Starting Your Own Business Blog

Starting An Online Business Over The Weekend

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 15:39:47 -0500

Starting an online business over a weekend takes 5 steps. But the most important one isn't what you think.

Online Network Marketing Business Meets Mexican Revolutionaries

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 17:32:51 -0500

Your online network marketing business plan has a thing or two to learn from the outcome of the Mexican Revolution of 1910. And it is the following...

How Lemmings Graduate From School To Fail In Business

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 22:42:02 -0500

Lemmings go to school from an early age and drown together after graduation. Are you one of them?

Easy Online Business For Turkey Haters

Sun, 11 Nov 2012 23:32:24 -0500

Easy online business seems elusive until you learn the secret to making people stick around.

Small Business Online Marketing And Going Broke On The Web

Sat, 3 Nov 2012 22:57:18 -0400

Small business online marketing when done wrong will bankrupt you. Here's a case in point.

Business System Planning You Can Learn From TV Cooks

Sat, 3 Nov 2012 00:55:51 -0400

Business system planning has at its center the seed of your small business success or failure. What is this spice of life?

I'm Finally Unemployed And Need To Look For A Job The Entrepreneur's Way

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 16:35:57 -0400

I've been a desktop support technician – a generalist, who never targeted any specific technology problem. My contract employers have always just wanted

How to Produce Your Small Business Marketing Plan Without Bloodshed

Sat, 27 Oct 2012 23:16:19 -0400

Your small business marketing plan is useless without this decisive ingredient. Do you have it? Or do you prefer a Roman sword in your belly?

Oh Agony! What To Become, Self-employed or Government Employee?

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 00:27:51 -0400

I agree starting a business is the best way to earn money versus taking a job. But for those who either need health benefits or for any other reason, the

How Window Cleaning Got Me Out Of Unemployment

Thu, 11 Oct 2012 00:35:55 -0400

I'd been unemployed for the last 4 yrs so I started my own window cleaning business in Sept 2012, and just how I'd seen in this website is how I did it...

How The Truth Even From A Crook Can Improve Your Lot

Sat, 6 Oct 2012 04:51:30 -0400

Recently Forbes had an article about Jeff Walker. He is an online marketer who has grown in popularity in the last 10 years for formalizing and systematizing a method for executing product launches online.

Jeff comes across as a highly down to earth kind of guy, which is his appeal. Plus he indeed has put together a very effective training program to guide online small businesses along the path of improving their new product sales. However, controversy is not far from this man.

Even a cursory search for his name, especially when associated with the term Salty Droid, brings up rather unsavory information, which brings me to my main point.

Getting the truth vs. Using the truth.

There are occasions when it may be better to accept people at face value even while others suspect them of crafty subterfuge. Why? Because it may be too expensive for you to run a full evaluation of someone who aims to deceive by way of sharing the truth with you. Allow me to clarify.

According to the notoriously foul-mouthed attorney who pseudonymously runs the Salty Droid blog, Jeff Walker is nothing short of a vampire who aims to "suck you dry." What's the basis for this accusation?

Allegedly what Jeff teaches won't help you run a real business.

The price that he charges (over $2,000) is unaffordable for those who buy from him.

Once committed to such a price, his customers in desperation will not give up the venture though they should.

Finally the conflict that in desperation these customers produce with their attempts to make the unworkable work out ultimately destroys families.

Therefore, Jeff Walker is Dracula using mind control techniques to doom you, except that what he teaches, albeit expensive, in my view does work...if you actually put it to use. Most people do not have such personal discipline to follow through.

This is where you must ask yourself, "What should I do when someone might be using the truth to deceive me?" The answer is "Use the truth and don't be deceived."

If we assume that much of what Jeff Walker is accused of doing is true or that, as I believe, he is simply a controversial figure but a highly competent marketer, then you should at least discern what is true that he says and then use it, his motives notwithstanding.

