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June 29, 2007

What To Do When You Feel Like Quitting Your Business

Have you had it? Ready to pack it in and start sending out resumes again? Sometimes working for yourselves turns out different than you expected. Don't throw in the towel yet. Step back and get a new perspective on working.

It's time to motivate yourself. Don't throw away what you have accomplished so far. All small business owners get frustrated at some point in time. A lot of small businesses fail due to owner burnout. What can you do to get out of the rut? Here are a few ideas. Being stressed out is a big factor in wanting to quit. Try taking a few deep breaths. Deep breathing relaxes the mind and body. You might want to try some form of exercise daily.

A massage once a week is also a great stress reliever. Maybe it is time to turn the computer off or take a break from your work. Get away for a few minutes or even a few days. Getting out of your element will refresh you. Try a picnic, a weekend camping trip or a few days at the beach. Taking your mind off of business can and will refresh you.

Don't have the ability to leave home for a while? Try some motivational reading. There are lots of books out there about successful business owners. Exploring how others have overcome their obstacles may help you overcome your own. Reading how others have decided not to quit, can make you decide not to quit as well.

Now is not the time to give up. You could be only one step away from success. Don't get desperate. Desperation can get in the way of your reasonable thinking. Keep taking those steps. You never know when the next step will lead to success. Try telling yourself you are a winner. Winners don't quit. You have to tell yourself that you are a winner and believe it. If you don't believe in yourself, then no one else will.

Deciding to keep your business is a step in the right direction. You must realize there is no "quick fix". Succeeding involves your emotions, desires, thoughts or focus, and your beliefs. Be sure to nurture each of these areas. Each successful business person goes through processes to feed each of these areas. It is up to you to find what successfully feeds each of yours.

Motivation is the driving force to succeeding. You will need to learn to motivate yourself each day. Learn to respect the challenge and invent your energy in your under taking. Overhaul your beliefs, journal log your experiences and read lots of books on your subject. The biggest thing is to have lots and lots of patience. Believe in yourself and go out and succeed.

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About the Author:
Sheila enjoys working part-time from home. She also enjoys sponsoring and mentoring others, and helping them find success with their work from home base business. Click here to contact Sheila and learn how you can start a work at home-base business.
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June 28, 2007

The Risks Of Running A Business Yourself

Running your own business can be a challenge, and it can also be frustrating. If you don't have experience in running a business yourself, you may find yourself with more problems than you can handle, especially if you choose an area in which you are not familiar. Because of the risks of running a business, it's important that you make sure you develop as much knowledge as possible before you venture into the world of the unknown.

Running a business yourself has both risks and bonuses, with one of the greatest risks being the fact that you are now in charge of your own destiny. There is no employer to provide a paycheck or benefits; it's all up to you. That means you must make certain you bring in enough work to take care of your financial needs, something that can create a great deal of stress, especially if you are the only wage earner. Some fields are routinely busier than others, and thus not as volatile to downturns in the economy. Unless you are in one of those field, or are a professional such as an accountant or a lawyer, you want to be sure that you have some cash set aside before you give up your full-time job to start a business of your own.

Another risk of owning a business is that of losing your personal possessions, especially your home, over business debts. It's important, even if you are operating a home-based business, to make sure that you protect your personal assets from business seizure by incorporating. If your business is rather small, it may not be of much importance, but if you're running a rather substantial business, especially one that involves the purchase or any kind of products and supplies on a credit plan, make sure that you pay for the extra protecting your personal assets from seizures. You must follow the laws in your individual states because not all states have the same regulations. However, if your state is one of those that only allows business creditors to touch property that is assigned to the business, you definitely want to consider that as an option.

Loss of income due to illness is another risk involved in owning your own business. You are no longer protected by the employer's sick time and short time disability, so you have to assume those risks on your own either by setting money aside in case the need arises or investing in insurance to protect you from those kinds of things. The same holds true for health insurance—having a business means that you are responsible for all of the costs of your health and illnesses. It also means there will be no money coming into the household from the business unless you have others working for you if you aren't able to work.

