Top 3 Business Strategies for Online Entrepreneurs
So, you want to be a successful entrepreneur. But which business strategy do you choose? There seem to be so many out there, with each so-called guru touting a different philosophy, that it can be very difficult to narrow down a business strategy that actually works. However, when you remove all of the window dressing and break the strategies down to the basics there are only three that makeup nearly all of the entrepreneurial ventures that are out there. Which one you choose will depend on your personal preference, your unique skills, and where you see a hole in the market. Service Providers The first of our three top strategies is providing some type of service. There are many occupations that provide a service where someone can become an entrepreneur. Graphic design is one good example; freelance writing is another. Whenever you are doing a service for somebody else and they are paying you for it (while not in the employee of another person or company) you are an entrepreneur. Affiliate Marketing Another big boom in Internet entrepreneurship is affiliate marketing. With the creation of websites like Clickbank, the affiliate programs offered by leading retailers like Amazon, and the big profits that could be potentially earned, affiliate marketing is one of the most popular entrepreneurial ventures today. With affiliate marketing, you find the customer, send them over to the seller to buy the product and the seller pays you a commission. Of course, you have to find the right product not to mention have a solid plan for getting in front of people that can be difficult. Info Product Creation Rather than being the person that receives the commission when someone buys a product from someone else, you could be the person that they are buying that product from. You could create an info product of some kind that you’ll be able to sell to the Internet at large. One of the more popular ways to do this is by publishing Kindle content on Amazon, but the products on Clickbank are also part of this strategy. Combining Strategies Of course, you don’t have to just stick with one. You could combine two of the above strategies or you could combine all three if you like. There are no rules when it comes to entrepreneurship. If you can create something that sells, or make money at something and be successful, you are an entrepreneur.
Tips for Running a Creative Business
Creative businesses often have the same challenge. That challenge is how to be creative and successful. This isn’t always easy to achieve, so these ten tips have been provided to help you in your venture. 1. Put your focus into one area and become good at it. If you focus on what you’re good at as opposed to doing what people want, you’ll notice you have a greater chance of success. This is because you specialize in one area, allowing you to offer more value in your specific area of work. 2. Plan where you want your business to go. If you have a good vision of what you want, this will be very helpful. You can always change your plan as things in life change, but having your plan written down will keep you focused on your goals. 3. Do different things. When you change things up a little bit, people are bound to notice and pay attention to you. Realize that if you only offer the same things as everyone else around you, you won’t stand out in the crowd of businesses. Taking risks gets you noticed. 4. Pay attention to the numbers. You may work in a more creative field but that doesn’t mean you can forget about numbers. You have to ensure that you have a regular cash flow and without an organized way to go through all of the numbers, you’ll never know how successful you are. 5. Share your ideas to revolutionize. Talking to others is the key to a successful business. Having a great diversity of ideas can help you to adopt an innovative way of doing things for your business. Collaboration helps you to succeed in this world. 6. Have proper protection of your ideas. You don’t want to ever run into the issue of someone stealing your ideas. Be sure to be able to defend your ideas if you ever do run into this unfortunate issue. Your ideas are the essence of what you and your business are, so ensure that you know how to protect yourself including use of trademarks and/or copyrights as needed. 7. Take a digital approach to your business. Engage with your customers, employees, and suppliers. Learn how to use different social media platforms to help promote your business. This will help you to extend the boundaries of your business and how to appeal to people to support you and your business. 8. Don’t lose hope. People always make mistakes but it’s important that you move away from them and learn from them. You need to be determined to run a business of your own so don’t give up easily. 9. Always strive to improve. Continuous improvements help to make a business succeed. This includes looking back at things that went wrong and making them better. 10. Have fun. You’re supposed to have fun while running a creative business. Having fun makes work enjoyable, even the more routine tasks that form part of any business. It’s not easy running your own creative business but when following these tips, hopefully, it can help your business run a little bit easier.
