Online Business Ideas – 3 Tips To Find A Profitable Idea

More than 95% of new internet businesses fail! One of the main reasons is because they don’t properly determine if their online business ideas are profitable to begin with. 

Here’s the ugly truth (that nobody really wants to tell you) – if you don’t properly identify a winning business concept from the very start, you very well could be wasting thousands or millions of dollars and years of your life. Finding the right idea is essential to your success, and most entrepreneurs completely mess this up!

In this video I show you 3 proven steps to determine if your concept can and should be grown into a larger business. Don’t get discouraged if your business idea doesn’t pan out. In fact, most successful entrepreneurs have dozens of ideas that fail before they find a winning business model. 

But, they make sure to limit the “damage” of their investments before they commit a lot of time and money to the project – something that I’ll show you how to do (for free) in this short video.

The truth is that anyone nowadays can start a profitable business, if you follow a proven system. Often times people have unrealistic ideas of what is actually going to work and how fast they’re going to get there. 

When you boil everything down, everything depends on finding a great idea, and then using specific formulas to develop that idea and help solve the problems of your market.

Remember, if your product doesn’t solve a problem, that is a HUGE warning sign. Here’s one of my favorite quotes, from Zig Ziglar: “If you help enough other people get what they want, you’ll eventually get what you want.”

Three good categories to start with when you’re selecting a niche – which is especially helpful when you don’t even know where to start – are:

1.) Health
2.) Wealth
3.) Relationships

**Each of these niches can be broken down into sub-niches, and micro-niches. The example I use in this video is going from HEALTH …. WEIGHT LOSS …. WEIGHT LOSS FOR 40+ YEAR OLD WOMEN.

Another important step is — doing your research and testing the idea! If you don’t test with at least some results (either opt-ins or sales) then it might not be a good idea to go forward with your business. Further, you need to research the commercial intent of your product.

Comments:

JD Dammeier

Good points! We also believe that doing business should be something about what you love. Success follows.

Dartford SEO

Learning from your helpful advises are quite essential to every individual’s success in the industry of online businesses. Furthermore, these steps are helpful enough to become more productive and progressive when dealing services via internet. It is such a very reliable strategies indeed. Thank you for enriching our minds!

Source: – www.youtube.com/watch?v=b58qOE_n5DQ

Seven Tips for Selling to Big Businesses

What does it really take to sell to big corporations?

It turns out, many small businesses make some basic blunders in trying to sell to Fortune 500 companies, according to Hewlett-Packard’s director of global supplier diversity and sustainability Brian Tippens and Dun & Bradstreet’s senior analytical consultant Phyllis Meyer and D&B’s risk management vice president Bill Balduino. Here are their tips on how to land a big corporate account:

1. Do your homework. Prepared entrepreneurs know what products or services the prospect is already using that they might be able to provide. They’ve scoped out the competition and are ready to explain why doing business with their small business will be better, says Tippens.

2. Be ready with your short pitch. The “elevator pitch” is alive and well in the halls of big-company vendor departments, especially on mass “supplier day” events. Tippens says, be ready to explain what you do and why you’re a better alternative within 30-60 seconds. “I’ve seen so many owners say: “What does H-P need?” says Tippens, “instead of saying: ‘This is what I do really well. This is why I’m better than H-P’s current solution.'”

3. Have your financials in order. Know that big-company buyers will investigate your credit, says Balduino, both when you land the account and on a regular basis. They’re looking at doing business with you as a risk. “If your review shows you’re in the red, you could lose the account.”

4. Be able to deliver. If you don’t have the manufacturing capacity to sell a big national chain your product, make that clear at the outset. Balduino notes big companies want to form ongoing relationships, not make spot buys, so be sure you can provide the volume they need.

5. Plan to follow up. Buyers are busy. Be a little persistent — but not a pest — and buyers will get the picture that you’re serious. Leave your meeting by asking: “What is the best way for me to follow up with you,” says Tippens.

6. Get pro business cards. Meyer says a joke at D&B is: “You paid for both sides of the card, so use them.” Put a special offer on the back, and make sure it lists any professional licenses you own. Include your street address. Cards with nothing but your name, company name and an email don’t present your business very professionally.

Source: www.entrepreneur.com/blog/219915

What Do You Need to Start a Business?

Darden Professor Saras Sarasvathy moderates a panel of entrepreneurs (Andrea Ayers and Jerry Nemorin) at the 2010 Darden E-Conference – a series of entrepreneurship events bringing together Darden students and alumni, as well as community entrepreneurs to share their experiences building businesses and enthusiasm for entrepreneurship.

