Archive for People
Are You Ready To Build Own Business
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A lot of people want to be in business for themselves. It gives you a level of freedom that you generally don’t get to enjoy if you are working for someone else. I mean, let’s face it, if you are working for someone else you are lining their pockets with gold while you are eating dirt in most cases. Perhaps you want to go into business for yourself because it allows you a greater amount of freedom to decide when and where you are going to work and that gives you more time for the more important things in life like spending time with your family. But what are you going to do for a living so that you can make ends meet? Well if you are willing to live a simple life then you can get by on really working only about 20 hours a week more or less. I’ve done it for years. Here are some of the things that I’ve done to help pay the bills.
1. Start a cleaning business – Yes it might not be all that glamorous but it does pay well. I’ve done office cleaning and floors for grocery stores for years. The work is generally done at night so that is a consideration but it pays well and it gives you time to yourself while you are cleaning.
2. Work with apartment communities – Are you handy? If you are you can get some work helping out with the maintenance department at one of the local apartment communities. This pays well, depending on what you charge of course, and is a great way to earn some money. Generally you will have more work than what you can handle if you are good at what you do.
3. Wash some Windows – Window washing is enjoyable and profitable. If you land a few businesses with monthly accounts you can end up earning a fair amount of money. Try looking at some of the local car dealerships for work because they tend to have a lot of windows
Small Business Marketing Secret
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Here’s a little known secret to small business marketing, growing a business rapidly, that few business owners know, let alone small business owners. It’s called marketing momentum. What that means is that if you do whatever you do with your marketing one time, or just randomly, and sporadically here and there, you won’t ever reach what happens when you hit that “critical mass.”
That’s the level where, once you pass that point your marketing starts to explode into your market, bouncing around in your target market, producing results FAR above what “dabbling” here and there will do.
Ken, the owner of a small construction company, had been “dabbling” in his marketing. When I asked him why he was “dabbling” and not “turning this thing on” he said he was hesitant to turn it on fully because he felt that his marketing seemed to be a bit expensive and he was afraid that it might not work.
When I asked him, how many calls he was getting from his marketing he said, “Not much.” So, I asked him if he knew what his response rate is, that’s how many calls out of every hundred of his marketing touches he did.
He didn’t really know. So, he wasn’t in control of his marketing.
The intent of this article isn’t to go down that path of talking about what works in markeitng and what doesn’t. I’ve got plenty of other articles on that. However, the point I am making is that when your marketing is working at at least the national average for direct marketing, around 0.5% to 1.0%, and if that’s delivering prospects to your door at a price that is consistently that you can afford to acquire a client, TURN IT ON. Your questions shouldn’t be, should I do this, but “how many customers do I want to buy.”
The problem is that most people are looking at the “initial cost of marketing” and not at the “cost to acquire a customer.” Again, I deal with that in other articles.
But, where I’m going in this article is, that, for marketing that works, even barely, then there is such a thing as “marketing momentum” that is either working in your favor if you are consistently doing it, or is working against you if you aren’t doing it consistently.
Bakc to Ken, in construction, as long as he was getting a decent marketing response rate, 0.5% to 1.0%, around the national average, he shouldn’t be “dabbling” at marketing. If he was getting less than that, then “it’s time to fix it.” Don’t EVER fall for the myth that “it takes time to build a business” and continue “waiting for your business to happen.” If it isn’t happening now, it won’t happen later, or over time, just because you’ve done it for a long time.
One-time Marketing Has a Fixed, Repeatable Response Rate – Repeated, Consistent Marketing Explodes to Another Level
But, here’s my original point, if you are getting a response rate of over 1%, or close to it, then “don’t continue to dabble!”
Ken was not consistently sending out his email blasts to his list, nor consistently sending his postcard mailer invitation to his workshops, in fact he was doing his marketing only every few months instead of monthly. He also was working his networking rather sporadically. He was trying a little of this and a little of that and when he would get “a little interest” he’d say, “Well, that didn’t work very well” and back off.
When I had started coaching him, one of the first things we talked about was for him to speak to various business and social associations on a weekly basis. He had tried it once or twice, one this month, another a month or so later. When he didn’t get any calls from the first one, he was rather disappointed, and so he wasn’t anxiously going after others. In fact, the second one was on my insistence for him to get with it. He did get one from the second one who wanted to talk, but that one didn’t buy so he got gun-shy about trying it again.
Some Online Income Business Building Tips That Only Take 5 Minutes
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What do you do when you have five to ten minutes of spare time? Here are some ideas on how you can make good use of that time to help your online income business grow. The majority of people think that not much can be done in these odd gaps during the day, but the truth is that there is quite a bit that can be achieved in short spaces of time and the is no need to let that time go to waste.
