Most people think that when they start a business they will become wealthy and everything will just fall into place for them. Not true. There are certain things that you need to know before you take that leap of faith into entrepreneurship and to help you out I’ve listed some of them below.
MYTH: You can get rich working for someone else.
FACT: 1% of the U.S. is WEALTHY and 74% of them own their own business! The vast majority of people in the United States earns less than $2,400 per month and will retire off of less than $800 per month. This is after they have worked for a company for 40 years! That’s right, I said 40 years! Remember: Everyone is a part of free enterprise - you're either in it or you work for someone who is!
MYTH: You must be smart, well-educated or an experienced entrepreneur to be successful in your own business.
FACT: The best and most efficient way to create wealth is to find someone who has already done it and duplicate their process. Starting your own business requires no skill or education, just the desire to work smart and hard! In the last decade, literally thousands of new millionaires have been created by starting their own empires. Studies have shown that one of the fastest ways to create wealth is through owning your own business.
MYTH: You must work long hours for many years to get wealthy.
FACT: While it is true that it may take some time and serious commitment, the fact remains that you are in control of you own destiny. So how much time it will take to get where you want to go will depend on you! Keep in mind, the average person will start a business, then over time try to expand it and then allow it to continue to grow. Some people who start their own companies fail to even make back their initial investment while others go on to earn a significant income on a monthly basis. What’s the difference between the ones that succeed and the ones who do not? EDUCATION. Not school book education, but industry education.
A doctor has to go to school for 8 years and still must do an internship before he or she can start practicing medicine. When you start up your own company, you can earn as much as a doctor or more and you don't need to go to school for 8 years or even 1 year for that matter, but you still need to go to school. Most people jump right in and hope for the best (97%). The smart ones take time to get trained and study so that they can master the basics of their business (3%). Now ask yourself: What percentage will you be in?
MYTH: Once I open up my company I will start making a ton of money every month, even from home, doing absolutely nothing.
FACT: Starting your own business can be simple but it’s not that simple! The truth is you may not make a ton of money or any money at all for a while. Again, be prepared and know what you’re getting yourself into. Check out the different trade associations that are affiliated with your industry and go to support groups. Try to find a mentor that’s in your industry that may be willing to help you out. Join some different organizations that cater to small business owners.
Even when you join these organizations, the key is to always remember that because it is a business you must always, always treat it like a business. You are in charge of marketing, promotion, distribution, etc. Your success, as with anything you do in life, depends greatly on your drive, commitment and motivation. Only you can determine how much, or how little, you will earn.
MYTH: First I'll get the money and then I'll figure out how to spend it and start doing the things I love to do.
FACT: You must first know WHY you want the money before you can get it and keep it. What's the last letter in M-O-N-E-Y? It's Y! Figure out WHY you want the money or else you'll end up like 80% of all lottery winners - broke again in 5 YEARS. You must have goals set in place. You must have the desire to be successful and you must be willing to believe in yourself and most importantly, invest in yourself.
MYTH: I will take each day as it comes and everything else will work out.
FACT: You must have a clear plan of action. This would include a marketing budget, source of consistent leads or clients, training and skill development. You must have a burning desire to change your situation, the desire to earn above average income and most importantly be hungry. You must be dedicated and have the desire to see the project through, constantly studying your craft and re-investing in your company so that your business can flourish.
By applying a few basic principles and having a clear, defined plan of action, you can be successful in whatever endeavor you choose!
To Your Health, Wealth & Happiness!
Pam Lawhorne
Pam Lawhorne is a serial entrepreneur, small business expert and creative marketing consultant, who provides advice, guidance, and encouragement to aspiring CEO's around the nation in her popular seminars and publications. She is the Chief Empowerment Officer of Empower U, Incorporated, a training and consulting firm that specializes in interactive workshops, seminars and coaching programs.
Ms. Lawhorne is the author of “From Minimum Wage To Getting Paid! - How To Become A Successful Entrepreneur With No Money, Education Or Experience!" and she is also a syndicated columnist who writes articles on empowerment, entrepreneurship, personal development, creative marketing and real estate investing. Her articles appear nationally in newspapers, magazines, and on numerous business websites and on-line publications. For additional information please visit her website: www.PamLawhorne.com.
