Entrepreneurs have a knack for seeing opportunities where others don't. If you see 2010 as a good time to start a business despite the recession, then you may have an entrepreneurial perspective. Now you need to know if you have some of the other characteristics of successful entrepreneurs.

What helps entrepreneurs these days is that virtual business models put more emphasis on talent and less on administration and infrastructure. After all, e-commerce solutions can give you an instant storefront presence and credit card processing services can handle your receivables, and SEO can give you access to online customers with a minimal up front investment.

So now all you need is the right set of skills and characteristics. Consider whether you have the following ingredients of successful entrepreneurship:
1. Talent.
You should be able to identify at least one area of ability that makes you stand out from the crowd. This can be anything: technical expertise, sales skill, marketing insight, or logistical know-how. Since small businesses are talent-driven, you have to start out with the belief that you have the raw material with which to compete and succeed. It helps if your skills happen to be in areas with growing demand, such as health care or computer technology. If you have medical knowledge or a skill such as Web design, you may have a little wind at your back.

2. A new or different perspective.
"Me-too" businesses have a tough time making a mark, especially during a weak economy. Your business should be founded on the idea that there is a better way to do things. Ideally, you should have enough experience in your chosen industry to be familiar with the normal way business is done, and to have developed some unique insights as to how that can be improved. Being able to clearly articulate a differing perspective should be central to your business plan. In turn, it should also become the vision you communicate to everyone you hire, and the selling proposition you use to pitch potential customers.

3. A business network of connections and affiliations
Experience is valuable not only for knowing how other companies do things, but also for helping you form a business network that will get your new company up and running more quickly. Remember, people--especially business-to-business customers--can be reluctant to do business with a start-up. You should have some contacts who respect you enough personally to take a chance on your new business. Of course a network of contacts can also help you identify potential investors, suppliers, and talented employees. If you need to build your network think about joining a business community of interest.

4. A war chest.
Don't start your business venture unless you have identified sufficient funding to not only get started, but to keep your business running through the inevitable lean months at the beginning. Many businesses are forced to go under just as they would be starting to gain some momentum, simply because they underestimated the amount of time it would take for profits to start rolling in. Funding can be from your own savings, outside investors, or loans. Of course, external sources of funding are harder to come by in a recession, but you can use techniques such as virtual offices to reduce the need for this type of funding.

5. Ability to take risk.
You should start any new business with a commitment to succeed, but an acceptance of the risk involved. Entrepreneurs are often people who are willing to trade a sure thing working for someone else for even a risky chance at running their own show.

6. An eye for complementary talent.
Once you start hiring people, you should think in terms of rounding out the team rather than looking for people just like yourself. It can be a mistake to have too many would-be leaders in one organization. If you have an independent and visionary outlook, you might do well to complement that with a strong administrator who can take care of the details.

7. Persistence.
Not only does it take a long time for a new business to gain traction, but entrepreneurs often don't succeed on their first try. As long as you have confidence in the first two items on this list--your talent and your unique perspective on the business--you should be willing to keep trying.

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No matter how desperate for customers you are, you must get that under control. People will sense desperation and either run from you or try and take advantage of you. Neither is all that good for you. So what can you do? Here are 3 tips to help you stay strong no matter what's going on in your business.

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As 81 million American baby boomers begin to move into their retirement years, they are redefining what retirement means. For many, it doesn't mean they've stopped working, but rather that they are exercising more choice over how they work. According to a 2009 survey, some 75 percent of people who chose to engage in some form of work found the work satisfying, and in four out of five cases, they were able to find white collar jobs for what are known as "encore careers."

Picking the perfect second act for your career can involve trying a field that's always interested you, helping out with a cause that you believe in, or getting a chance to run your own business.

If it's running your own business that appeals to you, chances are you don't want to sink a large chunk of your retirement savings into a new venture at this point. Therefore, the key is getting started with minimal investment up front. This is very possible these days, depending on how you set up your business, and what type of business you choose to go into.

Getting Started with a Shoestring Budget

To start a business with relatively little up front capital, the key is to minimize fixed costs. Variable costs--expenses of the pay-as-you-go variety--are preferable because they allow you to ramp up or scale back investment depending on how the business is going.

Here are some key tools for keeping fixed costs to a minimum:

• E-commerce Solutions. Who needs a business location when you have the Internet? The ultimate low-overhead storefront, the Internet gives you access to a world of potential customers. Utilizing e-commerce solutions is much cheaper than having a physical place of business where you receive customers. For example, it allows you to avoid the many expenses of having a retail outlet, such as rent, utilities, staffing, and insurance.

• Outsourcing Back Office Infrastructure. Rather than building a complete organization from scratch, try to outsource anything that isn't central to the unique value proposition of your business. For example, functions such as customer support, credit card processing and human resources are only needed occasionally or periodically. Therefore, it makes more sense to utilize outsourced call center services for telemarketing or customer support or HR outsourcing for human resource activities than to try to staff it internally.

• Use Online, Social Media Strategies to Promote Your Business. Developing a full scale online social media strategy can seem overwhelming at first. But you can implement simple things by hiring interns to do the leg work such as starting a blog or using Twitter, and tracking different programs making adjustments along the way.

Low-Cost Entrepreneurial Business Ideas

If the above are some techniques for structuring a business with minimum up front investment, what are some lines of business which lend themselves to getting started with minimal capital?

One rule of thumb is that services generally require less investment than manufacturers or retailers, though with e-commerce some re-sellers can operate cheaply if they have tight supply lines and add value in the process. Focusing on services, the following are some examples of businesses that might be right for the current environment, and can be started on a shoestring.

• Business consulting. If many retiring boomers are going to be starting their own businesses, why not use your business experience to help show them how to do it?

• Green consulting. People are striving to become more energy-efficient, for economic and environmental reasons. If you have expertise in this area, consulting with businesses and homeowners on how to reduce their consumption is a natural.

• Public relations. If you have media and promotional experience, you could be in demand with the new wave of entrepreneurs starting their own businesses. In particular, bringing knowledge of modern promotional techniques such as social media strategies could be valuable to these new businesses.

• Employment counseling. Between a weak economy and an aging population, there are many people facing a career crossroads these days. Helping them find the right niche can be a good way to make use of any personnel experience you have.

• Online Lead Generation. Sales Lead Generation is growing by leaps and bounds as far as start up industries are concerned. This is a very special industry that affords flexibility and freedom that is unparalleled. And, there is even a significant demand for highly specialized lead generation consultants to help companies generate qualified sales leads in this market.

Running your own business may not have been your parents' idea of retirement, but things are very different today. If you have the entrepreneurial itch, starting a venture might just give you the satisfaction and extra income to make your "golden years" more than just an expression.

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First, some context. What exactly is an upsell and a downsell and why is it so important to your business?

An upsell is when your prospect has already said "yes" to buying something from you, and then they decide at the same time to buy something else. The classic example of this is the MacDonald's "Would you like fries with that?' The customer has already bought a hamburger and now the employee has nudged them into buying something else.

A downsell is when your prospect has said "no" to your initial offer so you present a second offer. Typically the downsell is less expensive than the original offer. So, for instance, the customer decides the MacDonald's hamburger is too expensive and decides to buy just an ice cream cone.

Now clearly this can and does happen in face-to-face situations. But did you realize this can also happen online?

So for instance, someone buys a product on your web site. Your web site can immediately present them with a second offer, the upsell.

And if the prospect clicks away, because they're not interested in buying your product, your web site can also present them with a second offer, a lower cost offer than the one they were looking at.

So you're probably thinking, this sounds a little complicated and I haven’t a clue how to start. Why would I want to do this?

Two reasons --

1. You'll make more money. When you start using the upsell, you'll increase your overall purchase amount. For instance, say your product is $100 and you offer a $50 upsell. Let's say 20% of your buyers take you up on it. Now you've made an additional $50 on 20% of your purchases. (This can add up after awhile.)

Now, for the downsell, you've saved a sale you've probably lost anyway. Let's say your product is $500, when someone clicks away, you pluck a piece out of the original product, say an ebook, and offer that for $97. Now you're giving your customers a lower cost alternative, a chance to try your product out before spending a lot more money.

2. If you offer an upsell, you'll increase customer satisfaction and decrease returns. Yes you read that right. Upsells can actually make your customers feel more satisfied doing business with you and less likely to want to return the product. Why? Because you're helping them "skip" over buyers' remorse. We all have buyers' remorse after we buy something, which is when we regret our purchase. The intensity and the length varies depending on the buying situation. But if you immediately jump into and offer a second purchase, your customers are busy figuring out if they want to make that second purchase versus feeling bad over making the first one. And if they DO buy, then they're that much more invested in you and your business and they WANT what you sold them to be what they're looking for.

And the best part of this whole strategy? It's automatic. You set it once and it keeps on doing it, over and over again. What could be better?

One final note to chew on as you make up your mind if it's worth it or not – do you know what the most read page on a web site is? It's your thank you pages. The page your prospects go to after they sign up for something or buy something. Don't waste this valuable real estate – put an upsell on that page and watch your bank account grow.

About the Author
Michele PW (Michele Pariza Wacek) is your Ka-Ching! marketing strategist and owns Creative Concepts and Copywriting LLC, a copywriting and marketing agency. She helps entrepreneurs become more successful at attracting more clients, selling more products and services and boosting their business. To find out how she can help you take your business to the next level, visit her site at http://www.MichelePW.com.

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Sometimes, smaller is better--just ask the small business entrepreneurs also called micropreneurs flourishing in today's marketplace. A growing set of entrepreneurs are building successful businesses by serving a niche market. Micropreneurs aren't trying to become the next Bill Gates or Larry Ellison. They're thriving small-scale on the strength of a loyal customer base and utilizing social business networking and utility tools to help with sales lead generation.

Micro-Enterprises Rely on E-Commerce Solutions

Micropreneurs are rewriting the rules of small business--and they're relying on the internet to make their business model work. A New York Times feature on startups explains: "the Internet has given people an extraordinary tool not only to market their ideas but also to find business partners and suppliers, and to do all kinds of functions on the cheap: keeping the books, interacting with customers, even turning a small idea into a big idea."Thanks to a range of online small business resources, today's micropreneurs have the resources to build their venture on a shoestring budget.

With minimal upfront investment, you can:

1. Create an Internet storefront for retail sales. E-commerce solutions can create a Web site with point-of-sale (POS) capability. Online POS systems enables secure credit card processing on your site, allowing you to keep the doors open 24/7.

2. Reach your niche market. Online sales lead generation and marketing tools excel at targeting interested consumers and businesses.

3. Communicate with your customers via online business networking tools, a blog, or social networking tools. Social media sites offer powerful resources for finding your needle in the haystack, also known as your niche customers and partners. They can also help you keep in touch; today's customer service agents use online media such as twitter, facebook, tradeseam and email correspondence to connect with the public.

4. Need niche supplies or equipment to launch your niche business? Tradeseam connects entrepreneurs and suppliers of all stripes. You'll find business resources including manufacturing companies, international suppliers, and everything under the sun online.

5. Web-based technology offers a range of resources for small business owners. Time-tracking software and online accounting programs are just two examples of today's affordable, productivity-enhancing business tools.

6.The Internet offers the reach and low startup costs to support a niche business.

7. For many micropreneurs, the Eureka moment--the business idea--derives directly from a personal passion.

The following entrepreneurs built a following--and a profitable business--catering to like-minded individuals.

Specialty Food Carts
El Dorado tacos? Chow Fun to go? More and more specialty food carts are cruising urban neighborhoods, with offbeat menus to serve the random craving. Restaurant consultant Clark Wolf notes: "Mobile food is one of the hottest things going all over the country. Brooklyn has its ribs truck, Manhattan has its dessert trucks, and now Los Angeles has the cupcake patrol."
Specialty food carts rely on social networking tools such as Twitter, Facebook to broadcast their coordinates. The strategy seems to work. L.A.'s Kogi taco truck draws between 300 and 800 by tweeting its location in advance, "setting off a taco-minded flash mob."

Pedicab
A physically fit duo in Spokane, Washington has pedaled to success with a pedicab service. Cheaper and more eco-friendly than a cab, the bike-based taxi is finding no shortage of riders around the downtown area. To get the wheels rolling in your own leg-powered cab service, you'll need pedicabs, licenses, insurance, and a local marketing campaign. Once you've gained a loyal ridership, you can establish a call center or online-based dispatch service linking riders to your mobile phone.

Guerilla Marketing Agency
Seattle businesses looking to make a unique statement can count on Wexley School for Girls to get the job done. The agency uses off-the-wall guerilla marketing stunts to build publicity for clients. For example, they created a buzz around Copper Mountain ski resort by staging a National Snow Day with improv ski-patrol actors and fake snow. The stunts aren't for everyone; "either you get what Wexley is selling--a very particular sensibility and approach toward marketing--or you don't," comments an admirer. But the agency isn't looking for mass appeal: "Wexley is biting off little pieces, looking to take on a particular niche of a business."
Build your own businesses staging publicity events for businesses. Start with an eye-catching Website Design and online marketing campaign to get the word out. As the costs of running a business come down, micro-enterprises are flourishing. These small businesses focus on a loyal niche, taking advantage of online business networks to communicate with customers, source, distribute, and to manage the venture.

In today's Internet-driven economy, it's no longer necessary to chase the next big thing. A great small idea can take you even further.

Niki is an entrepreneur, business consultant and advisor to several small business entrepreneurs in the San Francisco bay area. She writes extensively on the small business blog and is a frequent contributor to several small business resource and networking sites that offer tools and resources for entrepreneurs and small business owners, including Tradeseam, Dell, Women On Business and Small Business Community.

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Your employees are your business’ most expensive asset. According to one estimate, up to a third of a person’s salary is devoted strictly to hiring costs. The cost of hiring the wrong employee is even more- reportedly up to twice an employee’s annual salary. Making smart hiring decisions can be tough- you want an employee that has the requisite skills, qualifications, and certifications, but you also want someone that’s the “right fit” for your business. While it’s relatively easy to verify whether or not an employee graduated from a particular institution or has a driver’s license in a certain state using a background check, the “good fit” question can be a little bit more complicated.

Social Media Searches in Hiring
The Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act defines a “consumer report” as “…any written, oral, or other communication of any information by a consumer reporting agency bearing on a consumer’s credit worthiness, credit standing, credit capacity, character, general reputation, personal characteristics, or mode of living….” You’re not the only one thinking that that description is a little vague. A social media search, especially when conducted by a third party as part of a background check, can constitute a “consumer report” for legal purposes. A social media search also typically reveals all kinds of information that is “off limits” for consideration during the hiring process- for example, a person’s race, age, marital status, etc. You can’t consider these characteristics or a host of additional factors- for example, whether the person is pregnant, disabled, or belongs to a certain religious group. Even if you come across this information when you’re not specifically looking for it (as with a social media search), it’s impossible to unring the bell. What’s worse, information may not even be accurate- you may end up discounting a great prospect because of information they weren’t even aware was posted.

Disclosure and Consent
The best policy (if you want to avoid liability) is one of full disclosure- tell the prospective employee that you will perform an online search. The FRCA requires notice to prospective employees whenever you prepare a consumer report (as defined above)-whether you prepare it yourself or use an employment background check service. Outsourcing employment screenings can be a great idea for businesses that aren’t sure about the regulations, procedures, and policies that they need to comply with to perform a legal background search. Though legal opinions vary with respect to social media searches in hiring, it’s better to err on the side of caution- and FRCA compliance.

About the Author
Merrin Muxlow is a writer, yoga instructor, and law student based in San Diego, California. She writes extensively for Resource Nation, a company that provides resources for business owners, and is a frequent contributor to several sites and programs that offer tools for entrepreneurs, including Dell and BizEquity.

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What do computer giant Dell, gourmet food basket maker Tastefully Simple, and organic brewer Honest Tea have in common? Though all three are now multi-million dollar companies, all were originally started within the founder’s home. You’ve probably heard how Michael Dell worked out of his garage to build his empire, but equally inspiring are the stories of Jill Blashack Strahan- who assembled gift baskets on the pool table of her backyard shed- and Seth Goldman- who brewed tea at his kitchen sink and presented homemade samples to clients in thermoses.

The home-based startup story has a certain magic to it that often glosses over the particulars: where to set up office equipment (computer, printer, copier,etc.), whether or not you should dedicate a business phone line or switch your VoIP service to include “follow” features so you’re always available, and how many hours you should put in when your office is in your kitchen. What does a stay-at-home entrepreneur really need? Here are a few necessities:

1. A Separate, Dedicated Workspace. Whether it’s your garage, a toolshed in the backyard, or just an area off the den, you will need a space that’s just for work.

2. A Separate Phone Line. Small business VoIP service plans are cheap and easy to sign up for. You can also add an extension or line to your existing residential VoIP service arrangement.

3. A Fast Internet Connection. For businesses based online, this is non-negotiable. Your internet connection should be fast enough to support online activity and VoIP calls, if you use an internet-based phone system as your method of business communication.

4. A Door…or Earplugs. If you can’t physically separate your workspace from the rest of the house, you can mentally separate it by using earplugs to tune out audio distractions, or a folding screen to tune out visual ones.

5. A “Do Not Disturb” sign. If you’re working while others are at home, make sure they know when you’re “unavailable.”

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If you’re thinking of switching to VoIP service from a traditional landline based Key, PBX, or hybrid phone system, you’re not alone- businesses of all sizes are beginning to realized the cost-saving benefits of computer/telephony integration. Switching to a VOIP phone is relatively simple- changes can be made quickly and easily, and there is usually very little equipment to purchase.

Whether you’re switching to a business VoIP service or implementing a phone system for the first time, here are a few things you need to consider:

Internet Connectivity

VoIP phone systems use the internet to make and receive calls- you’ll need to make sure your connection and your power supply can support system requirements. Generally, a steady, uninterrupted power supply and a high-speed internet connection are all that’s needed. Your connection should be able to support the added traffic that the system will create. Vendors will ask how many employees will be using the system, how many calls are placed daily, and take into consideration features like auto attendant and call transferring when setting up your internet connection to support your system. You may need to purchase additional routers or install a backup power supply.

VoIP Adapters

If you’re witching to VoIP from a traditional phone system, you can save by purchasing adapters for your current phones. A traditional phone fitted with a VoIP adapter works identically to a VoIP phone. Most adapters are less than $50 each, and are often available in bulk discounts for larger offices. In lieu of adaptors, you can also purchase VoIP phones, headsets, or microphones that can be connected directly to a computer and used in place of a traditional headset. Most business and residential VoIP service providers sell both VoIP-compatible phones and adapters.

VoIP Phones

Voice over Internet Protocol phones are slightly more expensive that VoIP adapters, but are a good investment if you plan to use the system for several years. VoIP phones are easy to use and install- they don’t take any special training to set up. Once installed, they work identically to traditional phones. Most VoIP phones cost at least $100 each, with many vendors offering steep discounts for phones purchased in bulk.

