Tiny Changes Mean Huge Results

The tiniest changes yield massive results. Will these little changes and shifts lead to an outstanding life of fulfillment and contribution or will they lead to frustration and disappointment?

In this video, you’ll see how you can ensure your outcome is one that both serves and empowers you.

Tony shows us how to identify the tiny little changes you can make today …right NOW that will have an incredibly powerful impact in your life both long term and immediately.

What tiny shifts will lead to massive change with you? How are you going to ensure that your outcome is powerful and positive?

Enjoy!

Placida

Does Your Feet Speak ?

Ellen Sirot, the World's Most Famous Foot Model, aka the Femme Fatale of Feet, appears on The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch to speak about her career and the care of her prized feet. ellensirot.com

It is interesting to see what business ideas people comr up with, the key is to take one step towards your goal and be positive, you will get to your destination.

You can see from the clip how she nurtures her prized possessions ( Her Business) In business we need to know our game , the tips and the tricks of the business to achieve the success that we desire.

Do you have a dream - work at it,don't let it die.

Happy viewing

Placida.
http://www.thebusinessonlinedirectory.biz/

Is Your Purpose as Strong as a Mosquito’s?

How could one small mosquito create such a huge stir? It’s simple. It decided what it wanted: your blood. It took action: bit you. In that moment when the mosquito bites you, sucks your blood and then withdraws, it is fulfilling one of the primary functions of its’ short life. The mosquito needs protein from the blood of a mammal, so it can lay eggs. Without it, the eggs cannot be laid. The only other purpose a mosquito has in life is to mate.

Are you fulfilling your primary function, your purpose in this life? Do you know what it is? Many of us cringe when we hear these questions. “I have a purpose in life? I can’t figure it out. Why didn’t anyone ever tell me what it is? It’s not on my birth certificate.”

Maybe our purpose isn’t blatantly obvious to us, and maybe it doesn’t become clear to us until many years into our lives, so we struggle with questions of direction and meaning. What is important to remember is that no matter what we do or what we don’t do - in each moment of each day we are making a difference whether we are aware of it or not - whether we intend to or not.

Our actions and words set examples for everyone around us; our children, coworkers, family, friends - everyone around us is affected by what we decide to do or not to do. Spending even a single dollar at the grocery store can affect the economy of many countries and the people in them. Throwing one soda can into a stream can affect the ecology for miles around. Planting trees on a hillside can affect the air around our whole planet. A smile to the gas station attendant can make his whole day!

Here are a few single individuals who have made a BIG difference in this world: Helen Keller, The little boy with his finger in the dike, Erma Bombeck, Your Parents (you’re here, aren’t you?), Oprah, Sadam Hussein, Mother Teresa, Your neighbor, Martha Stewart, Gloria Steinem, Anthony Robbins, Mary Kay Ash, T. Harv Eker, Elanor Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, Marie Curie, Debbie Fields, Rosa Parks, Wayne Dyer, Susan G. Komen, Walt Disney, Princess Diana, Mrs. Barrett (my 8th grade teacher who told me that I should keep writing).

What did these people possess that transformed them from someone ordinary to someone extraordinary? They started with a dream. They honed their purpose. They created a clear vision and added the desire from their heart and soul. And then, perhaps the most important part - they took action. They believed in the beauty and importance of their dreams so much that they took action. They were conscious and aware that what they chose could make a difference, and they moved forward. They did something.

Never underestimate the effects of your actions in one moment of time. What can you do this week? What WILL you do? Now, that’s Powerful!


Sue Urda is a guest blogger on The Bod, She is a Co-Founder of Powerful You! Women’s Network and a two-time Inc. 500 Fastest-Growing Private Companies honoree. Her vision is to contribute to a global consciousness of women helping women succeed in business and in life and to expand Powerful You! by creating chapters around the US and beyond. Sue’s mission is to create venues for women to grow their businesses and nurture relationships, and to foster empowerment, gratitude and self-development. http://powerfulyou.com/

Internet Marketing Meets Network Marketing

The experts always say that in a recession network marketing
always booms as people try to create more income, however
the people who will ultimately have a big success in network
marketing will be those people who realise that they cant
follow the masses and that they need to be doing things differently.

I have a saying that goes "Its not just about who you know
its also about who you dont know and how quickly they can
find you online"

That for me is huge, if you are trying to do ANY business
whatsoever you need to be aware of how you need to position
yourself online to take maximum advantage.

Those individuals who have taken the time to set themselves
to be found more easily online will ultimately become more
successful than those who dont, for example its like
having a Mcdonalds on the High St as opposed to being in
a side street, where would you rather be ?

When people find me its because of successful online
marketing campaigns which means the people who do find me
are targetted and actually interested in what I am doing,
which means we are much more likely to do business.

I hope these few words were of help, if you would like to
know more then visit my blog for newcomers on the internet
athttp://www.newbiesontheinternet.com/ leave a blog post and we
can talk some more. - Michael Young








Michael Young is a member of The Business Online Directory

How I created my website using MS Word © 2009 Anne Martis

I only developed my website (www.walkthelandscape.co.uk) in Microsoft Word because the people who were going to develop the site backed out and I was left to think of something else. It was really meant to be a prototype to send to a professional web designer but seemed to be adequate for my business when I’d done it.

