So You Want to Be Your Own Boss... 8 tips to get you going, even if you don't know where to start

If you want to start a business but don't know where to start, don't worry--you are not alone. In fact, given the new economic reality of our time, more people than ever before have found the "job" they thought was waiting for them doesn't exist. Others have come to the conclusion that they would rather create work they love, constructed to fit with their own life goals. No matter what the motivation is to be your own boss, you can start today.

Here are 8 Tips to Get You Started:

1. Take a Stand for Yourself.
   If you are dissatisfied with your current circumstances, admit that no one can fix them except for you. It doesn't do any good to blame the economy, your boss, your spouse or your family. Change can only occur when you make a conscious decision to make it happen.
2. Identify the Right Business for You.
   Give yourself permission to explore. Be willing to look at different facets of yourself (your personality, social styles, age) and listen to your intuition. We tend to ignore intuition even though deep down we often know the truth. Ask yourself "What gives me energy even when I'm tired?"
   
   How do you know what business is "right" for you? There are three common approaches to entrepreneurship:
   
   Do What You Know: Have you been laid off or want a change? Look at work you have done for others in the past and think about how you could package those skills and offer them as your own services or products.
   
   Do What Others Do: Learn about other businesses that interest you. Once you have identified a business you like, emulate it.
   
   Solve a Common Problem: Is there a gap in the market? Is there a service or product you would like to bring to market? (Note: This is the highest-risk of the three approaches.) If you choose to do this, make sure that you become a student and gain knowledge first before you spend any money.
   
3. Business Planning Improves Your Chances for Success.
   Most people don't plan, but it will help you get to market faster. A business plan will help you gain clarity, focus and confidence. A plan does not need to be more than one page. As you write down your goals, strategies and action steps, your business becomes real.
   
   Ask yourself the following questions:
    - What am I building?
   - Who will I serve?
   - What is the promise I am making to my customers/clients and to myself?
   - What are my objectives, strategies and action plans (steps) to achieve my goals?
   
4. Know Your Target Audience Before You Spend a Penny.
   Before you spend money, find out if people will actually buy your products or services. This may be the most important thing you do. You can do this by validating your market. In other words, who, exactly, will buy your products or services other than your family or friends? (And don't say. "Everyone in America will want my product." Trust me--they won't.) What is the size of your target market? Who are your customers? Is your product or service relevant to their everyday life? Why do they need it?
   
   There is industry research available that you can uncover for free. Read industry articles with data (Google the relevant industry associations) and read Census data to learn more. However, the most important way to get this information is to ask your target market/customers directly and then listen.
   
5. Understand Your Personal Finances and Choose the Right Kind of Money You Need for Your Business.
   As an entrepreneur, your personal life and business life are interconnected. You are likely to be your first--and possibly only--investor. Therefore, having a detailed understanding of your personal finances, and the ability to track them, is an essential first step before seeking outside funding for your business. This is why I recommend setting up your personal accounts in a money management system such as Mint.com to simplify this process.
   As you are creating your business plan, you will need to consider what type of business you are building--a lifestyle business (smaller amount of startup funds), a franchise (moderate investment depending on the franchise), or a high-tech business (will require significant capital investment). Depending on where you fall on the continuum, you will need a different amount of money to launch and grow your business, and it does matter what kind of money you accept.
6. Build a Support Network.
   You've made the internal commitment to your business. Now you need to cultivate a network of supporters, advisors, partners, allies and vendors. If you believe in your business, others will, too.
   
   Network locally, nationally & via social networks. Join networks like NAPW.com, your local chamber of commerce, or other relevant business groups. Here are some networking basics:
   
   - When attending networking events, ask others what they do and think about how you can help them. The key is to listen more than tout yourself.
   - No matter what group you join, be generous, help others and make introductions without charging them.
   - By becoming a generous leader, you will be the first person that comes to mind when someone you've helped needs your service or hears of someone else who needs your service.
7. Sell By Creating Value.
   Even though we purchase products and services every day, people don't want to be "sold." Focus on serving others. The more people you serve, the more money you will make. When considering your customers or clients, ask yourself:
   
   - What can I give them?
   - How can I make them successful in their own pursuits?
   - This approach can help lead you to new ways to hone your product or service and deliver more value, which your customers will appreciate.
   
