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6 Signs That A Job No Longer Works

Sometimes getting a new job is no longer the answer. We get to the point in our lives when a job no longer satisfies us. Working for someone else doesn’t work anymore. It’s as if we’ve outgrown working for someone else. This is a challenging realization and one that almost every entrepreneur comes to admit.

We want more – but how do we know for sure? How do we even contemplate leaving the workforce? The one thing that provides our security and is like a lifeline for us? Here are 6 signs to let you know that you’re moving on – maybe not today, or tomorrow, but sometime in the future, you will be ready.

1. You have a yearning that won’t leave. In my small business seminars I have asked participants, “how many of you have had a yearning – a calling to do something different with your lives?” Almost all would raise their hands. They didn’t know what the yearning was about – just that it was there.

2. You daydream about being a business owner. You might even have told friends or family about your business ideas. Sometimes you see your idea is now a business that someone else is running.

3. You are working for the “paycheck”. This is another tell-tale sign that the money is not enough. When we get to the point that the paycheck is the main reason we are working, we are getting close to the realization that this job, and perhaps any job, is no longer the answer.

4. You don’t know what business you would start, even if you started one. This is very common and is one of the main reasons people don’t leave their job. What I suggest is that you start an “ideas” journal. Just start jotting business ideas down – you don’t have to do anything else. Once you open yourself to your ideas, they will continue to flow to you.

5. You are unfulfilled in a job – any job. It doesn’t seem to matter how good the job is, how nice your office is or how big the paycheck is. Sooner or later you get that feeling – “this isn’t it.” It’s such a disappointing moment. I know. I’ve been there. I was a “serial” employee – I went from job to job – always good at what I did, but always got to this point and then left for the next job.

6. You have a “reason” you haven’t started or even tried starting a business. We all have them – “It’s not the right time,” “I need to wait until the kids are grown.” “I need more savings”, etc., etc. There will always be reasons. Pay attention to what you are telling yourself – to your thoughts. Take a look at your beliefs – sometimes they stop us in our tracks. I started a business as a single mom and left the workforce cold turkey, after three tries at quitting my job, I must admit. That was in 1998. I’m not saying this is “the way”. What I am saying is that there is no right way – but there is a right way for you.

6 Reasons Why You Need A Business Plan

A business plan is a management tool. Do you need a business plan? Yes if you:

You Need To Decide Whether To Start A Business.

This plan will help you improve your chances for success and avoid making serious mistakes. You may be the only one who reads this plan, although you should have input from a number of other people with business experience. You need to ask yourself the following questions and incorporate the answers in your business plan:

• What does it take to succeed in this type of company?

• Do you have the skills and background necessary?

• Can you afford to take the risk? What effect would the business’ failure have on you?

• What is the growth potential for the business? Can it meet your financial expectations and requirements?

• Is there a large enough market for your products/services?

• Will you enjoy owning and managing the business?

A business plan is an important ingredient to the success of a start-up business.

You Want to Jump Start Your Business

Whether you’re an entrepreneur doing business on the Internet, a stay-at-home Mom with an arts and crafts company, or a writer trying to break into publishing, a business plan acts as a guide to success. Developing your business plan helps determine your objectives and focuses you on the strategies and action plans necessary to accomplish those objectives.

If you’re looking to boost your business it’s time to answer a few questions in your business plan.

•What are your skill levels and talents?

•What are goals for each month’s sales?

•What are your resources, time available, advertising and promotional budget, website?

•Do you have the necessary equipment? If you don’t, how will you obtain the equipment?

•What barriers do you face?

You Want To Better Organize Your Company or Improve Its Operations.

This is a time and task oriented plan for use internally. It suggests actions that need to be taken and assigns responsibility. Questions that need to be answered:

•How does our company compare to leaders in its industry?

•What are our management weaknesses? How can we make improvements?

•How can we increase sales, serve the customer better, improve manufacturing efficiency, increase the gross margin?

•Do we have the necessary resources to make the above improvements? If not how will we obtain the resources? Do we need a bank loan or line of credit?

You Are Seeking A Bank Loan.

This plan is used to inspire confidence in your banker and convince her/him that your business is a good credit risk. It is written very logically, with an emphasis on the financial projections and presentation of historical financial results. Bankers who make bad loans get fired, so they like to err on the side of caution. A banker is looking for safety and a demonstration that the company can generate sufficient cash flow to pay the interest and the principal. Bankers are not looking for a huge return on their money. They don’t want to take part in the management of your company or sit on the board of directors. Your business plan will need answers to these questions:

• Will the company’s cash flow be stable enough to make the payments on the loan?

• Are the long term prospects of the business favorable?

• Does the company have a reasonably good track record?

