Dragons' Den : Evan Davies Golden Rules For Business Success

Starting A Business With No Money - Top 10 Tips

Everyone wants to be an entrepreneur these days, but the one thing holding them back is lack of money. The banks are reluctant to lend to start ups, a tough economic climate makes it hard to borrow from friends and family, and funding it on your credit card comes with big risks. 

If you do need cash, government-backed Start-up loans seem to be more accessible and come with mentoring and support.

But funding isn’t always necessary. The good news is that providing you follow a few basic rules, starting a business with almost no money is entirely possible. 

Here’s how to do it:

1. Use the resources at your fingertips. Work from home or a local café or library which offers free wifi. Have a car? You could offer a local delivery service. Have a kitchen? You could start making cakes or providing catering for parties.

2. Build a business round the skills you already possess. What can you do that someone else might be prepared to pay for? Can you make clothes, paint and decorate, programme a computer, speak Italian? Do you have a hobby you could turn into a business? If you possess a skill that other people don’t, or would need to invest time and money learning for themselves, that immediately puts you at a big advantage.

3. Sell a product or service which people need rather than want, which they instantly understand, and which they feel comfortable buying without having to consult anyone else first. Umbrellas at £10 each are a better bet than hot tubs at £10,000 each.

4. Get customers to pay you upfront – or at worse, half upfront, half later, so that your costs are always covered.

5. Tap into free advice.  The British Chambers of Commerce runs free events for start-ups; Startup Britain has an enterprise calendar on its website listing events for entrepreneurs around the country, many of them free. The Business and IP centre at the British Library has a wealth of resources for start-ups.

6. Source any equipment you need for free through Freecycle, a community website where people can recycle unwanted items, or the freebie section of listings sites such as Gumtree and Craigslist.

7. Do virtually all the work yourself – and plough virtually all income straight back into the business. Thankless and austere, yes, but also the only way you will be able to build up enough cash reserves to invest in new equipment or premises, and so grow the business.

8. If you have a job, hold onto it. Start your business in your spare time and only give up your day job once your venture is able to pay you a wage. If the venture doesn’t work out, you still have your job. If it does, the transition to being your own boss will be a lot less risky.

9. Replace fixed costs with variable ones by linking your costs to your sales. Hire meeting rooms by the hour, staff by the day and services as you need them. Platforms like peopleperhour.com make hiring freelancers easier than ever.

10. Make the most of free technology to promote your business. Build a website for nothing using an online website builder such as moonfruit.com, wix.com or basekit.com. Then get social networking. It’s free, it’s easy, and it’s an amazing way of promoting your business without spending any money. Sign up to Twitter, create a Facebook page, and join Linkedin.

Kate Jenkins has effectively grown her chocolate brownie business for free using Twitter. She started out in 2007 making chocolate brownies in the kitchen of her home in Llanmabog, Wales. When a friend told her about Twitter she signed up and began running competitions to win brownies on Twitter. She quickly built up a supportive community of followers and more than 70,000 tweets later, her business, Gower Cottage Brownies, now has nearly 5000 followers. Turnover has risen to £120,000, a third of which Jenkins estimates has been directly due to Twitter.

She said: “It is not just that people are buying my brownies, they are also supporting me and doing PR for me because they are talking about my brownies. Twitter is like the biggest word of mouth.”

Success in business is not about starting out with lots of money. It is about adopting the right attitude, thinking your way around problems, and having the determination to put the effort in and give it your best shot. So what are you waiting for?

http://www.prowess.org.uk/starting-a-business-with-no-money

Entrepreneurial Holiday Guilt For Creative Professionals ...

Guilt, guilt, guilt. Guilt is a terrible feeling and is often self-inflicted by creative entrepreneurs, especially during the holidays. 

Most people who work for themselves say they chose to do so because they wanted to “control their time.” People who value time over money, recognize that time is a precious commodity that cannot be created, bought, or borrowed. You have to use it wisely or else it is gone.

Having the luxury to control how, with whom, and where you spend your time is one of the bonuses of working for yourself. So, why is it that an overwhelming number of entrepreneurs also say they feel guilty when they are not working on their businesses or with a client between the hours of 9 to 5 ? 

