How to Start a Business

WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 22: Fedex Chairman, President and CEO Frederick Smith addresses the 2012 America's Small Business Summit, hosted by U.S. Chamber of Commerce, May 22, 2012 in Washington, DC. Smith delivered remarks on 'How Small Business Can Achieve Big Business Success.' (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)
Starting your own business can be an enormous undertaking, but it is not impossible. While there are seemingly countless obstacles to overcome at every turn and possibly thousands of decisions that need to be made in order to begin your business, this article will serve as a motivational guide in helping you light the fire in your belly to begin the process. Millionaires are not created through minimum wage jobs, nor are they usually created by working for someone else. Wealth building is almost always dependent on having a stream of income that you control. And while being a small business owner may sound more luxurious than it really is, the reality is that building any substantial amount of wealth does take some element of calculated risk, incredible amounts of hard work and energy, and some amount of time. But you have to start.
FIND YOUR PASSION In order to really succeed at being a business owner, it makes sense to figure out what your passionate about. In the first few years of owning your business, you may be working twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, three hundred sixty five days a year! Doesn't it make sense on some level then to do what you love? Figure out what this passion is. Be creative about ideas. It is absolutely possible to build an income through owning a pet shop or by becoming a courier or selling floral arrangements. However, if you are not passionate about a subject then your business will turn into yet another failed endeavor in your life. For example, if you know you are not a "numbers person" are you really going to strike out on your own and set up a shingle as an accountant? Probably not.
GIVE IT TIME Anything worth doing in life is worth doing well. This applies to starting your on business, too. It will take some level of commitment and sacrifice. You may not see the financial rewards in the first three, six, or nine months. There needs to be some awareness around the fact that your marketing plan will take time to sink in. It will take a matter of weeks for people to be aware of your new storefront in their neighborhood.
BE SMART Most business owners fail, not because they are not smart people, but because they were not smart about their business. While it is important to start a business that is closely aligned with your passion in life, this does not mean that you should be blind to the realities of business. Develop a business plan. Create realistic objectives and goals that are attainable. Figure out what your operating costs, business expenses, and financial necessities will look like. You may have to work towards your business on a part time basis, while still holding down your full time day-to-day job. Do not jump into this with reckless abandon. Be smart about it.
THE #1 RULE Most business owners, large and small, often lose sight of the number one rule for any business: to make money! As a business owner, you are not there to be a good neighbor or to be the source of donations for local charities. As a business owner, you are not there to make sure your employees make money while you neglect to draw a paycheck. While each of these may be wonderful byproducts of being successful business owner, all too often they sink businesses before the corporation was ever really able to get off the ground. Remember, you are in business to make money! Profits are the key to any successful business, not their debt load.
DO IT Inertia is the enemy of success. Too often, people whittle away their dreams each day by delaying them. Action is the number one key to being a small business owner. By doing you will learn what works and what doesn't work. There will be successes throughout your lifetime as a business owner, but there also will be countless failures. Often times, we learn more from our mistakes than we do from our victories. So, before you get too comfortable today, take a small step towards moving forward in your dreams.
Being a business person is difficult, but it is its own reward. Overcome the inertia and figure out an action plan to starting your own business. If you have not figured out your niche, then its important to begin the brainstorming process and stick to the mantra: Do what you love and the money will follow!

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How to Make Money During a Recession

