Do You Want To Earn Or Learn?

Three long years at University studying English was closely followed by a brief, yet painful realisation that having a degree does not guarantee you success in life. Perhaps the fact that I still had no idea that I wanted to do with my life didn’t help. All I knew is that I longed for money, and lots of it. It was the early 1990’s and having been too young to enjoy the decadence of the 80’s, I felt I’d missed out on the Porsche’s and the Penthouse Apartments. Realising that Managing a Book Store or working as a Civil Servant was not going to make my fortune, or keep me from abject boredom, I stumbled into a career in Real Estate.Within a year, I’d learned a lot about how to make money. In fairness, I hadn’t learnt an awful lot about anything else but at least I knew how to put cash in the bank. Aside writing overly adjective-ridden property details, I can’t say that my degree served me particularly well either. The thing about selling is that it doesn’t matter if you’re less than perfect with the Queens English as long as you can spot an opportunity and grasp it. A decade on and I somehow found myself running my own Real Estate business with two offices. Unfortunately, the one part of the business that gave me a buzz, the selling, was now down to others whilst I stood in the background trying to look important.

Being somewhat disillusioned, I sold the Real Estate business and once again found myself considering which career path to pursue. The following three years saw me complete formal training courses in Logistics and Property Law. The former was a bit of a whim and although it took me nine-months to complete the course, I left two jobs in only a few weeks because I hated the industry so much (My Dad was in Logistics so I blame him for subliminally convincing me to do the course). Thirteen months as a Property Lawyer also came to an abrupt end when I realized that (a) the pay was lousy and (b) the job was more boring than Watercress Soup.

By this point, I had spent almost six years of my adult life undergoing some type of education and where had it got me? Nowhere. The only real money I had made in my life had been in a ‘profession’ that a Village Idiot could thrive. At thirty-four years of age, I was married with two children and had the career prospects of a suicide bomber. Thankfully, I had an epiphany quite bizarrely bought on by one of those ‘get-rich-quick’ schemes on the Internet. Don’t get me wrong here, the only person getting rich from this particular scheme was it’s author. However, it did teach me a few snippets of worthwhile information that I possible wouldn’t have gleaned from any other source. Those few nuggets were enough to inspire me to look further into the murky world of Internet riches.

Three years on and I still don’t have a job. I sit at my computer for six hours a day and quite frankly, mess around. I design crappy looking websites and through the information I’ve picked up over the last three years, manage to make money from them. To be truthful, I actually make more money from my various Internet-based ventures than I ever did in Real Estate and certainly more than my other ‘careers’ (Sorry Day). I don’t have to commute, I don’t need to put on a suit and I don’t have to kiss the bosses backside every day. Don’t you just hate me? I make a good living just by constantly researching stuff on the Internet. There is slightly more than that involved but essentially, I picked up most of everything I know for free or by spending a few bucks here and there. Some wisely, some not so wisely.

So the point of this ramble? If you are lucky enough to be at the point of your life where you can make a decision about your career, just think for one moment. Do you want to commit the next few years of your life to a formal qualification when you really can’t have any idea what type of person you will be when it is finally achieved? Is money your God or are you happy to live in a crappy apartment whilst making the world a better place? Ultimately my friends, are you going to school to learn, or to earn?

 Take A Step In My Direction – http://www.coursesdistancelearning.com

Money-Making Online – 5 Sure-Fire Ways To Avoid Being Ripped Off

For four years I’ve subscribed to literally hundreds of different schemes that promise to make me wealthy overnight or provide a sustainable income so I can leave me job. I do earn a reasonable living both online and offline so trying these schemes isn’t going to bankrupt me but there is an awful lot of rubbish out there and I believe I can now help you make a more balanced buying decision.

Every time you are tempted to subscribe to one of these schemes after being wooed by their claims of online riches, just simply follow my advice and see if you still feel the same afterwards. It’s as simple as that, no catches. So here’s a basic check-list of considerations before you spend your heard-earned money and increase your disappointment.

1. Go Rank

When you arrive at the pitch-page which is designed to tempt you into buying the scheme, check the Google Page Rank of their main website home page. You can do that by installing the Google toolbar or there are a number of websites that allow you to enter the website address to check the page rank. If home page of the seller has a page rank of less than 3, it suggest it’s not a particularly popular website. If it has a zero page rank, avoid it like the plague. The best schemes are the ones that have been around a for a while and offer a decent product and good support so they generally have a page rank of 3+.