Another good thing about having a go at this is that you realise that website design is not rocket science and it gives you confidence when talking to designers.
It was all created using Word 2007 and I don’t think some things (filtered webpages) can be done in earlier versions

I’ve lots of amateur experience of MS Word and I wrote my first very simple website the very hardest way (as HTML in Notepad) so with this background it took me less time than it would someone coming to it new.

The instructions are for a very basic website to provide a web presence when starting up or to produce a prototype with the look and feel you want for your business.
I’ve not added payments (for example through Paypal) yet though and it would be the next major step.

For Search Engine Optimisation I had to add the title and key words into the code as I found no other way. And it has to be done every time I recreate the page after updating it.
In these instructions the web pages are created and linked together on your PC. You will be able to view them on the PC as they would appear on the web (after being uploaded to a host).

1. Requirements Specification

List what information you want to include on the website and which pages you want them on. Say 4 pages for example, Home, Products, Contacts, Terms and Conditions.

2. Basic Design

Start by creating a new folder on your PC to work in.
Use WORD to create the generic look of the site – the headings, menus, borders etc.
Use tables to place information and pictures in the correct position and removed the cell borders on the final versions.
Just put the phrase for the links in and add them later.
Save the basic design as a Word document under the name “basic-design” for safekeeping

3. Page Design

Using the “basic design” as the template using MS Word design the home page with photos and text etc formatted in tables as you want it to look, i.e. as outlined in the Requirements Specification above.

The home page should be named “index” [which is the name the internet hosts like for the home page]
Create the other pages in MS Word as the requirements spec
So in the example there would be 4 pages, index.doc, products.doc, contacts.doc and terms-conditions.doc.

Notes: You need to have created the web pages before putting the links into the word documents.
People will say that formatting web pages using tables is bad practice and that Google does not see them – well Yes it is but it gets you going on the web and you are seen by Google – try searching for ‘Cotswold Walking Holidays’, I’m fairly high on the first page.

4. Web Pages

When I was happy with the page design I created web pages – you do this by saving to “web page, filtered” instead of “Word document”.

It’s important to choose “web page, filtered rather than the normal “web page” so you need MS Word 2007. Ignore the message about losing formatting in Word. [the normal webpage creates a long document with lots of extraneous info].

You will then have 4 web page (htm or html) files and a folder for each containing images and additional information.
At this point you can click on the web page files to see what they will look like.

5. Turn off the automatic hyperlink recognition feature in MS Word

If you don’t do this before starting to add links you will get broken links when you transfer to your web host.

1. Click the Microsoft Office Button , and then click Word Options.

2. Click Proofing.

3. Click AutoCorrect Options, and then click the AutoFormat As You Type tab.

4. Clear the Internet and network paths with hyperlinks check box.

This should then be the default for all pages.

6. Links

Then go back to the Word documents and insert hyperlinks in each page to link to the other pages. Word Help gives instructions on how to do it.

If you want to link to headings in the document you will need to insert bookmarks before hyperlinks.

If you want to link to open a new page, e.g. for an external link like the Weather Forecast on my site, ensure the Target Frame (button in insert hyperlink box) is set to new window.
Save each page as a Word document. Then resave as a filtered webpage.

If all works well you will then have a set of linked web pages on your PC that look like a website. Try it by clicking on index and navigating through the links.

7. Title and Key Words

Although you can add a title in Word, under properties. The key words added there do not appear to be included in the webpage.
Keywords and descriptions need to be added manually into the header of the html code as these are key factors in search engine optimisation.
This is another lesson.
You also need to manage the key words correctly.

8. URL and Hosting

You also need to get a URL, find a host and upload the files onto the host.
Another lesson.

9. Getting yourself seen

This is another ballgame ...

Anne Martis is a Platinum member of The Business online Directory
http://www.walkthelandscape.co.uk/

Gung Hu- The spirit of the squirrel

Hi all, It was my chilling out weekend this past weekend, As I packed a few things to go off, I decided I should take a book with me but then became indecisive on what book to read knowing well this isn’t a work weekend. Finally I picked a book I bought about 10months ago; it didn’t have a straight forward title like- (live life now!) The review on it was good and I have read other books by one of the co- authors so I bought it.

I got reading this book when I was just one hour to arriving home, I had read to about the 40th page and I knew I had to share it.

It’s a story about Peggy Sinclair, Andy longclaw and Andy’s Grandfathers Work life teachings using the behaviours of certain animals and how these behaviours have been used to transform organizations.

In the book was The Gung Ho Story: - The spirit of the squirrel, the way of the Beaver, the gift of the Goose. My brain went tick, tick, tick; I wanted to know what this was about. Would I like this book? Not sure, although it says somewhere on the front page - ‘‘How to motivate people in any organization’’ What is Gung Ho? Does Gung Ho mean – Motivation? why the spirit of the squirrel?

Then came the story of the Squirrel- My attention was caught. I love to watch Squirrels but I haven’t watched them long enough to learn the skills of life from them, one thing I know though they are very tactful. It was interesting to read how observing animals and applying the techniques used by these animals can be applied in our daily lives to increase productivity in all areas of life.

