Small Business Blog

Archive for May, 2009

Some of the best work at home business ideas come from yourself, but you never get around to taking action.  Before you know it, someone has taking your idea and is making thousands of dollars a day.  It is frustrating but instead of getting disappointed, you could start implementing new ideas that come to your mind.  

One business idea that has worked for thousands of people is affiliate marketing.  Affiliate marketing is very profitable but must be done correctly in order to gain any financial success. It is fairly simple to implement but it takes years of practice and effort to succeed.  Affiliate Marketing works two ways. One, people that have used products and have seen results with them will help promote the product because they know it works.  The other way is to spam every blog, forum, and web site with affiliate links. Not knowing if the product is legitimate or not, they just simply want to see sales.  As most would agree, the first option will benefit you in the long run.

Some people get upset when they see that someone is being an affiliate of a product, but if done correctly, you don’t have to worry at all.  The best affiliate marketers test out the products they are promoting to ensure their customer will get a legitimate product. They will test out the products, implement the tactics in the program and see the results.  A poor affiliate marketer, will see quick profits but will never gain financial freedom through affiliate marketing.

So what is affiliate marketing? Affiliate marketing is promoting other peoples products that you know will help other people in what they are interested in.  From golfing, horse racing, or Internet money making, you can promote a product that you have purchased and used yourself.  Every time someone buys a product through your affiliate link, you receive a commission, sometimes up to 75%.  If done correctly, affiliate marketing can create a full time income online.

This work at home business idea will not come easy, but if you have patience and are willing to work hard you can become very successful.  By creating a blog or a Web site, you can drive traffic to your affiliate links.  Getting ranked high in Google Search engine will also have a huge impact on your success.  Although it doesn’t come easy, with a little dedication and hard work, you will be well on your way to creating a full time income online.

Why did I title this a “biased review”? Because this information is strictly my opinion, assumptions, and reactions to what Jeff has written.

Jeff’s book really made a positive impact on me even though I have read many network marketing, MLM, personal development, and home based business books over the years. This book will challenge your attitudes toward your life, current thinking, and philosophy. Reading this book, it’s really about your life, what you can do for it, and what you can do with it.

With simplistic accuracy, Jeff points out the steps one can take to obtain control of several aspects of one’s life. This includes impacting directly on one’s relationships, spiritual, financial, and health attitudes and beliefs about what one can and can not really control to improve these areas.

The key premise of this entire book is promoting the philosophy and concept of “The Slight Edge” just what it is and how it can affect our lives. Practicing the slight edge in the performance of your everyday activities either has it working for you or against you; brushing your teeth, as an example. If you skip it today is that easy? Yes. Will it make a difference today? No. Over time, will it make a difference? Yes. There in lies the key. Simple daily decisions may either impact you in the long term in a negative, not brushing your teeth, or a positive, any cavities and good gums, manner. The key concept is very simple but can have dramatic effects on one’s life. Agreed? I mean, do you get it?

Jeff presents several situations where you might improve your life and the positive results in easily understood steps and concepts to incorporate into your daily actions. One that particularly struck me was his effective and simplistic way of developing and making obtainable goals in life. His explanation of having a plan to start but not the same plan for the finish, really hits home as I always think of a plan from start to finish without adjustments. It doesn’t exist. Plans are a living entity that must always be reviewed and adjusted, in his words, “plan, do, review.”

His presentations on developing workable goals included the concept of thinking big, envision success, keep the process simple, stick to the basics, and start. Just the starting of a project, being as important if not more important, than the planning. It’s the actions of taking the first step in the direction of your goal that make the difference between “doing” and “deciding to do.” For greater success, double your failure rate. I love this as it is classic grassroots logic. How many times have you heard this or even personally experienced the benefits of “doubling your failure rate?”

All in all, I would highly recommend this book to everybody who is living life today. “The Slight Edge” application of principals and philosophies is far reaching to all people on all levels. Have the personal experience of having Jeff sitting across the table with a cup of coffee and talking only to you as that is the manner in which this book is presented and it’s a fast read. What a positive experience. Take the opportunity to read this book and don’t miss out. It could very well change your life.

As more people turn to the Internet for jobs, it is hard to choose which business idea fits your interest.  Some of the best Internet business ideas are created through your own thoughts, but very few people will implement them. From paid surveys to Internet marketing, almost anyone that puts their time and effort into creating online success will become successful. Here are some great ideas that will have you thinking, “Which one should I choose?”

