The 4 Hour Work Week Review
February 9, 2008
Description: The book, “The 4 Hour Work Week”, gives us a unique perspective on how to live to work and not work to live.
It’s about taking time to smell the roses and the ways to manage your work time effectively to be able to earn a living while enjoying your life.
It goes into techniques including how to outsource work, cutting the time you actually spend on it, and how to get a better return on investment as a result.
Review: If you work eight hours a day or more at an outside job or if you are working at a home-based business, you need to read this book.
I run my own business from home because I wanted to spend more time with my family. Things didn’t quite work out that way, because no matter what I tried I couldn’t produce work in a timely and effective way that left any time in the day to enjoy life. [Continue Reading]
Using The Power Of Creativity To Grow Your Business
July 19, 2007
Creative thinking is a vital part of what every business owner does on a daily basis. Whether you are forming a new marketing strategy or developing a new product line, your creativity plays a huge role in the entire process.
Often times, your creative talents can lay dormant, only revealing themselves when you are working on something big. However, you can learn to tap into your creative inspiration more frequently and use it to help grow your business.
There are lots of ways to do this… Below are five great ways to get your creative juices flowing:
1. Research & Study Other Creative Businesses
When you read stories of how someone started a business in their basement that grew into a multi-million dollar enterprise, you can’t help but feel fascinated and inspired by it.
Spend more time reading success stories and studying other businesses. Check out their marketing campaigns and product lines. [Continue Reading]
How to Advertise Your Business Offline
June 20, 2007
Most business owners nowadays have gotten into the rut of only advertising their business online. As a result, many now miss a great opportunity to get the word out about their services and products – offline advertising.
These opportunities are only limited by imagination. In the real world, many traditional methods of advertising are being supplanted by new technology. While new tech is great, older, more traditional methods are still very effective. Here are some ideas to help advertise your business in the “real world.”
Business Cards: Still the backbone of advertising business, this may seem like a no-brainer. Surprisingly enough, many online businesses tend to overlook this very simple advertising tool. You don’t need anything very fancy, and printing places don’t cost a fortune either.
By using places like VistaPrint, you can get a fairly nice business card at a very inexpensive price. If you have no money, you can use this link to get 250 free business cards.
While not the best, it will get you started for about five bucks. Where do you leave your business cards? Try the local post office, grocery store bulletin boards, ask to leave a few in your favorite pizza parlor – if it’s a retail store, you can leave a business card. [Continue Reading]
Creating Graphics For Your Online Business Is Important
June 9, 2007
Whenever you do your business online, you quickly realize how essential it is to have a website. Your website is your “store front” and is the gateway for potential customers, no matter where they are located at in the world. The graphics that you display on your website can either make or break your business.
One of the most important things to keep in mind is that when looking to attract professional clients, it is essential that you use professional looking graphics. The whole look of your website can take a turn for the worse if your graphics are haphazardly put together or are blurry or out of focus.
A new costumer will automatically assume you are new to the business or an amateur without the right graphics. Chances are, they won’t stick around to view what you have to offer.
In order to be effective in your business, your graphics should convey the message you are trying to send out, as well as create brand recognition. For example, take a look at Nike. On their website, their famous “swoosh symbol” is predominately displayed as well as pictures of their athletes, shoes and other sport related images. [Continue Reading]
The Secret Of The 80/20 Rule
April 28, 2007
The Pareto principle is a principle that states that for most things, 80% of consequences come from 20% of causes. This is also known as the “80-20″ rule. For example, it’s likely that you wear 20% of your wardrobe 80% of the time. The same is true for your business, in that 80% of your business will likely come from 20% of the clients you have.
Although it seems to be good business practice to many, it’s actually unfortunate that most people will spend 80% of their time courting the 80% of their clients who don’t bring in business.
The flipside of this is that 20% bring in most of your business. Therefore, 20% of the tasks you do each day will bring the majority of your business. If you want to streamline your business and spend your time where it really counts most, consider the following:
Spend the bulk of your time dealing with your best customers. [Continue Reading]