Another motivational book but with a difference, that’s what I think anyway. The prints large makes is easy to read and I will recommend parents to buy this for their young adults, a good way to teach them the way of life.

What are your goals?
Do your values govern you?
====================================
*Goals are the future. Values are now
* Goals are set. Values are lived.
* Goals change. Values are rocks you can count on.
* Are you a rock or pebble? Will you hold or roll?

I am not a very good story teller or book reviewer, but if this has made you want to know what Placida is trying to put out, you can get the book on Amazon. Happy reading

Gung Ho!: Turn on the People in Any Organization (The One Minute Manager)

The Bod News

Hi all, We have just launched our first newsletter, we are open to suggestions on how best to improve and make it the reader’s choice. It will be sent out once every month, if you would like to show case your talent and business you can do so by sending your contribution for the next issue.

Articles can be sent on the following topics: -

1. Finance.

2. Career/Business/Work

3. Social media/ networking

4. Personal Development

5. Physical Environment

6. Fun/Social/Hobbies

7. Spirituality/Well-being

8. Health/Knowledge

9. Relationships/Romance

Submission deadline is on the 20th of each month; the dead line for the next issue will be the 20th September 2009.

The Newsletter is about you /your business and empowering members of the group. Articles should be kept simple KISS (Keep is simple specialist) and information packed, Include a Photo, preferred contact detail and a short profile of yourself no more than 160 words.

As mentioned earlier we are open to suggestions, happy reading and wishing you a successful month ahead.

Placida Acheru

Personal Coaching And Professional Growth – Your Key To Success

There are times in your life when you start questioning your direction, the meaning of your life, the path you have chosen in your profession and wonder whether this is what you really wanted. Personal coaching and professional growth seminars and workshops could provide a compass to find your way when you feel lost. These exercises are meant to interlink your desires, principles, and strengths with your personal and professional lives.

The benefits of personal coaching are many:

1. Brings back clarity - As you move on in life, you are bound to make a few compromises in your professional life in order to advance. Sometimes these compromises cost more than you bargained for and sometimes they take you on another path from where you find it difficult to be yourself. The tailor made coaching classes help you understand better where you are and what you want out of your life.

2. Supports you through concise action plan – Often all you need to wake up to the realty is a little shoving. Many chose to close their eyes to professional stagnation, unhappiness, lack of growth, lack of direction and the like because they do not want to grapple with the 'what next' step. These coaching classes tell you that all you need is to take one step at a time, once you have the map of your journey in hand. These exercises help you draw that map and navigate through it.

3. Identifies obstacles and brainstorm on how to overcome them – So you have obstacles in your professional life and you are/ were not able to carve the career graph you envisaged for yourself. Just look around you and tell me, how many people you know have had a 'walk-in-the-park' type career growth? Obstacles are meant to be treated as stepping stones not stopping stones. These coaching classes would help you identify and help you moving on in spite of obstacles.

Personal coaching and professional growth, as you can see, are closely interlinked. These seminars or workshops are excellent tools to help you re-discover your core values both at professional and personal levels; and this discovery would unleash your full potential to achieve professional success.

The Recession Is All In Your Mind (By Brian Wong / Source: The Science of Getting Rich)

Is the recession all in the mind?
Brian Wong, prodigy of Bob Proctor, thinks so. Brian and Bob teach that media sensationalism contributes to the cycle of doom the world is manifesting as the recession.

They also reveal how you can break free from this cycle of doom with lessons we need to learn from people like Sir John Templeton, Sam Walton and Benjamin Graham who, despite the odds, prospered during the Great Depression.
You see, when faced with the Great Depression of the 1930’s, these people knew one thing.
They knew that the mindset they had over the next few years would determine the rest of their financial lives.

It was make or break.

And guess what? Right now, in today’s economy, you’re facing the same situation. Right now, the mindset you have over the next 2 years is going to make or break your financial future.
Find out the crucial mindset and 2 specific steps that you need to learn from people like Sir John Templeton to prosper during any economic situation.

Recession-Proof Your Mindset - Key Insights From Those Who Always Prosper During Times Of Crisis

A Little Something A Day

Hiya, Happy Easter! I hope you are enjoying every bit of the time. I am doing my best to enjoy and make the most of the long break here in the UK. Recently I have met a number of people who complain of being non achievers or having too many things to do and not having time.

This happens, when we crowd ourselves with too much and don't get task out of the way as they come. Study yourself, learn and master how best you work. Everyone has a systematic of how best to complete task. Work to improve your system, the most important thing is do something every day towards your goal and dream.

Brian Tracy is the goal expert and his video gives us a quick tip on how to get things done, one day at a time. You can also find more tips in his book Eat That Frog


Enjoy your holiday !

Placida

Tips On Finding Quality Clients - The Key To Business Success

The biggest concern for e-businesses today is finding quality clients for their products and services. What or who are these "quality" clients? How do you go about finding them? Why are they important to your e-enterprise? How do you attract them to your products or services? These are some of the questions that pop up in your mind, right? Well, let us find the answers to these questions and understand this novel concept.

