Posts Tagged ‘entrepreneurial opportunities’

Job laid you off?  Can’t find another job?  Tired of looking for a job?  Maybe starting your own business is the answer.

79 million people will start a home business in the next three years according to this recent report in Forbes magazine.  American forefathers left England and came to America to build their businesses.  The entrepreneur has always been the backbone of America.  Edison, Jefferson, Washington, Franklin, Ford, Carnegie, Rockefeller, Gates and so many others were all entrepreneurs.  Every one of them started and developed their own business.  Why not you?

Why start your own business?  You control your income potential; you do not have a boss setting a salary or bonus cap on your earnings.  You set your own hours; no one tells you what time to arrive, take your break, take your lunch or what time to leave at night.  You no longer have to ask permission for a day off or a vacation.  Your duties are also your decision.  Sound good?

Even the beautiful petals of a rose and the heady perfume of its soft fragrance have a down side.   A rose bush has thorns.  Owning and operating your own business requires work.  Yes, I know.  Bummer.  The price you pay for all of those wonderful benefits is the responsibility of accomplishing all of the tasks necessary to make a business successful.

Decision one requires that you do something you know.  Either you already possess the necessary knowledge to be successful or you start learning.  Unless you already know exactly what you want to do, it is time to start assessing factors.

Before I started Mountain Castles Property Management, I asked questions and listened until I discovered a niche which needed to be filled.  Steamboat needed a property management company specializing in single family homes.  They wanted to rent homes on a yearly basis, a vacation basis or an executive basis.  An executive home does not rent; however, it must be cared for during the owner’s absence.  In some cases, the home needed attention even during the owner’s stay.

My knowledge was grossly insufficient in property management.  Reading books, attending classes and working for another property management company provided the training.

Decision two requires writing a detailed business plan.  What equipment, facilities, and supplies will be required?  How much will it cost?  What is the income projection?  What advertising will be used to achieve that income?  What about office staff?  The list goes on and on.  Prior planning avoids being blindsided by expenses.

Be optimistic but add a dash of realism.  You will not start out earning 20,000 income per month.  You will have unexpected expenses.  One of the jokes in building a new home is that it will take twice as long as expected and cost twice as much.  If you do not plan carefully, starting a new business can follow that same scenario.

Accurate record keeping is essential.  If you have a question about keeping a receipt or not, write every detail on it and file it where you can find it.  The IRS loves paper.  The steps to start a small business are quite simple and direct; however skipping any of them is not an option.

1. Find a niche doing something you enjoy
2. Either already posses the knowledge or acquire it
3. Write a detailed business plan which includes every potential cost or situation
4. Implement the plan.  Knowledge without action has far less value.
5. Keep a very positive mental attitude and keep moving forward
6. Celebrate every little success on the way to the big successes

The steps to start a small business are not difficult.  In a tough economy, starting small business may be easier than finding that magic job.

For specific, individual help, join me at www.Elaine4Success.com.

Over 79 million people will start a home based business this year according to Forbes magazine.  Yesterday I wrote an article on Steps to Start a Small Business.

Starting a small business from home has positives and negatives.

Positives:

1. You do not have any additional rent for your business location.
2. You do not have any additional utility expense for your business.
3. You do not require any travel time or expense.  A 30 second walk from your bedroom to your office does not count as travel time.

4.  In the initial stages you will probably not have any employee expense

Negatives:

1. You work from home.  You have all of the distractions of home life which makes it more challenging to focus and concentrate on business tasks.
2. You have to do all of the tasks.  You place the ads, you call the people, you do the  training, you do the record keeping, you do the short and long range planning and you do your own research to learn more about your new business
3. Wow.  After all of that you are probably thinking about a nap.  No can do.  Until you start making money in your new small business, you are probably still working your day job.  Plan at least 20 hours a week for you new business.

Being health conscious and an exercise-a-holic, I am not telling you to give up your sleep, give up healthy eating, or give up exercise.  It will be more challenging for awhile to accomplish everything.

Oh, your sanity is in the mix somewhere as well.  I am not telling you to give up your spouse, your kids or even your tennis racquet.  You WILL have to focus your time and energy carefully.  No more wasted time.  Carefully examine your schedule and make every minute count.

Weigh the time freedom, lower start up cost, convenience, and unlimited income potential against the discipline, time, initial investment and learning curve required for entrepreneurial thinking.  Do you have what it takes to be successful?

You may be thinking, “What if I fail?”  The best way to overcome your fear of failure is to make your desire for success more powerful than you fear.  What is your “why?”  What is your powerful reason to push through any obstacle until you reach success?

Every business requires a powerful “why,” but a home based business seems to require an even stronger why than a brick and mortar business.  Maybe it is because there is a lower investment or because it is easier to quit.  You do not have a lease to break or contracts to renegotiate or transfer.  Work from home business ideas sound great and they are great.  The catch is the follow through.

