Millions of people say they want to start a business. Some go ahead and do it. Others are all talk and no action. Why? Starting a business after you’ve been an employee all of your life can seem very scary. Fulfilling your dream can be thrilling, exciting and seem death defying. In this economy, many people have felt that they did not have a choice. Start a business or be permanently unemployed.
Below are some tips on how to take a few baby steps and maybe even get your baby business off the ground.
Risk-Averse Entrepreneur’s Guide to Startup Success
7 steps on how to launch a business…
“If you decide to go for it and start a business, be committed to it. If you’re not passionate about what you’re trying to do, you probably won’t stick out the inevitable bumps in the road.”
Top Five Reasons To Establish Business Credit and Separate Personal From Business Credit
Even in these tough economic times establishing business credit can increase the chances that your business will stay afloat and help you beat the odds.
19. Create a Social Media following on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr, Digg, Reddit, Pinterest or elsewhere
(Note: Crucial to building a network of potential and actual customers/clients and getting the word out about your business)
45. Turn your job into a business. If you have a job now, see how you can turn your job skills into a business. If you keep the accounts accurate for your employer, you could start hiring your accounting and financial consulting services to other businesses in the area.
53. Decorate homes for the holidays. Everyone wants to have a pretty home for the holidays – lend a hand and earn some extra money doing it.
54. Decorate yards for special occasions such as birthdays and anniversaries.
55. Start a dog walker, pet sitter, pooper scooper business (Only if you love dogs!)
56. Start a Renovation Company. Are you an auto mechanic or computer geek? Then you probably have all the skills necessary to buy and sell used and renovated cars or computers.
57. Start a tutoring business! Teach another language, musical instrument, computer, cooking, chemistry, whatever you have to offer.
58. Start a massage business
59. Start an aromatherapy business
60. Start an intuitive counseling business
Note: Thanks to CeliaSue Hecht for contributing ideas #53-60. Learn more from her and email to get her E-Guide to getting cold hard cash in your wallet
If you’re sick and tired of the GOP mantra that the super rich are the “job creators”, then you’ll want to watch and SHARE this! The Nick Hanauer talk so dangerous that TED almost wouldn’t show it. Find out why and decide for yourself.
creating 1,100+ bills against birth control, abortion, contraception and women’s health care, as well as anti gay marriage…
The Republican Party, has long fought big government in favor of privatization, has turned to regulating women’s private parts and people’s sex lives…
and these bills of course have nothing to do with the economy and the taxpayers and money and the deficit and the GOP has nothing against women…the physical conservatives are very fiscal-minded you know…
so here are some of the jobs and business profits the Gray Old Pickles are creating…
HELP WANTED…
l. Peeping toms… since they now have all of these bans and laws in TN, KS, AZ and MS, to name a few states, of course, they must be hiring folks to peep into people’s bedrooms so that everyone can rest assured that no hanky panky illegal business is going on in there
2. Spies, similar to PT’s but these folks tattletale and out gay folks who run for office (such as judges)
3. Signmakers and Truck drivers to drive around town with photos of dead fetuses (do you think that they will also create signs of dead women who died from coat hanger abortions (see 4 below)…
4. Babymakers aka sluts, if you have to resort to coat hangers for abortions, Bubba the pro-lifer is ok with you dying… coat hanger producers are expected to reap big profits gearing up to help you with your demise
9. Someone has to misinform women about abortion and tell teens to just abstain from sex, so a legion of Virgin Informers are being trained by Santorum as we speak
any other creative and interesting new jobs that the GOP are creating that you are applying for?
perhaps people to count the hidden millions/billions tax dollars they will not pay. They also need to hire humans to watch over their extra homes and cars or do they have robots for that? how about caretakers for their lobbyists? and lest we not forget the hordes of personnel protecting the moats of their castles, underground shelters and lunar planets, getaway islands to keep them from the unwashed middle-class poor peons?
Nearly every day, someone asks my advice on the best way to promote their business or themselves. I get the question at speaking engagements, at the office and, yes, sometimes at home. I don’t mind at all, because I’ve always got a good answer:
Write a book.
“A book?” some say — with obvious horror. “I’ve never written a book!”
Precisely my point. But let me back up a bit.
When I started EMSI 22 years ago, I soon realized the clients who got the attention of the media most quickly were those who’d written a book. Not just any book, mind you, but one that aligned with what they were promoting. The apple salesmen who wrote about apples were far more successful getting media coverage than those who wrote about oranges – and those who hadn’t written anything at all.
Why? Because yesterday’s business cards are today’s books. They give their authors immediate credibility, establishing them as experts in their fields. Credibility opens the door to journalists, talk show hosts, bloggers and anyone else creating content for hungry audiences. Who will they turn to as an expert source of information when a mysterious apple worm is destroying orchards? Johnny Appleseed, author of Red All Over – The Core of the Apple Industry.