Every business needs to multiply its customers and broaden its market coverage then gradually narrows down the niche to get the real “niche”. The brand building can be a slow and painful process, which requires not only your 100 percent attention and effort, but also creativity and time. Quality is usually a term associated with excellence, high value, superiority above similar products, and the like. When this term is applied to clients, it means loyalty, dependability and recurring business.

Loyalty – a quality client would stay put and remain loyal to your brand, even when the market oscillates or introduces other competitive products. They do not navigate away from you because they are satisfied and want more.

Dependability – a quality client would promote by word of mouth your product as one of the best. You can depend upon them to create a huge 'personal circle' marketing which would boost your sales through ripple effect and this is what you want. To get this you need to put a process on the ground to finding these quality clients.

Recurring business – these clients are high end users of your products. They keep coming back again and again and again; they also rope in family, friends, colleagues and whoever they can into the same enthusiastic circle.

You are probably wondering where you could find these types of clients. You need to do a few things and like I mentioned earlier it’s on a continuous basis, it then becomes a way of life.

You need to go out and find them! How? Where? You may ask – They are out there.

a. Plan – we all know if we don’t plan we have already planned to fail.
b. Network – get yourself known, become comfortable in self advertisement and if not hire someone to announce you.
c. Get client’s testimonial- this assures potential clients.
d. Promotions – offer free stuff, give them more than they expect.
e. Advertise – In Strategic places
f. Do researches - Find out what others are doing and follow carefully? Learn from others.
g. Find a mentor – An expert in your field that you can build rapport with and comfortable to speak to about your huddles.

They will also find you ,provided you are able to advertise yourself as an expert in ONE particular field and maintain an unchallenged leadership in that particular field.

A few things you need to know :

The more you follow your strategized plan, people begin to know your name and what your business is all about.
Remember your plan is a continuous process until it becomes a part of you. In today’s world there is a lot of competition you will find loads of people who know more than you do (in your field) and that might make you feel: you are in a cage. I am right?

My regular phrase is- Take one step at a time and like a baby you will find your bones get stronger.
Get a business buddy to boost your confidence and kick you in the back when you are giving up – not your mentor a colleague.

Think about this for a moment – “If you don’t try you die” before you even start out. I don’t think that’s what you want.

Finding quality clients as you can see is possible with the steps above and is the key to your success without them you cannot capture and rule the market in your particular niche; with them you your business excel.

The ABC of Business Financing

Any business needs three basic things to get it off the ground: finance, ambition and a good plan of action. Ambition is what keeps you at it when you encounter obstacles, and a good plan would help you apply for financial aid. Business financing is critical to the success of a fledgling business, yet most people pay only superficial attention to it.

Three Things You Should Keep In Mind About Finance

How much? When you are launching your business, the projected amount usually includes the initial operational costs until the break-even time. What most people tend to neglect is that until that time, you need to support yourself as well. The gap unless carefully addressed, would eat into your capital (meant for your business) and you end up with shortage of funds. This is further aggravated by the fact that your business has not yet reached its break-even point, which would further condemn it to failure. This is why when you calculate the projected amount you need to add to it your sustenance costs well past the breakeven point. You should not depend upon the earnings from your business until it provides a reasonable profit.

How? The first thing that comes to your mind when you think of ways to raise finance is banks. However, that should be your last resort. Many business fail because the profits are buried in the repayments of loans availed for capital funds. Try to launch your business in baby steps, using whatever money you have saved as the initial investment. Expand gradually with the profits gained. In this way, you learn strict financial discipline and avoid the pressure of loans at the same time.

When? "This is easy", you would say. "Of course, in the planning stage". You will be surprised to learn that this is one of the most popular myths today. You should try your best to launch your business based on your own funds. Apply for loans only after you are satisfied that the business is on track and gives you reasonable returns. In this way, you would need less effort to sell yourself to your bankers, and have better chances of steering your business towards success.

Business financing is all about these three factors. You pay attention to these, and everything else will fall into place.

Mergers & Acquisitions in the turmoil: trends and perspectives through these days of crisis

How Do mergers and acquisitions work today?

To answer to this question first it is important to understand what they exactly are and what their goal is.

Mergers and acquisitions have in general the objective of maximizing the wealth of the shareholders: it means that an acquisition should create an added value that exceeds the
cost of acquisition.

So what possiblilities can you create with M & A?

Synergies for example that increase the competitiveness far beyond what the two companies are expected to accomplish independently with the value of new company created exceeding the sum of the two previous companies.
It could mean operating and financial economies; and also less or not tax (if for instance the company acquired has accumulated losses).

And looking at the terminology we can identify as Corporate restructuring, all activities involving expansion or contraction of a firm’s operations or changes in its asset or financial structure;
and a Merger as a transaction in which at least one firm ceases to exist and the assets of that firm are transferred to a surviving firm so that only one separate legal entity remains; an Acquisition is a transaction in which both firms in a transaction survive but the acquirer increases its percentage ownership in the target; for Consolidation we mean the combination of two or more firms to form a completely new corporation; and last but not least we have the Merger of equals.

We can distinguish also between a Strategic merger that is a transaction undertaken to achieve economies of scale and a financial merger that has the goal of restructuring the acquired company to improve its cash flow and disclose its hidden value.

