Small Business Blog

Archive for April, 2009

Loving your home internet business ideas is extremely important because you have to run those same ideas for many years. And what you love, you are willing to fight for. I claim that the feelings of the marketer are more important than his marketing knowledge. If you love something, you automatically will find ways to reach the success. If you do not love, it is impossible. So listen to your heart but make the short list of your internet business ideas using brains.

The different roles of heart and brains are important. When you prepare your home internet business ideas shortlist, I recommend to use brains and when you do the final picking, do it with feelings. You have to avoid all scams which compete of your feelings by promising too much and in too short time. Pick affiliate programs which have a good reputation and long at least five years track record. You have to understand how they operate and how their products and services work.

I do not see useful to pick home internet business ideas, which only recruit new members, they must also sell products. Recruiting programs are mostly illegal pyramids. When you start a home internet business, think about the risks. Best way to avoid risks is to join to a good affiliate program. But if your home internet business ideas consists only one program, the risk to loose is too big. All eggs are in the same basket.

A profitable strategy is to join to a program, which has many income opportunities, like selling a wide sortiment of products and services and affiliate program. This makes the program more interesting to your site visitors and to yourself, because it is so nice to follow, which items start to sell well. The style of the affiliate program shows, whether you like it or not. It has a tremendous impact for your site visitors and to yourself. The visit experience is so important in the long run, because that will make people to come back. And it is totally an emotional issue.

With style I mean how the material will look like, what is the copy style and the style of advertisements.
If you like them all, that makes you feel that this business is your own internet business and your motivation to work for that will be strong. One feeling factor, which has been extremely important for me, when I chose home internet business ideas, is the discussion forum. I have been lucky to join a program with the forum of over 30.000 members and the amount of help, tips, new things, courage and enthusiasm, that I have got from there, is enormous.

A good discussion forum is like traditional office, there are all your work fellows. There you can also meet internet millionaires, the real gurus, who have already reached, what you are after. So it is easy to ask from them if you need any help.

Small business books may refer to one of two things. First, they could refer to reading material that every entrepreneur should invest in if they are to gain more knowledge on how to run an enterprise. On the other hand they could refer to the books of record that are to be found in every business, and on which, the accounts of the enterprise are recorded. Many of the reading books have motivational content that is aimed at giving entrepreneurs tips on how they can run and manage their ventures.

While there are many business and investment books available, not all of them will give you the required information. Some may actually target large corporations. As an entrepreneur, buying these motivational books requires you to be keen on the information contained their in. Do not be misled by the title of the books. You could check out the preview of the book and see whether it suits you.

Books with titles like ’7 Secrets Lucky People Use to Succeed’ may be quite captivating at the look of it, but the content inside may just be an inspirational writing that focuses more on the social life than on the economic aspect of life. For a general guide for which books to go for, titles like ‘How To Start And Run Your Own Corporation’, ‘Creating Wealth For The Average Guy’, among others may just be books that you may want to learn a lot from.

When it comes to the books of accounts, keeping track of what comes in and what goes out is really crucial for your enterprise. Book keeping should be improved with time, meaning that, even the methods of entry will differ. For example, while the cash method is common while the enterprise is still young, the accruals method may be more useful when it has expanded.

“Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is.” – Isaac Asimov|

Are you aware of the Personal MBA? It’s a concept created by Josh Kaufman (following an idea by Seth Godin). Going off the assumption that business schools don’t have a monopoly on knowledge and wisdom, he suggests that every one of us passes a personal MBA by reading a selection of the best business books that exist, around 77 published in 2008 (93 with supplements) in 12 different categories :

1.Quick Start
2.Productivity and Efficiency
3.Psychology and Communication
4.Design and Production
5.Marketing, Sales and Negotiation
6.Entrepreneurship
7.Management and Leadership
8.Strategy and Innovation
9.Finances and Analysis
10.Personal Finance
11.Supplement : Business History
12.Supplement : Business Reference

My crazy project involving the Personal MBA consists of 52 books from this list. I am approaching this project seriously, and I am preparing for it in the same way I would train for a marathon: I know that the challenge will be long and hard, especially once the initial drive – as well the enthusiasm of getting started – wear off.

How shall I undertake this task? Here are the rules of the challenge:

1) Choose 52 books from the actual list of The Personal MBA.

2) Read one a week for 52 weeks. Write a relevant summary, that includes an overall summary as well as chapter by chapter, if the book lends itself to that.

3) Sacrifice only what is useless. I don’t plan on giving up my other activities – my business, improv theater, sports, my two entrepreneur clubs, my other blogs, my leisure time, my personal life. I am going to try and organize myself better and get rid of only what is useless – casually surfing the web, video games, YouTube, everything that wastes precious time in general. I can’t cut out TV, since I hardly watch it anyway.

4) Take action. To think without doing something is just as stupid as to do something without thinking. Thought is based both on our experience – in the field – and our knowledge – acquired from books, school, in conversation with others.

I don’t plan on necessarily reading the books in this order, but I will try to read everything one category at a time so that it is easier to compare and connect my new awareness. It will be a difficult challenge, but a really interesting one !

