Archive for September, 2009

 
photo credit: TheAlieness GiselaGiardino²³

So you have made the first step and decided to start your own business, congratulations! Now you need to know what it takes to run your own business, resources, who to hire, how to market, and all of the other avenues that need to be explored. For now, I will give you some basic steps on starting your own business which should get your plan into motion.

1. Know your customer. NYTimes recently stated that your customer is your number one priority, and this I would have to agree. They are your bread and butter, they are what will make your business bring in profits or not. Focus on a specific group in your area, people who may have the most stress or hardship in their lives at the moment, these people will be more willing to bet on new ideas as they don’t really have anything to loose.
2. Know the market. This is very key, you need to drown yourself in the current market and know everything you can about what is going on right now. The newest trends, the trends that are expected to grow and go far in the future, who is investing in what type of market and more.
3. Do research on your start-up costs. Know what your ball park figures are going to be, what you will need to have down, your monthly loan payments, any equipment purchases, hiring employees, utilities, taxes and stock to name a few.

Once you’re satisfied with the business plan, the next step is to test it. This means answering the question: Do customers really want to buy what you intend to sell? It’s a brutal question, but you need to be realistic. One idea is to talk to potential customers, but avoid your friends; instead, identify a list of likely customers and call them.

From Business Opportunities Weblog.

photo credit: milena mihaylova

Many business owners are coming to the realization that having a blog is a very powerful tool for their business to have in its corner, but many of them don’t really know how to start a blog or how to make it grow into something great for that matter.

Choose your niche wisely. Decide on a topic for your blog and then deliver your news and information in a fashion that will entice and engage readers. Select your theme well, and make sure it’s something you’re passionate about, as you’ll be married to it day in and day out, constantly sourcing information for content. Also, consider the competition in your genre. The more unique your chosen topic is, the more chance of success you will have.

Your readers are your key to a successful blog. Remember that they all value their time and want to see interesting content. They want this content in small doses so that it’s not taking up too much of their time. They want to see something exciting, valuable, and something that makes them want to read more every day.

Check out other blogs within your niche and see how theirs is laid out, what they write about, how many followers they have, any offerings that they include on their site and more. This will not only give you a sense of where about you should be but it will also give you a chance to join their blogs in order to build your community.

Remember that your blog is a powerful tool for your business, and in order to keep that tool successful you have to work at it. As posted on Open Forum.

From Business Opportunities Weblog.

 
photo credit: woodleywonderworks

I recently came across an article naming the top 25 most creative business people in the world today. Some of them i found to be quite interesting and not someone that i would have ever thought of until i read this article. Below are a few of these top most creative business people, visit Fast Company to view all 25 of them.

1. Melinda Gates. As Bill Gates wife she has been said by Bill himself that the company would never even exist if it wasn’t for her input and influences she gives him.
2. Reed Hastings the founder of Netflix has broadened his range of Netflix devices to not just the Internet (as originally planned) but to the TV and other Netflix read devices.
3. Stella McCartney is said to be the new face for responsible clothing. In her designs there is no leather or fur used to create her luxurious clothing line.

You have to admire a guy gutsy enough to build an office building in Paris taller than the Eiffel Tower. By 2012, Thom Mayne’s 68-story La Phare (”the Lighthouse”) will rise over the La Defense district. The 2005 Pritzker Prize winner is famous for audacious buildings: the bunkerlike Caltrans District 7 Headquarters in Los Angeles that locals call the “Death Star”; the disjointed Cahill Center at Caltech; the mesh-covered science and art center at New York’s Cooper Union.

From Business Opportunities Weblog.