A hostile merger is a merger not supported by the acquired (we can call also it target company) firm’s management, forcing the acquiring company to gain control of the firm by buying shares in the marketplace.

But does it exist a secret for successful mergers, mergers that create value?
From the observation experts say that often companies that acquire with frequency and make it a major core competency tend to do well and perform better than their peers, but this is not a rule. We can add that buying without studying the possible creation of value and the future performances can lead to mergers and acquisitions that are destroying value.

We can conclude that we are facing a challenging and complex issue. Judging if an M&A will be successful or not is very difficult and needs a serious and wide analysis.

Today it is probably not the time for big mergers and it is instead probably the time for mid corporate mergers; sometimes the economic crisis can create new opportunities.

Author¬ Andrea Campione

Small Business Advertising – Optimizing ROI

When you say 'small business advertising', all you hear is 'small'. In your mind, a picture is inadvertently created: low finances, low profits, and low business levels. It need not be this way, however. Agreed that when you speak about small business, the budget for advertising would be minimal, but that does not mean in any way that the profits too would be small.

Quality Vs Quantity Always Counts

When you have a small budget you are often tempted (and advised) to use free advertising boards, forums and other low or no cost methods. My advice here is that you avoid these methods like the plague. Rather, use this money to hire someone to write a few dynamite articles about your business. The articles should be no less than 300 words and no longer than 500. They should be written in a friendly, yet expert tone geared to hold the reader's attention from beginning to the end.

Now, take these articles and submit them on various ezines and free article directories with a three-four line resource box where you give reference to your business. This is an inexpensive method, which could explode the traffic to your business almost overnight.

Viral marketing is another exceptional method of marketing, which costs virtually next-to-nothing. Here all you have to do is create an email, e-book, or something similar, which is qualitative, and of interest to the market segment your business targets. Now send this material to your existing email list and watch your business grow exponentially. What happens is that when a person receives your email and finds it good and useful he or she would like to send it to their friends, relatives, and colleagues so they could also benefit from it. As the email is passed on, the message about your business also goes along. The result would be a boom in business.

As you can see, small business advertising can be done well even on low budgets. So, never ever settle for any less.

Coaching For Small Business – Getting More From Your Life

Coaching for small business is relatively new concept. This is a service born out of a need for a periodic review without any strings or pressure for immediate action. This exercise works like radar – it tells you where you are at present and what your projected trajectory is while helping you introspect whether or not this was what you wanted.

The Tools For Success

Know, this type of coaching would not give you tools for success. It would rather help you find them, build them, identify them. In other words, the simplest way to explain it is ,think of it like sessions with a counselor who is goal driven. On the surface, your counselor seems to simply sit there and listen to your wandering thoughts; while in realty he or she is helping clearing the cobwebs from your mind and heart to enable you to get more out of your life.

Small business coaching is very similar. This is an exercise that helps you redefine your business and professional goals. What you want to achieve? How you want to achieve it ? When you want to achieve? Are you on the right path? Is your vision an achievable goal? These are the questions, which you would be able to answer with the help of coaching. It is obvious that when you would do so, you would have a high level of clarity about your business purpose and the method to achieve it.

Once you experience the benefits of this service, you would be amazed how people have managed until today without it. This is as amazing input which impacts your stress levels, success in business and relationship with inside and outside your business. It creates a new you, a more focused you, a more effective you, a self-sufficient and self-confident you.

Enough of describing: Coaching for small business. The best way to understand what it can do for you is by subscribing to at least one short course or seminar. Find out first hand whether it deserves the reputation it enjoys today. Is it really so good?

Placida
Personal/business coach

http://http://www.thebusinessonlinedirectory.biz/

Getting Small Business Ideas That Guarantee Success

Even without the pressure from the recession, many find that making both meet is a tough task in the present day. Fast food, fast life, consumerism, and competitive attitude have pushed people into a living-beyond-their-means mode. Many look out for small business ideas so they could add to their overall income and live the lifestyle they envisage for themselves and their families.

How To Find What Is Best For You

While you are brainstorming to find out the best option for yourself, you need to keep in mind only one thing: your inner satisfaction. This is the key to identify the right business for yourself. An excellent way to find this out without any bias from the logical side of your brain is to ask yourself this question: "what would I do, if I had all the money in the world, and work for me would mean only pleasure?"

Take out a pen and paper when you ask yourself this question and be prepared to surprise yourself with a long list of "I will die of pleasure doing this" occupations. Yes, there would be many things that you would like to do for pleasure. From among that list, identify those, which could be monetized. For example, if you love painting, this hobby could be used to create frescos on the walls of homes or create exquisite stained glass windows, and so on. If you love cooking, you could offer cooking classes or start a catering service.

The important thing is that you should be wildly passionate about what you choose to do. In the morning when you wake up, you should be rearing to go, not looking for excuses to stay in bed. There should fire in your belly to do more in whatever area you choose; you should be hungry for success, for being number one.

When you feel that you could spend your life doing that particular work, you have found one of the best small business ideas there are for you. Remember, there will always be more than one, so be ready to choose or merge them into one common ground.