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About the Author:
Sheila enjoys working part-time from home. She also enjoys sponsoring and mentoring others, and helping them find success with their work from home base business. Click here to contact Sheila and learn how you can start a work at home-base business.

June 27, 2007

What Is A Business Plan?

When you have a home business, you might not have thought about a business plan, but you are going to need one, and you should do your best to make sure that you have one set up before you start with your business. This is something that you need, no matter what type of business you have, and no matter how you plan on going about your future with the home business. A business plan is going to be a must, so be sure that you have one set up.

What Is It

When it comes to your business, you are going to need a business plan. Remember that a home business is always going to either offer a product or offer a service in exchange for money. This is an over-simplification, but it is the one rule that you can stand by. You need to be able to make money, so you need people to pay you for your service or for whatever item you sell. The business plan, then, is a way of setting this up and making sure that it is going to work. In your home business plan you are going to want to list the service or product that your business is going to provide, and how much you are going to be paid for it, minus how much you are going to need to pay to either put the product together or deliver your service.

The idea of a business plan, therefore, is to write down what you are selling, how much you are selling it for, and how much it is going to cost you to do whatever it is that your business is doing. By looking at the figures you come up with in your business plan, you can actually see what kinds of profits you can think about having, and you can decide whether or not your business is going to be a success.

Of course, a good business plan is going to be able to be modified whenever you need to make changes in your business. It isn’t something that should remain set in stone, because the business that can’t grow is going to end up in a lot of trouble. This means that you have to take pains to be sure that you are developing a business plan, and a business, that can actually change and grow with the times. This is something that is very important for you to remember when you are putting your business plan together. As long as it makes sense, and as long as it can grow and change, your business plan is only going to lead to your success in your home business.

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About the Author:
Sheila enjoys working part-time from home. She also enjoys sponsoring and mentoring others, and helping them find success with their work from home base business. Click here to contact Sheila and learn how you can start a work at home-base business.

June 26, 2007

Teen Business That Grow Into An Adult Business

Having a small business can be very challenging as well as enjoyable for kids. More than ten years ago, selling lemonades, cleaning lawns, delivering newspapers, selling cookies and other forms of enterprises keep teenage entrepreneurs busy. As the years pass by, young entrepreneurs evolved and some graduated from the traditional businesses of selling cookies and cleaning lawns to become full fledge business people. As these enterprising kids grow up, most of these enterprising kids continued their business and become successful at it.

One of the best examples of a teenage business that grows into an adult business is that little girl who used to sell cookies around the neighborhood and grew up to be the proud owner of two successful bakeshops across town. From earning a few coins selling cookies each summer around the neighborhood, that little girl turned her business into something that brings about thousands of dollars in profit every year. The secret of her success is that at an early age, she was already exposed to the nitty-gritty of finding good suppliers of ingredients for her small business and had established a good relationship with these suppliers. Furthermore, when she was still a teenager and did not have any pressing needs to earn a living on her own, she had all the time to experiment in baking different types of cookies and pastries that she was able to come up with some really good recipes.

Advantages of Starting Young

There are many advantages of getting into business at a very young age. Teenage entrepreneurs learn their trade early and have more time to hone their business skills. After years of engaging in their teenage businesses, these young people develop a system of their own when it comes to handling their business affairs. These systems will then play a vital role when the teenager later on decide to pursue his or her teenage business and turn it into a full fledge adult business. According to studies, most young entrepreneurs used the skills that they learned early on to expand their business when they get older.

Another advantage of starting a business at an early age is that teenage entrepreneurs gain loyal customers over the years. It is not uncommon for people around the neighborhood to feel an affinity for the young entrepreneur thus they will not really think twice when it comes to supporting the younger entrepreneur. Since teenage entrepreneurs have already established rapport and good relationships with their clients, keeping these clients will not really be hard for them. In fact, some loyal clients will prove to be very useful when it comes to advertising the business expansion of the young entrepreneur. Note that a good word from a very satisfied customer will always bring in more business.

