How to Come Up With a Great Business Idea

By Michael C. Dwyer 

Unless you live under a rock, you know that people (teens included) are becoming rich off businesses. And unless you actually are a rock, you probably want to be one of them. We've all heard horror stories about businesses failing miserably and owners losing their life savings. But most of these failures come down to two major mistakes.

1. Owners giving up on their business because it hasn't performed as well as they thought or because they couldn't handle the stress. 2. Not having a great idea and a fool-proof plan.

While some businesses may go out for reasons that can't be planned for, many others do go out for the reasons mentioned above. That is why having a sound business idea is important.

Ideas aren't always perfect

I'm going to let you in a little secret that will save you a lot of trouble. Don't look for that perfect business idea, because that perfect business idea will never come. Businesses will almost always have flaws and while its good to scrutinize a business idea, be careful not to be over analyze it.

Revolutionary ideas don't work out

This is going to be controversial because a few entrepreneurs have grown rich from revolutionary ideas; Bill Gates, Paul Allen and Steve Jobs, to name a few. However, most revolutionary ideas aren't the ones that make it big. Revolutionary ideas are almost impossible to do well in for several reasons... 

• Your on your own, in terms of help. If your idea is truly revolutionary nobody will be able to help you.
• Lots of trial and error in order to figure out what works
• No demand for what you offer
• People don't like change, expect high marketing budgets if you want to sell your idea to the public.

The best thing to do is let other people experiment with these ground breaking ideas, while you stick to ideas that have already been perfected.

Piggyback off others success or non success

Great ideas don't only come from people with a great business sense. Yes it is true! Even people with a bad business sense can come up with great ideas. Identifying a business that is managed poorly and either buying it or starting a competing business is a great way to start a business. The key to this though is to out do your competition in every aspect. In order to make this method work you need to out-market, out-promote, out-negotiate and out-perform your competition. Let your business skills go to work, because if you take this route you will need them.

Improve on what is already there

There are a lot of businesses, A LOT! Most of them look-alike and function alike. Starting yet another business like the rest isn't going to make you money. What you should do is ask yourself "Why would anyone want to my (insert business here) instead of the one at the top of Google, down the street, etc." By identifying what you can provide that your competitors don't you've already taken a step many business owners overlook. Being the first in an industry isn't as important as offering the most. This method is, in my opinion, the very best way to start a business. Here are some companies that started this way, perhaps you've heard of them...

Walmart - Beat competitors by having a smaller mark up on goods. Amazon - Beat competitors by offering customers the best possible experience. Google - Finely tuned search engine offered better results than competitors.

Opportunity from inconvenience

Nobody likes inconveniences and in order to avoid them most people are willing to pay. This is the simplest method for starting a business. It requires very little thought, just find something that is an inconvenience. If it is on the internet, write a program or an info product that deals with the issue. If it is inconvenience that doesn't deal with the internet, your best bet is to provide a service and not a product. Since selling products without the internet usually involves brick and mortar stores.

Hey I am a 14 year old entrepreneur and investor who writes personal finance tips for teens and parents. Read my blog on how to invest. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michael_C._Dwyer

Thoughtful Entrepreneurs - Uncover 7 Ways To Convert Knowledge Into Money

By Beverly K Taylor 

You can convert your expertise into money. How? By making information products containing your expertise. Tell your story about how you triumphed over adversity. Share your passion in the form of information products and a coaching program that shows your niche market a way can be found to improve their situation. You already have a sphere of influence when it comes to your trade or expertise. You already know something that can improve things. Your expertise is worth money. And rightly so! Keep reading to uncover how to use the internet to convert your knowledge into money:

1. Read through online discussion boards and look at the complaints of people. Look for patterns of complaints. Connect with these people empathetically by sharing solutions that actually relieve their pain and suffering. This will attract people to your website and convert them into paying customers and clients.

2. By recognizing the complaints found on discussion boards, you can see what information products to make and sell to your niche market. Make a product for each step of your system or process for solving the individual problems found within your profession. This is another way to bring in supplement revenue together with your amazing coaching program.

3. Promote your information products by developing the amazingly effective marketing technique called article marketing. Even if you think you are not a writer, you really are. You do write emails, correct? You do send birthday cards or other types of greeting cards, right? Well, that makes you a writer. Just write from your heart about ideas to improve your ideal prospect's common complaints that no one else has solved. They will get the message that you really do care about them and are the 'go to' source to solve their problems.