The same applies to anyone else who gives you a piece of sound advice, a true insight or piece of reality that can benefit you, but whose aim in doing so is ultimately self-serving.

Use the truth to your benefit while guarding against underlying self-serving motives from the giver of truth.

Small Scale Business Marketing That Works

Sat, 6 Oct 2012 04:43:45 -0400

Small scale business marketing makes a big difference when you remember this rule of thumb.

How You Will Lose Your Job To A Robot

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 22:59:46 -0400

Technology continues to increase at an exponential rate. Advancements are relentless. Machines continue to overcome limits previously thought impossible technologically to overcome. More and more machines begin to interact with humans is areas where only humans were thought capable of performing tasks.

Consider waitressing.

Can you envision an advance version of ASIMO below wrapped in the skin of the android in the second video?

The human like robot above is experimental and already 2 years old. So a newer version is only more life-like.

Such robots are being placed at hospitals to observe how patients feel around them, because these robots can see you and imitate your behavior.

It is not difficult to imagine that in not too distant a future, such a robot could replace waiters and waitresses; that is, jobs once thought too difficult for machines to do well. It's unlikely these machines will ever come so close to imitating human behavior that we'd not pick up the slight differences and spot them for what they are – artificial creatures, humanoids. But we may nonetheless become accustomed to them enough to entrust them directions, information and to rely on their responses to carry out our commands.

"Yes, I'd like fries with that. Thank you..."

And I wonder if we could then come to say ever again that someone was "manning" the store.

How many human jobs in our life time will disappear to be handled by machines, freeing human resources for greater purposes? And are you preparing for this amazing change?

Real Work From Home Jobs, Is It Really Possible?

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 19:25:54 -0400

Real work from home jobs is fast becoming just a dream. But you have one way to turn this dream into serious reality.

Not Even 20 And I Want A Business To Help Children With

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 22:21:00 -0400

I am 19 years old and I want to start a business that helps kids reach their goals in life and that also gives less fortunate families opportunities.

Small Business Lead Generation When You're Penniless

Sat, 22 Sep 2012 01:55:43 -0400

Small business lead generation is possible to do without customers or money. Here's how.

What Does It Take To Go From Idea To Business?

Wed, 19 Sep 2012 23:29:36 -0400

My father had it right. To move from the idea of having a business to the stage of actually having that business, it takes actions not words. Choices.

For years academia has taught, much as seminaries do with priests and pastors, that business like religion is mainly a concentration of beliefs rather than a practice. And that to organize a business much as you would do with a religion, you must have thoughtfully nurtured words orderly written down.

Just as religious doctrines end up enshrined in catechisms and Sunday School study guides, you need to enshrine a business in the form of a business plan before you could argue that you have a business, the academics tell us. But this has always been flawed thinking.

Consider that it is Holy Writ which says in the epistle of James that actual religion, pure and unsullied, is the choice to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and the choice to keep oneself unstained by the world. The written word points to action. Real religion is a practice. Likewise real business is not what you find written in a business plan but what you witness as practiced between the service provider and the customers.

This is why I have so many problems with today's brand of business startup guides. They've provided the same old fare for decades. They emphasize form over substance. You spend so much time filling out worksheets to draft a business plan that in the end you conclude by feeling like you've actually achieve something, when in fact you have nothing close to an actual business after all that work.

To start a business you need to think outside the typical business management box, because obviously a startup is not an existing business; therefore, there is no business yet to manage. Instead what you have before you is a short-term project to succeed in and then replicate until you have a cyclical process that you can systematically operate and execute work activities against to fulfill the demands of your customers with both efficacy and effectiveness.

This goes against every traditional business development methodology out there. But it is your way to successful entrepreneurship.

You can see a simplified yet thorough description of the same in UDACity's free "How To Build A Startup" eCourse, which I recommend you subscribe to. It's one of the few programs on entrepreneurship that won't waste your time.

