In business, entrepreneurs have to understand that to make it to the "next level" it can never be a solo journey. All too often we attempt to do everything on our own and fail to do what we're supposed to do, and that is stick to our strengths. Playing to your strengths and surrounding yourself with those who are stronger and smarter then you in other areas doesn't make you obsolete, it makes you incredible.

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were visionaries. They had a vision of blazing a trail to the western coast of what we now call the United States of America. These two men didn’t decide one day to do something new all by themselves, but they surrounded themselves with experts, and lay persons. They also enlisted the assistance of the local Native Americans because of their expert knowledge of the land. This led to a successful expedition, and the immortalization of these two men. The same goes on in business, one visionary (or two) arise with a magnificent idea, but they must surround themselves with the expertise of others to accomplish the task at hand, Lewis and Clark called them guides, we call them a Board.

There are generally two different kinds of Boards. You have your Board of Directors, those placed in charge of the financial responsibilities who oversee the executive management team, and you have Advisory Boards, simply of sounding board for ideas with no responsibilities. Some Boards are ‘hands-on” taking an active approach to the management of a company, while others are strictly oversees, meeting quarterly to be sure everything is in order.

No matter which it is, when selecting Board members, you have to be sure you are equipping yourself with those who can help catapult your company instead of those just looking for something else to place on their resume. This Board and the direction they chose for your company can determine the difference between success and failure. Discovering the Pacific Ocean or perishing in the Rocky Mountains. What are the criteria? What makes separate a great Board member, from an average member? Let’s explore those together.

When selecting member take heed to more then their resumes and experiences. You want to explore their passion, drive, knowledge of your company, and their vision or lack there of. Can they see where your company is headed next year? Five years? Or can they not see past their own nose? Even though you are the visionary of the company, you need people who can see long-term, who can think strategically, and who help navigate you through the wildernesses you may encounter. What are their strengths? You need a diverse Board of individuals, both in skill as well as gender, ethnicity, race, background, experience, and knowledge. It’s more then just industry experience; it’s also a willingness to be vested in the future of the company. Some potential members could be the smartest people you will ever meet, but if they’re somewhere else when you need them to be where you are you have a problem; knowledge never makes up for absence.

So to all the entrepreneurs, Executive Directors, CEO’s and anyone looking to reach that “next level” in their business, be thorough in deciding who will help direct your company, take inventory of who you have, and never be timid about surrounding yourself with genius, it’ll just make you look even better.

Writing a business plan can be an overwhelming task. Here's how to make writing a business plan a little easier.

Don’t try to write the business plan in one day or even in one week. Break the task into smaller chunks and set a realistic timetable to establish those tasks. 30 days is a reasonable amount of time to write a business plan. It helps to have a written task list with projected start and finish dates for each task. As you complete the task, note the date.

Start with the section you feel most comfortable with, this is one instance you don't have to begin at the beginning. Most entrepreneurs don't have any hesitancy writing about the historical background of their company. Or perhaps writing about the needs your products fill for customers would be a task that would get your business plan off to a good start.

Base your marketing on research. It might seem easier to say that the market of your company is $5 billion a year and you expect to obtain a 1.56% market share, but that's meaningless. Define your market and how you will reach your market. The market might be huge but you can only reach a small portion at a time. Attack that market segment where you have the best chance of success.

Spend quality time writing your business plan. Don't put it off until you're exhausted from all the other tasks in your day. If the morning is when you're raring to go then designate one hour every morning to write your business plan.

Give your business plan a rest. After you've completed a section let it rest for a day or two, then go back and review what you've written.

Now that you’ve found the ultimate business opportunity, do you have what it takes to make it successful? Many new times new businesses are started with big dreams of riches and success only to fail miserably. If starting a new business you’ll want practical small business advice to get your business on track and plan for future success.

The business planning stage is very important. If you want to turn your ultimate business opportunity into a reality, you’ll first need to create a mission statement. This is you want to accomplish in the creation of your business. Once you’ve created this, you’ll then need to plan future business goals with a month-by-month assessment of what you’re looking to accomplish within a reasonable time frame. Be sure to start with appropriate legal advice and set up appropriate accounting and bookkeeping procedures.

Once you’ve preplanned to get your ultimate business opportunity in place, the next small business advice you’ll want to follow is in growth and management. Accurately assess the competition and figure out how to reach your target market. Also, spend time realistically setting profit goals based remembering to take into account expenses and overhead. You should also develop a reasonable business budget that works for you.

For those who want their own small business startup, one primary obstacle is finding sufficient startup capital to begin moving toward their goals. The business startup cost can seem to be unattainable, and even intimidating, unless you know where to look. Unfortunately, business startup funding is one of the main things that keeps people from getting started in business the first place, or from succeeding once they do manage to get started. But, on the up side, you there are several programs and organizations that specialize in helping entrepreneurs overcome this hurdle.

Small business startup costs not only get in the way an entrepreneur from starting a business but also can impede growth of a new enterprise. On top of being an obstacle at the outset, having limited startup capital can also make it difficult to hire employees or acquire sufficient inventory inventory. Entrepreneurs can resolve these issues by utilizing into a variety of sources to find enough startup funding to be able to implement their plans.

For those who find the small business start up cost to be out of reach or intimidating, banking institutions only add to their problems. Most banks will not entertain the notion of helping an new entrepreneur get small business startup money unless there is a recent track record of proven success. Banks also want a solid business plan which is something that can be challenging for a first time business owners to develop. Fortunately, there are other sources where to find startup capital.

Some entrepreneurs seek out partners to help them with their small business startup costs. An investment partner can provide various forms of needed assistance for a small business startups. They can operate as silent partners where they simply contribute investment money and then receive repayments based on the partnership arrangement. Other investment partners are more involved and might help in the operation of the business in order to ensure that their investment is well managed and profitable.

New business owners can also choose to access several companies that offer small business loans to help them get the startup capital they need. One such company is American One (www.amone.com), offers unsecured loans to help with small business startup costs. They employ specialists who understand the stress and frustrations of trying to raise startup capital and they endeavor to make the process simple and low-stress. Collateral is not require, but the decision is based on your current credit rating. As a company, their mission is to help you realize success with your new small business venture.