Entrepreneurial Success: Utilizing Your Strengths
What’s the first thing you do if you want to climb Mount Everest? While you might jokingly respond that the first thing you would do is get yourself a CAT scan the fact is that climbing Mount Everest – or any other difficult feat of physical endurance – can easily be compared with entrepreneurial success. If you’re going to scale Mount Everest the first thing that you would do is take inventory and find out if you had the tools to climb it. You would need food, climbing gear, water, medical supplies and many other things. With striving toward entrepreneurial success (which can seem as insurmountable as climbing Mount Everest) you are also going to take inventory of your assets. What are your current strengths and how can they help you reach your goals? Do You Think You’re Better than Everybody Else? The first thing that we are going to do is make a list of things that you do better than anybody else. This is not a list of things you do better than anybody else in the entire world, this is a list of things that you do better than the people that you know or the people you’re surrounded by. Also, we are not going to include things that aren’t actually going to help you on your road to success. For example, you might be the best sous chef in three counties but unless you’re planning on opening a restaurant it’s not going to help you with your entrepreneurial goals. However, it is going to include things that might not be directly related to being an entrepreneur or to being successful, but are strengths that will still help you get where you’re going. An example of this would be if you are good at inspiring people. This might not seem to directly relate to your success as an entrepreneur but if you are trying to launch a successful eCommerce website, the fact that you are good at inspiring people could be used in all kinds of ways. You can inspire people to share your products on social media. You can inspire people to participate in and spread the word about contests that you run. As you are making your list, if you come across anything that you think might even be slightly related, err on the side of caution and write it down anyway. You’re also going to be careful about adding things to your list that might be thought of as strengths at first glance but are actually reasons that you have failed in the past. One example of this might be an attribute like flying by the seat of your pants instead of planning out in advance. This could go on your list as self-starter or ready to jump in at a moment’s notice but if it hasn’t served you well in the past, it probably isn’t going to do you any favors in the future and you should avoid putting it on your list of strengths. You are also going to want to include technical or artistic skills that might not seem to directly relate but could come in handy later on. For example, you might be really great at graphic design. You might simply be a natural technical wizard. You might even be a writer. Think about some of these strengths as they relate to your goals of being successful, including the earlier example of sous chef. While culinary arts might not help you start an e-commerce website, the patience that you have cultivated as a sous chef could definitely help. What Are the Attributes of Success? The next thing that you’re going to do is determine what sort of attributes the most successful people in the world have, or especially, the people that you admire. Especially, you’re going to make a list of things the entrepreneurs have to have in order to be successful. These can be both wide and specific depending on what your particular goals are. For example, they need to be good at whatever industry they are in and they are probably also going to want to be skilled in things like social networks, choosing products, building business relationships and marketing. You’re going to want to be as specific as you possibly can because at the end were going to compare the two lists and try to find how many strengths you have already that can help you be successful. The more things you list, the more things that you’re going to discover are actually true about yourself. This exercise isn’t actually about finding all of the qualities that entrepreneurs need to succeed; it is about realizing that you already have the attributes that it takes to be successful. You do have the attributes that it takes to be successful. This is readily apparent, because you’re reading this article. People that are interested in success or aren’t motivated to better themselves and reach their goals don’t read books on success. In fact, they tend to avoid the subject as much as possible because it reminds them of their failures. Here are some of the more apparent attributes just to get you started: Determination: you have the idea or attitude that you are going to succeed no matter what, no matter who stands in your way and no matter what obstacles you encounter. A Passion for Entrepreneurship: if you aren’t passionate about working for yourself and owning your own business, it can be almost impossible for you to be successful at it. Optimism: you are optimistic about the future. You believe that good things are in store for you and your outlook is almost always a glass-half-full kind of mindset. Patience: you are willing to work over a long period of time to get the results that you want. You’re not going to give up if it doesn’t happen quickly. Reliable: you will be able to handle the responsibility of being an entrepreneur. You have a reputation for being
Why You Need to Create a Relationship Before You Sell