8. Get the Word Out.
   Be willing to say who you are and what you do with conviction and without apology. Embrace and use the most effective online tools (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn) available to broadcast your news. Use social networks as "pointer" sites; i.e., to point to anything you think will be of interest to your fans and followers.
   
   Even though social networks are essential today (you must use them!), don't underestimate the power of other methods to get the word out: e.g., word-of-mouth marketing, website and internet marketing tools, public relations, blog posts, columns and articles, speeches, e-mail, newsletters, and the old-fashioned but still essential telephone.
   
   If you take these steps, you'll be well on your way to becoming your own boss. It's important to remember that you are not alone. If you want to "be your own boss" but you still feel stuck, reach out and connect with other entrepreneurs in a variety of ways. You may be surprised by the invaluable contacts that are right at your fingertips.

 Article sourced from http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/207488

Books Every Entrepreneur Should Read

Every successful entrepreneur I know is also an avid reader. Most are regulars in business aisle at their local bookstore and are devoted readers of Forbesand other business publications. Successful entrepreneurs are typically hungry for knowledge and there is a wealth of it to tap into. With the start of a new year, here are some great books that will either inspire, instruct or maybe do a little of both. So if you’re looking for a book to read on an upcoming business trip, or are looking for a little extra motivation for 2014, here are some books that I found helpful recently, especially when I’ve faced business challenges.

1) Onward: Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life without Losing Its Soul, By Howard Schultz

Starbucks had built a coffee empire selling not just espresso and lattes but selling an experience. The company sought to create a mega corporation whose stores felt local to its patrons. And that empire was built through the ambition and creative genius of Howard Schultz. But this visionary business leader had made a near-fatal miscalculation about how much his customers would pull back on $4 coffee when the economy tanked.

Imagine watching the company you built into the largest coffee seller in the U.S. sink to the point where a corporate takeover or bankruptcy were real possibilities. That was the situation Howard Schultz came back to when he retook the helm of Starbucks in 2008. Onward is the story of a great leader who was humbled by the recession, who learned from his mistakes and who ultimately saved his company from the brink of disaster.

Why is this book helpful? Onward teaches us a fundamental lesson that took me some time to learn: Sometimes you need to check your ego at the door and admit when what you are doing isn’t working, even if it worked in the past. Read Onward to learn directly from one of America’s great entrepreneurs.

2) Steve Jobs, By Walter Isaacson

In the wake of his untimely death in 2011, a lot was written about how Steve Jobs permanently changed humanity’s relationship with technology. But none of the tributes and obituaries came close to the intimacy of Walter Isaacson’s authorized biography. Isaacson, whose biographies of Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein are also both excellent, was given unprecedented access to Jobs in his final years. And the result is a book that every entrepreneur should read when doubts and nay-saying begin to eat away at your determination to succeed.

The number of times pundits were wrong about Steve Jobs’ latest idea are too many to count, but the company that became one of the world’s biggest came close to failing. The result was that Jobs was forced out of his own company.Steve Jobs is a story of incredible invention and vision, crushing failure and almost unbelievable redemption and domination.

Why is this book helpful? The idea that the world’s greatest CEO and entrepreneur was somehow born that way is dispelled in this book. Steve Jobs learned through failure. And although I don’t agree with Jobs’ approach to everything, when tough times come, I’ve found this perspective invaluable.

3) The Wisdom of Failure: How to Learn the Tough Leadership Lessons Without Paying the Price, by Larry Weinzimmer and Jim McConoughey

The first two books were either written by or about wildly successful entrepreneurs. This book is about some of the greatest business mistakes in recent memory and what we can learn from them. Exhaustively researched and based on interviews with hundreds of executives, the authors offer insights into what key blind-spots have resulted in business failure. The lessons Weinzimmer and McConoughey relay are truly insightful.

