SBGEN Blog by YEisHere! S-B Global Enterprise Network: Motivating, Assisting & Facilitating Entrepreneurial and Economic Self-Sufficiency

Being Self Employed – Initial 5 Pre-Launch Steps

The Absolute Fundamentals

In a previous article, Affiliate Marketing: What It Is and How It Works, three questions were posed to ascertain readiness to launch an online Affiliate Marketing Business. Now, after quite a bit of feedback which included some very basic questions regarding becoming an entrepreneur in general, it’s time to take a back step and clarify the need to do a serious in depth assessment of self-employment readiness.

First one must truly be ready to work and put in long hours to prepare themselves for the discipline required to becoming a successful entrepreneur. Working from home or even a small office can generate more stress than going to an established business that simply demands you ‘clock’ in and perform specific tasks for an 8 to 10 hour shift! Of course there will be many sacrifices made initially involving time dedicated to becoming expert at providing your own [or others'] goods or your services in a professional manner. Being an employee for a thriving business, even at the management level, doesn’t necessarily equate to being a creator of a thriving business. The Small Business Administration offers excellent free guidelines, assessment tools and other information to assist would be home or small business owners in building a solid foundation for the success of their ventures.

There are necessary steps to take before even deciding that self-employment will ‘work’ for you. I call these the ‘Pre-Launch Steps’ and they’re designed to help you determine the difference between wishful thinking and serious dedication when it comes to becoming an entrepreneur. The first 5 Pre-Launch Steps are listed below.

1. Evaluate your readiness to start your own business. Are you ready? Have you done any research on managing or starting a business? What is the major reason you want to start your own business?

2. Examine your self worth. Are you willing to invest your time, money and energy into your own desire to be an entrepreneur? Can you trust yourself with the responsibility?

3. Create a ‘design’ for your business. This is generally known as a business plan and the question here is do you know what a business plan is? Have you drafted your business plan?

4. Know the legal requirements for your business. Simply put, what format will your business take? Will it be a Partnership [perhaps you and your spouse or a close relative or friend]? Is it to be a Limited Liability Corporation?

5. Be prepared to compete! What is the market for your products or services? Can you out sell your competitors?

These are the absolute fundamental questions that must be earnestly answered before taking any further Pre-Launch Steps. It won’t matter how good your product or service offerings are if you can’t produce in a timely manner or if you cannot meet your contractual obligations with clients. Also, if you aren’t prepared to work without ‘breaking even’ for a year or two then you must be willing to look at financing options and how much they will cost you in the long run.

There are major emotional and mental rewards in working at something you enjoy, generating a comfortable income and doing both as your own boss! There are also major emotional and mental responsibilities that you will mainly have to depend upon yourself to handle. Securing the services of a qualified business consultant or coach can provide an objective look at your qualifications for becoming a business owner along with the viability of making money in your chosen business arena. Many local and county Better Business Bureaus and/or tax assessor/collectors offices can provide names and contact information for business coaches that offer low rate and free services. Your local public library is also a great resource for finding affordable Pre-Launch resources.

I have found that many people fear failing more than they look forward to succeeding! Sometimes, becoming a member of an association or social organization whose members are in business for themselves is a good way to see that everyone in business is just like you: a person with skills, work ethic and a desire to take control of the money generated from the work performed! It’s also a great way to network and promote your business once it does get launched.

Unfortunately the US job market is in a serious down turn at this time and so is the economy. If you’re certain that what you’re getting paid to do for somebody else can be done more feasibly AND comfortably for yourself then you’ve already got the main component for the foundation of your business: vision.

YE is Here!

S-B Global Enterprise Network

S.U.R.-B.E.T. Enterprises

Money ‘Da’ Easy Way!

YE is an author; WebPreneur, electronics, computer & gadget geek; certified holistic health consultant; grandmother and devoted traveler that currently resides in Georgia. She can be contacted for interviews, consultations and general comments at either of her websites.

©2008 S.U.R.-B.E.T. Publishing

Posted under $$Trend$, Being Self Employed, Business Opportunity, Money 'Da' Easy Way, SensiBusiness

Being Self-Employed – 5 Final Pre-Launch Steps

Get Ready, Set, GO!

Now that you’ve assessed your readiness and acquired your business ’space’ you are ready for the final countdown towards being in business for yourself! Now, for the most part this series of steps is for preparation for a successful ONLINE/INTERNET business or enterprise. However, mastery of ALL the Pre-Launch steps will firmly position anyone in a winning position for a successful entry into self-employment.

