Small Business Blog

Archive for December, 2009

Is your small business successful? Whether it is or isn’t you and your business can certainly benefit from having a performance strategy. Now, before you roll your eyes and say that you don’t want to look at or hear about one more thing that could improve your business, I want you to think about this.

A performance strategy to promote small business growth and success is very often not about improving your systems or hiring the right consultant. A successful performance strategy to promote small business growth is about you. Think about this. You are the owner, founder or a principal player in a small business. If you don’t grow in your thinking and your disciplines then the business won’t grow.

The secret to small business growth has to do with the five inches between your ears. If you don’t think of it, it won’t happen. If you don’t grow your business won’t grow. As Napoleon Hill said in Think and Grow Rich, “What the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”

One way, to create a successful performance strategy and for your mind to conceive and believe in what can be achieved, is to read books. There are many small business books that can start filling your mind with ideas and actions for growing small business. Is your small business running well? Read a book. Is growing small business challenging you? Read a book.

It may seem simplistic but one of the best ways to open your mind to the success you want and its possibilities, is to read. If you don’t like to read, get an audio book. The key is to keep your mind open and inquiring to “what can be.” Without an open mind, you are destined to struggle because you are focused on “what is.”

Become a possibility thinker. Your mind is a muscle. Without exercise your mind you will never reach your potential. Exercise your mind with reading on a regular basis and you will be pleased with the results for you, your business and your life. Also, be a positive thinker, not a positive wisher. A positive thinker takes the appropriate action and moves forward. A positive wisher, on the other hand, wishes for positive action but does not take it. Be a possibility thinker and a positive thinker. Now there’s a performance strategy for small business growth and growing small business successfully.

Are you looking to host an event, party, conference or workshop?  If you have done so before, you know event planning can be a headache.  And, if you haven’t, you’re probably already overwhelmed!  Continue reading to discover a checklist that will help you ensure you’re prepared for your upcoming event.

Nail down the basic information.  Be able to answer these questions:
1.    What is the purpose of your event?  (Informational, fundraiser, social, etc.)
2.    What is the name of your event?  This should be catchy but relate to the purpose of your activity.
3.    When will your event take place?  (Date and time)
4.    What is the draw – a performer, speaker, fundraising activity?  If a person or group needs to be booked, are they available?

Determine what the physical needs for your event are.  What about:
1.    Physical space – Will your event take place at a banquet, conference room, dance hall?
2.    Tables and chairs?  If you’re having a meeting, presentation, or a dinner, how do you want the tables arranged?  Consider this when evaluating venues.
3.    Food and drink – will a meal be served?  Snacks at breaks?  Beverages?  Sometimes this is bundled with your location, depending on location; otherwise, you may need to book a caterer.  This is a good thing to keep in mind when booking a venue.
4.    Equipment – will you need any audiovisual equipment for the event?  Possible equipment includes televisions, public address systems, computer projector and screen, overhead projector, and so on.  Will your venue supply such equipment, is it available elsewhere, or do you need to rent it?
5.    Security – is your event large?  Do you need a safety and security staff to ensure the well-being of your guests?
6.    Lodging – is your event a multi-day affair, will guests be traveling long distances, or could guests be too tired or intoxicated to make it home?  Consider reserving a block of rooms at a nearby hotel to make available to your guests.  At a minimum, include information on nearby lodging in the materials you send to guests.
7.    Transportation – How will your guests get to and from your event?  Will they drive themselves, and, if so, is parking available?  Is public transportation available?  You may wish to use a coach hire service to provide transportation for your guests.  This is especially advisable if alcohol is to be served at your event.

Advertising
1.    Do you need to advertise your event?  This may depend on the goal of the event and the intended audience.
2.    If so, create an advertising budget and goals.  Is the event public or private?
3.    Identify advertising methods – email and the web?  Radio?  TV?  Newspapers?  The correct medium for you will depend on the type of guests you’re trying to recruit.
4.    Design and distribute your ads, emails, letters or so on with adequate time to receive responses.

Last minute details
1.    Confirm details with the venue, caterer, transportation service, etc.
2.    Confirm any talent (band, speaker, performer, etc.)
3.    Confirm equipment needs are met and all equipment is working properly
4.    Review and confirm the guest list
5.    Get a good night’s sleep!

