’re using an online RSS reader (like My Yahoo! or MyMSN), your subscriptions are available from any computer, anywhere in the world.
No ‘Unsubscribe’ Headaches
When I’m tired of getting a newsletter, I am required to contact the publisher and “unsubscribe” to make the mailing stop. With RSS, you don’t have to interact with the website owner to get off the list. Simply click the button in your RSS reader and it will stop collecting data from that site. You are in complete control.
No More Spam
Today, RSS is pure content. Because you didn’t give out your email address to subscribe, you know that you won’t get spammed. The internet folks have an incentive to keep the feed relatively ad-free. While you’re reading their content in your RSS reader, if the content stops being interesting or becomes non-stop pitching, it is very easy for the reader (you) to disconnect. Most of these folks would rather keep you tuned in than to lose you forever.
Think of it like television. If “CSI: Crime Scene Investigations” becomes a long series of commercials and no plot, people will change the channel, many never to return. So the producers see to it that they have interesting content that keeps viewers returning for more. RSS will likely follow the same route.
Get yourself an RSS reader and start subscribing to feeds today. You’ll get the internet on your own terms.
About the author:
Chris Ellington gives effective and easy to implement marketing strategies to small business owners and home business entrepreneurs. His Simplified Selling System has been a favorite of salespeople around the world. Get your free marketing strategies at www.simplifiedselling.com
July 31, 2008 at 12:45 pm · Filed under Business
To make your self hypnosis effective you need to be aware of certain principles. If you are not aware of the following laws of the mind then you may end up creating the opposite of what you desire with your self hypnosis practice.
1. Every thought affects the body as well.
In other words, although the mind and the body are understood to be separate in practice it doesn’t work that way. Mental stress can create knots in your back or even give you ulcers. Therefore, Be aware of your thinking. If you are negative all the time to yourself or about your surroundings it is the same as negative self hypnosis.
2. What you expect tends to be realized.
If you wake up telling yourself you will have a bad day you probably will. In other words your expectations drive your results. Negative expectations is the same as negative self hypnosis.
3. Imagination is stronger than knowledge.
You ‘know’ that ghosts and monsters do not exist. Yet hearing ghost stories at night will create fear. Especially if sitting around a campfire in a forest. There is no contest. Imagination will always win. Another point for the importance of positive thoughts and visualizations in your practice of self hypnosis.
4. What you resist the most stays with you.
Have you ever had to stop doing something and found that its more difficult than you realized? Maybe you have had occasion to go on a diet and suddenly foods that you couldn’t have cared less about start looking very appetizing? Maybe there was/is someone who irritates you and you know there is no reason to. So you try to keep the irritation away but it gets to you even more?
I could go on and on with examples. Basically, when you resist something it tends to stick. This happens because when you resist you have to think of the very thing you are trying to resist, so it’s continuously on your mind.
It’s as if someone told you that they would give you a $1000 if you don’t think of a pink elephant all day. I’m sure you don’t spend your time thinking of something as random as a pink elephant. However, trying to resist that image of a pink elephant with a $1000 on the line would be impossible.
In other words, what you resist tends to stay with you. Which means that in focusing on an affirmation for self hypnosis you have to phrase the affirmation in the positive. I.e. affirm what you want to achieve and NOT on what you don’t want.
Follow these four laws of the mind and your day to day thoughts will be more guided in a positive direction. Of course, your thoughts create your internal emotional states which is the same as self hypnosis. So you have to be aware of your thoughts to create the state of being that you desire.
Abbas Abedi
Get More Information At My Blog Self Hypnosis
Abbas Abedi
Get More Information At My Blog Self Hypnosis
July 27, 2008 at 8:05 pm · Filed under Business
What are the best small business opportunities? I could just throw a list of opportunities at you and tell you that I had thoroughly researched the topic and found that these, the ones I’ve listed for you here, are hands down the best small business opportunities out there. Some of you might say “great, I’ll choose one of these”. The more astute reader would be inclined to say “oh yeah, the best how, or according to who”?
No one opportunity is the best for everyone reading this. We all have our own priorities and preferences to consider. Instead of trying to give you a “top ten list” of the best small business opportunities, I would rather give you a list of criteria to consider when choosing an opportunity. That way I’m teaching you how to compare all of the possibilities you might run into instead of just pushing you in a direction that might work well for me and poorly for you.
So here’s my list of “things to consider before choosing a small business opportunity”:
* How Much Money Can I Make Doing This – We all knew this one had to be here, and it really doesn’t require much of an introduction. I will say that many people never get beyond this one criteria when choosing a business for themselves. Many of those people fail because of one of the other criteria on this list.
* How Long Will It Take To Start Making Money – This is sort of a partner to the first one, but one that is often overlooked by those who are too focused on the “how much” and not enough focused on the rest of this list. If you choose the one that pays the best but you go broke while you’re waiting for the torrent of money to begin, that’s not such a great deal.
