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Monday, July 26, 2010

Is it Time For a Stay at Home Job?



By Andrew Goligher

The internet. This revolution has helped us do a great many things. We can take a video of our friend falling on his butt and put it up for all to see. We can read ten word posts from vapid celebrities about the silly things they do in a day. Or if you're a little more ambitious, you can use it to find some real work and make money with a stay at home job.


But is it right for you? A stay at home job can be a blessing for some and a curse for others. Here's your checklist...

Can You Stick To Your Own Schedule?

Making your own schedule doesn't necessarily mean "I don't feel like working today... Or tomorrow... Or the next day." Making your own schedule means ACTUALLY making your own schedule and sticking to it. Look, when you set your budget, do you choose to spend twice what you put aside for groceries? If so, you probably need to hold on to the sort of job where you have a boss kicking you in the butt and making you actually show up for work and make some money. If you can't follow your own schedule, you can't make a living working from your own home with a stay at home job.

Are You A People Person?

If you have a tough time meeting people and making friends, you may want to stick with a job that has you leaving the house now and then. You don't realize how important contact with other people is until you don't have it. If you want to work from home, you'd better make sure you put aside a couple days a week to go out and spend some of that money hanging out with your friends. Otherwise, you may find that you're becoming more and more isolated and, yes, you're making money, but you're really not enjoying yourself without having anyone to hang out with.

Are You a Single Mom or a Single Dad?

If you answer yes to this question, then you really SHOULD take up any opportunity you have to work at home. Even if you don't fit anything else on this checklist, being a parent has a way of shaping you up into exactly the person you need to be in life. If you have kids to take care of, you may find that hiring babysitters or paying for a day care center can cost you so much that you may as well not have a job at all. If you're making only so much an hour, the babysitter is probably wanting about the same. If they're taking ninety percent of your money, then it's just not worth it, and you absolutely do need to seriously consider working from home.

Thousands like you have part time work at home jobs so why don't you. Work full time or part time, up to you. Visit  for more information and access.

How to Earn Money at Home


By Milton Cai

Earning money is never been easy especially if you want to earn it while at your own home. Many have tried to get into this kind of home business programs. To those who have tried some of which became successful and some did not.

If you want to know what went wrong to those who have failed, then one main reason is the lack of knowledge. Many who want to enter into earn money at home programs have lesser knowledge about what they are trying to get into.

Before you enter into a program make sure that you have knowledge and experience to all the circumstances it may occur. Experience is not that really necessary. All you have to do is to familiarize the process of the program. If something went wrong you can easily take action and continue earning.

Knowledge about web application is also a plus if you want to get into online making money programs. Because of the medium use, the computer and the internet this knowledge is a factor to make your program successful.

If you think you have the knowledge and experience in these online programs. Next thing to do is to choose, choosing between selling a product online or making use of your skills and post it on the internet.

Selling things in the internet is the most common business although it is not that easy. There are still many people who enter into this business. The main store of your online business will be the website. In there you will post your entire product available for sale. Post product description and the instructions how to contact you and make a purchase from your site.

The product description should not be too long, it should only contain specific details and how it differs from other brands. Make your forum regarding the product from your site. The forum will be like a testimonial from your customer and it will also serves as a place where your potential customer ask questions.

After you build your website the next problem is to get internet traffic to your site. Traffic is generated in many ways. Search engine is one way how to drive traffic. The thing you need to do is to make it to the first page of a search engine if a user wants to search the product you are selling. This will be the hardest part you have to market your product well to gain traffic. After that the next things are simple.

Think about the right online business for you before you enter. Consider the disadvantages and advantages. Work hard as there are no way you can earn money at home without working hard for it.

Milton is the founder of Traffic Prophet and Lifetime ACME People Search member. He has a home based business built on the ACME people search business platform and generates website traffic with Traffic Prophet.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Top 5 Tips For Building Business Relationships


 By Chris Simpson

If you are going to have a successful business, it is very important that you work on building quality business relationships. While you can have many great marketing strategies that will help your business, one of the most important things you can do is to work on building up these relationships with people that you meet.

It can take quite a bit of time for you to begin to see big results when you use marketing techniques, but the results for building business relationships are excellent. So, here are a few great tips that will help you to build better business relationships.

Tip #1 - Consistently Work on a Small Basis - First of all, it is important that you consistently work on a small basis. You don't have to work on meeting hundreds of people each week. However, you should work on meeting a couple people each day.

Before you know it you'll have more than 100 people who you have build relationships with. You don't want to go out there just looking for numbers, but you do want quality relationships. So, take the time to consistently work on building relationships on a consistent basis for the best results.

Tip #2 - Join Organizations in Your Area - Joining organizations in your area is a wonderful idea as well and it can help you as you work to build up business relationships. When you join clubs or groups in your area that have similar interests, you'll find that this is a wonderful way that you can build up great relationships. Take the time to get active in the community around you, start a club or group, or volunteer in order to meet new business contacts.

Tip #3 - Follow Up to Build Relationships - Once you make a business contact and you want to build up a good relationship, it is important to follow up with them. Just meeting them one time may not bring you many results, but if you follow up with them every couple weeks, you can build up a solid relationship.

Tip #4 - Make Sure Your Personable on the Web - If you are trying to build up business relationships online in forums, social networking sites, or blog directories, then you need to be very personable. Leaving comments and personalized messages is important. The last thing you want to do is just send out a bunch of cookie cutter messages to everyone. So, make sure you act in a personable manner.

Tip #5 - Show Pride in Your Business - Showing pride in your business is imperative if you are going to build up great business relationships. Make sure that all the people you meet know about your business. Make sure you add your business website to your business cards, add a signature line to all emails, and talk about you business with pride. This is an excellent way to build up top quality relationships.

How to Spend Money So It Makes You Happy


By Kimberly Palmer

Share ThisThe debate over whether money can buy happiness just got more complicated. A new paper from two economists suggests that spending money on certain things – namely, leisure activities – does, in fact, improve happiness levels. Spending on more materialistic items, such as cars, food, and clothes, does not.

[Slideshow: 20 Things You Should Never Buy Used]

First, some background: Economists have long debated how money influences happiness levels. On one hand, people in richer countries report higher happiness levels. But after a certain threshold of wealth is reached (GDP per capita of around $10,000), the link begins to weaken. That could be because people get used to higher incomes, so wealth doesn’t bring them as much pleasure, or because once people achieve a certain level of material success, they begin to wish they had even more. People also tend to compare themselves to others, and it’s always possible to find someone else who’s richer than you.

But no one doubts the importance of being happy. For starters, it feels good, but it also appears to improve health and even longevity.

Now, back to these intriguing new findings. By comparing consumption data from the national Health and Retirement Study, Thomas DeLeire of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Ariel Kalil of the University of Chicago found that spending money on leisure activities, which include vacations, movie theater tickets, and hobbies, improve happiness levels. (Happiness was measured by asking respondents to describe how they felt about their lives.)

Expenditures on durable goods such as refrigerators, clothes, personal items, cars, and housing, on the other hand, did not have an effect on happiness.

[To Achieve Your Goals, Focus on Reasons]

The apparent reason behind the leisure spending – happiness connection is even more intriguing than the finding itself: Spending on leisure activities appears to boost one’s level of social connectedness. That makes sense, since when you go on vacation, engage in a hobby such as tennis or bridge, or go out to the movies, you are almost always doing it with somebody else. So spending on leisure might boost your social connectedness, which in turn improves your happiness level.

What does this all mean for the savvy consumer? Well, it suggests that we should be sure to budget some of our funds towards leisure. While the latest handbag or car might give us a short burst of euphoria, we might soon get used to having them around so the happiness provided is short-lived. But if we spend money on a once-in-a lifetime vacation with our families instead, then we might feel happier and more connected to our loved ones.

One caveat: The study is based on data from older Americans over the age of 50, so it might not apply to everyone. It’s possible, for example, that younger Americans get more of a happiness surge from keeping up with the latest clothing trends, and older folks get more pleasure from leisure. As the authors put it, “For a relatively older adult, an expensive vacation or box seats at the symphony may be happily viewed as the just reward of a long and productive life, something that was postponed until a stage of relative financial security and seniority in one’s position at work or in the community.”

Still, the findings hold a useful lesson for the rest of us, too.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Key To Entrepreneur Success


by Brian Moore

Everybody wants success, but most people believe that it will not turn out like they hope it would. There is an immediate thinking that the idea or goal will not go right and all the thoughts are put towards knocking it down and finding a reason not to do it. Lack of self belief goes together with a failure to realize anything. We are not born with that thinking process, it is in grained in some of us when we were children by well-meaning people saying that you can't do this or you can't do that.

We hear so many times that whatever we can think about we can achieve. No great achievement has been accomplished without having a complete belief that it will work, no matter what it takes, and however long it takes. One of the key entrepreneur success factors is having self belief. When you accept as true that something is achievable you start to think of ways to make it work, but if you believe otherwise you will never do anything. Take the challenge and start to produce the mind-set of empowerment.

