What Stops You?

What Stops You?

Have you ever had a terrific idea that you didn't act on? Of course, you have. I don't mean anything fancy either. Nothing earth-shattering. Just a plain old-fashioned good idea which would have made you more money. But you didn't get moving on it.

 

Oh well.

I have a friend I'll call James. James is an independent management consultant and a deep, creative thinker. I have great respect for his ability to understand his clients and develop unique solutions for them. But he isn't very successful. His business is ok but hardly booming–and indeed not where he says he'd like it to be. He works with interesting people–just never enough of them. And aside from soliciting referrals, he does nothing to increase his overall practice.

 

The funny thing is, this guy has more brilliant ideas about building his business than anyone I know. The problem is he doesn't implement any of them. James is just one of those who stops before he ever gets started.

What Are the 7 Proven Principles of Business Success? (Part 2)

 

What Are the 7 Proven Principles of Business Success? (Part 2)

Principle 5: Build foundations for growth.

 

 If you want to build your business to provide a lavish lifestyle, you need to build foundations, just like making any building. If you don't intend to increase your profits, you don't need foundations. If you want to seriously improve your net profit percentage (even without increasing turnover), you must have firm foundations. When they build a skyscraper, they don't build up; they dig a big hole down.

 

The foundations in business are two things. It is first, having documented systems. A system is the best way of doing something everyone knows and uses, identifies, and writes down. It helps consistency and efficiency, and as you grow, people are accountable to the systems, not to you, the owner. That means you save time checking on everyone. Plans only work when you have worked with your staff to become a TEAM.

 

Secondly, measuring everything is part of building foundations. If you haven't measured your Key Performance Indicators, how will you improve on them? Increasing Net Profit percentage of turnover comes from improving everything you currently do, remember?

What Are the 7 Proven Principles of Business Success? (Part 1)

 

What Are the 7 Proven Principles of Business Success? (Part 1)

The 7 Proven Principles to Business Success will overcome whatever limitation you have. Think of it as a recipe for business success. All you have to do is, first of all, learn what the seven principles are and then apply them in order. When you follow this recipe, all of your challenges will fade away.

 

Why do you own a business? Isn't it because you want a LIFESTYLE? You didn't intend to work long hours, be stressed, have little time off, and be hassled with staff and customers, did you?

 

Isn't it time you made some changes for the better? After all, if you want to change some things in your life, you have to change some things. If you're ready for a change, here's the magic recipe you need to follow…

 

 

Principle 1: Work on yourself to understand people.

 

 Business is all about people. You have them as customers and employ them, but few people have realized the absolute key to success is understanding people at a much higher level. Your sales and marketing skills are determined by what you know about people. Your leadership skills with your staff to perform as well as you do are determined by your knowledge of people.

 

So what's the best way to learn about other people? Easy, learn about yourself! You're a people, and the more you know about yourself, the more you automatically learn about others.

What’s a Niche, and How Do You Find One?

What’s a Niche, and How Do You Find One?

According to Wikipedia, a niche is “a special place within the scheme of things.” Niche marketing is defined as “the process of finding and serving small but potentially profitable market segments and designing custom-made products or services for them.” So it’s all about finding your unique place and the products and services that fit.

 

Right from the start, you should understand that your goal in discovering a niche is to concentrate all your ideas and thoughts into the most precise, concise, and focused concept possible. Your potential audience is everyone in the world with computer access and an interest in your site’s topic. Your potential information resources are everything known about that topic. So you want to be sure to have enough information to fill hundreds of pages eventually, and you want to narrow your focus enough that you can be perceived as an expert, as “THE place to go” for information, products, and services.

 

If your only interest is making money online, this is a challenging area to build a website around these days. That niche was “hot” eight years ago. Most successful internet entrepreneurs in that area say they would not attempt breaking into that niche if they were starting today. There’s just too much competition; there are way too many experts already. Breaking into a niche market using keywords like “make money at home,” “work at home,” “home business” is next to impossible. There are billions of niches out there; find yours.

Why Women In Small Business Must Have A Web Site?

Why Women In Small Business Must Have A Web Site?