To be truly happy and successful as an entrepreneur, you must break the corporate-created walls of time and learn how to set your day according to your needs and the needs of your clients. There is no law chaining you to your desk eight hours a day between 9am and 5pm. 

Here’s my advice: stop feeling guilty about when you are working and when you are not, and ditch the idea of playing by rules set up by other organizations. Make sure you benefit from the freedom of entrepreneurship and maximize your time by performing regular activities such as food shopping at off times like 10am on a Tuesday or having your teeth cleaned at 2pm on a Monday ! You will spend less time waiting in line, you will be less stressed, and actually have more time to devote to your clients and other activities, then if you did those things at the weekend or during a busier time.

And be sure to take a day or two off during the holidays to go gift shopping, ice-skating, or to decorate your home! Give yourself permission to enjoy your life and do something for yourself, even if it is on a week day between nine and five. You deserve it.

http://plrplr.com/5342/entrepreneurial-holiday-guilt-for-creative-professionals/

What Is Affiliate Marketing ?

The Basics

Affiliate marketing is a multi-billion dollar industry.  You would probably be amazed at how widely spread it is. But what is this thing ? Actually it is simply selling other people’s stuff - that’s all ! And it is also one of the most lucrative ways to make money online. It has made hundreds of thousands of people millionaires and many more make a living this way. But it is a business like any other and if you want to be profitable, you need to take it seriously. However, the purpose of this article is not to deeply explore affiliate marketing, but to give you a basic idea of what it is and how you can make money with it.

What Exactly Affiliate Marketing Is…

What Is Affiliate Marketing, pic sxc.hu

To be clearer, let’s take a look at an example … Imagine that John is an expert in making websites. He has something valuable – knowledge, that could help other people to make their own sites themselves. So John decides to create an e-book entitled “Build a Site in 5 Steps!”. That’s great, he writes it in a couple of weeks and puts a price tag of $50 for it. As a main marketing strategy, he chooses to use affiliate marketing. So he creates a site for his product and offers anyone the opportunity to sell his book for a commission of 50% of the price or $25. Michael comes across this offer, and he thinks that he can offer this book to the visitors of his site about web design. He writes an article about the book and includes a link (containing his affiliate id) to John's site.  Some of his visitors come across the article and after reading it, they click on the link and go straight to the e-book’s offer page. If someone decides to buy, she pays $50 for the book to John, and then John pays $25 commission to Michael for leading the customer. And this way everyone is happy! The buyer gets the book they want, the promoter gets paid, and the author receives the other half.

This is a pretty cool marketing strategy for John, because if his product is really good, it will sell well and he can attract a whole army of sellers marketing his product for him.

This is a good business for Michael (the affiliate marketer), who has no product of his own, but who gets half of the price as commission, simply for selling John’s stuff.

How to Make Money With Affiliate Marketing

So now you know how it works, you can try it yourself. The best thing is that you have nothing to lose! If you sell – you get a pay, if you don’t sell – you lose nothing! But where to start?

CLICKBANK.COM is the oldest, most trusted and reliable place to start.  It is the biggest affiliate site nowadays - to promote other people’s products (on your blog, webite or via email) for free or create your own product and list it there to be promoted. Creating a product is not that hard, if you are good at something you can make an e-book and then a decent income, Just register with CLICKBANK.COM and you can start right away ....

http://businessideaslab.com/affiliate-marketing/

What's It Like Being Self Employed ?

Interesting item on Radio 4 today about the fact that self employment is booming.  In fact, research published last week showed that we are becoming the work-for-yourself capital of Western Europe - more people are their own boss here than in France, Germany or any of the Nordic or Baltic states. 

You can listen here ... http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04dm5qn

3 Low-Cost Ideas To Start A Home Business

The business life is often characterized by uber-professionalism: avant-garde office designs, Brazilian redwood conference tables and crisp, tailored suits and ties.

But who said you can’t make money sitting in sweatpants at the kitchen table? Nobody!

Income.com wants you to know the opportunity to make money is extended to any entrepreneur willing to take advantage of it, regardless of location or capabilities. As such, many are realizing that starting a home-based small business at a low cost is the best option to break into the business world.

There are quite a number of benefits to home businesses – they cultivate loyal customers, make you a local authority and give you free reign over decision-making and operations – but the key to starting a successful home business is finding the right low-cost idea to run with.