Switching to a VoIP system takes surprisingly little time. Once you’ve decided to make the switch, you can shop around for providers and compare prices for services and equipment. Most providers can also make suggestions about system configuration (i.e., if you need a faster internet connection) during this stage. Once you’ve settled on a service provider and purchased equipment, you can have the new system up and running in less than a week.

About the Author
Merrin Muxlow is a writer, yoga instructor, and law student based in San Diego, California. She writes extensively for Resource Nation, a company that provides resources for business owners, and is a frequent contributor to several sites and programs that offer tools for entrepreneurs, including Dell and BizEquity.

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Every time I turn on the news I feel like screaming. I am sick and tired of hearing about how bad the economy is. Unemployment is up and is only going to get worse. Banks are in trouble and going under. Real estate is a mess and there is no end in sight. Major corporations are going bankrupt - heck, even the big three automakers may go under.

I hear about how this is the next great depression. I hear about the collapse of the dollar, the collapse of the western world, and the end of society as we know it.

It Isn't As Bad As It Sounds
The sad part is that it isn't all that bad. Yes the economy stinks, but this is only when compared to the amazing boom we experienced in the last decade. Companies have been able to go after the low hanging fruit-heck, there was more lying on the ground than you could pick up!

Just because the ground isn't littered with business anymore doesn't mean that there isn't business out there. You just have to work for it. And the past decade of easy business means that most companies have not made the connections and built relationships. Now they pay the price.

And at the end of the day, now is the time where entrepreneurs can really shine.
No, I'm not crazy. Think about what a true entrepreneur does.

• He connects with his customer


• identifies his needs and problems


• then creates products and services to fill those needs or problems

In other words, he gets paid to solve problems

Now more than ever companies are in trouble. Your customer desperately needs you. No, he isn't spending indiscriminately. But if you solve his problem and help him survive (or thrive) in this downturn he will be your customer for life. And you solve your "slow business" problem at the same time. Only an entrepreneur can do this, and you finally have an advantage over larger companies.

Simple, but Hard to Do
This is a simple concept that is hard to do. I've written several articles that are aimed at this:

• Recessionproof your sales


• How to Thrive in a Recession


• How to Thrive in a Recession - Ignore the News


• How to Thrive in a Recession - It’s All About the Customer


• How to Thrive in a Recession - Working for Someone Else


Brandt Smith is a sales, marketing, public speaking, and professional development expert. Learn about achieving wealth and life balance through entrepreneurship at Wealth and Wisdom, where he is cofounder and senior editor. Their advice on wealth building, personal development, and life balance can help take you to the next level. You can also read more of his thoughts on his blog.

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What do you need to start a successful business?

It’s a question almost all entrepreneurs have pondered. Do you need a business plan before you start, funding to fall back on, or a detailed strategy for how your company will grow? Nearly half of all small businesses fail within the first year of operation- what’s the difference between those that fail and those that succeed?

I recently had the opportunity to speak with Judi Sheppard Missett, founder of Jazzercise. Missett built Jazzercise from a one-woman operation into an international corporation with over 7500 franchises worldwide. Here’s what I learned from our conversation:

You don’t always need start-up capital. “I didn’t even get a business loan,” she told me- something virtually unheard of in many entrepreneurial circles. This should come as wonderful news for anyone trying to start a business on a lean budget or without the resources they think they need.

Evaluate your costs of doing business, and show smart for the resources you need to get started. For example, you can usually find a great website designer for a few thousand dollars if you shop around and compare quotes. Most of what you really need is accessible without a large nest of start-up money.

Provide what the customer finds valuable… Missett taught a jazz dance class in Chicago that eventually lead to the Jazzercise idea. At first, she instructed with an eye to technique and form –just like she had been taught while training to become a professional performer. When students stopped coming to class, she had that “lightbulb” moment- the students cared more about looking like professional dancers than dancing like them. From then on, Missett taught the kind of class her students wanted- fun, no mirrors, great music, and lots of movement.

Too many business owners come up with an idea and try to find a market. Missett proves that the other way around is usually more successful- listen to what customers want, and figure out a way to give it to them. Do research on customer patterns, find a way to track behavior by hiring an online marketing company or tracking marketing campaigns and sales strategically.

…And be willing to adapt and change to customer needs. Jazzercise has managed to grow in spite of the “fad” element most fitness trends seem to capitalize on, precisely because customers still get what they want- Jazzercise programs now incorporate strength moves, contemporary music, and other elements that customers began to want as the program became more popular.

Planning and development aren’t just for startups. If your customer base is growing or changing, you need to grow and change, too. Use email blasts to keep in touch with customers, and build relationships while your business is growing. Keep your offerings exciting and fun, but consistent with the product customers have grown to love.

Listen for opportunity knocking! As the saying goes, you should be ready to answer when opportunities come pounding on your door. When Missett began teaching in San Diego, many of her students were military spouses who moved to far away cities and wanted to continue the program.. Missett’s husband was familiar VHS video, then just a developing technology, so she videotaped routines for faraway teachers. This effort lead to the formation of what is now JM DigitalWorks, a video production company that is a division of Jazzercise.

Don’t wait to be in the right place at the right time- evaluate the resources you already have, and try to create opportunities for yourself . As Judi Sheppard Missett says, “We are all in the right place at the right time, we just need to be aware of it.”

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One way to gain recognition for your community and build visibility for your business is by earning business awards. Many are self-nominated and fairly easy to apply for. Here’s a quick guide to a few of the best business awards for 2009:

Businesses that have helped jump start our economy by maintaining growth over the past three years are eligible for the Inc. Magazine 500/5000 award. Winners are invited to attend the nationally recognized Inc. 500/5000 conference, and are featured in future magazine and online stories. This award is a great chance to gain visibility for your company and to represent your community- past winners have included social mission companies, tech startups, and beauty product lines- companies in all industries with over $2m in sales for 2008 are encouraged to apply.

For those still working on breaking the $1m mark, the Make Mine a Million $ Business contest, sponsored by Count Me In, is a great way to gain the support you need to meet this benchmark. The contest operates as a “race” to the $1m sales mark, and most participants see sales increase at least 40% over the duration of the competition. The M3 race is open to women owned businesses in one of 15 categories.

Businesses already on the fast track to earn $1m- those with $500,000 or more in sales for 2008, are eligible to enter the Entrepreneur Magazine Small Business Contest. Similar to the 500/5000 conferenceInc. contest, businesses are featured in a future magazine issue or online story. Entrants are also featured on the contest website- a great way to increase visibility for your business even if you aren’t chosen as a winner.

The Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year award is given annually by international accounting and consulting firm Ernst and Young. Award recipients may attend special conferences and are invited into a network of past winners and prestigious entrepreneurs. The award is internationally recognized as a great achievement- check out the website and contest rules for more details.

If you don’t have the time for a lengthy application, or don’t have the sales revenue to qualify for one of the larger contests, consider Business.com’s “What Works for Business” contest. Applicants write a quick essay about a challenge they’ve overcome. Any small business owner that has overhauled their website design implemented a new online marketing strategy knows that the small things can sometimes be the toughest to take on- here’s your chance to let other entrepreneurs learn from your success. Prizes for the top essay are awarded monthly.

Finally, Ideablob.com allows you to test out business ideas for the chance to win a $10,000 award. Award money goes toward the costs of implementing the idea- if you need to purchase inventory, equipment (such as a credit card terminal) or business software to get your business off the ground, here’s a great place to get started. Awards are given monthly, and are determined by votes from members of the site’s online community.

Whether you’re a brand-new business or a seasoned business owner, there’s a contest out there for you. Most of the above have spring deadlines, so get going- apply for the award you deserve. Good luck!

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Here is a truly horrifying thought: there is actually a specialist graduate degree of Master of Marketing Research, with the post-nominal letters MMR.

Nor is this a gimmick or a cash-cow for one of those otherwise unknown “universities” that offer to send you a degree in return for your “lifetime experience” and a large fee.

No, this is a proper degree offered by over a dozen serious universities, mainly in the USA.
You wonder what sort of eager young scholar, with all the mind-broadening opportunities of a university education spread before them, would choose to dedicate one or two of the most fertile years of their life to such a narrow subject.

Of course, if anyone developed a scientific system that enabled them to predict market responses with a high degree of accuracy, it would be worth the effort. It would open the doors to success not only in business but almost every other aspect of life. The world would belong to the market researchers. Not only a year or two but a decade or two would be well spent in its study.

Indeed, some of the finest minds in academia have been attracted, both by the cross-disciplinary intellectual challenges and by the potential rewards, to the study of customer behaviour.

It is a favourite subject at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, who dole out the Nobel Prizes for Economics. Several Laureates, like Professor Daniel McFadden of UC Berkeley, who won the Prize for his theories on “choice modelling”, have specialised in aspects of econometrics which, whether or not they liked to put it this way, provided a theoretical basis for market research.

There is only one drawback to all this formidable academic output: it is useless.

The test of the validity of any scientific theory is not only how well it explains the past but how well it predicts the future.

If these academic theories of consumer choice were of any use, they should be able to provide models to predict future consumer choice.

We cannot help noticing the absence of such a model in the business world.
If such a model existed, Professor McFadden and his ilk would be very wealthy. While some do indeed make a tidy sum from consultancy, it is difficult to see how their clients are better off for their services.

For the bottom line on market research is that all the greatest failures in marketing history have been preceded by intensive market research using the most advanced specialist techniques available.

This is because big failures can only come from big product launches, and big product launches can only come from big corporations, because only they can afford big products and big launches. The big corporations usually spend lavishly on market research before the launch. This is not because they really believe the market research but so that the junior executives can cover themselves with the senior executives, the marketing managers with the general managers, the management with the directors, and the board with their shareholders.
Then, if something goes wrong, everyone can say, “Well, it is not my fault – I employed the most respected market researchers, who used the very latest methods, and they told me everything was going to be fine, so how was I to know?”

This means that every big product launch has been approved by advanced market research – and since a lot of big product launches end in failure, all these failures have been endorsed by market research.

Perhaps the great problem with market research is conceptual. It puts a great deal of thought and analysis into studying consumer decisions, but consumers put very little thought or analysis into their decisions.

This is why the focus group is a bad idea: it gets potential customers to spend an hour talking about decisions they would usually make in a second. This is artificial as a method and so any conclusions it reaches will be equally artificial.

As ever, wisdom is found not in academia but in The Simpsons. When Homer’s millionaire brother asks him to design the car that average Americans like him would want to buy, Homer puts in every fantasy element he can imagine and ends up designing a monstrosity that no one would want to buy.

In fact, Homer’s car is curiously reminiscent of one that was designed in response to a great deal of market research into what the public “really wanted”... the Ford Edsel.

About the Author:

Guy Kingston produces and presents the Mind Your Own Business podcast, offering free business advice to entrepreneurs and business owners. As well as audio podcasts there are more articles like this, compelling videos and a must-read blog. All at www.myobpod.com or you can network and join in discussions on the MYOB Facebook group.

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Making the decision to sell a business is an extremely important one but many business owners do not realize just how important it is until it is their business. It is absolutely imperative that you take the time to consider your options before making a decision, regardless of whether you built the business from nothing or bought into it and made it your own. There are plenty of factors to consider but if you decide to sell your business, you should do your research before marketing your business for sale.

There are several tips that could help you when selling your business, and ten of them are outlined below. This information is essential so make sure that you adhere to the following points:

1. Plan Your Exit Strategy – Experts agree that you should always plan ahead when you want to sell the business, and begin to prepare at least three years in advance where possible. This allows you to prepare for the handover, both personally and regarding the business for sale. It will allow you to maximize profit and get your paperwork in order.

2. Prepare The Business – If you want to get a higher price when selling your business, you need to make sure that it is well prepared. Any outstanding issues should be solved, new policies and strategies implemented, and fulfilling training will get you up to 10% more on your business than would otherwise be possible.

3. Disregard Your Own Valuation – You are emotionally involved in your business so any price expectations you place on it would be emotionally affected. As such, you are likely to over inflate the price and no buyer will want to know how much you believe your business is worth. The only valuation that matters is that of a valuation specialist or qualified appraiser.

4. Protect Yourself – Have your attorney draw up a confidentiality agreement with no possible loopholes before you make any disclosures pertaining to the business. This will protect your business no matter what and ensure that you are not stung if any sale falls through.

5. Inform Your Shareholders – Shareholders and other individuals with an interest in the business, such as board members, could actually stop any sale of your business going through. Advising them in advance and taking steps to ensure that their influence is ultimately muted is essential. Failing to do so may leave you with your business in your name along with a huge bill for costs incurred by brokers, accountants, and attorneys.

6. Prepare Your Conditions – Many business owners wait until a bid is made on their businesses before preparing their own terms and this can hold up a potential sale. It may even be the cause for a sale falling through. Preparing your written terms and conditions before you put your business on the market will inform buyers before they place a bid. You will then be able to negotiate.

7. Consider Your Retirement – Selling a business may only be the start of your retirement but it could lead to problems in your personal life. You need to consider what you will do following the sale of your business for your own peace of mind and general health. Do not neglect this point. Although it may not sound important now, it will be following the sale.

8. Do Not Give Priority To Price – You should never look at the sale of your business in immediate financial terms. The bids offered may be distinguished as the highest monetary bid and the lower ones, but accepting the former may mean you lose out. Lower bids may have clauses by which you earn a percentage of profits for so many years or even retain shares, As such, the cash amount should be placed behind the content of the bid terms when you consider them.

9. Full Disclosure – No matter what the weaknesses are for your business, you should always make a full disclosure, including warranties, about the state of your business. Be sure to include “to the best of your knowledge” in your contracts, and qualify all disclosure made so you and your buyer know exactly where you stand.

10. Choose The Deal – Approving a deal structure is of paramount importance when selling your business. You need to ensure that you are completely happy with every aspect of the deal. For example, you may want to retain a certain aspect of technology from your business for your future interests so this should be qualified in the terms. You may also wish to keep certain business interests out of the sale. Whatever your decision, you should always act in your own best interests so only offer the deal that you feel comfortable with.

About the Author:

GlobalBX provides a FREE business for sale exchange connecting business buyers, sellers and lenders. Search over 32,000 businesses for sale and franchise opportunities. Sell a business for free with no listing fees and zero commissions. We have all the top franchises as well as franchise resales. Find franchise reviews and get free franchise information. You can also contact over 300 lenders directly and get a business loan.

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Before you get involved with a franchise and commit to a future within a specific brand or business, there are essential elements of the law that you need to know. That law is determined by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which requires franchisors to present all potential franchisees with a specific document offering disclosures at least ten days before a contract is signed or money changes hands. That agreement is known as the Uniform Franchise Offering Circular (UFOC). It is designed to help potential franchisees decide whether an opportunity is the right investment for them and, as such, contains a total of 23 sections.

The Franchisor and its Predecessors and Affiliates – This is the first section and provides specific information about the franchisor. This includes the location, the products / services available, and the experience of personnel working for the company.

Business Experience – This is the second section and it provides you with employment histories for all of the franchise brokers, board members, executives, officers, and management. This is to demonstrate their experience and provides specific information for the previous five years.

Litigation – This is the third section and provides information about any and all litigation that any of the officers, board members, management and executives, as well as the franchisor itself, have previously been involved in. Your attorney should fully investigate any issues arising here.

Bankruptcy – This is the fourth section and is similar to litigation in that it will detail bankruptcy issues instead of litigation proceedings.

Fees – The fifth section informs you of any upfront fees and charges that are applicable to you, including any initial franchising fee that must be paid.

Ongoing Fees – The sixth section details all costs, fees, and payments that are required to be paid following those in section five. This may be royalties, advertising, maintenance, construction, and even staffing costs.

Initial Investment – The seventh section details how much you will need to plough into the business to get it off the ground. These figures are essential for applying for financing and compiling your business plan. Of course, the figures here are typical rather than actual and more of an investment may be required.

Restrictions on Sources of Products and Services – The eighth section is complex on paper but is easy to understand as it details the goods that you are obligated to purchase or lease from the franchisor or its partners. There are often details like the quantities of goods you have to purchase, so you will have an insight into the running of the business.

Franchisee's Obligations – The ninth section details your own personal obligations relating to the business and may or may not include policies, sale figures, training, and the site itself.

Financing – The tenth section will detail an outline of financial plans and arrangements that are available to you as a franchisee.

Franchisor's Obligations – This eleventh section will take some reading as it is easily the longest area of the UFOC. It is also extremely important because it details the franchisor’s obligations to you. It includes various information and all of it is vital to your interests. Pay particular attention to the part outlining the advertising policy.

Territory – The twelfth section of the UFOC details your legal territorial obligations and rights. It outlines whether you have exclusivity or whether you will or may have to share a location with your competition.

Trademarks – The thirteenth section outlines the trademark rights held and whom they actually belong to. It also includes legal details of how the protection works, and thus how and when you will be able to use it.

Patents, Copyrights and Proprietary Information – Further to the above section, the fourteenth section covers ownership of patents and copyrights, and the conditions under which you may use them.

Obligation to Participate in the Actual Operation of The Franchise Business – This may sound complex, but the fifteenth section basically outlines whether you have to be involved in the business personally and the extent of your involvement.

Restrictions on What The Franchisee May Sell – Section sixteen outlines the products you will sell if you invest in the franchise, and gives ideas of further products that you may be able to sell at a later date.

Renewal, Termination, Transfer and Dispute Resolution – Section seventeen is there to protect the franchisor and franchisee because it tells you how and why you may be terminated as well as determining your rights. Should a conflict occur, it would also inform you of how to proceed with a complaint or issue.

Public Figures – The eighteenth section highlights the celebrities or public personas that will be involved in any marketing campaigns, as well as the way in which he or she will receive compensation.

Earnings Claims – The nineteenth section of the UFOC is an important one because it details typical profits, sales, and information about other franchisees. This is not required so it may not be there, but if it is not then do some research to satisfy your suspicions because you need to know these figures.

List of Outlets – Section twenty of the UFOC details statistics about the system that the franchisor employs, including the number of outlets and the location details of at least 100 of them. There will also be information about closures and contract terminations over the past three years.

Financial Statements – Category twenty-one of the UFOC relates to the franchisor’s financial background and the full statements of accounts for the previous three years. It also includes the current balance sheet. All of the above has to be certified by an accountant to maintain their validity. Your own accountant should examine them for you.

Contracts And Agreements – Section twenty-two is exactly what it says it is, so be sure to consult with your attorney to ensure that they are in your best interests.

Acknowledgment of Receipt by Respective Franchisee – The final section is literally an acknowledgement that you received the Uniform Franchise Offering Circular and is of no other consequence.