Where does one find business wisdom? Provided the right mindset, it can be found nearly anywhere – music, fiction books, everyday conversations with family and friends, etc. The trick is to make the business mindset a habit. The more you consciously think about business and entrepreneurship, the more you will subconsciously think about business and entrepreneurship. The more you are subconsciously thinking about it, the more these nuggets of wisdom will appear to you – all around you.

There are hundreds, thousands, even more business books out there. Each one is packed full of business wisdom, written in a business-y way. Some of these books are very good – Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad, Poor Dad is credited by many entrepreneurs as THE book that got them started. A classic that is also cited by many is Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich. There are many more books that are recommended highly by entrepreneurs and others.

Business books are important. They have lots of useful knowledge packed into them. These books are written in perfect business fashion – efficient! Lots of information in a small space can be good, but it is hard to remember everything – it’s hard to put all of it into practice and make it useful.

Most importantly, however, if you focus on business books to the exclusion of all the other business wisdom that surrounds you, you’re actually missing out on the best learning and the most important lessons.

As an example of this, I recently read Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials Trilogy. In the final book of the trilogy, one of the main characters, Will, is told by an angel, Xaphania, that he has important things to do with his life. His answer, and Xaphania’s response, is below:

“What work have I got to do then?” said Will, but went on at once, “No, on second thought, don’t tell me. I shall decide what I do. If you say my work is fighting, or healing, or exploring, or whatever you might say, I’ll always be thinking about it. And if I do end up doing that, I’ll be resentful because it’ll feel as if I didn’t have a choice, and if I don’t do it, I’ll feel guilty because I should. Whatever I do, I will choose it, no one else.”

“Then you have already taken the first steps towards wisdom,” said Xaphania.

I love this passage for several reasons. I like the reference to personal choice, which is obvious in the passage. But I also like the underlying message, which is that even though you have the ability to choose anything you want to do, you STILL have to choose, and you still have to DO! Sitting still, or analysis paralysis, does not count as a choice. Knowing that you have important things to do is only beneficial if you make a choice and do something, even if you aren’t sure it is the “right” thing – the thing you are “supposed” to do. Do something, anything. Whatever you think might be that “right” thing.

Make it your habit to recognize these nuggets of wisdom when you see them, then take action on them! Like Will Rodgers said, “Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” Get up and get out there. Do something.

Being a music professional is an on-going learning experience. Aspiring musicians need to learn the basics on how the industry works, from how to find an agent and get a record deal to understanding how royalties are calculated and the best way to use the Internet and Social networking groups to promote music.

Once the record deal is secured and the CD recorded an entirely new learning curve is needed – how to promote your CD. Your Successful CD Release by Peter Spellman and Dave Cool is a detailed marketing guide written specifically for songwriters and singers. The guide is a blend of three other Spellman books – The Self-Promoting Musician, INDIE Power and INDIE Marketing Power – plus new material provided by co-author Cool. The book is an easy to read to-the-point guide that is a unique tool is perfect an important tool provides readers with the tools to start marketing a CD immediately.

Written conversationally, Spellman explains the strategies for marketing a CD in an easy to understand style with step by step instructions including how to get sponsored; avoiding marketing mistakes; staying within a budget; creating a marketing and promotional plan. Spellman also stresses the importance of having fun with your promotions because enthusiasm is contagious.

The guide details the ways in which singers and songwriters can generate income through licensing and other opportunities. Spellman includes sample templates to track the campaign’s progress such as a spreadsheet to plot out a marketing budget. Co-author Cool says he was inspired to participate in the book because when he started out he was not great with numbers and financial projections, and didn’t understand spreadsheets. He calls Your Successful CD Release a kind of spreadsheet for dummies because the templates are ready to use, They are also available online.

Your Successful CD Release is more than a how-to manual. It gives personal insight from four professional singer-songwriters who recount what their experiences have been and what it takes to be a full-time indie musician that successfully manages your career and life.

E-Books are making a big impact in the way we read, write and use books. There is nothing holding back an expert with years of experience on a particular field to write about all the ins and outs, trade secrets, strengths and weaknesses of the industry.

Consider Colm Dillon, the author of “Unique Real Estate Development Method!”. He has 30 years and $1.2 Billion worth of professional real estate development experience. Dillon wrote his book purely from experience and practical usage. His eBook is now selling in 63 countries and directly available on the Internet.

More and more shoppers are now buying books online. If you purchase a physical book that you have been dying to get your hands on you still have to wait for shipping and delivery before you can start reading. With E-Books you get instant delivery 24×7. No more waiting and watching the clock. While the inspiration and interest is hot, you get to download your favorite business book and start reading away.

Imagine, discovering an E-Book called “Business Plans”, at 11.30 pm, decided to buy and download the book at 12.05 am, finished reading it by 2.00 am. The 10 o’clock meeting next morning, and you are already a guru on Business Plans and opportunities to lead you company to new frontiers.

And that E-Book is very easy to share with your spouse or friend, just email it. The E-book will never wear out for millions of years to come. Hundreds of thousands of E-Books can be carried in the palm of your hand no matter where you go in a flash-drive or portable disk.

E-Books are the new media for traditional physical books, but are E-Books here to stay? Consider Joe Vitale, author of numerous successful E-Books and more recently famous for “Attractor Factor”. Which has already outsold Harry Potter as 1 bestseller twice in two weeks? E-books are carving the path for many talented authors around the world. E-books are not only here to stay but also becoming very popular.

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