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Category: Business Activity

  • Blueprint for Building Your Successful Business




    Study reasons for failure

    Starting a business and becoming successful is often part of the American Dream. But there is a difference between starting a business and building a successful business. Many businesses fail within the first few years of existence due to the lack of planning for the long-term, in many cases because there is not enough vision and there is not enough done to properly strengthen the business from the ground up.

    If you want to start a business there is an easy way to get a better understanding of why some businesses fail and others don’t. When starting a business try to think about it in terms of building a house. If done right, the house will protect you against any kind of storm or other dangerous elements from the outside world, and it will last for a long time.

    Develop and follow a plan

    Following the same line of reasoning for your business, as the house offer shelter and protection because it was constructed properly, your business will offer economical well-being when It is built properly. For you and your business the translation is, you want to have a business that is able to weather economical ups and downs (a la the storm in our house example) and that will provide income to pay the bills (a la shelter and protection in our house example).

    When building a house there are several different steps you must take in order to have that house built properly. You know you want a house, but first you have to pick a location and get an architect to draw up a plan and a set of specifications. In the business world that would translate to: You know you want to start a business, but you have to come up with a business idea and develop a business plan.

    Lay a solid foundation

    The next step for the house would be to build a foundation (and eventually the basement) for the house. In the business scenario, you have to build the initial infrastructure (example: connecting with vendors, finding a manufacturer , creating a sales team, renting office space, getting a delivery truck, etc.). Once that is in place you’ll be able to actually do business and earn some money.

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    However, you are not completely done yet, because you still need to build a frame, put in windows and install a roof on the house. Similarly for , you’d have to pay off debt, improve business processes and get professional help when needed (example: find a tax accountant, select a payroll service, etc.).

    Once the house is built you probably want to furnish it and make sure the interior is suitable for your family’s comfort and safety for present time as well as years in the future. Obviously nobody wants to sleep on the floor, if a bed and other furniture is available.

    Reinvest in your business!

    This stage of the house construction, which is close to completion, is translated to building the business in the sense that you are investing money you earned back into your business. Business owners reinvesting in their businesses is something that is done routinely. One example of that is buying machinery instead of leasing it.

    Eventually the business buys a building, hire more staff, , move into new markets, build up a high cash reserve, and buy other businesses and so forth. This is often the step where winners and losers separate. Re-investing money into the business is a key factor for success. If you go and spend all the money on your own salary to buy personal things, you have nothing to go back to when the economy slips into a recession or some kind of disaster.

    Build up a cash reserve

    The successful business owner has built up a cash reserve or can borrow money from a bank – securing loans with the assets of the business. Going back to building a house this pretty much matches the same efforts.

    You pay off your mortgage and have equity available to eventually borrow against when emergency arises. Emergencies do not include paying off credit cards to use them again or to buy a car. Financially responsible owners (home or business) should be looking at the long term and not finance short-term goods with long-term debt.

     

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  • Creative Professionals Need Not Charge by the Hour


    One of the biggest challenges creative businesses have had to contend with in the past, and still exist to a great extent, is getting paid what they are worth. The root of the problem was not the client’s inability to pay the money requested; and it isn’t that the client is unwilling to pay what the service is worth. The root of the problem is in how you, the professional, is charging and how you are creating value in the mind of the client.

    In order to buck the trend – so to speak – and start getting paid for the value you provide, instead of the time you spent on a particular project, you must do a couple of things. First, you must create a business based on value pricing and not hourly pricing. The number one worst way to charge (and most creative businesses have been charging this way) is by the hour.

    Frankly, it shouldn’t matter how long it takes you to solve the client’s problems or provide your service, it should matter that the client is getting what s/he needs and what he wants. If you’re creating value and you’re giving them value, they’ll pay you for that value. They should not be paying you for your time.

    Second, you must determine what value you are providing. If you’re being paid for your time you’re essentially setting a ceiling on how much money you can make because you can only work so many hours. Therefore, you must determine, specifically what your value is to the customer/client, not how many hours you will work for that customer/client.

