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Business ideas, and how to use them to plan your life to be EXACTLY the way you want it.
Our modern wired world is full of small business ideas. From ebay business to self publishing, to online business and everything in-between. Whilst small business trends change over time, one thing is certain, and it’s that the internet has made many small business ideas possible for entrepreneur beginners, that a few short years ago, could never have even been considered as options. It’s exciting out there for business opportunity seekers right now. The trouble is, the huge choice has made deciding what business ideas to go for confusing. Where do you start?
TIP: Don’t start with the small business idea.
Start the process with YOU!
My advice is not to start with the small business idea, but instead take some time to focus on what you want from it. For most people, there are usually two reasons to become a business opportunity seeker or entrepreneur: To make more money, or to have a better lifestyle, or preferably perhaps, a nice combination of the two.The key to success with small business ideas, is knowing what you want before you jump in with both feet doing the wrong things. On this page, I will give you some links to a range of small business ideas, but, perhaps more importantly, I’d like to give you a few things to think about before you get too involved in choosing and pursuing a business idea. Spending a little time now on some of these wider issues will save you huge amounts of time in the long run, and also, perhaps help you to avoid finding yourself involved with some ill-chosen business ideas, and doing something a year from now that hasn’t improved your life and actually you don’t want to do - in other words, winding up in maybe much the same place as you are now! So, just hang back for a while and let me try to help you. The business ideas will still be there for you when you go back to them. Further down the page, you’ll find links to pages where I’ve taken the trouble to review some of them in depth! Okay, so... back to that lifestyle versus money thing. For business opportunity seekers, the trick is to achieve a balance between the two that works well. To do this, however, you’ve got to know what you actually want. You’ve got to carefully consider your “Ultimate Goal.”
What do you want from life? What is your ultimate goal?
A successful entrepreneur is a happy one. And that happiness comes from the enjoyment of a work/life balance. To get anywhere near this feel-good position, the first thing you need to get firmly in your mind is that you are not your business, and your business is not you...A successful small business idea and the resulting business is something that can give you more life; more time, more money, more enjoyment. The trouble is, often it can be all-enveloping. It can become like a monster that takes over your life, changes your personality, and even destroys relationships with the ones that you love. Executing and developing your own small business idea is a powerful and exciting thing, but it does need to be controlled to provide more life for you, not take it away. I’m not trying to dissuade you from being a business opportunity seeker or entrepreneur - far from it - but I do urge you to recognise that all of your enthusiasm, excitement and energy about your business ideas can, if not channeled correctly, end in tears. It nearly happened to me. So let’s avoid the heartache. It’s easy. Start by asking yourself: “Who do I want to be?” And follow that up by asking: “What do I need to do to make my life the way I want it to be?” And straightaway, you’re on the right track, because that second question demands a lot of serious thought. It forces you to begin a structured process. It forces you to take responsibility for your life plan. It forces you to begin building individual steps to make the change happen. If you’re just beginning as an entrepreneur or business opportunity seeker, then all this really is much more important right now than trying to track small business trends or choose between an ebay business or self publishing business or whatever. Those choices can come later, and I’ll help you make them here at www.entrepreneurbeginner.com. For example, if you'd like to make real money from eBay, then I have no hesitation in recommending the following course to you. I've personally bought it and used the strategies, and they really work. You can click this link to learn more:
How to Make Money From EBay
And honestly, if you want to learn how to start making SERIOUS money online in the fastest time possible, without having to create your own website (or if you'd like to add an additional stream of income to an existing website), I highly recommend these FREE eBay training videos too! Derek Gehl, the guy in the videos, really knows what's what when it comes to making money on the Internet. Don't be put off by the "salesy" approach. It's solid, unique and valuable stuff underneath it all. Start watching the videos RIGHT AWAY by following this link:
Watch Three FREE EBay Videos
or this link to assess some small business ideas that I’ve been honestly reviewing for you, (LINK COMING SOON). Take a look at the links, maybe buy the eBay course, (It's well worth it!) but then come back and stay with me for a while longer, I’ve got some important things to say that I think will help you make some sensible decisions... Those vital questions again: Who do I want to be? What do I need to do to make my life the way I want it to be?
Specifying your Ultimate Goal...
