A New Course

I've been following Sara Brown and Tony Shepherd for some considerable time now and was interested when they posted their new KickStartCourse. This was something I just had to have. Why? Well I have always found them to both to be so understated and straightforward that I knew whatever they produced would be honest to goodness, down to earth, useful knowledge. That they produced it together was a big plus when it came to deciding to get into it now.

I'll let you know how I feel about it when I've had time to read the lessons - mind you that is going to take a while because it is a 12 month course. So if rather than wait you would like to get your hands on it for yourself just Click Here!

Choosing a Business Idea

So many ideas – so little time. If you want to start a home business then you have to go ahead and choose something. Next focus on your choice and get going.

So how do you choose? Well the simplest way is to write down a list of all the things that you can do or would like to do. Then organise your list into areas. Then figure out where in the market you wish to place yourself. Find a niche and or a unique selling point.

Whatever you do decide on something that you can handle and that you are going to love doing. Of course, there will be parts of the business you won’t like or can’t do. In these cases either accept that you will have to face the bits you don’t like or maybe you will find someone else to do them.

An obvious area that comes to mind is accounts. So long as you keep all the records of incomings and outgoings the best option is to pay an accountant to put it all together. Accountants also know how to save you money because they understand all the tax deductibles.

If you would like some ideas to get you going have a look here: Business Ideas

Once you have chosen the idea you are going to run with you can begin to organise all the various parts to get it underway. This is the most important part for any business. Do plan but do get it underway. Don't wait for perfection in planning - you'll be waiting forever. Just get on and do it. Good luck

Business Plan - Part Three

People and Qualifications

People and their qualifications are an important part of your business and so will need to be detailed in your Business Plan.

Now it may be that you are going to be the only person working in your business so you think that you needn’t bother with this. Oh, yes you do. A good idea here is to write out your CV or Resume. Then match up your skills and qualifications to what is required for your business.

When you find gaps you must then figure out how you are going to fill them.

• Will you need to employ someone?
• Is there someone amongst your family or friends who could (or would) do it?
• Will you have to get yourself some specific training?

It is much better to recognise a deficiency before it becomes an imminent necessity. By completing your Business Plan you will see what is needed and set about getting it.

Business Plan - Part Two

The Vision Statement

Your Business Plan will cover various main areas. You will find outline plans which you can complete quite freely throughout the internet. Most banks will also be happy to give you detailed forms alongside an instruction booklet. I don’t think that the layout matters too much so long as it is well presented and covers the necessary areas.

One extremely important section usually comes at the beginning: The Vision Statement. This is a summary of what you see as the purpose of your business and the goals.

I think this is best written first – and last. Write your Vision Statement to begin with and then put it aside whilst you work on the other sections of the Business Plan. You will probably be drawn back to it time and again and improve on the words.

Then when you have finished everything else come back and make sure that it reads to your liking and that it is concise. Don’t have a single word that is superfluous.

More next time.

Business Plans - Part One

The Importance of completing a Business Plan

I believe that a Business Plan is important no matter how small your business. Most of us think it is for going to the bank or other finance places in order to beg for money so that we can start up. Well, yes it will be jolly useful for that. However, I think that it is much more beneficial in helping ourselves.

If you draw up a Business Plan you will help yourself in the following ways:

1. You will force yourself to be precise about all the areas you must cover.

2. You will be able to focus on each and every essential point.

3. You will discover the areas you are missing (or attempting to gloss over!)

4. You will have to face up to your weaknesses and do something about them.

5. You will need to research in order to fill gaps in your knowledge.

6. You will probably ask advice of others rather than ploughing ahead blindly.

7. You will use your Business Plan to keep you on track whilst building your business.

Come back for more thoughts on this in a couple of days.

Undergoing MyBlogLog Verification

A good name for the business

I am spending a great deal of time at the moment thinking about a new business I want to start up. I know what the main part of this is and am itching to get going. It has been going around my mind for quite a time now. Lately though I have been trying to trap it on paper. This is always an important step. Whatever is in my head looks kinda different when I try to organise it.

For the last couple of days I have been tussling with a very big problem that must be overcome before I can move on. The business needs a name. Now if it was a purely offline business this would be fairly simple. However, it’s major part is going to be online. This means that I need a suitable domain name. This is turning out to be an enormous obstacle. It seems that anything that seems to be ideal is already taken. So I am exploring the not so ideal (and the downright stupid!). It needs to be a dot com ending as far as I am concerned because if people try to commit to memory they will try dot com before anything else and I don’t want my traffic going to others. Also there is the question on whether to hyphenate or not to hyphenate. Again – people are likely to forget the hyphens.

The English language has so many words which mean almost the same as one another that you’d think there would be plenty of alternatives. What I find though is that the word(s) I want cannot be substituted.

The rest of the business planning seems to be falling quite neatly into place. There are so many segments to be thought out in order to produce some sort of cohesive whole. I believe it is important to have everything in place in order to start the business. If I don’t know what I am doing and where I am headed there is no way that my clients/customers will.