Although the Federal Trade Commission requires that all of the above be sent to you in the form of a Uniform Franchising Offering Circular (UFOC), they will not have reviewed or approved the information within the document. As such, it is your responsibility to check its accuracy via your attorney and make sure that the franchise business is really in your best interests.

About the Author:

GlobalBX provides a FREE business for sale exchange connecting business buyers, sellers and lenders. Search over 32,000 businesses for sale and franchise opportunities. Sell a business for free with no listing fees and zero commissions. We have all the top franchises as well as franchise resales. Find franchise reviews and get free franchise information. You can also contact over 300 lenders directly and get a business loan.

You have two big decisions to make when deliberating over whether to use a franchise opportunity to set up a business. If you have already determined that a franchise may be the way to go for you then you have to choose the right one, but how can you do that?

First, you have to analyze yourself in depth to ensure that you have the personal skills, wants, and needs. You have to know exactly what you are capable of and the extent of your business aspirations. Brainstorming is a handy tool to use in this situation and it is essential that you do so before investigating current franchise opportunities that are available. Starting with industry analysis is the best route because you can then match your skill set to the industry requirements. As such, you can then narrow down your options to a few select industries before assessing whether those franchise options would work in your local geographic area. Only then can you begin to contact the franchisors and create a business plan.

When contacting franchisors about possible opportunities, always ask them to send you franchise information. If they are to be trusted then this should be available at no cost. When you receive the information, be sure to read it extremely carefully, paying attention to every detail. Do not take anything at face value and research every detail given in depth. After all, this is your future and no stone should be left unturned. You can use trade magazines, Internet profiles, professional journals, and annual reports. You should also contact the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and local authorities to make sure that there are no issues with the franchisor. You should extensively look into the reputation, financial health, growth, management, and day to day running of the business because it will be passed onto you as a franchisee.

When you have digested all of the above information and you are happy with it, ask for details of existing franchisees. It is essential to speak to them because they can give you an accurate viewpoint of how the franchisor runs the business, what the management is like to deal with, insider secrets, how the business is faring, and so on. Any good franchisor will be more than happy to provide this information whereas others may be reticent. Franchisees provide critical information so again only pursue franchises that are accessible. Only then should you assemble a legal team and accountant to answer any legal and financial questions you may have. They will also be able to find any holes that you have yet to discover, thus protecting your own interests.

About the Author:

GlobalBX provides a FREE business for sale exchange connecting business buyers, sellers and lenders. Search over 32,000 businesses for sale and franchise opportunities. Sell a business for free with no listing fees and zero commissions. We have all the top franchises as well as franchise resales. Find franchise reviews and get free franchise information. You can also contact over 300 lenders directly and get a business loan.

The expression “irrational exuberance” has taken on a new significance in recent days. It was used in a 1996 lecture by the then Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, and was widely interpreted as a diplomatic hint that he considered the markets overvalued.

The hint was not diplomatic enough to prevent falls in the markets at the time – or perhaps that was the plan – but they were small falls by the standards of 2007-09, and the irrational exuberance soon returned. The opportunity for a less irrational revaluation was lost and the day of reckoning was postponed. It was therefore far more catastrophic when it finally arrived.
Yet Mr Greenspan probably got the expression from a surprising source – one who used it in a very different context.

The economist John Maynard Keynes spoke of an “irrational exuberance” that is necessary for success.

There are indeed many cases of entrepreneurs who were too young and inexperienced to know that something could not be done – so they just went out and did it!

Indeed, the defining feature of the successful entrepreneur is a willingness to do what no one else does – perhaps because everyone else assumed it was impossible.

So “irrational exuberance” has both negative and positive meanings. The same is true of youth in an entrepreneur.

Youth is by definition inexperienced, and therefore relatively ignorant – and therefore also irrational.

However, youth is also energetic, self-confident, willing to take risks, unbound by convention, and devoid of the caution that comes only with bad experiences over the years. These are the factors which make up the exuberance that enables the young entrepreneur to charge in to places where battle-scarred veterans fear to tread – sometimes successfully but often not.
To seek a happy medium which has the exuberance without the irrationality is to miss the point, which is that the irrationality is a necessary part of the exuberance.

The great historical example of this is a man who retained much of the exuberance of youth throughout his long life, Winston Churchill.

Had Churchill made a “rational” decision in 1940, he would have calculated that there was no way that Britain alone could beat the rest of Europe, then united under Nazi rule – he had no right to assume that Hitler would be so insane as to declare war on both Russia and the United States.

Still the irrational exuberant Churchill fought on, and so saved Western civilisation.
Faith is defined as the “assurance of what is unseen”, and every new enterprise is a leap of faith. We cannot yet see the successful business we want but we are confident enough that we will see it to take the risk.

That leap of faith is greater for some businesses that for others: those great leaps often lead to the greatest successes – but also, it must be said, to the greatest failures.

Irrational exuberance has been at the root of Mankind’s most disastrous errors, from the Tower of Babel, through the Charge of the Light Brigade and Custer’s Last Stand, to the over-heated markets that doomed themselves to a spectacular crash.

Yet the same irrational exuberance is a necessary part of all human progress – including all successful new and expanding enterprises.

After the mini-slump triggered by Greenspan’s remark, bumper stickers were produced reading, “I want to be irrationally exuberant again.”

Perhaps there is a gap in the market for such stickers again.

After all, such irrational exuberance will be necessary to get us out of this recession.
So if you have it, and combine it with a business idea in which you have faith, do not let anyone – least of all two middle-aged men who secretly wish they had more of it themselves – talk you out of it.

About the Author:

Guy Kingston produces and presents the Mind Your Own Business podcast, offering free business advice to entrepreneurs and business owners. As well as audio podcasts there are more articles like this, compelling videos and a must-read blog. All at www.myobpod.com or you can network and join in discussions on the MYOB Facebook group.

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Blogtrepreneur: Millions of people dream of starting up their own business: of being their own boss, making it big, and having a company that that they can point to as their life’s work. But the realities of starting up a small business are sometimes overshadowed by myths which make it difficult to deal with the real challenges that arise in the first few years of operation. Here are some small business startup myths that might keep you from realizing your startup vision:

Myth: I’ll finally have time to do what I want / spend with my family / enjoy life

Reality: Anyone who has successfully started up a small business will laugh you out of the room if they hear your say this. The fact is, there are many benefits (personal and financial) to having your own business, but plenty of free time is not one of them. Granted, you do have a little more flexibility with your time. Many small business owners choose to work late at night so that they can spend time during the day with their families; but there’s still some major sacrifice…namely, sleep. Starting up a small business requires that you work 110%, without exception. Those fantasies of taking long vacations while your business grows itself? Just fantasies.

Myth: I’ll be profitable within the first year because I am hardworking / passionate / good at what I do.

Reality: It doesn’t matter how good you are at your business, how hard you work, or how much of your heart and soul you put into it. All businesses take time to get off the ground, and the majority of them are not profitable for at least the first couple years. You need to be realistic about this for a couple reasons. First of all, you can’t let yourself lose momentum or start to feel depressed just because you’re not profitable right away. Building up expectations like this can damage your business simply by virtue of chipping away at your morale. The other reason is that you’ll have to plan financially. Your budget needs to reflect five years of bootstrapping during your startup. With very few exceptions, no one hits the “big time” in six months, regardless of how talented they are.

Myth: I already know what I want to do, so I don’t need to write a business plan.

Reality: You do. A business plan is going to help you think ahead, plan for all contingencies, work with a budget, keep you focused on your mission, and help you sell your company to anyone else you need/want to have involved—lenders, employees, contractors, vendors, family, friends, etc. Writing a business plan doesn’t have to be rocket science. A simple, small business startup plan can be around 10-15 pages long and follow a simple outline. For an excellent resource on creating a business plan, I recommend the free ebook:

Outline for a Business Plan by Ernst & Young. http://www.techventures.org/resources/docs/Outline_for_a_Business_Plan.pdf

Myth: If I build it, they will come

Reality: You still need to market and advertise your business strategically. That means having a plan and a budget. It also means researching the most effective methods for marketing and advertising. There is no shortage of ways to waste money in advertising, and it can end up being a huge financial drain on a fledgling company. Do you really think 5000 key chains with your logo on them are a wise choice in your first year of business? Do you think the yellow pages are the best place to put an ad, when 80% of your business is done online? No matter how good you are, there is lots of competition and you small business has to establish a presence and reputation to go along with your talent.

Small business is one of the most exciting arenas for earning a living. There is unlimited creative potential and a chance to really make something tangible for yourself and your family. But doing so requires more than just a vision and some chutzpah. You need to be intelligent about how small business is framed in our marketplace, and what kinds of obstacles there are to overcome. You also need to be aware of the tools and support that you have at your disposal. Staying focused on these realities, and avoiding the myths that many fall prey to will only increase your chances of success and longevity in your small business.

Small Business Startup Myths [Blogtrepreneur]

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Where other businesses struggle, franchise businesses thrive. Wendy’s and McDonald’s are prime examples of successful franchise businesses, and also provide inspiration for those individuals who really want to form their own successful businesses in the future. With a brand behind you and a good idea of what does and does not sell, it is no wonder that you have chosen to consider a franchise.

There are two types of franchises out there. One is the good franchise that takes care of its franchisees, providing training and support throughout. The second type does nothing but take from the franchisee and pushes for profit. There is a third type of franchise and that is the one that will rip off franchisees, taking them for as much money as possible. The latter two are not worth the time, money and energy, whereas the former is extremely desirable.

As such, it is essential that you do your research and investigate a franchise thoroughly before signing a contract or paying out any money. The list of questions below may help you to find the better ones as the answers they will yield will give you enough information to make an informed decision:

1. Have you and your attorney analyzed the franchise agreement in detail and do you both completely agree with the details?

2. Are there any elements or step required of you that would break the law or be to the detriment of yourself or your country?

3. Do the provisions in the franchise agreement give you exclusive territory for the period of your contract? If not, what is the maximum number of franchises that may open in your area?

4. Is this franchisor connected in any way with any other franchise company handling similar products or services?

5. If you answered yes to the above question, what is your protection against the second franchising company?

6. If you decide to end the franchising contract for any reason, what are the provisions for you to pull out of the contract and how much would you have to pay to break the agreement?

7. Are you able to sell your franchise during or at the end of your contract? If you are legally allowed to do so, what are the repercussions related to compensation?

8. What time period represents the duration of your contract and how long has the franchisor actually been in full operation?

9. Does the company offering you this franchise have a reputation for honesty and fair dealing among its franchisees?

10. Has the franchisor shown you any certified figures indicating exact net profits of one or more of its members, and have you personally checked the figures with these people?

11. Are you able to tap into franchisor assistance with training, PR, advertising, capital, credit or merchandising?

12. Are you offered assistance for finding the best location possible in your chosen area?

13. Does the franchising firm have solid financial input to ensure stability and the establishment of goals?

14. Does the franchisor have experienced management, trained in-depth?

15. Can the franchisor do anything above and beyond what you are capable of yourself?

16. Have investigations into your background been carried out and has the franchisor been assured that you are capable of making a profit?

17. Does the state in which you live in have franchising laws in place, and does the franchisor adhere to them completely?

18. How much equity capital will you need to purchase the franchise and operate it until your income equals your expenses?

It is extremely important to answer these questions fully and to your complete satisfaction. If this is the case then you may be extremely eager to become a franchisee. However, you should research all answers to get them verified in several places to ensure that your investment would be a wise one.

Purchasing a franchise can provide you with stability and profits in a short period of time but that is not to say that it is infallible. Less than 20% of all franchises fail so you need to ensure that you do not become a statistic. Information regarding specific franchising ideas can be found in the franchising directories, which are generally available at the local library. This will give you a little assistance to get started but you need to ensure that you are completely happy before committing.

About the Author:

GlobalBX provides a FREE business for sale exchange connecting business buyers, sellers and lenders. Search over 32,000 businesses for sale and franchise opportunities. Sell a business for free with no listing fees and zero commissions. We have all the top franchises as well as franchise resales. Find franchise reviews and get free franchise information. You can also contact over 300 lenders directly and get a business loan.

Franchising has a longer history than many people may imagine but there have been several defining moments during its history. One of the biggest events occurred on October 21, 1979 when the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) introduced the Franchise Rule. This was designed to protect franchisees because it asserted that all US operational franchisors were legally obliged to fully disclose details that all potential franchisees should know before committing to investment.

As such, it enforced FTC standards to ensure that all disclosures contained uniform information that has been prepared to meet the legal criteria. One of the main requirements of this law ensured that there has to be evidence to support any financial details given. This in turn assures all potential franchisees that there is profit to be made and make them fully aware of any pitfalls.

More specifically, the Franchise Rule requires the following information to be disclosed by all franchisors:

(a) The franchisor must declare its affiliates, directors, officers, management and individuals responsible for all areas of the business, such as training, support, and franchising information.

(b) The franchisor must declare whether it or any of its officers, management, and directors have ever been bankrupt or faced lawsuits in the past, even those from before the individual in question joined the business.

(c) The exact amount you are expected to pay in franchise fees and various other associated charges must be disclosed. This includes all immediate and ongoing payments after the franchise contract is signed and the business has opened.

(d) Any and all restrictions on the quality of goods and services that you, as a franchisee, may use. This includes any purchase restrictions that may be in place.

(e) Any help and support that will be offered by the franchisor and any affiliates including financial support.

(f) All restrictions applicable to the goods and services you will be managing and selling, as well as any restrictions that you have to work with when dealing with customers.

(g) Any advantage or guarantees provided regarding the location and locality of the franchise.

(h) The franchise conditions under which your franchise may be terminated, sold on to another franchisee, repurchased, or modified.

(i) Franchisee training programs that are available and any fees associated with them.

(j) The involvement, if any, of celebrities or known figures in the public eye within the business, whether in advertising or behind the scenes.

(k) Site selection assistance that is offered by the franchisor.

(l) The number of present franchises, franchises projected for the future, franchises terminated or not to be renewed, and the number repurchased in the past.

(m) Full financial statement disclosure.

(n) How far you are expected to participate within the franchise operation after becoming a franchisee.

(o) Full disclosure of proof for earnings and profit claims made regarding other franchisees.

(p) Full names and addresses of franchisees that you can talk to.

All of the above legal considerations of franchising must be fully disclosed during initial contact with the representative of the franchise, whether that is a broker or the franchisor him or herself. As soon as the franchise opportunity is discussed, the legal considerations must be fully disclosed. The disclosure must be at least ten days prior to payment or to any franchise or related contract being signed. This pertains to the contract signing itself and also any financial statements changing hands.

The Federal Trade Commission does not require franchisors to register, but depending on the state your franchise may be in, it may have to register on a local level. The Uniform Franchise Circular Offering (UFOC) guidelines have been adopted by most states as a result of their strict disclosure requirements. However, you should never take it for granted that the franchise is registered or offers full disclosure, thus providing you with protection of any kind. You must research the franchisor fully before committing.

About the Author:

GlobalBX provides a FREE business for sale exchange connecting business buyers, sellers and lenders. Search over 32,000 businesses for sale and franchises for sale. Sell your business for sale for free with no listing fees and zero commissions. We have 1000s of franchises as well as franchise resales. Find franchise reviews and get free franchise information. You can also contact over 300 lenders directly and get a business loan.

I can’t believe we didn’t learn them from the past recessions

1. Have a strategy ready to implement if your sales drop 10%. This is a normal business fluctuation. Too many businesses have grandiose plans for growth but don’t plan for this reality. Have a plan for what you would do if there is a 20% to 25% drop in sales. Almost all businesses will have a negative cash flow if they continue normal operations during this type of a sales decline. Either you will have a plan on how to significantly reduce costs or you will be borrowing money and putting your wealth at risk.

2. When times are good, pay down your debt, increase your lines of credit, and upgrade or replace your equipment. Pay as you go on these expenses. Put money away so you can live without a paycheck for 2 years. A downturn will eventually come and you will not have enough cash flow to pay yourself or pay off your loans. Your business will fail if you didn’t prepare.

3. When times are good, do everything you can to reduce your customer concentration. Even big customers will fail during a recession and if you concentrate your sales with them, you will follow them to failure. Also reduce your sales to any one industry. A single industry may be especially hard hit during a particular downturn.

4. When times are good and your customers are healthy, review any credit facilities that you offer your clients. When a downturn comes, accounts receivable will grow rapidly, increasing your risk of failure. Your customer’s customers’ problems quickly become your problems when they owe you money.

5. When times are good, work with your suppliers to reduce the amount of personal guarantees that you made. Check your lease to see if you are personally guaranteeing it. When you started out, you signed a guarantee of payment agreement that included you standing behind your business line of credit with your personal wealth to get delivery on credit. Now that you have been successful and times are good, they may allow you a limited credit line with only a corporate guarantee. In a recession, instead of “just” loosing losing your business, you may loose lose your family house without this change.

6. When times are good, align your employee benefits with the employee working hours or a fixed dollar amount you make available for the benefits. If you have to cut back on employee hours during a downturn, do the benefits costs also go down? If health insurance spikes up, is it your company’s obligation to pay more?

7. Developing your personal network is a big advantage during flush times. Networking loyalties develop customers that are not particularly price sensitive. Your networking clients justify using your business by believing they are getting superior service for this higher price. During a downturn, this all goes and most businesses switch to the low low-cost supplier. Be prepared to give these loyal clients your best price during bad times since they will most likely come back to you when things look better.

8. If the “sustainable competitive advantage” of your business is not being the low cost supplier of the basic product, you had better have a plan for getting there quickly. Customers will start doing without all of the bells and whistles on the products. Don’t tie your pricing structure to selling customers on high margin upgrades or more pricey models. They will start passing on these.

This article is provided by Stan Spector, author of “Baby Boomers’ Official Guide to Retirement Income”. Stan Spector is also a business broker in Rochester NY “Selling Family Businesses- Confidentially”

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When looking at savings account interest rates, it's important to not only pay attention to the rates but at how sound the bank account really is. This means doing a little research on the financial stability of the bank in question. The same holds true when you're looking at a bank's CD rates. You should also always try to stay under the FDIC insured limit.