Starting a business anytime is challenging and fraught with missteps, however starting a home business gives you several advantages when you start your business out of your home. Evaluating home business ideas properly is still mandatory, utilizing a financial plan along with cash flow analysis to ensure success.

There are many ideas for beginning a home business from your home. Each one will have various advantages and disadvantages. This article focuses on the advantages of beginning your company out of your home vs. renting space in a business park. The main advantage and the one most obvious is that you do not need to pay rent for your office space when you use space in your home. For those people testing ideas or those who are not sure if they want to really invest a lot of time and money this is probably the best approach to use.

Rent for the office space is zero cost, utilities and communications costs can be shared with your normal household expenses and any direct expenses can be picked up by the company. If you require a separate telephone line, fax line, computers and high speed connections, these can all be charged directly to your start up business idea.

There are a number of other factors that should be considered when evaluating various businesses that you want to operate out of your home. Depending on what these ideas are, these items may apply to or not.

For example if you are planning to run a small manufacturing, woodworking or some other related type of business you will need to have the space to operate your business. For some home owners this can be a problem if space is limited. Internet related businesses require less space as a rule, however you will still need to have space for several computers, printers, scanners, etc., as well as a high speed connection with a local area network to connect your computers.

While this is not an exhaustive list of items to consider, readers will understand that each home business idea must be evaluated for ease of operation from your home. Some are better suited than others and you will have to consider the advantages and disadvantages carefully. In addition, all of these business propositions must be considered from the perspective of skill set match, expansion, market, cash flow, profitability and income earning potential. Failure to treat each idea this way can result in a great deal of lost time, money and stranded investment which you may not be able to recover.

Home businesses are extremely popular these days and their popularity continues to grow. Individuals are expressing an interest in this type of work as it provides them with a certain level of freedom that a normal 9 to 5 job may not provide them. They can work from home, stay home with their children, avoid long commutes and be their own boss. When considering these aspects, it is easy to see why this type of work is such a popular choice. For those who wish to learn more about home business success stories as they contemplate getting involved in this line of work, there are a few places where such stories can be found.

Read Home Business Success Stories on the Internet

The Internet is a wealth of knowledge just waiting for interested parties to take advantage thereof. There are many websites, forums and chat rooms which detail this type of business and provide an avenue in which home business owners can chat with one another and perhaps pick up good tips as well. Home business success stories are also readily available on websites relating to this topic and one is sure to find a number of stories to bide their time with.

Purchase Home Business Books

Books which relate to home businesses are also continuing to grow in number. Since more and more individuals are starting their own home businesses, there are more individuals who are writing books about the subject and detailing their success stories relating to such. Home business books are beneficial for a few different reasons. One who reads home business books will find that these books describe the business for the reader. This will provide the reader with valuable information as to running a home business. Also, home business books are beneficial as they provide success stories for the reader. These types of success stories are ones which will provide the reader with the confidence that they too can start up and run a successful home business. One will find a large variety of books which detail home businesses as well as home business success stories.

Friends and Family Members

Lastly, home business success stories can be gained from friends and family members as well. Since home businesses are so popular, one may know someone close to them who runs a home business and they can listen to the success stories told by these individuals. Home business success stories provided by friends and family members are quite valuable as they are coming from a trusted source and many times the individual inquiring about such stories have seen the success stories personally.

Conclusion

Learning about home business success stories is a great thing to do as it provides individuals not only with tips for their own businesses but the confidence to pursue their goals and dreams relating to running their own home business.

Because, those who master the law of attraction, can profit from their best internet home based business ideas much more than those, who think that the home business marketing is just a technique. I have met these tech people many, many times online and when I see their sites and marketing material, they would need the attraction techniques, not the HTML techniques.

1.Concentrate To Think The Power Of Attraction.

You see, the marketing of the best internet home based business ideas is mostly communication with your customers or potential customers. These conversations are mostly done by emails, but they work according to the same rules than whatever communication between people.

The first step is to think that you have to attract people in the same way as you persuade your child, if you have one, to eat. It does not succeed by forcing or by telling about the healthy vitamins, which he will get. It happens with emotions, by attracting him to eat. Many people can do this naturally, without any planning, and they are really good at that, but those who are not, can train it and become good ones.

If you are afraid of failures, so what can you loose, if you try? The truth is that you can only win. And most probable you will become much more happier, because the purpose of attraction is good and positive and that will give you a good mood and feeling. It will raise your best internet home based business ideas to the different level, because they will have more emotion in communication and the emotions will build the meaning into your marketing.