If you are selling products through a dropshipping business on eBay or if you’re selling a digital product as an affiliate, then it is absolutely crucial that you build a relationship with your potential customers before you try and sell to them. This is something that a lot of sellers and marketers just don’t understand and ultimately it is to their detriment as they end up missing out on the opportunity to sell. Read on to see exactly what this means and why it is so important… An Analogy… The best way to explain this is with an analogy, or two. Imagine for a moment that you see an attractive lady or man at a bar and you want to get to know them a little better. So what you do, is you go up and you ask if they’re come home with you tonight. What do you think happens next? Most likely you get a firm slap in the face – and this is more than fair enough! The problem with this approach is that the person doesn’t know you yet. They don’t know what you’re like and if they’re likely to have a good time with you and more importantly – they don’t know if they can trust you! You might be dangerous as far as they’re concerned! Another scenario is someone trying to sell a watch. Imagine they come up to you in the street holding a watch and ask if you want to buy it for $2,000. What do you say? Again, you’ll probably turn and run. No one would spend that much money on something without knowing anything about it and without having any form of ‘come back’ in case the deal turns sour. How Businesses Make This Mistake All the Time Both these examples probably seem absurd to you but this is essentially what many businesses are doing all the time. If you have a website that tries to sell a product as soon as anyone lands on it, then you’re going to drive people away before they have even had a chance to read your site. They may well be interested in what you’re selling but if they don’t know your brand and they don’t know your product, then they won’t want to buy right away. And if all you’re interested in doing is selling to them with tons of pop?up ads, then you’re going to drive them off – it will look like spam! Now consider the alternative approach: they land on your website and they find tons of great content that’s well written, free and informative. This allows the visitor to form a positive opinion of your business and hopefully to become interested in the products you’re mentioning. And as a result, they’re much more likely to want to buy from you in future. So instead of focussing on making a sale, focus on making a fan. Push them toward a mailing list instead and invite them to come back. That way, the sales will come to you!
What Makes a Good Franchisee?
Being a good franchisee takes about the same qualities as being a good business owner of any type. The difference between a completely independent owner and a franchisee is very small and only comes into play when dealing with the franchisor’s rules and ability to drive the direction of your business based on their vision rather than your own. Ability to be Consistent – Franchises come with standard operating procedures and processes. If you can consistently follow them, you will be successful. You’ll need to follow them and ensure your employees do the same. Flexibility – When you own any type of business, you must be ready and willing to jump through all sorts of hopes even when you are tired. One example is that you’ll likely have an alarm on your store if it’s a bricks-and-mortar franchise that might go off because the wind blows wrong. You’ll have to get up at 3 am and go turn it off and talk to the police about it. Good Communication skills – Not only will you need to be able to talk to your franchisor, but also your staff, and your customers. Not to mention the myriad of vendors that will service your location. But remember, communication is a two-way street and you’ve been given two ears and one mouth for a reason. Have Passion for the Industry – If you don’t like fast food, do not buy a fast food franchise. The only exception is if you have the type of funds to be an absentee owner and you’ll be hiring managers to oversee everything. But even then, why would you invest in things that don’t bring you joy? Honesty and Ethics – It’s imperative that you are very honest and have the utmost ethical center to be a franchisee. You’re going to have to be on your honor to follow a lot of the rules and regulations and systems that the franchisor sets out for you. You will be representing the business across the country and maybe the world. If someone comes into your place and has a bad experience, it rubs off on everyone. Leadership Ability – Even if the idea of leadership bothers you, remember that there are different types of leadership. Take the time to do the work to discover what type of leader you are. Once you understand your leadership style, you’ll be able to be who you are while you lead your staff and business to success. Organizational Skills – It can be hard to be organized, so don’t despair if you’re not naturally organized. You can hire people to come in and organize according to the franchisor’s rules, and sometimes they will help with that. Your job will be to maintain that organization. Anyone can learn organization if they make it a priority. Perseverance – You also need to be able to stick to it through the hard times (which could be one to three years from the date you sign the contract) before you see any money for your hard work. It may be frustrating; you’ll hit roadblocks, but if you stick to the plan you’ll see success. Even though you as a franchisee must follow the lead of the home office to drive profits, you’re still a business owner with all the risks and rewards that come with the privilege. Make no mistake; even though you’ve laid down your hard-earned money to become a franchisee, your ability to be successful will depend on your ability to understand the overall vision of the franchisor and go on to translate that into success for you and your community.