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For any individual looking to capitalize on franchising opportunities and owning a franchise business, there are several advantages to consider. Some of those you may be interested in are outlined below:

The Franchise Business Pros
· Having a brand behind you, whether it is locally or nationally famous, will save you a lot of time and money that would be needed to create your own brand or trademark. You will also attract customers immediately rather than having to advertise extensively.
· You will have an established business framework to work within, which dramatically reduces the risk associated with a startup business.
· You will already have tried and tested suppliers and services at your disposal, which will again save you the time and money associated with finding your own.
· You will receive ongoing support for sales and marketing throughout your franchise ownership. Franchisees often choose to tap into the help that is offered to them throughout their tenure via existing marketing and advertising assistance.
· Franchisees often get comprehensive financial assistance because banks are often more willing to lend money to well-known brands and names than business startups that are completely unknown to consumers. Franchisees may also have access to direct financial assistance from the franchisor.
· The risk of investing in a franchise is lower than it is for a regular business startup. An established concept is much more desirable because there is less risk.
· Continued development opportunities and research will be available. Franchisors tend to choose to tap into information concerning competition in the local area, seasonal goods, demand, and local attitudes.
· You will get business support from your franchisor, which will help to find you the best possible site and enable any construction work that needs to be done in addition to employee training and operational assistance.
· All business procedures and methods that you use will already be tried, tested, and proven to work.
· The quality and desirability of the franchisor products have been proven and come at a certain standard level that is well established.
· You will have the buying power of the franchisor and centralized purchasing at your fingertips, so costs may be reduced as a result of bulk buying savings that are handed down to the franchisee.

In addition to the pros of franchise businesses as outlined above, there are also others that you may want to consider. For example, expansion may come more easily with a franchise business and you may enhance your business interests with additional businesses, either within the franchise or outside of it. This is how dreams of riches become realities.

That is not to say that there are not cons and disadvantages associated with franchise businesses. A few of them are outlined below:

The Franchise Business Cons
· You may lose ultimate control of your business as a result of the established franchise standards that you have to run your business in accordance with. You may also find that you cannot implement your own ideas and initiatives.
· The level of royalties could be as much as 10% or more in select cases, which will of course affect your profits.
· You will have to pay an initial fee to buy into the franchise. It could be as little as $4,000 but may extend up to $50,000 so there is significant initial outlay.
· You will have to pay advertising fees to ensure that your business is recognized as existing in your current location. If the franchisor advertises poorly then your fees are wasted.
· You may have to buy a signage pack from your franchisor. Some franchisors insist on you buying their specific signage and so you may find it extremely expensive.
· If the franchisor gets into difficulties then so do you. As you effectively bear their name then you bear the brunt of a problem, including issues with suppliers.

In conclusion, although there are some disadvantages with having a franchise business, the positives far outweigh the negatives. The risks of failure are significantly reduced and so there are fewer problems than a brand new startup business. Of course, you should always ensure that the paperwork is in order, and you should complete your research and due diligence before committing because there are no guaranteed profits, and you would ultimately be responsible should the venture fail.

About the Author:

GlobalBX provides a FREE business for sale exchange connecting business buyers, sellers and lenders. Search over 32,000 businesses for sale and franchises for sale. Sell your business for sale for free with no listing fees and zero commissions. We have 1000s of franchises as well as franchise resales. Find franchise reviews and get free franchise information. You can also contact over 300 lenders directly and get a business loan.

Article Contributed by Guy Kingston

It seems that Ethics is a growth industry. There are even advertisements in the newspapers for “professional ethicists”.

Does this mean that we are getting more ethical? Are we at the place of which Plato dreamed, where “kings are philosophers and philosophers are kings”.

Alas, the opposite seems to be true. The fact that so-called “experts” have to be employed to say what is ethical is just one sign that many people are increasingly incapable of telling right from wrong for themselves.

Indeed, the “professional ethicists” are not really concerned with moral right and wrong. Rather they are a junior branch of the legal profession. Many sectors, especially those related to medicine and human services, now have “codes of ethics” or “codes of conduct”. A breach of these codes may have legal consequences. The purpose of the “professional ethicist” is to give a degree of protection from those legal consequences. Surely this is the very opposite of ethics.

The last century has seen an enormous expansion in the scope of the law in most jurisdictions. Activities which were previously left up to individual conscience are now regulated by the state.

This is particularly true of business.

Yet it has not made business more honest. To rely on force rather than conscience to get people to do what is right is to undermine conscience. When people are forced, rather than persuaded, they will do what they are forced to do and no more. They will feel no sense of obligation.

More and more, the business world is filled with people who are governed by the principle of “what can we get away with”, rather than by what is right.

It was not always so. We must not be so naive as to imagine that there was ever a Golden Age when everyone was always honest – but things certainly used to be better than they are today.

Previous generations were less likely to see a conflict between doing what was morally right and doing what was in their own best interests.

Partly this was due to the greater emphasis that was placed on Reputation in those days. Business communities tended to be smaller, either because they were geographically isolated or because there might be a small number of specialists in very close correspondence. If a man did anything dishonest, it would soon be known by everyone and his chances of remaining in business would be negligible. Today, the global market is so big that it is unlikely that everyone will hear if someone has a bad reputation.

Mainly, however, it was because business communities usually had shared religious values.

Max Weber described the “Protestant Work Ethic”. The same principle which encouraged people to work hard to succeed in business – a desire to please God – also imposed strict honesty on those business dealings. Protestant devotional works sometimes recommend standards that seem laughable today – like not taking advantage of information that was unknown to the other party in a deal and not charging market price where the profit is excessive. Yet the people who read those works often became very wealthy, not least because they had a reputation for fair dealing.

In the same way, Jewish bankers were able to do business, even if the face of virulent Anti-Semitism, because they built a reputation for scrupulous honesty. This only irritated the Anti-Semites even more.

Even today, an entrepreneur is better off if he deals with someone who is concerned about his reputation for honesty – and who possibly believes that there is an Accounting beyond the balance sheets of this life – than relying on any number of laws and regulations and artificial codes for protection.

About the Author
Guy Kingston produces and presents the Mind Your Own Business podcast, offering free business advice to entrepreneurs and business owners. As well as audio podcasts there are more articles like this, compelling videos and a must-read blog. All at www.myobpod.com or you can network and join in discussions on the MYOB Facebook group.

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There are billions of web base businesses all over the world, and we keep reading success stories from media. Such sensational news and gossips encourage us to jump in Web World to make more money, to make our life easier. Because there is a thought like internet allows you to grow up easily and when you grown up just retire from your job and travel whole around the world… Oh, i wish it would be so easy to do, however it’s not.
Think about Steve Jobs (All of us know him, but let me mention him again); he found Apple and when he actually started to earn money, he is fired! So he started to work that hard again like his first startup (Apple) for Pixar Studios, and he keeps creating worth even he has billions. Or let’s think about Larry Page or Sergey Brin, should they retire and travel all around the world? Sure not… They keep engraving Google in our brains and keep changing approaches like what they did first.

Won’t we retire to travel all around the world?
No doubt, we will! But there is just one point, it shouldn’t be an aim for your business. Because when you aim to make money with your projects, all your approach changes.
Start to see people like Dollars,
Give up easier when you can’t earn that fast
May jump into other profitable ideas
When you need to decide something, you keep deciding up to Making Money Aim!

What should be the aim?
There is just one way for succesfull businesses; Aim to Change The World!
Choose the idea which you love, cause it helps to go on working hard even you don’t make money. Also you want to fix or develop the things for whole World which you LOVE…

“The only way to do great work is to love what you do.
If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking, and don’t settle.
As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.”
Steve Jobs

There is nothing else to satisfy you more, if you did something for world. For that reason you will work harder to be satisfied again and again… So when it becomes an addictness, you will start to earn more and more…

What to do then?
İt’s your success, and it’s your decision. While you keep creating worth, spend more time for family, travel all around the world or sell your business to build something different
Your turn, what you LOVE to do? And how will you change the world?

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Here are some business failures which i have experienced in my time from running my businessess which have served as great lessons for myself which i believe will benefit you.

I have lost a quarter million dollars in one year that was invested in an Interior Design Company. The whole business went bankrupt. One of the lessons learnt from this failure was in the choice of my partner. I chose the wrong partner.

Here's a small pointer about finding partners. People always ask me this question, is it good to work with friends? The answer is Yes and No.

In fact, I would say it's better to work with people whom you are not friends with in the beginning, but you become friends in the process. When you work with friends, you tend to be very similar. You tend to have similar interests, passions and hobbies.

In addition, there are a lot of expectations already preset, assumptions and so on.

In this way, you don't make it a professional business. It's the same with family. I don't know about you, but I would never ever allow anyone in my family to work in my business. Reason being that feelings always get in the way. How are you going to fire your cousin? Or how are you going to fire your friend?

Here's another lesson learnt. I went into a business that I didn't have knowledge about and it wasn't within my circle of competence. I knew nothing about interior design. I had no passion for interior design. I just went in because I was greedy. And that's what killed me.

So the lesson is to not go into something you have no passion and interest for.

Greed was also one of the lessons I learnt that resulted in me failing. What happened was that when I started, I was given a lot of nice projections from my partner. 1, 2, 3 million dollars in a year, these sort of projections.

I got so excited by the numbers, that there were dollar signs in my head. And the moment there were dollar signs, you get so greedy, and logic goes out of the window leading you in making all the stupid mistakes.

So right now, I always say that when you start a business, expect the best but plan for the worst. Whatever projections people give you, take 50% off. And if after you take 50% off, you can still make money, go for it. So be really conservative in your planning but at the same time, set high goals for it.

Presence in the business is also very important. Focus and Presence.

Someone must be able to be the leader and be able to be in the business 150% of the time and be really focused in that business.

One of the problems with my previous interior design company was this. My partner was not a businessman, he was a designer. He was a great designer but he couldn't run a business.

And he expected me to be that businessman to drive that business which I couldn't fulfil because I was running 4 other companies at that point of time.

So that's why the company collapsed. So you need a key driver, you need someone who is business-focused, who knows marketing
very well, who knows accounting very well, who's very good at leading the team.

These are some of the lessons that I have learnt from running my business. Hopefully it will give you the reader some insights that you will be able to apply in running your own successful business.

Adam Khoo is an entrepreneur, a best-selling author and a peak performance trainer. A self-made millionaire by the age of 26, he owns and runs several businesses in education, training, event management and advertising, all with a combined annual turnover of $20 million. His best-selling "Patterns of Excellence" is a complete step-by-step system that will literally program you for success in life.

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“You can gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do”. - Eleanor Roosevelt

Last month’s I wrote a post about having the courage to Say YES to your dreams and desires. If you missed reading the article, click here. I encouraged you to create your own I Say YES manifesto to use as a source of inspiration and commitment to consistently show up in intention and action.

To achieve your goals, vision, intentions, dreams… requires stepping out of your comfort zone to stretch yourself and open to new experiences that serve to grow you as a person as well as your business. Attempting to stay where you are is impossible. Change is a constant in life. If you’re not moving forward, you will begin to move backward.

This past weekend, I spent time with a dear friend at her parent’s lakefront home while they were away on vacation. I was really looking forward to relaxing, playing, soaking in the hot tub, and doing some personal transformation work together. So, when she said she really wanted to do a sweat lodge my initial reaction was less than enthusiastic. That was not part of my plans!

Several hours of sweating in total darkness with strangers and being vulnerable felt too uncomfortable! No, no, no!

And then I got very still. What if ????? I let go of the resistance (shifting from constriction to expansion thinking), sat with the idea and considered different options. I could go and support her without participating, experience part of it for a while and stop at any time, or I could stay for the whole experience and really stretch myself. Sweat lodges offer powerfull spiritual, physical, and emotionally cleansing and healing experiences. Intuitively, I sensed that doing the sweat lodge would support some healing and release work that was ready to happen. So, I said YES.

It was an incredibly wonderful experience. In fact, the whole weekend was filled with gifts and blessings as I experienced several things for the first time. Being fully present to feelings, insights, and sensations was exhilarating and freeing. Each YES opened doors for new experiences and possibilities. I’m still integrating all that happened and it’s a powerfull metaphor to reflect upon the next time I dig in my heels.

It’s easy to come up with reasons and excuses to say no when we feel afraid or uncomfortable. We have the ability to effectively rationalize and justify a point of view to make it sound and feel believable. We become adept at convincing ourselves that our conclusions are accurate. To add leverage, we collect evidence to back up our NO in case we, or anyone else challenges our decision!

Unless we look more closely, we may miss the truth: we just don’t want to do it, period, especially if the decision feels threatening, uncomfortable or potentially painful.

To achieve your goals, vision, intentions, dreams… requires stepping out of your comfort zone to stretch yourself to new experiences that serve to grow you as a person as well as your business. Attempting to stay where you are is impossible. Change is a constant in life. If you’re not moving forward, you will begin to move backward.

The strength of your NO is often a powerful signal that saying YES to moving forward in spite of the resistance is the step you are meant to take as a leap of faith. Learning to distinguish a valid no from a critical yes is an important skill and talent (intuition) worth developing.

How often does your No response come up when you feel challenged to stretch yourself.

What decisions are you facing now, that are asking for a YES?

What favorite excuses and reasons do you use to justify your position?

What needs to shift to turn your no to YES?

What are you willing to love yourself enough to do, no matter what?

What are you ready to say YES to right NOW?

What will help you stay strong so that you continue to say YES?

It’s your life… make it a great one!

Dr. Lorraine Cohen, President of Powerfull Living, brings more than 25 years experience in personal and business coaching, psychological counseling, and sales to thousands of spiritually minded business owners, entrepreneurs, and leaders from a wide range of industries. Learn more about Lorraine’s services, success products and programs.

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Article contributed by Michelle Ulrich

1.Social networks – how to work it
a.http://www.craigslist.com
b.http://www.fastpitchnetworking.com
c.http://www.ryze.com
d.Ning.com is a create-your-own social network site

2.Free Classified Ads
a.Backpage
b.Craigslist
c.MySpace – need to be a member with a profile, I believe

3.Teleclasses/Podcasts
a.These can be pre-recorded if you don’t want to interact with others
b.Teleclasses are great for getting the word out about your products/services; guest speakers can promote you to their list and increase your list on a monthly basis
c.Use www.fullcalendar.com to promote teleclasses and events

4.Joint Ventures – co-creation of…
a.New products
b.New teleclasses
c.New workshops
d.New podcasts
e.New ebooks
f.Limitless ideas…

5.Strategic Alliances
a.Promote one another via banner ad exchanges
b.Promote one another via ezine or newsletter mentions

6.Article submissions
a.Write an article – submit online
b.Repurpose into an ezine article or ezine series if article is long
c.Repurpose into a podcast
d.Repurpose into an ebook with additional resources
e.Repurpose into a speech/presentation for live events

7.Ezine submissions
a.Write an ezine – submit online to ezine banks
b.Repurpose into an article
c.Repurpose into a podcast
d.Repurpose into an ebook with additional resources
e.Repurpose into a speech/presentation for live events

8.Ezine with tips, resources, trends
a.Submit to ezine banks for additional subscribers

9.Blog
a.Blog or have someone else blog for you no less than 3x/wk
b.Pick a theme for each month to make it easy
c.Base the theme on your teleclasses and ezine, etc. to make all items/tasks easier to complete

10.Affiliate accounts
a.Amazon – book store, software store, web store, etc.
b.Commission Junction
c.Create your own affiliate account – essentially provides a means for others interested in your product a way for them to make a small percentage while you gain a virtual sales force

11.Blogtalk Radio – 15 mins – longer monologues or full blown radio show; record to podcast
a.Repurpose into an article
b.Repurpose into an ezine piece
c.Repurpose into a podcast
d.Repurpose into an ebook with additional resources
e.Repurpose into a speech/presentation for live events

12.Get involved; share your passion
a.Share your passion with others
i.Online
1.Social networks
2.Forums
3.Message boards
ii.In person
1.Networking
2.Volunteer opportunities in community
3.Church
4.Youth groups
5.Etc.
iii.Don’t forget to share your projects and/or websites with others

About the Author
Michelle Ulrich is the Chief Villager and founder of The Virtual Nation™, an educational destination for Virtual Professionals around the globe. Michelle is an avid believer in giving back to her industry and she does this by offering coaching, teleclasses, resources, and tools, in addition to providing a community of learning, a nation of culture, and a virtual village for her members.

She maintains her private practice where she specializes in working with authors, coaches and speakers who struggle to keep up with e-commerce and new technologies. Clients can check out her services at www.virtualbusinessmarketing.com, while Virtual Assistants can find her over at www.thevirtualnation.com. She can be reached by telephone at (916) 536-9799 in the Pacific time zone.

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This article is contributed by Michelle Ulrich.

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." by Margaret Mead

Here is a list of my Top 10 Reasons Volunteering Can Help You Grow Your Business:

1. Volunteering helps you find your place in the community, whether online or in person, especially if you are "the new kid on the block."
2. Volunteering facilitates many new learning opportunities. This occurs through mentoring or just being around others who share your passion or interests.
3. Volunteering fosters new relationships and builds on existing ones.
4. Volunteering can be a great opportunity to try out new skills or hone existing ones.
5. Volunteering gives you a sense of giving service; studies have found this to be very healthy for our brains, our overall health and our psyche (soul).
6. Volunteering creates opportunities for you to be on ‘ground zero’ of your community or industry.
7. Volunteering builds self-confidence and great potential for leadership building opportunities.
8. Volunteering can lead to business opportunities as most people like to do business with people they know and trust.
9. Volunteering is an important value we can teach our children. We can also act as role models for those in need. You may be the reason they give back and volunteer when they are ready.
10. Volunteering is a way to share your knowledge with others as others before you have passed down history and traditions from one generation to the next.

When you are in a rut, need some help or want to impart your knowledge to others, find a community (online or offline) and get involved. It won’t feel so lonely, your questions will be answered and you can pass down your legacy to share with others. Besides, it’s good for your health and well-being.

P.S. Volunteering can be a great way to 'pay it forward.' I have seen commercials where one person is having a horrible day and takes it out on someone else, and then the next person takes it out on the next and so on. If we turn that around and perform random acts of kindness via volunteering in our communities, what an incredible and beautiful synergy we can pass on to others. We can affect our communities with one single act. Imagine if everyone pitched in and volunteered for something...what a peaceful and happy planet this would be!

About the Author
Michelle Ulrich is the Chief Villager and founder of The Virtual Nation, an educational destination for Virtual Professionals around the globe. Michelle is an avid believer in giving back to her industry and she does this by offering coaching, teleclasses, resources, and tools, in addition to providing a community of learning, a nation of culture, and a virtual village for her members. Education is the foundation of her organization as well as for her own personal and professional development. Michelle has been a community college instructor teaching a Virtual Assistant certificate program online. Aside from coaching and teaching, she is also a speaker and soon-to-be author on the subject of Virtual Assistance. She maintains her private practice where she specializes in working with authors, coaches and speakers who struggle to keep up with e-commerce and new technologies. Clients can check out her services at www.virtualbusinessmarketing.com, while Virtual Assistants can find her over at www.thevirtualnation.com. She can be reached by telephone at (916) 536-9799 in the Pacific Time zone.

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This article is contributed by Michelle Ulrich.