Placida Acheru

Personal/Business Coach

http://www.thebusinessonlinedirectory.biz/

Three Myths Exploded About Small Business Grants

Have you heard about small business grants? The present day recession has made many think seriously about launching a home business. The stumbling block in this line of thought is often lack of finance. Most small enterprises die before their second year is over due to shortage of funds. People literally "beg, borrow and even steal" to launch their business and then realize that it is quite difficult to run a business on a shoestring budget, pay back the loans and hope for a reasonable surplus.

Do you know - A Grant Is A Gift

In view of this , small business grants are comparable to manna from Heaven. A grant is usually given by the Government through schemes which are meant to promote certain businesses, professions or industrialization (and development) of a region. Most people know about these grants but do not go for it because they are stopped by certain myths.

The eligibility criteria are too strict. The truth is that there are fixed eligibility criteria; also there are for scholarships, bank loans and mortgages, job vacancies and so on. Do you stop applying because they give you fixed criteria? On the contrary, you try very hard to establish a match between their requirements and your strengths so you would be chosen as the right candidate.

Too much paper work. The truth is that when you deal with the Government, everything has to be in black-and-white. Though it can be a little tedious, the effort is comparable to that of applying for entry into a leading college, or qualifying for a major scholarship. The competition is high, and the best is selected.

The follow - you just can't be bothered. Of course, it is worth it. Whatever rate of interest you are offered you cannot match the fact that with a grant you do not need to return the money at all. The trouble you go through to get the grant is amply rewarded by the fact that you need not worry about repayment.

As you can see, small business grants are a boon for any budding entrepreneur. Go for it!

Placida Acheru
Personal/Business Coach
http://www.thebusinessonlinedirectory.biz/

Business Ethics And Profit

Every time you open the newspaper you find reports about controversies on business ethics of large corporate houses and even government organizations. Today, ethics seems less important than making profit, which is the ultimate goal all over the world. In this scenario a question raises its head with timidity: ‘is it not possible to make profit ethically?’

Ethics and profit – complementary or opposites

In certain countries ethics comes on a poor second when it comes to doing business successfully. “Successfully” here means generating large amounts of surplus. For this purpose the business houses need to expand their territory, coverage and products to capture large chunks of the market.

Creating a base for such activities can be done in two ways:

(1) go the hard way – advertise, consolidate, build brand and image in the national and international market segment you prefer. This involves money, effort and tremendous perseverance
(2) go the easy way – bribe your way through government and other corridors which would help you create a niche market almost overnight. Often the amount of money and efforts spent on bribes is less than

Which would be the best way, in your opinion? You would say, ‘the ethical way’, of course. But you would be amazed at how many would still go the other way. Why? Because, the keyword today is “results” and here “results” means profit. Corporate houses feel that their stakeholders would appreciate the fact that they generate wealth for them – by whichever means.

While it is true that the public does like a hike in the profits, the ‘by whichever means’ acceptability is debatable. If you go down to the grassroots, ethics is still an important threshold in the values of the common human being.

The general public still values basic business ethics more than profit, though globally the consumerism movement makes it seem otherwise. Ethics to most is synonymous with trust and truth without which no real value addition can be expected or enjoyed.


I hope this helps


Placida Acheru
Personal/Business Coach
http://www.thebusinessonlinedirectory.biz/

How To Start A Business With Zero Finance

Can you make money out of nothing? Do you want to know how to start a business with zero finance? Is it possible? Do not be surprised because the Net makes this not only possible, but also easy-to-do for everyone. Do you need to be a computer guru? The answer is NO! You need not be a computer expert or Internet marketing specialist. All you need is a fire in your belly to achieve success and an ongoing desire to learn. We are going to look at 3 simple steps and will expand on it later.

How?

This is the million-dollar question, right? Well, let us take it step-by-step:

Start a blog – once upon a time, to launch a business the minimum needed was an investment to create a professional looking website. Today also, a website is a great asset when you start a new e-business. However, it is not the only way to do so. You can also use a blog. A blog is free of cost and an excellent way to launch your business with zero investment. You can add everything you need on the blog including a shopping cart, autoresponder and all the paraphernalia required to run a modest yet efficient website - all for free although you have the option to upgrade the services you receive from whatever provider you choose.

There a few out there :-
1. Blog spot/Blogger
2. Word press
3. Type pad


Affiliate marketing – This is an exceptional way to establish your business for free. What this means is you advertise other people’s product and get paid a commission for it. In some instance depending on what you are promoting the parent organization of which you wish to become an affiliate would not only offer you a free and well-designed website, but also all the tools and assistance you need to market their product. In addition, you would get a percentage as commission for every sale you make through your website. I’ll discuss more about this and give you a detailed picture of how it works.

Free advertisement – In order to make yourself known on the Internet you need to advertise your presence heavily and persistently. This too, can be achieved free of cost. All you have to do is write a few informative and interesting articles and submit it to free article directories or ezines. This process would help you build an enviable traffic to your blog almost overnight and your business would show profit in no time.

So thinking of starting a business and have no money, do not despair you can. The ingredients for success are these three simple steps, a positive attitude and an unquenchable thirst to succeed. I will be expanding on the topic so look out for the next blog post.