Top Ways to Create a Business Selling Physical Products
Selling a physical product has a ton of advantages over selling digital ones. While digital products have their benefits and have their place, nothing quite beats the broad appeal of selling something tangible that people can actually hold in their hands and use. The problem is that selling a physical product often requires a little more thought than going digital. In this post then, we’ll take a look at some surprisingly easy ways to start a business selling something physical. Let’s get physical! Selling Crafts One option is to sell crafts. If you have the ability to paint, to make jewelry, or to sculpt with clay, then you can turn that hobby into a money making venture – and if you’ve seen the Penny Blossom episode of Big Bang Theory then you’ll already know how this works. Simply create your product, take some photos for eBay or Etsy, and then sell them! It really is that easy – but make sure that the product you choose is something you can easily make in volume and that doesn’t have high CoGS (Cost of Goods Sold). Reselling Reselling is the oldest business model in the book. All you’re doing here is ordering large volumes of something at a relatively low price (this is called wholesale) and then selling those items off individually at a profit. Reselling is a very effective way to make money but involves a small amount of risk because you have to buy inventory. If you start small though, you can reinvest your profit and thereby create a fairly reliable business model. Affiliate Marketing Yes, you can sell physical products as an affiliate. And most people reading this will already know that that means getting commission on sales. The best place to find physical products to sell this way is to go to Amazon, where you can sell pretty much anything you can think of and through a site that most shoppers will already trust. Dropshipping Dropshipping is what many people consider to be the ‘ideal’ business model. This basically means you’re buying through wholesalers but you don’t have to put in bulk orders. Better yet, you don’t need to worry about fulfilment because the company will do that for you! All you need to do is to sell the products and then pass the details onto the wholesaler that will sell the product. Best of all, some companies will even stay quiet and allow you to take credit for the manufacturing! Selling Your Own Product Finally, you can sell your own mass?produced product. For most people, this will mean coming up with an idea, creating a 3D model and then going to manufacturers in order to get it made. There are different options today though. For example, how about creating your own book with POD (Print On Demand) publishing? Or you could use a 3D printer and print out simple plastic items this way. Today, it’s easier than ever to sell your own physical products. So what are you waiting for?
Save Big On Expenses: Frugal Living
Living frugally does not necessarily mean living in poverty or having to constantly deprive one’s self of the finer things in life. Depriving one’s self of anything and everything is not what the frugal living lifestyle is all about. In fact it is just the opposite, because with frugal living the individual is able to keep expenses low, pay off debts faster, save and invest comfortably. Be Frugal The following are explanations on how to “marry” the two factors while still being able to enjoy a fairly pleasant lifestyle that is neither deprivative nor depressing.Learning to be comfortable with smaller size elements that work well and are equally compatible with the individual’s lifestyle. Although it may seem nice to have everything is large sizes, from houses to cars to holidays to spending allowances, with a little bit or knowledge and research anyone can find smaller yet suitably tailor elements that are equally if not better.Therefore going big always may not only seem a wasteful opulence it can also lead to huge debts. For some leasing or renting may present a more financially attractive package than actually owning. This is due to the fact that when there are ownership issues involved, all expenses and cost are born by the owner itself, and these hidden costs can be quite substantial. Therefore with the savings from all these hidden expenses and cost that come from ownership, the individual can look for good investment opportunities that may bring about an even better financial standing. When it comes to eating expenses, most individuals do not really realize just how much can be saved and how to go about making these adjustments to procure the intended savings. Eating frugally yet healthily is one way of keeping the expenses in check. Taking the trouble to fix meals at home is more cost effective that going out to eat all the time. Engage A Financial Adviser The following are some of the reasons why engaging the services of a financial advisor may be advantages: Great Info With so many options available to make good investments it can be quite confusing for the individual who is not savvy and does not possess the important elements it takes to be a good and sound investor. The various investment opportunities available, also comes with a lot of confusing jargon, that the individual may not be able to relate to, thus causing further confusion and maybe even contributing to some poor judgment calls. Most people are busy with the everyday routines and distractions, that sparing the time and energy to delve into the mostly confusing financial investment opportunities is really not a option that can be fully explored. Although some may take the plunge, most would rather engage the services of a reputable financial advisor who would be able to completely concentrate on finding the best investment opportunities for the client. As these financial advisors are more knowledgeable on the various sorts of investment tools available, their opinions would be better accepted. Most financial advisers depend very much on the recommendations of satisfied clients, to expand their portfolios of customers, thus being experienced and good investment advisors is part of their attention grabbing tools. Financial advisors are also trained to help an individual plan and budget according to their financial capabilities and this can be useful to an individual who is currently not able to enjoy or capitalize, on his or her own financial standing.