Because small business is truly the backbone of the US economy, many government agencies offers a variety of programs to help startup businesses be successful in their endeavors. This is essential since small business startup costs are a primary reason that many accomplished people with brilliant ideas do not get their business started. Banks can be intimidating to small business owners, but there are also other options such as working with companies who make the process easier and less stressful for entrepreneurs. As a result, many people have been achieved success and brought their dreams to life through starting and operating their own small business.

The Queen of Fruits! Sitting in Bozeman, Montana and writing. Arrived here late Monday the 4th from Stockholm, Sweden, my hometown/land. Woke up Tuesday morning and it was raining, windy. I talked to Sweden and they had 27 degrees warm weather, wow! Well that’s the nature! Today when I woke up it ´s sunny ,warm and beautiful! I came over to have a talk to my representatives here. It´ s like a virgin market for the Xango juice. To continue my story from yesterday about the mangosteen juice.

The mangosteen fruit has been used in the Asian folklore for hundred of years. They knew already back then the benefits of the fruit. It´ s a strong anti oxidant and anti inflammatoric that helps to prevent and heal. There has been no studies om humans but this is what goes from mouth to mouth about the fruit. I tried it and still drink it every morning. For many years I have been suffering from running eyes and sensitive to the sun and wind. Then you can understand why I don´t like the wind here in Montana at the moment. I also gave a friend of mine a bottle. He was eating pain killers for a long time for pain in his knees. The tablets were so strong that his stomach did not like it.. The Doctor order Prozac. Well since I have been in the health business I told him about my thoughts regarding medicin. He started to drink mangosteen juice and after 12 days I called him. I asked him how he felt and he responded, my toe is feeling better! I jumped up and asked him about his stomach! Oh I forgot about that and forgot to take Prozac too. We laughed. Since then he told me what else happened after 3 weeks. His gum did not bleed either. Good for you and he is still on the juice. I could tell you so many stories about the juice but I think the best way to sort it out is to drink it you self. It is so tasty, healthy and the kids love it! It is an easy way to introduce good health, good food and good drinks in our lives. We just have to open up for what the nature is providing us with!

Another good part with this is the nice business. If you refer the juice to somebody else you will get a referral commission. And you can do the business every where, like I do at the moment! Just find a handful of people you would like to introduce and help in life. Teach them about the juice and the referral program. As time goes by you will if you put the effort in to it, find a business that can go as far as you never would have dreamed about! It is a fact. Put two hours a day in your garden and you will in the next season enjoy the spectacular beauty in your garden! Life is a ride, do the best of it and be happy! With love&respect!/MarieLouise

Do you dream of having your own business? Better yet, do you dream of having your own business while working from home? This may seem an impossibility, but there are many opportunities out there for the business opportunity seeker. You can find the business opportunity from home for you, especially in the ever-growing virtual world of the Internet. Take some time to look into the business opportunities out there, and you will find the options are endless.

There are business opportunities from home in many different areas of interest. Today, there are endless choices for Internet based business opportunities. There are many companies out there that can set up the business opportunity seeker with their own website to sell their products and services that offer great revenue. You can also find business opportunities from home that make money with online advertising and marketing. Companies often pay well for the service you provide them and will even walk you through the process of setting up your own business. After all, they make money when you make money!

The possibilities for the business opportunity seeker are endless, limited only by your ambition and creativity. Start looking into business opportunities today, and you’ll be surprised at how many business opportunities from home are out there. You could tap into the perfect business opportunity from home and begin seeing the financial results you’ve hoped for while living your dream of owning your own business while working from home. Even though the demand is very high for business opportunities, you can still get in on the "ground floor".

Why are you in business? Is it for the fun of it, or are you hungry for profits?

That might look like a dumb question, but it’s worth considering if you are working hard in an activity you like but where the return for your effort doesn’t satisfy you.

My dad ran an engineering company for 28 years. When talking about it he would often say that his products had ‘great potential’. But the years went by and that potential remained elusive. The sales stayed flat until he finally sold up. But the new owner had a different approach and made far more money building on the platform of what my father had begun.

How come one succeeded in making good profits and the other didn’t? The answer lies in understanding the difference between a ‘Product-led’ and a ‘Sales-led’ approach.

Product-led describes a situation where people make their main focus the development of a technically superior item – higher performance, longer-lasting, easier to use etc. They may be so occupied with this quest that they largely ignore the sales dimension.

Sales-led organisations ask themselves different questions – ‘How many customer contacts did we make this week?’, ‘What are we doing to find more of them?’, ‘Do our existing clients have additional requirements that we can help them with?’.

It's unwise to neglect either factor, a strong business balances both. How does yours measure up?

You will find a source of specialised sales hints for ‘techie’ companies in the ‘Selling for Engineers’ manual at the link below.

How do small retailers compete and succeed while doing business with big-box stores today? Most experts suggest the following “simple” formula- Sell quality products, continuously offer out of this world customer service, find suppliers where you can obtain higher markups and avoid discounting at the expense of sales down the road, right? Those of you in the trenches every day know that this is not always easy to accomplish. I say we try something a bit simpler and back to basics- Start to improve your business today by watching your cash—and then letting it help you grow.

For just about every small retailer, cash is king. Whether the focus is on daily and weekly sales to assure that there's money in the bank to meet payroll and other expenses, or on building a cash balance during the busy season to get you through the slower times, most small retailers keep a very close eye on cash flow.

Since the big box chains don’t have this “daily” worry, they spend their time negotiating with vendors and driving down costs to offer their customers the lowest price for commodity or near-commodity goods. They understand that for these items the vast majority of shoppers are highly price sensitive.

But for any item, and especially for those that are not commodities, there is a critical segment of customers who are not price shoppers, who focus instead on product quality, service, and a relaxed, friendly experience. Small retailers, enter here.