Comments:

Jay Tom

 Just how long was it before you were earning money on the internet? I’ve recently started off working an hour every day and earning $150 by way of Wealthy Income ATM. Just Look it up on Google!

milkiskh

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Source: www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwWBWFZCDP0

Franchise Show | Business, Franchise & Investment Expo & Conference | Business Exchange

The Business Exchange presents the Business, Franchise & Investment EXPO & Conference. The show is designed for entrepreneurs and investors seeking new opportunities at all investment levels. Meet with exhibitors offering established businesses for sale, franchises and investment opportunities. Attend over 40 hours of seminars presented by industry leaders. All seminars are free. The Business, Franchise & Investment EXPO and Conference is a great opportunity for seasoned and aspiring entrepreneurs thinking about starting their own business or looking to grow their existing business.

Comment:

Pamela Labelle via Google+

1 year ago

The Business Exchange presents the Business, Franchise & Investment EXPO & Conference. The show is designed for entrepreneurs and investors seeking new opportunities at all investment levels. Meet with exhibitors offering established businesses for sale, franchises and investment opportunities. Attend over 40 hours of seminars presented by industry leaders. All seminars are free. The Business, Franchise & Investment EXPO and Conference is a great opportunity for seasoned and aspiring entrepreneurs thinking about starting their own business or looking to grow their existing business.

Source: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SeQs_RQomM

Why We Should Invest More in Existing Businesses (Opinion)

Policy makers have a strange bias. Because small businesses employ a lot of people, our elected officials favor programs that help entrepreneurs start new companies. But they do relatively little to keep small businesses from failing and furloughing their workers, even though existing small companies employ far more people than startups.

First, let me dispense with the false dichotomy that policy makers create to rationalize their focus on startups. Most elected officials associate startups and job creation with small companies and link business closures and job destruction with large companies. However, 99.7 percent of all employers are small businesses. That means virtually all companies being started and shuttered are small.

 A decline in the number of startups and an increase in the number of businesses going under are both bad for employment. But keeping businesses in operation has a much bigger effect on employment than helping businesses get started.

Indeed, new businesses don’t employ enough people to make an appreciable difference in employment. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data indicates that only 2.6 percent of private-sector employment is in establishments less than a year old. Even if we could figure out a way to double the number of businesses being founded–and the economic brain trust in Washington doesn’t seem to know how to accomplish that–it still would provide only 2.8 million more jobs. While that might seem like a lot, the BLS reports that 142.1 million Americans were employed in February 2012.

Moreover, we need more startups to generate the same number of jobs that existing companies provide. BLS data shows that the average new establishment has 5.1 workers, while the average business of any age has 15.8.

Because jobs are destroyed when businesses shut down, their survival is obviously crucial to ensuring future employment. But new firms are less likely to survive than existing ones. As I have noted elsewhere, a brand new employer has only a 45 percent chance of being in business five years later, while a five-year-old company has a 64 percent chance. That means for both companies to have the same number of employees in five years, the average new business would need 1.4 times as many workers as the average five-year-old business.

If new businesses grew faster than existing companies, they might make up for this difference in failure rates. But they don’t. Research by Zoltan Acs, university professor at the School of Public Policy at George Mason University, and colleagues shows that the average age of rapidly growing businesses is 25.

If our public-policy goal is employment, we would be better off reallocating some of the resources we devote to helping people start businesses to keeping existing ones going. There are many ways we could do this, but let me give just two examples. Small-business development centers could spend less time teaching would-be entrepreneurs how to write business plans and more time showing existing business owners how to manage their cash flow. The Small Business Administration could remove its bias toward guaranteeing loans to new businesses and offer its guarantees more equitably across small businesses of all ages.

Unfortunately, the belief that new-is-always-better has kept us from adopting the best public policy toward small business.

Source of this article: www.entrepreneur.com/article/223204

The Hottest Ecommerce Businesses to Start in 2014 (Infographic)

Being the big guy has its moments. Football, for example, tends to favor the larger fellows. But on the digital playing field, being little – as long as you’re fast and nimble – can be a win.

If you are looking for blockbuster ecommerce business ideas that favor the small, check out this infographic (below) from Austin, Texas-based ecommerce platform-making companyBigcommerce. Analyzing data provided by 50,000 of its own clients for the past year, Bigcommerce determined that auto, jewelry, toys and games and pet care are fast-growing areas where one-of-a-kind merchants are outperforming their big-box or chain store peers.

For example, auto e-tailers are beating the pants off the likes of AutoZone, independent sporting goods e-tailers are growing faster than REI and Cabela and ecommerce craft stores are hopscotching over big names like Jo-Ann and Hobby Lobby. By the same token, Toys-R-US and American Girl web stores are not growing as quickly as their smaller toy ecommerce counterparts, Bigcommerce data shows.

Here is the infographic with more granular data breaking down growth of revenue per store, size of order and number of stores in various online industries.

