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Archive for February, 2011

All of us would love to make a little more money. Sometimes just a little to supplement an income can be a huge help. Today it is easier that you think to get a little extra cash in your bank accounts. Most of us today have our own personal websites. We can get them for free and use them as a method to keep others informed of what we are doing. You can actually turn your website into a way of making some extra cash for you. By placing some ads on your site, you have the potential to earn some cash.

When people go onto your site, if they see an ad that is interesting and click it on you receive what is known as a referral payment. The more clicks the better. Gradually your earnings will increase as your website gets viewed. Read the rest of this entry »

While quite a bit of time and research goes into selecting stocks, it is often hard to know when to pull out – especially for first time investors. The good news is that if you have chosen your stocks carefully, you won’t need to pull out for a very long time, such as when you are ready to retire. But there are specific instances when you will need to sell your stocks before you have reached your financial goals.

You may think that the time to sell is when the stock value is about to drop – and you may even be advised by your broker to do this. But this isn’t necessarily the right course of action. Stocks go up and down all the time, depending on the economy…and of course the economy depends on the stock market as well. This is why it is so hard to determine whether you should sell your stock or not. Stocks go down, but they also tend to go back up.

You have to do more research, and you have to keep up with the stability of the companies that you invest in. Changes in corporations have a profound impact on the value of the stock. For instance, a new CEO can affect the value of stock. A plummet in the industry can affect a stock. Many things – all combined – affect the value of stock. But there are really only three good reasons to sell a stock.

The first reason is having reached your financial goals. Once you’ve reached retirement, you may wish to sell your stocks and put your money in safer financial vehicles, such as a savings account. This is a common practice for those who have invested for the purpose of financing their retirement. The second reason to sell a stock is if there are major changes in the business you are investing in that cause, or will cause, the value of the stock to drop, with little or no possibility of the value rising again. Ideally, you would sell your stock in this situation before the value starts to drop.

If the value of the stock spikes, this is the third reason you may want to sell. If your stock is valued at $100 per share today, but drastically rises to $200 per share next week, it is a great time to sell – especially if the outlook is that the value will drop back down to $100 per share soon. You would sell when the stock was worth $200 per share. As a beginner, you definitely want to consult with a broker or a financial advisor before buying or selling stocks. They will work with you to help you make the right decisions to reach your financial goals.

Many entrepreneurs market via outreach events, be it trade shows or presenting seminars, and budgets to schmooze clients and impress friends are getting tight. Now that the economy is back in the spotlight, with gasoline at $2.60+ a gal., big companies announcing layoffs, and prices rising across the board, the time is here to tighten our belts and squeeze that marketing dollar until it squeals.  Believe me the rhetoric that the economy is getting better is just that – political rhetoric, and isn’t coming from the business community in the trenches.  We know better!

Even though lavish budgets are history, the creative entrepreneur can still use events as a marketing tool if he/she rolls up sleeves and goes into “guerilla marketing” mode.  Creativity is the key!  The time for promoting an event and waiting to see who registers within 6 to 8 weeks is past.  The first’s thing to remember, is that no amount of cajoling, marketing, or freebies will compel attendance at your event if it doesn’t offer real value to the attendee.

People expect to be exposed to valuable content, and aren’t attending just for the networking.  With that as a given, let me give you some guerilla marketing tips.

Some key points to remember in any outreach promotion are to build in a tracking method on each marketing piece, such as unique URLs and/or codes on registration.  Be ready to offer incentives such as discounts or gifts to gain access to clubs or sponsors members, lists or audience.  Lastly, have the appropriate marketing tool kit ready before you start.  It should contain such things as Web banners, email templates, sample sales copy, and special offer announcements packaged for easy access.

In good times or bad, these tips will help any entrepreneur draw more interest in their activity or event.  A good outreach program promotes special relationships with your sponsors, community and attendees better than any other marketing activity can before the event.  Using guerilla marketing tactics in lieu of bucks takes creativity, elbow grease, and luck.

Personal loans can offer individuals a way to have the funds for an array of uses. Some are necessary while others are for pure enjoyment. It is important that you consider the financial obligation that comes with personal loans. Too often, individuals access money quickly then struggle to repay it. If you don’t have a good budget in place you may find yourself unable to make the payments on your personal loan. Read the rest of this entry »

Real estate investing involves the purchase, ownership, management, rental and/or sale of real estate for profit. Improvement of realty property as part of a real estate investment strategy is generally considered to be a sub-specialty of real estate investing called real estate development. Real estate is an asset form with limited liquidity relative to other investments, it is also capital intensive (although capital may be gained through mortgage leverage ) and is highly cash flow dependent. If these factors are not well understood and managed by the investor, real estate becomes a risky investment. The primary cause of investment failure for real estate is that the investor goes into negative cash flow for a period of time that is not sustainable, often forcing them to resell the property at a loss or go into insolvency. A similar practice known as flipping is another reason for failure as the nature of the investment is often associated with short term profit with less effort. Read the rest of this entry »