It is absolutely essential to have plans in place before the start and then it is just a case of following through and filling out all the areas. On the other hand, the planning should not be so detailed that it prevents progress. You have to get going before perfection is reached because that would be never.

Embracing Knowledge

You often hear it said that knowledge doubles every eighteen months. This comes from Moore’s Law which was applied to the microchip and computers. However, I believe that is true of an individual’s knowledge and can be overwhelming. Let me explain.

The more I learn. The more I investigate. The more I know. The more openings there are to investigate and learn about. Now I know that given time I can cope with the investigating and the learning and I will have more knowledge. However, the drawback is “time”. I only have 24 hours in the day and some of that is detailed for sleep and food.

I love working at my computer. I produce content for my websites and I like to keep up several blogs. Also it is great to join in discussions on various forums and to comment on favourite blogs. Oh and drop in on MySpace and Facebook.

The more I learn about all this; the more I want to learn So now I spend most days being overwhelmed by what I set myself. I end most days completely dissatisfied with my achievements.

Obviously the answer is to stay focussed on the projects in hand at the time. Easier said than done though. It seems to me that every little step I want to take to improve a web page entails learning something new. Now that in itself is fine. That knowledge though will on one hand take longer and be more involved than at first glance. It will also lead me down at least two other paths I knew nothing about.

OK that was a bit of a rant. Let’s look at the advantages. When people come to me for help and advice I tend to know what they are asking about even if I don’t necessarily understand the whole procedure. Also if I know something about a topic I seem then to be able to pick up little bits here and there that I would have missed had I not had some knowledge of it.

You should never be put off by a subject which seems to be beyond your abilities. Get into it gradually, or throw yourself in at the deep end. Just grab knowledge for the sake of it. Later it will come together like a jigsaw puzzle when you have all the pieces.

Whatever the problem, it is answered somewhere on the internet. These are great days for learning. The whole world is your University. Gosh when I was studying I only had books (if I could get hold of them).

What is InterNetwork Marketing?

What is InterNetwork Marketing? Well I think it first of all breaks down into several parts. Then it is about how it comes together. Confused? Never mind. Follow on.

First the break down into the individual parts:

Marketing via a network. Now I have phrased it in this manner because you will be reading something else into the words otherwise. In order to market an item you must build a network. This network will be of individual people, small businesses, large corporations. Whatever the size you need a network. Avoid being reliant upon one outlet. Never put all your eggs in one basket.

Marketing via the internet. This is where people tend to believe that all you have to do is put up a web page and hey presto instant riches. Wrong. The internet is a place where you can market your goods and services. However, it needs working at just the same as offline. There are differences of course. The internet is global and it works for you 24/7.

Marketing via offline methods. This you can do locally. Usually something physical must be present such as a store outlet, hard copy advertising or links to other distributors.

These three methods of marketing all work extremely well. Different people prefer different methods for various reasons. In this day and age though I believe that if you use all methods of marketing you will build a good, strong business bringing in multiple income streams.

So what did I mean by bringing the parts together? Marketing is all about YOU. It is YOU that you need to market. You will sell various goods and services but the product that you market is YOU. Think about it. If you have choice how do you decide where to buy?

If you need to buy groceries perhaps you immediately think of Wal-Mart. This won’t be just because it is the cheapest – rather that you know exactly what you are getting for your money. If you are in a strange town and you need a quick lunch you look for a MacDonald’s. Why? Because you know that you will get exactly the same whichever town you are in.

The names are brands. YOU are your brand. Build your business in a way that inspires trust. Market yourself so that people will turn to you.

I've been working offline

I hadn't realised that so much time had passed since I was last on here. I've been very busy with one of my offline businesses which needed my physical input. I love the buzz of interacting with clients face to face.

So why don't I do this all the time? Well the biggest reason, I suppose, is that if you are hands on then you are paid for your time. This, of course, limits me for the amount of income that can be generated by the time available and my own stamina. So although I enjoy the contact and the very real satisfaction of helping people, I do feel the need to have other methods of providing income.

There is much more security when the forms of business are diversified. Also I find that my attention is maintained when I can become thoroughly involved in a project which I work on fully until that part of it is complete. By moving on to another task I find that it is almost like taking time off. You know what they say: "A change is as good as a rest". I find that this is absolutely correct.

As you know, I have in place a range of income generating businesses. However, I am never satisfied and love to be putting in place further income streams. How about you?

Reminder: Spring Offer

Hurry if you want to take up the Spring offer of TWO websites from Sitesell – it expires on 28th March. My apologies for not reminding you sooner. Of course, if you only know me from this blog I should say I am sorry for not letting you know about this superb offer when it first came out.

Jean Taylor

New Business Project

Well I’m afraid there has been a bigger gap in my postings than I intended. I knew that I shouldn’t be able to keep up a day to day effort but I didn’t really expect there to be such a gap as I have here already. Still never mind.