2. Who Are They?

Check who is actually selling the product by checking the domain details at the WHOIS directory, the official database of domain name ownership. Just Google WHOIS and the directory comes up in the first position. You can enter the domain name of the website offering you Internet riches to find out who owns it and when it was registered. If it is newly registered or the contact information doesn’t correspond with the website selling you the scheme, it’s time to walk away.

3. Show Me Support

The seller of ’the best money-making scheme on the Internet’ might well have a decent product but if you don’t know how to use it or encounter problems, which you will, how good is their support? Before you purchase any product, email the seller and ask them a vague support question like, ‘will your program work with Vista?’. If you don’t hear back within 24 hours (possibly more at weekends) then obviously their support isn’t too hot and suggests you could be in for weeks of frustration if you buy their program.

4. Ask yourself why?

How many of the Authors of these schemes claim to have earned millions? If somebody claims they’ve become a millionaire through their scheme, why on earth are they going to the trouble of hocking it around the Internet at $40 – $50 a go? If you had several million in the bank, would you still go to the trouble of pushing products online for a relatively small amounts of money? I can think of better ways to spend my time if were seriously wealthy. Some of these scheme will offer you a decent living but on their own are very unlikely to make you a millionaire, whatever the Author claims.

5. Picture Imperfect

To ’substantiate’ their claims of earning thousands of dollars every day, Authors will publish images of their various bank accounts on their pitch-page showing massive daily deposits they’ve earned through their scheme. If you see a picture of their Pay-Pal account with big deposits on a daily basis then it must be genuine and you too could be earning that soon right? Wrong. One of the best kept secrets amongst the Authors of these slick pitch-pages is that there is a little known piece of software available which re-creates a copy of a Pay-Pal, or Click-Bank account with whatever information the Author chooses included. It all looks the same but it’s just a clever bit of software that replicates payment pages but the user can ‘edit’ the amounts deposited to look like the owner of the account is raking it in.

So there you go. Does that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity still seem so great? The final, and possibly most important piece of advice I’ll give you is arguably the oldest and wisest.

Caveat emptor – let the Buyer beware

 K A Pearson

Take A Step In My Direction, Visit http://www.coursesdistancelearning.com

Essential Small Business Advice – Part 2

In part one of Tough Love, I gave you five fundamental pieces of advice you should immediately adopt if you run, or are thinking or starting up, a small business. Part two carries on giving you real advice you need to make a success of your small business. You may not find this information in business management books but believe me, it comes from a man who has experienced the toughest times in small business and knows that difficult times call for difficult decisions…tough love in small business.

1. Don’t need a website?

Yes you do. I don’t care if your business only relies on local customers, you still need a presence on the Internet. Hundreds of books have been written on Internet marketing so go read one but for now you need to know a couple of basic facts. Firstly, localised businesses need a website even more than national ones because they don’t have the same marketing budget and a website is a cheap way of reaching your customers. Secondly, a short, descriptive domain name is much easier to remember than a telephone number. When you close this article down, try to remember ‘Call – 72618974990′ and ‘KatesPetStore.com’ and see which one is easier to recall. Put your website address on vehicles, signs, windows….just about anywhere you can put it and it will bring you more customers.

2. Sack your Accountant

Why pay a small fortune every month/year for something you can almost certainly do yourself? There is so much cheap accountancy software available online that month-to-month bookkeeping is something you must do yourself. I don’t care if you’re computer illiterate or not. The fact that you’re reading this article is proof enough that you are capable of looking after your monthly accounts. You will probably still need an Accountant for your end of year submissions and for tax issues but don’t pay somebody for something that can be done so quickly and easily with a $50 accounts program. Don’t have time to do your own bookkeeping? Get your partner, sister, uncle or next door neighbour to do it. I guarantee that even if you pay them a small monthly fee, it will be considerable cheaper than your Accountant.

3. Advertise-Wise

Whatever your product or service, you need to advertise. It may just be putting flyers through the neighbours door but it still costs time and money and you need to know if it works? I have seen so much advertising money wasted in my career it makes me weep. You MUST establish how every one of your customers came to find your business. This data is absolutely crucial in determining where you spend your valuable advertising budget. Monitor it closely and if something isn’t paying it’s way, get rid of it. Don’t be concerned that other companies still use the medium, that’s their look-out. Have you ever considered that some companies advertise in certain media just because their competition do? Madness!