The Final 5 Pre-Launch Steps addresses ‘technical’ as well as ‘book keeping’ matters and actually are designed to bring some mental relief to those that are ready to get started.

11. Make sure that your PC or Laptop can handle daily use of up to 16 hours per day. Now, you may be thinking ‘WHAT does THAT mean?’ Because it does sound a bit strange, even to me. . . Ok, your pc or laptop needs to be able to access the internet; upload graphics [pictures], videos, sounds/tunes and, of course, text; and there needs to be a ’secure’ area on your pc or laptop to store customers’ or clients’ personal information [Privacy Act]. Your ‘processor’ and internet connection needs to be fast enough to upload the great website that you’re going to build or have someone build for you. If your processor has a 1+ ghz speed or is duo-core you have enough ‘power’ to get started. If you know how to password protect files and have a large amount of space on your hard drive then your pc or laptop can handle all that’s mentioned here.

12. If you are SHARING a pc or laptop be prepared to purchase a separate hard drive for your business and all of your business information. I recommend buying a 500 GB [gigabyte] external drive [generally marketed as a 'back up' drive ] that is USB compatible. You can easily get by with 250 or 350 gigs of storage space to begin with but less than that will only cause you to have to ‘upgrade’ within a year [because YOUR business will grow so swiftly it'll demand more space!]. Being in a position of having the skill to build desktop systems puts me at an advantage to the average entry level entrepreneur because, I can throw an internal hard drive into my system at any time. . . Or simply build another box [I LOVE putting desktop pc systems together! ] However, if you’re starting out with a laptop and/or limited financial resources you can purchase a 500 GB external hard drive for $99 and less, if you shop carefully and watch the electronics’ sales. The privacy aspect of a separate hard drive cannot be overstressed and may well be the topic of a future article. . . .

13. Purchase some accounting software that has invoicing capabilities. I have no recommendations on the ‘best’ of these softwares – I’ve worked with most of them, don’t like accounting at all, so they all are more or less the same to me! You can also download for FREE a copy of QuickBooks Simple Start which has a great set of the most important features needed to manage your business in the beginning.

14. While it is wise to already have decided what form your business will take, i.e., sole proprietorship, limited liability corporation, etc. that isn’t a necessity for tax purposes. You can start your business, make tons of money and file your taxes as a ‘person/individual’ utilizing a ‘Schedule C’ reporting form that reports your business earnings and losses. See your tax advisor/attorney OR visit the IRS website for additional information. Also, it is a good idea to have an independent tax preparer handle your tax paperwork as opposed to a ‘chain’ tax prep agent because an independent can and usually will give your small business more personal AND detailed attention. JMHO

15. When choosing a host for your internet business website make sure you choose one that offers an ‘eCommerce’ package as one of the perks. If you plan on using your current internet provider and they offer a free home page OR if you already have a home page & domain name then you can utilize a FREE e-commerce software package called OS Commerce. There are many free e-commerce marketplaces and websites that you can use which may be simpler than learning how to install and utilize a new software along with starting a new business. [Please Note: I have not used OS Commerce – yet.]

Once you have ‘checked off’ all of these 5 and the previous 10 Pre-Launch steps from your ‘to do’ list you are ready to start your business. Now, you may or may not have your own domain name, website, hosting company, etc. and those are topics for an entirely different article(s) to come! However, if you can get online – which is probably how you are able to read this article – then you ARE in position to launch your business and expect success based upon the firm foundation which YOU have built, ‘brick by brick’ via these ‘15 Pre-Launch Steps’ and tips.

YE is Here!

S-B Global Enterprise Network

S.U.R.-B.E.T. Enterprises

Money ‘Da’ Easy Way!

YE is an author; WebPreneur, electronics, computer & gadget geek; certified holistic health consultant; grandmother and devoted traveler that currently resides in Georgia. She can be contacted for interviews, consultations and general comments at either of her websites.