Why is this book helpful? This book teaches entrepreneurs to avoid the pitfalls that have tripped up some of the biggest companies in the country. Some key takeaways include: Just because your competition is doing something, doesn’t mean you should adjust your own strategy; Sometimes being innovative can distract from what your business is best at; don’t let you your ego prevent you from knowing when to quit; and many, many more.

Those are three of my suggestions. What books have helped you when times got hard?

Article sourced from http://www.forbes.com/sites/patrickhull/2014/01/16/books-every-entrepreneur-should-read/

By

Patrick Hull Contributor

I write about entrepreneurism: the good, the bad & everything else.

Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

The more you like yourself ..............

Entrepreneurship Is The New Women's Movement

Women are leaving the workforce in droves in favor of being at home. Not to be a homemaker, but as job-making entrepreneurs.

By Natalie MacNeil

A quiet revolution is taking shape right now among women. Unlike theQuiet Revolution that began in the 1970s which saw women leave the home and enter the workforce in droves, women today are leaving the workforce in droves in favor of being at home. But unlike generations of women before, these women are opting to work in the home not as homemakers—but as job-making entrepreneurs.

Women have been starting businesses at a higher rate than men for the last 20 years and tend to create home-based micro (less than 5 employees) and small businesses. Women will create over half of the 9.72 million new small business jobs expected to be created by 2018 and more and more are doing this from home offices across the country. It’s a surprising statistic, especially considering that women-owned businesses only created 16 percent of total U.S. jobs that existed in 2010.

It’s the data released this week though by the National Federation of Independent Business about how women entrepreneurs fared during the recession that really cements that this is a revolution with staying power.

The recession was tough for many small business owners and nearly half of women-owned businesses still haven’t been able to climb back to pre-recession sales, but they persevered and adapted to a new economy. Controlling costs was the most popular strategy adopted among women entrepreneurs to get through the recession and there was a 52% increase in the number of women entrepreneurs using social media to boost business while saving on marketing costs.

“The result…is a new cohort of women-owned businesses, battle-tested and more competitive than the generation that preceded them,” says William Dennis in the report. With more women starting businesses and succeeding there’s an opportunity to reshape the working landscape.

With job satisfaction and work environment satisfaction at an all-time low, something needs to change and this could be a step in the right direction.

Let me make it very clear here: I’m not saying women are better or that women starting more businesses means the world is all rainbows and butterflies. Women just do things differently in the world of business and different should be welcomed.

Many women view corporations today as being fundamentally flawed and limiting in their value structures. The Guardian Life Index, an initiative to understand America’s small business owners, cites “office politics” as a driving factor for women leaving Corporate America to start businesses.

With the cost of starting a business at an all-time low, women are saying “no thank you” to spending years climbing and clawing their way up the corporate ladder, dealing with corporate politics, and working long days without feeling the overall fulfillment they crave.

Many women start businesses that align with personal values and offers freedom and flexibility when it comes to things like scheduling.  ”The glass ceiling that once limited a woman’s career path has paved a new road towards business ownership, where women can utilize their sharp business acumen while building strong family ties,” says Erica Nicole who left Corporate America to start YFS Magazine.

For some women, dissatisfaction with the corporate world begins before they have a chance to even enter the workforce. The road to entrepreneurship for Shama Kabani came after she tried to pursue a career in social media but was rejected by Corporate America . “After 18 corporate companies refused to give me a job on the grounds that social media was a fad, I started my own social media and digital PR firm with $1,500,” Shama explains. That company, The Marketing Zen Group, is now a multi-million dollar company that employs 25 people.

Then there are Gen-Y women who either don’t even consider the corporate track or burn out early in the corporate world and pursue entrepreneurship, asoutlined by Meghan Casserly in her wildly popular blog post here on Forbes.com. Millennial women crave independence.

“Making the decision to not follow a system, or someone else’s rules has allowed me to really dig into what my own strengths and gifts are without spending time feeling jaded or wasteful,” says Ishita Gupta who started FEAR.LESS Magazine while going through Seth Godin’s Alternative MBA Program. FEAR.LESS is on a mission to provide a mental toolbox for people to deal with fear, something that still holds a lot of women entrepreneurs back even though they are starting businesses like crazy.

