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The Essential Time Management Question For Entrepreneurs - Are You Paying Yourself $35 an Hour September 30, 2008

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Recently I told a friend “Jim” that I was hiring a cleaning service. And I considered hiring a concierge service — someone who will shop for groceries, pick up my vacuum cleaner at the repair store, and take the dog to the vet for her shots.

“That seems so extravagant!” Jim exclaimed.

Jim works for a generous employer. He gets paid a good salary. But it is a salary. He manages money well, so he realizes he can have more money in the bank if he cuts back on expenses.

Often that is true. Sometimes no matter how hard you work, or how much you produce, you won’t make more money…certainly not very much more than the standard raise. Frankly, if you’re in that mode, I’d advise some serious career planning, but that’s another story.

But if you work for yourself, you can hire help. You’re making an investment, not incurring an expense. To make an informed decision, you need to ask questions like, ‘What is my hourly rate? What can I do with an hour to bring more revenue?”

Here are 5 scenarios when it makes sense to hire help.

(1) You need to take certain action to bring in a stream of income, and you don’t have time to take that action.

For example: You need an hour to write your weekly ezine, but your dog really needs exercise. You hire someone to walk the dog for an hour.

(2) You are truly inept at doing this task so you take twice as long as most people. Completing tax returns, cleaning houses and mowing lawns often fall into this category.

(3) You would have to invest hours — maybe weeks and months — to learn a skill that you would rarely use.

Want to write copy for your web site or sales letter? Be prepared to invest substantial amounts of time and money. If you’ll be writing often, your investment will pay off.

But you may do better to outsource. You can use the time to bring in more revenue by serving clients.

Many small set-up tasks require a steep learning curve. Examples include moving to a new web host, setting up a shopping cart or creating a blog. You can usually hire a Virtual Assistant who has done this set-up a dozen times. In 15 minutes, she can accomplish a task that would take you several hours to figure out.

(4) You really really hate doing something — so much that it never gets done. And you can easily afford to hire someone else to do it.

For example, some independent professionals hate to write. They outsource everything from website copy to blog posts to articles.

(5) You can hire someone to complete this task at a fraction of your hourly rate. If you charge $150 an hour and you can get a 2-hour task completed for $70, you are probably making a good investment.

After all, when you choose to run an errand instead of hiring someone for $35 an hour, you are paying yourself $35 an hour.

Do you want to do this? Would you accept a job at this rate?

Sometimes the answer is “yes.” For instance, I often want to walk the dog myself. That’s why I adopted a dog. I get exercise and a nice break, too.

But saving an hour often gives me more than an hour.

Let’s say you go to the grocery store. The round trip takes an hour and worse interrupts your momentum. Depending on traffic, you can lose a whole afternoon.

But maybe you could order groceries. Or you could hire a concierge service (folks who run errands) for $20-$35 an hour. Now you’ve bought an entire afternoon.

Can you do something to generate $35 new business in that time? I suspect you can.

Get more practical time-saving tips with the Time Management Makeover Save even more time when your website works 24/7 to attract clients. From Cathy Goodwin, Ph.D. Copywriter and Website Marketing Coach.

Airbag Dangers September 29, 2008

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In the late 1950s, the automobile manufacturing companies met with a variety of government agencies to discuss which safety device they’d rather see in the car. The manufacturing companies, despite all they knew, voted for the seatbelt over the airbag. Until this point, cars were not required to have seatbelts. During testing, however, the manufacturers noticed that the crash test dummies did better in trials with seatbelts. They did even better, though, in tests done using a primitive form of the airbag. As the airbag would cost more, they companies went with the seatbelt.

Later on, the government again met with manufacturers and decided that enough was enough. They began requiring airbags to be installed in cars. Despite their purported benefits, airbags are still dangerous. For starters, they deploy from the steering column or dashboard with more than 1200 pounds of force. In addition, the speed of deployment is frequently more than 230 miles per hour. Anyone being hit with that much force and at that speed can be hurt.
To combat the current airbag problems, car manufacturers have been given until 2012 to create “advanced airbags.” The manufacturers have also started creating supplemental restraint systems. The new airbags are supposed to be safe for women, children, and the standard male.