    Here are a few questions to consider in that regard:

    • How do you impact that customer or potential client?
    • What do you provide to them that will help them and help to solve their problems?
    • How will solving these problems impact the customer?
    • Is it a problem with high impact or low impact?
    • What is important to the customer?
    • Why is it important to the customer?
    • How important is it?
    • Have they had experiences working with someone in your type of business before?
    • If so, was it a good or bad experience? Why? Exactly what happened?
    • Why is the client coming to you for this issue?
    • What is the client’s definition of success with this project?
    • Ask him to describe specific ways he will know he made the right choice in hiring you.

    By getting the answers to these questions – not guessing what the client will say, but actually getting the client to answer these questions – you will have the information you need to create VALUE in the mind of the client. If they perceive your work to be valuable, they will be thrilled to pay you. If they do not perceive your work to be of value, they won’t pay you no matter how low you go on the pricing scale.

    It’s all in the mind of the client. Get in their head and understand specifically what they want and, even more specifically, why they want it. Once you do that, getting paid what you are worth becomes a matter of how-much-is-your-bill-I’ll-get-the-checkbook, instead of “I don’t know-I want to think about it a little more, let-me-get-back-to-you.

    For the purpose of pricing, think of your business as if were a real estate agency where commissions are negotiated between the principal (the seller of property) and the agent (the real estate broker), without the imposition of any “set” fees or hourly payments for the agent’s time.

    The broker may negotiate a higher fee if s/he believes the job may require more resources, advertising and risk, or s/he may negotiate lesser of a commission if the sale is considered a “slam dunk”. The point is – based on my frame of reference – there is no preset fees, hourly prices or time-based payments for the agent’s compensation.

    As a token of our appreciation the free ebook titled, Storytelling Marketing can be yours if you have any interest in the art of storytelling. All you have to do is download it here, enjoy the reading and learn how storytelling can be a powerful ally in any business or marketing pursuit!

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  • Composites of Entrepreneurial Success and Failure


    The motivating factor

    An entrepreneur has much to learn in order to be successful. Among the educational requirements are: The day-to-day complexities of running a business, creating and/or producing products, delivering services, making money and dealing with the public. The biggest challenge of all, however, is to develop an understanding of his/herself.

    Entrepreneurs must come to grips with what they want and what motivates them; this will support their willingness to face adversity – that is bound to arise – and come out as winners over the long term. Successful entrepreneurs will have learned to transform their thinking, allowing them to prevail where others fail along the way.

    True entrepreneurs struggle with their business ventures just like anyone else and for a variety of reasons, among the most obvious of which are a lack of capital, lack of understanding about marketing, and personnel issues. However, from my own entrepreneurial experience (32 years in real estate and mortgage financing business), and what I know of others, there are three underlying causes of failure when individuals pursue entrepreneurial ventures.

    1. They tie the success of their business with their own self worth.
    2. They neglect to set realistic goals and plans for themselves and their business.
    3. They are not prepared to pay the price for success.

    True entrepreneurs with the right mindset will prevail over a period of time because they will have learned to understand certain fundamental maxims of entrepreneurial success.

    Playing the part

    Successful entrepreneurs, in contrast to those who fail, have learned to separate their standings in life from their self worth or self-identity. They understand that positive performance or failure in their own venture is not a judgment of them as individuals. People who are inclined to measure their self-worth against their venture performance are inherently adverse to risk and seek to remain in a perceived comfort zone.

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    Being able to differentiate these two identities allows them to see risk differently, and manage it better, which in turn lays the groundwork for success as an entrepreneur. People who have risked failure, experienced it, and learned from it, have not only learned how to separate their business performance from their self-identity, they’ve also learned the lessons of risking and failing.

    These risk takers have a clear understanding that early failure in ventures is a natural part of successful start-ups. They are able to embrace those experiences, learn from them early and move on. This is critical to success as an entrepreneur. They must be willing to face and deal with early failures in order to prevent ultimate failure.

    Objectives

    Even though much is said and written about goals and objectives being necessary for success as an entrepreneur, few people learn the mechanics of successful goal and objective setting and planning. It’s not the plan but the planning that is important, and the goal setting process allows them to develop the confidence to take risks and fail.