The above article is copyright 2003-2008 by Pam Lawhorne. Permission to repost is freely granted so long as the text is not altered in any way, and the copyright and links are included.
Showing posts with label Starting A Business. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Starting A Business. Show all posts
Friday, December 28, 2007
Thursday, November 2, 2006
To Build A Business You Must Have Customers...
In order to make any business thrive you must have customers. What most people don’t realize is that in most instances, customers will not just walk through your door. You have to understand, there are basic principals that you must follow to get customers and the most basic of all of the principals is prospecting.
Prospecting is the act of searching out leads or potential customers. Through practice you will find that prospecting or getting news customers will become much easier for you. If you learn the basics you will find that overall it will help you to become more effective in your business because the reality is you will always need to prospect. However keep in mind that your success will not be instant. You will be challenged; and fall down and get scrapes and bruises. You might even wimp out before you even start! If you do, then you have lost! So try not to get too intimidated in this process of asking others for their business.
If you are truly serious about building your business (and I hope that you are) you must make a commitment to yourself and your business to learn these basics of prospecting and implement them in your action plan (you do have an action plan don't you?).
Prospecting or gathering customers can be fun. When prospecting becomes fun, you become an effective business person. But if you make it a task you don't want to do, procrastination will take over your mind and you will find yourself frustrated because your business will not be growing.
Regardless of the type of business you have, all businesses are based on sales and in order to make money you will have to make sales. Part of the selling process is prospecting. In fact, prospecting or gathering customers is the most important step you must take in the sales cycle. Without prospecting, you will not have any customers. Without customers, you will not make any sales. With no one to sell your product or service to you have no business and therefore you will make no money! I guess you see my point or at least I hope you do!
Remember - Prospecting is your first step toward building your business.
Prospecting is an important element to any and all businesses because it’s where you get your business. I know, prospecting sucks! I don’t know anyone who loves to do. I personally hate prospecting. But let me ask you a question:
If you don't prospect for your business, who will?
- Your friends?
- Your family?
- Your kids?
Face the facts! Those people will never build your business for you. You must take a proactive approach to building your business and that proactive approach begins with prospecting. Effective prospecting does take time, effort, and a bit of patience. Always remember, you are in business for the long haul so if you learn this important step you business is guaranteed to prosper for years to come!
I look forward to helping you strive to reach your goals and dreams. It is my hope that the information I've provided will help you to get there!
To Your Health, Wealth & Happiness!
Pam Lawhorne
Pam Lawhorne is a serial entrepreneur, small business expert and creative marketing consultant, who provides advice, guidance, and encouragement to aspiring CEO's around the nation in her popular seminars and publications. She is the Chief Empowerment Officer of Empower U, Incorporated, a training and consulting firm that specializes in interactive workshops, seminars and coaching programs.
Ms. Lawhorne is the author of “From Minimum Wage To Getting Paid! - How To Become A Successful Entrepreneur With No Money, Education Or Experience!" and she is also a syndicated columnist who writes articles on empowerment, entrepreneurship, personal development, creative marketing and real estate investing. Her articles appear nationally in newspapers, magazines, and on numerous business websites and on-line publications. For additional information please visit her website: www.PamLawhorne.com.
The above article is copyright 2003-2008 by Pam Lawhorne. Permission to repost is freely granted so long as the text is not altered in any way, and the copyright and links are included.
Prospecting is the act of searching out leads or potential customers. Through practice you will find that prospecting or getting news customers will become much easier for you. If you learn the basics you will find that overall it will help you to become more effective in your business because the reality is you will always need to prospect. However keep in mind that your success will not be instant. You will be challenged; and fall down and get scrapes and bruises. You might even wimp out before you even start! If you do, then you have lost! So try not to get too intimidated in this process of asking others for their business.
If you are truly serious about building your business (and I hope that you are) you must make a commitment to yourself and your business to learn these basics of prospecting and implement them in your action plan (you do have an action plan don't you?).
Prospecting or gathering customers can be fun. When prospecting becomes fun, you become an effective business person. But if you make it a task you don't want to do, procrastination will take over your mind and you will find yourself frustrated because your business will not be growing.