1. Website
a. http://smallbusiness.officelive.com/ - FREE
Microsoft Office Live Basics is the easy way to get started on the Web. If you have always wanted your own Web site, Microsoft Office Live has just made it easier — much easier.
- Free domain name and Web hosting
- Easy-to-use Web site design tools
- 500 MB of Web site storage space
- 25 company-branded e-mail accounts
- Web site reports
- Search advertising tool with $50 credit* - (I do not recommended to start)

b. Go Daddy’s Website Tonight for as little as $4.00/month

Go Daddy has THREE plans (or so) to choose from!

Blog instead of a website
c. Blogger.com – Free
d. WordPress.com – Free
e. TypePad.com – Basic Level is Free
i. With TypePad Basic you’ll be blogging in minutes. Choose your design from dozens of professional templates. TypePad makes it easy to include pictures and links, manage comments, and categorize your posts. Includes 100MB of storage and 2GB of bandwidth per month.
ii. $4.95 per month for higher level of service (more storage space, etc.)

Benefits of a blog versus a website
- No web designer needed
- Pick a template and start adding content
- Useful for selling one product (i.e. a book, ebook, info product, etc.)
- Useful for selling a relationship with potential clients
- Useful for opinion writing – be careful what you put out there; people read blogs!
- Hone writing skills
- Post at a minimum of 3x/wk for higher Google rankings
- Can also be a link from a website, which also increases traffic to your website

2. List capture form on your website and ezine delivery
a. iContact.com $9.95/month for up to 500 subscribers; 15-day free trial
i. Non-profits receive 20% discount and may pay by check monthly, quarterly, or annually
ii. Templates or design and paste HTML code
iii. Surveys
iv. Auto Responders
b. ConstantContact.com $15/month for up to 500 subscribers; 60-day free trial
c. CampaignMonitor.com
i. For each campaign you send with more than 5 recipients, you pay a flat delivery fee of $5 plus 1 cent/recipient. Any campaigns you send to 5 or less people are free of charge.
ii. Let's say you're sending an email newsletter for a client to their database of 4,500 subscribers. To send this newsletter, you will be charged $5 plus a cent for each recipient, $45 in this case, making a total of $50. All prices are in US dollars.

3. Shopping Carts and eCommerce
a. Mals-e.com
i. Shopping cart, digital downloads and affiliate program ONLY
ii. FREE for up to 1000 digital deliveries per month; you can purchase more as you increase your sales.
iii. $8/mo option for unlimited orders per month
iv. $95 flat one-time fee for their mOrders plus version for a desktop application for downloading and ‘databasing’ orders properly and permanently. www.mals-e.com/morders.php
v. Reporting
vi. Numerous third-party add-ons

b. E-Junkie.com
i. FREE 1-week trial
ii. $5/mo for 10 products/50 MB storage space; rates go up to $125 incrementally based on the number of products
iii. Product storage and delivery
iv. Easy to use, pop-up free, installation free
v. Shipping and postage calculations
vi. Sales tax and VAT calculations
vii. Inventory management
viii. Product promotion
ix. Discount codes
x. Affiliate management
xi. Customization (even works with an existing cart for digital downloads)
xii. Tracking, logging and notifications
xiii. Global acceptance
1. download page and email in language of your choice
xiv. Extras
1. send out free expirable download links
2. Works with eBay and MySpace, too!

c. Payloadz.com
i. Digital downloads ONLY
ii. FREE for up to $100 transaction limit / 50MB of storage
iii. $15/mo for $500 transaction limit / 100 MB of storage

d. WAHMcart.com
i. Full shopping cart very similar to Professional Cart Solutions (see below for full list of options, but you get EVERYTHING for $29.99/mo – no tiers

e. Professional Cart Solutions (aka – 1shoppingcart.com and many other private labels)
i. FREE 30-day trial or $3.95 for 30-days depending upon private label partner
ii. Four tiers of service
1. Starter $29
2. Auto Responder $29
3. Basic $49
4. Pro $79
iii. Shopping cart
iv. Broadcast (ezine, email announcements, etc.) delivery
v. Auto Responders
vi. Digital downloads
vii. Affiliate program
viii. Ad tracking
ix. Reporting
x. Payment processing with PayPal as well as a large list of merchants such as Authorize.net; QuickBooks/Intuit will be on the list soon (poss. Fall 2007)
xi. Templates for ezine delivery to come out soon (poss. Fall 2007)

4. Online Publishing Centers
a. CaféPress.com
b. LightningSource.com – Most recommended by traditional publishers if you must do Print On Demand (POD).
c. Lulu.com

5. Miscellaneous online services
a. CentralDesktop.com – Free online collaboration tool for up to 3 users; $25/mo for up to 10 users and other various packages. Use this tool to work with a virtual team to delegate the projects or pieces of larger projects.
b. EventBrite.com – Event management program. First event is free, then up to $9.95 each event. For paid events, your PayPal, Google Cart or merchant fees shall apply. You can specify donations or payments, number of ‘seats’ available, reporting, and lots of extras.
c. Evite.com – Free event management tool where you can pick a template, customize one on your own, add your Outlook contacts, track responses, and it even integrates with PayPal for paid events.
d. Foldershare.com – Free folder sharing application from Microsoft (a bit clunky to set up between two parties, but is an awesome program for sharing documents with clients, subcontractors, etc.)
e. Google.com – Google offers email, word processor, spreadsheet, calendar, classifieds (Google Base), groups, Blogger, Desktop and lots of other programs for FREE.
f. OpenOffice.org – Free office suite similar to and compatible with Microsoft office. Includes a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation manager, and drawing program. Interface similar to other office suites.
g. SurveyMonkey.com – Free up to 10 survey questions with 100 responses allowed; $19.95/mo for unlimited questions per survey and 1000 responses allowed, $200/yr to have unlimited questions and responses.
h. TheBasementVentures.com – Host teleclasses, teleseminars, etc. with this free tool. You can even record your own audio and then copy and paste the html code on your website, download the mp3 file and burn it to a CD for info product sales.
i. Thumbstacks.com – Free webinar presentation tool. This is for PowerPoints or various incarnations of PowerPoint only.
j. YouSendit.com – Free file sending program; $4.99/mo for 2 GB file sending, send multiple files, and no ads on your ‘send’ invitation.
k. Zoho.com – Office suite with free and $5 on up for other options. Word processing, spreadsheet, presentation tool, Wiki, notebook, Meeting (desktop sharing, web conferencing, online meetings, etc.), projects, CRM, database creator, planner (online organizer), chat, mail, and more.

About the Author
Michelle Ulrich is the Chief Villager and founder of The Virtual Nation, an educational destination for Virtual Professionals around the globe. Michelle is an avid believer in giving back to her industry and she does this by offering coaching, teleclasses, resources, and tools, in addition to providing a community of learning, a nation of culture, and a virtual village for her members. Education is the foundation of her organization as well as for her own personal and professional development. Michelle has been a community college instructor teaching a Virtual Assistant certificate program online. Aside from coaching and teaching, she is also a speaker and soon-to-be author on the subject of Virtual Assistance. She maintains her private practice where she specializes in working with authors, coaches and speakers who struggle to keep up with e-commerce and new technologies. Clients can check out her services at www.virtualbusinessmarketing.com, while Virtual Assistants can find her over at www.thevirtualnation.com. She can be reached by telephone at (916) 536-9799 in the Pacific Time zone.

• 1 Comments

This guest post is contributed by Constantinos Tassigiannis.

Want to start your own business but don’t know how? Read on and get the knowledge to live the dream.

First, let’s look at the positives and negatives of starting your own business. The upside is that you are in charge of your own career and pay and if your business really takes off, you can end up with a massive salary which is much more than you can earn at the regular job. The downside is that many businesses fail in their first year and it’s not for people who prefer working to a nine till five schedule as most of the time, in order to succeed, you have to work round the clock. A seventy hour working week is not unusual.

The key to starting a successful business is recognising a gap in the market and taking advantage of it. Others however choose to come up with ways of improving an existing product. Whatever road you decide, research is essential as it can make or break you.

Do you have an idea that no one has thought of yet? How about an improved design that costs less to make than the original, or makes it work more efficient? How dedicated you are to your idea will reflect on the outcome. There are different approaches, such as a tried a tested business model, a specific business opportunity, taking control and changing your life or working part time, depending on what road you want to take.

Once you have come up with a product or service, you need to refine it. We do this by developing it by using research. Does it satisfy a need? Once you have done that, you need to brainstorm your idea with friends and colleagues. Everyone brings forth their own perspective on the idea and can inform if there is someone doing the same thing. Think about how you will run your business e.g. will it be sorely run online or will it have stores? What makes it unique and better than the competition? Make sure your product complies with any legislations and safety regulations.

Once you have come up with a product or service, you need to protect it. We do this by having a record of ownership over it, known as Intellectual Property, IP for short.

There are four types of IP and the type of product you have determines the type of IP you should use.

* Patents for inventions

New or improved products that are capable for industrial application.

* Trademarks

Used to protect brand and corporate identity of goods and services, allowing distinctions between different traders

* Designs

Protect product appearance such as lines, colours, contours, shape, and texture, materials of the product itself or its ornaments.

* Copyright

Literacy, music, films, audio, broadcasts, software and media can be protected under this category.

It should be noted that it often is not possible to protect IP and gain IP rights without being applied for and granted. Copyright IP’s however arise automatically without registration, as long as proof of creation exists.

Importantly, you need to create a business plan, because without one, you aren’t going to get anywhere as an entrepreneur. A high quality business plan can help attract the right type of funding to keep your capital high.

You need to have an executive summary, stating exactly what you’re business is and why it exists. Basically, it is an overview of what your business is all about and this is vital as investors will make a judgement based on this section alone. Its purpose is to draw attention and make the reader want to find out more, possibly making them want to invest in your idea. If it has caught their attention, it has done its job. Make sure you do not use hype as an experienced investor will see right through this.

Then, you need a short description of the business opportunity, detailing who you are, what service or goods you will provide and who is your target market. Detail when your business will start, or when it did if it already has. The industry and sector it is a part of and its key features should be written. Any relevant history should also be noted, such as past owners et cetera. You also have to detail your current legal structure and what your vision of the future will be. Define your products differences to competition and what benefits it brings forth. Also noting what development you have in mind and if you own any patents or IP's.

Once you have finished that, it's time to put your strategy to the test. Write down what marketing and sales ideas you have. How will you get people to buy your product and where will they be able to buy from? What are the markets key current issues and how big is it? It is also important to know your competition. Note how you will go about positioning your product in the market place. Also detail pricing policies and how you will go about promoting your business. Maybe you'll use advertising, PR campaigns, direct marketing, email or e-sales. You need to conduct market research and see if you idea truly fills a gap in the market effectively.

An effective way of researching a need is to convey surveys of the public, whether they would use the product. Ask customers of competing products for what improvements they would like to see. Monitor the competitions activities as this keeps you in the know whether they start a new service or release a new product that may compete with yours to a greater extent. Another utility that you should put to use is using focus groups to test out your product, using feedback from them to evolve your business. It is very important that you cover everything you can and conduct as much market research as possible as mistakes made later on due to poor information can be costly. Hire a market research agent to help out and make sure you haven’t missed anything as the more information you have, the better you can satisfy your customers.

Now that you have your point of sale ideas down, you need to work out who makes up your marketing team. List your credentials and the people you plan to recruit to work with you. Give details of the number of people you have in your workforce in total and by departments. How much time each employ spends working and how much they earn should be given here and any other numbers that affect the total amount of profit brought in by the company. You should also note down a timescale, noting costs and any training that will be given.

Onto operations and time to note down the premises you'll be operating from, production facilities, your management information systems and your networking and IT. Do you have a business property or do you rent it? What are your long term commitments to the property and what facilities does it provide or will there be investments put in this field? Noting down all of this as well as how you go about using the facilities effectively really show that you know what you're doing and you won't be wasting time, as time is money. Any established procedures for stock control, management accounts and quality control should be put in this category as well as any IT experience you have because as technology evolves, so will everything else and you can't risk falling behind.

Make sure your business plan reflects your personal vision, keep it simple and realistic and your business plan should work well.

Once that's out the way, research is next, especially financial. Make sure you have Unique Selling Proposition and a business model at hand, showing how the revenue will come in. Also note forecasts for profit and loss, sales and cash flow statements. To help your business survive its first year, you’re going to need to cover your financial needs. Many businesses don’t make a profit in the first year, making only enough to cover their outgoings. So it is important to have funding if you want to survive. Plan out a budget using a personal budget spreadsheet detailing your domestic financial needs for the year. Keep a record of your spending and try and cut back on unnecessary buys. Appling for funding can really help and make things easier. You can do this in a number of ways. Sources of help include local business links, start-up schemes and financial advisors and accountants.

The Prince’s Trust (eligible age 18-30), that can provide a low interest loan of up to £4,000 for a sole trader and up to £5,000 for a partnership. They also provide up to £250 on test marketing, as well as access to a wide range of products and services to help your business stay in business.

Business Link: a company that provides a service in business planning, borrowing shares and equity, grants and government support banking, financial and debt recovery. It also has a wide range of information for entrepreneurs.

Chamber Of Commerce: “The National Voice for Local Business” employs more than 5 million people and also the widest business community to help fund you and give you the skills and information to succeed.

But you can also do things yourself to help fund your ideas, such as releasing equity from an existing asset, such as trading in your car for a cheaper one. Sell things you do not use or really need, get a loan from family members and friends. Get an overdraft with your bank account

Besides help with funding, there is also the choice of incubation. There are a good amount of incubators to choose from In the UK. They are designed to nurture your company, help guide your business, supply you with workspace and also provide you with the right information and advice with a combination of business development processes and infrastructure. Research has shown an 87 % and upwards survival rate for incubated companies compared to only a 40 % survival rate for non-incubated.

Incubators include Digital Inc in Liverpool ICDC, who currently house 12 small businesses and brought in a profit of over two million pound in the 2004 - 2005 year and is the UK's first business incubator to be focused on the digital industries. Its current funding ends after 2008 but its manager Mr Peter Leather is putting together a sustainability model is confident that Digital Inc will become a centre of excellence.

Another incubator that has just recently opened is the Liverpool Science Park, which is run by Peter Leather, ex-manger of Digital Inc. This is a new modern building with office space and lecture rooms that can be utilised by small and corporate businesses. As with every incubator, an affordable fee is paid for the space needed, which is worth it considering the knowledge they’ll be passing on to you, as well as support given by staff and help lines.

Once you have enough information, you need to decide how you will trade. Will your business be a Limited Company or a Sole Trader?

A Sole Trader is a business which legally has no separate existence from its owner. All debts of the business are debts of the owner. The advantage in being a Sole Trader is control and business administration, due to their only being one owner.

A Limited Company has liability limited by the law. Funds can be raised by selling shares of the business. The drawback is that you risk losing control if shareholders join and equal a greater amount of ownership than yourself.

One final bit of advice is to make sure you hire the right type of people. Often, businesses can be hurt due to lack or determination or commitment put in by others besides the owner. You need to explore the options available to you, such as freelancers, fixed term contract employees, temporary staff, consultants and contractors. Whoever you hire, make sure they work to a high caliber, with the right mix of skills. It's not an easy process but one that will pay dividends.

Article contributed by Constantinos Tassigiannis, BA Hons MBCS.
Freelance iMedian, artistic entrepreneur and disabled weight lifter.
www.DinoT.co.uk

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There are some businesses that don't do well. Why is it that over 90% of businesses fail? What's the rationale behind it?

The first major reason why most businesses fail is because most businesses are not started by entrepreneurs but by technicians thinking they are entrepreneurs. And this is quoted by this person called Michael Gerber who wrote this book called The E Myth.

And what he says is really true. He says that the fatal assumption people have is if you know how to make the technical product of a business, then you know how to run a business that makes the technical product. That's a fatal assumption. What does that mean?

A lot of people assume that if I can cook, I can run a restaurant. If I can train, I can run a training company. If I can style hair, I can run a hair salon. I am sorry, you can't. It's totally different.

The hair stylist who goes to start a hair salon, she was good at what she was doing, she was cutting hair. But when she starts a hair salon, she sucks. She's a hair stylist. She can't market, she can't sell, she doesn't know accounting, she doesn't know how to set up business system, she can't lead a team and that's why the business collapse.

So that's the first reason why they fail. So if you are a technician right now, or if you are a hairstylist, what do you do?

What these groups of people should do is to learn how to run a business, learn marketing, and learn finance. Or find a partner or partners that can add on to the skill sets you need.

Second reason why people fail is because of, product sameness, a lack of a Unique Selling Point or USP. Most people, when they start a company, you ask them. So what makes you different? And they can't answer that question.

And even if they do answer that question, there's a lot of fluff, oh we are different because we can do it better but how, they can't tell you. And sameness kills.

For example, let's say you are in the food business and you start a chicken rice stall, there are hundreds of them around. You know what happens at the end of the day? You have to compete on price. And when you compete on price, your margins get slashed and you end up making no money.

You start a hair salon. There's another hair salon down the street, what makes you different? You start a tuition center? There are hundreds around, what makes you different?

So never start a business unless you got a USP, you are sure that it's different from the rest of the people.

These are the two reasons why businesses fail. Now that you are aware of these two reasons, you will be able to plan, steer and manage your business in a manner that would increase your chances of your business being more successful and profitable.

Adam Khoo is an entrepreneur, a best-selling author and a peak performance trainer. A self-made millionaire by the age of 26, he owns and runs several businesses in education, training, event management and advertising, all with a combined annual turnover of $20 million. His best-selling "Patterns of Excellence" is a complete step-by-step system that will literally program you for success in life.

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Blogtrepreneur: When it comes to blogging for money you’ll get a wide range of opinions on the subject of whether a blog is a business in itself. Personally, I feel that a blog can be a business on its own (without any other services or products being sold) because I see plenty of them every day that are making money. Of course, a blog can also be used very effectively to promote and improve an already existing business. Either way, running a blog with the intent to make money either directly or indirectly will help you to learn a number of valuable business lessons.

Blogging is an excellent proactive learning experience for anyone interested in business and entrepreneurship, and I’d like to take a look at 7 lessons that you’ll learn from blogging. While you may or may not have already had a textbook knowledge of these lessons, blogging will give you a first-hand, real-world knowledge that is always superior to anything you can read in a book.

1 - Networking is Critical

Building a popular and profitable blog without a network is just about impossible. Likewise, in the business world a network can be the difference between an average career and finding exciting and challenging opportunities. For any entrepreneur, regardless of what type of business you are building, a strong network will be one of your most valuable assets.

2 - Businesses Need a Plan

When starting a new blog it can be tempting to jump into things and just start blogging. Modern blogging platforms make it extremely easy to get started quickly, but the need for planning still exists. If you hope to run a successful blog you’ll need to have a plan to get there. Most likely this plan will evolve somewhat over a period of time, but you should always have some direction in mind to keep yourself on track.