If you have the discipline, determination and “why,” your odds of success just skyrocketed.

If you would like individual coaching or more personalized guidance on your steps to start a small business, contact me at www.Elaine4Success.com.

How many hours did you spend preparing for that presentation?  Entrepreneurial success requires preparation, presentation and review.  If it was a major client, it was probably several hours.  You wrote, rehearsed, tweaked and worried.  You probably picked out just the right outfit to make a favorable impression.  The time arrived and you gave your presentation.  How did it go?

Preparation is absolutely important.  Delivery is also very important.  What happens next?  “It has been 2 days since we met, Mr. Buyer.  What do you think?”  Regardless of the words chosen, you probably made at least one follow up call.

What did you do about your presentation?  Did you review your own performance?  Reality indicates that less then 1% of the salesmen ever review their own presentation.  Entrepreneurial success is epitomized by the Toastmasters speaking and leadership tracks.  Toastmasters encourages every member to record a video and an audio of every speech.  Just recording the speech is not enough.  It is important to actually watch and listen to the recording.

How many salesmen, male and female, ever record their presentations?  Out of thousands of sales professionals, you could count the number on one foot with toes left over.  No wonder so many salesmen put their foot in their mouth during presentations.

A wise friend of mine, Ed Tate, recommends using debriefing questions after every presentation.  (Ed Tate was the 2000 world champion of public speaking for Toastmasters.)

What happened?  List the good points and the “lets do that differently next time” points.

Why did that part work or why didn’t that part work?  Break the entire presentation down into small parts and review each one.  Don’t beat yourself up, but do be honest.  The growth is in the struggle to improve.  I recently had a speech which did not go nearly as well as I would have liked.  I don’t know if you ever talk to yourself, but I had a serious heart to heart with myself over that performance.  “Elaine, you stayed up all night working on the last minute changes.  You were not rested and refreshed.”  “Elaine, you spent the time running off new handouts instead of eating breakfast.  Your energy was low.”  “Elaine, you drank black coffee in an attempt to boost energy all night and early in the morning rather than drinking water to stay hydrated.”  “Elaine, you self sabotaged your own performance.”  Even though staying up all night working, running off copies and coffee seemed like good ideas at the time, in retrospect, they were self defeating.

How many college students have crammed all night for a test and almost fell asleep during the test?  Common practice but not a good idea.

What worked?  What parts did not work?  In any speech or presentation some parts work better than others.  Unless you take the time to dissect the entire presentation, you do not know what parts to keep in for the next presentation and which parts to tweak.  In order to maximize entrepreneurial success, a debrief of the presentation is essential.

What did you learn?  Debrief all parts of the presentation and make concentrated efforts to strengthen the most effective parts and revise the weaker segments.  Examine carefully what you learned.  The growth is in the struggle.

For more tips, techniques and solid business practices, join me at www.Elaine4Success.com.

Gold dust in the air is an attitude backed by action. Maintaining a positive attitude is the key to success in any endeavor. Not a key, but the key to success….entrepreneurial mindset.  Your attitude screams so loudly that it drowns out the sound of your words. When you respond with a smile on your face, a glint of mischief in your eye and enthusiasm, people choose to be around you. Have that same smile, a glint in your eye and a grumpy tone of voice and people shy away. No one wants to spend time with Grumpy. A gold dust attitude expects and projects prosperity.

Grouchy people focus on the crisis. Positive people focus on the future. The sure fire test resides in the eyes. You can force a smile on your face even if you have gritted teeth but the eyes throw up red flags. Genuinely happy people smile with their eyes as well as their face. Eyes are the mirror to the soul. When your eyes smile and twinkle, the feeling is projected. Say anything you like; however, if you are not genuine and honest, your eyes will reveal your deception….entrepreneurial characteristics.

Ever notice when people openly gaze at your eyes and hold the connection? You feel closer to them and feel their sincerity. When they avert their eyes and avoid direct connection with your gaze, use caution. Positive, upbeat and genuine people enjoy connecting with you. Granted, some are shy. A shy person warms up as they become comfortable with you; they will meet your gaze as they get to know you.

Gold dust attitudes project optimism. Entrepreneurs display gold dust attitudes because they focus on opportunities; entrepreneurs focus on the future. Leaders are entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs are leaders. The tone of the entire organization takes root in the attitude of the entrepreneur. When the leader displays an attitude of gold dust in the air and backs that positive attitude with action, the followers duplicate the positive attitude.

In a challenging economy, it is even more important to maintain a positive attitude. Zig Zigler said it best, “a positive attitude will not let you do anything, but it will let you do everything better than a negative attitude.” Everyone prefers to thrive and progress forward; however, a negative attitude locks the emergency brake in place to halt all progress. If you are not going forward, you are going backward. Nothing stands still.