Regardless of the type of business you have, all businesses are based on sales and in order to make money you will have to make sales. Part of the selling process is prospecting. In fact, prospecting or gathering customers is the most important step you must take in the sales cycle. Without prospecting, you will not have any customers. Without customers, you will not make any sales. With no one to sell your product or service to you have no business and therefore you will make no money! I guess you see my point or at least I hope you do!
Remember - Prospecting is your first step toward building your business.
Prospecting is an important element to any and all businesses because it’s where you get your business. I know, prospecting sucks! I don’t know anyone who loves to do. I personally hate prospecting. But let me ask you a question:
If you don't prospect for your business, who will?
- Your friends?
- Your family?
- Your kids?
Face the facts! Those people will never build your business for you. You must take a proactive approach to building your business and that proactive approach begins with prospecting. Effective prospecting does take time, effort, and a bit of patience. Always remember, you are in business for the long haul so if you learn this important step you business is guaranteed to prosper for years to come!
I look forward to helping you strive to reach your goals and dreams. It is my hope that the information I've provided will help you to get there!
To Your Health, Wealth & Happiness!
Pam Lawhorne
Pam Lawhorne is a serial entrepreneur, small business expert and creative marketing consultant, who provides advice, guidance, and encouragement to aspiring CEO's around the nation in her popular seminars and publications. She is the Chief Empowerment Officer of Empower U, Incorporated, a training and consulting firm that specializes in interactive workshops, seminars and coaching programs.
Ms. Lawhorne is the author of “From Minimum Wage To Getting Paid! - How To Become A Successful Entrepreneur With No Money, Education Or Experience!" and she is also a syndicated columnist who writes articles on empowerment, entrepreneurship, personal development, creative marketing and real estate investing. Her articles appear nationally in newspapers, magazines, and on numerous business websites and on-line publications. For additional information please visit her website: www.PamLawhorne.com.
The above article is copyright 2003-2008 by Pam Lawhorne. Permission to repost is freely granted so long as the text is not altered in any way, and the copyright and links are included.
The “Employee” Versus The “Entrepreneur”
I have worked for companies, managed companies for others and started my own companies. While I was an employee, I did not care about the bottom line or profit margins. As a manager I cared about the bottom line and profit margins only as it pertained to my job and my salary. As a business owner the bottom line and profit margins are the difference between whether I eat and have a roof over my head or don't.
I have never really considered myself a "business woman". I have always considered myself an entrepreneur. The definition for a businesswoman (yes it's in the dictionary) is: A woman engaged in business. A person engaged in commercial or industrial business. Whereas the definition for an entrepreneur is: A risk-taker who has the skills and initiative to establish a business. A person who organizes, operates, and assumes the risk for a business venture.
As you can see there is a major difference betweenbusiness personson and an entrepreneur just in the definition. I applaud anyone who makes the effort to make something out of their life either by running a business for someone else or for themselves. But sometimes it's hard to transform a "business person" into an "entrepreneur" because some business people have what I call the employee mentality. The employee mentality is simply when a person wants to start a business but may be too use to having a structured environment where they have others who will take on projects or 'step in' when something needs to be done.
When you are trying to become an entrepreneur the problem is in most cases is there is no one who can step in for you. You only have yourself to count on. Often, when people go into business for themselves after being in corporate America running someone else's business for years they fail. Why? Not because they don't know how to run A business but because they do not know how to run THEIR OWN business.
There are certain things that you will learn in corporate America that will most definitely apply to owning a business of your own but it's hard to get people to understand that there are so many things that you have not learned that you will need to learn and quick.
I think as people we are creatures of habit. We get so use to doing things a certain way and get so comfortable that we are resistant to change. If you are looking to start your own business after years of being an employee for someone else, you will need to retrain you mind. You have to teach yourself to use what you have to make it work and learn whatever skills you are lacking along the way. You'll need to remind yourself that you will have to take risk. Some will be calculated, some will not.
The important thing is that you continue to retrain your mind so to know that it will require countless hours of sacrifice from you to make it work. I don't know of many entrepreneurs who are just staring out who work 9-5, 5 days a week and take 2 weeks of vacation a year. They have no sick days, no holidays or even days for bereavement. These are just a few of many sacrifices that you'll have to make but the list is endless!