Your startup is not a mini version of a large business. You're an acorn not an oak tree. The only relationship between the two is potential growth. But neither one is really the other.

Focus on verifying what will work with your customers in the early stages of your business and let growth guide the way you organize your business rather than prematurely organize your business for growth, the way established companies do.

Online Home Business System Without Wasting Your Money

Sun, 16 Sep 2012 00:37:23 -0400

Online home business system walks you step by step but only if you don't already lack the starting point.

Will Your Business Blend? You Better Find Out.

Sun, 16 Sep 2012 00:33:41 -0400

In a world of $50 blenders, Blendtec has managed to charge a premium thanks to a memorable marketing campaign called "Will It Blend?" that has been going strong for years.

Its $500 blender has stayed on the spotlight making powder of the competition by pulverizing every conceivable artifact its customers challenge CEO Tom Dickson to try out. The experiments are videotaped and published via social media.

There is a good lesson here for every fledgling entrepreneur to learn. Will your claims stand the test of public scrutiny from your customers?

There is only one way to find out. Ask them. Whatever the result, you will then know whether you can go public with your results or back to the drawing board until you figure out how to make your claims pass the "Will It Blend" public trial.

Little more can spin you into success and little else can just as surely pulverize your prospects of achievement than poor customer testimonials. Seek for them by proving first that your services can stand the pressure of customer scrutiny.

Independent Contractor vs Employee Controversy If Unemployed

Sat, 8 Sep 2012 20:42:06 -0400

Independent contractor vs employee is an easy controversy to settle for the unemployed, if you're entrepreneurial. Here's how.

Earn Quick Money Anywhere, Anytime, Always Doing This

Sun, 2 Sep 2012 02:39:15 -0400

Earn quick money when you put to practice this one crucial ability many pay for.

Why The Business Of Socializing Business Sickens

Sun, 26 Aug 2012 20:38:46 -0400

Advocacy of entrepreneurship is a defense of capitalism well understood. And a defense of capitalism implies a conflict against opposing economic views. Chief among those contrary views today is socialism.

I couple of days ago we got some criticism via Twitter for one of our most popular articles on entrepreneurship and capitalism. The article opened with a picture of Havana and Hong Kong 60 years ago, and how each city looks like today after Communists had their way with the former and not their way with the latter post bloody revolutions in Cuba and China respectively.

The contrasts couldn't be more striking. Take a look for yourself.

Nearly 40,000 page views later, it's apparent that this picture stimulates a great deal of interest. And why shouldn't it? If you needed medical attention, which city would you prefer to seek it in?

But it wasn't communism that produced Hong Kong. Neither was it socialism. Don't believe me? Just ask Fidel Castro, maker of Havana, 2010. He will tell you that Cuba today is the result of socialism in action.

How so? Because socialism is the same as communism.

On September 8, 2010, Venezuelan reporter Vanesa Davies interviewed Fidel and put a question squarely before him.

Reporter: What is Socialism to you today in the 21st-Century?

Fidel: To me? It is Communism. It's what Marx himself defined as a communist to be Communism.

You've heard it from the chief social engineer himself.

Socialism is the sure way to poverty and ruin. We at Starting Your Own Business Overnight.com advocate for abundance and success, not for ruin and failure. So, critics, get over it, especially if your criticisms follow lame rationalizations such as this one below. The 20th-Century taught us that your likewise lame and failed system cost mankind countless millions of lives and produced nothing but misery. That's a lousy return on investment. May it sink back into the hellish slough whence from it came.

(Note: A Dalek is an annihilator, "one who reduces to nothing," from the Latin words ad = "to" and nihil = "nothing", as in nihilist. You'll need it to make sense of the last remark below.)

Online Jobs Work From Home When...

Fri, 24 Aug 2012 20:35:26 -0400

Online jobs work from home if you stop thinking like a wage slave. Here's how.