If you are prepared then the next time that you have a five or ten minutes with nothing in particular to do, you can do something useful for your online business. It is actually a great feeling when you know that these small windows of time can be used productively and this gives you a sense of power.
Begin by making a list of all the tasks that can be done in ten minutes or less so that when you do have this time to spare you are not going to sit there thinking about what you should do. It is so much simpler when you already have a list of tasks in front of you and all you need to do is choose one and get it done.
So to get you going here are three ideas on tasks that you can accomplish in a short space of time. Just add your own ideas as you go.
1. Use this time to go through emails that apply to your business. This does not mean spending the time on reading a whole lot of spam emails, just concentrate on those that are important and will help your online income to grow and only use the time that is available, don’t extend yourself beyond that period.
People generally spend far too long reading and replying to emails that will not benefit them much as far as their business is concerned, and the worst part of it is that this is done during the time of day that they are usually at their most productive. Spend this time completing the tasks the are important to the growth and success of your legitimate online business.
2. Backlinks are a necessary but tedious task to perform when you try to do it in one solid block of time. If you have five minutes to spare why not add a single one-way backlink to your site? This way the job will still get done, without all the tedium of trying to do it in one long sitting and you can spend the rest of your time on more creative and enjoyable tasks.
There are a few different methods that you can use to build backlinks to your website in about five minutes and here are some of the ways to do that.
a) Comment in forums. Bookmark a few of your favorite forums so that they are easily accessible and visit one when you have some spare time. Just read one or two of the threads that appeal to you if you don’t have time for more, and leave a comment or two. If you have filled out your profile information and added your signature this will appear at the bottom of your comment, then if someone is interested in what you have to say and they would like to find out more about you, chances are that they will click on the link to your website in your signature and you will receive an automatic one-way backlink.
b) Comment on a blog or two. Bookmark a few blogs that are of interest to you and are also in the same niche as you are and when you have a few spare minutes go to one or two of them, read their latest post and leave a comment. Just be sure not to spam, read the post and leave a comment that is relevent and useful and anyone who reads it and is interested will click on your signature link to your website. Before you know it you have another one-way backlink.
c) Twitter is a site that you do not need to spend too much time on, but spending five minutes there and making a few tweets with a link back to your website is a great way to fill a time gap. Tweet any new articles or posts that you make to your blog as this will add traffic and backlinks to your website.
These are just three ideas to help you make use of some time that would otherwise be wasted and these extra little chores over a month will add up quite substantially in your efforts to build a successful online income business.
Lean Towards Starting Own Small Business
Posted by: | CommentsAre you leaning towards starting your very own small business? Then, consider these business ideas:
1. Online jobs.
If you want to make money at the comforts of your own home, I recommend that you find business that you can operate online. Depending on your skills and expertise, you can offer SEO, ghostwriting, link building, and website creation services. You really don’t need much to get started in this endeavor. All you need aside from the required know-how is a reliable computer and internet connection.
2. Specialty store.
You may also opt to set up your own specialty store. When deciding on the items to sell, I recommend that you consider the things that you do best or your hobbies. If you are into water sports, you can sell snorkeling gears, scuba diving tools and equipments, and swimming lessons. It’s important that your business is aligned to your areas of interest so you will wake up each morning excited to go to work.
3. Franchising opportunities.
If you don’t want to spend time and energy on thinking about products that will sell like hotcakes and if you don’t want to struggle building customer base, franchising is perfect for you.
4. Massage parlor and spa.
More and more people are now rewarding themselves with spa and massage after a long day at work. You can take advantage of this demand by setting up your own massage parlor and spa. Just make sure that you offer something different to easily get ahead of your competitors like home service or week day promos.
Ideas for small business in small college town?
Posted by: | CommentsI am interested in starting a business of a kind My interests so different I am willing to try anything. I live in a rural area of Pennsylvania and the cities main goal is the university. Does anyone have good ideas for a small company that people of college age can guide? The town is only five minutes from Interstate 80 I prefer a low-cost start-up. I would be willing to pay more if it was a franchise of some kind. I was in Starbucks, but the company does not sell franchises, which all personally own Starbucks. We McD, BK, Wendy’s, Taco Bell, KFC, Long John Silver’s, A & W, so we very much larger food stores are in town. Any ideas would be appreciated. Now I have some ideas but would like input from others to hear.
Three people arrested on suspicion of using another person’s credit card
Posted by: | CommentsThree people arrested on suspicion of using another person’s credit card
Friday, April 2 nd , 2010. Issue 13, Volume 14. PERRIS – Three people were arrested on suspicion of using another person’s credit card information to buy items at stores and over the Internet, a sheriff’s sergeant said.
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