4. Thoroughly do market research and find a niche that already has money to pay you to share your expertise before you start creating information products. It is better to pick something you know or that you are interested in knowing.

5. Build a list and market your expert knowledge to your list. You do this by exchanging an ebook or an audio download in exchange for the prospect's email address. After you get the email address, stay in touch sending them more and more solutions to their problems. This is how you build your relationship and trust with your prospect.

6. Do an email marketing campaign that shares your knowledge and information to improve the lives of your niche.

7. Hire a coach to help you streamline your process of sharing your knowledge globally. It will save you time, money and frustration in the long run.

By the way, do you want to learn more about using articles like this to drive traffic to your website and increase your income online? If so, I suggest you download this free ebook: "How to Take Your Offline Business Online Fast: Article Writing Fast and Easy". To download this free ebook, click here: http://www.offlinelocal2onlineglobal.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Beverly_K_Taylor

Taking Control of Your Life - Just Get Started

By K. MacKillop

You know how when you buy a new car you suddenly see other cars just like that everywhere you go? Before you bought it, you never noticed them at all...but now they seem to be all over the place! The same sort of thing happens once you take the first step into entrepreneurship. That is, seeking out the first opportunity and taking steps to pursue it very often expose a multitude of other opportunities as well. All you have to do is take the first step!

Most wealthy, successful entrepreneurs will tell you that they changed direction a number of times from their first startup idea. For some, the final result is just a variation of the original idea, such as a real estate agent jumping into the house flipping industry. One entrepreneur started out with an online car part retail store. A few months after launching, a former metal worker contacted her about partnering to market customized parts. A few months after that, an interested investor financed the launch of a full garage for fabricating specialty parts and customizing street racers!

For others, the change is far more dramatic. Another entrepreneur started out with a dog training business but ended up a regional flooring distributor! The training company was doing just fine, but the income was limited by the number of hours he could train. A client mentioned an open distributorship in the flooring industry and he jumped at the opportunity. Less than one year later, the training facility is run by a staff of employees and the distributorship is rockin' along as well.

Stories like these are very common in the world of entrepreneurship. A recent documentary called Lemonade is about the different paths that laid off ad folks have taken. The guy who made the documentary? He started out launching an advertising industry job board, but when the opportunity to make the documentary came along, he grabbed it and ran. Now, he is focusing his work efforts on creating more documentaries...and loving every minute of it!

The key to really taking control of your work life and financial future is twofold. First, just get started in the right direction. Second, be ready to seize opportunities as they come along. The more hooks you have in the water, the more likely you are to snag a few fish. Don't limit yourself to the ideas you have right now. Entrepreneurship is a learning process. No matter how much schooling or work experience you have, there will be hard lessons and realities that surprise you on your path to success. The trick is to take advantage of every situation and always be looking for the next foothold up the cliff.

Whatever your goals for taking control of your life, just get started. Look for the obvious business ideas, pay attention to what the people around you need. Figure out what you know and what you don't know about entrepreneurship and take steps to fill in the gap. Don't wait for the perfect idea, get going now with a good enough idea! The first one may not make you rich, but it will get you on track to find the right opportunities that will change your life!

About the Author- K. MacKillop, a serial entrepreneur, is co-founder of LaunchX, a company designed to develop and train potential entrepreneurs to succeed. The LaunchX System, delivered through seminar format or at-home study, helps entrepreneurs start a business based on their own idea. It includes step-by-step business startup instructions, key software, business tools, comprehensive entrepreneurial skills training, and more. Visit LaunchX.com to learn more about this revolutionary way to become an entrepreneur. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=K._MacKillop

Personal Leadership Development Plan - Your Starting Point To Success

By Sean McLaughlin and Tegan Hadley

If you truly want to become a successful leader, you need to utilize a personal leadership development plan. All of our great leaders, young or old, have one thing in common. They are all great goal setters and have a plan set in place which provides a pathway for them to be able to live their greatest dreams and desires. They know exactly what they want before they set their goals; simply wishing for success is not enough.