Why If You're Going To Die You Should Make It New York City

Fri, 24 Aug 2012 18:30:02 -0400

A powerful story well told goes a long way in drawing attention to your case or to someone else's. Good marketers use them to a good purpose. They envelop your senses and bring into focus what's good for you in the tale being told. By crafting a good story, you can help bring others in need to a realization that you have something to offer them to meet that need they have.

Take for instance Ed Gavagan below. He's a carpenter who had a close encounter with a trauma center in New York City – 2% chance of survival. Yes, that bad.

Notice who is sponsoring the speaking engagement below. Science conference organizers. Notice who is the audience. World leaders in science and technology. What has Ed Gavagan accomplished for the sponsor through storytelling?

Storytelling sells. Good storytelling sells more.

If you have time, watch Ed's speech at The Moth. Same story, different audience. It's TWICE as good. He's speaking to New Yorkers about what makes New York City what it is and why life is worth living there.

Can you see how you can tell the same story just as powerfully for different audiences through different venues and still get a roaring effect? This is marketing through and through.

Learn to speak powerfully and tell stories to your ideal clients.

They will do business with you for it.

Online Business To Start If You're Smart

Sun, 19 Aug 2012 15:52:42 -0400

What online business to start? If you're smart, consider the following before taking your first step.

Steps To Start A Business Fast

Sat, 11 Aug 2012 21:05:45 -0400

The steps to start a business can be many or few. But which are optimal if you want to start fast?

6 Reasons You're Out Of Work And How To Overcome Them

Fri, 10 Aug 2012 17:16:42 -0400

One of the biggest challenges for the unemployed employee and the unemployed entrepreneur is that both tend to fail in fulfilling a series of fundamental requirements to start the wheel of success spinning for them. Since it's common for both to do it, we should consider these weaknesses as common to mankind.

The good news is that they're all possible to overcome with simple attention to detail. Let's see a listing of them.

NOT Listening To The Requirements

NOT Showing Courage And Tenacity

NOT Expressing Trustworthiness And Sincerity

NOT Being Anything Other Than Self-focused

NOT Making An Offer That Can't Be Refused

NOT Being Truthful And Candid

Now let's review each of these briefly as a continuous thought.

If your objective is to convince someone to do business with you, whether by hiring you to deliver a service or by hiring you to deliver a product, then your failure to listen to the desires of this individual will keep you from reaching deep into this person's willingness to listen to you.

And you want to be listened to, don't you? I mean, you want to pitch an argument for getting hired, don't you?

So start by listening.

This kind of listening must be active, however. It must be responsive. And this is where courage and tenacity come in play. To listen to somebody, you must first approach and prompt someone to speak with you. Again, who will do this prompting?

That's right. You will. This takes moxie.

It's hard to speak to a stranger about something you want to say. It's even harder if the first thing you're to do is listen to that stranger's wishes. So you must be bold and resolute in reaching out to this person to initiate such a conversation.

What, then, could make this conversation worthwhile to this stranger?

Your sincerity and trustworthiness.

When you approach someone who you wish to persuade, be genuine about your aims. Be yourself and, if possible, come recommended to elicit even greater trust. This greases the gears of interaction and facilitates conversation.

But don't ruin it all with egotistical prattle. If you approach with the intent of having the object of conversation be yourself in the end, no matter how well you listen, ultimately you'll put your foot in your mouth.

Focus instead on the other individual and make an offer she can't refuse. Use the knowledge that you gain from your active listening and give what is wanted. Be truthful about it. If you can't deliver it, say so. But keep your focus on the other person. Find a way to help out.

Build a relationship, even if so briefly, by way of your candid admission to a devotion to help (or to be unable to help, as the case may be). But always be willing, if in any way possible you could help.

This is how you can find work and clients.

To see the above put to practice in a most engaging way, check out this video from the ever effervescent Marie Forleo. Do enjoy!

What Business Should I Start If I'm Unemployed?

Fri, 3 Aug 2012 22:41:29 -0400

What business should I start? If you're unemployed, you may not have asked yourself this question. Maybe you should.