    Successful entrepreneurs are not only goal driven and goal oriented; they have learned to put into place the steps required to plan strategically and put forth reachable goals and realistic objectives. Visualizing goals, writing them down and putting together a detailed plan for achievement provides the confidence and motivation to prevail.

    More than just business or operational plans, they have goals and objectives for all the important roles in their life. They have learned early that if they aren’t working their own plan they are probably working on those set forth by someone else. They chart their own course, embrace risk-taking leadership positions, make adjustments as required and prevail over a predetermined period of time.

    Paying the price

    As with any other aspirant to accomplished fields of endeavor, an entrepreneur understands that in order to be successful s/he must be prepared to pay the price at one time or another. There are really no overnight entrepreneurial successes. In fact, it has been said that overnight success generally takes 15-20 years. One of the early prices that entrepreneurs are quite often forced to face is the “re-making” of themselves in a way that can propel them to grow beyond the comfort of their sphere of influence.

    A primary business tool on hold

    Since most people tend to stay within their own psychological comfort zone, they begin to lose the risk taker mentality. They are comfortable with the type of person who is more like them, while the successful entrepreneur moves on to a different circle of associates who understand the journey.

    Boldly breaking out

    Breaking out, being your own person and venturing into the unknown risk induced is lonely but bold, and forces the risk taker to face the new set of circumstances. Consequently, there can be a new-found stress in old relationships.

    It’s been said before that pioneers get shot in the front and the back, and only through a process of separating the venture performance from self-worth, being open to risks, prevailing through adversity, sticking to set goals and objectives, and adjusting your plans will you be prepared to pay the ongoing price that must be paid if you are to be a successful entrepreneur.

     

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  • Being an Entrepreneur: Skillful, Creative, Committed


    A small business owner is expected to be creative and inventive, if s/he is expected to succeed in the operation of his/her enterprise. While small business owners are not expected to be geniuses, most of them are entrepreneurs, and therefore must possess the skill, creativity and commitment to their craft in order to be successful. If you have a sneaky feeling that creativity is not one of your strong points, you may then ask, what can I do to stimulate my brain and get it kicked-started? The answer may lie in the few ideas provided in the following paragraphs

    Be unlimited

    Too many people are ‘limited thinkers’. They have their world placed squarely in a box and nothing can exist outside of that. If the newspaper reports something then it must be right. If Joe next door says that something is impossible then he must be right. As a small business owner, you cannot afford to be a ‘limited thinker’.

    You have to be an ‘unlimited thinker’ in order to be a successful entrepreneur or enterpriser. Get into the habit of seeing no boundaries; decide that there are no taboos. Be imaginative, originative, even fanciful. Have the belief that with a bit of focus you can find a creative solution to all of your problems. This is the foundation for a creative thought process.

    Be a future-focused writer

    Creative ideas invariably come when you ‘look’ into the future. The feeling of propelling yourself forward and seeing the problem solved is a great motivator. Do you think you could achieve the same result if you were backward focused? I don’t think so! Train yourself to be future-focused, always looking ahead, not a traditional thinker who tries to find answers in today’s world.

    Once you open your mind to the joys of creativity the ideas will quickly start flowing, as if someone has opened the flood gates! Just like flood water, unless you catch it the ideas are lost for ever. Capture all your ideas by carrying a small pocket notebook with you. As soon as an idea pops into your mind, write it down. It doesn’t matter how outlandish it is, you can look at it in the cold light of day later on.

    The fact you are responding to the ideas by noting them will further encourage you to be even more creative – good deeds encourage more good deeds! And the same can be said of “good habits”. If you get into a good habit routine, you will be pleasantly surprised at how your actions will automatically adjust to the good habit routine with little effort on your part.

    Be clutter-free & action-oriented

    If you are naturally an untidy person, then get out of the habit! A cluttered office will lead to a cluttered mind. You cannot expect your brain to work efficiently when all it’s doing is constantly reminding you how untidy your office is. To be creative remove all the clutter from your life and free your mind.