In other words, small retailers should avoid competing on the basis of price, because there will always be a competitor with larger, deeper pockets, instead, you should focus on finding unique, high quality, and compelling products that the big box stores don’t even look for in the marketplace. Competing on the basis of product quality and uniqueness enables a small retailer to present to their customers a compelling value proposition and maintain critical price integrity.

Thus it follows that strategic positioning for small independent retailers leads directly and most importantly to the product selection and pricing policy of a store. By selling higher quality, specialty products on the basis of their intrinsic value, and the product knowledge and customer service that accompany them, you can insulate your store from price competition, and your store can obtain a higher initial markup, avoid price promotions, and other incentives that eat into margins.

How is this done? Here are a few specific ideas to help position your store as a premium destination for the finest products, knowledge and service, and generate the margins you’ll need to assure continuing positive cash flows:

• Adopt a better/best pricing structure, rather than a good/better/best structure. The classic retail pricing structure for any product category is three-tiered, with an opening priced "good" quality item, a mid-priced "better" quality item, and a higher-priced "best" quality item. The nature of contemporary retailing is that for most any product category, there is a big box who is seeking to lock up the opening price point. Let them. They are more than happy to trade margin for volume, and have the deep pockets to do it. Instead, protect your margins by focusing your efforts on better quality goods, using a "better" quality item as your opening price point, and focusing your energies around the quality and features of the "best" item.

• Avoid carrying the same items as the competing big-box store. This may not always be possible, but if you must, think of those items as accommodations to your customers, rather than key items that you are trying to maximize the sale of. Rather, build your business around unique items and unique product categories in niche markets to a carefully targeted clientele.

• Keep your inventories lean to minimize markdowns and their impact on margins. The instinct of many small retailers is to have enough stock to never miss a sale, but all that inventory carries tremendous markdown risk, which can decimate margins and cash flow. Bring fresh inventory into your store as close to the time of anticipated sales as possible- so you always have something new and exciting to offer your customers.

• Don't get locked into standardized pricing formulas, like keystoning. Your pricing should not be merely a function of what you paid your vendor for the item, but rather the intrinsic value of the item, and the accompanying service you provide your customers. The product knowledge and customer service that comes with your product offerings has a value to your customers. Don't be afraid to include that value in your pricing.

• Build your brand, not your promotional calendar. Focus your advertising on building the brand cache of your store, not specific sales or promotions. When customers think about you, make sure your advertising has left them with the thought that you are a destination for premium quality and selection, state-of-the-art product knowledge, and outstanding customer service, and not price.

• And lastly, Define your mission around offering your customers premium specialty products, state-of- the-art product knowledge, and the finest customer service, and you will insulate yourself from corrosive price competition, while protecting your margins and cash flow.

Once you tie these elements together, my guess is your CA$H picture will look a whole lot better!

Lynn Switanowski is the founder of Creative Business Consulting Group, a Boston, MA based Strategic Planning and Retail Consulting firm. CBCG works with businesses to develop creative programs across a variety of business processes that will improve sales and profit margins.

How much time, money and effort does it take to win a new customer? For most businesses, if they can quantify what it costs to acquire a new client, it's considerable.

You have to advertise, make contact, try and set an appointment, visit, fact-find, draw up a proposal, make a presentation then try to close. Phew, tiring just thinking about all of that! And of course you don't win every job you pitch on, many times all that effort produces no direct payback.

Now consider how much easier it is dealing with an existing customer. You can get through the 'secretary barrier' and speak to your client without difficulty. If they were happy with the work you have done so far, they'll be receptive to your next proposal. When you have discussions, they will be more frank because they trust you. You are in a good situation to suggest add-ons and price is less of an issue than it was initally because they are confident that your work is good.

Contrast that with how hard it is getting through to a new prospect and you can see that life is much simpler if you have a stable of happy, repeat customers.

How do we get to this pleasant situation? The key is to never disappoint your customer - no nasty surprises. If you promise something, do it. Excuses are poison. If a situation arises when you can't deliver, tell the customer up-front, so he can adjust his plans. And stay in touch, no one likes to be neglected.

Satisfied customers become extremely loyal; when a competitor tries to take your business, your customer will say, 'We already have a good supplier'. And they will spread the word about you too.

For those who wish to open a new business or run a limited company, Registered office is a stepping stone. This is a mandatory requirement for all kinds of businesses. Although your registered office need not be the place from where you run your business, it should be in a place that has a valid address. You can have such an office in UK, Wales or Scotland.

A registered office is the address you have to register with the Companies House. This address is entered in the public records as well.

The address also needs to be displayed in front of the office on the company signboard. And also the products of the company should have this address on it. the company letterhead must contain

All the official correspondence is carried out at this official address. For example, the mails from government offices to the company are addressed to your official address.

All the mails from Companies Home are sent to this address. The company secretary is supposed to respond to these mails as and when necessary. Any change in office must be informed to the Companies house.

registered office can be a very beneficial proposition for your business. This is so because if you manage to get a registered office in a commercial and a famous area, your visibility is higher and your target customers will come to know of your business. In no time, they may begin to associate your business with the famous address. This is a bit difficult with new small and medium sized companies.

However, the good news is that the registered office address is available with some provider firms at a small charge. This provides a convenient business solution. Not only do they give you a reputable commercial address but mail forwarding services as well.

Many people abstain from going for a business venture in UK thinking that they may have to face lots of hassles. But in reality, the process of starting a limited liability company in the UK is not at all complicated. Company formation in Britain requires two Company House forms, 10 and 12 and a few other formalities. Company House Form 10 provides details of the first directors and intended situation of the registered office.

Initially a name-check should be done with Company House to ensure that the proposed name is available and meets the required criteria. It should also be ensured that the name of the proposed limited liability company entered in form 10 shows ‘limited’ as the last word. To avoid rejection of the company formation registration check addresses and post codes with Royal Mail. Company House form 10 must be signed either by the subscribers to the memorandum of association or by his deputy who is working on his behalf.

Every company must have a registered office so that official documents, letters, mails can be sent to it. This is dictated in Section 287(1)) of Companies Act of 1985. However, it is not a must that the office address should be of the place from where the business of the company is conducted. Very often it is an address of a person or persons that offer it to be used by a company. Company service provider firms manage such addresses and offer it at a certain cost to those who need it.