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About the Author:
Sheila enjoys working part-time from home. She also enjoys sponsoring and mentoring others, and helping them find success with their work from home base business. Click here to contact Sheila and learn how you can start a work at home-base business.
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June 25, 2007

Taking Risks, While Making Money With Your Business

At sometime in everyone's life, they dream of being their own boss, owning their own company. The trick to being your own boss is to enjoy what you are doing and making money at the same time. Starting your own business as a risk, but learning to minimize the risks is using your head.

Evaluate your talents. Select a career that uses your creativity and talent helps insure your chance of success. Doing what you enjoy will prolong your interest in your work. It also guarantees that what you are doing is not exactly like anyone else. Stepping out on your own means no more company benefits. One of the biggest benefits is insurance. Select several insurance policies to protect you for different areas of your business, Make sure you get enough life insurance to cover your family's obligations, if something should happen to you. Disability insurance is good in case of illnesses or accidents. Some insurance companies give discounts for multiple policies. Taking a partner will help minimize the risk of starting your own business. Find someone who shares your passions and skills. A friend or acquaintance who enjoys doing what you enjoy makes a great business partner.

Do your research. Explore different possibilities. Is one side of town better than another? Do you want to use your home as your home base or rent a place? Which fabric works better, can everyone use this product, etc. Using other peoples experiences will reduce your chances of failure. Get rid of all your negative thoughts. Relax. Be optimistic. Focus your thoughts towards setting and obtaining your goals. Learn to prioritize your time, money and abilities. While spending a great deal of your time working towards your goal, take some time for yourself. By doing this, you won't become burnt out.

Do you need luck to succeed? Maybe a little, but don't depend on it. Get some training in areas that you don't necessarily know, such as accounting or management. Make a yearly plan and re-examine it periodically. Luck is a matter of odds. Do what you can to improve yours. Learn to act accordingly in times of uncertainty. It doesn't hurt to play it a little safe at the beginning. Start out with small risks, then move to larger ones. Items that seem impossible at first, may seem smaller with time and more experience. Get some feedback from others. You never know when a good idea will surface from a comment made in passing.

Take that jump, step out to a new future. Just remember to plan, organize and work hard. Most of all stop dreaming and make that dream a reality.

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About the Author:
Sheila enjoys working part-time from home. She also enjoys sponsoring and mentoring others, and helping them find success with their work from home base business. Click here to contact Sheila and learn how you can start a work at home-base business.
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June 24, 2007

Small Business Organizations To Join

For the small business owner, keeping up with all of the available benefits can be difficult. In addition, how does one meet the requirements for a minimum number of employees in order to find good rates on insurance? Unlike the larger companies, it's not as simple as calling someone and knowing you qualify to participate. Many insurance plans require a minimum number of participants in order to offer group rates, so often times the small business owner is left in the cold.

This is the point where a small business can take advantage of some of the various organizations that exist just for them. Various organizations offer different benefits for the small business organization, including those who come together as an association so that small business can take advantage of benefits previously only offered to large businesses. For examples, some credit unions offer insurance benefits to their members at group rates, while labor unions quite frequently have plans already in place for their members, no matter the size of the individual organization.

Each existing small business organization has its own function and plan for helping the small business owner. Some offer training in order for the business to grow in its knowledge of the product it produces, while others offer working capital to allow the business to develop and flourish. The government operates some of these organizations, while others are privately owned or non-profit organizations that are funded by major corporations. Whatever the needs may be for a small business, there is an organization there to meet those needs. The difficulty is not in an organization being in operation to assist with those needs, but for the small business owner to have the capability of locating these organizations when he needs the information. Thanks to the Internet, this process has become easier, but for a start up business, access to online sources may not always be an option. Fortunately for those who do not have online access, or choose not to utilize it, various books and publications are available to assist a small business in locating organizations that are specifically geared toward helping small businesses succeed.

When you are just starting out, it is very difficult to know all of the places to search for information, so another good source of information is your local university. Quite often the business development centers of the universities offer many different services to small businesses in the private sector. This includes information about start up funding, different types of financing based upon the scope of the business and its ownership, and training in essential areas of business ownership. In some areas, these classes are even sponsored in cooperation with the Small Business Administration and other small business development organizations.