    All of these points are great, but if you don’t take any action with your ideas, then you may as well not have bothered. An idea is nothing but a thought unless you take a specific action to help bring it to life. Periodically review your notebook and see if there are any hidden gems, or ideas which can be quickly actioned.

    A lot of your ideas may not suit at all but in there somewhere is probably an idea, which if acted upon, could change you or your business. Commit fully to move forward on as many of your ideas as you can. Don’t be afraid to break down the boundary walls. As John Stuart Mill said, “That which seems the height of absurdity in one generation often becomes the height of wisdom in the next.”

    And yes… be a dreamer!

    There’s a great line in Alice in Wonderland when the Queen says, “Sometimes I think of 6 impossible things before breakfast.” I think you’ll agree that this has to be creativity at its best! As a small business owner this is an ideal you really need to strive for … but how on earth can you open up your mind to get to the point where ideas just spill out?

    I’ll leave you with this thought to ponder: If you can be creative enough to be dismissed as a dreamer, you may just be on the fast track to success as an entrepreneur. If not, you need a little practice, and NOW may be as good a time to get started as any.

     

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  • Entrepreneurs Can Translate More Free Time to More Profits


    More time = more money?!

    The old adage “Time is money” have been often repeated by many Web entrepreneurs like us, as well as numerous business people in the offline marketplace. This adage rings true in most circumstances because it seems to make sense that the more time you have which can be devoted to plying your trade, the more money you have the potential of earning.

    However, in many cases, freeing up this precious time is easier said than done for a lot of entrepreneurs and for various reasons, none more prevalent than finding qualified people to work within our offices/studios/work places. And when we do find the right persons (or assistants) to work with us, we must be mindful of certain labor laws which cover these new employees; But what if there was a way to free up your time without these worries? Ever heard of a VA (Virtual Assistant)?

    The pro VA alternative

    A professional VA can offer all the benefits of a traditional administrative assistant, without the need to provide a “space” for him/her. Most VAs offer a wide range of services to pick and choose from; ranging from the basic, such as telephone answering; to the more advanced, such as web hosting and meeting room hire. In this way, how you benefit from a virtual office is entirely up to you and the sky is literally the limit. Just do a Google search for virtual assistant to find available VAs for your business.

    According to Wikipedia, “A virtual assistant (typically abbreviated to VA, also called a virtual office assistant) is generally self-employed and provides professional administrative, technical, or creative (social) assistance to clients from a home office. Because virtual assistants are independent contractors rather than employees, clients are not responsible for any employee-related taxes, insurance or benefits (except in the context of those indirect expenses which are included in the VAs fees).”

    Who does this benefit?

    Virtual offices can benefit a wide range of users. This ranges from an Web-based entrepreneur working from home seeking a professional image to an international concern looking for a short-term solution to increase global business. In other words, a VA will be beneficial to your entrepreneurship if you are looking to free up some time to devote to marketing your business and leave the administrative work to a qualified someone else.

    Not sure if you need a VA? If you are a solopreneur, Webpreneur or entrepreneur the only sensible solution to growth is to add to your staff. Yet, you may have a lot of reasons that prevent you from hiring an “on-site” assistant, even if you need one. Wouldn’t it be great if you had an assistant that was always there for you, when you need them? Say hello to your new virtual assistant, a proven concept that provides great solutions for small businesses and helps to give your new endeavor the manpower it needs.

    Evaluating costs

    Salaried workers are much more of an immediate expense. You have to provide a work space, computers, supplies, among other items; and you also have federal and state tax obligations. Don’t forget about benefits – sick leave, vacation time, holidays. Did you know the true cost of an “on-site” assistant is possibly double the cost of their yearly salary in terms of benefits and liabilities?
    It’s true!

    Plus the “personality issue” can be problematic when you’re sharing physical office space with someone whom you will probably spend more time with than your family! If it is not a “perfect fit” it can be a strain. Today’s Virtual Assistants are used to getting along with a wide variety of personalities due to the global nature of their businesses. They have a “built in” office manager hat which enables them to handle many difficult situations. You may find that a VA is a perfect fit for your Web business.

     

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  • Creative Ideas Are Central To Your Web Business


    Creative idea? Action!