The Money Pit (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Every single day for the past few years, Americans have only heard about falling home prices and rising rates of foreclosures. Unemployment numbers are up, while the number of new jobs created month-to-month is down. Without a doubt, this economy absolutely provides some challenges. Even as you might be worried at night about your lack of control over your own job security, you might want to focus that energy into coming up with creative ways to make money during a recession. Let's be honest, there are still a million different ways to make more money.
THIS IS WHAT WE KNOW We know that employment is good. It keeps your schedule and your bank account filled. If you are one of the lucky ones, you have health, disability, and retirement benefits for you and your family through your job. You walk into work every morning and you interact with other adults--some are friends, some are not. Psychologists will often talk about how important regular employment is for the mental health of Americans and even state that the number one stressor in someone's life is a sudden job loss. So, overall, making a steady income and making money with a traditional job leads to happier, more secure individuals.
THIS IS WHAT WE DON'T KNOW Work is good for you, good for your financial future and good for the economy as a whole. That we know. Unfortunately, there is a lot about your job and your career that we don't know. We don't really know what upper management is thinking. We don't know how deep and how long lasting their cost cutting strategies will go. Will they cut back on employer-sponsored health benefits? Will they put in place a hiring freeze? Will they freeze your annual raise this year? Or, worst of all, will they terminate you and your colleagues? You just never know.
THIS IS WHAT YOU KNOW You know you want to make more money. You know you have the potential to make more money. And you can start a part-time business while still holding down a full-time job. You know you want to. You know you have some passions that could be marketable. Or you may have some talents and skills that others need. Are you an arts and crafts person? Then perhaps you can make money on the weekend selling your products at flea markets and fairs. Or, you might be a more "love-to-get-dirty" type and you might be able to offer gardening or mechanic services to your neighbors. There are literally hundreds of ways that you could discover in order to increase your income during this Great Recession. The wonderful part about it, too, is that you can start exploring these money making endeavors while still holding down your day job!
THIS IS WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW You don't know--you will never know--your full income earnings potential if you do not get out there and try. You don't know how much money you could be making in addition to your full-time job. If you don't explore any additional money making opportunities, you will never know what it will be like to pay off your debt, own your home outright, or live the like the wealthy do.
Every single event in our lives began with a spark of an idea, with a small seed of motivation. That spark was able to ignite a larger fire of passion and that seed was able to sprout into a bountiful harvest of inspiration. It is time to find out how you can make more money and increase your income during this recession without having to quit your day job. It is time to pay attention to that spark, let the fire burn, and find ways to fuel that fire.

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What Are the Different Types of Debt?

Wipe our Debt (Photo credit: Images_of_Money)
Although the term "debt" is widely used, there are generally four kinds of debt: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly, and The Worst.
Good Debt There's not a lot of "good" debt. Borrowing money for home or for school is considered good debt. Some even consider a car loan a good debt to carry. Although, quite honestly, I contend that borrowing for a home and school are the only kind of good debts to carry. A normal run-of-the-mill car should never be considered an investment since it depreciates 20% the minute you drive it off the car lot. Some financial gurus argue that carrying loans for school is not a smart financial situation. However, I think any action you can take to better your financial future is a smart move.
Bad Debt It's clear that credit cards are the fastest way to fall into debt. If you cannot afford to pay off your entire bill within a month or two, then you can't afford the items you want to buy. Too many Americans are getting themselves in way over their heads because of vacations and food and nights out and clothes that are charged away. They then spend the next few years trying to eliminate this debt. (Fact: More than a third-36%-of those who owe more than $10,000 on their credit cards have household incomes under $50,000. Wait. It gets worse: 13% who owe that much have incomes under $30,000. Source: msnmoney.com)
Ugly Debt Stay away from charge cards that are offered at department stores. These cards-across the board-have insulting interest rates. So even if the clerk offers you a 10% discount on each item you bought that day if you open a store card, continue to refuse the offer since the interest rates for the cards hover around 20%. (Wasn't worth that 10% off, was it?) Sub-prime loans and sub-prime credit cards are some really ugly debt, as well.
The Worst Debt And really stay away from payday loan offers. This is equivalent to predatory lending. We see these commercials on television and too often these check cashing and payday loan institutions set up shop in the poorest areas of town. With APR of 400% to 1000% the "services" these businesses offer are unjust and immoral, keeping those with the least financial cushion in a state of perpetual debt. It's incredibly unethical. Fortunately, many of us have known about the pitfalls of entering into an "emergency" loan with these sharks. However, there are too many people who haven't been able to avoid this predatory lending practice.