2.Make An Attraction Plan And Write It Down.

We all are good attractors, but most of us have never thought that. If we want to use it in the promotions of our best internet home based business ideas, we have to write our attraction strenghts on paper, because we have to use our natural attraction skills.

The power to attract is very emotional skill and therefore needs a lot of creative material, i.e. pictures from the magazines, photos, slogans and thoughts. It is wise to put this material on the walls of your working room, so you can keep them in mind. Be ready to add new ideas regularly into the plan, because your creativity will produce them.

When you have a creative world of your attractive things on your wall, you can start to plan real campaigns out of them. You will see, that your best internet home based business ideas will get a lot of marketing material out of this material. More emotional, I hope!

3.Do Not Postpone The Starting.

It can be a little bit difficult to start with the attraction issue, because you have to put yourself into fire. Everything must come from your own feelings and told with the marketing terms. But do not postpone it, do it now!

And, the skill to attract does not mean that you should cheat people. No, never! The skill to attract is a part of the relationship building and the most important rule there is honesty and trust. It must follow the great idea of: The Truth Well Told. This means the style by which you will build up a pleasant feeling between you and the target person, which will lead step by step to the purchase without any force.

As you will see and understand the skill to attract is very, very powerful, but requires a responsible touch in the marketing of your best internet home based busines ideas. It is quite sensitive to use and needs a personal style, a person to person communication. But that is the most powerful form of the home business marketing!

It used to cost a fortune to get a book printed and published. Today it can all be done online for considerably less than $1,000…and most of that is going to go to your cover designer.

Instead of ordering 1,000 or 5,000 titles at once, you can order 1 at a time using print-on-demand publishing. So it’s not a question of whether you can publish a book or not. It’s a question of whether you should.

Not everyone should publish a book.

If you have the dream of selling a million copies and getting rich through your book, keep dreaming. It can happen, but it’s a million to one shot.

Books have the lowest margin of any information product. A CD costs $1 to $2 to duplicate and sells for $15 and up. A DVD costs $1.50 to $3 and sells for $20 and up. A multimedia course with manuals, CDs, and DVDs may sell for $100 to $1,000 or more.

A book printed in low numbers costs $3 to $5 and sells for $20 or less in most cases. Can you make money from a book? Yes…but I would never want to be in a position where I had to make money from a book.

They’re an entry product and they’re a tool for generating publicity.

I would never recommend a book for someone’s first information product. Start with a CD, DVD, or even an eBook. If that proves successful, then consider a book.

While not everyone should publish a book…every consultant, coach, and information product developer, and professional speaker should!

Let’s say we’re both consultants or coaches and we’re talking to a business owner. You sit down on the plane beside them and give them your card. When they ask me what I do, I hand them my card and my book.

Who stands out as an expert in the field?

Now let’s say we both contact radio stations and offer to do an interview. You tell them how you coach people about success in business. I tell them the same thing and send them my book. Who stands out as the expert in this case?

The book author does…Face it. You might know more than the author right now, but they will often be perceived as the more knowledgable expert because they put it in a book. Will the radio host read the book? Not likely…There are some pretty crappy books that get major publicity.

That’s enough on that before I get myself into trouble.

If you want to be perceived as an expert in your field…create a book. You don’t even have to write it yourself. Put together the materials and hire a ghostwriter to create it if you want.

Now let’s say you want your book to be a profit center. It can definitely be that, but it requires you to create large scale publicity. If you do an interview on a major radio station, you can sell 300 books or more.

If you were published by a publishing house, you might only get $1 per book. So that appearance was worth $300. Using POD publishing, you might be averaging $10 a book…so you earn $3,000. That’s not bad for the hour interview. Get a major TV appearance…and you can sell tens of thousands.

You can also do book signings and other events to sell more books…but remember this all requires you to do something. If you want a fully automated business, books are not the job for you (although you could have a PR agent making the contacts for you). There are other products where this can be done much easier. The math simply doesn’t work out for paid advertising in most cases.

When I work with a author, I like them to have additional products and services to sell on the backend. Sure…it’s nice to make money selling your book. What else do you have? Do you have a CD set or a DVD showing your techniques in more detail? Do you offer consulting or coaching on the backend? That’s where the real money is in books for the average author.