Fast Tips for Saving Money Each Week
Pretty much everyone wants to save money these days, especially as prices are rising and the economy is becoming more shaky. To do this, however, takes some conscious effort, as it’s easy to get into the habit of living beyond your means. Here are some quick and easy methods that you can use to save money. If you would like to save some dollars it is easy to do but you need to develop a few new habits. For the most part people buy things without stopping to think if they actually need them or not. The more conscientious you can be about what you buy and how much you spend, the easier a time you will have to get them under control. Vacations are fun and so is traveling but taking a stay vacation is a great way to save money during your vacation time. This doesn’t have to be a sacrifice, as no matter where you live there are probably enjoyable activities that you don’t usually have time for. If you have kids, check out theme parks and other attractions within driving distance. Play tourist and take in the major sights and sounds of your city. Aside from gaining a better appreciation of your own region, you’ll be avoiding the stresses of travel, such as packing, making flights on time, airport lines and security, etc. Travel can be enjoyable if you can easily afford it, but if you’re trying to save money you can have a great time at a fraction of the cost by staying close to home. But if 10%, or even 5%, of your income goes into a separate account before you even see it, you’ll stop thinking of that as money you have available to spend. After just a couple of weeks or months, you’ll discover that you do not even miss this money because you will simply adjust to not having it. This will naturally cut back on your spending and help you save money. Learn to shop methodically and not on a whim. The worst time, to use one example, to buy holiday presents is right before the holidays. The best time is just after the holidays are over when the items you want to on sale. Another big expense most don’t think about is your phone bill. Many of us nowadays don’t have just one phone but up to three or more including cells, home phones and maybe ever Skype phones. We don’t often realize how much we can save just by getting down to one line. Perhaps a pay as you go cell phone is the most convenient consideration you should make. This way you won’t be paying for any extra minutes you don’t use. You should also avoid, or cut back on text messaging, which can really add to your cell phone bill. Use online texting rather than with your phone since it’s cheaper to do this. If you pay for cable TV think about canceling it and finding other forms of entertainment. Many people pay upwards of hundreds of dollars for cable channels that they do not use. If you like to watch movies there are lots of cheaper ways to do so like renting DVDs and internet streaming television. The internet can be a great place for television as well. It is easy to watch videos online for free too. There are also other things that you can do that are not watching television. Cutting out cable TV is a simple way to save hundreds of dollars every year. Many people will spend a lot of money during their leisure time because they do not bother to look into all of the free or cheap things to do in their local areas. Rather than going to the movies or the mall when you have some free time why not look for things that don’t cost any money? If the weather is good, go for a hike or a walk. Most places will have a few different free things that will be listed in the newspapers and in free weekly publications and on bulletin boards. Local concerts and art exhibits are often free for at least part of the time. If you make the time to look for it, you’ll find plenty of entertainment that is affordable or free of cost. If you think outside of the box, you’ll save money in lots of ways that can really add up. Most of the time, people spend more than they have to on food, entertainment, shopping and other expenses simply because they don’t research all the alternatives. The tips contained in this article will help you train your mind to think more frugally and save money in new ways.