One business idea that has always been around and still is a great way to earn some extra money online is paid surveys.  Paid surveys are easy to implement and so many people are seeing results.  By answering questions about you opinions, you can be earning extra money in your spare time.  In order to be successful in paid surveys, you must be willing to sign up with as many paid survey site as possible. Be sure to open up a new E-mail account so you don’t get your personal E-mails mixed in with your paid surveys.  This will bring more opportunities for higher payouts and quick cash in your pocket.

Another great Internet business idea is working with Pay Per Click advertising.  Google Adwords, Facebook and Myspace are just a few sites that offer pay per click advertising.  By promoting products through pay per click advertising, you could be earning a full-time income online.  Although it takes practice and experimenting, there are some great products that will help you get started right away.  

The last online business idea is Affiliate Marketing.  This Internet marketing technique has helped thousands of people become successful online.  Although you will not see results as fast at pay per click advertising or paid surveys, you can earn a significant income with affiliate marketing.  By promoting other peoples products that you are familiar with or have used, you can earn up to 75% on each product that you sell.  Affiliate marketing is not a get rich fast program, but with patience and effort it could be one of the best Internet businesses you have ever been associated with.

Now that you know some of the best Internet business ideas, it is time for you to start.  Pick something that fits your interest and research the best program that will help you succeed.  It is essential that you learn from the masters to become one.  Take your time and don’t burn yourself out too quickly.  The Internet will be around forever and the more patience you have, the more likely you will see results.

“From charcoal to gold,” This was a heading a read from a book in a certain supermarket. Though I did not purchase the book, I went home pondering on those words. Many times we have heard stories that are really motivating on how a small business turned out to become a multi-billion venture. The amazing thing is how some people started from very humble backgrounds and no one could predict their future, even they themselves.

It is from such stories you see the truth in this common saying, “do not despite the days of humble beginnings.” Realize that these kinds of people or businesses do not just happen, but it is a matter of determination and focus that contributes to them achieving success.

In anything you set to do, have an original idea. I truly admire the success of the coca cola company. The founder had an original business idea of what he wanted to offer to the market. To this very day none of his competitors have succeed to match the business idea of the coca cola company.

Acquire sufficient knowledge about the business idea you have before implementing it. This knowledge can be sourced from your own thoughts, business books that others have written or from your friends and colleagues.

Once you have an idea, create a proper business plan. The plan should include every detail or aspect of the project, from the simple to the most complicated. All these would be in vain if implementation is not done.  Implement the business plan depending on your ability. Carefully, consider every detail that has been stated in the plan.

When the venture has commenced, remain consistent and patient on what you are doing and in due time you will make money.

While it would take a much longer article to describe all of the things I tried that didn’t work in writing a book, it’s worth noting some of the many mistakes I made that others might see as opportunities to make faster progress.

Hopefully, others will avoid these pitfalls in similar projects. Here’s an example: Many public speakers will tell you that you can simply dictate 10 hours worth of material onto a tape and then hire a writer for very little money who will turn that material into a finished book. Perhaps that’s the case if your message is about your humble beginnings and how positive thinking made you a success.

I tried that approach for several book ideas. In each case, I found an intelligent, hard-working person who wrote much better than I do. I armed the writers with an outline for a book and invited the writers to interview me until he or she had enough material. We recorded those interviews and had them transcribed. The writers even got a floppy disk of the transcribed material so they could simply edit the interviews if that was enough for them.

M talented collaborators did their best. They worked hard. They wrote lots of material. They asked lots of good questions. But they could not produce manuscripts that captured the essence of what we wanted to describe. I devoted long and painful hours to the process, and these collaborations just didn’t work. It became obvious that I could write the material faster than I could explain it to someone else who would then do the writing.

When people first learn about the project to accelerate all forms of improvements by 20 times, they often have a reaction like Peter Drucker’s: Some smart CEO will want to take this perspective and gain enormous advantages by permeating his or her company with these practices.

I spent many years writing to CEOs who had such reputations, visiting CEOs we knew who had that orientation, and making presentations to senior officer groups. I remember one such visit when I felt very confident that we would get the go ahead.