3 - Making Money Online is Realistic, but Not Easy

Many people start new blogs every day with the hope of quitting their day job in a month. After all, people like John Chow and Darren Rowse make a significant amount of money with their blogs, so why can’t you? Well, I believe that anyone can earn a substantial income blogging, realistically only a very small percentage will earn that type of income. The biggest thing holding most online entrepreneurs back, in my opinion, is effort. Yes, it is realistic, but it won’t come easy.

4 - A Great Idea without Consistent Effort will Only Go So Far

Regardless of what type of business you are running, the necessary action is critical. If you have a great idea don’t wait around while someone else beats you to it.

5 - Integrity Counts

In the business world there are always going to be temptations to take short cuts, but in the end integrity does count. In most cases those short cuts might help you temporarily, but they’ll usually come back to haunt you. Whatever type of business you are working in, make it a priority to be seen as reputable and trusted.

6 - Not All Expenses Are Bad

If you’re a blogger you may learn the value of quality hosting when one of your posts gets to the front page of Digg. Or you may learn that paying freelance bloggers is a cost-effective way to build quality content for your blog that generates even more money in advertising revenue. There are plenty of expenses that can make your business more profitable, the key is minimizing the unnecessary expenses and being willing to spend on those that will help you grow the business.

7 - Building a Business is a Long-Term Experience, Not a Get-Rich-Quick Scheme

Most bloggers tend to give up very quickly when they find that they are not making money as early as they had hoped. Blogging is like any other business in that it can take some time to be successful. Sure, there are a few examples of blogs that are profitable very quickly, but they are the exception, not the rule. If more bloggers took a long-term approach to making money there would be a lot less that give up along the way.

7 Business Lessons You’ll Learn from Blogging [Blogtrepreneur]

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Article contributed by Leah Nevada Page of MicroMentor.org, an organization that helps emerging entrepreneurs grow their businesses through mentoring and advising relationships with experienced peers and business professionals.

Sturdy McKee’s journey to small business success started with a pink slip. The hospital where he had been working as a physical therapist downsized and after a frustrating job search, Sturdy sat down with his wife and had a conversation about what it would take to open his own physical therapy practice.

Once started, Sturdy rapidly built a successful business, and was soon operating at the full capacity of his staff and building space. But when Sturdy began looking for a loan to help him open additional offices, banks were refusing to finance his planned expansion. Then Sturdy found MicroMentor. MicroMentor is a pioneering web-based community and social network that helps aspiring entrepreneurs build successful businesses by matching them with volunteer business mentors from around the country.

After signing up online at www.MicroMentor.org, where he described his business and mentoring goals, Sturdy was matched with a mentor, Jayshree Miller, who had worked as an accountant in the U.K. and was now looking for an opportunity for skills-based volunteering.

As Sturdy’s mentor, Jayshree worked with Sturdy through a series of phone calls and emails to help him make sense of his balance sheets, cash flow statements, and profit & loss statements. She also helped him identify areas in need of expansion. “She reinforced our opinions that we were a healthy company and that we were viable, even though we were unable to secure funding from a bank. [It] gave us the confidence to fund our own growth from our own profits.”

Now, just six years after opening its doors, Study’s physical therapy company has 5 branches and over 20 employees. And just two years after he first sought help on MicroMentor, Sturdy has returned to MicroMentor as a volunteer mentor. “Moving the business to profitability changed a lot of things in my business and my life and I hope to help other people to do that. I want to help people figure out how to plan and make their businesses viable.”

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You'll pay too much in taxes if you don't understand that cash in minus cash out does not equal profit.

This is the most important thing you need to know before you start keeping records for your business...cash in minus cash out does not equal profit. It simply equals cash left over. Or, in many cases, it's a negative number, so it equals cash you owe somebody.

What this means is that you'll need to understand the IRS rules and keep your records according to those rules so you report your profit correctly and take (and be able to prove) all the deductions you're allowed to take. Because you want to pay the least amount of tax possible, right?

The way you'll need to keep your books will be different depending on whether your business is a sole proprietorship, a partnership or a corporation. The rules for calculating income and deductions (and therefore profit) and the forms used for reporting to the IRS are different for the different business types.

What counts as income? Most or all of the money you take into your business will count as income. This includes fees for services and/or product sales.

But not all the cash that comes into your business counts as income.

If you get a rebate for a purchase you made at your local office supply store, that's cash in, but it's not income. It's a reduction in your supplies expense.

If you get a refund of part of your insurance premium at the end of the year, that's cash in, but it's not income. It's a reduction in insurance expense.

If you borrow money (and it doesn't matter if it's from your brother or the bank), that's cash in, but it doesn't count as income.

What counts as expenses? Most of the money you spend for your business will probably count as expenses. This includes advertising, postage, office supplies, and similar items.

But not all the cash that goes out of your business counts as expenses.

When you buy business property like cars, computers, and furniture that will last longer than a year, you're not allowed to deduct their entire cost as an expense in the year of purchase (except in special circumstances).

These items are called capital assets. Sometimes they're referred to as fixed assets.

You have to depreciate them over several years. Basically, depreciation is a process of spreading the cost of an item over its useful life.

You might have cash of several hundred or thousands of dollars go out the door when you purchase fixed assets, but you can't deduct the entire amount of the purchase price as an expense when you buy them.

Some things that your business pays for might only count as partial expenses. An example of that is business meals and entertainment where you can only deduct half of the cost.

That doesn't mean that your business can't pay for 100 % of the cost, but only that you're limited in the amount of the tax deduction you can take. This is another example of cash out that doesn't translate directly to expenses.

Some things your business pays for might not be tax deductible at all.

An example of this would be a contribution to a Political Action Committee. That doesn't mean that the business can't pay for it, just that it's not a deductible expense on your tax return.

Some more examples of cash that goes out the door that doesn't count as expenses are: draws for sole proprietors and distributions for partners or S corporation shareholders.

There's also one type of expense that can be more than the amount of cash that the business actually spends. It's the home office deduction that some sole proprietors can take.

So you see why it's so important to understand that cash in minus cash out does not equal profit.

Unfortunately, the IRS rules and regulations don't always make logical sense; they might seem complicated and unfair. One thing is certain. They are the way they are, so we have to deal with them. Learn what you can. And get help when you need it.

Sheryl Schuff, CPA, is a Certified Public Accountant, author, and consultant who teaches entrepreneurs how to get their businesses organized, keep good accounting records, and maximize their business tax deductions. She is President of Schuff & Associates, PC and has been in private practice for over 30 years. She recently started an information products company www.TaxesForSmallBusiness.com to provide individual training materials for small business owners.

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Young Entrepreneur: After polling our Young Entrepreneur readers, here is our list of the top 20 mistakes that startups make when creating a new business. I’ve also included a few of the comments that were left for some of the top points.

#1: Not Having a Clear Plan or Vision

“The biggest mistake people make is not looking far enough ahead in your market. So many businesses are losing ground to new technologies as example, so think ahead on how to better utilize these new technologies. With the current recession, how many planned for it? Every business will go through cycles of growth and market demize, just as we are all now seeing, so again, think ahead, have vision beyond today is one of the keys to success.”

#2: Surrounding Yourself With People Who Don’t Believe In Your Idea

“Another mistake would be surrounding yourselves with people (whether by accident or because they’re family, etc) who don’t believe in your idea. You need to be around positive feedback all the time.”

#3: Not Having Enough Money

“I think this is big for those businesses that have the incentive to only reap the benefits and not focus on the longevity of your venture. Taking out $10k now may prevent making $100k in a few months. Mindsets should not be “Yeah I own a buiness I make this much” but rather “Yeah I own a business, we invested in XYZ and were able to afford this new service/expand here/etc” Also, too many people plan on the basic expenses of starting up, and don’t think about the increased expense that come with a more successful, growing, developing business.”

#4: Doing It All Alone

“Lots of CEO personalities think they have to be the answer to all problems, and this is not the case. Their pride and mindset of “I must live up to this role” is skewed and they may fail to tap the most important and valuable resources that surround them in their management team and affiliates.”

#5: Not Seeking Mentors

“I think having a mentor - a much more experienced entrepreneur that can give you some valuable advice is so IMPORTANT…especially when you are a young and overly ambitious… and with so many challenges to meet on the way to success.”

#6: Losing Momentum

“Being satisfied and content with functioning can lead to “big headedness” and false hope that it will always be this way. You need to constantly improve your product/service, research your around-the-clock changing market and competition, and promote innovation and forward progress amongst your management and team.”

#7: Not Marketing Your Business / Expecting People To Come To You

“A few mistakes that I personally made was the lack of focus on a targeted marketing plan, and the miscalculation on future expected growth.”

#8: Not Looking At Your Competition

“I think it is a big mistake to start a business without really understand the market.”

#9: Being Overly Enthusiastic and Not Having Realistic Goals

“A few mistakes that I personally made was the lack of focus on a targeted marketing plan, and the miscalculation on future expected growth.”

#10: Not Thinking Survival

“Too many people think that so long as everything is done “textbook” and they have the proper set up, and plans down on paper, that they will succeed. Also, many people have the idea that it is easy to keep it up after they get an initial consumer base. Not true. small businesses are small fish in a big pond, constantly competing against emerging and growing bigger competitors that have the backing, both monetarily and resourcefully, to push them out of the picture.”

The remaining 10 common startup mistakes are:

* Doing It Just For The Money
* Not hiring right away
* Getting to year 1, past year 2
* Not getting involved in the community
* Working in your business instead of on it
* Going wide instead of deep into a niche
* Not using email marketing
* Having a lack of ambition
* Failing to network with others
* Growing too quickly

The Top 20 Startup Mistakes - Entrepreneur Poll Results [Young Entrepreneur]

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BusinessPundit: With the current economic crisis, we are seeing businesses fail at a greater pace. Companies that have had past success records are downsizing at substantial rates, not to mention those that are completely closing their doors.

Large companies aren’t the only ones feeling the crunch of economic hardship. Small businesses are going out of business as well. On top of the challenge to survive the first two years of business, inflated costs of doing business are growing at rates never seen before.

The question then is, “What do you do when your business fails?” For many small businesses they started with someone’s savings, an investment fund, loans from friends and family just to get started. Now that’s gone, the reality of “shutting down shop” sinks in and the entrepreneur/small business owner is again with his idea and the thoughts of what could have been.

At some point you have to embrace the reality that it’s over and when that happens now what?

Focus on the Positive Things that Were Accomplished

It doesn’t matter how long you were in business every business has had bright days. It could have been new contacts and partnerships. Patients for products that you know can work. Systems that you developed and implemented. Perhaps, it was the day or week you reached records sales.

Ask The Hard Questions

Why did it fail? Was it poor planning? Was there lack of knowledge of the market? Did it come down to personnel? Maybe it was the wrong sales strategy. Whatever it was, as an entrepreneur asking the hard questions will help get away from the blame game and addresses the facts, both good and bad.

Learn and Move On!

Entrepreneurs can be extremely strong-willed individuals. It’s because of that they experience success and reach their goals. However, the one thing that separates them from others, is that the fail, learn and move on. Often times it’s in the same type of business and same product: just a new approach.

How to Cope When Your Business Fails [BusinessPundit]

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When most small business owners think about taxes, they think about Federal income taxes. But there are other taxes that I want to let you know about, so you’re not surprised if you have to pay them.

The first is self-employment tax. If you’ve ever worked for someone else, you know that social security and Medicare taxes get deducted from your paycheck. When you’re self-employed, you don’t actually get a paycheck.

Here’s what happens if you’re a sole proprietor. Following the IRS rules and regulations for calculating income and expense, you report your results for the year on your personal 1040 by filling out Schedule C.

Then you take the net profit and put it on Schedule SE for self-employment tax. After a small deduction, you calculate 15.3 % as your self-employment tax. This is double the rate of 7.65 % that’s deducted from employee paychecks because as a sole proprietor you’re both the employer and the employee so you have to pay both parts.

You get to take half of the amount of self employment tax as a deduction from your income on the front of your 1040. This has the effect of reducing your taxable income.

The self employment tax itself goes on the back of the 1040 in the section called Other Taxes on the line that says self employment tax. For the 2006 filing year that was line 58. This tax gets added to your Federal income tax and any other taxes you owe and is paid when you file your 1040.

If you (and/or your spouse on a joint return) have had Federal income tax withheld during the year that adds up to more than your total taxes for the year (which includes self employment tax), you’ll still qualify for a refund.

If your business is operated as a corporation AND you’re active in your business, you should receive W-2 wages and you won’t be subject to self employment tax on your earnings. Distributions from S corporations are generally not subject to self employment taxes.

If your business is operated as a partnership, you might have some items of income that are subject to self employment tax and some that are not. These items will be reported to you on a schedule K-1 that is part of the business tax return.

Sales tax

Many States have sales taxes. If you sell products to customers, you’ll have to charge them sales tax and pay it to the State. In some cases, digital downloads are considered products as far as the sales tax rules are concerned and certain services might also subject to sales tax. In Indiana, where I live, the rules are put out by the Indiana Department of Revenue. There will be a similar agency in your state who you can contact to find out the rules.

Local Taxes

Some cities and school districts have local taxes that you might have to pay. Some of these depend on your type of business. There might be additional sales taxes, property taxes, innkeeper’s taxes, or food and beverage taxes. Check with the authorities in your area for details.

And then there’s the often dreaded Estimated Taxes

This is a subject that confuses many people.

First, let’s try to understand the reason that the estimated payment system exists. Our system of Federal taxes is a “pay as you go” system. When you think about it, that makes sense. The government needs money all year long to pay for various things.

When you work for someone else, taxes are withheld from your paycheck each pay period, so the government gets its money over the course of the year. If you’re a sole proprietor, this doesn’t happen, so you’re expected to make estimated payments.

As with many IRS rules, there are some exceptions, and some penalties if you don’t pay enough or pay on time. There are some cases where you might not be required to make estimated payments (and you won’t have a penalty if you don’t), but it would still make sense to make them anyway, to avoid having to pay a large amount on April 15th.

If you have another job in addition to your self-employment, you can increase your Federal withholding on that job to cover the amount of the estimated taxes that you would otherwise have to pay. And if you’re married and file a joint return and your spouse has wages from another job, he/she can have additional Federal withholding taken out to cover the estimated payments.

Or, you can make quarterly payments using Form 1040-ES. You can also sign up to make the payments on-line. You might also need to make estimated payments towards your State taxes.

Payroll

If you have employees, you’ll need to pay various Federal, State, and local payroll taxes. But we’ll have to save that conversation for another time.

The most important thing you need to understand is that it’s your responsibility to find out what taxes your business has to pay. And that the laws vary from place to place and by type of business.

A good source of information is an accountant who specializes in consulting with small businesses.

Sheryl Schuff, CPA, is a Certified Public Accountant, author, and consultant who teaches entrepreneurs how to get their businesses organized, keep good accounting records, and maximize their business tax deductions. She is President of Schuff & Associates, PC and has been in private practice for over 30 years. She recently started an information products company www.TaxesForSmallBusiness.com to provide individual training materials for small business owners.

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This article is submitted by Matt Landau, a writer for The Panama Report.

If you're reading this and you're older than 40, you must leave now! I'll be using phrases like "sup B" and "OMG" and "mo-fo" that you're destined to not understand. "You see, when I was your age, the closest I ever got to Central America was a crummy Spanish textbook" I imagined my mother nagging in my ear as I reclined on a balcony in Casco Viejo overlooking a beautiful plaza and drinking a glass of Chilean wine.

I became fascinated with the idea of working for myself soon after I moved Costa Rica and my belief became cemented soon thereafter by fellow alumnus who complained at length about a life in NYC of ironing shirts and corporate lunches just to sit in a cubicle and report to some retarded boss named Stan who said corny thinks like "Seeya later alligator!"

I am part of a new generation: one of tech-savvy travelers and risk-taking diplomats. We, as a group, only vaguely remember the days without internet, thinking painstakingly back to the evenings of Netscape browser which took forever to load and the family computer base which was roughly the size of a small fridge. We are a curious, well-culture bunch attracted to exotic cuisines and international films. Many of us consider the iPod to be an officially-recognized appendage. We don't mind paying extra for imported beer, we tend to think outside the box, and because we have creativity up the wazoo, we are a generation that's primed to break serious entrepreneurial ground in Panama, Central America's hottest bed for success.

Because the country has long been dependant on trade and banking, many industries in Panama which might otherwise emerge with the evolution of a nation, have lay dormant here. Weighed against a slowing economy in the USA and increased competition in the workplace, young entrepreneurs are moving down to Panama to find comfort in an open-canvas-like myriad of business opportunities. Embrace the unknown. For the young entrepreneur, testing these new waters is replacing grad school in delivering not only an education, but in many cases, a hefty payout to those crafty enough to get in at ground level.

The 8 rules below may serve as a manual to youngsters who seek to move to paradise and start their own business like I did. I have been inspired by the amount of opportunities witnessed in Panama and humbly, the accomplishments I've achieved before my 25th birthday. These rules are not terribly different from elsewhere in the world, but thanks to various factors at play in Panama, finding success, adventure, and self-worth may be easier than you think.

1. Be the first in the game:

Finding your niche in the market is the imperative. Take equally into account your skill set and your field experience, but perhaps mostly your passion. Going with the grain on this one is ill-advised as you'll fall right back into the rat-race you tried to escape at home. Be revolutionary and uncompromising: don't let anyone at home or in Panama tell you your idea won't work. Chances are they're simply jealous of your ingenuity. Identifying a successful endeavor in the States can work, but be sure to research heavily upon arriving in Panama to confirm you'll be an expert as the first kid on the block.

2. Master the art of mobility:

Build your business model around the goal of never being there. As cited by Tim Ferris in The 4-Hour Work Week, the easiest and lowest-maintenance businesses are the ones that work while you're sleeping and this especially holds true in Panama where secluded beaches and teeming rainforests are regularly calling you out to play. Choosing an internet business can be ideal as high-speed services are offered throughout Panama, while similarly effective is the process of outsourcing, seeing as though labor here is cheap and English is fairly widely spoken. Focus not only on coming up with a good idea (as good ideas are commonplace) but on implementing your good idea. You're a big fish in a small pond down here.

3. Seek out the perfect match:

Network your ass off and meet as many potential business partners as possible. This is not unlike finding a personal mate. Search for a trustworthy person of a strong work ethic with whom you might share a common vision. Going with your gut instinct here, as you will frequently see elsewhere in Panama, is crucial. Joining forces with another entrepreneur will allow you to accomplish twice as much and play off each others' strengths. There's increasingly a large pool of young entrepreneurs coming to Panama and meeting prospects will be a direct result of your ability to make friends: settle only for the perfect business partner and someone you admire. Participating in expat banter and creating enemies will hold you back drastically.