* How Much Money Will I Need To Spend To Get It Started – This is another one that takes a surprising number of people by surprise. People who haven’t done it before tend to think of owning a business as a purely income centric thing. Almost all business require some startup money, but the amount varies widely from one business to the next.
* What Sort Of Red Tape Is Involved – Another one that catches many a novice entrepreneur by surprise. We live in a very heavily regulated society. Gone are the days when good intentions are the only requirement for permission. The government regulates almost everything, and business is certainly no exception. These regulations are seldom intended to be for the greater public good. Most of it is the result of corrupt politicians making life better for their business partners and the rest is primarily invented as yet another means of taxing the public. Some of the best business opportunities are ruined by excessive regulation.
* Will I Be Swamped With Paperwork – Many small business persons fall victim to this problem. They develop a business that more or less requires several forms of record keeping and billing and bill collection and payroll and taxes of every variety. It is easy for the small business person to get swamped by all of this “busy work” and have very little time to devote to further developing their business.
* Will I Have To Deal With Employees – Talk about red tape and paperwork! It is almost true that a small business person can never hire just one employee, because that one employee will require a whole other person just to deal with all of the overhead that having employees brings with it. Add to that things like employee turn-over and training, personnel problems like drug use and no-shows, employee theft. Many small business owners work themselves to death just to avoid all this.
* Does It Have Unrealistic Time Requirements – If you’re a late sleeper or somebody looking to improve their free time situation by starting a small business of your own, you need to thoroughly research your choices on this one. Maybe you’re thinking “day trading”, but you live on the West Coast. The markets open at 6:30am, and you need to be bright eyed and bushy tailed before they open. Maybe the business you were thinking of requires your presence to deal with customer orders. Will you ever allow yourself the luxury of being away from the business and missing orders?
* Does It Require Me To Be Always In One Place – Whether your idea involves raising animals that need to be fed every day, or the use of machinery that is too large to take with you, you need to consider what kind of a toll it will take on you to be always anchored to one spot and unable to take a few days off and go somewhere.
* Can I Get Out Of The Business Easily – People change and their interests change. What seems like a fascinating area to work in today may seem like pure torture after you do it 60 hours a week for a few years. Is this a business that has some sale potential once established? Many small businesses are so dependent upon the skills of the owner that they are difficult or impossible to sell. After you put so much effort into building a business, it is hard to just walk away from it without some compensation.
* Will The Income It Generates Always Be Tied To How Much Time I Spend Doing It – Few people would immediately think of song writing or writing books as a business. Usually you first think of such things as artistic _expression rather than a business. But, those two activities do earn money, and they have an interesting property that would be very welcome in a small business. Residuals, or getting money for the same bit of work over and over again. Residual income is one of the main things you should aspire to get from a small business. Without that, it tends to be just another job, but with a lot more risk and a lot more stress. You want to build yourself a perpetual money machine, that keeps on spinning after you stop turning the crank.
Well, there you have it, ten criteria you can use to compare any small business opportunity you come across with others you have considered. This list will go a long way towards narrowing down the field when you are choosing a small business opportunity. In fact, some people complain that there is nothing left after they apply this list to the ideas they’ve been working on.
One reason that the Internet has created such a big boom in the small business world is that many of the best small business opportunities (according to an analysis against my list) are among the most common types of Internet businesses.
Take a website business for example: Huge income potential if you do it right, almost no startup costs, no regulation (except for fraudulent activities), no paperwork or employees required, work whenever you want, grab your laptop and go, good sale of business potential, and among the best businesses there are for residual income.
About the only one of the criteria above that this one fails on is the startup time. It will often take several months to a year to get a new website up to speed and generating lots of traffic and income. Some of the other Internet businesses don’t suffer from this downside, but do have other transgressions against my criteria. All in all though, as a class of businesses, you just can’t do any better than an internet business when using the criteria I’ve set forth above.
Scott J. Patterson is a self-proclaimed Dunce, yet last month he earned $12,124 from one of his online businesses. To find out how YOU can do the same, download his free ebook- The Secret Guide to Home Businesses: http://www.duncemoney.com/wbarticle.html
July 26, 2008 at 1:51 pm · Filed under Business
All too often we spend our days doing the same thing we did the day before. Just as often we find that the action of yesterday is not producing the results we are looking for tomorrow.
None the less, we keep plodding along hoping that by some miracle we will see a different result from the same action.
The interesting thing to note is that the majority of time most people focus on the past or worry about the future. Few people ever spend time considering this moment.
Start the search for change here
Getting new results starts with awareness. The majority of people never “admit” their true desires and goals in life and business. As a result, they don’t achieve them.
Take step one and write down the things you want to achieve in your business and life. What are your top 15 passions? What are the things you must achieve in your life and business?
Then relate to how your business helps you achieve those passions. By completing this step, you have begun building awareness of what you want to achieve in business and life.
Your next step is focus. How will you actually achieve the results you’re looking for? A majority of people do everything but take steps that lead to where they truly want to be. As a result, they never get there.