There are some caveats. A poorly conceived, poorly designed, poorly written or poorly promoted book is worse than no book at all. Your book must capably and professionally represent your unique message – and you.
Not a writer? Not a problem. There are talented freelance writers and editors out there who can help. (Note: contact CeliaSue Hecht to discuss)…
The first step is planning, and that’s up to you whether or not you will actually do the writing.
• Decide on your book’s main idea. The central focus will be what drives the entire project, so it must match the message you want to convey and it must excite you. If you’re bored from the get-go, you’ll likely never see your project through to the end. A great way to test ideas is by running them through these five questions:
1. What message am I enthusiastic about that I want to convey?
2. Who can benefit from it?
3. How will it help them?
4. Why am I the one bringing this idea to them?
5. How can I make my points unique and different from what has already been said on the topic?
• Pay attention to your own reactions as you test-drive your ideas. Which idea makes you smile? Which excites you creatively? Which hits the essence of what you’re about – what you enjoy, think about and create every day? It may be an idea you never even realized inspired such passion in you.
• Consider what you really want to achieve by promoting yourself or your business. Business owners obviously want to grow their business and see it flourish; some people want to build careers as speakers. But often, there’s something deeper driving us and we may not even be aware of it. Taking the time to do some soul-searching to identify your real motivation can help you clarify your message and find your book’s focus.
A real-life example: When I sat down to write Celebritize Yourself, I planned a how-to book on commonly asked publicity questions. But, when I ran that idea through the five-question test, I had trouble with No. 5. So, I asked myself, “What do I most enjoy about my professional life?” The answer was easy: helping people identify and value what’s unique about them and their message. In writing a book about how to get publicity, I realized I needed to explain why everyone has an expertise that should be shared.
It’s never too late to write your book. I know it seems daunting, but remember, the first time you do anything, it’s often a challenge. Remember how hard it was wobbling down the sidewalk on your first bicycle? You may have crashed a few times, skinned your knees and bumped your head, but you got back on and kept trying.
Call on that brave 6-year-old you and start planning your book!
About Marsha Friedman
Marsha Friedman is a 22-year veteran of the public relations industry. She is the CEO of EMSI Public Relations (www.emsincorporated.com), a national firm that provides PR strategy and publicity services to corporations, entertainers, authors and professional firms. She also co-hosts “The News and Experts Radio Show with Alex and Marsha” on Sirius/XM Channel 131 on Saturdays at 5:00 PM EST.
Once upon a time and a Bible written by a bunch of white men
god jehovawitz created a bunch of human beings he hated and deemed only worthy of being smited… (smit?) (smut?) (smutz?)
so he persecuted all but the unborn who he deemed holey in his image (not yet human beings, see above), eggs come before chickens and are therefore better than chickens, except when chickens cross the road first
and sent his only son jeesus (who was really god in disguise) to earth to teach those human beings a lesson about fooling around with women aka sluts like Mary Magdalene and Eve
and told the little fetuses that it it is better to hate gay people and women and aliens and people with funny religions who worship other smaller gods.
Mormons, who marry many sluts and worship money and power and are greedy, are the exception and should GO FOR their reward on earth rather than wait for heaven to arrive… because driving several Cadillacs with their own elevators with dogs on the roof is better than riding a camel through heaven (everyone knows that cows belong in heaven not camels because camels have a hump on their back and god does not condone humping)
so it was with great joy and anguish that god said unto his chosen folks of the right religions (Christian, Mormon and Catholic), blame the poor, needy, middle class and war against women but tell the masses that you are doing the opposite so that they will believe you and vote for you and everyone on earth can go straight to hell in a basket
and ye of little faith, forgiveness, compassion, kindness, truth and love, GO FIRST into the Fire and pretend god will save you (which he will) but he will laugh his ass off as the others jump in. And for that sacrifice, you will be rewarded with a bunch of virgins and Cayman Island accounts full.
Flash forward to 2012 when the Wrath of god is upon us because we did not learn anything
Mostly, some of us think Christianity in America has gone barking-mad insane.
What’s the difference between a fetus, a corporation, and a woman?
The first two are considered people by the GOP.
Romneykins
Ann Romney has multiple sclerosis & had breast cancer SO WHAT have the Romneys DONE for SICK mothers who do NOT have the resources they do? zip 0 nothing…
Mitt Romney said, without hesitation, that one of the first acts as president is “getting rid of Planned Parenthood” that serves millions of women with cancer screenings, contraception, and family planning, among others. He supported the Blunt amendment giving employers medical rights over women’s healthcare issues, and said he wants women to have dignity of working at the same time he fawns over his wife because she had the luxury to stay home and raise children. In Romney’s budget, poor and middle class women face massive cuts to programs that provide healthcare and food assistance for their children while the wealthy receive greater tax cuts. It is too late for Romney to “get the women” to support any Republican much less a wealthy elitist who promises to escalate the war on women if he is elected.