Placida Acheru
Personal/Business Coach
http://www.thebusinessonlinedirectory.biz/

6 Powerful Ways Training Will Ensure Your Company Survives The Credit Crunch!

Times are tough and everyone is looking at how they survive andthrive through the financial downturn. Unfortuantely, training isoften one of the first areas to be cut. In the short term this canfeel like a quick win. It cuts spending and there may appear to beno immediate effects. But is this really true? There is asayingthat if you think training is expensive, try ignorance. Tosurvive any tough time, a business needs to provide a higher levelof service, deliver on its promises with greater consistency andensure that it beats the competition. Training is a core part ofthat bid to succeed. Here are 6 critical ways that trainingwillhelp you survive in the Credit Crunch!

1. Training embeds theskills that ensure business success A business simply will notsurvive long if it can’t deliver its service or product up to itscustomers’ expectations. That’s pretty clear. Yet many businessowners think they can get away with meeting the very lowestexpectations. In the current climate such companies will notsurvive. The companies that prosper will be those that recognisethat they need to continually empower its staff to deliver companysuccess is the way forward. One way of ensuring staff can performis through training them to a higher level with the skills andknowledge they need. Training ensures that allthe skills needed to deliver above and beyond customers’expectations are in place and in action. ‘And in action’ iscritical. Training is all about changing behaviour and outcomes –it should make a positive difference to the company and provide areturn on investment which is measurable.
If not then it shouldn’ttake place. Know the value that the training will add to yourcompany is crucial and should be weighed against the cost. Butequally, you need to think about the other side of the coin: thecost of not providing the training. In other words, what businessor outcome could be lost if the training isn’t provided and thestaff can’t perform to the level needed? One thing is certain. Yourstaff must have the skills to do whatever their job entails andtraining is a key mechanism for ensuring that they have them. Anycompany that fails to ensure that staff are skilled are going toface a very tough time indeed.

2. Training can motivate and createpowerful focus Training is a powerful wayof demonstrating to staff that the future is good and that thereare things to be achieved. Training conveys a message that staffhave security, purpose and goals. Afterall, who would train peopleonly to sack them a few days later! Let’s face it, we are all humanand have peaks and troughs of motivation. And, of course, aworkforce is no different. Habit, task repetition, ‘same old, sameold’ all sneak into our way of looking at our work from time totime (or even very often in some cases!). Training can helpalleviate this by adding fresh impetus and a clearer sense ofprogression. OK, so training doesn’t set out to motivate.
Indeed,in the training field it is recognised that you can’t train formotivation. However, it is clear that training can producemotivation. The sense of purpose and direction that new skills, orfreshly embedded and reviewed existing skills, offers an employeecan lead to massive changes in morale. This new morale, determinedfocus and sense of purpose can lead to increases in profit throughthe higher quality output and application of skills. At the veryleast it will exponentially increase your ability to power throughthe Credit Crunch era.

3. Training can lead to identifyingweaknesses your business The process of training itself is a greatway to identify weaknesses in your business which could otherwisego unnoticed, impacting on the business profits for months or yearsto come. How does training identify business weaknesses? Through aTraining Needs Analysis (TNA)! This stage of training is oftenneglected. It shouldn’t be. A TNA analyses staff development needsidenfitying the gap between the desired outcome of the individualor team and the current performance. Using discussion, interviews,questionnaires and any other appropriate means of analysis, the TNAwill ensure that the broader issues of the performance gap areidentified. And it can be surprising what is uncovered! Theperformance gap may not be bridged only, or even at all, bytraining – there could be issues of processes, internalcommunication structures, recording and measuring results – indeedendless possibilities.
Importantly, it is the process of conductinga Training Needs Analysis that unearths these issues. And, ofcourse, knowing about it is the first great step to sorting it out.The TNA will leave you empowered to take the right steps, be theytraining or other, to improve weaknesses which, left alone, wouldimpact on your profit.

4. Training can give fresh perspective todevelop new ideas Training often acts as a catalyst for new ideasand new ways to do things to increase performance and profit.Because people are so often creatures of habit, work is oftenperformed on auto-pilot. Taking time out to learn a new skill orfresh knowledge can have a impact beyond the learning of thatparticular skill. It can impact across the skill-set of theindividual allowing them to see their role in a new light and withnew creativity.
You should harness this by a rigourous follow-upprocess from the training room back to the workplace. So, fortraining to achieve its best results it needs to be seen as farmore than a linear path to a skill. It is far better seen as a partof the holistic development of your member of staff which can havebenefits in unexpected areas. The key to this, however, is the“what next?” after training has taken place. Do not, whatever youdo, simply treat training as a ‘been there, done that’ exercise foryour staff. Explore the training outcomes with your staff and agreehow these will be used and what other knock-on effects they can seeit having.