Start In Business Without Turning Into A Low-Price Junkie

Sat, 28 Jul 2012 03:36:58 -0400

Start in business without hang-ups that kill. Here's one of them to avoid.

Don't Twitch. But To Get Rich You Gotta Ditch The Niche!

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 06:43:56 -0400

If you've done any degree of marketing as an entrepreneur, you must know by now that to be successful you need to concentrate on a narrow market segment – a niche – where you can be a leader for a select group of customers. If you do not focus on a niche, your business will fail. It's that simple.

But as you proceed to work your niche, you may end up hitting a brick wall.

One reason why working a niche might not prove successful for you is that you end up misaligning yourself with the wrong people and working with the least ideal clients, even if they're paying customers. In fact, out of desperation, you might settle for working with the worst kind of clients you can possibly ever end up with. This is typical of a small business that tries to seize upon every opportunity that comes through the door.

But did you go into business to be miserable and settle for the worst?

The wrong niche is too costly for a small business to deal with. If you pick a niche prematurely you can end up attracting more loss than gain, such as enormous and constant levels of stress, confusion, frustration and lack of growth. You'll create an identity crisis for yourself. Again, is this what you go into business for?

How can you get clarity about your identity and fine tune your marketing to keep those kinds of unsavory clients away from you, while becoming a massive magnet just for your ideal clients and make lots of money working only with the people you love?

What if I told you that you'd have to commit marketing heresy and ditch the niche? Then the Marketing Police would be after you like the video below!

I know Lisa Cherney. We've worked together before, and if you want to learn how to establish this cornerstone of clarity for your business, then I recommend you listen to her 'Ditch The Niche' teleseminar below. You will gain tremendous insight from an enormously energetic, knowledgeable, genuinely successful and giving professional.

Click here to listen to Lisa's FREE teleseminar!

Don't forget to sign up for her newsletter. It's full of excellent advice.

An Entrepreneur Definition That Matters. Got It?

Sun, 22 Jul 2012 10:21:30 -0400

An entrepreneur definition that changes lives when you focus on this most important trait.

What You Need To Grow Your Business Fast And Furious

Sat, 14 Jul 2012 23:15:24 -0400

To grow a business fast it is imperative that you develop a systematic process that regulates and reaps the results from the strategy that you implement when setting up those very procedural steps that will make your business flourish. It may sound somewhat like circular thinking. But so is the case with all cyclical processes:

You formulate a strategy for organizing your business process.

You establish your business process to harness your business resources and direct them toward a common end.

You reap and evaluate the consequences of running your business according to said business process.

You go back to Step 1.

Most business owners do not know how to bring these primarily marketing systems into play to grow their operations. In fact, many are prone to fall into the technology as savior temptation and meet a sudden demise when their customers get fed up of being interrupted and annoyed by endless spam.

The main reason most business owners fail to grow their businesses fast is because they do not know how to align their business operations systematically to produce the greatest impact when dealing with their ideal customer.

Most business owners are neither consummate promoters nor are they systems analysts. They are craft technicians. They know one particular craft and know how to do it well. Put them in front of a customer just to deliver on such a craft and they're in their element. Get them to run a business along with delivering on their craft, and they struggle to stay afloat.

This is why business networking and coaching are so critical for the small business owner. It is more than a life insurance for the business. It is nourishment in the form of a vitamin shake.

Positive thinking, specialization in your field, persistence and a good work ethic, all play a fundamental role in making your business trustworthy and recognizable. But it is systems that make it sustainable, if the market demand is there to make it viable to begin with.

Even a business that is no longer viable may be able to execute a turnaround if its systems can quickly realign to a new vision and market demand. But no matter how great a vision a business owner may have for the company's future or how strong a demand for a new product or service there may be available in the market to exploit, no business will be able to gain from this potential without clear understanding and execution of marketing and operations systems, no matter the size of the company.