The original airbags were developed based on the safety needs of the 5′8″ tall male that weighs 180 pounds. As a result, airbags were, for the large part, tested only to ensure that the safety requirements for men were being met. They did not, for instance, take into account the detail that shorter people sit closer to the steering column than the 5′8″ male. Also, there was no consideration given to children or others with medical reasons for being in danger due to the airbags.

As a result, there have been numerous injuries due to airbags and their deployment. Neck injuries, broken bones, and burns are all commonly incurred injuries. Deaths have been reported as well. Deaths are extremely common among children. In addition to being at the wrong angle for airbags which causes more serious head and neck injuries, they can also be smothered by the airbags which causes them to suffocate.

A study published recently points out that an airbag, for female drivers, creates a net protective effect only when the speed of the vehicle at the time of the crash is more than 38 miles per hour.

For more information on the dangers of airbags, please visit http://www.habush.com.

Joseph Devine

Business Start-Up Mistakes September 27, 2008

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A startup company needs to order stationary. They hire a Graphic Artist to design an elaborate set. After hours of brain storming and numerous meetings which sometimes even delays the opening of their business, a decision has been made; they decide to go with the most expensive paper, the most difficult ink (they exist) and the most complicated design. Most Graphic Artists would jump at a chance to create a beautiful stationary set at your expense and add it to their portfolio without ever considering the consequences of the production cost, its consistency when reproduced and reproduction time once you are out. After all, most of these designs are so unusual that they require special paper, hours dedicated to mix specialty inks and running the job. Did this new company really require all this? How much business will they gain because of this design? It’s not easy for us to tell the customer “do not spend all this money” they think we are crazy asking them not to pay us so much money, but at the end of the day, their survival and prosperity is more important to us that one big job, We want them to prosper and stay with us as loyal clients for years to come.

Unfortunately most new business people forget about the cost until they see the final bill. It’s like a wedding where the idea of the wedding preparation is so exciting that most couples forget about what happens after the ceremony is over and the real life begins.

Business stationary has a purpose; they are means of transferring our information to other people. They need to look professional, easy to read and understand, they can often convey a message with a design, colors and company logos. Never have I seen a company getting a job or a client because of their business cards design. I have printed some specialty cards in my time, I have done cards on glass, on actual wood even on metal, Most were interesting, I even kept a few, but if you were to ask me what was written on them, I don’t remember. Be realistic with your budget, talk to your designer about what you need and what you can spend. Will you be giving out cards all day long? or will 500 do for a year and remember, time is money, yours, designer and the printer, Finalize the design before you go to the printer, otherwise as you are improving your design by adding ink, logo, titles, etc, your costs are also going up.

Shahin Samaei is President of http://www.printit4less.com an Online printing business dedicated to their customers success and the environment

The Benefits of Biodegradable Plastic Bags September 26, 2008

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What many young people may not realize completely, is that disposable plastic bags have a very short history. It was only a few decades ago that their manufacturing cost became so low that it allowed them to become the environmental problem that they are today. Indeed, it was only some two decades back that they were vary rarely used as take out bags in retail establishments but now they are the norm.

Polyethylene Bags

The bags that you will see commonly used, such as plastic grocery bags, are made from petroleum byproducts, which is the root of most all of the environmental problems that they are the source of. Not only do they take substantially longer to break down or degrade, but as they do they release highly toxic chemicals.

Other Plastics

Other types of plastic bags break down much faster and don’t have to toxic byproduct issues that petroleum based polyethylene bags do. These bags are made from plastics that are derived from raw materials such as vegetable oils, starches and even cellulose which is made from wood pulp. Did you know that Cellophane kitchen wrap is made completely from substances derived from wood?

New Plastics Being Developed

As the science of chemistry advances, new plastics are being developed and older plastics formulas are being improved on. The result, is that newer alternatives to todays polyethylene plastic bags are being developed and tested. However; none so far has the strength and low manufacturing cost of polyethylene bags which remain the most popular.