In some cases, one may not be allowed to use his registered office address for any trading, correspondence or advertising purposes. It will be regarded only as the official address of the company. Mails and letters sent to it are forwarded only at a certain charge. Searching out firms who offer addresses for registered office is possible over the internet. Most of these firms provide online service.

Most of us still think that the net offer few opportunities for business with a customer base clustered in a small geographic area. Think again, matters had change, more and more local businesses are coming online. Potential clients are using search engine to get information and solution for the problem.

Eventhough some potential clients still use the business directories but more and more are using the net. It's easy and faster to use search engine to find information.

Local businesses are now using the net to:
• Build trust and deepen relationship with existing customer by providing friendly, professional information, about their business, great content.
• Raise their local profile and position their products and services.
• Promote locally and take customers from competitors.
• Continue to stay “top-of-mind” and deepen customer relationship using e-zine
• Build targeted traffic both local and global to find new customers, even added entirely new income streams
• Leverage their local expertise and knowledge for global clients, selling their goods online, even through online auctions.

It’s is time for everybody to get their offline business online. E-commerce is for everybody. A properly develop web site give your business solid web presence. With a newsletter for your targeted traffic, you could build customer loyalty thus get the edge on local competition and add new income stream.

Think of a web site as a super-business-directories. People are searching more by the online. A properly build web site for your business has its advantages over those local businesses that do not have a web site. You could update your web site any time with the latest information on your products/services. You could make special offer or even let them know of new development on your existing product or service.

A rich content web site get your prospective customer 100% attention, thus build trust and credibility. A web site that provide excellent content along with friendly and useful information allows the prospective client to know that you as an expert who share and thus trust you

A web site offer the advantage of substantial exposure, attracts hundred, even thousand, of targeted traffic, per day on an ongoing, ever-building basis. In addition, if you do it right, they will return to your site. Maximize your ezine’s wealth to reach your customer on a regular basis.

Your web site allows you to know exactly how many visitors arrive, everyday, and even hours. You know the lifetime value of a new customer. It makes computation on your Return on Investment easier. By offering your ezine to your customer at your site, you develop an increasing sense of loyalty with existing customer, as well as repeat business. You can reach them, free, whenever you want to.

Let take the mystery out of the term "e-commerce". It's time you focus on using the net to build your local business and diversifying it into a broader more profitable business. And that’s all e-commerce realty is, using the net effectively to grow your business.

Building a successful online business gives you the freedom to focus on more important things while your website earns revenue. To ensure that can happen, there are three key areas to concentrate on – the content of your site, attracting visitors, and capturing their details when they get there.

Creating a site worth visiting

Does your site pass the crucial 8-second test? When visitors land on the homepage, is the web copy compelling enough to make them stay and read what you have to say?

Less than 1% of website visitors take any action. Let me say that again. Less than 1% of all the visitors who land on your website will contact you, bookmark your site, subscribe to your newsletter or make a purchase. And once they’ve gone, they may never come back. So you must provide compelling reasons for them to hand over their contact details.

Think how you use the internet yourself. In the last few days you may have made a couple of online purchases, and they were probably purchases of things you’ve bought before or buy regularly. The majority of your time online is spent finding information – researching potential purchases, reviewing the competition, checking your back account, etc. So why would your prospective customers behave any differently?

Even if your site is 100% commerce, it must also be a source of high-quality information about your area of expertise. This could include downloadable reports, copies of your press releases, product reviews, top tips and even competitions. Customers often don’t know what questions to ask (imagine the last time you had to make a purchase you knew very little about), and this inevitably makes us nervous and uncomfortable. So help them out by explaining the benefits, the application, the value, the ways to get best results, comparison of brand, etc.

Bringing visitors to your site

Do you have accurate statistics on your current visitor numbers? Whilst a simple visitor counter is useful, it is much more beneficial to understand the path your visitors follow through the site, the time they spend there and the links they click. If you don’t already have this information, you could try a package like www.statisfy.com, which is completely free and easy to understand.

If you’ve never tried the revolution in advertising that is Pay per Click, this is something you really need to get good at. Pay per Click is the perfect online demonstration of testing and measuring your marketing, as you only pay when visitors click on your link. You can measure your adverts click-rate and constantly try to improve your advert copy to increase the number of clicks. You can also include negative key words so your advert doesn’t show against irrelevant search entries. Visit Google Adwords to learn more about how the system works.

The “importance” of your site is a key part of where your site appears in the “natural” search results on search engines, but it also plays a big part in where your Pay per Click advert appears, regardless of the amount you bid. To check your current Google ranking score, download the Google Toolbar, which includes the Page Rank gauge. You should be aiming for a page rank of over three. And the best way to do this is to increase your “importance” by adding incoming-only links. Reciprocal links are disregarded by the search engines, so incoming-only are 3-way links will increase your ranking. Visit www.alltheweb.com to see who currently links to you.

Registering your details in online directories or posting classified ads is also a good way to improve your search engine optimisation, but ensure they are good quality sites, otherwise they won’t appear.

Although banner advertising is often considered to be appropriate only to big companies, it could really work for your business. By testing headlines and offers in Pay per Click, you’ll know what generates the best response and you can trial banner advertising. Always ensure your advertising is “direct response”, that is asking visitors to click for a specific purpose, instead of just in the hope that they’ll like your site!

What to do when they get there

As so few visitors will stay long enough to really read the content of your site, you must attempt to capture email addresses at every opportunity so that you can keep in touch with them and build the relationship directly. Newsletters are very common now and don’t often form a strong enough reason in themselves, so in order to get your visitors to hand over their details, make sure you are offering valuable information in the form of reviews and reports. Newsletters shouldn’t be disregarded completely though, as they are an excellent way to keep in touch regularly with visitors.

The opt-in approaches you use on your site are also a great way for visitors to self-qualify their interest. For example if you are a financial adviser, visitors downloading information on repairing adverse credit will be looking for a different relationship than those who download advice on buying overseas property.