Your "design for life"
I strongly recommend that you begin building the individual steps steps to make things happen for you. It’s a good idea to write these steps down, study them, re-work them and consider them really carefully. They are the foundations for the rest of your life, and you should treat them very seriously. Because you’ve only got the one life, and when it’s gone it’s gone. It’s sorta scary when you think about it like that, isn’t it?What you are embarking on is a journey towards developing your “Ultimate Goal”, as I call it. Or to put it another way, your design for life. The business model or business idea that you develop, buy into or whatever, needs to enhance your design for life, to be fully in accord with it. In short, it needs to be the element that makes your Ultimate Goal a possibility. The cash-generating motor that drives it. When you’ve developed your vision, then you can go to work on it. The problem is, so many business opportunity seekers drift through life without any clear goals or plans. No benchmarks to measure success. Nothing. And guess what, nothing much happens! Life becomes so much more invigorating and fun when you have something to aim to achieve, and it’s exciting as you pass your own benchmarks and head on towards the next one with your business idea.
When will your Ultimate Goal be achieved?
It’s a mistake to go on and on forever, adding more and more targets. All good things must come to an end, and you’ve got to know when your Ultimate Goal has been reached. When project is done. Finished. Completed. Over.So, as an important part of the development and planning of your Ultimate Goal, it’s crucial to be clear of the endgame for your business ideas. Otherwise, trust me, there will never be an end, and anyway, creating an Ultimate Goal should be one of the this fun bits in becoming a business opportunity seeker or entrepreneur and taking responsibility for your future... Your Ultimate Goal may be complete when you have, for example, sold your business, banked the money and live off the monthly interest near a turquoise beach in the Carribean. A nice vision? But still too vague. You have to “Live” that vision in your mind right now and become more specific...
Be absolutely specific about what you want
Which carribean island?
What beach?
How much money exactly do I need/want to, have live on, per month?
What are the interest rates on deposits likely to be?
So how much do I need to sell my business for, to live off the interest?
When?
Specific Numbers.
Specific timeframes.
Specific real-world reality.
Without being specific, sensible and in-depth, that beach will stay a vision in your mind. You will never score your Ultimate Goal.So, what do you want? Think about it.
Work backwards to move forwards
The best way to develop your Ultimate Goal is to WORK BACKWARDS, from the final objective, from what it looks like when it’s finally done and finished.It’s then a case of filling in the steps between where you are right now, and where you eventually want to be. It won’t necessarily be easy, but it will be do-able with tweaks and updates along the way. For example, I wanted to wind up with a big four-bedroom house in an English Forest, bought and paid for. I wanted to own a Porsche. I wanted to get up when I wanted, and be in a position to spend each day doing exactly what I wanted. I wanted to have enough money to (within reason) support doing nice things as and when - holidays abroad, feeding my hobby for writing and recording music. I started my Ultimate Goal planning in 1981. My plan length was about 25 years, and now I’ve got all that stuff, plus a business (run by my daughter) with an annual turnover of well over $1.5 million or so - and my small business idea? It’s a rockschool franchise with 60 or so outlets. Job done - almost. Click here to
have a look at www.clivesmusic.com
to see it all in action if you like. Anyway, the point is, I did my “Ultimate Goal” planning way, way back, and there have been some twists and turns along the way, but I’ve nearly reached the end, and you can too. Anway, enough about me. Much more important than me, is YOU, and that’s what www.entrepreneurbeginner.com is all about, so, some more questions to be asking yourself as a business opportunity seeker searching for small business ideas...
Enjoy the now, plan for the future
What do you want YOUR life to be like? - think of the big picture and also your life on a day-to-day basis. It’s too easy to forget the now and only focus on the future. You have to enjoy the now too. Because actually, the now is all there really is!What does YOUR entrepreneurial vision look like when it’s done?
Measure your progress all the time
It’s very important to be able to measure your progress, not only financially, but also towards where you want your lifestyle to be - that delicate balancing act between the two.In answering these questions, and a few more like them, your Ultimate Goal will start to emerge, and will begin to give you benchmarks to track your progress against. Time taken on this now will be time very well spent, because it will give you a clear picture of what you want to achieve BEFORE you choose or develop the business idea or concept to make it happen. The great thing is, it stops you from drifting aimlessly and directionless on the sea of life, and gives your entrepreneurial spark a real purpose, goal and energy. In the business tips section of www.entrepreneurbeginner.com I will talk to you more about the mechanics of making your Ultimate Goal work for you bit by bit. For now, just build it!! Once it’s done, then check out this link for my take on small business trends (LINK COMING SOON). And you might find this link page helpful too. It’s where I discuss the pros and cons of a range of small business ideas. (LINK COMING SOON)
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