Whatever we have learned in the past, if we lack in self belief we have to alter our attitudes. Success relies on having a complete self belief that whatever we are wanting to do we can. Developing that attitude will empower you through whatever you have to do so that you can achieve your goals.

When looking at a new opportunity a lot of people will begin to doubt it before giving it any consideration. But a well concieved business plan has every chance of success if you genuinely believe in yourself and produce a deep desire to make it happen.

Whatever tools and systems you will use they can all do what you want them to do as long as you apply what you know, learn what you need to learn and take the action that you need to take. The main reason for any failure is not doing what is needed, either because you did not believe in it enough or because you allowed someone else's lack of belief disturb your thinking.

When belief is strong there is a willingness to take action. Action creates entrepreneur success. It is the belief in it that comes before the action. When you are faced with someone who totally believes in something you can feel the power, you can almost feel their conviction. That is the mark of the true entrepreneur and the true ingredient to entrepreneur success. Take the challenge of working on your mind as you work on your business.
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Tuesday, July 20, 2010

2 simple Ways to Earn Money Online


 By the rock

1. Make Money From Google AdSense

Google AdSense is considered to come about single of the easiest ways to earn money online. You need to allow a website and add the Google AdSense code into your a tangled web pages next opening a Google AdSense explanation. The connected Google ads willpower appear by the side of your website and if an important person clicks the ads, Google willpower share the ad's profit with you.

Near are millions of internet users who are looking meant for in a row, products or else services willpower click on online advertisement each sunlight hours. If you are able to drive a big internet traffic to your website, the added clicks you might receive and earn added money. It's not surprising with the aim of webmasters are making tens of thousand both month solely from AdSense revenue.

In the same way as the Google Ads are delivered based on your website contents, the superlative way to earn money with Google AdSense is to build niche websites based on your under attack keywords. You can go for to focus on niche market with eminent paying keywords such in the same way as finance, stock, mortgage and education, but come about aware with the aim of such niches are very competitive. If not you allow talented strategies to drive sufficient traffic to your website, it might come about real cruel to earn talented money from it. You ought to every time balance concerning eminent paying keywords with marketplace competitiveness and go for a niche with the aim of you are confidence to drive an adequate amount of traffic to earn money online if you are planning to do from mother country and support your living with this takings.

2. Earn Money Online With Affiliate Marketing

You can do from mother country and earn money online by being an affiliate. Affiliate marketing is amongst the superlative business perfect with the aim of benefit both affiliates and merchants. With affiliate marketing, you perform not need to own a artifact to trade online. Lots of introduce somebody to an area are earning thousands of dollars a month a moment ago by promotion other introduce somebody to an area products.

In the same way as an affiliate, you perform not need to unease not far off from the business backend such in the same way as payment handing out, artifact approach and customer support. Everything willpower come about taken custody of by the business. You a moment ago need to channel the under attack traffic from overall internet to the merchant's website someplace the trade transaction being ready and you willpower come about paid with commission.

Clickbank is amongst the superlative affiliate program meant for digital products. It has in excess of 100,000 products with the aim of cover a broad range of niches which you can go for to promote in the sphere of affiliate marketing. LinkShare and Commission Junction are one more two famous affiliate programs with the aim of cover a range of products in the sphere of digital format, material goods and lead-based products & services.

The Importance of Ethics in Business



By Jay Vandenhoff

What is the importance of ethics in business? That this even needs discussed is incredible to me. We are in an age that is totally mixed up about what is right and wrong. There seems to be no black and white anymore.

When I was a child attending Sunday School things seemed pretty much black or white. There were no gray areas. Men’s word, when they gave it was expected to be upheld. It usually was.

In the network marketing business, or any other business, the fastest way to lose customers is to lie to them. Our society has gotten to the point where, some think it’s okay to lie about many things. The boss will say: Tell them I’m out, to his secretary. Avoiding a call with a lie is justified to him. Somehow, to me, that lessens his employee’s respect for him. It also sets the tone for his business. Now his employees can justify lying about business matters. After all, the boss does it!

If you have a personal code of ethics, you would do well to ignore you boss and coworkers lying. Set a personal goal, to be truthful to everyone, whether in business or in your personal life.

Will we stumble? Of course we will. We are after all only flesh. I like to base my standards on the absolute authority found in the Bible. In it, there is no gray area. There is, however a recognition that we all make mistakes. There is also, the admonition to seek forgiveness for the wrongs we do.

Some of the Bible’s greatest heroes, were at times, it’s biggest failures. Moses killed a man before he led the Israelites out of captivity. David was called a friend of God, and yet, he had previously been a failure at life. David stole a man’s wife and allowed him to be killed to cover it up.

I think this shows us, we can make grievous mistakes in our lives, and still turn them around. It may take admitting you did wrong. The mistakes may have consequences you’ll have to bear, but in the end, we call all turn our lives around.

In business all ethics are determined and displayed by the leadership. The leaders of an organization or company must be determined to follow, a personal and business code of ethics. People learn from our examples, not from what we tell them to do.

The importance of ethics in business is: it sets the tone for a business’s success or failure. I usually recommend that all business people and employees try to read a chapter a day from the Biblical book of proverbs. That book is filled with important wisdom for one’s personal and business life.

Monday, July 19, 2010

The Secret Meaning of Money

                                     

By Mark Jaffe

Super-affluent people aren’t like us. Oh, sure, they eat and sleep and reproduce and die like everyone else. Yet somewhere along the way — regardless of how they were raised, it seems — the ultra-rich acquired the elusive wealthy gene. You and I could have it, but basically we just don’t.

Countless books have been written on the subject of how to develop and nurture the gene. It’s tricky, though. One major problem is that you have to read at least three or four chapters of pretty dull material before getting to the main points. And even then, it’s often buried in a lot of froofy stuff. So here’s the bottom line up top: For obscenely loaded individuals, money is just money. And making it is a game.

Obviously, you and I have a whole different set of conditioning from childhood. Money, the way it usually is for us middle class-types (unless, like the precious few, we become liberated and enlightened) always means something. How we earn it, who we have to serve to get it, the degree of basic dignity our role permits, the voice in which we get to speak, the mask or costume we have to wear. Those are only a few of the metrics around money for us. They also include being needed and valued and appreciated and respected and all that emotional crap. I know…right?

Here’s a prime example. Why does a job candidate turn down a job offer at $195,000 but accept one at $200,000? After taxes, the difference is negligible. What can someone at that level of income possibly buy with $5,000 that he or she couldn’t afford without it? You know the answer: It’s not what the money buys. It’s what the money means. The round number has a special meaning that the other one doesn’t convey. Because the candidate — like most of us — lacks an essential gene, which, if we had it, would gently remind us that money is just money.

Clearly one of the most devastating effects of the economic downturn has come in the form of ego deflation — namely, the crushing realization that “career yardage gained” can be reversed in the blink of eye. While people believed they had turned an important “corner” or pulled themselves over a “hump” or matriculated to the next “level” in their professional trajectories…there was, in fact, no corner, hump or level. Such images exist only in Dungeons and Dragons. Practically speaking, these are nothing more than self-sustaining stories we tell ourselves as we lumber toward the ultimate finish line: retirement. So the myth of building on past income and accomplishments is a limitation to be overcome. And the very rich get this.

That’s why we can get close to “comfortable, thanks” but still not become wealthy. People who have the wealthy gene aren’t necessarily addicted to luxury or think they’re above the rest of the world. They’re not hungrier and I don’t believe they work any harder. Financial independence materializes for them precisely because it is all a big game, because money is just money (you have to keep repeating that in order to get your head around it) and because it doesn’t matter how or where they earn it (Wall Street or Walmart, no difference) or what denomination it comes in, as long as it’s more or less honorable and they don’t leave anything on the table when they go home for dinner.

So we’re kinda messed up in that way. Psychologically, I mean. No, seriously. The very rich are totally healthy and we are messed up. Money is just money in the major leagues, and possibly everyone who ever earned a giant boatload of it had to learn that lesson first.

Whatever. At least we’ll always have our youthful figures.

Friday, July 16, 2010

Why Aspiring Entrepreneurs Should Stop Planning and Start Doing

by Brett Owens

I talk to a great many erstwhile entrepreneurs that tell me all about their ideas and all the things that they’re going to do when they start their company. Or people who have started but aren’t really getting anything done because they can’t find the right co-founder or they need to design every last detail first, or they don’t have the marketing copy for their web site quite right yet.

Entrepreneurs do. We take an idea and a market and drive to make it happen. Figure out what’s standing in the way of you getting stuff done and just go through it. Once you’re actually building your company, a lot of those things that looked insurmountable turn out to be no problem at all.

Video-Entrepreneurship 101

These are two paragraphs that any aspiring entrepreneur should read over and over again - this is the essence of why so many wannabe companies never get off the ground. And why so many wannabe entrepreneurs are forever waiting for the stars to align for them to go whole hog after their vision.

Here's an unfortunate fact of life: The stars will never align. So if you're waiting around for a few things to "fall into place", you're wasting time. Just get started and get after it.