4. Head of the class, my ass:

Almost every successful entrepreneur I know in Panama left the States with a less-than-flawless academic record. While that's not to say that paper whiz kids won't do well here, it is meant to show that sub-par GPAs and unremarkable CVs are common characteristics of successful entrepreneurs in Panama. Legitimizing yourself has never been this easy; find any lawyer in Panama and have them build you a custom corporation (should cost no more than $1,000). Award yourself 100 shares of the corporation (or split evenly between co-founders), then have business cards printed ($30) with the name of your corporation followed your name as Founder or President. This subliminal confidence boost of being your own (retarded) boss will be a huge stepping stone. Seeing your name on paper is instant proof and will get the ball rolling.

5. Avoid all shortcuts:

No one said it would be easy so don't expect to arrive here and have a successful business handed to you on a silver platter. While the atmosphere in Panama is ultra-conducive to success at a young age, it also requires a lot of bitch work. Read as much about your chosen industry as possible; sign up for RSS feeds and bloglines to be delivered directly to your email and stay up-to-date and informed. Write as much about your industry as possible. Exhibit foresight and be prepared to start the company from the ground up using your vision as the final objective and avoiding (tempting as they can be) all shortcuts. Set goals and reward yourself when you reach those goals. Luckily, if you've chosen the right business, it won't feel like work but rather an exiting sense of momentum.

6. Minimize costs:

Focus on low overhead. Not many new, young entrepreneurs realize the list of costs associated with a start-up in Panama. Splitting electricity, internet, and rent costs with another group of young entrepreneurs will free up much-needed cash and compensation for common positions (like secretary) should be divided as well. Sharing an office is an act that will simultaneously function as a breeding ground for competition and a carving station for the perfectly-honed business plan. Try to stay away from business ideas that require large capital investment as they're unfortunately no more difficult to dig yourself out of south of the border than they are at home.

7. Plan to fail: Making mistakes in your Panama industry of choice should be expected, but if prepared correctly, you won't have a) any competitor up your ass ready to take your spot or b) any law suits to deal with. The result of failure as a whole is comparatively friendlier in Panama than in the US, generating an atmosphere where you can learn from your slip-ups. There's no better way to become the best in an industry than by recognizing what everyone else is doing wrong. Try to bounce your idea of people who are not involved in your project and accept criticism with open arms.

8. Be a student of the game:

Finding a mentor in Panama will greatly accelerate your learning curve. The properly chosen mentor will steer you around costly mistakes and catapult you over traditional timeline milestones, especially because of Panama's closely-interwoven social network. Contact them on the internet and take them out for drinks: they may prove more influential than a paid education. Solicit advice from anyone who will give it and synthesize all this information in a balanced manner.

Hopefully the wave of young entrepreneurship in Panama will begin and my generation will go after new markets in Panama for all the right reasons: not only to live a great lifestyle and enjoy the tropics, but also to be challenged in the pursuit of a passion.

Hopefully we'll utilize our creativity, energy, and viewpoints as young people to create a nurturing environment for each other in Panama, perhaps different from the standard which has set by older expats prior. Hopefully we won't start a business just for the sake of starting a business, but rather to bring a truly good idea to the table; one that can make Panama a better place.

Matt Landau writes for The Panama Report (www.thepanamareport.com), a travel and investment portal in Panama City, Panama, Central America

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Not long ago I took a trip to Tuscany and spent a week in a cooking class. Before the trip I spent time researching my options. I wanted to know who would be teaching the class, what courses and dishes would be covered, how hand-on the class was, if wine-pairings with the dishes would be addressed and if the class included trips to the local farmer’s markets to select fresh produce. Finding just the right cooking school was important to me because I would be spending a significant amount of money traveling to Italy and I wanted my experience to be well worth my time and effort.

For a woman interested in buying a franchise, evaluating the training a franchise business offers should involve even greater research – after all, this is about your future – not a vacation.

As part of your due diligence when researching a franchise opportunity, find out everything about the training a franchise system provides. A good training program should cover not only the product or service but also setting up the business, marketing, employee management, business procedures, reporting, etc.

The best way to find out about the scope of the training program is to ask existing franchisees. Find out what stood out about the training they received and what they feel could have been covered more completely. Ask them how prepared they felt when they opened their business and what ongoing training they have been provided.

Keep in mind that the franchisees you talk with may have been through various versions of the training program. Problems that existed at one time may have been fixed. Or, you may find that a training program that was fine in a company’s early days is now out-of-date. Be sure to include in your research franchisees who have had the same training you will receive to get an accurate assessment of its value.

Ask current franchisee if they received a training manual and if the information is updated periodically. Also ask if the franchisor offers other training resources such as conference calls, webinars or intranet sites. Ongoing training is important for many companies who adjust their business with changes in the marketplace. If this applies to the business you are reviewing, find out what they do to keep each franchisee up to speed.

An addition source of training may come from periodic conferences held by the franchisor. Besides providing additional education about the product or service, conferences offer franchisees an excellent opportunity to connect and network with other franchisees in the system. A network of peers is one of franchising’s invaluable resources so be sure to ask if this is an opportunity the franchisor provides.

Although this is less of a problem today than in the past, some industries may have an “old boy’s club” mentality among franchisees. You will be able to tell by reading the UFOC if there are other woman franchisees. Include some women in your due diligence calls so you can get an idea of the business culture and the prevailing attitude towards woman franchisees.

Many franchisors will have field support personnel who are available to be at your site during your grand opening and at periodic intervals during your first year in business or longer. Having someone right there to answer your questions may help calm your first-day jitters so find out if this a serviced provided by the franchisor.

If, after your franchise investigation process is completed, you don’t feel the offered training will adequately prepare you to run your new business, it’s time to step back and look at other opportunities. As reported in the August 2006 Franchising World magazine, a recent study by FRANdata found nearly 2500 franchise concepts in 18 different industries and almost 900 of these concepts were started over the past three years. You don’t have to compromise – if one company does not have the training you are looking for, there are sure to be many other companies who can meet your needs.

I’m happy to report that the cooking school in Tuscany exceeded my expectations and I left there able to prepare a number of authentic and delicious Italian dishes. Had I not researched the available schools so thoroughly, I might have been very disappointed with my choice.

To get full value for your investment in a franchise business, the training should answer all your questions and set you up as a confident and successful owner.

Franchisee training should include:

• Everything you need to know about the product or service
• Everything about using/protecting the brand
• How to find your business location
• How to negotiate a lease
• How you complete the permits and buildout
• How to find, hire and manage employees
• How to market your product or service
• How to keep books and records for the business
• The reporting requirements and processes
• Where to get the equipment needed for the business
• How or where to buy supplies and inventory
• How to get help when you have a problem

Kimberley Ellis is the President of Bison.com, a leading online resource for franchise and business opportunities. She has been quoted as an industry expert in USA Today, Wall Street Journal and a variety of local and regional publications regarding trends in business and franchising. Kim combines her entrepreneurial spirit with a diverse background in marketing and operation to help others succeed in franchising.

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It's not just Mark Zuckerberg; the kid down the hall from you is probably making hundreds of dollars a week writing a blog about deep sea fishing. The girl outside your dorm, who sits and knits during anything, is probably selling those pieces through her ebay store and paying for her shoe fetish.

Everyone is an entrepreneur. This is the message behind Global Entrepreneurship Week- with enough creativity and innovation we can solve any challenge. It is important to us that you get involved because we offer unparalleled opportunities: connections to major entrepreneurs, speed networking activities, competitions, etc. The initiative takes place in over fifty countries, involves more than 70% of the world’s population and involves heads of state, university leaders and world famous entrepreneurs.

To get involved check out www.unleashingideas.org - you can sign up to run an activity, join an activity, see what’s going on at your school or community and in a couple of weeks sign up to volunteer. Learn what is going on, how to pitch your ideas and address major social challenges. Maybe your collection of comic books can actually translate into a global business and alleviate poverty. Entrepreneurship is not just for business majors anymore.

Global Entrepreneurship Week

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If you are considering a franchise as your next career move, you probably already understand a number of the benefits to being a part of a franchise system. However, as each franchisor will offer different levels of assistance, it can be confusing to someone trying to evaluate a potential franchise purchase.

Since the value of a franchise is that the system has been developed to have replicable results, you will want any system you evaluate to score high in those areas that are important to the success of your unit.

Location – Location – Location
If your franchise is going to be site-dependent, the franchisor should, at a minimum, provide guidelines for selection of a site and the general terms of a lease agreement applicable to this type of location. Some franchisors will provide company personnel who will help you search for and select a site while some even work with national real estate brokers to find the best properties. If your franchisor provides help in site selection and lease negotiation, you are working with a good company.

Build-out Assistance
A typical franchise will provide each franchisee with instructions for the design and lay-out of the store along with details of where to purchase the components. As group buying power an important benefit of being part of a franchise company, you should expect to pay less for these components as a franchisee than if you purchased them as a sole proprietor.

At the high end of franchisor build-out assistance are those companies with design groups who help the franchise design the store, sometimes with such high-tech devices as CAD (computer-aided design) systems. Also, some franchisors will even hire a construction team to do the build-out and then deliver the components right to the new business.

Initial Training
The majority of franchised businesses do not require a new franchisee to have previous industry experience, primarily because they believe they can train a person with good business acuity to run the business successfully. A good training program is therefore essential. Most franchise companies will bring the franchisee to corporate headquarters for classroom training and some will allow time for hands-on training at a nearby franchise unit or corporate store.

This initial training should cover all aspects of the operations of the business, including book-keeping, record-keeping, operations, recruiting and retaining employees, and finding customers. The franchisee should receive an operations manual and get answers to any remaining questions she may have so that she feels confident she will be able to get her business up and running.

Some franchisors will provide corporate or field personnel to work side-by-side with the franchisee during grand opening and during the first week of operations, ensuring the franchisee has mastered the training and achieves a comfort level with the business. Franchisors that are willing to train a franchisee’s manager along with a franchisee are providing a value-added service.

On-going Training and Assistance
A good franchise business will continue to improve and evolve with time and the addition of new units and on-going training is often a necessity. Similarly, a good franchisor will offer continuing educational opportunities to franchisees as well as providing on-going assistance as needed. Many franchisors provide a help-line for issues that come up in the field and some will make regular visits to the franchisee’s location. A company that provides conferences or other opportunities for a franchisee to connect with fellow owners has the best interests of their franchisees in mind as these opportunities allow for creative problem-solving, the sharing of best practices and can reenergize the business focus.

Marketing Expertise
Your franchisor should provide you with a complete marketing plan for your new business that covers grand opening through at least the first 3-6 months. Since the franchisor has every reason to want you to succeed, a savvy franchisor will do much more. Many will provide you with the actual marketing materials, professionally produced. These may include pieces such as posters, banners, direct mail postcards, newspaper ads, and maybe TV and radio spots, all of which can be customized for your location.

Permits, Compliances and Other Legal Issues
Depending on the type of business, you may also need assistance in dealing with local governmental agencies for various permits. If your franchise involves food or beverage, there are numerous health-code compliance issues you will need to handle. Your franchisor should provide help in these areas so that your opening is not held up waiting for permits to come through.

There are several ways to find out how the franchisor handles these support items. The first, of course, is that you will want to ask questions about each as part of your investigation into the business. The second step is to talk to existing franchisees about the support they received and how well prepared they were to open and run the business.

Be sure to ask these franchisees if they felt there was anything missing from the training and support they received and if there is anything they wish had been more complete or done differently. If the company you are investigating scores well with these franchisees, you can be confident you will be happy with the support they will provide to you.

Kimberley Ellis is the President of Bison.com, a leading online resource for franchise and business opportunities. She has been quoted as an industry expert in USA Today, Wall Street Journal and a variety of local and regional publications regarding trends in business and franchising. Kim combines her entrepreneurial spirit with a diverse background in marketing and operation to help others succeed in franchising.

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OK, so this blogging thing is truly like therapy! I can tell you my thoughts and if they resonate, you give me feedback. Its the perfect relationship!

So i find as i get further into my career, i become more and more unwilling to deal with other's version of value when it comes to my core business which is selling talent. As an agent whether its for athletes or Hollywood A-listers, I am always amazed at how off base some so called "professionals" are at evaluating the market price for some.

I will give you an example, one of the hottest areas in my business right now is booking Celebrity Chefs. Both some that I represent exclusively such as former Supermodel turned author and chef, Maria Liberati or uber famous chef Mario Batali who i don't represent but have booked for several corporate events.

My company handles leads from many different sources such as www.chef2chef.net or www.allamericanspeakers.com as an example. It amazes me firstly how much money celebrity chefs get theses days but also how little the market understands about booking them. Just because someone is on TV and your local charity group is having a fundraiser that would be perfect for a celebrity chef, doesn't necessarily mean that is a possibility.

On a regular basis my staff has the unenviable job of calling back well meaning people who don't have a clue on costs and valuations of talent on the open market. I recently received a request for Emeril for $5,000. Might seem like a lot to some, but here is the reality, Emeril gets close to $200,000 an appearance plus the cost of his G-4. No that is not a video game, that is one of the swankest private jets on the market. Probably cost another $10-30,000 just for the plane.

So my challenge every day is teach my staff to either a. upsell a potential client on the reality of the costs and the benefits of those who charge more or b. take a lead for a celebrity that have no chance of getting done and find them someone who will reasonable meet with their approval for their program within their budget.

This highwire act we do hundreds of times a week. We do it for TV commercials, infomercials, speaking engagements, Satelitte Media Tours, endorsements, personal appearances, licensing opportunities and so much more.

You have to learn the skills of communication usually on the phone to keep someone's enthusiasm while you essentially convey to them that there is a better chance that Reindeer will be attending their next Christmas party with a jolly ole fat man in a red robe and matching shoes... Anotherwards, NOT! Oh, and still get a deal done with them! Now that takes skill.

My point is this, you may be insulted, disappointed, truly aggravated that you did everything you could to generate a fair offer for your product or services and sometimes no matter what, the market just doesn't see the same value. The question is, what are you going to do then? That is my point, good sales and marketing people always find a way. Don't give up, at that point of feeling complete and utter frustration, suck it up because that is when you need to be at your best. If not, start working that resume' because you clearly are not going to last long in this game!

Evan Morgenstein: Entrepreneur, Consultant, Sports Agent, Motivational Speaker. Morgenstein started in the tech industry after graduating in 1987 from Syracuse University. Working for several partially owned IBM partnerships, Morgenstein learned from some of the best. He has parlayed that into a dominant company Premier Management Group in the celebrity talent and sports marketing industry.

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YoungEntrepreneur: She never wanted to run her own business; she just wanted to be the best mom she knew how to be. But today, what began as a single children’s educational video that she filmed in her basement with a friend’s camera and her cat as a prop, has morphed into a billion dollar company that continues to be an industry leader.

According to Aigner-Clark:

“About a year into my daughter’s life, I started thinking about the whole idea of making a video for babies. Something stimulating and positive. I wondered, ‘Why isn’t there a way to expose her to the arts and sciences?’ I found the marketplace completely lacked what I was looking for.

I started this company because my children are at the age when you start to worry that they know about stranger safety, especially when they are on the Internet. I wanted a video that would be fun for them to watch as well as teach them. I am passionate about this and I am optimistic in its success.

I knew my baby. I knew what she liked to look at. I assumed that what my baby liked to look at, most other babies would, too.

The first Baby Einstein video took off because it was a completely new concept. It was an entirely new idea. No one else had videos for babies.

There was nothing on the market that I felt was any good, so I decided to make something myself.”

To be successful as an entrepreneur you need to sell a unique product or service. If you are selling the same product as everyone else you are unlikely to break through and create a successful company.

Is your product or service really something that is unique and valuable?

Find Something Nobody Else Is Selling [YoungEntrepreneur]

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YoungEntrepreneur: Delegation has become increasingly important for my business. As we take on more projects and continue to grow the company, I am frequently becoming the bottleneck. Decisions don’t happen without me and people can’t move forward because they don’t have the training or responsibilities to do so.

Here is what I have done to try and lighten the load. So far it has worked well and has freed up my time to focus on the bigger projects!

1) Give up some control - I liked having everything come through me. Unfortunately this can only work for so long. They can make decisions without me and have the power to implement it themselves on our website. At some point you have to have the confidence that you have the right people on board and give them the ability to run with their ideas. They are happier, I’m happier, and we’re getting more work done.

2) Give them an incentive - The two people I gave significant responsibilities to also share in the profits that are made from their work. They do not have an equity stake in my business but they do have a profit share for their divisions.They know that the more they work, the more money they will make. It has helped get them up and running as well as drive more profitability for my business as a whole.

3) Stretch their responsibilities - I have mentioned a few times about the importance of bringing on student interns as a way to cheaply expand your business. We currently have high school interns working alongside our staff. They are online savvy, energetic, and don’t cost us a dime!

Any entrepreneur who wants to avoid buying herself a job needs to look at delegation. Even if it’s outsourcing a small task that lets you focus on building your business in a more strategic fashion, until you start delegating responsibilities you will not enjoy the freedom that can come with being a business owner.

Delegation at Work [YoungEntrepreneur]

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Personal motivation is fundamental to your personal success both in sales and in life in general. Given its obvious importance you’d think that people would be experts at motivating themselves wouldn’t you? Unfortunately this is often not the case. I believe that the reason for this is the general belief that people are either motivated or they’re not.

Most directors and business owners that I work with believe (before we’ve worked together) that you can’t teach motivation. Well, if there’s nothing you can do about it, why bother right?

Wrong!

Some people may be naturally more motivated than others. Some people have learned to be more motivated than others. Some people have been brought up in environments where self-motivation is encouraged and fostered. Some people will be able to self-motivate far easier than others…

But remember, although changing your current habits might be difficult it is possible.

Think what it would mean to you if you were more motivated to succeed, more hungry for success and more driven on a day to day basis. What could you achieve if you had more energy, more vitality and more drive.

Using these 10 strategies you can…

1. Know why its important to you

One of the biggest challenges with motivation is that people try and motivate themselves to do things that they are frankly just not interested in. Have a look at the things you struggle to get motivated to do. How many of them do you actually care about?

Many salespeople adopt the targets, goals and aspirations of their managers but are these genuinely what they want? Quite possibly not. When I work with salespeople and business owners one of the questions I always ask is, “Why is this important to you?” As we go through life most of us forget why we are doing things. We get stuck on the 9-5 treadmill going to work because we think we should rather than because we actually want to achieve anything.

Many people think they ought to increase their activity levels but they consistently fail to do so. Ask yourself, “Why is this important to me? What will I get when I achieve this? What will happen if I don’t achieve this?”

If you’re starting to get some great answers, build on them. If you’re struggling a bit, get persistent. If you have utterly no idea then consider whether this goal is actually important to you!

2. Have written and specific goals

Motivated people set goals. Motivated people have goals. Take time out right now and write yourself 10 year, 5 year, 3 year, 1 year, 6 month and 3 month goals. Read a book on goal setting. Check out SMART goal setting and Well Formed Outcomes from the field of neuro-linguistic programming (NLP).