Aim to be seen as the only reasonable alternative to the marketplace that you're trying to address and do so systematically, if you want to grow fast and furious.

Technology In Marketing And What Entrepreneurs Should Beware Of

Sat, 14 Jul 2012 06:06:27 -0400

Technology in marketing can do more harm than good, unless you keep an eye out for this...

Will It Come Down To Desperation For Me?

Thu, 12 Jul 2012 00:20:17 -0400

I like your site and the story and articles. I really appreciate the detailed explanations of the car wash, dog walk, and lawn maintenance businesses.

Young Business Entrepreneur, Learn To Speak Proper English!

Wed, 11 Jul 2012 05:19:25 -0400

Young business entrepreneur, do you want to succeed in business? Then learn some proper English please.

Does It Ever Pay To Play The Underdog?

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 19:25:58 -0400

Growing up in Costa Rica I was assigned a book to read while in 8th grade called "Los De Abajo" by Mariano Azuela. The title roughly translates into "The Ones At The Bottom".

This wasn't a public school, so I had to go to the bookstore to buy the blessed book. I was only 13, so I was flummoxed every time I got kicked out of each and every bookstore that I visited.

Clerk: Can I help you?

Arturo: Do you have "The Ones At The Bottom"?

Clerk: Get outta here, kid, before I get angry.

Not until I walked into my fourth store and a well-endowed woman behind the counter replied to me with a smirk "No, I don't have the ones at the bottom. But I sure got the ones at the top," and I went "Huh?" did it begin to dawn on me with a blush in the cheek that I had been making a fool of myself for 2 days straight and with good reason.

I was so embarrassed that I walked out of the store into the evening my mind a mental block.

"Where's the book?" asked my dad in the car.

"Um, they don't have it either."

"What? You got 2 days to your deadline. You mean we have to go all the way downtown for this?"

I didn't want to put my dad through that hassle. He wasn't the type. I thought it better to show up to school without this book from hell than admit to him that I'd been stupid and nobody was taking me seriously. They knew him in town. They knew me. This wouldn't go down well at home.

But I knew that he wouldn't let me go to school without the book, unless I had tried all I could on my own before no time was left for a better solution. So I told him that the next day I'd go visit yet another local bookstore.

Of course, there wasn't any other store. I'd visited all of them already and gotten whupped with sneers.

Next day I walked my way to the same store he'd taken me to. I knew the book was there. It had to be. This was the biggest bookstore in town, except I got there much earlier. I watched behind a display until I was certain the woman clerk wasn't behind the counter. Then I approached a new clerk and asked with complete lucidity: "Do you have the book called 'The Ones At The Bottom'?"

"Let me check," said the clerk.

They didn't carry it.

I stepped out of that store empty-handed. But I thought I now had enough of los de abajo necessary to confront my dad, since I'd now be showing up to school without the book but with a decent excuse.

MORAL: Excuses change nothing, but make everyone feel better.

P.S. – I finally did get to the book...in college.

Best Home Business To Start When Unemployed

Sat, 7 Jul 2012 02:06:20 -0400

The best home business to start when you're unemployed may surprise you. Find out here what it is.

Starting A Business From Home Base

Sat, 23 Jun 2012 21:20:57 -0400

Starting a business from home as your base of operations won't work without matching 5 crucial characteristics.

I Got Fired And, To Make A Long Story Short, I Became A Billionaire...

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 03:06:38 -0400

If it's money that you want, then you're not going to get it by staying an employee. The money is with the money-maker. That's the business owner, not the hireling. Have you ever wondered how someone becomes a billionaire? You start with tenacious determination to fulfill a very specific desire in someone with money. This is why the biggest deals are made between businesses. And you help these business owners innovate where they've been stuck for a while. Free them to accomplish what they yearn for. You do this while being frugal yourself. It's the approach that Michael Bloomberg took. There's a lot you can learn from listening to his testimonial.