As Adam mentions, most problems you're planning for right now will never come to fruition. At least 95% of your planning time and energy is likely being wasted.

On the flip side, there are obstacles that you'll never anticipate until you start off on your journey. That's OK - you'll deal with them as they come.

The important thing is to "fail fast" - if something is not working, stop doing it, and start doing more things that are working.

But - what if nothing is working at all? That's OK too - actually it's completely normal, especially for a startup. See, you don't have to be that far off for it to feel like nothing is lining up.

If I may, let me use Chrometa as an example. One year ago at this time, we had very little working. Our messaging and value proposition was not connecting with the market - people would go to our website, and wonder what the heck we (and our product) did. Not good.

Our product itself was a little better. It had evolved to the stage where trial and beta users would say "I can see where this is going."

So we kept tweaking everything - our focus, the product itself, our messaging, etc. It can be a maddening process, quite honestly, because you can make a lot of incremental improvements, and have nothing to show for it.

"How's the startup going?" is a question people love to ask. And it's a question a pre-revenue company usually hates to answer! Because it's tough to say things are going well when you don't yet have a product that people will gladly pay for.

But eventually, it came together for us. We defined who we were. We kept honing the product (and continue to do so). And eventually things started to click.

Moral of the story - inaction is the enemy of the entrepreneur. Get moving today. You'll figure out what works, what doesn't (that'll be a real long list initially), and most importantly, you'll be able to go from there and start building something of real value.
 
Entrepreneurs-10 superstars under 30
The Secret of My (Early) Success

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

How I Did It: Leslie Blodgett of Bare Escentuals

As Told to Liz Welch . Jul 1, 2010


When Leslie Blodgett became CEO of Bare Escentuals in 1994 -- the company was then a tiny maker of bath and body products -- she saw a huge opportunity selling healthy mineral-based makeup. But she didn't quite realize how many women she could reach until she made a pitch on late-night TV. The company's rapid growth led to a 2006 IPO, followed by the sale of the company this year for $1.7 billion to Shiseido, the Japanese beauty giant. Today, Bare Escentuals, based in San Francisco, has 130 boutiques in the U.S. and one in the U.K., and employs 2,200.


I've been working since I was 10. My parents got divorced when I was 9, and my mother raised me, my brother, and my sister on a teacher's salary. She was tough. I probably would have been very lazy if she weren't always on my ass.


My first real job was at McDonald's. There was a girl there who taught me how to apply double shades of eye shadow, which I still do today. I always loved makeup, even though my mother didn't approve. She was into the women's-lib movement. She never remarried, loved her independence, and always told me to have my own career. Whenever I went out with a guy, I'd always pay for myself. I didn't want men to think that they had anything on me.

Finding a Good Online Home Based Business Opportunity

I spent my first two years at Oswego State partying. My mom read about a new program in cosmetics marketing at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, but I needed experience to even apply. My first interview was at the Christian Dior counter at Gimbels, on 86th Street, but I wasn't their type. Bloomingdale's wouldn't hire me, either, so I waited outside the buying-office door every day until they gave me a commission job selling hair sticks. I made 21 percent of all sales and ate a lot of popcorn and ramen noodles.


By then, I'd been accepted to FIT. I took on part-time jobs, including one at the Ultima II counter at Macy's. That's where I learned about makeup application -- and that the makeup counter is a terrible place. The saleswomen were angry and mean. Then I met Keith. He was the first guy who insisted on paying for dinner. We got married very quickly. I think I was looking for a guy who could take care of me emotionally.


I got a job at Max Factor in product development and discovered I had a really good eye for color. I moved quickly from assistant to manager. The company was sold to Revlon, which was then bought by Procter & Gamble. I was surrounded by younger M.B.A.'s who were making more than me and had attitudes. I resented that. As a result, I didn't hire M.B.A.'s for years -- I wanted passionate people coming up through the industry. I've since learned that you need balance.


Keith worked in film production, and we agreed that whoever was making more money would keep working when we started a family. Our son, Trent, was 3 months old when I took a job with Neutrogena. Keith has been a stay-at-home dad ever since. He does everything around the house. I don't even know how to turn on the dishwasher.


In 1994, John Hansen, part of an investor group that owned Bare Escentuals, called me. I'd never heard of the company, which made the first mineral-based makeup line and had six stores in Northern California. Back then, everyone used liquid foundation, which seeped into your pores and gave you zits. A powder foundation that was good for your skin made great sense, but the shades Bare Escentuals had created weren't working. They were gross. I knew complexions and how to match skin tones -- and I saw a huge opportunity. John hired me, and I became CEO within a few months.


I relaunched the line as bareMinerals, with six eye shadows, six blushes, five foundations, and brushes. There were seven of us in the office just winging it.


By the fourth quarter of 1996, I thought we weren't going to make it. I spent many sleepless nights worrying. There was not much on TV at 2 a.m., so I found myself watching a smiling woman on QVC selling jewelry and thinking, I could do that. I bought a white suit and a $29 fake 5-carat diamond ring and decided to give it my best shot.


I went on air August 30, 1997 -- the day Princess Diana died. I said things like, "Do you want to make your skin break out even more? Then don't try my product. But if you're interested in something pure that you can actually sleep in, then let's talk." That day, we sold $45,000 worth of product. My heart was pounding when I walked off the set. I started screaming, "You rock!" to the host, Lisa Robertson, who's now my best friend.


Promote Your Business With a Social Media Business Card


Women liked the product but had questions. I went online daily to respond but couldn't keep up. And then I noticed other women were answering for me. That inspired me to start hosting events at our boutiques. I invited people to come share ideas and tips. I started naming new products after loyal fans.


I was scheduled every six weeks on QVC but realized I needed more time to talk about the application process. Infomercials seemed a great way to do that. Suddenly, we had the ability to get our message out daily if we wanted to.


The infomercials were a success, but people couldn't find the product. So I focused on distribution. Sephora was an especially hard sell. I sent a white limo to Sephora's headquarters, which is right down the street, and brought the buyers to our boutique. It worked. A few years later, Nordstrom called.

Big bashes get a lot of notice. So we had a cruise for customers to the Bahamas and then one to Mexico. It was like a giant slumber party: We dressed up and danced and had fun. Then, I took a bus tour of our boutiques and we hosted events. I'd talk about our products as well as my thighs. And my Spanx.


In the mid-2000s, we started growing too fast and couldn't keep up with demand, so there were a lot of lost sales. We hired Myles McCormick as our chief financial officer in 2004: He's an M.B.A., and so I've learned to love M.B.A.'s. He's now the CEO, and I've become executive chairman. Myles has always done the hard math and business analysis. I make decisions from the gut.


I've received thousands of letters. One woman wrote: "Dearest Leslie, I've always been overweight. I've never felt pretty. I lived without cosmetics for 15 years. In 2008, my younger sister convinced me to try bareMinerals. I did -- and then I cried. Finally, at 49 years old, I was pretty." She's one of my angels now, part of my volunteer ambassador program. We send these women samples, and they talk about the product to friends, strangers, and colleagues.


Why am I here? Because women want to feel pretty. If I have a bad day, I read these letters before I go to sleep at night. They remind me of what we do. It's powerful. I don't want to be a business. I want to be a community.

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Goal Setting Investments - Time, Money, and Energy

Wayne Buckhanan

The goal setting process is about identifying what obstacles are between you and your goal and getting access to the resources needed to bypass those obstacles. Some of the resources we need to reach our goals are time, money, and energy. By focusing on how we can leverage our current time, money, and energy we can create more for when we need them most.




People usually talk about spending money at the store or spending time with their family. The spending mindset is all about the expense in terms of time, money, or energy. When people talk about investing they expect something in return over the long term, not just the momentary pleasure of eating, being entertained, or hanging out. The investment mindset is about the return in terms of time, energy, or money.



When people want to have more money they often start by eliminating excess spending. This is an attempt to reduce the expenses. The trouble with eliminating expenses is that there is a point where no more expenses can be eliminated. If we have a fixed income, there is only so much money we can keep even if we eliminate all our expenses.



The question you should be asking yourself when investing rather than spending is "what is my return on this investment?" Return is profit divided by investment. In other words return is how many more dollars do you get back for every dollar invested.



For example, if I invest $100 in a piece of art and am able to sell it for $100, my return is 0% -- I only made back my one dollar for every one dollar I invested. If I am able to sell that piece of art for $150 I made a 50% return -- I made back my original $100 plus fifty cents on each dollar I invested. If I decide that I need to be rid of this art piece because it is taking up too much space and I sell it for $50 I had a negative 50% return on that investment -- my pay out was $50 less than the original $100 I invested.



Using the principle of return on investment let's look at typical spending. If I spend $100 on a new TV and get $0 because of it, I have a return of negative 100% -- I lost 100% of what I put in. The same applies to our time and energy. The time spent in front of that TV is generating me no pay out and therefore is a 100% loss of that time.



How is this different if rather than spending the time I choose to invest it? I invest the $100 and the several hours a day towards my goals. I may be able to turn that $100 into $200 or $1000. I may turn those few hours into weeks on the beach. I may even notice that my energy level is higher because I've invested in something meaningful to myself!