The Search for a Solution

Another reason that polyethylene bags haven’t been replaced by another type of plastic bag, is that each type of disposable material that bags can be made from presents it own environmental problems. Even going back to paper isn’t a viable solution any more, due to the amount of water that is used in the paper manufacturing process. Also, there just aren’t enough trees any more to supply the demand that would be created by going back to paper bags.

Written by Tanya Faddelstein. Get all you wanted to know about Biodegradable Plastic Bags and even Biodegradable T-Shirt Bags

Things You Should Know About Movie Piracy September 24, 2008

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With the swift advancement of technology, most of the business fields are frequently threatened by an evil called piracy. Piracy is rampant in many creative and technology based industries. Here we will be discussing the movie industry, which is very badly hit by piracy.

Movie piracy has become a rampant and flourishing business for a large number of people. And even the general masses accept the evil as it is helping them to save a lot of money. The easy availability and pocket friendly street price tags have made the music piracy and movie piracy industry a million dollar industry throughout the world.

The movie piracy industry has become so widespread that it is causing great loss for the film producers and as well as the distributors who invest a huge sum of money for the making of each film. Movie piracy alone has cost the United States economy $20.5 billion per year in loss of business, jobs, wages and taxes, according to a recent market study.

The film industry for years has fought a war against movie piracy. The scenario has reached such an alarming stage that illegal copies of new films are easily available through street DVD sales or Internet download within days, or in some cases, before a movie’s hall release. The recent study also shows that a growing number of illegal sites are offering new movies for a free download. Though the authenticity of these downloadable movies is surely questionable, the movie buffs and those who want free entertainment are profusely downloading these movies from such illegal sites.

Many organizations all around the world had tried different ways to tackle movie piracy but nothing effective could be done till now. In the United States of America the organization named Motion Picture Association of America warned against a growing global epidemic of movie piracy. The organization also conducted a study on the Internet where it showed that nearly one fourth of the Internet users have illegally downloaded movies from the Internet.

It is quite an astonishing and disturbing fact that most of the people who buy pirated DVDs or CDs or download pirated movies from the Internet do not know that they are committing a crime or an offence. They are also unaware of the fact that they are the cause for the loss of jobs to a lot of people.

The study was conducted by an organization that queried three thousand and six hundred Internet users in eight countries about online movie piracy. The study was performed in France, Germany, Australia, Italy, Korea, Japan, the U.K., and the USA. The survey showed that online movie piracy is growing too fast and most of the users are not even aware of the offence.

The increasing simplicity of downloading movies through a fast and efficient broadband connection, and the invention of compression technologies and extensive availability of new releases as well as the old classics online, are some of the main factors which attract consumers to download without giving it a second thought. The very high movie ticket prices also tempt people to buy pirated DVDs from the street shops.

Victor Epand is an expert consultant for used DVDs, used movies, and used car stereos. You can find the best marketplace for used DVDs, used movies, and used car stereos at these sites for used DVDs, Movie piracy, Pirated.

Article Marketing - Techniques to Increase Your Article Marketing Effectiveness September 23, 2008

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Are you using article marketing in advancing your writing and in quickly improving the most responsive traffic to your website? I must say that you have made the most profitable choice as article writing for traffic generation is very effective both in terms of sales and traffic promotion and online traffic.

Here’s how you can improve your article marketing effective strategies:

1. Study the effective strategies of writing intriguing titles. This is one of the first things that you should start to do to do in order to supercharge your traffic. You should start to do to learn how to write titles that can interest web traffic readers so you can get these internet visitors to open and read your articles. You may use radical ideas, words that can induce readers to take action, and you can even use new information to get the attention you need. Just be positive that all the information you offer to your internet viewers is not wrong so you will not mislead them.

2. Get informative articles for distribution. Get more web people to consume your articles and radically increase their chances of being picked up and republished by assuring yourself that they are of the best quality. They must be loaded full of the most usable information, web site articles must be written well, highly important to the needs and demands of your customers, and they must be well written. And of course, they must be quick to read, accurate, and direct to the point to be made as you are serving humans with short time.

3. Learn your best buyers. This is something that must be done in this field. You must discover about the internet visitors you are writing and creating your articles for to surely make your web information important and specific to their wishes and demands. I recommend that you invest at least a few hours a day writing with this online traffic source through online means and other methods.