You Need An Investor/Partner.

The plan must demonstrate considerable upside potential for the business. The banker was content to get his money back plus, say 10% interest. The investor may want a return of 30% to 50% or more. This plan must be written in an interesting manner and keep the reader’s attention. Your business plan is competing with all the other plans submitted to the investor. Make sure you address the following questions:

• Can the company grow rapidly?

• Are the margins attractive?

• Have you succeeded in other business ventures?

• Is this a market that is emerging, with a large and bright future?

• How much of the company are you willing to give up, both in equity and management control?

You Want To Sell Your Business

You must prove to a potential buyer that your company is worth paying a premium for. Sometimes this can be called a marketing presentation, offering memorandum, or valuation. It is not strictly a valuation, as you are trying to establish your sales price for the business, not determine a value. Usually a valuation is completed by an objective third party. You’re likely to be asked:

• Is there untapped potential for the business that a new owner could take advantage of?

• If the new owner had more capital, could the business grow more rapidly?

• Are there new markets that could be entered?

• Could costs be reduced and therefore profits increased?

Every business should have a business plan. It’s the road map to success. But a well thought out business plan is critical if your company is seeking financing.

6 Keys To A Successful Internet Business

1) Demand–

Lets say for instance, that you have a really amazing product, and a website that looks like a million dollars–but what if you have no demand for your product?Have you ever thought about starting an internet business? It could really be as simple as opening a Yahoo Store, or on the other end of the scale, as complicated as building your own, professional, dynamic, e-commerce website. Regardless of your approach to internet business, to ensure the success of your business, you need to know of, and apply the following 7 key points. In saying that, you aren’t going to be left with a sword in a gun fight. In the online world, there are many ways to advertise and generate demand for your product. There are the choices and possibilities of advertising in Ezines, joint ventures, affiliate programs, referrals, and even as simple as encouraging word of mouth. Remember, without demand, what do you have? No sales. Where does a business without sales end up?

2) Order–

Its all well and good to have visitors to your website, but they don’t do anything for us unless they become a customer. However, its not as easy as it first appears. Now, once your visitor has turned into a customer, you need to ensure that them becoming an actual customer, is as easy as possible. A straightforward and simple ordering process will do wonders for your business. Less clicks and less time it takes for a customer to complete his or her order, the better it is.

3) Payment–

If there was any part of your business that you would not want to get wrong, it would be this–how payment is actually being transferred between you and your customers. Generally, when taking into account online businesses, the most popular method is credit card transactions. Not only are they an easier and quicker method than most other forms of payment, but it also goes to a psychological level. Credit Cards exude a “buy-now, think-later” attitude. Taking this into account, as a business, you’d be making more profit and sales if you accepted credit cards. However, in saying that, it would also be a wise decision to use alternative methods of payment. After all, the easier it is for your customer to find ways to pay you for your product, you’ll see a more efficient increase both in sales and customer numbers.

4) Fulfillment–

Now payment has been received from your customer, the path isn’t clear just yet. This is a mistake often made by new businesses. Your products need to be delivered, remember! Generally, if you sell digital products, the industry standard is for the product to be delivered instantly; generally through a download link. Your customer expects this, so ensure this is in place. Physical products require more attention to detail; namely physical delivery. Ensure that your customer is informed every step of the way. Communication is essential. If at all possible, send your customer a means of tracking the product through the course of its delivery. Feeling insecure is something your customer should never have to experience.

5) Service and Support–

A good and trusted business will always endevour to provide and utilise excellent customer service support. To a decent extent, your online business customer support will determine whether or not you get repeat purchases, or if your customer requests a refund. The support abilities of your internet business should be efficient as possible; after all, this is the industry standard. At the least, a well-structured and timely e-mail support service should be available to the customer. The more professional your online business becomes, so should your support methods. More advanced methods such as utilising online helpdesks, FAQs, live chats, a ticket system, a knowledge base, will help greatly; these are just examples, there are more support methods out there which you can use.

6) Security–

The internet business world is filled with people who are honest, trustworthy, and are willing to do everything to help the customer. But, on the other hand, the opposite is also very true. And as such, the internet community at large are getting more aware of ways to protect themselves from the internets less desirable people and activities. Namely, E-commerce frauds.

Because of this, it is up to you and your business to ensure that your visitors are protected, and to prove to them that they can trust you. Simple things, such as using a secured server to process your payments, can help more than is seen on the surface. A digital certificate can also help your business, so purchase one if you can. Physical mailing addresses, and even a phone number where your customers can contact you. Whatever you can do to provide your customers with some piece of mind.

Well there you have it! Utilising and practising these 6 keys will not only help your online business grow, but will also ensure your customers are happy, too!

