Starting A Business – The Three 'Ps'

There are a lot of factors to consider when starting a business. Primary among these are the three “P”s – Plan, Prepare and Persist.

Plan

After you have selected some ideas from your brainstorming to base your business around, create a plan of attack. List what you'll need before your business starts. What will your ongoing expenses be? Factors include rent, utilities, permits, licensing, legal fees, inventory, staff, design, marketing collateral, mailing lists, software, advertising and more. Get as much as you can out on paper and set deadlines to get things accomplished. This will allow you to evaluate your pace.

Prepare

Once you have a plan, carry it out. Preparing to start a business can be a lot of work. Tasks include getting an identity designed, creating business cards, brochures, web sites and other marketing material, consulting with CPA's, lawyers, and HR professionals, in some cases finding and renting or buying a storefront or office, furnishing the business space, getting utilities in place, receiving and organizing inventory, getting a database for your customers and leads and any number of other tasks. By running a home business, some of these steps will already be taken care of, yet opening a business of any kind can be an enormous task. While planning your business make sure to leave plenty of time to get up and running. Better to plan your setup time too long than too short and finding yourself running out of money.

Persist

This is the most important step of running a business. Without persistence, you won't even be able to finish your business plan. Hang on like a pit-bull. When the going gets tough, get tougher. Have worst case scenario plans to fall back on, as well as best case scenario plans.

Some businesses become over-night successes, while other take year to develop. If you plan, prepare and persist, you’ve got a very good chance of making it.

What Does It Take To Be An Entrepreneur?

Over the years countless institutes and individuals have asked the million dollar question. What makes an entrepreneur an entrepreneur? What traits or characteristics are inherent to a successful entrepreneur and is one born with those traits? There’s great news! Successful entrepreneurs are born every day!

Some people believe an entrepreneur is born while others believe an entrepreneur can be taught. Some believe an entrepreneur is like an artist - either you have it or do you don’t. Some see entrepreneurs as leaders that are focused, disciplined, competitive, and charismatic, while others see them as huge risk takers. And all of these analogies are right to some degree.

It’s true all successful entrepreneurs share a few qualities and skills that allow them to be successful. These inherent qualities can be taught; but they often seem to be an inherent driving force that sends individuals down the path of being in business or formally training to for a career in business.

Entrepreneurs see the world differently. They have the ability to see the world as a system. They have the ability to see something in its entirety and as an integrated unit, and they seem to possess the ability to see opportunity within the global picture. They are what is called a system thinker.

There are other characteristics they possess. Entrepreneurs possess an overpowering need to achieve and tend to be very competitive against themselves. They are continuously trying to outthink themselves and others and they are constantly looking for the edge. This is a process that occurs as naturally as breathing and is a driving force behind most entrepreneurs.

They have the determination and dedication to follow through with commitments and they always appear confident and in control. You’ll notice they also possess a positive atmosphere. They are of the mindset “I can,” and “I will.” They are not afraid of failure because failure is not in their vocabulary nor is it an option.

They are objective but have the ability to weigh risks realistically within the big picture. They have an uncanny ability to anticipate developments which gives them the edge on many competitive situations. Entrepreneurs seem to feel right from their gut, call it instinct. They are a resourceful group that possess excellent problem solving skills and are able to diligently work through obstacles as they occur.

Entrepreneurs are excellent communicators and recognize how important clear and concise communication is to their success. They also possess a sound working knowledge of the business they are involved in.

When it comes to successful entrepreneurs it’s a question of what came first, the chicken or the egg. Is it inherent qualities that we are born with that lead us to be entrepreneurs or is it when we choose to become an entrepreneur that we develop the skills and qualities of success? That’s a question we shall leave to the great debaters to resolve.

What is for certain is that successful entrepreneurs are born every day and that you too can be a successful entrepreneur by developing the skills of success.

MAKE MONEY WORKING FROM THE COMFORT OF YOUR OWN HOME!

How many times have you heard that phrase, pitch, advertisement, or

whatever?  Lots, I'm sure. It is used so much because marketers know that

staying home and making money is the fondest dream of millions of people.

And why not?  Did you know that the majority of fatal heart attacks happen

at 9 a.m. Monday morning?  It's true.  It seems a lot of people would

rather die than get back to the old grind after a weekend of freedom.

So when someone offers an opportunity or plan for you to take your job and

shove it, yet still make enough money to live and pay all your bills, it

sounds blissfully irresistible.

Of course, bliss and reality are always two different things.   Is it

really possible to run a business from your own home that is more than a

hobby or source of part-time income?  Can you get rich working out of your

own home?  Can you really trade your cubical and necktie for blue jeans and

the comfort of your own den?