4. It’s always cheaper somewhere else.

You MUST conduct a thorough appraisal of your existing supplier costs. It doesn’t matter if it’s electricity, water, products, gas….there is a good chance you can get it cheaper elsewhere. Not worth the hassle to save 2-3%?How many suppliers do you have, 5, 10, 15? If you can save an average of only 2% with every supplier simply by re-negotiating their prices or going elsewhere, you can save up to 25%-30% from your operating costs. That’s real money in your bank account and not theirs. I still find it incredible that small business owners spend so much effort on bringing in money that they never consider how much they’re giving away to suppliers.

5. Sorry, the office is closed.

Every time a potential customer tries to contact you and can’t, you’ve wasted advertising money. Work out how many customers you have in one month then divide that by your profit and you’ll quickly discover how much you’ve paid to attract each individual customer. Every time you don’t answer the phone, that’s how much cash you’ve wasted. Sinking in now? If you only want to take customer enquiries 9.00am to 5.00pm Monday to Friday then go and get a job, running a small business is not for you. Whenever you leave the office, have your office phone re-directed to your mobile phone, it’s cheap, easy and means you will be able to take customer enquiries when your competition are closed.

I hope some of the above advice is worth the time it’s taken you to read this article and please stay tuned for the next part of my series on Tough Love Small Business Advice.

K A Pearson

Take A Step In My Direction, Visit http://www.coursesdistancelearning.com

Essential Advice For Small Business

I’ve had six small businesses in my time and started them all with next to no finance yet sold them all for a substantial amount of money. I’ve made a lot of mistakes and errors of judgement yet still managed to pull through, even when the odds were against me. Some of the mistakes I made were due to bad advice, normally given to me by some supposed ‘Expert’. These ‘Experts’ have rarely been involved in small business and believe that a Degree in Marketing gave them the right answers. They couldn’t have be more wrong.

Whilst I could probably write a book on small business advice, I thought it would be easier for readers to take small bite-size piece of advice; rules of small business if you like. Whether you run a lawn-mowing business, a clothes store or a computer repairs business, these rules are applicable and essential for your success. So without further ado, her are my first five fundamental rules for small business.

1. Network, network and then network some more.

There is no better way of selling your product or service than face-to-face. Most networking events are organised locally and free to attend so it’s an incredibly cost-effective way of meeting potential new customers. Think about it logically, would you more likely to buy a product or service from somebody you’ve met locally or from a company the other side of the country who just sent you an email?

2. Trust absolutely NOBODY.

This advice is always highly controversial but believe me, you cannot afford sentiment in business. Customers who say they’ll pay you next week, suppliers who promise a delivery by tomorrow, treat them all as liars. If you take that attitude, you will already have a back-up plan for the times where you were proved right. To avoid confrontation over this policy, ensure you have strict terms of business that your suppliers and customers are aware of before you agree to do business.

3. Your competition are your greatest opportunity.

You simply cannot know enough about your competition. Scour their website, their brochures, their adverts, every piece of marketing material they utilise. Make a list of everything you like about what they do and everything you don’t then canvas the opinion of your friends and family to gauge their opinions. It may seem obvious but the reality is all you need to do is ensure you combine the best of all your competitors strengths whilst avoiding all their perceived weaknesses.

4. Don’t borrow money unless you absolutely have to.

Debt is like a disease, it will consume your business and eventually kill it. Whilst I’ve had six very successful businesses, I’ve also had one business which I just couldn’t get to work. Thankfully because it was debt-free I managed to just close it down and start again. If you need equipment, hire or borrow it wherever you can. If you need premises, sub-let or work from your garage. Do whatever you can practically do to avoid owing money to anyone. Whenever you consider borrowing money, always think to yourself, ‘What would happen if my business closed down next month, how would I repay this debt?’

5. Staff – The strain and the drain.

Don’t think for one moment that anyone you employ will care one iota about your business; they won’t. Staff expect prompt and regular payment, they expect to be paid when sick, they expect to be paid whilst on holiday, they expect training, they expect to be praised and motivated all the time, that is all they care about. In short, your staff are your biggest liability and can suck the life out of you and your business. Don’t employ staff unless you really are doing too much yourself and if you do require additional labour, use temporary Agency Staff for menial tasks or sub-contract more demanding tasks to another company.

I sincerely hope you found the above advice useful and if some of it seems a little harsh, it’s because running a small business requires harsh decision making. You do not have the luxury of being able to make continuous mistakes as nobody will be there to cover your back.

Stay tuned for part 2 of my series of advice for small business.

 

K A Pearson

Take A Step In My Direction, Visit http://www.coursesdistancelearning.com