According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, 47.7 percent of women versus 62.1 percent of men believe they are capable of starting and running a business. Hands-on business training like Seth’s AMBA could be key in helping to bridge the confidence gap between women and men when starting a business.

Female-focused incubators and events like the ones offered by Women 2.0 and Ladies Who Launch help women entrepreneurs to build out networks, gain confidence, and learn from successful women. While these events can be highly valuable I caution women to avoid falling into the female-only trap when it comes to business education and seeking guidance and mentorship, especially mentorship.

I believe a female equivalent to the “old boy’s club” is essential for women to help each other grow and edify the next generation of women leaders but I’ve also experienced the value of working with both male and female advisors and mentors. Learning from successful entrepreneurs with different perspectives and experiences help you become a more dynamic and agile business owner.

We need to be dynamic leaders and agile strategists to reshape a work environment that clearly isn’t working anymore. Making the world a better place one worker and workplace at a time will certainly be a road paved with challenges but if we can dig our heels in and prove ourselves in tough situations like the worst recession in our lifetime, I think we can get through anything. One thing is for sure: this women’s movement, the 21st century Quiet Revolution, is here to stay and it’s getting louder and louder.

Natalie MacNeil , Contributor

Article sourced from - http://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2012/06/08/entrepreneurship-is-the-new-womens-movement/

Use Social Media To Your Advantage

How to beat Facebook’s algorithm changes

Like a leopard’s spots, the Facebook algorithm changes regularly. For the average small business ownertrying to get onboard with the overwhelmingly vast world of social media, these changes aren’t always welcome. It is harder to make sure your posts are appearing on people’s news feeds with stricter and more stringent rules being set by the social network. So how best can you jump through Facebook’s impossibly high hoops?

Source: nectarmedia.co.uk

1. Don’t just use Facebook. There are other social networks out there which both businesses and users are turning to. An integrated approach is by far the most sophisticated – use pins and tweets, post to LinkedIn for a more professional readership as cross-promotion ensures a wider audience and means that you’re not so heavily reliant on Facebook. Don’t forget the humble email marketing – this doesn’t mean spam, but a well written newsletter or infographic because for many small businesses, email marketing still trumps other channels with regard to sale conversions. 


2. Quality over quantity. You should be using social media not just for vanity metrics and numbers but as a tool for real engagement. No matter what the algorithm is, great content will always rise to the top. You need to be sharing content that is useful, interesting and different. On top of this, don’t be afraid to ask for customers’ interaction; hosting competitions –‘caption this’ or ‘tag friends’ are good starting bets – will increase views and traffic as they incentivise fans to get involved more actively. In return, make sure you are responding to questions and comments and reviews (both positive and negative). Make it personal with a direct tag and response! 


3. The right place at the right time. As a general rule of thumb, it seems that the more you post, the more you’ll get back. This links to point number two, as what you’re posting has to be of decent quality. Posting 4-6 times a day increases engagement without having to pay for it. If you know that your readership is international, try to take into account these different time zones – you may see a spike in views in the middle of the night as our friends across the pond are waking up. You can find out when your fans and customers are online by going to your Facebook Insights and clicking on the Posts tab. With this in mind, boost your posts and pin them to the top – equally, you can repost popular posts from before, kind of like a Throwback Thursday. If it was good quality content then, it’ll be good quality content now. 


4. A picture speaks a thousand words. Where once Facebook was all about the number of ‘likes’ you got, now the new algorithms are punishing posts that use words such as ‘like’, ‘comment’ or ‘share’. Think outside of the box and use images. There’s a reason Instagram is so popular; we like visuals. They’re fun to look at. They’reeasier and quicker to digest than words. The more the better. 


Hopefully with a bit of creative input, your small business can still get the most out of social media and networking – in many ways it’s a blank slate, so get thinking!

Katie Rowley 

  

Recent graduate and now interning as content editor, when she's not writing articles Katie can quite likely be found festival-ing, holiday-ing or reading a book (dedicated English student that she is). Follow her @KatieAtSMF.

Article sourced from - http://www.socialmediafrontiers.com/

Small steps.....