5. Training helps retain the best staff Sometimes youdon’t know what you’ve lost until it’s gone. Never is that moretrue than with staff. Key individuals, feeling unvalued andunappreciated, can very quickly quit, leaving you high and dry. Intough economic times, there can be a temptation to assume staffwill remain loyal out of inscurity, fear and lack of externalopportunity. Possibly this is true, but business is a long termproposition and employees have memories like elephants! In theeconomic recovery, the payback could be swift as staff takeadvantage of opportunities elsewhere.
The axiom that it costs agreat deal more to gain new customers than to keep and growexisting ones has an equivalent axiom in staffing. Losing staffcosts money, recruiting costs money, training from scratch costsmoney, the lower performance of a new, learning employee costsmoney…. It is far more efficient for a company to retain its staffand help them become as effective and as motivated as possible.Salary increases and bonuses only every act as a short-termmotivator or, more negatively, as a longer-term solution in theform of staff being financially unable to leave. Either way, theseare not ideal forms of motivation for staff to remain in yourcompany.
We know that motivation based upon raising self-esteem andthe sense of being valued is much higher and more enduring. It ishere that training can be so powerful. Training helps staff feelpart of the company’s bigger strategy and valued as importantcontributors to success. As a consequence, retention withincompanies that consistently train and develop their staff is higherthan those that don’t.

6. Training trainers internally will reducethe external training budget and improve skills transfer Earlier, Iquoted the saying ‘if training is expensive, try ignorance’. But itis possible to tackle the issue of ongoing training expense bytraining your own trainers. These do not have to be full timetrainers – they may only deliver training as a part of their role.But giving them the know-how to deliver skills and knowledge inmore effectively provides a valuable resource for your company.
There are two aspects to this: You may have particular subjectmatter experts who need to deliver their knowledge and skills toother staff. Without effective training skills, they may only everycreate short term learning. Or they may find that the trainingtakes that much longer to embed. With the understanding of howpeople learn new skills, the training would be much more effectiveand the ability for staff to take the learning and put it topractice would be greatly improved. Alternatively, a member ofstaff could be developed to deliver some of the more regulartraining programmes whether they be people-skills, IT skills,administrative skills, health and safety etc. By creating a skilledoccasional trainer, you will drastically reduce your externaltraining budget, maintain your training programme and build valueand skills in your new trainer.
Conclusion So, training has a hugerole to play in the survival of your business in these hard times.These six reasons for using training are crucial to your success.Think how they could work for your business and then plan yourtraining strategy. See you on the other side of the Credit Crunch!
Author- Nick Bolton- http://www.thesmartschool.co.uk/

What is Blinkweb About?

As we all know, creating a website and displaying on the internet for the world to see, is a very complicated process for the average person. The website creation process was not designed for the average, every-day person. It was designed for people that have a knack for, and understanding of geeky computer programming languages. The end result, the average, every-day person is either stuck with a very poorly designed, boring website... OR no website at all.

The creators of BlinkWeb saw a great need to bridge the giant gap between the average person and the knowledge needed to create an attractive website, a website you can be proud of. So... they created BlinkWeb, the world's easiest website creation tool. Not only that, but they made it free. Now, the average, every-day person can easily create a professional/pretty looking website they can proudly show off to their friends.

BlinkWeb lets you build your own website or blog "in the blink of an eye". Enjoy!

Who says you can't !

There is an old mystic saying that “belief begets reality”, and although this is probably not exactly true when discussing ways in which to improve yourself, it does form the basis of a concept for ensuring you succeed in your endeavours more frequently.

For the purpose of this post, I am going to re-write this phrase a little and make it “doubt begets failure”, as this makes more sense in the context I intend it. Basically, what I am proposing is that many people fail in their personal and professional life because they doubt themselves. History has proven to us that individuals who believe in their own success 100% of the time, with no room for doubt, do indeed succeed against all odds with alarming regularity. Why is this? Simply because they were 100% sure they would succeed, they did not doubt it in any way, so if they were 100% sure of success, the prospect of failure was 0%, they could not fail to succeed. In effect they created their own reality.

Doubt has a way of creeping in, allowing people to find easy excuses for their failures, it has been argued that as little as 10% doubt will cut the percentage chance of success of a project to as low as 30%. This is due to many reasons, firstly because people dislike failure, it is an uncomfortable experience to go through, by finding one external factor that allows them to doubt their own success whilst attributing blame elsewhere, they have provided themselves with a safety net should their plans fail. So how can you minimise your doubts and maintain 100% belief of your own success? Try this few simple tips.

When considering risks to a current project or in achieving a current goal, never allow anything to become a negative. If you discover a cause that could lead to a non-success situation, solve the problem here and now, once it is solved it is no longer a reason for doubt.
Plan first, execute second, make sure your goals are defined before you start upon a course of action designed to achieve them. Unless you have clearly decided what is to be judged a successful result, you will never achieve one! Set your goal and work towards it.
If your goal or project is large, consider breaking it down into sub-goals, each of which will be a success in its own right. Each minor success will be a positive point along the path to ultimate success, instead of a barrier to your passage.
Be the judge of your own success, do not weigh your results against other people, or try to have them encourage or support you, doing so opens you up wide to their doubts. Set your own goals, and congratulate yourself on your success as you achieve them.
Ultimately it’s all a playoff, it is very difficult to maintain 100% belief in the success of a project or in achieving a certain goal, but by understanding that doubt is negative, and in many cases easily overcome, you can be assured that you are making your best effort in achieving success.