Another point to remember when visitors are navigating your site is your ordering process. Are you making it difficult for people to buy from you? A look at your shopping cart abandonment rate will give you an indication of current statistics, and your hosting company can help with this.

When you’ve got that elusive customer all the way from information to ordering to checkout, how can you increase their order as much as possible? Point of sale purchases work in the real world and the online world are equally successful. You can introduce a linked system that shows “other customers who bought XYZ also bought…”, or if your business is less focused on online sales, you can ensure there are constant reminders of your full offering throughout the site.

And if it wasn’t daunting enough to collect all those email addresses, how do you keep in touch afterwards, without employing half a dozen more staff or having a nervous breakdown? Autoresponders are the answer. A quick search on any of the search engines will present dozens of autoresponder providers, and you can learn more about how these automated message systems work.

I know, I know...

Huh?

Please allow me to explain, because this is an instant profit generator for your business.

I mean it.

If you own a business that offers multiple products or services to your market...how do your customers find out the ways that your business can benefit their lives?

Do they have to actually ask you? I mean, is it their fault if they don't do enough research and find out from other sources what you have to offer?

Nope, it isn't their fault...it's your fault...and your responsibility to educate your customers how your business can benefit their lives.

"But Joe, I have a website/brochure that does all of that. Man, your a moron...telling me that I have to educate my customers on all of the services/products that I offer. Plus, they never ask me what I offer, so I assume they don't want to know." When a business owner replies this way...I naturally challenge them:

"Ok, Mrs. Business Owner, so what you are saying is it is your customers responsibility to use your brochures and websites etc... to educate themselves on your business and its offerings? What if they don't understand everything you offer? What if they don't want to read your website or brochure to find out how about every way you can help them?" "Mrs. Business Owner, how are you going to get your message across?"

Let's expand on this a little...using an example from a consultants business. * A client hires a marketing consultant to execute the marketing for their business.

* During the process, they uncover that the client's business lacks a system of marketing to their existing customer database. This requires that copy be written for the mailers to go out to that database. Well, the consultant should be able to tell you that client will pay fees to write that copy on top of the fees for executing the database marketing effort.

Why?

Because in the beginning of any relationship that consultant builds with their clients...They should educate them on the value of copywriting as part of their marketing process...then inform them that they offer that as well. This consulting relationship just had some value - added...because the consultant ensured that their clients are aware of, and educate them on the value of, every one of the services that the consultant provides.

And this can happen for you too. You cannot trust that your website, brochure, or other marketing collateral will do this all - important task. If you have sales staff, they need to be trained properly in offering and educating your clients on your entire menu of services or products that you provide and offer these to your new and existing customers. If you have not done this very well up to this point...this is an instant source of cash flow for your business.

When General Electric’s engineers were experimenting with developing a new rubber compound, they stumbled on an odd material that stretched, bounced, and generally behaved in unusual ways. It was interesting, but they couldn’t see any use for it. They mailed samples of the material to several leading engineers all over the world, asking for ideas about how it might be used. Zilch. Nada. Then a perceptive toy store owner saw the possibilities, and gave the world Silly Putty.

If you had asked the engineers “What is this?” they would have said: “a new rubber compound.” That’s the first right answer. But the toy store owner, seeing adults at a party play with the curious item, saw what creativity expert Roger von Oech calls the second right answer.

What keeps us from being more innovative? Too often we stop at the first right answer and don’t explore other possibilities. Here are three tricks to help you discover the second (and sometimes third, fourth, and fifth) right answers.

Trick #1 Slow down - Don’t assume that you know what the problem is.

You’re trying to solve a problem. You think you know what the problem is; what you want to do is discover solutions. So when you ask a friend for help and he says: “What’s the problem?” you tell him. Your answer to the question “what’s the problem?” is the first right answer. But there is nearly always a second right answer, and perhaps several more.

Example #1:

One IT person commented: I thought the problem was that I was having difficulties relating to my new boss. But when I asked the question “who is contributing to my problem?” I found it was much deeper than that. I realized that I have tremendous support from several administrators, but very little support from the staff members to whom I am supposed to teach the new technology. They tolerate me, but it really doesn’t matter to them whether I am there or not.

The strategy that the IT person used to come to this realization has been around for ages. He simply went through the standard questions reporters ask: Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How, relating each to his problem. For example, for “where,” he asked “where does this problem occur most often?” Since each of these questions leads to different answers, the list automatically takes you to second, third, and fourth right answers. It was the “who” question, “who is contributing to my problem?” that led the IT person to his insight.

Example #2

Overwhelmed by work, Letitia jokes, “Maybe I ought to just check myself into a nursing home for a month!” Her friend asks, “What would that change?” Becoming thoughtful, Letitia says, “If I were sick, it would give me a legitimate reason to say “no” to extra assignments and prove to my boss that I really can’t take on any more than I already have.” This leads Letitia to realize: “the problem is that I don’t feel justified in saying “no” unless I’m just about dying.”

That’s the first right answer to the question, what is the problem? But when Letitia asks herself “why would you have to be dying?” she ends up saying something a little different. “The problem is that my boss hates whiners, and I don’t know how to tell him how bad things are without sounding like a whiner.”

That’s the second right answer to the question “what is the problem?” Letitia arrived at it though a spontaneous joke about what would solve her problem: putting herself in a nursing home. Ask yourself what silly idea would solve your problem – and then go deeper to question how that would help.

Both of these methods – asking the who, what, when, where, why questions and looking for silly solutions to your dilemma - help to insure that you don’t stop at the first right answer to the question, what is the problem? If you slow down and take some time to search for the second and third right answers to that question, you’ll be more likely to invest your time and energy in solving a version of the problem that gets to the root of it.

Trick #2 Rephrase your problem as a positive “How to…”

Once one of your answers to the question “What’s the problem?” has hit you as a version that gets to the heart of the matter, rephrase that answer in the form of “How might I,” “How can we,” or simply “How to.” The developers of the CPS (creative problem solving) method emphasize how important it is to describe problems in terms of “How to” accomplish something positive.