There’s no shortage of viable ideas for starting a small business, but here are a few that could prove to be your best bet at a home business venture.

Tutoring

There’s little else more important than educating the youth, so why not do your part in advancing the cause and make some money while you’re at it? Are you a history buff? Do you know the quadratic formula like the back of your hand, or harbour a secret love for Isaac Newton? Your intellectual talents may earn you some extra green if you start a home-based tutoring business that caters to local students in need of some extra tutelage on all things grammar.

Get the word out amongst parents and neighbours in order to market your services. You can even pay the department heads at your local schools a visit to lobby for a partnership.

Financial Services

There’s a massive demand for financial services because of complex tax code regulations and the absolute need for compliance in financial matters. Small-business owners with prior knowledge of financial matters by way of a college degree, previous employment or skills picked up while out “entrepreneuring” can parlay that fiscal ingenuity into big money.

A recent survey by the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) found 91 percent of small-business owners paid a tax preparer to handle their filings. Whether it’s accounting, tax preparation, business finance consulting or serving as a sales advisor, a startup in financial services is a top idea to start a home business.

Virtual Assistant

The buzzword of the past couple years since the recession hit is “outsourcing.” But instead of outsourcing manufacturing jobs to less costly labour markets, a rash of companies are outsourcing secretarial duties and other tasks to virtual home-based assistants.

You can stand to profit off such a trend by establishing your own virtual assistant service out of a home office. Companies are in the market for a number of services: client management, administrative jobs, copywriting. Just remember, you’ll need to fit your setup with a digital infrastructure that enables telecommuting and online video chatting, as you’ll most likely never be in physical contact with whomever you work for.

Income.com knows it can be hard to get out of your comfort zone, but what’s so wrong with staying in it – so long as you’re making money? As such, starting a home-based small business is a low-cost, profitable option for many entrepreneurs looking to make a name for themselves in a local market. Whether you tutor students on the side, supply financial consulting or take care of office jobs remotely, home businesses can make an entrepreneur out of anyone.

http://income.com/1945/3-low-cost-ideas-to-start-a-home-business/

5 Facts About Women Entrepreneurs That Will Surprise You

Think you need to be young, brilliant and loaded to start your own abundant work-from-anywhere Internet business? Think again…

“Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, 
“I will try again tomorrow.” ~Mary Anne Radmacher

I meet a lot of women who tell me they’ve often thought about starting their own Internet businesses, but they tell me:

• “I think I’m a little too old to get started now.”
• “I have zero start-up money.”
• “I’m married / have kids and I’m just too busy.”
• “I don’t have any marketing skills.”

I understand where some of these self-limiting beliefs come from.

It probably has a lot to do with all of the stories we hear in the media about young up-and-coming entrepreneurs who came from out of nowhere to hit it big with their first business.

Take Dani Johnson for example, the motivational speaker and success coach who went from broke, homeless and living out of her car to making her first million at age 23.

Or Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO and Founder of Facebook.

At 19 years old, this guy had no car, no house, and no job. And still, he managed to secure $12.7 million in venture capital to finance his idea for a new social networking site that since pulled several billion in revenue last year (Not bad for a 26-year-old college dropout, right?)

When you hear about success stories like these, it’s easy to adopt the view that you need to be barely out of puberty, brilliant and loaded with start-up cash in order to be successful in starting your own business.

But this couldn’t be further from the truth.

These success stories are amazing and wonderful and inspiring…

But the fact is there are millions of women entrepreneurs out there running successful businesses that they started later in life while juggling families and day jobs.

The proof is a recent study from the Kauffman Foundation for Entrepreneurship that revealed some really interesting statistics about women entrepreneurs – including average age, background, and motivation – that I think may surprise you. 

The study is called “The Anatomy of an Entrepreneur” and it’s based on a survey of company founders across a range of different industries.

Here are the five most interesting takeaways from the report:

1.  Average age of women starting their own business: 40

2.  Less than 1% came from extremely rich or extremely poor backgrounds

4.  70% were married when they launched their first business

5.  60% had at least one child when they launched their first business (44% had two or more children)

6.  75% worked as employees for other companies for more than six years before launching their own business

This study is proof positive that you don’t need to be in your twenties with tons of start-up dough, a nanny and a private chef to succeed with launching your own passion-based Internet business.