The reason for the gap is that I have just become involved in a brand new business project. As you know I am interested in having businesses which involve multiple income streams. For this reason it takes a good bit of intensive planning and other work to get it underway. However, I am well pleased with the results so far. It is in an area in which I have considerable knowledge but have put off before. Why? Well it’s because I find the more I know about a subject the more I believe I don’t know enough! It’s a case of understanding that I have a lot more knowledge than most of the people who will come to me seeking solutions to problems. I am sure that many of you must have the same feelings. Don’t let them hold you back.

We often find it difficult to see our own gifts, passions and skills and go seeking something that we can get into. So I suppose my message today is really that you should look inside yourself for the thing on which you will be able to build a business.

Baby Boomers

There must be as many reasons for joining a Network Marketing company as there are people. This business model can be all things to all people. It is so flexible that it can be implemented in just the way that people want.

I was thinking about this while considering the needs of the Baby Boomers. Of course, this term covers quite an age range with people who were born between 1946 and 1964. This is often now divided in two. The first batch now finishing at 1957. This means that it encompasses all the over 60s. Within this group I keep coming across two main themes:

1. Lack of sufficient pension provision. In this case the retirees are staring into a life of poverty. In general it is also near on impossible to get even a small job in order to have a better income. This is a great worry for many.

2. Loneliness and lack of focused activity. When people have attended a place of work they have been used to having others around. Maybe they aren’t great friends but they are acquaintances with whom to have a conversation. This friendly contact is cut off abruptly when work stops. Work is also useful in that it occupies body and mind for a set number of hours. This also ends suddenly. Life becomes an arid desert.

The segment of Baby Boomers approaching retirement begins to realise that this is what is also likely to be their fate.

Many of these people would be happy running their own businesses. However, setting up in business can be quite stressful and also often requires a financial investment which is not available.

This is where I find that my Network Marketing business is so good. It basically means that a business can be started from home for an extremely low investment and has no recurring charges for autoship and the like. It also fulfils the needs of the Baby Boomer generation:

1. It generates an income in several ways. You can earn retail profit, bonuses for volume and residual income. For some this will provide a supplement to a pension. For others it will be a whole new and growing income which will continue into the years ahead.

2. The business provides a day to day activity with purpose. It also brings us people to communicate with and indeed to find friends among.

Perhaps you would like to know more about Network Marketing, in which case click over to: Business Ideas for Over 50s - Network Marketing

If you would like to discuss anything with me go to my contact form

Jean Taylor

My Business on the Internet

For me the Internet has brought freedom and opportunity.

In the past building a business meant a physical presence. So often it was necessary to have premises such as a store, an office or a workshop. All these had to be accessible to potential customers. Alternatively it could be that I had to be in meetings or carrying out my work/service in person.

That has all changed. Now I have my presence on the Internet. I have several websites which are built around my passions. These are my new store fronts. People will hopefully come in and look around. It may be that they will find solutions within the content on the pages. Or, they may want to obtain more information or actual products. All this they can do.

Because I am now an InterNetwork Marketer, my visitors will hopefully want to buy from me or join me in my business. Whatever it is that they want, they will decide and they will initiate contact with me. I have the luxury now of waiting for their contact rather than having to set up appointments and pestering people. Also rather than be purely local in my business I am now global.

Now that I have my business set up with its many and various strands I can help others to achieve their own InterNetwork Marketing business.

Jean Taylor

A little about me

Perhaps I should write a little about myself for those of you who do not know me.

I am self employed and work from home. As far as I am concerned variety is the spice of life. I am now heavily involved in InterNetwork Marketing but I do in fact work both online and off.

Most of my off line projects have evolved from my past life. I was in teaching for many years and thoroughly enjoyed the interaction with students. However, the stress and over regulation got the better of me. I had to get out and reclaim my life.

At this point I did not look to go back into full time work in an educational establishment. Instead I found that I was being offered contracts to tutor on a military base and a return to work facility. These slotted in quite nicely for me. I then had a request to lecture and tutor on an MBA course with a local university college.

I quite enjoyed this but the various contracts were tying in that each needed certain attendances each week and were in different towns. As with all teaching, each needed preparation. Also most of the work was in blocks slotted into the academic calendar.

During this time I came across the business model called Network Marketing. This was quite an eye opener. I joined my first Network Marketing company. It was like entering a new world. Much of it was pure hype. Get past that and there is a great business model which can be used by the individual for very small monetary investment.

I found that my teaching background came in very useful. Each new distributor I brought into the business needed to be taught what it was all about. By helping them to understand and build their own businesses I have found new friends.

Jean Taylor

A Personal Blog

I thought that it was about time that I had a personal blog. My intention is to put down some of my thoughts and activities from time to time. Hopefully I shall be able to do this fairly regularly but I cannot promise that this will be daily. Much depends on what is happening at the time. Some days I get very involved in my latest project. Some days I take time away from my computer to do things with my family.

However, I welcome you to my new blog and hope that you will be interested enough to come back often.

Jean Taylor