Example:

Once Letitia sees that the problem is that she doesn’t know how to tell her boss how bad things are without sounding like a whiner, she can rephrase her dilemma using the “How to” phrase:

1. “How to let Mr. Robertson know how bad things are without sounding like a whiner.”

2. “How to let Mr. Robertson know about the difficulties we face while coming across to him as someone who wants to help our whole organization address those challenges successfully.”

Can you sense the difference between these two statements? Both how to statements stimulate curiosity and brainstorming in a way that simply saying “my problem is that I’m overwhelmed at work and can’t say no to my boss” does not. The second more positive version moves those brainstorming ideas towards a positive vision of what we are trying to create. How to questions ask “what are some different ways that we could accomplish this?” and so they generate many answers beyond the first right answer.

Trick #3 Shift your lenses

In a way, the toy store owner who saw the Silly Putty that the engineers missed didn’t do anything different from what the engineers did. Both looked at this material through lenses that were familiar to them. The toy store owner looked at the world through the lens of “fun products” while the engineers looked though the lens of “industrial products.” So one way to get to the second right answer is to shift lenses, to bring other perspectives to bear on the problem you are trying to solve or on the possibilities that you are trying to discover.

One obvious way to do that is to bring in people with different perspectives, a strategy that is built into team approaches to problem solving. Ask yourself who else you could bring in to gain a different perspective on the issue. The person who is the newest hire, or the in-law who has most recently joined the family, are likely to have viewpoints that we would not discover on our own because they are coming to the situation with fresh eyes.

Anything that helps us see a familiar situation in a new way can help us generate a different right answer.

Example:

One artist described how she would place the paintings she was working on in different places in her home – in the hallway around the bend of the stairs, or on a kitchen counter. In this way, she’d come upon them unexpectedly and look upon them with fresh eyes.

Here are some other strategies that can help.

1. Look at the situation through the opposite lens.

Example: if you have been generating ideas by looking through the “What if?” lens, you can reverse that and ask “what if not?”

2. Look at the situation through multiple lenses.

Example: Borrow from your college courses and look at a situation through a variety of lenses, such as political, psychological, social, historical, and economic.

3. Look at the situation through a lens that you know people often neglect.

Example: Look through the Big Picture lens, asking questions like “Is there anything about our organization as a whole that might be affecting this?”

Conclusion

Searching for the second right answer keeps us more open-minded. Our minds slam shut when others present their ideas in a way that implies that if one person is right, then everyone else must be wrong. But when we think in terms of the second right answer, we can be right without other people having to be wrong. When someone makes a statement, like “obviously what we have to do is” and then dictates a solution in a tone of voice that would normally end all discussion, we can say, “That’s the first right answer. What might a second right answer sound like?” And the road to innovative thinking is opened.

A home based business is a coveted opportunity that few of us really get to take advantage of. The lure of being able to work between household chores, children activities, and miscellaneous functions is often the driving force to starting a home based business. However, it is important to remember that the more time you spend on your non-work activities, the less time you spend on your business. Self discipline and the willingness to work hard are two necessary factors to starting a home business.

Starting a home based business is not without its challenges. The most asked question is "what can I do at home". Simply put, the answer lies within yourself. Ask yourself what it is you like to do. Do you think you will still enjoy doing this a few years down the road? Once you have decided on what you want to do, a bit of research is necessary. Each state has rules and regulations that must be followed for specific types of businesses. Starting a catering business, for example, may have a different set of guidelines for the state of Michigan than it does for the state of Florida.

Naming your business, choosing a business structure, and registering your business are typically the next steps to follow. A business plan is necessary for securing financing and insurance. Marketing and promoting your business is a never-ending task that is required to keep your business name in the foreground.

Now that you are well underway to achieving your desire of home businessship, try to remember your reasons for this venture. While there will be trials and tribulations, keep focused on the goals you have set for yourself.

There is nothing more important to business owners, sales professionals and marketing consultants than attracting new business. The same holds true for solo professionals such as authors, speakers and entrepreneurs. The ideal situation would be having new customers or clients who purchase from you for life.

Think about the possibilities...

You won't have to invest as much time, energy and money marketing your business. You get to choose the clients you want to work with—and turn down those you don't. You make faster sales when promoting a product, program or service. And you get the satisfaction of knowing what you do, say or produce has meaning, adds value and positively impacts people's lives.

So how do you get to this place of satisfaction? To this place of joy, fun and seasons in the sun? What do you have to do to get there?

It begins with you...

Your reputation and everything you represent. Your goals, dreams and desires. And your ability to attract an endless source of clients.

Let's start from the beginning and review what I call the Fundamental Laws of Business Attraction:

1) Professional marketing materials. Everyone starts out with business cards to promote their enterprise. Then you may opt for brochures, flyers and one or more websites. Then you might incorporate ads, online squeeze pages, e-mail marketing campaigns and direct response mailers.

All of these promotions must appear congruent to the business you're representing. You don't have to look slick if it's not necessary. A seminar company such as SkillPath uses clipart graphics to promote their workshops. They promote two-day, medium-priced seminars nationwide without the need to showcase their speakers.

One costly mistake to avoid is using clever copy that has little pulling power. If you're promoting cuteness and humor over making sales and generating leads—there are numerous ad agencies that would love to pocket your money.

But I'd bet you're in business to make money. Then you'd probably want to try direct response marketing. You're in business to attract as many qualified prospects to respond to your offer as soon as possible. Direct response compels people to take action and can quickly bring you income and build your database.

2) Looking sharp. You've got to look and dress appropriately for each occasion. Which translates into proper grooming, hygiene and dress. Now that doesn't require you to always dress in business suits. Today's casual business environment created a category for casual business attire.

But if you're making a presentation, then you'd probably want to dress one notch above your audience. And if you're attending a networking event, you'd want to project a professional image. Bottom line is: the more professional you look, the more professional people desire to speak with you.

It never fails. The next time you attend a two-day business event, dress business casual one day and standard business attire the next. I bet you will attract more quality leads and opportunities when you dress professionally.

I'm going to stick my neck out and go one further...