You need to be absolutely determined if you truly want to stand up and move towards your goals and dreams. The main difference between leaders and followers lies in the fact that leaders will do the things that followers do not like to do. Leaders have a purpose strong enough to be able to form the habits of doing the things they don't want to do, in order to obtain the results they wish to obtain.

Here are some crucial steps for your personal leadership development plan:

• Be prepared to do what it takes to achieve your dreams. Saying you want a big house, a luxury yacht or a sports car is all a very nice idea, but the point is... are you willing to pay the price to obtain them? Remember, this is the primary difference between the leaders of the world, and the followers.

• Take 100% responsibility for your life. To blame a situation or another person is saying they have control of your life and not you. Don't let someone else's opinion of you become your reality.

• Act immediately. Stop procrastinating and make the decision to start in your quest to become successful. We don't know how much time we have to achieve our dreams, but we do know that we don't have forever. Successful leaders understand this, and instead of viewing it as a negative platform, they use it as an opportunity to motivate and inspire themselves enough to take the step into leadership.

• Leaders live their lives with purpose. If you have passion about what you are doing is going to make that much easier to achieve your goals and dreams, and you will have fun while doing it.

• Focus is a key aspect of your personal leadership development plan. Every day we are bombarded with phone calls, tasks, messages and everyone trying to take our time away. But in reality, nobody can steal your time away. You are responsible for your time. It is YOU who lets them steal it. If you want to be a leader, you need to learn to manage this inevitable force and work with it, rather than against it. If you make the decision to maintain focus you are investing your time in something that will pay off in the long term.

• Write out a definite plan for Achieving your goals. A goal that isn't written down is merely a wish or a fantasy.

• Here is the hot tip. Go after what you want as energetically and as enthusiastically as you can, for as long as you can. You are not getting any younger.

Where does it all fit in?

Developing an action plan enables you to stand out amongst the crowd. Make the decision today to become an expert in your field. You can be ahead of the game, just through a little research into what the leaders in your field are doing. With that extra little bit of passion, you will soon find yourself the leader of your chosen field. You will be the benchmark, and just by following a few steps of your personal leadership development plan, you will find yourself living in a world where you are everything you have always wanted to be.

Are you desperate to become a successful leader? Are you ready to fight for your greatest dreams and desires? Don't struggle on alone - make the most of the free advice and information on our website,http://yourpersonalleadershipdevelopment.com/ Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sean_McLaughlin

Healthy New Year Habits for Entrepreneurs

By Kathi Burns

Manage your emails and phone calls

a. Never check email or voice mail first thing in the morning b. Schedule regular times to check emails and stick to it c. Read recent emails first d. Allocate the amount of time you will spend and stop promptly e. Create email signatures to sign off with one click f. Read it, delete or move it

Pre-plan and then plan again - keep your eye on your large goals

a. Plan next week either on Friday afternoon (business) or Sunday evening (mom) b. Plan your day before it plans you!

Set your intentions and goals for the day in advance of that day

The day before, the night before or in the morning before you begin your tasks for that day c. Allocate specific time slots for recurring tasks, do them over and over at the same time each week

Gasoline, banking, grocery shopping

Calls, reports, marketing d. Arrive early for appointments

Spend the time you wait for others to plan what you want to accomplish in the meeting

a.This will decrease your stress level b.You will appear poised, professional & in control of your schedule instead of harried and disorganized

Umbrella Your Day (create chunks of time for related activities)

Divide your main responsibilities into 5 days, for example:

Monday = Planning Day

Tuesday = Current Large Project

Wednesday = Outside Appointments, Errands

Thursday = Bills / Paperwork

Friday = Research Day

Create an exit area in your office for all items that need to leave your space.

a. Place things there as you find them.

b. Choose an area on your desk or credenza that is positioned towards the door

Create 'To Do' Lists

a. Complete the three most important tasks each day before you move onto anything else

Take Control Your Papers

a. Check it, move it into a predetermined place off the counter until you are ready to take action

b. Handle it only once before you work on it

Learn to say NO

a. Don't volunteer until you take a moment to determine whether you have the time to fulfill the commitment

b. Give yourself permission to reconsider commitments Delete unnecessary tasks from your schedule that detract from your BIG picture goals

c. Don't automatically respond to another persons problem / fire before you determine whether it is going to foul up your agenda