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About the Author:
Sheila enjoys working part-time from home. She also enjoys sponsoring and mentoring others, and helping them find success with their work from home base business. Click here to contact Sheila and learn how you can start a work at home-base business.
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June 23, 2007

Should You Attend Home Business Seminars When Starting A Business?

When someone is getting ready to start a business, whether a home-based business or one in the traditional brick and mortar building, they should consider attending business seminars. Regardless of the amount of experience they have, there are always things to be learned from others. The type of business being started there are numerous common issues that all businesses will face and professionals offering advice may be able to present new points of view for old problems.

For those beginning a business for the first time, the best seminar they can attend would be on time management, learning how effectively to share time between the business and the family. Developing an efficient work-life balance will not only benefit the business but may also save a marriage and other family relationships. Everyone knows that when a new business is started there is a lot of work to be done, and the owner will spend more time working for themselves than when working for someone else, but learning how to manage the time can help save a lot of stress.

Making decisions will be vital part of every business and while some may seem insignificant, such as where to buy copy paper, others may have an impact on more than only the person making the decision. The attitude of being the business owner and only their opinion matters will not last long in the business environment. Attending home business seminars when starting a business can show how some decisions may affect suppliers and customers as well as employees. By attending decision-making seminars the best ways to communicate the changes can be learned.

Many times when running your home business there will be some issues that may seem pretty complex and difficult to solve. Business seminars on problem solving can outline ways to see problems from different angles and approach them from different perspectives in order to each a conclusion that will benefit all the people affected by the decision. Additionally, with business seminars you can also learn how effectively to brainstorm with others to reach a conclusion and develop a plan to fix the problem.

One of the most important parts of operating a home business is communications since most of it may be by telephone or email and effectively communicating your point on any issue will help insure others understand the point being made. Communications seminars can also be related to family members, especially when the line because I said so does not work anymore.

Creativity and changes in the workplace are also typically offered for business owners to help them through the progress of business growth. Whether through self-development courses or group business seminars, every business owner should take advantage of every opportunity to learn more about the basics as well as the fine points of running a home business.

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About the Author:
Sheila enjoys working part-time from home. She also enjoys sponsoring and mentoring others, and helping them find success with their work from home base business. Click here to contact Sheila and learn how you can start a work at home-base business.
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June 22, 2007

Should Relatives Go into Business Together?

There are many asking if relatives should go into business together and the answer is elusive for many reasons. Depending on how closely related they are and how close they are personally can have a direct effect on their ability to work together as equal partners in a business. Different people have different personalities and the person with the most dominant personality will end up being in charge, whether planned or not, which can cause friction when running a business together.

If the relatives have known each other a long time and are well acquainted, they should already know who the stronger of two is, but in a business managing by intimidation is never a good performance standard. Before entering the business climate, they have to talk through the good and bad of being in business together, knowing that if they end up unable to work things out it will now only wreck a friendship, but can cause discord within the entire families with people taking sides in any dispute. However, they will still be related when it is over.

Being in a business as a “family” may have worked for the so-called mob, but in that scenario there was a firmly entrenched order and violations of that order had very swift and severe consequences. Not the management flow chart that operate a successful business. If persons hoping to go into business together cannot agree on the basics of who will be in charge of what, then the answer is no, relatives should not go into business together,

Family members with similar personalities often find themselves unemployed and view going into business together as a viable means to support their families. Understanding the strengths and weakness of both, they can use that to establish a management chart to determine who will be in charge of what aspect of running the business. They may also find there are portions of running the business with which they have no experience and may need another person to help fulfill those needs.

By sitting down and outlining the needs of starting a business and what each person can bring to the business table, they will be better prepared to deal with any issues that arise with being related in operating the same business. There will be conflicts as there are in any business relationship, but the fact they are related should never enter any business-related discussion. Additionally, there must be the attitude of what happens at work stays at work. Complaining to the spouse or other family members can lead to inner-family arguments that probably are not worth fighting over in the first place.