Buy yourself a log book or a diary and start recording your goals. Capture them, study them, refine them. Take the time to visualise them and take them for a “test drive” in your head. The more time you put into them, the more real they will become for you. The more real they are for you, the more your unconscious mind will seek to attain them for you.

3. Set mini-targets and stepping stones

Work out what the milestones are on your way to achieving your goals. Write them down and plan them into your route to success. In today’s society most of us seek early gratification. Few people are prepared to sweat away with the rewards nowhere in sight. Make things easy for yourself as a newbie goal setter and check your progress early.

When I set out to write my first book I broke it down into tiny bitesize segments. Each of this was allocated a start and a finish time. Only by setting mini-targets and stepping stones can you see where you are in relation to your goal.

4. Treat yourself for a job well done

What would you do when your dog behaves well? What would you do when your child behaves well under difficult circumstances? How did your parents and teachers do when you behaved in the way they wanted you to?

Rewards!

People thrive on recognition and reward whether it’s from others or from ourselves. We know this! Why then is it that, as grown ups, we think that we can stop rewarding ourselves and stay motivated. Doh!

Few people work well in a vacuum and few can work well without rewards. Rewards do not have to be financial and they do not have to be big to work.

Action point: Create a list of 100 cheap and easy rewards that you can use to acknowledge to yourself that you have done a good job?

5. Reward activity not just results

Most sales managers, directors and owner reward results. Whilst I applaud this practise, it should not be the only way. As sales professionals we should reward ourselves for activity not just reward.

Imagine you have two sales people on your team. A works incredibly hard, has the right attitude and has consistent activity. B however is a bit of a slacker, has the wrong attitude and inconsistent activity. A unfortunately, through a piece of bad luck misses target but B, through a contact of a mate, swings in a lucky deal.

Clearly B has to get his commission but shouldn’t A get something too?

If you don’t reward A you have just rewarded B for all of the behaviours you don’t want and given nothing to the perfect employee. Hmmmm.

Task: Think about ways that you can reward activity as well as results in your team.

6. Make it easier to feel good than to feel bad

In my role I meet thousands of individuals every year and I am always amazed how difficult people make it for themselves to feel happy. Ask yourself what has to happen for you to feel good? What has to happen for you to feel successful? Most people have a list as long as their arm (and then some)!

Now ask yourself what has to happen for you to feel bad? Most lists have tiny little things like … one client being rude to us or one lost deal. That set up is never going to work is it!

You need to make it easier to feel good than to feel bad. That way you know that you’re going to be able to stay on top form and focused. Long ago I decided that my criteria for feeling good was to wake up in the morning! Now, I know it’s not guaranteed but so far I’m doing pretty well.

Have a think about what rules you have for feeling good and feeling bad and manipulate them to help you feel good every day.

7. Make a list of everything that you are tolerating and get rid of it

What do you tolerate in your life? The dictionary defines toleration as the process or practise of enduring or permitting. In other words, putting up with stuff that we don’t like!

What stuff do you tolerate in your life? Make a list of stuff that you’re tolerating – you’ll be amazed quite how much stuff there is. The first time I did this exercise there were literally hundreds of things on my list. Letting go of them was exhilarating.

Remember: Whilst a portion of you is tolerating stuff you are not totally focused on what you want to achieve.

8. Think of a time when you were motivated. Work out why and replicate it

Take a few moments and think of three times in your life that you were totally motivated. Not slightly motivated or half- motivated but really, truly 100% motivated.

What motivated you? Why were you motivated? How did you get motivated? How did it feel to be motivated? What could you do if you felt like this all of the time?

When you have worked out how you got motivated practise replicating it. This ability to get motivated an “up for it” will help you to achieve more in your life than you ever thought possible.

9. Take control of your emotions

Most people pretend that what goes on inside themselves has little to do with their behaviour and the results that they are getting. Most people are wrong.

Think about a day when everything went well… were you in control of your emotions? You bet you were. Emotional control is fundamental to sales and business success. If you cannot control your own emotions you will always struggle to motivate and inspire others – whether that’s motivating them to work, to buy, to build a team or to reach for more.

Now think about a day when everything went wrong… how did your emotional control differ? How does your emotional state affect you on a day when everything is going wrong? Doesn’t help at all, does it?

Start now to pay more attention to your emotions. Start to control them more effectively and you will start to get better results.

10. Surround yourself with motivational people, books and audios

Someone once said that you become most like the people that you spend the most time with. I believe they were right. If you hang around with negative, “mood-hoovers”, “wanabees”, “whingers”, “whiners” and “moaners” guess what you’re most likely to become?

Spend your time with motivated, successful achievers however and you will take a major step to catapulting yourself to sales success.

But Gavin, what if I don’t know any motivated, successful people?

Great questions! When I first uncovered this concept and I decided to use it to lift my game I had a bit of a problem because I didn’t know anyone who had the values, beliefs and attitudes that I was looking for so I created my own “virtual” support team. I read, listened to and watched the motivational superstars in books, audios and DVD programmes.

Action: What can you do to create your own real and virtual success team right now?

Gavin Ingham is a speaker & author. Get free tips, articles and strategies and join his newsletter now at www.gaviningham.com now.

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Business Advice Pro: Failures are good. Mistakes you have made, bad decisions, failures are there to teach you something, teach you what does not work, what you should not do in the future. And if you really do learn from your mistakes, then how the hell can they be bad, they gave you a lesson and you learned from them. And learning is always good.

While at first, after making a mistake, depending on what it was, you might feel pretty down, but think of it this way – how does that help you? Yes, you might have done something very wrong, but usually you can’t change what you have already done, you can, however, change the way you do things in the future.

Failures are good as long as... [Business Advice Pro]

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Entrepreneur: I was living out my dream of running a scuba diving business in Tonga when I realized that many of the lessons I'd learned about diving also applied to entrepreneurship. In previous parts of this series, I've talked about packing up my life in a 20x20 container, narrowly escaping jail and finding my boat partially submerged in the harbor. Before starting to build my actual shop, I'd already learned quite a bit about being a business owner.

Even if you've never been diving, as an entrepreneur, you'll be able to relate to these lessons. After all, we're all fish in the same ocean.

1. Never stop breathing.

This is key in scuba diving. I was well versed in the concept and was very comfortable underwater. What I didn't realize is just how important the concept is out of the water when it comes to running a business. When many of us become stressed, we stop breathing correctly, which can interfere with how we handle stress and how we run our business.

2. Swim with the current.

In scuba diving, if you swim with the current, the entire dive is easy, relaxing and totally enjoyable. So many times as an entrepreneur, I felt like a salmon swimming upstream. I was so focused on running my business my way that I wasn't open to going with the flow. Sometimes going with the flow would have made things much easier.

3. Prepare your exit strategy.

The term "drift diving" refers to when the boat drops you off at one end of the reef and you scuba dive to the other end - where the boat is waiting for you - by going with the current. In order for this to be a successful and relaxing dive for the dive master, he or she must coordinate with the boat captain ahead of time to be waiting at the end.

When you started, did you take the end into consideration? If you didn't, the good news is that it's not too late to start planning. What your boat looks like will depend on your industry, the market, supply and demand, your partners and a number of other factors. Maybe you know you want to end or sell your business in one, three or five years. Along the course, there will be navigational points that will help you better determine if your boat is on schedule.

Beneath the Surface [Entrepreneur]

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WSJ.com: Call them serial-preneurs. While some entrepreneurs struggle their whole lives to bring one idea or product to market, there's another breed: those who do it once, twice or three times more, disproving the notion of beginner's luck. In some cases, the brands and people are household names, such as Steve Jobs with Apple, Pixar and NeXT. But the ranks also are populated with lesser-known entrepreneurs who fly under the radar, hitting one start-up home run after the other.

"I really believe that some people are kind of entrepreneurial adrenaline freaks," says Wayne Stewart, a management professor at Clemson University in Clemson, S.C. "They really get their kicks by starting businesses."

In 2000, Mr. Stewart published a study with two other researchers looking for common traits among serial entrepreneurs -- which he defined as those who had owned and operated three or more businesses. Of the 664 entrepreneurs studied, only 12% fit the bill. But those who did scored higher in all three categories examined: They had a higher propensity for risk, innovation and achievement. They were less scared of failure. And they were more able to recover when they did fail.

The Secrets of Serial Success [WSJ.com]

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Lazy Way: 10. You are unemployable. You can’t hold a job. You don’t want to hold a job. And you react to getting a job the same way a cat reacts when you try to give it a bath.

9. You are anti-authoritarian. You can’t fathom the thought of being anything less than Boss, President, Chairman, Don, and/or Emperor.

8. You have the uncanny ability to get other people to do all the work.

7. You are always looking for and/or seeing economic opportunity everywhere and in everything. While at a concert, you occupy yourself by estimating the evening’s take and its gross margins instead of listening to the music.

6. You spend more time and energy looking for easier, faster, cheaper, more effective ways of accomplishing something than if you just did the task outright.

5. You would enthusiastically trade a life-time pass to Disneyland for one ride in the Vomit Comet. In other words, you would give up a secure, even-keeled, bland existence for a life that whipsaws uncontrollably between exhilaration and terror.

4. You don’t see lack of money, lack of knowledge, and lack of experience as barriers to entry. You are also not deterred by the existence of formidable competition.

3. You favor multiplication over addition and you lull yourself to sleep by calculating price-earnings ratios.

2. You would happily invest your home’s equity and your life savings (and your mother’s life savings) in your start-up.

And the Number One sign you are made to be an entrepreneur . . .

1. When you project future earnings, your spread sheet shows that by Year 5, you can buy Argentina and sell it to Brazil.

Top 10 Signs You're Made to be an Entrepreneur [Lazy Way]

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Cobalt Paladin: The most important thing for the entrepreneurial spark to start is to have a unique idea which you passionately believe in. You do it because you believe in it; because it'll be able to help people. Least of your goals should be making money. Making money is good but it cannot be the ultimate and only goal. The problem with using making money as THE goal is when you don't make enough, you lose heart very quickly and it won't sustain your motivation and passion; when you've made enough, there will be just a sense of emptiness because you'll be asking yourself what's next and is that all?

The idea is usually inspired from daily experiences. It usually is just a way to solve a common recurring problem. It can even be a new way of solving the same problem. For me, I believe the idea has to be new, unique and useful. If the idea is not different, how do you expect your new venture to stake a position in the user's mind. If your idea is not new, not different and better, why would anyone remember or use it. They would be using what is already currently available. Till date, there is still only one Cola!

The Art Of The Start: Part 1 [Cobalt Paladin]

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YoungEntrepreneur.com: Most entrepreneurs who start a business will fail. The statistics vary but as many as 80% of people who start a business today will no longer have their company in 5 years. That is a pretty big failure rate.

According to the Body Shop founder, Anita Roddick:

“I started The Body Shop in 1976 simply to create a livelihood for myself and my two daughters, while my husband, Gordon, was trekking across the Americas. I had no training or experience and my only business acumen was Gordon’s advice to take sales of £300 a week. Nobody talks of entrepreneurship as survival, but that’s exactly what it is and what nurtures creative thinking.”

What many new business owners fail to recognize is that entrepreneurship is first about survival, then about building a company. I have seen too many entrepreneurs to count who have grand visions of where they want to go but never even get to first base. They close down shop before they can execute any of their big plans because they run out of money.

If you cannot make enough to pay your basic bills then you will not be around in the long run to fulfill your dream. It takes a lot longer to get a company off the ground that most people think and in the beginning it is all about survival - do whatever you need to do to keep yourself, and your company, going.

Entrepreneurship Is About Survival [YoungEntrepreneur.com]

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Found+READ: As I have discovered in my years as an entrepreneur and during the past ten years leading TIBCO Software, scaling a company requires both the discipline to follow sound strategic processes and the courage to take bold, yet calculated, risks. If you are too aggressive, your company might make imprudent choices and go out of business. If you are too slow or cautious, you might miss an opportunity. Take, for example, a champion downhill skier: if he goes too fast down the slope, he risks crashing and burning. Too slow and he might lose the race. It’s all about striking the right balance. Following are four fundamentals that founders should consider in their quest to finish first:

1. Find, and foster, top talent. Mediocrity doesn’t win Olympic medals, nor will it result in a winning company. But while hiring outstanding, dedicated people should be a given for any company founder, it is equally important to create an open environment within the organization that allows top talent to flourish.

2. Wow the crowd. Never forget that happy customers are an asset far more valuable than simply the revenue they generate. Satisfied customers are your organization’s most credible supporters – more powerful influencers than any advertisement, white paper or marketing strategy alone will ever be.

3. Know when to take short cuts. Building a company with staying power is frequently sought after yet rarely achieved. Taking short cuts can be tempting, especially when the competition is fierce, but know that not all short cuts are created equal.

4. When you see your opening, move quickly. Great companies cannot be built on process alone. As we all know, antiquated, disconnected or bureaucratic organizational procedures can stifle innovation and slow progress to a crawl. If the right decision-making infrastructure is in place, your team should feel confident enough to move quickly – even in chaotic environments – and go out and dominate a market segment.

Talent, Wow!-factor, Speed & Short-Cuts [Found+READ]

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BusinessWeek: When it comes to being an entrepreneur, is it simply a matter of physiological hard wiring? Or is the entrepreneurial spark something that can be lit? Clearly, qualities such as risk taking and determination, common traits in many entrepreneurs, are part of one's DNA. However, transforming inspiration into a business concept is one thing, and transforming a concept into an actual business is another. Can the characteristics often associated with entrepreneurs—drive, confidence, insight—be acquired? Can they be learned?

With more and more individuals eschewing the corporate ladder in order to start their own outfits at ever younger ages, BusinessWeek.com recently put the question to a cross-section of entrepreneurs and academics: Are entrepreneurs born or made?

Is There a Gene for Business? [BusinessWeek]

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Springwise: Umpqua, an Oregon-based bank, recently launched something similar. Their Lemonaire campaign is aimed at helping 'really small entrepreneurs' start their first business: a lemonade stand. After completing an application, children can pick up a free Umpqua Lemonade Starter Kit. The kits include cups, napkins, a sticker, table cover, small business guide ('How to Become a Lemonaire') and USD 10 start-up capital. No purchase necessary, but children must be under 13 to qualify.

Unlike Postbank's Bizznizz, Umpqua’s Lemonaire is a temporary campaign, and the marketing aspect is key here. As quoted in the New York Times, a spokesperson for Umpqua explained: "We look for ways to hit people with a different mindset, and the lemonade stand is a perfect metaphor for what small business is about." Time for other banks to follow Umpqua and Postbank's lead, offering junior entrepreneurs the tools they need to earn and save? As long as children aren’t forced into labour, it’s a great way to teach them about business and money.

Facilitating kidpreneurs [Springwise]

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The Closet Entrepreneur: Identical twins Amal and Juan graduate with Bachelors degrees and receive the same job offer. Amal passes up the job offer to pursue a Masters degree while Juan takes the job offer and begins working. Two years pass and Amal graduates and begins working. By this time Juan has been promoted to a position that is comparable to Amal’s starting position, and Juan’s salary has increased to an amount that is comparable to Amal’s starting salary. So who made the better decision, Amal or Juan?

While the example of Amal and Juan is situational, opportunity costs definitely apply in the real world. Opportunity costs especially come into play when time is of the essence like starting a business, fixing and flipping an investment property, selling your home, et cetera.

In some cases, saving money by doing things yourself can be beneficial. Yet the benefit of saving money has to be weighed against the benefit of getting things done quickly and correctly by a professional. For example, anyone can learn how to build a website or remodel an investment property on their own, yet if doing so comes at a cost of several months of lost revenue or rent, then is it really worth it?

Opportunity costs even come into play in the pursuit of happiness. Which would you rather choose, lifelong happiness or a life of misery living out someone else’s dream?

Understanding Opportunity Costs = Better Decisions [The Closet Entrepreneur]

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Mind Petals: Well I’m here to challenge that notion about quitting and giving up. Yes, we should be quitters and give up on things in life. Just because we’re entrepreneurs, it doesn’t mean we have this “never-give-up” law up imprinted in our souls.

Sure, if an idea turns into a mess and begins to bring unhappiness into your life, then get rid of it. Bury that baby! It’s perfectly fine to give up on an idea and push forward with something else.

Think of yourself as an scientist… actually, don’t think of yourself as one — you are a scientist. And as a scientist you are going to explore and experiment and fail. Some of your ideas will be solid, some weak, and some “so-so.”

But here’s the thing: you need to learn how to quickly get out of a “bad” idea and start searching for a “good” idea right away. The key here is to find an idea that you can focus on and truly explore for, well, the rest of your life possibly. But, if you continue to keep yourself trapped in a series of “so-so” ideas that are eating up your energy, creativity, and well-being, then you are going to be the demise of yourself — your entrepreneurial journey.

Learn when it’s time to put the nails in the coffin and bury your bad ideas. Learn this now and learn it fast. It’ll push your forward as an entrepreneur and there will be less weight on your shoulders. And the less weight on your shoulders, the easier it’ll be for you to move the world.

When is it Time to Put Your Idea in A Box, Nail it up, and Bury it for Good? [Mind Petals]

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YoungEntrepreneur: How is that for a title to get your attention? CNNMoney recently put out a series of 8 profiles that look at successful entrepreneurs who have built up their companies despite not having access to major financial backing.

It goes to show you that you do not need a lot of money to get started - you just need to invest the capital you do have and your energy in the right places.

The profiles are a quick read and also include 8 lessons for success including:

Lesson: If you must borrow from your friends and family, keep it formal

Lesson: Prep as much as you can while you’re on someone else’s payroll

Lesson: Do what makes you happy - because at first, happiness is likely to be your main reward

Lesson: It’s not who you know - it’s how well you keep in touch with them

Lesson: You’ll amaze yourself at how cheaply you can run a business when it’s yours

Lesson: That great idea you had for your boss? Maybe it’s the business you’re looking for.

Lesson: Help investors see that taking a chance on you is not that big a risk after all

Lesson: Picking the right partner can be as important as picking a product

How To Get Rich [YoungEntrepreneur]

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SmallBusinessCEO: What the definition of an entrepreneur is. Is it a role, an attitude or a title?

Webster's Collegiate Dictionary defines it as: "On who assumes the risk and management of a business."

That is no help. If I am a functional manager in a business, say a Sales VP, I am surely managing a part of the business and I am taking a risk with my career, my employees and peers. Does that make me an entrepreneur?

Maybe it is all of the above, a role, an attitude and a title.

Entrepreneur seems to be the hottest buzzword going around, the hero, the savior of economies worldwide. How do we spot one when we see one? How do we spot youngsters and support them in their journey to business success?

What is an Entrepreneur? [SmallBusinessCEO]

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