Entrepreneurial leaders do not have a mindset that adapts to failure.  Things go wrong, of course, but entrepreneurs don’t call them “failures” they call them “glitches, mistakes, bungles, setbacks” – but not failing. When one such entrepreneur was asked about the hardest decision he ever had to make, he answered that he didn’t know what a hard decision was.  An entrepreneur will approach decision-making with the idea that there’s a strong likelihood that he/she will be wrong.  This doesn’t dissuade them – to the contrary they just do the best they can and worry about handling obstacles as they arise.

Another way of looking at it is to realize that you will make mistakes, so make them as quickly as you can in order to learn from them.  A good leader doesn’t view making mistakes as negative or irrevocable, he/she feels free to press on and try something new. There is the belief that something useful has been learned, and hopefully not at a high cost. Read the rest of this entry »

Direct marketing campaigns are truly effective when you precisely target customers likely to buy from you. This is done by Profiling and Modeling prospects and clients. Dumb mass mailings are replaced with “surgical” campaigns that market to specific customers with accuracy using technology that is now available.  Today, it’s possible to collect an enormous amount of information about customers, but to use it effectively you use it in “profiling” and “modeling”.

Both of these techniques are ways of applying external data to possible clients.  They can be used to prospect for business or to zero-in on existing customers for your mailing.  The goal is to predict behavior based on what you know about your customers. These two methods are not mutually exclusive, and marketers often use them together.  The difference is that profiling data is overlaid against an existing client database, and has a long life span. It can be used for several mailings, and in contrast modeling is used to sharpen the focus of a specific mailing. Read the rest of this entry »

There’s something you can never afford to forget when you are running a business out of your home —  cash is king! Whether it is a multi-billion dollar empire, such as Bill Gates’ Microsoft, or the tiny mom-and-pop convenience store on the street corner, cash is the life blood of the business.

In today’s uncertain economy with ever rising interest rates, many small businesses with limited financial training are having problems staying alive, let alone prospering.  In fact, 63% of new businesses don’t survive six years — and most work-at-home people fail within 6 months! The primary reason is bad cash management.  To many self-employed people neglect their cash flow until it is too late to recover.  Suddenly, presto! it ‘s back to your office job!  We don’t want that to happen. So the big question is: will you be able to manage your cash flow effectively?  If you are not sure, then you are on shaky ground. Les Masonson, author of Cash, Cash, Cash: The Three Principles of Business Survival and Success, says cash flow is all about, “getting the money from customers sooner, paying bills at the last possible moment, concentrating money to a single bank account, managing accounts payable, accounts receivable and inventory more effectively, and squeezing every penny out of your daily business.” Let’s break down Masonson’s tips one at a time. Read the rest of this entry »

If you are a savvy writer with great English grammar skills, you should consider writing eBooks.  It pays very well and you can do it in the comfort of your own home.  It is very simple to write up an eBook.  All you need to do is have Microsoft word and the internet.  Do some research first on the topic.  Know everything you can know about it, read up on it and save some quotes in your favorites area.  You may want to stop by the local library to pick up some books on the topic too.  That will help you when writing up your eBook. EBooks should be between 50 – 75 pages depending on the topic and what the assignment is.  After you have thoroughly researched your topic and you know a lot about it you want to create a table of contents.  You want the chapters to flow freely from one thought to the other.  Make sure you cover as much as you can about the topic and title each chapter, writing a few notes about what you want to write about -which you will delete later.

The next step would be just to get started on it!  Start writing creatively, from your heart, not just spitting out facts on a paper.  People are reading your eBook because they do not want to read and search for information located everywhere about a specific topic.  They want a concise, easy to read; interesting eBook they can print out and curl on the couch with.  It goes without saying that no one should ever plagiarize; not only is it unlawful, it is disrespectful.

Always spell check and edit your work by reading it when you have finished.  Polish it off by organizing each chapter into an eBook.  Come up with a savvy title that catches the audience.  If you really enjoy this line of business, you could do this full time and quit your day job.

How many e-mail messages do you send everyday?  You’re probable missing out on a simple, inexpensive marketing tool.  Seize the opportunity to promote your business to a highly targeted market without spending a dime by utilizing your e-mail signature line.

If your email signature line only contains your name and contact information, you’re missing out on advertising to e-mail recipients that have opted for communications from you. These people are key members of your unofficial marketing network.  They are your prospects, clients, press contacts and colleagues and your signature line is the perfect, unobtrusive space for a unique promotional pitch.

Try these tactics to turn your “sign-offs” into sales: Read the rest of this entry »