By focusing on investing our time, money, and energy into areas where we will see positive returns, such as our goals, we are able to leverage the original resources and the newly created resources. These resources can now be used to reach other goals more quickly and easily. By choosing to invest, rather than spend, our limited resources we are creating a positive spiral and making our lives match our dreams.



Visit http://SixStepsForChange.com for more on goal setting and more importantly, goal getting and find out how Native American wisdom, good business sense, and NLP are helping more people create the life of their dreams.

Make Part Time Money

By Curtis Loks

The world economy is in crisis and we need to make part time money. If we want to make part time money, we need to do different things. The online world is an option we can consider to make a change. Here we are going to give you some tips for you to make money with some cool websites.



If you are young and know how to surf the World Wide Web, and write without many grammar errors, then you can go to Amazon Turk. This service is owned by Amazon, and as you know, this is a reputable and respected company (Amazon).



After you are registered in Amazon Turk you will notice a couple of things. First, they will offer you many kinds of tasks. These tasks are very simple to do. You can write articles, film videos and other sort of media formats. This site is really cool and you may like it very much. They have options to pay you: cash or Amazon products. You will also need a US bank account if you want to claim your hard earned money.



Another cool site is Odesk.com. Here you are going to work by the hour. They will inspect everything you do when you work with them. They will place many offers for you to take. They also have a really good system to keep in touch with their freelancers and clients. There So, try it for yourself and discover how to make part time money now.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

How to Use Social Networking Sites to Drive Business

Advice for small businesses on using social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn, and how to integrate these tools into the marketing and recruiting efforts of your company.

By J.J. McCorvey
http://www.inc.com/guides/using-social-networking-sites.html


Consider this: It wasn’t until 1997 that the Internet reached 50 million users in the United States. Facebook gained over 100 million users in the U.S. from January 2009 to January 2010, marking a 145 percent growth rate within one year, according to research by digital marketing agency iStrategy Labs. If you’re a business owner that hasn’t embraced social media networking as a major component of your success strategy, it’s due time to hop onboard.



“When you’ve got 300 million people on Facebook, that’s a huge business watering hole,” says Lon Safko, social media expert and co-author of The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools, and Strategies for Business Success, of the site’s global reach. “The profile is like an index to your company.”



While Facebook has become the most popular social media site, there are plenty of others for your company to explore. LinkedIn, for example, houses 55 million professionals seeking jobs, employees, or basic business or networking opportunities. MySpace, which allows users to tinker with music, themes, and HTML code, is targeted toward youth and teens. All of these sites have one primary thing in common: the profile.



The user profile is generally what distinguishes social networking sites from other social media platforms. It helps set the stage for building relationships with people who share the same interests, activities, or personal contacts, as opposed to primarily disseminating or digesting information feeds. This also means social networks enable companies to invite audiences to get to know its brand in a way that traditional forms of marketing or advertising can’t.



But what, exactly, are the methods that businesses should use to effectively leverage the burgeoning userbase of these sites as a tool to grow their companies? The following pages will detail what to do – and what not to do – in order to maintain a viable presence in the realm of social networking.

How to Use Social Networking Sites to Drive Business: Developing a Social Networking Strategy



Before opening an account and becoming active, it’s important to consider what each site offers and how you can benefit from their resources. “Take some time and really analyze what your existing social media strategy is,” says Safko. “Figure out which tools are best for your demographic.” Without a fully developed plan for your social networking activity, you could end up meandering throughout the sites and wasting a lot of time.



Here are a few basic questions to ask yourself when forming your social networking strategy:

1. What are the needs of my business? Hopefully, you’re not putting your company name on a social networking account just to send messages back and forth to former high school classmates, so there has to be an impetus. Figure out what your needs are. Are you short-staffed? Is your advertising budget running thin?



2. What am I using the site for? After you’ve established your needs, consider the primary goal of your social networking strategy. Do you want to recruit employees for a certain department? Do you want to market a new line of products? Do you want to connect to more people in your industry?



3. Whose attention am I trying to get? Okay, so you want to market that new line of products, for example. You still need to know your target audience for that product, and with more than 300 million users on Facebook, you'll need to narrow your focus.



Got those answered? Good. Now, consider these questions:

1. Which sites do I want to take on? If you have enough staffing power to handle multiple social networking sites, that’s great. If not, it’s important to focus on one or two, or you could spread yourself too thin and fall victim to the “gaping void” perception, where you end up going days without activity. Your followers will notice.



2. Who’s going to manage my page? Would your social networking activity fall under a current employee’s responsibilities, or do you need to bring on new talent? If you ever find yourself without the staffing resources to manage your page, don’t stick your head in the sand, says Safko. “Find some interns,” he advises. “In most cases, they’ll do it for free.”



3. Who has access to my page? What type of trust level do you have established at your company? Will all of your employees have access to the social network account, or a select few? Take the time to assess the skills and character of those who can log into your page, or you may run into unsavory situations down the road – especially when dealing with former workers.



4. Who’s going to be the personality of my page? Does your company already have a public representative that usually handles speeches, press, etc.? It may be beneficial to rein in that person as the voice of your social networking site. “People buy from other people, not from other companies,” says Safko. “In order to solidify trust, pick someone to represent your brand.”

How to Decide Whether Your Business Should Build or Buy

Think your business is ready to expand? Here’s what you should consider before heading down either path.

By Matt Quinn

Deciding whether to expand your business organically or through acquisitions is the ultimate “build or buy” decision. It’s similar to the choice between buying an existing home or building your own, but we’re talking about your livelihood here—not to mention your employees' well being and your investors' returns.

Mind you, for businesses, the buy and build paths aren’t mutually exclusive. You can certainly grow your business in hopes of adding more operations down the road and you can buy new businesses with the intent of growing them organically.

But for a business of limited size that doesn’t have the benefit of a full corporate development arm, pulling both off simultaneous is likely impossible.

Still, both strategies have a lot in common. They require similar disciplines in terms of cost-benefit analysis and careful execution. And the hazards along each path often pop up to varying degrees in similar areas.

Build or Buy? The Basic Benefits – and Costs

On the surface, expansion through acquisition makes a lot of sense if you’re looking to enter a new product line or a new market. Setting up shop in a new location and building from scratch is costly and time consuming. Finding acceptance for a new product can be a slog.

“The time that you want to buy a business is if you really want to get into a market fast. That your go-to-market timing is of paramount importance,” says Robert J. Chalfin, a lecturer at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and CEO of The Chalfin Group, a Metuchen, New Jersey-based firm that advises on the purchase and sale of closely held businesses.

What you get is an instant infrastructure, customer base, cash flow, inventory, physical plant, distribution network and supply chain – all the vital ingredients for a functioning business.

But remember that you’re inheriting a process. Someone else’s process. And that process may not be what you want, warns Chalfin.

By buying instead of building, you’re sacrificing the ability to tailor the business to all of your specifications. Building can allow you to move at your own pace, pull back if circumstances change quickly on you and guard your business culture. However, the pace of execution could cause you to miss a market opportunity.

Build or Buy? Know Your Own Business First

Whether you’re embarking on a buy or a build strategy, you want to make sure that your existing business is on solid ground. In particular, you want to have a stable management team and one with enough depth that it can focus its attention on an acquisition or a build-out without harming the business you already have.

“It’s very hard to grow without having that kind of group already assembled,” says Craig Frances, a managing director in the Palo Alto, California office of Summit Partners, a private equity and venture capital firm that invests in growing, profitable, privately-held companies worldwide.

You also have to determine if you even have the account management team to support the growth. The success of your current business is based on your ability to offer your existing clients top-notch service. Any growth strategy could put that at risk, and render any possible benefits moot.

“There are a lot of stories about companies that grew quickly and then quickly had enormous customer churn,” says Frances. “They outran what they were doing very well initially.”

Then there’s the matter of your financial infrastructure. How strong are your financial controls? How well do you measure your cash? If you’re getting ready to grow, there’s going to be a lot of stress on your working capital and your ability to measure your financial health.

Those three things – the strength of your team, infrastructure to support new customers, and solid financial controls and metrics – are essential to any building strategy, as well as an acquisition strategy. But if you’re seriously looking at pursuing acquisitions, there is another critical element: experience at deal-making.

In an ideal world, your whole top management team would have some expertise in closing and integrating an acquisition, but that’s seldom the case. Hopefully someone in your top ranks has solid experience in the area. But failing that, you’re going to have to bring in a corporate development person, which can be a considerable cost depending on how long the integration takes.

Such advisors, Chalfin warns, carry their own risks if their goals aren’t aligned with yours. One way to match up objectives is to offer a success fee, where the advisor is paid for results achieved over the first few years and not just for closing a deal.

In short, if acquisitions aren’t already a core capability of yours, expect the advisory fees to mount.

Build or Buy? Know Your Industry and Market

Now that you’ve sized up your staff's strengthes and weaknesses, it’s time to assess your industry and market. If you’re growing organically, you need to figure out how much growth your market can actually support.