Choosing a Niche
Alright, the first thing you need to do is choose a niche to focus on. This method is so much easier than the micro niche method, because it doesn’t involve hours upon hours of researching products, affiliate networks, and keyword tools. You just pick a niche and go. Okay, so it does involve some research, but the research is faster and easier using this method, and using a few free tools you can complete this in an hour or less in most cases. The first thing to do is figure out a niche that has voracious buyers but NOT a ton of competition. This is the toughest part, because most markets with voracious buyers are insanely competitive. (Some competition is good, but too much competition makes your job much harder.) Golf, for example, is a popular niche for internet marketers to get into. This is especially true for beginners. Yes, golfers do tend to have excess income to spend. Yes, they do tend to spend a good chunk of that excess income on their on their hobby. But because pretty much everyone knows this, competition is ridiculous. There are just too many established golf websites for the average marketer to compete. Is it possible to compete? Absolutely. But unless you are extremely good at marketing and/or have a huge budget for advertising and content creation, you’re not likely to make a whole lot of headway in this niche. It’s just far too over-saturated. A great idea is focusing on a broad interest group rather than a more competitive niche. Take a look at DIYReady.com (http://www.diyready.com), for example They have a niche—DIY—but it’s broad enough that they have a huge number of topics they can focus on within the DIY spectrum, which also gives them a broader range of products they can promote. Because there are so many individual topics under the DIY umbrella, virtually anyone can compete in this particular niche. People who enjoy this type of content typically frequent multiple DIY websites, and those users are easy to access because they are prevalent on Pinterest and other social websites. This is the type of niche you should try to locate. You want something broad—but not too broad—with voracious buyers and fans that are easy to locate. Some examples include: DIY, crafts, home improvement, gardening, etc. Prepping, survival, outdoor skills Model building (cars, ships, airplanes, etc.) Various careers Pets (specific breeds, or types) The great thing about this method is that if you discover one aspect of a particular niche isn’t working for you, it’s easy to switch to another one as long as you get a domain that covers the whole, broad niche. For example, if you decided to market to model builders and want to focus on model cars, you might want to register a domain like modelbuilders.com instead of modelcarbuilders.com so you can branch out into planes and ships later. (I’m sure those domains are taken, I’m just using them as a basic example.) Worst case scenario, if you create a large amount of custom content in a niche and it doesn’t pan out the way you hope, you could sell the website or articles to someone else in the niche to recoup some of the costs you incurred, and probably make a good profit. Once you’ve chosen a niche and bought a fairly broad domain, it’s time to move on.
Leadership: Is It For You?
Leadership is something that is fundamentally part of a society. It is necessary in any good society that someone stands up and takes charge. Leadership is essential, we know that, but does that mean everyone out there is a leader? The fact of the matter is that some individuals are not made to be leaders. They are followers. And just as important in society as leaders are followers. So, where do you lie? Are you going to play leadership roles within your life? For many people, the instincts to take those leadership roles just comes to them. It is just something that happens. They step up to the plate when needed. They respond first in class. They take charge of the baseball game on the playground. They step up to the plate on the job. While you can not be first in every case, individuals that have leadership skills will often be seen and heard throughout their lives. But, not all leaders are born with this talent. Many of them must learn it. People with an ambition to be a leader can do so by taking classes and studying the necessary skills that it takes to be a leader. While all of this may sound simple, it can be quite a task to learn. It is hard to teach a person to react in a situation that is not planned well. Because leaders are determined by their actions, we often see that leadership roles are filled with individuals who put themselves out there to be chosen, so to speak. But, this is not always the case. In many cases of emergency, leaders are those that take charge long before anyone else reacts. In that, these individuals will have a cool head about themselves and be able to see the necessary work ahead while others are worrying, panicking or simply in shock. These are probably the true leaders in our society.