Everything Comes To You.

3 Reasons Goal Setting Is Not Working For Women Entrepreneurs

Women entrepreneurs don’t exactly light up when they talk about the G word – Goal. For many women, goal setting doesn’t work. It’s one of those things we feel that we have to do, like going to the dentist, because everyone tells us we have to do it.  After all, goal setting is essential to success, right? Maybe not.

How many times have you been asked about your goals and answered with either the fake it response, “Great!”, or the blame game response, “Not good, the economy is really bad right now”? Both responses lead to goal-remorse, a combination of frustration and guilt. It kind of feels like every day is Jan. 7, the day most people give up on their New Year’s Resolution. Goal-remorse can cause severe anxiety in women; thanks to our nurturing gene which makes us feel bad when we let people down.

Here are 3 reasons goal setting is not working for women entrepreneurs, and what you can do about it:

1. Goals come before vision. That’s true in the dictionary, but not in business. When was the last time someone asked you, “What’s your vision?” My guess is never. It’s all about the “G” word, rarely about the “V”. That’s a huge disconnect for women entrepreneurs. Act like the lady-CEO that you are and take a stand. No more goals until you create a vision for your business and define who you are and where you’re going. Get started by mixing 1/3 purpose, 1/3 passion and add in 1/3 crazy idea. Here’s three examples (including mine) to get your creative juices flowing:

Teach people how to live. – Martha Stewart

Bringing the best to everyone we touch. – Estee Lauder

Empower women to discover their glow. – Lynn Bardowski

Once you start the envisioning process, ask yourself how you’re going to make your vision a reality and get to work. You’ll be rockin’ the “G” word without even thinking about it.

2. Vision is not communicated. Ok, this is a catch-22. If you were never taught to create a vision (see #1), you’re not going to have a vision to communicate. But since you read #1, your inner Visionista is ready to roll. The cool thing about communicating your vision is that you’ll inspire others around you to act, and attract more clients. You’ll find yourself standing taller and prouder as the visionary leader that you are. For more tips on how to communicate your vision watch my interview on BeTV.

3. Goals add to overwhelm. I may be the Million Dollar Party Girl, but my husband still expects me to pick up the dry cleaning and put something (anything) together for dinner. We’ve come a long way, but the male/female roles have not changed much. Adding a big goal to a never-ending to-do list can be so overwhelming it has the opposite effect, inspiring us to do, well, nothing. Rather than get overwhelmed with a big goal that might seem daunting, focus on 3 or 4 daily habits that will compound your results. An example is making 5 customer service calls per day to implement a referral system, which leads to loyal customers and new clients. That’s totally doable. Now, imagine doing that 5 days a week, 50 weeks a year. And, don’t forget to pop some bubbly (or treat yourself to something sparkly) to celebrate the effort and progress you’re making along the way.

How do you feel about goal-setting? Comment and share your vision for your biz! 

Contributor Lynn Bardowski

Startup Expert and Visionista

Website: http://www.milliondollarpartygirl.com/

Sourced from http://www.businesswomenexperts.com/3-reasons-goal-setting-is-not-working-for-women-entrepreneurs/

Google Ready To Censor The Internet?

Google is at the centre of controversy on social media after it removed a seven-year-old article criticising a former Merrill Lynch chief executive. It was removed from the search engine on Thursday, and now the Internet giant is facing heavy criticism from all quarters due to its apparent censorship.

Source: velocityagency.com

Google responded to the EU ruling on the “right to be forgotten” by removing various articles from its Europeansearch rankings, and this action led to accusations of censorship and over-reach. The blog post that has caused so much controversy was posted by Robert Peston and titled “Merrill’s mess,” it described how Stan O’Neal left the US investment bank after it suffered massive losses on high risk investments.

Mr Peston acknowledged that Google had banished his article from the Internet, and he stated that the company had in effect removed his article from the public eye, “given that Google is the route to information and stories for most people.”