“Usually in industries that are very fast growing, you don’t see acquisitions for a while,” says Frances. “The reason is that the companies have a much better return on their capital by just plowing it back into their growth versus buying other businesses.”

Conversely, if your market is mature, you need to figure out how much return you can reasonably expect from your investment. “The simple truth is that it’s hard to create private equity-like returns in industries growing 5 to 10 percent,” Frances says.

By expanding in your existing market, you might risk cannibalizing your existing business, so you need to closely examine where you fit in with the marketplace.

“Have you just gotten lucky in your existing market?" Chalfin asks. "Are there changes to your market on the horizon that could affect that success?”

Build or Buy? Weigh All the Different Costs

When expanding, the costs keep coming. And as the National Federation of Independent Businesses warns in a guide about expansion on its website, a “common problem when expanding a business is the underestimation of costs.”

The business group points to building costs, equipment costs, tax costs, inventory costs, changes to accounts receivables, and the addition of support staff as things you need to carefully weigh when building your operations.

As for acquisitions, most will require some outside help, such as lawyers, attorneys, and other intermediaries. That translates to a bounty of fees. And the more complex the transaction is, the larger those fees will grow.

Then there are other obvious integration costs such as those for IT and accounting systems.

The success of the acquisition will rest on your ability to realize all the cost savings and revenue opportunities that looked so appealing on paper. Though your acquisition might provide you with vast economies of scale—extra office space and savings on rent, procurement and insurance, and more—you may also end up with new employees that were promised extra vacation, bonuses, and promotions by the previous management.

Try as you might to turn over every rock during the due diligence process, be prepared for some serious, potentially costly surprises no matter how you decide to expand.

Build or Buy? The Verdict



So you still think your managers, infrastructure and industry have what it takes to support an expansion strategy and that the costs won't run you into the ground? Then ultimately the decision on whether to build a new business versus buying another company comes down to whether you want to get into a new geography or product line right now. If so, making an acquisition is likely the way to go. But if you're the more methodical type who needs to put your stamp on every aspect of your business and does not handle well the fear of the unknown (and every deal has an unknown), then a build-out strategy is probably the best course of action for you.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

How To Use Your Blog to Market Your Business -600+ High PR Backlinks

Suhana Smith

Have you just started blogging? Or have you been blogging for a while? As you may already know, a blog is an excellent tool to let the world know about your business or your product, to connect with potential customers and promote your expertise. But how can you maximize your blog's impact? Here are five tips to do just that:

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- Blog Consistently. Many business owners get excited about blogging, post 3-6 times, and then promptly forget about the blog. I have seen many blogs that were started a year or two ago, have a grand total of five posts, and haven't been updated since sometime last year.

To get the desired effect (search engine and human traffic), you need to update your blog on a regular basis. Search engines love new content and keep coming back to index it. Potential customers also like new content; it's what keeps them coming back to read your blog.

- Use Your Blog For Branding. Your blog is an extension of your business, so make your blog have a look and feel that mirrors that of your business web site.

If your blog is hosted on the same domain as your web site, you should match the look and feel of your web site exactly. This will be more difficult to achieve if a third party provider hosts your blog. However, you should still aim to present the same brand image.

- Use Search Engine Optimization To Optimize Each Blog Post. The purpose of your blog is to get people who are in your target market to read your posts and enter your sphere of influence. Traffic from search engines does not cost any money, and it is a great way to get potential customers to your blog.

Treat each one of your blog posts as a separate file to be optimized for search engines. Use a keyword research tool to find phrases that are related to the main subject of the post, and weave them into the content of the post.

- Have A Special Offer On Your Blog. Do you offer a free special report? Do you offer a mini course as a bonus for new newsletter subscribers? Add the offer to your blog. This will transform people from casual surfers who just happened to find your blog to newsletter subscribers.

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- Share Information About Your Events, Products and Seminars. You might think that everyone has already heard about your upcoming teleclass on life and work balance or your e-book about achieving financial success. Not so! The person reading your blog might be hearing about you for the very first time, so they have no idea about your teleseminars or products unless you specifically tell them.

Avoid overselling, as it will dramatically reduce the number of your blog readers. Do, however, let your blog readers know about your seminars and products. If you don't tell them, nobody will.

A blog is an excellent tool to generate additional web site traffic, get new newsletter subscribers and sell more products. Use your blog to introduce potential customers to your business.

Don't Die With A Million Dollar Idea Still Inside You!

By Vernon Myers

Did you know that you were brought to this earth for a specific reason? You are the only person who can fulfill the purpose and mission for which you were born. What is your purpose? What is your mission? You have within you the ability to create anything that you can imagine. The fact that you can think about a particular thing is evidence that you can create it.

A creative act is experienced from the inside out, first it is experienced in the mind, followed by outward expression as an idea, concept, product, or service. Napoleon Hill, author of the success classic, Think and Grow Rich, said "Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe it can achieve." Can you believe that you have a million-dollar idea inside of you? You can and you will, if you believe you can.

We live in an Idea Universe

We live in an idea universe, where Thomas Edison said "Ideas are waiting to be discovered." Have you found your idea yet? Have you found the idea that will take you from where you are right now to the lifestyle of your dreams? Think about the idea that subtly entered your consciousness and left just as quickly. Think about the idea that caused your heart to race because there was no way you could accomplish it by yourself, yet the sheer size and scope of the idea caused your muscles to tense up and your palms to get sweaty with anticipation. Your million-dollar idea is created within the confines of your mind and it is waiting for you to reach out and grab hold of it.

The problem with most people is that when the inkling of an idea enters their minds, they are not prepared for what comes next - the feelings and thoughts of doubt, disbelief, fear and failure. Most people stop at this point - the idea is lost and they go back to life as usual. Did you know that your brain is programmed to keep you where you are in your life and the minute you try to do something different you run up against the mental programming that has prevented you from being as successful as you should be? You must break through this mental wall of failure and pursue your ideas with focus, energy, and intensity. You must become so determined to see your idea become a reality that you either create your idea or you die trying to accomplish it. That is the high commitment level that you must bring to this life-changing endeavor.

Are you creative?

Do you possess the creative ability to develop a world-changing idea? We are all creative and possess the ability to produce fantastic ideas; in fact you are an idea generating machine that can create masterpieces where nothing existed before. How many times have you had a great idea only to see it materialize somewhere else? We live in a time full of opportunity and possibility, in fact businessman, author, and motivational speaker Brian Tracy says that, "The average person has four ideas a year, which if any one of them is acted upon would make them a millionaire." Have you seen your million dollar idea this year?

Everyone has a multi-million dollar idea inside them but statistically very few will become millionaires because they will not bother to implement their million-dollar ideas. The real joy in creating novel ideas is in finding creative ways to put them into practice and then seeing the ideas grow. We have an unlimited opportunity to produce wealth and abundance in our lives today. There are over a million ways to become prosperous, but there are only a few ways that are absolutely suited to your personality, skills, passions, and desires. You only need to find one idea in order to change your entire life. Art Fry of 3M created the Post-It Notes one time and now 3M pays him 1% of total sales every year. Can you live with 1% of $100 million dollars every year of your life?

How to get ideas

How do you develop or create life changing ideas? Ideas are all around us, yet they will not trip you up as you walk down the street. Ideas will not coming knocking at your door waiting for you to invite them into your home. Ideas are elusive and are only revealed to the discerning eyes of people who are ready for them.

You get ideas by actively searching for them. The quality of an idea is based upon the information you gather and the specialized or general knowledge you have to work with. You find ideas when you actively combine old elements or ideas into new combinations - that is the essence of ideation. Curiosity is another way to feed your ability to get new ideas because the more you search, the more you will find. The more you know, the more you want to know. Continuous learning allows you to add new information, facts, and knowledge to your kit bag to help you create new and better ideas.

How to implement your ideas

After you create the idea you have to figure out a way to move the idea from concept to reality. You need a team to help you develop your ideas. Don't try to do everything by yourself - your team may be able to contribute time, money, resources and support as you get your idea off the ground. You must develop a plan that outlines how you are approaching the development and deployment of your idea. The old adage goes if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Get started building a foundation under the big dream that you are building.

Identify your skill and information deficits. What specific or general knowledge do you need to launch your idea? Can you learn it or do you need to pay someone to provide that knowledge for you? Identify the specific skills and knowledge that you need to develop and create your idea and go get it today.

What is it going to cost if you do not follow-up on your idea? What opportunities will you miss? What mission will you not fulfill? When one person finds her mission in life, she helps one thousand people find the missions for their lives. Find a strong reason to persist in creating your idea no matter what the obstacles or circumstances. I have heard it said that there are one thousand reasons why you cannot pursue your dreams; I challenge you to find one reason why you can pursue your dreams.

You are a walking miracle - there is no one on this earth that has the unique abilities and insights that you possess. You were placed here for a particular reason. Do not allow that reason to go to the grave with you. The idea, the plan, the purpose and the dream are not meant just for you but for all of mankind.