Kathi Burns, CPO is a Board Certified Professional Organizer and Image Consultant and author of Master Your Muck. Her website addSpaceToYourLife.com, is known for it's straightforward organizing advice and simple solutions for home and business. addSpace To Your Life is also a powerful resource for wardrobe, image and time management challenges. Kathi's new book, How to Master Your Muck, is filled with illuminating stories and empowering methods designed to teach us that growth requires space. Muck sabotages creative expression. It acts as a roadblock to our success. Muck blocks our ability to be free. Kathi's tips, sidebars, and action steps train us to release what no longer serves us and to create space for inspired living. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kathi_Burns

Entrepreneur - The Vital Ingredient for Longevity

By Christine O'Dwyer 

In challenging economic times you have a choice whether to cower with fear and regret or whether to start a business and profit. Did you know that more millionaires were made during The Great Depression of the 1930s than in any other era in US history? It is in the challenging times that entrepreneurs flourish.

There are so many reasons why people start their own business these include:
-Be the boss, make decisions, take time off when they want
-Greater possibility of significant financial rewards
-Prestige of leadership
-Involved 100% in the businesses
-Make a contribution and help the local economy

Once the business plan is made and the finance in underway they move forward with extreme motivation and positivity. However a shocking 80% of businesses fail within the first 3 years. Why is this? Whilst I do not have all the reasons why these businesses fail, I do have one way to increase the success rate. This is a secret shared by one of my mentors Simon Sinek.

The Missing Ingredient
As an entrepreneur you need to define the ultimate reason you are in business and be sure to distinguish this from your how you do business and the results you get. If you ask many entrepreneurs why they are in business many will say for the money, no that's a result not their 'why'. Others may say it's because they love what they do, no, that's how not their 'why'. You need to be very clear on your why. And yes it will most likely fall somewhere within the reasons listed above and will be very personal to you.

So what's so important about identifying your why. By identifying your why you will maintain your motivation and purpose. Everything decision you make in business will be guided by your why. If you are moving further away from your why you will steer yourself back on course with the necessary action. If moving towards your why you will drive ahead in a focused way.

When starting up in business or when running a business there are so many distractions. By knowing your why you can quickly eliminate the irrelevant ones and consider only the relevant distractions. This helps you stay focused on your business and move your business forward.

When starting my home business I thought of so many good reasons why to go into business. I also listed all the features of the business and fooled myself into thinking this was why I was going to be an entrepreneur. Such features included that it runs automatically 24 hours per day 7 days per week; continuous learning; relatively low initial investment. These were not my 'whys' these were my 'hows'. It took time for me to ultimately identify why I am an entrepreneur with this businesshttp://www.havingthebestday.com. My why is, so I can be at the school gate everyday to collect my children. After years of being torn between children and career I drew a line in the sand and said enough is enough. I took action with http://www.havingthebestday.com. What's your why? Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Christine_O'Dwyer

Why Start Your Own Business?

By Chris Pascall 

Why would anyone want to start their own business? I am sure this is a question that is asked every day. Here are some of the reasons why starting your own business is a good idea:-

You are your own boss

You make the decisions

You can work at your own pace, slow or quick

Financial freedom - money that is made is yours

Your ideas stay with you

You can take control of your life

You can make a difference - you may be a niche market providing a valuable service or product

With many businesses you don't need business premises

Lifestyle changes

Starting your own business may seem a little frightening. But if you have been working in a job that is similar to the business that you intend starting, then you will have knowledge of both the job and the industry. For example you may be a web designer working for a large organisation, thinking about setting up your own web design business.

To achieve all of the above effectively you'll need to develop the right mindset along the way. If you are passionate about your business this goes a very long way to being successful, otherwise instead of creating a successful business you could end up simply creating another job for yourself and working longer hours for less money.

Even in today with the uncertain economic climate it's still easier than ever to start your own business. You don't need business premises - you can start in your living room. You can start a business in your spare time with a huge investment. In this Internet, digital information age it's the right time to reach an international market.

If there's ever a right time to take the plunge, it's right now, today. My current business is internet marketing, which I do from home. I love helping others and making a difference. If you would like to know more about the system we work with and receiving mentoring from us why not take that first step and get our free video bootcamp http://www.sixfigurewealthcreation.com To find out more about the authors http://stuartandchrispascall.com. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chris_Pascall