    We all have, from time to time, a bunch of ideas running through our minds; not all of which are creative. However, when you are able to extract the creative ideas, put them on paper and apply them to a Web business, you have more of a chance at success than NOT taking action.

    According to the old adage, “having a great idea and not acting on it is essentially the same as NOT having the idea” in the first place; and allowing someone else to take action on YOUR idea is just as bad.

    Inaction: A disease of failure. Cure it!

    Have you ever been struck by the “Hey! I invented that!” conniption fit? You know the one I’m talking about. It happens when you’re aimlessly watching TV and a commercial pops up marketing THE item you always told your friends, family, and anyone who will listen, would be the next big idea and make you truck loads of money. Now it’s right there on TV staring you in the face and making boatloads of money for someone else.

    Or maybe you’re the type that gets convulsive with the “Psssh! I could make that!” twitch. Well whether you have the “I thought of it first” knee-jerks or the “any five year old could do that” spasms, it all boils down to the same coulda-woulda-shoulda disease. The appalling disease of inaction and envy.

    Your idea, your entrepreneurship!

    If you’re tired of hearing success stories of Joe Blow selling everything from safety pins to speed boats on eBay (“I could do that!”) or a neighbor making big bucks with his online business from an idea you casually chatted about (“Didn’t I tell you what a great money-making idea that is?”), you can take matters into your own hands and plunge into the world of Web marketing with your own online business.

    Now, just so you understand, let me say this up front: There are going to be a few bumps in the road and you may develop some misconceptions that you definitely have to deal with…But understanding what you will need to get started as a Web entrepreneur will go a long way in smoothing out the rough spots for you. So I am providing a couple of the major things (tools?) you are going to need.

    A website: The first hurdle

    First and foremost don’t lie to yourself and don’t let anybody else sell you a “bag of goods” and lead you to believe that it’s peaches and cream, either. Do your own preliminary work by learning as much as you can about website creation. You don’t need to learn any fancy new programs from the ground up.

    If you’re a real beginner, there are free html editors that you can download from the web; and if you’ve ever typed a document/essay/paper/letter in your life, you basically understand a textual layout and the things you can do to/with it. Your first website is not going to be very… attractive. It may be a very rough prototype. BUT, you’ll have at your disposal, some excellent tools available to you free of charge. Ever heard of Google? Sure you have!

    The thing about the Web is people like to talk, and they like to give out information for FREE. So you can take a step-by-step approach to learning just enough html to understand the underlying site structure, and when you have the chance use that helpful little trick of “View>Page Source” (on simple pages, of course… simple but probably better looking than yours as it exists). You can google any html code abbreviations you don’t understand. And before you know it, your self-made website will be up. Like I said, it won’t look pretty, but it’ll be all yours.

    Long story short, you’ll learn the fine art of balancing a little too much with just enough. (Helpful hint: just because you now know how to highlight every other word, doesn’t mean you should.) And while you’re patting yourself on the back over a job well done (at least until you can make enough money to hire pros to make your site professionally wonderful), you’re liable to run into misconception number two.

    If you build it, they will come

    Don’t be shocked if the only people who know of your existence in the early going are family, who you brag to, and your Web hosting company, who you can be sure will always remember you on “invoice day.” You can see where I’m going with this next, right? Ok, I’m not going to re-hash everything you already know about bringing people to your site, nor am I going to preach to you about “conversion rates.”

    Let’s just say the bottom line for actually getting your website viewed, is to be creative. There have been hundreds (and will probably be millions) of e-books, eguides and reports which show you the sexiest ways to get traffic to your site, down to the simplest method like…get this…writing an article. THERE IS lot of good information out there; and again, it’s free.

    A primary business tool on hold

    Ultimately marketers want to sell you something, but you would be surprised at the amount of free information on the Web that is actually worth something and is more than a baited hook. Poke around, do some research, check out a few forums, download a few e-books (free or paid), and above all get creative!

    Ultimately, it will be your creative edge, or your USP (Unique Sales Proposition) that will make the difference between the success or failure of your Web business (entrepreneurship), but you definitely need a website (blog-site) AND Web hosting.

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