Here’s why:

Not having a lot of start-up money forces you to get creative and only focus on the ideas and strategies that count.

If you have a family, chances are you’re already adept at the art of balancing priorities… which is an enormously HUGE skill to have when it comes to running your own Internet business.

And if you’re a little older and wiser, you can take advantage of your life experiences to form key relationships that will propel your biz forward at warp speed.

If you’ve been letting your age or family commitments hold you back from starting your own Internet business or hitting your existing one out of the park…

Consider letting go of those self-limiting beliefs and focus instead on leveraging your strengths.

Set your course, follow your passions and persevere and the rewards will come!

http://www.abundantentrepreneur.com/5-facts-about-women-entrepreneurs/

Ten Golden Rules Of Home Business

Thinking of setting up a home-based business ? Intended to help you succeed, here are 10 tips from one of the founders of StartUp Britain and home-based business expert, Emma Jones …

Base the business on something you enjoy – when your hobby/passion/skill becomes your full-time job, it never really feels like work.

Have a plan – prepare a basic business plan to set out your vision, describe your market and explain how you propose to reach out and sell to that market. Include sound financials and review the plan every six months or so.

Find dedicated space – create space in your house that is your workspace. When in that space, family and friends should know you’re in business mode, plus, you can walk away at the end of the working day. Invest in a good desk and chair, because you’ll be spending quite a bit of time at and in them.

Create a professional front door – when customers come calling, be sure they’re met with a professional welcome. This applies from the way you answer calls, to your website, company stationery and even the places in which you choose to meet clients.

Make the most of social media – the home-business community has warmly embraced tools such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. They are free to use and act as business development channel and a virtual water cooler for the moments when you miss the banter of an out-of-home office.

Become an expert – set yourself up as an expert in your field by blogging/tweeting about the subject, writing a report, publishing a book or hosting an event. Being an expert gives credibility and with that, comes customers.

Never stop learning – part of becoming an expert is continually picking up intelligence from those around you. Keep an eye on what others in your industry are doing, read about successful entrepreneurs and tune in to trendspotters so you can prepare for new market opportunities.

Get out of the house – attend networking events, work from the local café, sign up to a personal development course. It’s good to get out of the home office, but be sure you can still be contacted and respond via your mobile/laptop/webmail, etc. This is your “road warrior kit”

Do what you do best and outsource the rest – to grow the business, focus on the core product of the company and subcontract non-core tasks (eg admin, accounting, PR, fulfillment, etc) to others.

Follow the golden triangle – to keep the business in balance, spend roughly a third of your time on each of three key things: customer care, business development and admin. That way, you’ll have a smooth-running business with happy customers and new income streams on the way.

http://www.startupdonut.co.uk/startup/business-premises/10-golden-rules-of-home-business

Those who work from home are 12% more productive than those who work in an office !

This 3 minute snippet from Radio 4 (August 2012) discusses interesting research about working from home - and its positive effects on health and productivity ... click on this link to have a listen :

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9743000/9743364.stm

What To Do When You Have Too Many Ideas, And Not Enough Time

Image credit: Shutterstock

What do you do when you have too many ideas and not enough time? Or similarly, what about when you have too many tasks and not enough energy?

As an entrepreneur, I feel like I’ve been battling this issue for a while. There is always another opportunity to chase or a new product idea that sounds exciting. For a long time, I felt guilty about ignoring good ideas that came my way and so I kept adding more to my to-do list.

However, during a recent conversation with Travis Dommert, I learned about a new strategy for dealing with the issue of having too many ideas and projects.

It all comes down to treating your life like a rose bush.

Let me explain what Travis taught me…

Ideas are Like Rose Buds

As a rose bush grows it creates more buds than it can sustain. If you talk to an experienced gardener, they will tell you that rose bushes need to be pruned to bring out the best in both their appearance and their performance.

You see, a rose bush isn’t like a tree. It can’t grow wider and taller each year. And that means if you never trim away some of the buds, then the bush will eventually exhaust itself and die. There are only so many resources to go around. And if you really want a rose bush to flourish, then it needs to be trimmed down not just once, but each year. 

Ideas are like rose bushes: they need to be consistently pruned and trimmed down. And just like a rose bush, pruning away ideas — even if they have potential — allows the remaining ideas to fully blossom.