Women have spent the past year watching Republicans redefine rape, vote for gender pay inequality, restrict their access to cancer screenings and contraception, and give employers the right to deny healthcare if it went against their religious beliefs
Virginia is now the 8th state with forced ultrasounds before abortion, along with AL, AZ, FL, KS, LA, MS, and TX.
NC has passed a forced ultrasound law similar to TX’s but NC’s law is currently unenforceable pending a court decision.
Romney’s self reliant sons received $100 million dollars from their father.
The problem, as Ann Romney is demonstrating, is simple: the fiscal conservative agenda of austerity that seeks to reward the investor class above all others is fundamentally incompatible with the social conservative agenda that promotes the idea of having a bunch of children and making sure that parents have time and money to care for them and allow them to succeed in life.
There has been a clash of ideologies called the Mommy Wars between stay at home moms and working women all over the media and social media. ALL women are working, for pay or not is the elephant in the room, oft not stated. Ann Romney has many perks including staff to help with her duties as a stay at home mom. She does not receive a traditional paycheck. But lives a life of privilege most American women and mothers do not. It is disingenious for the Romneys to pretend that she is a typical stay at home mom. She is not.
What is also missing from the conversation in most of the media,liberal and conservative, is a discussion about the economic realities of women, both stay at home moms and working outside the home women. The two articles below give excellent facts, figures and info about how important women’s work is to our economy. And how women’s reproductive freedom factors into the mix. Without a woman being able to determine her own destiny and control her own body, there is NO choice NO freedom. And this impacts everyone.
“Why do women who contribute by producing the whole workforce have to plead for maternity leave that would allow them to recuperate from childbirth, get to know their children and their children to know them, and feed babies the best possible food?
Why are such basic and humane demands so controversial?”
Double standard? Romney wants poor mothers to work outside home, yet his own wife stayed home and never worked outside home (see below). Welfare to work has NOT worked, too much bureaucracy has caused mothers to do whatever it takes to feed their kids including steal and stay with abusers
“The fact that the welfare rolls have risen less than 10 percent since December 2007 while food stamp use has soared by 40 percent—an amazing one in eight Americans now uses them—suggests that welfare isn’t reaching poor families: either women who apply are being turned away, or the programs are so minimal, or so onerous, that people aren’t signing up. How do they manage? Sharon Hays, author of Flat Broke With Children: Women in the Age of Welfare Reform, writes in an e-mail, “They get by in the same way the poor of New Orleans and Haiti are getting by, by cobbling together every available source of aid and support, and then trying to learn how to adjust to constant suffering and insecurity. Increasing rates of domestic violence are just one hidden story here.” And what about women who have reached their state’s time limit—two years, three years, five years—and can’t get welfare for the rest of their lives? Jane Collins, the author, with Victoria Mayer, of Both Hands Tied: Welfare Reform and the Race to the Bottom of the Low-Wage Labor Market, writes, “In Wisconsin, most people who have used up their time limits are simply out of luck.”
“Let’s pretend that Ann Romney is, like the 143 million other women in the country, not the wife of a multimillionaire Mormon Bishop and talk about her unpaid work as a stay-at-home mom. According to the Wall Street Journal, an average housewife would make $138,095 if she were paid for her labor (that is what she would have to pay someone else). Ann Romney is not your average housewife, but, let’s go with it. Ann Romney’s lost wages for 30 years of providing 24 hour unpaid childcare for her husband, running a household, nursing sick children, being a chauffeur, food shopping, cooking, being executive assistant to six boys and men and other assorted duties is $4,142,850. She also did this, graciously, while struggling with major illness. Ann Romney, like all “non-working” mothers, is not financially compensated for her labor. (She is however, also like other married women who work, taxed for her efforts.)…
“…INCREASED ECONOMIC ACTIVITY. Women’s ability to plan and manage their pregnancies — with or without men — spurs economic growth. This is true all over the world. Countries with high gender equity indices usually have stronger economies because they understand the value of the human capital that women represent. As noted here, “In mature economies, attitudes toward gender equality and the actual possibilities for combining parenthood with gainful employment are decisive. Countries governed by traditional male-dominant attitudes run the risk of long-term economic stagnation.”
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, mothers works fewer hours, have to work part time more and cannot take on overtime.
Fully 55 percent of stay at home moms would like to work, for pay, out of the home.