To ease matters, I offered to do the work for no fee. That offer only gained me the reaction that each person in the room would rather go home five minutes earlier every night than spend even five minutes on learning and employing the problem-solving practices we had created.

Why? I’m sure the answer varied from organization to organization that turned us down. Our general impression was that people were overworked and fearful of losing their jobs. The continual downsizing of American organizations had been going on for some time, and there weren’t many people left who did anything other than run from fighting one fire to putting out another one.

A little known fact was that many of the executives who had great reputations for installing new ideas were mostly doing so after these ideas had been around for 20 or 30 years. In addition, executive pay had reached the moon. Due to a combination of more emphasis on stock options and larger performance bonus opportunities, a senior management group could earn more in five years than a similar group would have earned in a lifetime two decades earlier.

Most executives didn’t plan to stick around any longer than it took to cash out with their big payday. Something like this project required people who wanted to enjoy improvements for many years to come.

Marketing-oriented people will tell you that you can sell any idea to the media. Just write press releases; follow up with writers, editors, and producers; and you will be overwhelmed with demand for your idea. That wasn’t my experience. Fearing that we had gone about it in the wrong way, we sought help in pursuing this path.

Marketers of ideas seemed underwhelmed by our project. One organization is considered to be unbeatable in this area. I spent months making daily telephone calls trying to get someone to speak with us. Finally, a sales representative from that organization called me back to say that they were very busy but that the CEO of the organization had agreed to discuss the project for 15 minutes by telephone three months in the future. Okay.

On the appointed day, there was a snowstorm in the CEO’s town. The CEO didn’t make it to the office in time for our scheduled call. I tried for the next six months to reschedule. O never got another slot. And that was one of the more promising leads I had for marketing and writing help.

About Author: To know more about <strong><a rel=”nofollow” onclick=”javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview(‘/outgoing/article_exit_link’);” href=”http://www.30minutebooks.com/effective-tax-planning.html”>tax planning books</a> </strong>and<strong> <a rel=”nofollow” onclick=”javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview(‘/outgoing/article_exit_link’);” href=”http://www.30minutebooks.com/effective-tax-planning.html”>small business books</a>, </strong>visit  <a rel=”nofollow” onclick=”javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview(‘/outgoing/article_exit_link’);” href=”http://www.30minutebooks.com/effective-tax-planning.html”>30minutes books</a>!Businesses, big or small are run with a profit motive. Small businesses are prone to face difficulties because of their size, as they are mostly dependant upon the attitude, skills and decision making powers of an individual. We can define a small business as a company that, according to the US norms, does not employ more than 100 people; typically privately held partnerships or corporations. To achieve profitability, the financial activities of the Small Business must be streamlined. Small business accounting should be entrusted to a competent person right from the start. A Certified Public Accountant well-versed with the bookkeeping methods best suited for Small Business is essential for running the business effectively and producing results. There are two types of Small Business Accounting– the Cash Basis Method and the Accrual Basis Method – and depending upon the nature of Small Business, the selection of either one can be adopted.  For example most service businesses operate on the simple Cash Basis Method and most manufacturing businesses involving Inventory Control and Accounts Receivable use the Accrual Method. Small business tax planning is a year-round exercise, with the object of eliminating or reducing the taxes. Broadly, Small Business tax planning has 6 goals – reducing the amount of taxable income; reducing the tax rate; controlling the time when the tax must be paid; claiming any available tax credits; controlling the effects of the Alternative Minimum Tax and avoiding the most common tax planning mistakes. The tax planning strategies for Small Businesses are countless. They cannot be fixed into a particular frame and the owner’s prudence is the key to devise a strategy most suited for that particular Small Business. It is essential that the small business owner estimates his personal and business income for the next few years for tax planning purposes. Some tax planning strategies may save tax dollars at one income level, but will end up producing a larger tax bill at another level. The same holds true time-wise, a dollar of tax saved this year could create a two dollar tax bill next year. So it is necessary to plan the tax liability that may accrue over the next few years. Tto achieve success with your tax planning strategy, the projection of sales revenue, income and cash flow are necessary to be as accurate as possible at all times. As for Small Business Taxes, the Tax Law is complex. The tax code contains more than 14,000 pages. As such, only a professional consultant can guide you through the intricacies involved in preparing your Small Business Tax Return in order to minimize the tax burden at the end of the financial year.