Wear the most expensive looking outfits you can afford. They really make a difference in how people perceive you. And have them pressed and ready to wear. If your outfit looks tired, it may leave the wrong impression. Believe me—people do notice.

3) Positive attitude. If you want to be known as the expert who offers solutions to people's problems, you must not let your guard down to appear as if you're consumed by problems. People must perceive you as someone who has been through it all and can now help them.

If you whine about gasoline gouging, cry about Paris Hilton being unfairly confined, or incredulous of all governments—you'll soon find yourself all alone. They will clear a path for you as you're making your way to the restroom.

Just as you exercise and take supplements to boost your internal organs, you must exercise at improving your inner-you. Replace your negative thoughts with powerful positive programming. Today's problems are nothing more than tomorrow's memories. So smile and put on a happy face.

4) Credibility. If you have enough of this, you'd have to turn away more business than you can handle. Really. Wouldn't this be a nice problem to have?

One easy way to build credibility is to ask for testimonies or comments from clients, satisfied customers and meeting attendees. Other ways to establish credibility may include producing books, demo videos, CD albums, garnering endorsements and word-of-mouth marketing. Of course if you are good at speaking, your platform presence is a huge credibility-builder.

People want to know if you've been interviewed, in what media, and by whom, if you've hosted your own show, if you're a syndicated columnist, if you have a website, been on American Idol, and how they can reach you on MySpace. The more you expand your universe and the more you reach inside people's consciousness—the more business you will attract.

5) Are you approachable... or not? Do you have gatekeepers? Do you screen your calls? Are you easy to reach? Do you smile? Do you give hugs? Have you hired an answering service?

To avoid looking amateurish: stay away from no-cost e-mail accounts, P.O. boxes and complimentary website hosts displaying those unwanted ads. Serious prospects won't take you seriously. You have to appear as legit as an American Eagle gold coin.

When I joined the Chamber of Commerce the representative suggested I switch to a local phone number to accommodate local callers. I didn't take his advice. I didn't want to attract the kind of clients who would make a big fuss about a long distance charge.

So you decide how approachable you want to become. You decide whom you want to work with. You decide because you call the shots.

Small business, at its core, is about one thing and one thing only--success. How does our capitalistic society measure success? Dollars, my friend, cold hard cash. Now before you start emailing me about "relationships" and "making a difference" stop to consider that without positive cash flow, your entire enterprise can shrivel up and die right before your eyes.

It is imperative that you separate you and your intentions from your business. Put another way, your business is not you and you have no right to impose your needs, financial or otherwise, on it. The survival and health of your company should be your driving force, so be very careful what decisions you make.

Another name for "relationships" and "making a difference" is "naming the lobsters". Have you ever walked into a fine seafood restaurant and observed the Lobster tank? Inside are large lobsters waiting to be chosen for your next meal. In that moment--you make a decision. Will I eat them or not? If you let yourself emotionally connect to the Lobster, you will never be able to have them for dinner. The same principle holds true for your business.

Naming the lobsters is the lack of separation between an owner and their business and it becomes apparent to me when clients say things like:

* John's been with me from the start, yet he loses more sales than he makes.
* I charge this client less because they can't really afford my fees, yet they really need my help.
* Our kids went to school together so I sell to them at cost.

If you emotionally connect to people and customers, you will not be able to make the difficult but essential decisions that will ultimately determine the health of your business. Unproductive employees, less than profitable customers and abusive relationships weaken the very core of the enterprise. DON'T NAME THE LOBSTERS! Terminate relationships that don't nurture your business, no matter how painful it may be.

Think about this. Relationship building is the core of business building, yet--what happens when you have an employee that becomes detrimental to the relationships you've built? What happens when you have a client relationship that demands a lot of your time but gives little in return by way of purchases or profit? That employee and that non-profitable client relationship: Lobsters. Don't name them! Toss them back. One bad apple can truly spoil the whole bunch.

Owning, caring for and nurturing a small business requires true leadership ability, and can be a lonely road to travel. It is filled with difficult decisions and sleepless nights. I know, I've been there. Trust me; if you fail to embrace the truly hard decisions and you continue to name the lobsters, you are risking everything.

Anyone who is able to operate a computer, has an internet connection, and is well organized can find plenty of freelance work to do from home. It is an excellent way to make money when you are able to work.

You can do it part time, full time, as a way to make extra income, or to pay off existing debts you have. There are many different types of freelance work that you can choose from including data entry, writing articles, proofreading, translating, transcribing, marketing, website design, and computer troubleshooting.

There are a variety of online freelance sites that allow those needing this type of work to list it at no charge. You simply sign up at the sites and choose the type of work you are interested in doing. You will have to place bids on the projects and then the person needing the work selects someone to do it. The dollar amount that is agreed upon is placed into an escrow account on the site. Once you have completed the work and delivered it to the buyer the funds are released to your account.

In the beginning it will take some time to build up your reputation as someone who offers quality work. Make sure you always complete assignments on time. Each of these sites offers a rating system where buyers and freelance workers can rate each other. This information listed about you will help you get more work from others if it is positive. Make sure you take the time to research the various sites offering this type of work. Look for independent reviews about them online. You will find many to be very reputable.

The host sites that link those who need work done and those willing to do it will keep a percentage of the money you earn. In most cases it is 10% or 15% of your earnings. Other sites charge you a flat rate per month regardless of how much you earn. It is up to you which way will be more profitable.

In exchange for these sites hosting the work, that isn’t too much for them to charge. Consider you get to work from home, choose your hours, and not have to commute to work or purchase clothing to dress up for work. They also have arbitration systems in place. This way if the buyer won’t accept your work they can take a look at what you completed and decide if the buyer is obligated to pay for it or not.

Don’t get greedy though and work with individuals who want to pay you outside of the site. Sure, you won’t have to give the site their fees, but this is a scam often used to get quality work from individuals and then not pay for it. If this happens you won’t have any way to make the buyer pay for it. Always use the site for communications and payments so that you don’t get taken advantage of.