Don’t be a person who settles for “the hand that’s dealt to them.” You don’t have to, it’s a choice.
Focus on what you want in life. Connect the dots and realize how your business will get you there.
Then develop small, deliberate action steps that you can take everyday to get you to where you want to go in both life and business.
Here’s how to create your personal plan of action
1. Write down the top 15 things you want in your life. Include both personal and professional desires. Generally, the first thing that comes to mind is your heartfelt answer. Don’t over analyze. Go with your first impressions.
2. Review each item and compare one to the other. Start with the first item you wrote down. Compare it to the other 14. Of those 15-items, which one felt the best when you considered them all?
3. Continue down the list. Compare the remaining items. Find your second most important desire, then the third, until you have your top 5 items identified.
4. Next create small, deliberate action steps you can take each day to move one micro step closer to where you want to be in life every day.
5. Be sure you are moving toward your desires consistently. Don’t allow reaction to continue to take control.
6. At the end of every week, take a look at what you achieved. Have you allowed yourself to slip into the patterns of the past or have you consistently taken new action in every moment that moves you toward a future you really desire.
Bill Gluth is “Your Talent in Business Expert” and a professional speaker, trainer and consultant. He is the first person to specialize in developing “talent” as a competitive business strategy.
Bill brings clear, simple and focused action steps to any business building program. He spotlights unleashing your talent in business so that you can learn how to be unique in a commodity driven world.
Learn how you can help your business grow using, focus, human touch marketing and the greatest asset of all, your personal genius by visiting http://www.developyourvision.com
July 23, 2008 at 7:27 am · Filed under Business
Firstly - A Piece of Valencian History
Valencia is the third largest city in Spain, and has a rich history dating back well
before the Romans conquered the Iberian Peninsula in the 2nd century BC. The town
of Valencia was founded in AD 138 when a group of Roman legionnaires were
granted land. At various times, Valencia has been ruled by Romans, Visigoths, and
Arab Muslims, among others. The region of Valencia enjoyed its golden age, or siglo
de oro, in the 15th century, when it was among the Mediterranean’s great trading
powers, exchanging olive oil, rice, saffron, wool, and wine with much of Europe
In 1936 General Franco led the army in an uprising against the Republican
government. Valencia sided with the Republicans and was even the seat of
government for a time when Franco’s Nationalists held a stranglehold on Madrid.
When Franco claimed power in 1939, Valencia was caught having backed the losing
side, and suffered greatly under the early years of his rule. With the death of Franco
in 1975, Spain’s politics and economy began to open up and tourism, along with
agriculture, breathed new life into the Valencia economy.
Today, the most striking sight in Valencia is the number of construction cranes that
tower over the city. Valencia is a city on the move, and the presence of the 32nd
America’s Cup will only enhance what is already happening.
About Valencia
The Host City for the 32nd America’s Cup is Valencia, on the Spanish Mediterranean
coast. Boasting excellent racing conditions, a dedicated race village, a long maritime
tradition and a motivated host population, Valencia, on the picturesque Southeast
coast of Spain, is the perfect choice for the historic debut of the America’s Cup in
Europe.
Consistent, reliable, weather conditions, were the most important consideration in
making the selection, and Valencia is nearly perfect in this respect. This part of the
Spanish coast enjoys a summer sea-breeze regime, with a steady, moderate,
Southeasterly wind building late in the morning and holding through early evening.
In this respect it can be considered the Fremantle (the reliably windy Host City of the
26th America’s Cup) of the Mediterranean, although the wind is not as strong.
Historically, this sea-breeze is so regular during the summer racing months that
one could reasonably expect suitable racing conditions more than 90% of the time.
But Valencia promises far more than just excellent sailing. An America’s Cup village
in the Port is planned, where all the team bases will be built, with public access to
allow fans close to all the action. Two race-courses will be within just a 15-minute
tow of the bases, and racing could take place just metres from the shoreline,
making the action accessible to crowds on the beach and breakwater.
Facts and Figures about Valencia
Port of Valencia location 39 29′ North / 0 18′ West
City Population, 760 000
Average annual temperature, 17 C
90% sunny days each year
Full government support. The City of Valencia has formed VALENCIA 2007 with the
regional and Spanish government to administer the Host City duties
Inner harbour venue for Team Bases and America’s Cup Village
Spectator viewing of the races with a capacity for over 1-million from the beach and
breakwater
A leading Spanish tourist destination with over 4-million visitors to the region
annually
The region of Valencia has nearly 500km of coastline and 38 yacht clubs
An historic and cultural city with 42 museums, 13 art galleries, and 12 theatre 30
gardens and municipal parks
International schools for America’s Cup families, based on UK, US and European
curriculum
If you would like more information about the region and are thinking of investing in
property in the area visit Villa Angels.
Karen Milacic is a graphic and web designer living as a British expat on the Costa
Blanca for the past five years. Visit her other web sites at:
http://www.costablancaworld.com;
http://www.thedesignbusiness.co.uk;
http://www.costablanca-webhosting.com
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