Well, for your information, home-based businesses are one of the fastest

growing kinds of enterprises in America today.  As this is being written,

some 15 million Americans are doing at least some form of work out of their

homes, and the numbers are rising rapidly.  According to the U.S.

Department of Labor, as many as 25 million people will be working out of

their homes in the year 2020.  Government studies have indicated that as

much as 75% of all work done in this country could eventually be moved

home.

The overwhelming majority of home workers, however, are not exactly getting

rich.  The average work-at-home American earns less than $15,000 per year.

That may not be bad as a supplement to a spouse's full-time income, but

let's face it, fifteen grand in and of itself is not much better than poverty.

As master marketer and author Dr. Jeffrey Lant said:  "Frankly, I never saw

any benefit to staying home and being poor."

Lant, without so much as a business card, became a work-at-home

millionaire, and is a perfect example of what truly can be achieved if you

are serious about chucking your day job, staying home, and not settling for

peanuts in exchange for your freedom.  You can have it all -- you can stay

home and make as much -- and more -- money than your current job provides

you.

In this report, we are going to outline and discuss five key rules on how

to work at home and make big bucks, no matter where you live.  After these

five rules, we'll talk about the most important aspect of any business,

whether it be home-based or a giant factory -- cash flow.  Starting your

own business out of your home is all about attitude and inspiration, but

all the attitude in the world won't help you without money!

1. It Takes Commitment

Is it any secret in America that most people detest their jobs?  Study

after study proves that most people simply dread going to work Monday

morning, and they live for the freedom of the weekend.  But even that

freedom is not pure because we know that it is only temporary.  It's hard

to enjoy a Sunday evening when the Monday morning alarm clock is just a few

hours away.

It makes sense that people hate their jobs.  Everyday, there is a lot of

butt kissing that needs to be done.  There are endless meetings which

usually accomplish nothing.  There are pointless interruptions, a lot of

drifting this way and that, and lot of idiot supervisors who do nothing but

waste your time and then dog you for not accomplishing your share of work.

There are co-workers you hate, and who would stab you in the back in a

minute if it meant a raise for them instead of you.

When you work for someone else, you live a regimented life.  Your body may

not want to get up at 7 a.m., but you have to be at work by 8 a.m. so you

lurch out of bed with a head full of sleep.

People who choose to work at home are doing more than just escaping the

yoke of their master; they have made a deep, firm, life-altering decision

which says that health, happiness and prosperity depend vitally on the

freedom to work for ourselves, and in doing so in the comfort of the home.

We want to really emphasize that fact that to be successful in a

work-at-home situation, you have to be nothing less than a fanatic; a

zealot, who is utterly committed to making work-at-home not only a

successful venture, but a profound commitment for life.  You must be

convinced that a return to an outside office job would be the equivalent of

a spiritual death sentence.

Many people hate their office jobs, but they have made an inner compromise

with themselves.  They have convinced themselves that their job is "not so

bad," pays the bills, and that they can stick out because they have to.

If you want to be truly successful at quitting your day job, there cannot

be any room for such compromises in your soul.  You have to take the

attitude that to work any longer at your hateful job is akin to fouling

your inner being with a spiritual cancer the will sicken and kill you.

2. Eliminating the Home-Office Mentality

To move our work home, however, does not mean we eliminate every single

thing about the traditional American office.  Rather, we should select what

is useful and what is not.

It's a mistake to quit your job and go home with a "home-office" mentality.

By this we mean thinking small, and believing that you will automatically

sacrifice a decent income in exchange for your freedom.  Please!  Do not

think small!

To quote Jeffrey Lant again:  "Too many home-based practitioners fail to

understand the benefits that accrue because of the professional style they

have selected.  They focus on the "home" part of the business rather than

the "business" portion, and as a result are doomed to small incomes."

Working at home provides many benefits.  We can save a lot of time because

we don't need to commute and we have more control over our schedule.  We

can save a lot of costs because we don't have the overhead requirements of

larger businesses.  We can cut our stress -- and so have more energy --

because we avoid many of the characteristic problems of life in the late

20th-Century office.  We must work these advantages to our profit.

3.  Your International Headquarters

The German philosopher Immanuel Kant said that if you sit at home alone at

your empty kitchen table, eventually, the "whole world will come to you."

Well, today you don't need the great mind of a philosopher to make the

entire world come into your living room.  What you need is a phone jack.

We live in a unique time in history.  Satellites, fiber optics, the

integrated circuit and other communications miracles means that you can be

just about anywhere in the developed world and establish communication with

anyone.