©2008 S.U.R.-B.E.T. Publishing

Posted under $$Trend$, Being Self Employed, Business Opportunity, Money 'Da' Easy Way, SensiBusiness

Being Self Employed – How To Set-up a Business Website

Steps 4, 5 and 6

Alright! You’ve got your first choice in domain names, a top notch – dirt cheap web hosting company selected WITH a simple to use control panel all with very little hassle except for narrowing down your choices! With that accomplished you may only be reading this next installation for amusement purposes or even to pick up a few tips you hadn’t thought of! For the rest of us, here are the next 3 important steps to setting up an award winning business website:

4. Decide on the design style and layout. Most of us know what web sites catch our attention and which don’t! It’s a wise practice to search online for sites offering the same types of products or services that you have to sell. Why???? So that you can see and note any trends – in order to ’stand out’ in a crowd you first have to know what the crowd is ‘wearing!’ Once you’ve checked out the ‘norm,’ you have a good list of design ideas that you DO want on your site and that you DON’T want to imitate! I recommend visiting at least 10 sites to really see a comprehensive display in your business category.

5. Invest in site design software. If you’ve already ’signed on the dotted line’ with a web hosting company that offers a simple build-it-yourself software package in its control panel then you’re ahead of the site design software issue. Web site design software comes in 3 very distinct levels: Simple – which often isn’t really simple but has very little room for customization and or design ‘freedom; Basic – which costs any where from $19.95 to $200 and offers lots of templates, graphics, web objects [flash files – you know the web pages that slide words and pictures into place, etc.], audio and video capacity, etc. and ‘Techie‘ [which is MY name for the type, you may call it something different such as 'advanced,' 'professional,' or 'expert'] – Techie software offers everything that Basic offers with the added abilities to take quite a bit of time to learn and master where the trade off comes in building a super top notch site that rivals Canon, Sprint or even Greyhound! I have an affinity for Serif WebPlus [Basic], for it’s ease of use and outstanding tutorials, templates and ‘add-ons!’ I’ve also used Microsoft Publisher [2003 version] and recommend any number of low cost WYSIWYG [What You See Is What You Get] software offered at any local Office Depot, Office Max, Best Buy or Circuit City, etc.. There are also great quality Simple and Basic wysiwyg software offerings for FREE listed at TuCows, SnapFiles or The Free Site to name a few freeware/shareware sites. For those of you that are ‘method based’ in your business approach the freeware/shareware is the way to go: you can download free demo trials AND unlimited use software that may prove to be simple and to the point for a very good start off website design. For the ’savvy shopper’ such as myself, the freeware/shareware sites are my first stop to find test software and templates in order to get a true picture of what my sites can look like. . . .

6. Investigate some of the FREE web hosting sites – they offer a variety of easy-to-use site templates and extras such as site counters, blogs, forums, forms, shopping carts, etc. There is generally a limited amount of pages that can be hosted on these sites but since you’re creating an entry level site for the most part, this option can be the best and easily affordable one for many. Some free web hosting services are: BlinkWeb, MyHosting24/7, eSmartStart and WebNG. Thousands if not millions of start up internet businesses as well as established small and online businesses utilize FREE web hosting services AND once your business outgrows the limitations of the bandwidth or number pages [you'll be adding so many products and new services due to your phenomenal success!] copying and moving your site to a dedicated paid hosting service will be virtually ‘child’s play!’ As an incentive many of the free hosting services offer the ‘free’ sites with hopes that once the need arises customers will upgrade to their paid accounts – and if you are comfortable with the backend [control panel] along with the customer support or whatever that the free account gives you then upgrading is one way of ‘giving back’ to the provider!

For me, knowing my options and becoming familiar with those options is a prime factor in decision making – I not only like HAVING a road map, I like having a general idea of what’s ON the map before I set off on the road! Such is the reward of living long enough to have garnered some wisdom after being a very young and impulsive ‘youth!’ Gone are the days of having a vague notion of where point ‘b’ is and breaking out in a blaze of smoke without knowing whether or not the roads to ‘Rome’ were under construction. . . . .

So, I could have listed the free software and site hosting services first, however, without being given the impetus to think about where you want your site to take your business, that would have been just another ‘hype’ bit of info which is all too prevalent online these days. Which leads me to another great parting shot: Take your time and read between the lines – it’s your life, time and business AND only YOU can do it justice!

YE is Here!

S-B Global Enterprise Network

S.U.R.-B.E.T. Enterprises

Money ‘Da’ Easy Way!

YE is an author; electronics, computer & gadget geek; certified holistic health consultant; grandmother and devoted traveler that currently resides in Georgia. She can be contacted for interviews, consultations and general comments at either of her websites.

©2008 S.U.R.-B.E.T. Publishing

Posted under $$Trend$, Affiliate Marketing, Being Self Employed, Business Opportunity, Money 'Da' Easy Way, SensiBusiness