Ross Perot says that "It just takes one idea to live like a king for the rest of your life." I submit that one idea can not only change your life, but one idea can change the lives of millions of people.

Imagine if Gandhi of India allowed his idea of non-violent social change to die with him, millions of people in India may have continued to be repressed by the British Empire. In America, Martin Luther King, Jr. would have never studied Gandhi's principles of non-violent social change which means that Black Americans may not enjoy the freedoms that they enjoy today.

Follow the example of these great men - express your idea, live your idea, create your idea and share you idea with the world and most importantly - Don't Die With A Million Dollar Idea Still Inside You!!

Vernon Myers is the founder of IdeaMERGE.NET – Where Ideas and People Unite! - An online networking site devoted to connecting people who have ideas to people who have experience and advice to share.

Vernon is also the author of The Idea Journal – visit http://www.ideamerge.net/products to find out how to unleash your urge to create.

Visit Vernon’s blog, The Idea Pipeline, at http://www.ideapipeline.blogspot.com to discuss your ideas, dreams, and goals or to leave your comments.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

How To Raise Money to Start Business and Where to Get Money for Business

By Julia Tang


To raise money to start business is not as difficult as most people seem to think. This is especially true when you have an idea that can make you and your backers rich. Actually, there's more money available for new business ventures than there are good business ideas. We will help you for where you can get money for business.

A very important rule of the game to learn: Any time you want to raise money, your first move should be to put together a proper prospectus.

This prospectus should include a resume of your background, your education, training, experience and any other personal qualities that might be counted as an asset to your potential success. It's also a good idea to list the various loans you've had in the past, what they were for, and your history in paying them off.

You'll have to explain in detail how the money you want is going to be used. If it's for an existing business, you'll need a profit and loss record for at least the preceding six months, and a plan showing how this additional money will produce greater profits. If it's a new business, you'll have to show your proposed business plan, your marketing research and projected costs, as well as anticipated income figures, with a summary for each year, over at least a three year period.

It'll be advantageous to you to base your cost estimates high, and your income projections on minimal returns. This will enable you to "ride through" those extreme "ups and downs" inherent in any beginning business. You should also describe what makes your business unique---how it differs form your competition and the opportunities for expansion or secondary products.

This prospectus will have to state precisely what you're offering the investor in return for the use of his money. He'll want to know the percentage of interest you're willing to pay, and whether monthly, quarterly or on an annual basis. Are you offering a certain percentage of the profits? A percentage of the business? A seat on your board of directories?

An investor uses his money to make more money. He wants to make as much as he can, regardless whether it's short term or long term deal. In order to attract him, interest him, and persuade him to "put up" the money you need, you'll not only have to offer him an opportunity for big profits, but you'll have to spell it out in detail, and further, back up your claims with proof from your marketing research.

Venture investors are usually quite familiar with "high risk" proposals, yet they all want to minimize that risk as much as possible. Therefore, your prospectus should include a listing of your business and personal assets with documentation---usually copies of your tax returns for the past three years or more. Your prospective investor may not know anything about you or your business, but if he wants to know, he can pick up his telephone and know everything there is to know within 24 hours. The point here is, don't ever try to "con" a potential investor. Be honest with him. Lay all the facts on the table for him. In most cases, if you've got a good idea and you've done your homework properly, and "interested investor" will understand your position and offer more help than you dared to ask.

When you have your prospectus prepared, know how much money you want, exactly how it will be used, and how you intend to repay it, you're ready to start looking for investors.

As simple as it seems, one of the easiest ways of raising money is by advertising in a newspaper or a national publication featuring such ads. Your ad should state the amount of money you want--always ask for more money than you have room for negotiating. Your ad should also state the type of business involved ( to separate the curious from the truly interested), and the kind of return you're promising on the investment.

Take a page from the party plan merchandisers. Set up a party and invite your friends over. Explain your business plan, the profit potential, and how much you need. Give them each a copy of your prospectus and ask that they pledge a thousand dollars as a non-participating partner in your business. Check with the current tax regulations. You may be allowed up to 25 partners in Sub Chapter S enterprises, opening the door for anyone to gather a group of friends around himself with something to offer them in return for their assistance in capitalizing his business.

You can also issue and sell up to $300,000 worth of stock in your company without going through the Federal Trade Commission. You'll need the help of an attorney to do this, however, and of course a good tax accountant as well wouldn't hurt.

It's always a good idea to have an attorney and an accountant help you make up your business prospectus. As you explain your plan to them, and ask for their advice, casually ask them if they'd mind letting you know of, or steer your way any potential investors they might happen to meet. Do the same with your banker. Give him a copy of your prospectus and ask him if he'd look it over and offer any suggestions for improving it, and of course, let you know of any potential investors. In either case, it's always a good idea to let them know you're willing to pay a "finder's fee" if you can be directed to the right investor.

Professional people such as doctors and dentists are known to have a tendency to join occupational investment groups. The next time you talk with your doctor or dentist, give him a prospectus and explain your plan. He may want to invest on his own or perhaps set up an appointment for you to talk with the manager of his investment group. Either way, you win because when you're looking for money, it's essential that you get the word out as many potential investors as possible.

Don't overlook the possibilities of the Small Business Investment Companies in your area. Look them up in your telephone book under "Investment Services." These companies exist for the sole purpose of lending money to businesses which they feel have a good chance of making money. In many instances, they trade their help for a small interest in your company.

Many states have Business Development Commissions whose goal is to assist in the establishment and growth of new businesses. Not only do they offer favorable taxes and business expertise, most also offer money or facilities to help a new business get started. Your Chamber of Commerce is the place to check for further information of this idea.

Industrial banks are usually much more amenable to making business loans than regular banks, so be sure to check out these institutions in your area. insurance companies are prime sources of long term business capital, but each company varies its policies regarding the type of business it will consider. Check your local agent for the name and address of the person to contact. It's also quite possible to get the directories of another company to invest in your business. Look for a company that can benefit from your product or service. Also, be sure to check at your public library for available foundation grants. These can be the final answer to all your money needs if your business is perceived to be related to the objectives and activities of the foundation.

Finally, there's the Money broker or Finder. These are the people who take your prospectus and circulate it with various known lenders or investors. They always require an up-front or retainer fee, and there's no way they can guarantee to get you the loan or the money you want.

There are many very good money brokers, and there are some that are not so good. They all take a percentage of the gross amount that's finally procured for your needs. The important thing is to check them out fully; find out about the successful loans or investment plans they're arranged, and what kind of investor contacts they have---all of this before you put up any front money or pay any retainer fees.

There are many ways to raise money---from staging garage sales to selling stocks. Don't make the mistake of thinking that the only place you can find the money you need is through the bank or finance company.

Start thinking about the idea of inviting investors to share in your business as silent partners. Think about the idea of obtaining financing for a primary business by arranging financing for another business that will support the start-up, establishment and developing of the primary business. Consider the feasibility of merging with a company that's already organized, and with facilities that are compatible or related to your needs. Give some thought to the possibilities of getting the people supplying your production equipment to co-sign the loan you need for start-up capital.

Remember, there are thousands upon thousands of ways to obtain business start-up capital. This is truly the age of creative financing.

Disregard the stories you hear of "tight money," and start making phone calls, talking to people, and making appointments to discuss your plans with the people who have money invest. There's more money now than there's ever been for a new business investment. The problem is that most beginning "business builders" don't know what to believe or which way to turn for help. They tend to believe the stories of "tight money," and they set aside their plans for a business of their own until a time when start-up money might be easier to find.

The truth is this: Now is the time to make your move. Now is the time to act. the person with a truly viable business plan, and determination to succeed, will make use of every possible idea that can be imagined. And the ideas I've suggested here should serve as just a few of the unlimited sources of monetary help available and waiting for you!

Now you should get idea for how to raise money to start business, how to get money for business, and where to get money for my business.

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Julia Tang publishes Smart Online Business Tips, a fresh
and informative newsletter dedicated to supporting people
like you! To find out the best online business opportunities,
and to discover hundreds more proven and practical internet
marketing secrets, plus FREE internet marketing products
worth over $200, visit: http://www.best-internet-businesses.com
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Money-Friend or Foe?

By Kevin King

Is money a friend or a foe? I dare say neither. Money just is. It is a medium of exchange (nothing more and nothing less) that our society has elevated into a determination of status.

Much of western civilization has determined that the size of one's bank account determines the value of that person. You hear much to the contrary, but as the saying goes, actions speak louder than words.

Next Thursday, we in the United States usher in the start of the holiday season with our celebration of Thanksgiving. The next 30 - 45 days will be filled with good cheer and best wishes and thoughts of "Peace on Earth" and "Good Will to Men". Charities find the next 6 weeks to historically be their best season in receiving monetary donations. The homeless are given shelter as churches and synagogues seek special donations for Christmas and Chanukah gifts for children. Everyone of every faith prays for peace and understanding.

But what happens the other 46 weeks of the year? Oh, sure, the charities and foundations are still there. But how do we as a society treat them and those with less or no money? How do we as a society treat those with less status?

