Jun 07 2009
Hi All,
Just wanted to let you know that I’ve managed to purchase a new, and what I consider, better domain name for this small business/start your own business blog and will be moving things over there over the next few weeks. I have not yet done a 301perminent redirect thingie yet and won’t do so for a while - at least until alll content here is moved over (about three weeks), but you can go there now. The new Site is:
Jun 07 2008
One of the best ways to evaluate a new business idea is to see if it has been done anywhere else in the world, and if so, was it done with success. There is an old saying that there is no such thing as a new idea, only recycled ideas in new packages.
Some people evaluate a business idea by telling their friends and relatives. The problem with this approach is that your friends and relatives may not be in business. And they may not want to offend you by telling you our idea is a bad idea if they think it is. So try something impartial.
Step one is to discover the existence of a similar business is an internet search using all of the major search engines, and using variations on your particular business.
As an example, let’s say you have an idea for a variation on speed dating, but you want it to be oriented towards business people and not couples looking for dates. Business people are always looking for contacts, and are always networking, meeting new people.
An Internet search under headings like speed meeting people, speed business meeting, speed networking, speed contacts, speed business contacts, quick business contacts, fast networking, quick networking, and other combinations will show you if something is available.
In this case, the idea of adapting speed dating to business contacts does exist in some cities, often with great success and is most commonly called speed networking. This tells you that your idea works some places.
Next, take an informal survey. Call several business people out of the blue. Find their names in the Chamber of Commerce membership guide, or your business journal Book of Lists. Ask them for a minute of time and explain the concept. See if a majority have an interest. If at least half say they do have an interest, you’ve got a winner.
Jun 07 2008
Working for yourself is the American dream. Most employees have dreamed of being their own boss, and it has many benefits, but there are a few disadvantages to it as well.
Advantages of working for yourself are that you are responsible to yourself. Your destiny is in your own hands, as well as your financial future. You determine how much work you do, when you go to work, when you quit for the day, when you take a vacation, how long the lunch break will be, and if you really want to put up with a grouchy customer. The business is in your hands and you decide. Instead of griping about the bad advertising campaign that corporate came up with, you decide on an advertising campaign yourself.
Disadvantages of working for yourself are really the same as the advantages. You decide when you go to work, when you quit for the day, when you take a vacation, and how much you will make. All the while knowing, if you are a small business, that if you are gone the business is either not open, or if you have employees, that they are not being supervised by the person who cares the most about the business—you.
You have to make all of the decisions regarding health insurance, benefits, marketing, bookkeeping, management, and customer service. Owning and operating a business is a tremendous responsibility and not everyone is ready for or capable of handing the stress or the commitment.
Still, if you are one of those unique individuals with the spirit of an entrepreneur, then being in business for yourself is the only way to live. Many people in fact simply can’t imagine another way to live. Some people in this world are sheep, following others blindly.
Others are shepherds, preferring to lead. Pathfinders who make their own way. If you are an entrepreneur, you are one of the shepherds and will only be happy in business for yourself.
Jun 07 2008
What investors are looking for is a very simple question, with a very simple answer. Investors want a return on their investment. In other words, they want to be assured that if they invest money in an enterprise, that they have a better than average chance of that investment of money making more money for them. They want to see profit.
Getting a little more specific, investors want an assurance that there is a need for the product or service that a company is marketing. For instance, there would be very little market for pork sandwiches in a predominantly Muslim country because the people there don’t eat pork. On the other hand, a gourmet coffee bar in a college town would have a built in demand for the product offered, gourmet coffee.
After this assurance, investors want to know that the management team and key players involved in the business are competent, that they know what they are doing and are capable of running the business and making a profit. That is the reason that most business plans include resumes for the managers and key personnel.
After key personnel are scrutinized, investors will look closely at a marketing plan to see how the company plans to make a profit. Marketing is a misunderstood work. Because telemarketers are so common, many people think marketing just means selling. Actually selling is a part of marketing. So is advertising, which is paid for and publicity, which is hoped and prayed for. And that is the difference between the two.
Publicity is acquired when a newspaper writes about your company, or a TV station features it on a news program. Advertising is what a company pays to have appear in various media. Other parts of marketing are promotional efforts like trade show. Investors usually like to see an integrated marketing plan, with a specific goal of selling more of the product or service offered.
The IMC, or integrated marketing communications approach, holds to the idea than a coordinated and consistent plan across all levels of marketing will yield better results, and investors love to see this type of plan.
In the end however the answer is still very simple. Investors want to make a profit, and if they invest in your company they want to know how you will go about making that profit.
Jun 07 2008
Are you an entrepreneur? Not everyone is, and that is fine. The world needs entrepreneurs, managers and worker bees, but determining the category that you actually fall in can help make your life more successful. Remember that an entrepreneur is a risk taker and a builder who rejects the commonly accepted idea of security in a paycheck signed by someone else.
The entrepreneur is the one who signs the paychecks for others, and has the self-confidence to take the risks necessary to build the business that provides the jobs for others.
The entrepreneur must be creative, hard working, smart working, persistent, motivated, full of stamina, dedicated, energetic and able to direct the efforts of others. He must be able to delegate duties, train personnel, be affable with all, and enjoy his time spent. The entrepreneur must be, above all, confident in his own abilities, and it must not be blind overconfidence, but confidence in himself as a competent individual.
These qualities hold true of many people who are not entrepreneurs. Many company middle managers, for instance. But the quality that truly sets the entrepreneur apart from all of the others is that the entrepreneur is willing to place his time, money and very life at risk for a dream that he is creating. IN that sense the modern entrepreneur is the equivalent of the pioneer farmers and ranchers of the American frontier, the entrepreneurs of their days.
And of the shopkeepers and merchants who went west, and the prospectors of the California gold rush. Today’s entrepreneurs are the under appreciated creators of jobs for other people, and comprise the fastest growing part of the American economy. It is the small business entrepreneur who drives the economy and makes it possible for everyone to make a living, pay taxes, support charities and contribute to the American way of life.