Start A Business With Persistence

Sun, 17 Jun 2012 00:11:21 -0400

Start a business with persistence and you'll do better than Fred Flintstone.

Ways To Make Quick Money With Small Business Marketing

Sat, 16 Jun 2012 22:03:36 -0400

Want ways to make quick money? Want to see proof? See them in action in this real story.

What To Give An Unemployed Grad For Graduation

Sat, 16 Jun 2012 20:17:53 -0400

It's that time of year and you may be wondering, "What's the best graduation gift that I could give to a new graduate?" Some grads would say a car. Some others would want a Club Med vacation or help getting them a fancy apartment in the city of their dreams. The less demanding would be happy with a frame for their useless diplomas. But the best gift you can give a new grad is guidance on how not to become an "educated failure". Therefore, give them a combination of the book "The Puritan Gift: Reclaiming the American Dream Amidst Global Financial Chaos" and a one-page business plan sample to help your young grad have a way out of despair, once this dreamer comes to the fullest realization that no dream job awaits months and months after graduation. What goes into a one-page business plan?

Write out your vision with teeth – a sentence that gets you fired up. Why will you undertake this venture and who will give an icicle in hell about it besides you?
List the top 5 benefits that you aim to fulfill in those who'd care about what you'll do – Be Specific, make them Measureable, Achievable, Realistic and Timebound. That's called being SMART.
Write down 5 strategies that will accomplish delivery of these benefits – include a description of who needs to help you achieve them.
Write down 3 money figures you estimate will suffice in getting you going – one is a total annual budget, another is an annual income projection, the third is an annual gross profit estimate.
Write down 5 action items you will undertake to get off your duffel bag.

Here's a decent example of a one-page business plan.

Best Salesmanship Advice For Starters

Sat, 9 Jun 2012 02:40:17 -0400

Best salesmanship for someone starting out in business consists of 2 key ingredients.

Starting A Business Telecommuting

Fri, 8 Jun 2012 07:25:20 -0400

Even while the trend in telecommuting (also known as teleworking) is increasing, some employers are concerned whether working from home leads to a delivery of lower quality service. They ask this of employees. But do they ask this of independent contractors? Of course not! And this is very telling regarding the employer mindset in some companies. According to the Harvard Business Review more than 10% of America's workforce currently telecommutes from home. The Telework Research Network indicates that telecommuting increases productivity between 15% and 55%, 79% of workers want to telecommute and 36% would choose it over getting a raise. Michael Carter, CEO at AppsCare said that the telecommuting trend "is expected to accelerate in future years due to the ongoing globalization of work and the cost and time of commuting," because "telecommuting allows companies to expand their talent pool beyond the 20-mile radius that most companies hire in, to literally anywhere in the world.” So what's the concern over quality of service? Findings by a Microsoft survey show that 64% of employees are more productive when working remotely instead of at the office. In fact, teleworkers face most of their work stress from interruptions associated with increased face-to-face communication, email, instant messaging and videoconferencing. In short, for telecommuters there is no shortage of communication with others, but it is distractions and a less relaxing environment at the office than off site which produces stress and a decline in both productivity and quality of work. Those who work remotely by choice enjoy it. It has all the advantages of running your own business working for an exclusive client. So why don't more people do it? The reasons are myriad. But the time has come to face up to them. As writer Bob Bly puts it, "the 9 to 5 world has become a shaky and uncertain place. The old 'guaranteed' job security of the 1970s is long gone." He adds, "If you're young and just beginning in your career, consider starting a small business either on a full or part-time basis. The entrepreneurial experience will serve you well in later life. And you are at an age when - unburdened by family and mortgage - you can afford to take risks. If you are a 9 to 5 worker who has a job, look around for a home business you can do on a moonlighting basis." Don't know where to start? Read this. Then start by propositioning your boss to let you telecommute. Get a feel for being on your own while still tethered to only one employer. Perform remotely like you've never done while in the office, where interruptions and politics can use up so much energy. Then evaluate whether on your own time you can be a remote service provider to someone else who is not in competition with your current employer. And start your own business this way.