The telephone, the fax machine, the computer, the modem -- all of these are

not only affordable by any middle-class citizen; they are the key to

eliminating your need to drive a hectic freeway everyday to get to a place

of business outside your home.

With these devices at our disposal, we should allow ourselves to "think

globally."  Too often, home-based businesses focus on the narrowest market,

the neighborhood, the county, the city or state.  This is fine if you are

providing a local service and are content with a certain moderate level of

income.  But if you want the big bucks, you should not think small.  Also,

you should not believe that, just because you are home-based, you cannot

compete with the big guys.

The purpose of any business is to seek assess and seek out every possible

market for its products and services, to ascertain whether these markets

have the ability to buy these products/services, to determine whether there

is sufficient profit in these markets to warrant approaching them, and,

once positive assessment has been made, to launch a sustained marketing

campaign that gets a significant percentage of this market to purchase the

product or service in question.

Your home telecommunications machines will not only enable you to do this,

but they can also help you overwhelm larger, more cumbersome traditional

businesses that are your competition.

As a home-based entrepreneur, you will not have all of the disadvantages of

your more traditional competitors:  no office rent, equipment or expense;

no employees to pay salaries and fringe benefits for; no time wasted on

meetings, employee problems, paid sick leave, etc.

All the money your competitors spend on heating the office and buying

furniture could better be spent on the actual marketing itself.

As a home-based business, you will be already positioned where the

traditional business is currently struggling to move: toward the lowest

possible overhead and the greatest possible concentration of dollars on

products/service development and product/service marketing.

So, a home-based business takes full advantage of three major goals of

modern business success:

(1) Vastly reduced overhead

(2) Easy access to a global market

(3) Full advantage of telecommunications.

To not have the basic telecommunications toys -- computer, modem, fax, and

telephones is impossibly stupid.  Still, even in this day and age, many of

people strongly resist the one element that is undoubtedly the heart and

brain of any successful home business -- the computer.  The computer is so

important in fact, we have made it a category all itself.

And remember, learning to use a modern computer is easier than learning to

drive a car, so you have no excuse not to plunge forward.

4. The Computer

You should pay close attention to what computers can do for you in your

plans to escape your job and make your work-at-home dreams come true.

People who want to run a home business usually have a very small staff -- in

fact, a staff of one -- yourself!  The rest of your needs are handled by

independent contractors, depending on the kind of business you are in and

the services you need.

To run a serious, truly global home business, a computer is as necessary as

oxygen is to life on earth.  Those who try to fool themselves into thinking

they will ever make a serious go of their home-based business without a

computer are sadly mistaken.

Computers give you two primary advantages:

(1) They enable you to store large amounts of data and to sort by data

field so that you can easily get the information you need.

(2) They enable you to develop a pattern document for every situation

you'll ever be in in your business.  To run a home-based business

successfully, you must anticipate just what situation will emerge and

prepare accordingly.

A business is based on a characteristic series of situations and a

characteristic set of things that happen -- or that do not happen.  You

must be prepared with the proper document for each situation.  Once you

have established all the protocols, and have experienced all the situations

associated with your kind of business, the time will come when running your

business is, in large part, a repetition of certain key tasks.  Computers

are all about handling repetition swiftly and efficiently.

But the computer is much more.  Today, by connecting a computer to the

phone line with a modem, your machine becomes more than a data storage

system and repetitive task handler. It becomes a multi-task, multi-level

communications processing center that connects you to the globe.

Such things as e-mail, on-line services, the Internet, the Web and more

can't help but revolutionize the way business is done.  If you do not

become a part of it today, you certainly are going to suffer for it greatly

in the near future.

If there is an effective way to market products on the Internet or any

other on-line venue, no one has truly discovered it yet.  The only people

making money on Internet marketing are the people who are selling the

concept of doing it.  If you have a product or a service and expect to

reach millions of buyers through computer screens, you are sadly mistaken.

The Internet is definitely where a lot of innovative things are happening.

It's a great place to exchange ideas, find out what hot, what's not, and

stay on the cutting edge whatever your particular business is.

5.  Your Business Hours

If you've been paying attention to the first four points, you're well on

your way to becoming a successful home-based business owner.  Now we don't

want you to blow it by thinking you can keep banker's hours.

The global market is a 24-hour per day market, and a 365-day per year

market.  Let the others sleep late on Saturdays and take Sundays off.

Those times could be your day to move and corner loads of customers that

the others miss.

You should get up earlier and quit work later.  You should be open for

business on holidays and be available 24-hours a day either personally or

through your answering service.