“…The majority of men supporting children “by themselves” are in married relationships and have a spouse working to care for the children which adds tens of thousands of unearned income to the household. The majority of women supporting children by themselves are single and have no one contributing unearned income to the household, providing free childcare, and other types of stay-at-home services. However, the women are making only .77 cents to each $1 a man earns. They can’t afford to hire it either. Tell me again who needs to be making more to support their families – the men or the women?”
”The United States is one of only four countries in the world that doesn’t ensure new mothers can afford to stay home even for the briefest of times after they have a baby. Not surprisingly, millions of American mothers who’ve given birth go back to work before the six weeks needed just for healing. The majority of new mothers return before 12 weeks.”
“IF Mrs. Romney does move into the White House next January, she will be the only First Lady born in the 20th century to have “never worked a day” in her life, as Rosen perhaps clumsily put it.The last unemployed first lady was Mamie Eisenhower, born in 1896 and married to Ike at 19—the same age Ann was when she married Mitt. That makes Mrs. Romney as dubious an expert on the economic concerns of women as Mamie, an Army wife who moved 28 times, lived in a hotel during World War II, and played canasta and the electric organ.”
The GOP don’t hate women… they just do not like sex. it should be called the GOP #waronsex
did God create sex and women? oh yeah, they are obsessed with other people’s sins, so much for casting out those boulders in your own eyes before casting stones at others, hmmm, maybe if they spent half the time, energy and money on their OWN sins but what the heck… the truth is much stranger than fiction…
“…when one compares sexual attitudes in the United States to sexual attitudes in Western Europe, it becomes evident that there is a strong correlation between social conservatism and higher rates of teen pregnancy, abortion and sexually transmitted diseases…”
What female voters have learned from the recent debacles over contraception coverage and Planned Parenthood’s funding is not just that Republicans have serious problems with female sexuality, but also that they don’t care if women have economically stable lives with affordable health care. We can make the leap from there to realizing they probably don’t care if we have good jobs, either.
the GOP are all for the the sanctity of PRE-born human life but once the fetus becomes an actual person, well, that is another story altogether… they let babies and children and mothers starve, because once the fetus is BORN they have NO value nor rights nor sanctity????
Arizona lawmakers gave final passage to three anti-abortion bills Tuesday afternoon, including one that declares pregnancies in the state begin two weeks before conception…
when kids learn about sex and people abstain, unwanted pregnancies happen and abortions ensue… and poor people need government financial assistance… and they are against gay marriage so the GOP has got it ALL covered, no to everything including REALITY…
teenage sex statistics
The United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the industrialized world.
The (Romney) campaign also did not have an immediate answer to whether Romney supported the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the first piece of legislation signed by President Obama, which makes it easier for women to file pay-discrimination lawsuits. After the Obama campaign put out a statement from Ledbetter herself saying she was “shocked and disappointed” by the ambiguity…
just because these rich white guys with secret urges are afraid of their sexual feelings, they want to screw everyone else and make US pay and are wasting TAXPAYER’s money on ALL of these unnecessary bills and unwanted babies that are the direct result of their policies.
Maybe if they started having sex, they’d be happier, more forgiving, compassionate, have a heart, and LEAVE everyone else alone
Piff and his colleagues found that wealthier people are more likely to agree with statements that greed is justified, beneficial, and morally defensible. These attitudes ended up predicting participants’ likelihood of engaging in unethical behavior…
…Those who hold most of the power in this country, political and otherwise, tend to come from privileged backgrounds. If social class influences how much we care about others, then the most powerful among us may be the least likely to make decisions that help the needy and the poor. They may also be the most likely to engage in unethical behavior…
oh well, rich people lie, cheat, steal and have no compassion for others
if you are ever stuck for an idea of what to write, do as other professionals do… we all have to get our muse on and sometimes we borrow, get inspired by others, and create from scratch and let the words flow… write on…
I would add to this list and say you can pray/meditate and ask for guidance / assistance as well as you can interview customers/clients. If you are writing about your business, decide the topic and then see who might be a good match to spread the good word about your business. I have MUCH more to say about this, give me a jingle and let’s chat about it.
Talk to friends, relatives as well as strangers including those you “know” on twitter and/or facebook, people have amazing stories that you can write about when you ask. Put the word out that you are looking for people to interview about a certain topic. And join a group, business and/or hobby, take a class, go to meetings, ride a bike, get a pet. The more people you know and the more interests you have, the more you get involved in life, the more you have to write about.
I could write 100 blogs about various topics (don’t have time) but I am interested in poetry, chocolate, books, movies, healthy food, health tips, animals besides the lovely dog I write my other blog about such as dolphins, peacocks, and sustainable living, eco friendly topics, alternative energy, homes, money, romantic travel, business travel, beaches and so much more.
Take a topic someone else wrote about and MAKE IT YOUR OWN.