According to the most recent statistics I have seen, the numbers of people without any health care coverage in the United States are approaching 46 million. Why? Unemployment in the United States is officially over 6%. But what is the real figure? Millions have been out of work so long, the government doesn't even count them anymore. If one has become so discouraged in not being able to find employment and so he/she gives up for a while, that person isn't counted anymore as being in the workforce. I have seen estimates that put the actual unemployment figure at close to 10%.

And this doesn't apply to the United States alone. Different countries, different societies have different ways of handling this. But, as a general rule, Western civilization has determined money to be a determinative of one's value.

And, this is not good. Yet, contrary to where you might think I am going, money is not evil. Money is good. Some think the Bible states that money is the root of all evil. It does not say that - anywhere. The Bible does say, "the love of money is the root of all evil".

And the Bible does not refer just to "money" when it calls the "love of money" the root of all evil. "Money" serves, here, as a euphemism for material goods, selfishness, even thoughts and ideas.

When material items, such as money, and thoughts and ideas become more important than the person and people in general, we are entering upon evil. In the movie "Wall Street", Gordon Gekko, played by Michael Douglas, states in one scene that "Greed is good".

Gordon Gekko was wrong. Greed is evil. I am not a linguist, but I dare say that the statement in the Bible that "The love of money is the root of all evil" would be better translated as "Greed is the root of all evil".

The "love of money" being the root of all evil, and hence taken by many people as money, itself, being the root of all evil has caused many of us to have deep seated thoughts of hostility towards and fear of money and financial riches. Nothing can be further from the truth, and this underlying hostility towards money has probably caused untold heartaches and poverty and hopelessness in our world.

If you are having difficulties in achieving your financial and material goals, your attitude towards money may be what is holding you back.

Ask yourself these questions:

What does money mean to me?

What are my core beliefs about money?

What did I learn as a child about money?

What do I think it really takes to earn and acquire financial abundance?

Ask yourself these questions and ponder your answers. Do you have answers such as the following?

 Money doesn't grow on trees.

 We can't afford it.

 God loves the poor.

 I just need enough to live.

Or do your answers resemble these?
With enough money, I can give a good education to my children.
Money enables me to travel and enjoy God's creation.
Money relieves the stress from day to day living.
With money, I can help all those who are less fortunate.

If you find that your beliefs about money are holding you back from achieving and empowering your dreams, then you need to change your beliefs immediately.

Money is not the problem. As with many things in our lives, it is our attitude that is the problem.

© Copyright 2003. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: J. Kevin King, J.D. is a Personal Life and Business Coach, and the Founder and CEO of The Empowerment System Network, which publishes the very unique weekly Success & Motivational ezine Empower Your Dream. Kevin has over 30 years experience in business and personal coaching. [http://empower-your-dream.com]

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E-Mail – JKKingJD@empower-your-dream.com

7 Things Every American Should Know About Unclaimed Money

By Nicole Anderson

Every year 20+ billion dollars goes unclaimed in the United States. Millions of Americans are owed this money but either don't know it exists or don't know how to find it.

Here are 7 things everyone needs to know about unclaimed money:

1 - ANYONE can have money owed to him or her!

Money that ends up in the unclaimed databases can come from many places including old bank accounts, savings bonds, inheritance, payroll checks, the list goes on and on. There are approximately 200 million people who are owed unclaimed money. Oprah stated 8 out of 9 families are owed unclaimed money.

The money may be from a source you were never even aware existed like a savings bond from when you were a child or an inheritance.

The government will not look for the owners of unclaimed money. They will happily keep the money and borrow from it or earn interest on it for as long as they can. This is apparent from the fact that Microsoft, Ryan Seacrest, Reese Witherspoon, Julia Roberts, Kate Hudson and Benicio Del Toro are all owed money.

Unless you do a search, don't assume you don't have unclaimed money.

2 - Your money may be under a different name

When you do an unclaimed money search the money may be listed under a variation of your name. For example: if your name is William M Smith the money may be listed under Bill M Smith, B M Smith, W M Smith, etc.

Depending on the source of the funds and the way the name was listed on that account the money may be listed under a variation of your legal name.

The money may also be listed under the name of a co-signer on the account. If the account was not solely in your name, it might very well be under the name of the person who shared the account(s) with you.

3 - It helps to know past addresses

When you perform an unclaimed money search you enter a name and then are given a list of results that match the entered name. The results will include some or all of the following information: account number, name on account, last known address on account and amount owed. Knowing the past addresses of the person whose name you are searching is helpful in identifying which accounts actually belong to that person.

4 - You may be owed money that was reported outside your state

If you have ever lived outside your current state of residence or have done any business with any company(s) outside your state, the money may be reported in the state where the company existed.

For example: If you lived in California your whole life but had an insurance policy with a company in New York and they had no address on record, the money owed from the policy would be listed in the New York state database not California.

Inheritance is often reported in the state of residence for the deceased, since it is unclaimed chances are the heir's address is unknown.

Most states have their own searchable database, but remember, searching your own state is not enough.

5 - Make sure to complete all steps of the claims process

The claims process will vary depending on the type of account. Typically driver's license, social security or birth certificate are required. If you are an heir additional paperwork such as death certificate and other executor documents may be required.

If you search a good quality database, they will provide you the claim instructions. Make sure to include all information and documentation requested. If you omit forms or required data your claim may not be processed and they will send a request for more information which will delay receipt of your money.

6 - You can search for family and friends

Databases allow you to search multiple names. You can search the names of your family and close friends to see if they are owed money. Since most people are unaware this money is sitting around, most have not searched their name to see how much is owed to them.

While researching for this article I found $400 owed to my mom from 2 different accounts!

7 - Unclaimed tax refunds will not be found

Tax refunds owed from prior tax years will not be in the databases, UNLESS you have filed for the year(s) you are owed money. You have up to 3 years to submit for a tax refund. After that time expires you will no longer be able to claim your tax refund. That means 2003-2005 taxes can be filed for a tax refund but entitlement to 2002 tax refunds expired on April 17, 2006.

So, if you are owed money from 2003-2005 tax years make sure to file your taxes for those years to claim your tax refund.

Nicole Anderson offers more information about unclaimed money at http://www.cashunclaimed.com. Cash Unclaimed’s database covers all state and federal databases, has Name Match technology, which will search variations of your name to ensure nothing is overlooked, and offers unlimited name searches to members. Click on http://www.cashunclaimed.com for a free money search and locate your missing money today!

Money - The Paradox Of Money

By CD Mohatta

Money is probably the most commonly word used around the world. Money, without which lot many things cannot be done. If one has no money, one will have trouble even feeding oneself, leave aside shelter etc. What should be our attitude towards money? How much money should we accumulate and how much should we give away. How many morals and principals can be broken to get more money? And why should we earn more money than absolutely essential? There are many questions about money that come in to mind. Because since ages its money and power that has motivated human beings.

For few of us power matters more than money. And paradoxically money always brings power with it. But power may or may not bring in money. For example if you are the most important person of your country but highly principled, you will have total power but very little money. On the other hand some corrupt dictators have accumulated money beyond any imagination.

For few of us there are other pursuits than money and power. A good scientist gets more excitement with his inventions than any amount of money or power. For each of us there is a different motivator. Money seems to be one of the most common motivator. Cutting costs, raising prices and making more profits, this is the mantra of most of the industries and enterprises. Stock market has attracted people since long only because of the probability of making quick money. Why should lotteries become popular? Should not we depend upon our hard earned money? But lottery tickets are bought around the world. Buyers hope that they may get lucky and earn more money than they could otherwise on a single day. Gambling of all types is again driven by money as the only factor. We can list as many activities as we wish that are driven by attraction for money.

Does money and more money and much more money than others give more peace of mind? Does it give more happiness or more contented life? The answer is not yes in most of the cases. Rather more money brings in more problems. Where to invest? Which bank to choose? What about those who are always requesting for donations and loans? How to keep them away? And what to do with money after one has met all the needs? Buy a still bigger mansion or holiday all the year or begin collecting antiques?

Money. If you have less, you want more and if you have more you don't know what to do? That is the paradox of money.

How To Make A Lot Of Money And Generate Cash When You Are Broke

By Entjik Jeffrie

I am proud of you that you decided to read this article. These methods had helped me a lot, especially when I was in college. Many of you have written me and asked me how to make money and how to generate extra cash when you are broke. So many of you are still in school and a lot of employers only want to give you a minimum wage and you can barely survive with the minimum wage. Some of you are working hard daily and live from paycheck to paycheck.

I can relate to what you're going through right now, so hang in there and be ready to see great and positive changes in your life today after you read this article!

I used to save left over food from the cafeteria where I worked in college, so I could survive, because I didn't any money to buy food that summer. I had to borrow money to buy my super expensive college text books. So I can understand what you're going through right now.

Listen carefully to this; you can change your income significantly and your life by changing your daily habits. You must be willing to change! You must be willing work hard for to make the changes.

It doesn't take a smart people to figure it out why we go broke. It means that our spending is more than what we earn. People go broke because their expenses are higher than their income!