"But wait a minute!" you might be thinking at this point!  "I thought that

working at home was all about freedom and an end to drudgery.  This sounds

like nothing but  endless work!"

Well, here's the thing.  For most of you who quit your regular jobs to go

to work for yourself, you'll discover something magical.  You'll discover

that when you are working for yourself, when you are building your own

business, a lot of what you does not seem like work at all.

The great writer Jane Roberts said, "Inspiration is its own motivator."

Running your own business is all about being inspired 24-hours-a-day.  When

you stop selling your body and soul to some company or corporation and

start giving your energy to yourself, work has a way of turning into

inspiration and play.

The perfect work for you is that which you don't think of as work, yet

doing it makes money and provides you with the bread and shelter of life.

You'll see what it's like if you make a true commitment to being self

employed, put all your energy into it, and stick with it for the long run.

Are You Ready To Start Your Own Business? The 4 Key Questions You Must Ask

Every year millions of people answer "Yes" to that question and every year that answer costs many of them money, time, confidence, and heartbreak. The Small Business Administration estimates there are 580,900 new small businesses opening each year and that number does not include the small one-person entrepreneurships that pop up every day. However even if you are your business's sole employee then there is still something to be learned from the SBA's numbers.

According to the SBA, two-thirds of new businesses survive at least two years and 44 percent survive at least four years. Two of the key factors in the businesses survival and ability to thrive: the owner's education level and the owner's reason for starting the firm in the first place.

How can you make sure that you are among the winners rather than the losers in this high stakes game? The answer is inside of you. You must ask yourself four key questions to determine whether your own small business will survive and thrive.

1. Are You Ready

Have you mentally prepared yourself for the switch from employee (or student or whatever label fits you currently) to boss. You are going to be the one making decisions now about everything from office products to product line. This total control is one of the driving forces behind many people who take the plunge into starting their ownbusiness but it is also one of the elements that drives new entreprenurs crazy. When you start out there is an endless list of decisions that need to be made and new questions crop up every day.

Even more important you will need to remember that in a small business you will wear many hats. Even if you manage to start out with one or more employees you will each fulfill more than one role in your new business. And if you are running a one-man or one-woman show then you serve in every capacity from file clerk to maintenance crew to salesman to CEO. Can you handle switching from task to task and role to role like that? Are you willing to make those switches?

Similarly, have you prepared your family and friends for this switch in attitude. Your life is going to change -- probably pretty drastically -- and that change can have a positive or negative impact on your family life and social interactions. It will make things much easier if your friends and family are supportive going into the process.

2. Where Is Your Niche?

Have you identified your niche yet? One of the reasons many businesses fail is that they fail to focus on a target audience. Yes if you are a major discount chain then you can sell everything from peanuts to wallpaper but this type of business requires vast resources that just aren't available to the small business. But small businesses dominate the marketplace (creating more than 50 percent of the private gross domestic product last year) by finding a different approach -- a niche.

Knowing your niche means you are better able to find, target, and maintain your customers as well as provide the best possible goods and services to that customer base. That focus is one of your best chances to not only survive but to thrive in a very competitive marketplace.

3. What Is Your Plan Of Action?

Another key factor in the survival and ultimate success of your business is how much planning you do before you open your electronic or physical doors.  You need to decide if your business will be based on the internet or include more traditional models. Are you going to work full-time or part-time at your new business? Are you going to hire help or go solo? Have you written (or at least outlined) your business plan? Dreaming, thinking and planning can save you much trouble and waste later when things are hectic and problems strike. Planning can also help keep you focused and to balance your spending and time.

4. Who Are You Going To Call?

At some point, no matter how experienced a business person you are, you will need help. You will need support, advice, tools, or information -- or all of the above. One of the beautiful, and most frightening, aspects of growth is that it can lead you to places you never imagined. No matter how much planning and experience you bring to your new position as CEO the unexpected will arise. How will you cope with this? It is important to recognize that no business is an island. It is not failure to seek help. Failure is when your business shuts down because you didn't get the help you needed.

The best way to get timely help is to work on your support system while you work on building your business. That way you will already have a ready list of resources available that you can quickly tap into when emergencies strike. In today's world there are many marvelous resources available to you no matter what your business model may be. These include:

~ Publications (newsletters, magazines, books)
~ People (professional advisors, mentors, teachers, consultants)
~ Networks (organizations and forums in your niche as well as general business and marketing)
~ Education and training (tutorials, courses, and seminars)

After you have answered these four key questions you are now ready to ask yourself that one big question again -- are you ready to start your own business?