Repeat This Process To Get New Customers Via Social Media

Sat, 19 May 2012 20:53:16 -0400

You have to hand it to Ikea, the Swedish ready-to-assemble furniture company. It has learned to use social networks like Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter to generate new names for its email communications, through which they promote their products and services. If you wish to understand this simple process, see the chart that I've created below to explain it. You can do the same as Ikea to promote your own products and services. All you need are:

A website and a way to distinguish one part of it from another for your customers. This way you avoid having to create a separate microsite the way Ikea does.
A Pinterest account

A Facebook fan/business page
A Twitter account

Click here to open the chart below as a popup window

What To Do When Part-time Work Experience Is Not Enough?

Tue, 8 May 2012 18:10:12 -0400

I worked part-time through college. I just graduated and I have about 2 years worth of work experience. But the truth is that even with my experience I

How Not To Lose Sales When People Want To Pay You With Credit Cards

Tue, 8 May 2012 18:04:25 -0400

Can you lose a sale because you're not ready to take your customers' money? Whether you entertain clients in your home or prefer to work in the field,

Can College Debt Send You To Debtor's Prison?

Tue, 8 May 2012 18:02:54 -0400

One benefit that most student loan debt has over credit card debt is the way that interest is calculated against it. With credit cards you pay interest on the interest that accumulates against your principal balance. Example: If you pay 18% per year in interest to your credit card company and you put on your card a vacation to Paris costing $5,000, then at the end of the year you would be charged $900 in interest. Now, keeping things simple, let's assume that you make no payments for a year. By the end of your second year you would pay not $900 in interest but $1,062, since the creditor would have added the $900 of interest from year 1 onto your existing balance of $5,000 and charged you 18% in interest over the entire balance of $5,900 that you owed. This is called compounded interest. But most student loan debt accrues interest in a simpler way. You pay interest only on the principal balance and not on the accrued interest. So, in the example above, you'd pay interest only on the $5,000 and not on the $900 that accrued throughout the year on top of your original $5,000 debt. This situation can rapidly change, however, the moment a payment deferment, forbearance or grace period expires, such as a few months after your graduation date. At that time, if you've been receiving a government subsidy (i.e. Uncle Sam has been covering your interest payments while you were in school), then a lender may start accruing your interest costs against your principal balance and now your loan expense will be compounded. This is how your principal balance amount increases with each pay period and for as long as you have an outstanding principal, unless you make bigger and more frequent payments than the lender schedules for you. So, what happens if your interest rate doubles? What happens is that your compounding rate also doubles. Instead of paying $900 on $5,000, for instance, you'd pay $1,800 on $5,000. The next year you'd pay $2,124 in compounded interest instead of $1,062. See why reducing your principal fast helps you? An 18% interest rate is usurious. Seeing it double to 36% would be madness for credit card companies. But government subsidized Stafford college loans are about to double in rates from 3.4% to 6.8% starting July 1. Private loan lenders already provide variable rate loans that can jump 5 points over the loan's lifetime. And with a $1 trillion student debt bubble that practically is now impossible for debtors to discharge in bankruptcy court, what awaits the regularly unemployed graduates out there? It better be an entrepreneurial spirit to start micro-businesses quickly without debt and a desire to generate enough cash flow to make their loan payments larger and more frequently than anticipated to redeem themselves from the bondage of debt slavery and the growing possibility of debtor's prison.

Starting A Business From Home Won't Forgive You This

Wed, 2 May 2012 18:33:12 -0400

Starting a business from home will make this one demand of you. Can you deliver?

If Only I Could Figure Out The Entrepreneurial Process

Wed, 2 May 2012 16:49:58 -0400

I am still in the process of figuring out how to most effectively combine my talents. Having liberty to fulfill my vocational purpose in life is what drives