Before the Internet giant had removed the article, he had received a “notice of removal,” telling him that his article would no longer appear in the results of Google searches. All this comes after a court hearing in May, when the European Court of Justice, ruled that individuals had the right to request the removal of search results if they deemed it “inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant.” This rule will now be upheld even if the information was originally published in a legal manner, and it now poses the question, when does something that was relevant once become irrelevant?

Google opposed the decision that the court ruled, and responded by introducing an online form giving visitors to its European sites a formal route to make removal requests. As a result of this tactic by Google, within the first four days they received more than 41,000 requests.

Ben Bradshaw who is a former Labour culture secretary said that Google seemed to be over-interpreting the courts decision: “Mr Peston is right to say the information he published is still relevant […] I can’t see why Google would do this. It is either a mistake or could be an attempt by them to whip up a storm of indignation against the regulatory authorities in an attempt to influence the bigger battles to come.”

Source: digitaltrends.com

In the end, Mr Peston conceded that he could be “the victim of teething problems,” as Google begins to implement the new rules. He later added: “There is an argument that in removing the blog, Google is confirming the fears of many in the industry that the ‘right to be forgotten’ will be abused to curb freedom of expression and to suppress legitimate journalism that is in the public interest.”

This is maybe the start of a transition period on the Internet, where free speech will be slowly drowned out. It is a worrying concept for many, as the Internet has long been seen as a space where anything goes, and where alternative opinions could be voiced. If rulings such as the one above continue, the Internet will be as regulated as the life that people lead away from the screens, and eventually people will feel claustrophobic, and the consequences could be dire for society.

Alex Smith

Alex is an English Literature and Sociology undergraduate whose love for written word has led him to write about some obscure topics in his time. Currently a content writer at Social Media Frontiers, be sure to follow him @AlexSatSMF.

Article sourced from: http://www.socialmediafrontiers.com/

Never too Old.......

Real Estate Broker Gets Rich Via Social Media

Start selling in the digital world!

You can get rich by utilising social media in the right way. If you don’t believe it then read on. A broker in New York recently sold $13 million worth of real estate just on social media. This is an amazing statistic and shows the route the business world is heading down. This broker could well be the pioneer of a new age of big business online.

Others have made monstrous amounts of money online, and some have had careers erupt with the help of the internet, but this story possesses charm and a human aspect that allows the working class to dream, and believe in their own abilities. Social media could be the gateway for people with fewer resources than most. Last month, Ryan Serchant, a NestSeekers agent says his team received a message on WeChat, one of the most popular social networking sites in China, from an investor declaring that they wanted to buy property in the city. The investor was interested in purchasing a unit at the Baccarat Hotels & Residences, which is a luxury condo, and he did with the aid of Serchant and other members on his team. He ended up purchasing a $10 million three-bedroom and a $3 million one-bedroom, all without setting foot in the city.

Sechant acknowledges that unseen deals are common, but they are more likely to take place via phone or email. This deal though is very special. “This price for a deal that was done and initiated 100 percent through social media and across the world?” he asks. He goes on to discuss details of the deal and still seems in shock at how it came about: “A complete stranger who learned about us via social media ad basically gave us $13 million and change to invest in something that’s not even been built yet in a city they’ve never been to? I don’t think [anyone else has done that].”

This deal has cemented social media’s place in real estate for eternity, as the possibilities are now endless when networking is concerned. Serchant’s co-worker, Fredrik Ecklund of Douglas Elliman said that last month around a quarter of his business resulted from Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. “It’s a viable piece of themarketing mix” says Matt Leoe, who is the director of web marketing and social media at Halstead Property.

This recent revelation is just more proof that social media is the strongest marketing device out there. It enables people to connect easily whilst advertising products, and this cannot be done in the traditional methods such as print. It makes life a lot easier for companies who rely on sales, and it allows firms to interlink all the departments, such as sales, customer service, and marketing. This creates a clean feel to a business model, and if the sales will increase like the one above then surely any companies that are not using social media will quickly consider otherwise.

Alex Smith

Alex is an English Literature and Sociology undergraduate whose love for written word has led him to write about some obscure topics in his time. Currently a content writer at Social Media Frontiers, be sure to follow him @AlexSatSMF.

Article sourced from - http://www.socialmediafrontiers.com/