The first thing you want to do when you find yourself broke is to start writing your expenses down on a piece of paper down to every penny of it. It is called, reviewing your net worth. You want to know how much money in your bank accounts and your wallet!

You must write down your expenses, income and this is a must! You can track down what you can not see. Please listen to this, start learning how to keep in track your expenses and income! Have a small book or PDA with you at all time to write down your expenses and income.

You must know how much money have and if you don't have any right now, you must know how much money you want to have in the future. Make sure you write down a reasonable goal that you can achieve, like by Oct 30, I will have $300 in my savings account, and by Dec 30, I will have $600 in my savings, and so on. Believe me, when you know your goals and destination and you know where you are going, it will give you the motivation to go there!

Now get ready for the life changing methods that may help you get out of your challenges and trials. These are the methods that will help you to change your income level!

1. You must change your daily habit!

I love what the Bible says, "look and observe the ants." Why would I want to look and observe ants? The reason why you want to be like ants is, ants are not lazy! They work day in and out, they are willing to save up some food for the winter time by working very hard in the summer. Believe it or not, Ants never eat more than they earn. They know how much food to give to their colony; they know how much food they need, so they can have enough food to eat for everybody in their ant colony. The will work hard to get the food their need for the winter time even when they have to sacrifice their life for the life of their colony. That's why sometimes; ants will frustrate you, because they will keep coming to your house until they are sure that they have enough supply for every ant in their colony. They will stop coming to get your food when they know; they have plenty of food to survive during the winter.

Listen, your time is the most valuable thing that you and I have! We can trade our time for money by solving someone's problem. Find what you're good at and use your time, talents and gifts to start making money for you.

I was good in computers, so I charged students and school faculties if they want me to fix their computers.

Wake up early in the morning and use your day wisely to make money. Have you ever noticed that people who sleep too much and people who watch TV and movies too much don't have much money? The reason why they don't have much money, because they are not willing to trade their time for the money they need. They waste their time for something that won't make them rich. Your time is like the energy in a battery, sooner or later, you will run out of it if you don't know hot to use it wisely.

So get up! Stop being lazy! The rich and the poor both have 24 hours/day, 7 days/week, they rich don't have more hours than the poor, but what makes a big difference is how they use up their time to generate wealth!

Go to work an hour early and go home an hour late. You must discipline yourself to work harder and smarter than everybody else! Most people love to come late and leave early, that's why they are poor.

If you own your own business, make sure you give your customers your best for the bucks! It makes them want to do more business with you in the future. The next time you are tempted to waste your time, think twice!

Your daily habits will determine your future and what you do today will decide what's coming to you in the future.

2. You must learn how to sell!

I used to buy a lot of cheap computer parts on UBID.com and EBAY.com and sold them to students who needed the computer parts. Before I bought them, I asked several students whether they will buy the computer parts from me when I got them. When I had buyers for the products, then I bought them cheap at the auction sites and sell them higher than cost of buying them.

You must be aware of the trend in your school! I remember the day when network T1 connection was popular at our school. I sold network cards like cakes, because back then not every computer had a network card. How about IPOD? Find out how many people own an IPOD and start selling the IPOD case, cover and accessories!

Keep your eyes open toward the latest trend and new things that are going on in your area!

You must learn how to sell. A lot of students got hungry at night, so I stocked up some food in my fridge and sold them to the people who didn't have a car to go to the store!

Read books and listen to tapes that will teach you how to sell better. Use your mind to think of ways of making money.

Make a DVDs rental in your dorm room! You can buy 100 DVDs on Ebay for $100 and make your own rental place in your dorm room! Charge student $1 for a day to rent the DVD! Make sure they don't steal your DVD! Keep record of who rents the DVD. 100 students rent your movie, that's $100/day!

You can even start using the Internet to generate money by selling on Ebay! Ebay is a great money making tool that I am using to these days to generate additional income. Learn how you can make money on the Internet. Invest your time and money to learn more about ways of making money on the Internet.

I don't care how good in computers, web design or giving make up, but if you can not sell your skills, you won't be making money out of your skills. You must learn how to sell and market your skills and learn how to be good at selling.

You see, when you use your mind to think, a lot of ways to make money can come up in your mind and you will never be broke ever again in your life! A lot of people are broke because they never use their mind to think!

3. Invest 10% of Your Money In Skills that Can Help You Create More Money!

When I first came to college, I didn't know how to do web design and how to develop a web site, but I used 10% of my income to buy books that would teach me how to be a web designer and developer! I took my time to develop my skills to become a web developer! Within a year of learning, I started to build web sites for other people on campus and made higher income than the rest of the students in college.

You must invest in other skills that will help you to make more money. If you like to give make up, well you may want to invest books on how to become make up artist! You can charge people to do their make up and hair for them when they want to go to a party and different special events. I know a guy in college who made his money by cutting hair. He charged $8 for a hair cut while Super Cut charged $15. So people came to him to get their hair cut.

I knew also some students who did house painting for other people in the community on the weekends.

There are thousand of ways of making money when you are broke, you just have to find the right kind of skills for you and the willingness to take action and do it.

4. Exercise, Eat Good Food and Keep Yourself Healthy.

Your mind is the most powerful asset that you will ever have in your life time. Your mind can help you create wealth! So listen to me, "STOP ABUSING YOUR MIND AND BODY!" Eat healthy, exercise, and get enough rest.

I learned that when I feel good, I can think well. I can think of ways of making money when I feel good about myself.

How can you think when you have heat pack on your head, thermometer on your mouth and blanket on your body? When you're sick, you can't use your mind to think! So make sure you keep yourself healthy and well!

I remember what one of my martial arts teachers told me about drinking alcohol. When you are drunk! You can even fight you defend yourself! So how can you think of ways to make yourself rich when you are drunk! The best way to be ready for a fight is to be sober. The best time for you to think is, when you are sober. If you like to drink a lot of alcohol, you may want to consider quiting your drinking habit.

Take care of yourself and be good to yourself and your body. Keep your body and mind healthy and well, so they can help you to think well.

5. You must believe that today's circumstances are only temporary, they will change!

High achievers never look at their situation today; they always see themselves as how they can be in the future. Look, you may think that your situation today will never change. When you are going through a financial trials and challenges, you may feel like you are not making any progress in your life, but believe me, it is only temporary. Try to extract wisdom and understanding from the trials and challenges that you are facing right now. When hard times hit us, our mind will be forced to think.

I got my motivation to work hard when I didn't have food to eat that summer in college, my stomach was hungry, and I had to eat left over food. I didn't have a car for 6 years, believe me, it was tough when you had to ask your friends to drive you every where when you need to go somewhere.

I vowed to myself that I will work hard to achieve my goals and dreams. I realized that no body else would help me except myself. I was the one who was responsible for my destiny and life. I was the one who could change my life. I vowed to myself that I would work hard, to have the determination, patience and willingness to change my daily habits, so in the future; I don't have to eat left over food anymore, I can drive any car I want, and have my own place to live.

If you believe in God, it is time for you to really kneel on your knees and spend time with Him. Pray about it, ask God to bring financial wisdom and prosperity into your life! Don't be afraid to ask the Lord for a blessing! He is God who created you; He is the God who will give you strength, courage and wisdom to go on! Make a special time for you to talk to God and pray every day!

I believe in you're my friend, I believe in you! As you sit there right now, I want to see yourself as a special person with a special gift and talent that can be used to get you out of trouble! The best days of your life are just ahead of you! You may not be able to see the days ahead of you! But have faith! Have faith! You can do great things in your life! You can make a difference in your life! You have the strength and power to make your life better! I believe in you're my friend! I believe in you! Stand up, get up and stand tall! You are gifted with a great mind to think! Your mind can help you way different ways to set you free! Get up and stand up my friend!

Tell yourself right now out loud as you read this repeat this out loud after me "I am able to change my life! I can go through this trial that I am going through, I will stand tall, and I will not be defeated by these trials and challenges! I am special, I am unique, and I believe that the best days of me are just ahead of me! Everything will be just fine! I vow today that I will give my best to work hard for my future! I will not be lazy! I will form positive daily habits today! I will not lie again to myself, when I say I will do it, I will do it! Tomorrow will be a new day, and I will face with confidence, tomorrow will be a new day for me!"

Tip: How do you make $40/hour? When I was in college I lived in a dorm and I noticed some of the guys were lazy to wash their clothes. Listen to this story carefully. So I asked them whether I could do their laundry for them for $40/hour, believe me or not, some of them were willing to give me $40/hour to do their laundry. Some of you may say, "I don't want to do someone's else laundry." I know that, but while the rest of the campus made only $4.25/hour, while I was making $40/hour. It took nine and half hours for everybody else who was embarassed to wash other people's laundry to make $40. Can you imagine how much money you have if there are nine people who want you to wash their laundry! 9 people * $40/hour = $360/hour. The point that I am trying to make is, you don't really need a job to make money! If you only know how to observe other people's needs around you. You can serve those people's needs to make a lot of money.

I love each and every one of you and with all my heart; I believe that you can do it and you can start creating your wealth today!