Just like the rose bush, we face constraints in our lives. We have a limited amount of energy and willpower to apply each day. It’s natural for new ideas and projects to come into our life — just like it’s natural for a rose bush to add new buds — but we have to prune things away before we exhaust ourselves.

In other words: new growth is natural and it’s normal for tasks and ideas to creep into your life, but full growth and optimal living requires pruning.

We All Need to Cut Good Branches

I like the rose bush analogy because it brings up something that is often lost in most conversations about productivity and simplicity: if you want to reach your full potential, you have to cut out ideas and tasks that are good, but not great.

In my experience, this is really hard to do.

If you’re building a business, maybe you have 3 product lines that are profitable. Your business might grow by 5x if you focus on all three, but which product line will grow by 500x if you put all of your energy into it?

If you’re training in the gym, there are all sorts of exercises that could make you stronger. But which two or three exercises will build a foundation of strength better than anything else?

If you’re thinking about the relationships in your life, there are dozens of people that you are connected to in some way. But which people bring energy into your life and which ones suck energy out of it?

Most rose buds could grow if they are given the chance. In other words, most buds are like a good idea: they have potential. But in order for the entire bush to flourish and live a healthy life, you have to choose the ones with the most potential and cut the rest.

The Bottom Line

Gardener and writer Elizabeth Roth says, “Roses that are left unpruned can become a tangled mess of old and new canes all competing for air and light.” 

We can say the same thing about our lives. A life left unpruned can become a twisted knot of ideas, tasks, and projects competing for your limited time and resources. If you don’t prune some of the branches from your life, the important ones will never flourish.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/234140

Top Five Questions To Ask Yourself Before Starting A Business ...

Starting a business is exciting ... and scary. One of the best ways to boost the excitement and shrink the fear is by being prepared.

While it's difficult to plan for every possibility and challenge that may occur, you can get yourself on the path to success by considering these five questions before jumping in with both feet.

1. Have I set goals and do I have a plan for reaching them?

As the proverb says, "He who fails to plan, plans to fail," and this is especially true when starting a business. Without a clear idea of where you want to go and how you plan to get there, you may find yourself stumbling through the stages of starting a business and facing unwanted stress and frustration.

One of the most important steps is setting goals that outline what you want to accomplish in the short term (1 month, 3 months, 6 months, etc.), as well as over the long term (2 years, 5 years, etc.). Once you have created your goals, it's time to make sure you have a plan for your business that will guide you along the way. It's also helpful to understand your motivation for starting a business in the first place.

2. Will I be able to follow my plan without breaking any laws or regulations?

There are a number of legalities that you should consider when starting a business. Here is a list of some of the legal areas you should explore:

• Deciding on the structure of your business (sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, limited liability company)
• Registering a business name
• Obtaining necessary licenses and permits
• Planning for business taxes

3. Have I fully considered the financial implications of starting a business?

Money is a major concern when you start a business, especially if you will be leaving behind a steady paycheck and if your business has significant start-up expenses.

Some business financing options to consider to ease the financial transition include starting your business on the side while continuing to work full time, working a part-time job until your business becomes established, waiting to start your business until you have saved up a financial reserve, and borrowing the necessary funds to bridge the gap.

4. Is my support network in place?

We accomplish very little in life completely autonomously, and the same is true in business. Even if you plan to be a sole proprietor, you can benefit tremendously from creating an external support system to keep you on track.

Your support network may include family, friends, colleagues, a mentor, a coach, and anyone else who can help you navigate roadblocks. When you have an effective support system in place, you will find that you have a cheerleader, consultant, moral support and even a devil's advocate when necessary.

5. Do I have what it takes to make it as a business owner?

Being a successful business owner requires a unique mix of personality and small business character traits. While there isn't a standard formula that makes one type of person more successful than another, some entrepreneur-friendly personality traits that can ease the process of getting started as a business owner include passion, drive, dedication and self-discipline. And it doesn't hurt to be an effective communicator and someone who is willing to take measured risks.

These five questions are likely to spur a few more specific to your situation. Now is the time to consider all of the possibilities ... then you can let your enthusiasm trump the fear.

http://sbinformation.about.com/od/startingabusiness/tp/questions.htm