6 Free Keyword Marketing Research Tools

One of the toughest decisions that internet marketers must make when when writing articles and website content is what keywords they should optimize the site for. This is not a simple question to answer. When you are trying to get a high search engine ranking for a specific keyword, your keyword relevance is critical. This article discusses some free keyword marketing research tolls to make this task simpler.

The first step in choosing the right keywords is to brainstorm. Most of the time this can be done in a few minutes.

If you choose keywords that millions of others are using to promote their websites, your chances of getting a high page ranking are slim to none. Even if there are just a few thousand, you may have challenges if there are only a couple of dozen people using that keyword in their search. What you need are the keywords with least supply from other websites and high demand from search engine users.

For a while, http://inventory.overture.com was a popular free keyword marketing research tool. This tool, however, may no longer be available form Yahoo.

1 . http://www.pixelfast.com/overture/

This overture based tool appears to still be working. It will give the same results as inventory.overture.com. Simply type your keyword phrase in the box on the top left corner and click GO.

2. http://www.vretoolbar.com/keywords/

This tool also uses the Overture database. Just type your keyword phrase in the search box, and click on Suggest. If you get an error message, keep clicking on Suggest until the results display.

3. http://www.domaincountry.com/

This tool is a useful free keyword marketing research tool that gives two different database results for your key phrases. There is no search button so you will need to press ENTER to conduct the search.

4. Niche Taxi

Niche taxi works well as a free keyword marketing research tool. Just enter your keyword phrase in the search box and click OK. Check the box below the search box that says, “I Agree to the http://nichetaxi.com Terms & Conditions” Niche Taxi will then give you a list of results.

5. Nichebotclassic

Enter the keyword phrase into the search box and click search. This free keyword marketing research tool gives ten results with numbers saying how many searches were made during the last month. You can then click on on the words to drill down into the niche.

6. Google Adwords Keyword Research Tool

This is the research tool Google has put together. Look for higher search volume for your main keyword and then smaller search volume for your niche keywords within those phrases.

These free keyword marketing research tools will help you find the bottom feeding keywords you need to optimize your articles and website.

5 Ways To Utilize Direct Email Marketing

If you own an online business, you are probably always on the lookout for new forms of Internet marketing. As you have no doubt discovered, there are many different ways to market your business online. One of the best and least expensive is direct email marketing.

Direct email marketing is a simple, but effective form of Internet marketing. It allows you to reach your customers, and provide them with information that you want them to see. Direct email marketing is very similar to classical direct marketing, but is much less expensive because you don’t have to pay for stamps, paper, return envelopes, and printing costs. Yet, at the same time, direct email marketing has all of the benefits of direct mail.

For example, direct email marketing can be used before and after a sale. You can utilize this form of Internet marketing to promote products, provide news, and to send confirmations and thank-you notes. Many of your website visitors will up to sign up for regular emails and offers. Take advantage of their interest and tell them more about your business.

If you don’t have time to send the emails yourself, you may choose to use email autoresponders. Email autoresponders are triggered when an email is sent to you. If you are unavailable, email autoresponders can contact the customer for you, providing order confirmations, information requests, etc.

If you’re not sure where or how to get started, here are five tips that will allow you to easily incorporate direct email marketing into you Internet marketing strategy.

Use a Professional Email Signature
This is an important part of direct email marketing. Every time you send a business email, you should include a professional signature at the bottom. Your signature should include your name, business name, and full web address. This is like free advertising for you. Plus, the person opening the email has instant access to your information. If they need to contact you, they will know exactly how to do it.

Find an Affiliate
An affiliate, or signature buddy, can step up your Internet marketing campaign and allow you to reach more customers. Simply ask someone to include your web address below their own signature every time they send an email. In return, you can add their web address to every email that you send below your signature. The benefit is obvious. You both get free advertising. However, you should keep in mind that this form of Internet marketing works best when you don’t pick someone who has a competing business.

Create a Newsletter
A newsletter or e-zine should be included in your Internet marketing strategy. A free newsletter takes a bit of time every month to create, but it is well worth the effort. Newsletters are an effective form of direct email marketing, and can be used to promote your products and services. If you don’t have time to produce a quality newsletter yourself, you can hire a freelancer to do it for you.

Send Coupons
Everyone loves coupons. Make them part of your direct email marketing campaign. Send coupons for your products and services to your customers on a regular basis. Use them as promotional tools to increase business and increase sales.

Send Thank You Notes
Using an email autoresponder to send thank you notes to your customers after the sale is a polite gesture. It’s also Internet marketing at its finest. Thank show your appreciation and should be incorporated into your direct email marketing if at all possible. Sending a thank you note is polite and an example of good customer service.