One of the biggest problems faced when relatives are in business together may be in scheduling. When there is a family function, both people will most likely want to attend and as owners of the business should not be a problem, but there may be times when the needs of the business require one to be available, the need to work out who will go and who will work may rock the relationship boat.

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About the Author:
Sheila enjoys working part-time from home. She also enjoys sponsoring and mentoring others, and helping them find success with their work from home base business. Click here to contact Sheila and learn how you can start a work at home-base business.
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June 21, 2007

Running A Home business & Working Full Time Outside Your Home

Very few people will claim they are bringing enough money home to meet all their needs and wants. Several will begin a home business to supplement their income while remaining at the full time job outside. This can take a toll on the personal life as well as the health of just about anyone running a home business and working full time outside the home.

One of the first considerations should be is the home business in conflict with the full time job as many employers will not tolerate competition from one of their employees. For example, a person working in a retail environment in nearly any capacity may find themselves in conflict with company policies if they begin an online retail outlet. Or someone working for a carpet cleaning company starting a home business offering cleaning services part time as a home business. Being in conflict often forces the employee to make a choice of keeping their full time job or finding work elsewhere.

There are many home business opportunities available that will not conflict with outside work environments, but the time involved in operating the home business will need to be examined to determine if it can be done effectively while working full time. The business operator will only have limited availability as well as time to spend on the business and the time needed to run the business will have to be reallocated from another part of the day.

A person with a family will need to know that any time needed to run the home business will have to come from time usually used for family functions or just spending time with the wife and kids. The full time employer will not tolerate someone spending time on their home business while being paid so dividing the time between work, running the business and family may or may not be worth the extra income from a home business.

In some cases, there are home business opportunities that require little time and enable it to be run at the convenience of the owner. With these jobs time can be arranged in which to run the business without losing time with family and friends, although sacrificing sleep or relaxation time may be necessary. Overall, there will be some sacrifice of time and personal involvement when running a business and working full time outside the home.

Time management will be essential in creating work-life balance as well as remaining organized so as not to allow important aspects of work, home business operation and family slip through the cracks. A single schedule guiding the commitments for all obligations will be needed in order to accomplish everything that needs done and to stay ahead of the work.

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About the Author:
Sheila enjoys working part-time from home. She also enjoys sponsoring and mentoring others, and helping them find success with their work from home base business. Click here to contact Sheila and learn how you can start a work at home-base business.
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June 20, 2007

Renting Your Office Space Can Be Wise

When you have a business, there are several things that you want to think about. When you are first starting out, you might decide that you want your business to be at your home, which means that your office would be at home and you’d be dealing with all of your customers through home. Sometimes this makes sense, because you really can get a lot done and you can really take the time to be at home, which means you can also take the time to do other things that you have always wanted to do. However, there might come a point when your business has grown, or when you are ready to move further forward with your business, and when this happens you might decide that renting out office space is your best option when it comes to where your business is.

Why Rent?

There are many reasons that you might want to think about renting out your office space. First of all, this is something that can be done that is not permanent. If you can find the right kind of lease, you can pretty much determine when you have your office there and when you are done. If you are on a month to month lease, it will mean that if you ever decide you want to move your business back to your home, or change locations, it is fairly easy to do so and doesn’t require a lot of work. This is only one of the advantages to renting your office space.

Another thing that can be great about renting your office space is that this is relatively cheap and can usually be written off as a business expense. This means you will find there is little to no worry about what you are doing and where the money to do it is coming from. You can find office space quite cheap, and it can be a good way to get your business farther along.

There is another good thing to having your home business located in an office that you are renting. It is often too easy to work too much if you have a home business, because you can always go to your home office and work. This might be good for some jobs, but if you find that you are taking time away from your family, and working too often, moving your office to a rented space is a great way to make sure that your home business hours don’t take over your whole life. If you find that you are having trouble not working for 24 hours straight, moving to a rented office is a great way to stop this and to allow you to have better control over when you work and when you don’t work.

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About the Author:
Sheila enjoys working part-time from home. She also enjoys sponsoring and mentoring others, and helping them find success with their work from home base business. Click here to contact Sheila and learn how you can start a work at home-base business.
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