4. Do a keyword research. This is one of the fastest ways to reveal the needs or other topics that your possible clients are hunting for. Track down a keyword suggestion tool and discover the keywords that are often being researched by your clients when they go searching on the internet. You can create articles around these most critical keywords so you can correctly offer your traffic what they truly really need.

5. Use a great resource box. Convert more internet visitors to subscribers by using an enticing and good resource box and bio. In this resource box, you can show your expertise, your offer to teach them, the solutions you can provide, and the reasons why they should work with you. Be sure to put in your bio your website’s URL, a good call to action, and a compelling reason to act.

Do you want to learn more about how I do it? I have just completed my brand new guide to article writing success, ‘Your Article Writing and Promotion Guide’

Download it free here: Secrets of Article Writing

Do you want to learn how to build a big online subscriber list fast? Click here: Secrets of List Building

Sean Mize is a full time internet marketer who has written over 9034 articles in print and 14 published ebooks.

Business Ethics Where Did They Go September 21, 2008

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In today’s society one would have to wonder where did ethics go? It would seem that unsavory conduct is the norm. All you have to do is watch the evening news to hear about the next corporate scandal or the politicians that are skimming profits off of some business deal under the table, or the local boy scout leader taking advantage of the boys under his charge. Where did the morals of this country go?

What are ethics? According to Webster’s Dictionary, Ethics is”the system of moral values; the principal of right or good conduct”. When one is doing business of any kind, professional or personal, ethical conduct should be first and foremost. Your customers should know that you put their best interest first. Is that not what we expect when we do business with someone? As a consumer, don’t we expect our business acquaintances to put our best interest first?

When you convey the feeling of honesty and when you can make your customers feel special, you will draw them back to you. They will look to you for products and information, because they feel they can trust you. Trust is so under rated, we throw the word around but never take the time to really think about what it means. According to Webster’s Dictionary the definition of trust is”Confidence or faith, in a person or thing”.

Confidence; are your customers confident in you? That should be a question we all ask ourselves? Are your customers confident that you are an honest business person? Are they confident you will not cheat them or mislead them in your business dealings? Are they confident that you will put their best interest first and think of their needs above your profit? Confidence=trust=faith. If your customers are confident in you ,they will trust you and then they will have faith in you to lead them into the right direction for making quality business decisions.

But the first time someone you trust breaks that trust, you never forget it. It stays with you for a very long time if not forever. If a customer feels the trust between you has been broken through something you have done in your business dealings with them, then you have lost a customer. Losing customers to unethical business practices is business suicide. People share among themselves their experiences and if they have in countered unethical practices from you, those experiences are detrimental to your business reputation. When one person tells another that they have had bad experience with your company, the other person always believes them, even if they are strangers. Words have power and you want only good positive words spoken about your business. It is nearly impossible to heal business wounds created by unethical business practices.

In business it is imperative to always have above board business practices. Always treat your customers as you would what to be treated. Yes, the golden rule still works, ” Do unto others as you would have others to do unto you.” Always be ethical and honest and your customers will know they can trust you and you will have return sales.

Sue Burke is a weight loss consultant. If you’d like to have more information you can link on to her webpage at: http://www.walkingrichlivingthin.biz

Comparing a Home Based Internet Business to What? September 17, 2008

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I’ve been in the Home Building Business for over 25 years, but because of the recent drastic decline in this industry I was forced to find another means of income. I started searching on the internet for Home Based Business Opportunities and like many of you became overwhelmed with the massive amount of opportunities out there. I knew that I would have to be persistent and maybe compare different opportunities to things I could relate to.

Because I Basically had been building homes for most of my working career, I almost naturally starting looking for a Internet business, even though completely different than home building, that would have some of the basic fundamentals of home building. Easy enough right?

In the Housing industry a group of individuals join together to accomplish a common goal. So I looked for a internet business that had a group of individuals joining together to accomplish a common goal. This is where I discovered the Network Marketing Business.

A Home Based Network Marketing Business like a house should be set on a solid foundation. It should have ownership that has a proven track record, no or few consumer complaints, a great product line, and members that operate with integrity.