I look forward to helping you strive to reach your goals and dreams. It is my hope that the information I've provided will help you to get there!
To Your Health, Wealth & Happiness!
Pam Lawhorne
Pam Lawhorne is a serial entrepreneur, small business expert and creative marketing consultant, who provides advice, guidance, and encouragement to aspiring CEO's around the nation in her popular seminars and publications. She is the Chief Empowerment Officer of Empower U, Incorporated, a training and consulting firm that specializes in interactive workshops, seminars and coaching programs.
Ms. Lawhorne is the author of “From Minimum Wage To Getting Paid! - How To Become A Successful Entrepreneur With No Money, Education Or Experience!" and she is also a syndicated columnist who writes articles on empowerment, entrepreneurship, personal development, creative marketing and real estate investing. Her articles appear nationally in newspapers, magazines, and on numerous business websites and on-line publications. For additional information please visit her website: www.PamLawhorne.com.
The above article is copyright 2003-2008 by Pam Lawhorne. Permission to repost is freely granted so long as the text is not altered in any way, and the copyright and links are included.
I have never really considered myself a "business woman". I have always considered myself an entrepreneur. The definition for a businesswoman (yes it's in the dictionary) is: A woman engaged in business. A person engaged in commercial or industrial business. Whereas the definition for an entrepreneur is: A risk-taker who has the skills and initiative to establish a business. A person who organizes, operates, and assumes the risk for a business venture.
As you can see there is a major difference betweenbusiness personson and an entrepreneur just in the definition. I applaud anyone who makes the effort to make something out of their life either by running a business for someone else or for themselves. But sometimes it's hard to transform a "business person" into an "entrepreneur" because some business people have what I call the employee mentality. The employee mentality is simply when a person wants to start a business but may be too use to having a structured environment where they have others who will take on projects or 'step in' when something needs to be done.
When you are trying to become an entrepreneur the problem is in most cases is there is no one who can step in for you. You only have yourself to count on. Often, when people go into business for themselves after being in corporate America running someone else's business for years they fail. Why? Not because they don't know how to run A business but because they do not know how to run THEIR OWN business.
There are certain things that you will learn in corporate America that will most definitely apply to owning a business of your own but it's hard to get people to understand that there are so many things that you have not learned that you will need to learn and quick.
I think as people we are creatures of habit. We get so use to doing things a certain way and get so comfortable that we are resistant to change. If you are looking to start your own business after years of being an employee for someone else, you will need to retrain you mind. You have to teach yourself to use what you have to make it work and learn whatever skills you are lacking along the way. You'll need to remind yourself that you will have to take risk. Some will be calculated, some will not.
The important thing is that you continue to retrain your mind so to know that it will require countless hours of sacrifice from you to make it work. I don't know of many entrepreneurs who are just staring out who work 9-5, 5 days a week and take 2 weeks of vacation a year. They have no sick days, no holidays or even days for bereavement. These are just a few of many sacrifices that you'll have to make but the list is endless!
I look forward to helping you strive to reach your goals and dreams. It is my hope that the information I've provided will help you to get there!
To Your Health, Wealth & Happiness!
Pam Lawhorne
Pam Lawhorne is a serial entrepreneur, small business expert and creative marketing consultant, who provides advice, guidance, and encouragement to aspiring CEO's around the nation in her popular seminars and publications. She is the Chief Empowerment Officer of Empower U, Incorporated, a training and consulting firm that specializes in interactive workshops, seminars and coaching programs.
Ms. Lawhorne is the author of “From Minimum Wage To Getting Paid! - How To Become A Successful Entrepreneur With No Money, Education Or Experience!" and she is also a syndicated columnist who writes articles on empowerment, entrepreneurship, personal development, creative marketing and real estate investing. Her articles appear nationally in newspapers, magazines, and on numerous business websites and on-line publications. For additional information please visit her website: www.PamLawhorne.com.
The above article is copyright 2003-2008 by Pam Lawhorne. Permission to repost is freely granted so long as the text is not altered in any way, and the copyright and links are included.
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