Gold dust in the air attitudes smile and know that opportunity exists in every economy. 16 of the 30 companies in the Dow Jones Industrial average started in a down economy. Down economy is another way of saying economic decline; also known as the D word – depression. Now before you go into panic mode at the D word, return to the gold dust in the air attitude. When the economy is down, so are the prices. This is a great time to do any remodeling, equipment replacement, or hire highly qualified personnel; availability is up and prices are down. Gold dust in the air attitudes capitalize on opportunities for future growth. Entrepreneurs who internalize the gold dust in the air attitude know that there are excellent opportunities in every economy….entrepreneurial opportunities.

Gold dust entrepreneurs look in a mirror and take responsibility for the future rather than looking through a window to the outside world for results. Remember the picture of the cute little yellow kitten that gazes into the mirror and sees a massive male lion? That cute little tabby cat understands how to look within to the future. It may be a kitty cat now but the future holds promise of bigger and better results. Entrepreneurs gaze into the mirror of now and see the vision of the future. Grumpy looks through the window, sees the down economy and focuses of the crisis. As Wayne Dyer says, ‘when you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”

Your choice. Are you a gold dust in the air attitude entrepreneur or do you have a grumpy crisis focus? Entrepreneurs maintain a gold dust in the air attitude and back that positive attitude with action.

For specific tips and techniques to develop yourself as an entrepreneur or to develop your gold dust in the air attitude, join me at www.Elaine4Success.com.

There are so many opportunities on the internet today it resembles the choices of a mosquito in a nudist colony. So how do you choose? Being an entrepreneur is fabulous, especially in the ideal situation for you.

Do you look for the one who promises the most money? Some are promising such outrageous amounts that it looks like you are winning the lottery every week.

Do you look for the one who claims to be the easiest? Just purchase your starter kit, sit back and watch the money roll into you bank account. No effort required.

Do you look for the one that claims to have a miracle product? Ponce de Leon, Spanish explorer, reputedly sought a miracle fountain in Florida in 1513. Legend says that anyone who drank of this fountain would have their youth restored. Some products on the internet today expound similar magical claims.

Hate to destroy your delusion; however, the word “business” means some time, effort and money required. The advertisements may tap dance around the word “business” by terming it an “opportunity” but few actually say “get rich quick.” The gurus at Google would go into cardiac arrest and shut the site down quicker than a shopaholic dashing to a blow out sale at Nordstrom if someone really dared to publish “get rich quick.”

There are genuine, honest, ethical business opportunities advertised on the internet. The challenge is sorting through all of the empty oyster shells to find the pearl. The pearls really do exist but not every business is appropriate for every entrepreneur.

No entrepreneur will make significant money for the long term without adhering to a few basic rules.  Take it from an industry leader:

1. Is the business legal? Is it registered with state and national governmental agencies? Do not be confused with having it listed on the Better Business Bureau. BBB is an excellent organization which does research companies; however, BBB is a “for profit” organization NOT a government agency. Research the company with state and federal attorney generals and look for the number of complaints listed. No one will EVER have a perfect record if they have any length of time in business and have reached a sizable sales volume. No one will ever satisfy 100 per cent of the people 100 per cent of the time. Business deals with people and personalities. Do look for a minimum of complaints and look at the resolution of those issues.

2. Is the business ethical? Of course no one is dumb enough to feature the comments and testimonies of highly disgruntled people. Ask to speak to recent enrollees as well as longer term members of the company. Just the fact that they will furnish names and phone numbers shows the people featured are real live individuals. Ask to attend a live call.

3. Is the product something useful for the long term rather than a trendy “pet rock?” Look for something which transcends the fluctuations in the economy. In the go go 80s you could sell almost anything. In a more challenging economy, people seek more immediate value which can not be located at the corner drug store.

4. Select a company and a product which fits your interests. Select either something you already have some knowledge or desire to gain knowledge about. You will always be more successful working in your talent, interest or passion.

5. Select a compensation plan which fits your short term and long term budget for start up as well as meeting your income potential goals. Some compensation plans allow you to earn from your first sale and other compensation plans make you pass up sales before you earn any money. Anyone on a tight budget may run out of marketing dollars before they pass up enough sales to start earning income for themselves. Look at all the factors and make a wise decision.

Selecting the ideal business for you involves a variety of factors. For personalized assistance in selecting the perfect entrepreneurial opportunity to fit your passion, your budget and your goals, come talk to me. There is gold dust in the air. The gold dust is an attitude backed by action. The key is selecting the right business at the right time for your abilities and goals. Join me at www.Elaine4Success.com. When the business opportunity fit is accurate and the correct action follows, the gold dust appears.

That’s where my business success coaching comes in.  Contact me.  Elaine Love at resultsforlife@gmail.com