Congratulations on becoming a business owner. Whether it is your first business or your seventh business it is an exciting time. When you begin a new business, you are filled with ideas beyond your wildest imagination and often cannot even sleep at night for all of the thoughts swirling in your head. You are thinking of ways to market your business, advertise and even ways to get clients. The momentum is unbelievable because you would almost bet money that you are running on sheer adrenalin.

This is one of those times as a business owner; you do not care if you get sleep due to your level of motivation. The key is to keep up the excitement and momentum for your business. It is not necessarily easy to run a business; however you have taken on the challenge and dream of owning your own business.

As a business owner, I am sure one of the things you have thought about are operating expenses. What is it going to costs you to run your business for six months, a year and even two or three years? This is one of those areas that business owners generally think of in addition to start-up costs. I applaud you for thinking these areas through.

What you might not have considered are the different deductions a self-employed business owner have? When you are employed by a company or organization, there are certain items that are deducted from your paycheck. This reduces what you have to consider as a deduction. The work has actually been done for you. Now that you have decided to work for yourself, who is going to educate you on this matter? Will you read books or attend local business classes? I have to tell you that there are people that probably still do not know what business deductions they are allowed because they are not talking with anyone about their business. Or they believe it will not make a difference in their tax situation.

As the manager or owner of a company it is essentially your responsibility to ensure that the company is run smoothly. Most small businesses don’t use a Board of Directors to their fullest capacity due to the fact that most owners and managers on some level are control freaks. It’s okay to admit it because everyone in your company is thinking it. So as the Chief Control Freak in your company keeping a close eye on the health of your business is a crucial function of the business cycle. I want to give you a ten point checklist to a healthier company. In part one of this three-part discussion I want to focus on some crucial foundation principles, cash flow, marketing, sales, and quality

(I) Cash-Flow

Cash is king, and simply put if the king has left the building, the company is not too far behind. Undercapitalization is a fierce epidemic in small business; owners struggle to find working capital to keep their companies running, and producing or selling a product or service. On a quarterly basis a company’s cash needs to be examined. Some questions to ask are, where is it coming from? Where is it going? Do we have too much cash? (Yes this is actually a problem) Examine the cash-flow cycle, the time it takes to make a sale, the time it takes to collect from the sale, and how long before that money is out the door. These are your turnover ratios, you may find that on average it takes 35 days to collect, but your vendors are requiring payment in 15 days, you have a 20 day gap of cash, and it’s time to sew that gap shut.

Examine also where that cash is going. Are you paying for inventory, subscriptions products or services that you do not need? Is the equipment that you own leased or purchased? Do you perform a cost-benefit analysis and have internal controls for purchases over a certain dollar amount? This one is the biggest kickers of all, how is your company performing budget wise, if you’re spending more in certain areas it might be time to examine why, and justify the expense. On a quarterly basis examine your staffing needs, keeping a worker on staff that is not performing up to standards, or is not providing positively to your bottom line may need to be let go, and those costs redirected. Finally, can you outsource anything to save on costs?

(II) Marketing

If no one knows who you are, where you are, what you’re about, and what you do nearly nothing else matters. Marketing is a basic foundation of business. Marketing is much more then simply running an advertisement, marketing is about positioning your company to whoever you’re targeting. This includes perception, feel, experience, price, and exposure just to name a few. Review your marketing strategy and campaigns. Are you really reaching who you wanted and are you influencing their decision in your favor? How do your current clients view you? Are they part of your target market? Review you strategy to determine if your core market has changed, and how you can address that change. Maybe who you originally intended didn’t buy you service or product, but someone else did, are you positioning yourself in that new market. Can you expand markets? Do you need to shrink markets? (Expansion does not mean profit one-hundred percent of the time) Are you priced competitively? Is your advertising working, and are you tracking results? When was the last time you issued a press release, and told everyone about your new service or product?

(III) Sales

I wanted to address sales separate because of the complexity of both subjects. After you have addressed any marketing concerns, it’s time to prepare for the return on investment, the sales cycle. From the initial contact, to the actual exchange of goods and service for a promise of cash, or actual cash how does your company stack up? Some industries have long sales cycle, especially when dealing with high priced services and items. So how often are you closing a deal? Are you losing to a competitor? If so, why? Are you speaking the language of the customer? Are you giving them what they need to hear to make the sale, or what you think sounds good? Talk to your existing clients and customers, get a feel for why they do business with you and not the guy down the street. What sealed the deal for them?

Some companies deal with larger corporations in their sales cycle, or a company who does a lot of business with the. If they are a majority of your annual sales (smaller companies often sell to large corporations who use their leverage and size to determine volume of sales, price, and collection periods) determine if you have the capacity to add more clients and diversify your client base. Selling primarily to one client can have an adverse affect in the long-run on your company financial health. If they get bought out, or if new management comes in, you as the supplier may be pushed out.

Also determine if you can diversify your revenue stream. Adding a service contract to that product may increase sales, or diversify your revenue. Adding several products or services together and packaging them is also a remedy for slow sales, it can also help to relieve you of excessive inventory in a product that’s not taking off. First determine though if it is feasible to do this. Do you have the man power, tools, equipment, and space? Assess your risk exposure to the potential downsides. Can you expand into new markets (profitably), and an often overlooked sales technique is harvesting more sales in your current market. Loyal customers are always a good place to look first when it comes to sales.

(IV) Quality

This begins with a review of your product/service. How’s the quality? How’s it viewed in the marketplace, are your clients/customers recommending it, or telling others to avoid it like the plague? Quality is the fourth foundational leg a company needs to stand on. Your sales will dwindle if you lack quality, that affects the cash-flow and no matter how much you market, nothing helps a poor quality service or product. Quality is really simple to examine, what you’re offering is either great, or it’s not. Check, check, and recheck your processes, refine what you offer. You don’t want to be known is the market place as a low-quality leader, because soon you won’t be known at all.

All four of these areas an intermingled, everything works together and cannot work separately of one another. By keeping all of these areas healthy you can run at a minimum a break-even business. In the following two parts we’ll discuss areas that can help propel you beyond your competition and keep your company healthy.