Why Women In Small Business Must Have A Web Site?

 

In recent years we’ve seen a HUGE increase in the number of small businesses owned by women. This growth has been so dramatic that millions of people now think of women when they visualize who owns the companies they buy from.

 

Women everywhere deserve a big pat on the back for this fantastic accomplishment. But as is always the case for small business owners, there is still a lot of work to be done.

 

The one thing your small business MUST have is a website. Sure, ten years ago, having a site was an option many small businesses could do without. But that is no longer the case. Here’s why:

 

* These days, consumers and business leaders are more likely to use search engines than the Yellow Pages. They’ll type the name of your town and your type of business into Google and start their research from there.

Work For Moms, At Home

 

Work For Moms, At Home

Most moms are looking to stay at home to spend more time with their family and enjoy a less stressful life. It used to be that only a tiny percentage was working from home because of the fear factor. It is much more popular now because they see their friends successful working at home and have a burning desire to do the same.

 

Recently my daughter went away on a planned moms-only weekend trip, met some work-at-home ladies, and immediately called me when she got back wanting to know what program I thought she could do. She wants to have a home-based business like many of the other ladies she met. I always encourage this arena for moms because I don’t think anyone can better raise their children than their parents. More time with her children will usually pay big dividends later on in life.

The popularity of moms looking to work from home can be easily seen by looking at just a few of the keywords searched for on the major search engines daily. They are phrases like work for stay at home moms, stay at home moms work from home, work at home for stay home moms, work at home jobs for stay at home moms, work from home jobs for stay at home moms, online work for stay at home moms, and stay home moms returning to work. These are just a few of the hundreds of searches made hourly.

Wrap Your Gardening Gifts in Love

 

Wrap Your Gardening Gifts in Love

If you’re looking for ways to make your gardening gifts unique, try wrapping them in love and show your loved one you care. You can gift wrap gardening gifts the traditional way, or you can get just a little more creative with your gift wrapping. Here are some ideas to give your gift-wrap a personal touch.

 

Garden Statues and Other Large Gardening Gift Items

 

Use creative party decorations instead of gift wrap for large gardening gifts such as full-size garden statues, birdbaths, arbors, a garden trellis, garden fountains, or patio furniture. You can tie big bows and balloons along with a card attached to decorate the gift.

 

Or, decorate the garden statue or fountain in plant or vegetable seed packs. To do this:

1. Use a hole-puncher to punch small holes in the very corner of each seed pack.

Writing Resumes without Mistakes

Writing Resumes without Mistakes

Resumes and curriculum vitae act as entry tickets to a job. Today's world is full of competition. A prospective employer is searching for a person who is active, productive, skillful, and with a positive attitude. The resume should reflect the philosophy and details of education, age, qualification, experience, etc. The summary should be written with relevance to the particular job. Gone are the days where one resume was used for all the jobs. The resume should be attractive enough to catch the employer's attention among the thousands of resumes. The summary must be free from any common mistakes.

 

Effective resume writing: 

 

An effective resume should contain primary sections viz., complete and powerful contact information, the headline of what is being offered by the employee to the employer, summary of skills highlighting relevant skills will be an added advantage, a professional experience which has to be relevant and last but not the least educational qualification- details of grades, year of passing, etc. An effective resume will be free from grammatical and spelling mistakes. Hence, it is essential to proofread more than twice to avoid any errors in the summary. This shows the command over the language.

Your 30 Minute Home Business Plan

Your 30 Minute Home Business Plan

I didn't have a solid, well-thought-out business plan when I started my first business. I threw together a rough one that I used to apply for a bank loan (which I didn't get, by the way).

 

I've found the best way to make sure a business will be successful is to create a business plan. It doesn't need to be pages long and takes you days and days to complete. Below I've created a quick 30 Minute Business Plan.

 

A good business plan will help you figure out approximately what your business will cost to get off the ground. You don't want to guess at this. Knowing your costs will help you decide what you're going to charge.

 

The 30 Minute Business Plan below also includes information about your competition. Don't forget about them. In one way or another, they exist, and you're going to want to get to know them.