After the foundation comes the structure of the home, the strong frame work that supports the walls and roof. In a Network Marketing company the frame work is the strong member base whom with impeccable work ethics create a lasting business structure.

The next step in the home building process is the installation of the mechanics which are plumbing heating electrical and other interior items. Usually these are separate companies hired for their expertise in these areas. That way any one person doesn’t have to Know it all even though some like to think they do.

With a Network Marketing Home Business I also found when set up properly can operate the same way, where the different areas of expertise can be hired out by professionals. This is commonly known as the power of leverage. This is where true freedom and wealth are created.

Lastly is the roof of the home which covers and protects everything on the inside. A great marketing platform will do the same for your Online Business, in a way, where all operations are under one virtual roof for simplicity.

This comparison or analogy may not be the greatest or even make sense to some which is a good probability, but in looking for a Internet Home Based Business simplification can be made by comparing things to what one already Knows.

Steve Kimball is an entrepreneur and a certified master consultant for Wealth Masters International and also a member of Platinum7Profits marketing system. His goal is to help others in achieving financial success through the Network Marketing Industry. For Information go to http://www.TheHomeWealthBuilder.com

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Business Marketing Has Changed Drastically in the Last 50-Years September 12, 2008

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Many entrepreneurs will tell you that amongst their strong suits is their ability to market a product or service. And yet, I feel often they do such an injustice to the entire of concept of marketing, what it means, the tradition behind it and the true value. If I might be so bold, I would like to recommend a book that will best illustrate my points here:

“Marketing and Distribution Research” by Lyndon O. Brown, PhD. - 1955.

This is a very old book and of specific interest to a life-time studier of marketing. The author the methodology; the science of marking and distribution research. And he uses the scientific methods of the time throughout the book. In Part I of the book he describes the importance of such research, how one needs to approach organizing their data, the types of methods that can be used and the scientific methods behind them.

If one is to truly understand the reality of marketing research then they must understand some of the history behind the science or art. In Part II the author introduces chapters on:

You can see by these titles that the author takes marketing a lot more serious than marketers of today do. Of course, information is now abundant, yet, much of the information is not really correct, do you know the difference if you do not verify?

The author goes further on describing other types of research for business such as; motivational, operations, distribution, sales, advertising, product, trends, and industrial and institutional marketing research. Do I recommend this book to you?

Well it depends if you are deep thinker or a shallow, just shoot from the hip type. It is in my personal business library, I learned a lot from it, things that most marketers never consider are in this 515-page book. Please thin about what I am saying here and honor the profession of marketing. Sincerely, Lance.

“Lance Winslow” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is a guest writer for Our Spokane Magazine in Spokane, Washington

Internet Marketing Service - Help to Sell Online September 9, 2008

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Internet marketing service is very essential for sellers moving their business online today. This is because there are many sites that perhaps already exist that sell the same products online. A site with a good financial backing can effectively develop a monopoly on the internet over the kind of products it sells. If this is the case, then the other sites do not stand a chance.

This is why the new sites that launch go in for Internet Marketing Service. This helps the new sites to launch their products and keep up with the competition in the market. The competition in the market may get tougher in the specific seasons. This is where Internet Marketing Services come in real handy. Any site can keep ahead of its competition or do decently well in terms of profits on the internet with the help of a good Internet Marketing Service.

Also any site that wants to rejuvenate its business can take the help of a proper Internet Marketing Service and get back into action. There are many ways that an Internet Marketing Service helps a website earn more profits. The most common way is that it increases the traffic to the website. With more traffic, the website is guaranteed to get more sales. This is mainly done through SEO. This way the website can have a good page rank.

With a good page rank, the website always features in the top five results of any search engine when a query is made on the products related to the website. This ensures that visitors visit these websites and with the increase in traffic the sales of the products on these website also increases. In an essence the different types of Internet Marketing Service connect the customers to the sellers that are most eager to sell their products. That makes this service more beneficial for both the customers and the sellers.

To learn more about Internet Marketing, visit Brian’s Abunza website.

Author: Brian McCoy is a six figure earner a top income earner in the home business industry. Brian works with entrepreneurs around the world. He devotes the time, energy, and effort into his team and works with them to ensure their success.

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