Source : – http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/230712

How To Sell A Business In Today’s Market

Rules for how to sell a business are different today than they were just a few years ago before the mortgage meltdown and economic crisis that followed. The difficulty of obtaining purchase money loans and greater buyer uncertainty because of the fragile state of the economy have made it necessary for owners of small and mid-sized businesses, if they want to sell successfully, to employ strategies that address current problems. Four important principals that help achieve a sale are:

1. Prepare the business more completely. Along with the mood of extreme buyer caution in this market, comes a lower threshold of tolerance for companies being sold that are not presented in the best possible way. That means a seller needs to assemble key documents–three years of financial information, copies of premises and equipment leases, and a list of capital assets included in the sale–before the business is offered to prospective buyers. It’s not a good idea to wait until a buyer is found and requests that material. By the time you get your act together, it may be too late.

Preparation also calls for making certain that business premises are clean so that it shows well, getting all equipment working correctly, and settling any unresolved lawsuits or customer complaints that might reflect negatively on the business.

2. Super preparation is also advised. In addition to getting the basics taken care of, entrepreneurs who know how to sell a business in this economic climate are going to the trouble of contacting local business banks, particularly the SBA-backed lending institutions, to get the business “pre-qualified” for a loan. If lenders say they are willing to lend money for purchase of your business by a qualified applicant, it speeds the SBA loan application process and helps to reinforce the value of the company being offered.

Another form of super-preparation involves drafting a marketing plan that, when shown to prospective buyers, provides a blueprint a new owner might follow to increase the revenues. And the company that comes with a marketing plan is more appealing, because it demonstrates the competence of management–reflecting favorably on the viability of the business.

3. Be prepared to help finance the transaction. Several sellers in this market who initially wanted an all-cash deal, have discovered that a business not attracting much attention can quickly become more appealing to buyers if the seller is willing to carry back part of the purchase price. And the owner with few buyer prospects for a company offered with a small seller financing component, say 10%, is likely to find that increasing the size of the note–to 30% of the price for example–is how to sell a business that was not generating much interest. Seller financing can result in a sale to a qualified buyer–one who was not ready or not willing to invest the total purchase price plus the working capital needed to take over the business. Also, a seller’s willingness to help finance the deal can be the factor that persuades other lenders to participate. In most cases, for example, an application for purchase funds through an SBA loan program has little chance of being approved if the seller does not have “skin in the game.”

4. Incorporate an earn out agreement in the sale. This approach often is useful in bridging the gap when a buyer and seller have different estimates of what the business is worth. The basic idea of this strategy is for the initial sales price to be a figure below what is requested by a seller, who feels the business is improving and will soon be worth more. In return for the seller’s agreement with the lower price, the buyer agrees that the business can be re-valued upward, if it does generate higher revenues as predicted by the seller. This provision is founded on a deal with some seller financing, and the contract specifies that the buyer’s payments would be adjusted upward to correspond with the increased value.

These suggestions for how to sell a business in 2011 have been employed by owners who were successful at selling over the past several months, while other entrepreneurs who’ve had their businesses on the market for some time, still are trying to find a qualified buyer and make a deal.

Source: http://eastbayscore.org/wordpress/?p=442

How to buy a business

Michael Gray interviews Greg Carpenter of BTI Group Mergers & Acquisitions aobut how to buy a business for Financial Insider Weekly. Part 1 of 2 answers why you might want to buy a business and what skills you need to succeed in your own business.

Buy an Existing Business or Start a New Business from Scratch?

Consider the pros and cons of buying an existing business vs. starting a brand new business. The decision to buy an existing business is much different from starting a new business from the ground up, and while there is no ONE right answer that fits each person, your own clarity about your approach to business will help you make the best choice for you. Discover how your investment of time and money, as well as relationships with customers, vendors, and employees, figure into your decision to start a new business OR buy an existing business.

Steven Schlagel is a CPA and Attorney with offices in both Durango, CO and Farmington, NM. More than the typical CPA, Steve mentors, coaches and consults with small business owners just like you every day to help them solve problems and build value in their business.

The Business Buying Process: Three Methods for Assessing Value

Accurately determining the value of a business is an important part of the business buying process. Explore the three primary ways that Certified Valuation Analysts use to assess the value of a particular business. Whether you are buying a business or selling a business, an accurate valuation takes all three of these methodologies into account, then uses the one most appropriate for your situation Discover how these different approaches can affect the value and subsequently impact the business buying process.

Steven Schlagel is a CPA, Attorney and Certified Valuation Analyst with offices in both Durango, CO and Farmington, NM. More than the typical CPA, Steve mentors, coaches and consults with small business owners just like you every day to help them solve problems and build value in their business.