Is your website idea a "bad" idea?

Written by Chuck McCullough


Continued from page 1

You don't have to concentrate so much of your time and effort trying to find that undiscovered niche. If you have an idea that you like, and that you feel you would enjoy trying to make money from... go for it!

Figure out if there is a way that you can do things a little better, or a little different from what your competitors are doing.

Find a slightly different, more focused aspect ofrepparttar subject area that want to go into.

For example: Instead of tackling "Real Estate", try "Real Estate for Texans", or whatever state you live in.

By narrowing your focus you can greatly decreaserepparttar 117617 number of competitors that you will have.

If you can't narrowrepparttar 117618 topic down any, that's ok. As long as it is a subject you will enjoy learning more about, go ahead and do it anyway.

As you learn more and get more experience you will start to see niches form that you would have never been able to spot inrepparttar 117619 beginning.

Don't hold off your online business while you wait to discoverrepparttar 117620 next million dollar niche. This approach is like putting off enjoying life until you have wonrepparttar 117621 lottery.

The problem with this is that if you never actually winrepparttar 117622 lottery, you will have missed out on some great chances to enjoy life.

The Internet isrepparttar 117623 same way: Don't risk passing up great opportunities because you were onrepparttar 117624 sidelines trying to find that ONE idea that will make you rich.

So, when you ask me if your website idea is a bad idea... my response is:repparttar 117625 only bad ideas arerepparttar 117626 ones that never get acted on!



Chuck McCullough is the author of a new ebook titled: "Affiliate Mistakes: Maximizing Your Profits From Affiliate Programs!" Get your free Email Course at: mailto:maximizing@affmatch.com or visit http://www.affiliatemistakes.com


Choosing The Right Home Business For YOU

Written by Elena Fawkner


Continued from page 1

This all gets back to uniqueness. If you can't compete on uniqueness, you must compete on price (or convenience). If you're forced to compete on price alone, that just drives down your profit margin. Not smart business.

=> You must be able to price competitively yet profitably. The price you set for your product or service must allow you to compete effectively with other businesses in your market, it must be acceptable to consumers and it must return you a fair profit. If any one of these three is off, move on.

=> Your business must fit with your lifestyle. If you're a parent of young children and you primarily want to start a business from home so you can stay home with them, a real estate brokerage business that requires you to be out and about meeting with prospective clients is obviously not going to work.

You'll instead need to choose a business that can be conducted entirely (or near enough entirely) from withinrepparttar four walls of your home office. Similarly, if your business idea would involve having clients come to your home, you're not going to want an unruly 3 year old underfoot as you're trying to conduct business.

=> Your financial resources must be sufficient to launch and carryrepparttar 117616 business until it becomes profitable. No business is profitable from day one, of course. But some are quicker to break even than others. If your business requires a considerable initial capital outlay to start - computer, printer and software for a web design business, for example - it will take you longer to break even than ifrepparttar 117617 only prerequisite wasrepparttar 117618 knowledge inside your own head, such as working from home as an attorney.

If your financial situation is such that you can't afford to quit your day job until your business is paying its way, this, too, will mean it will take longer to break even than if you're able to devote every waking hour to your business. Just do what you have to do. That's all any of us can do.

Step 6 : Business Plan

Once you've gone throughrepparttar 117619 above process and identified what appears to berepparttar 117620 right business for you,repparttar 117621 final "gut check" is to write a business plan for your business, much as you would for a presentation to a bank for financing. Include sections for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, and set goals for what your business needs to achieve for you, by when, and how you are going to get there.

There are plenty of good resources online about how to prepare a thorough business plan. A great place to start is at About.com (http://www.about.com). Just type "business plans" intorepparttar 117622 search box.

Although it may seem like a waste of time and effort to complete a business plan if you don't intend to seek outside financing, takingrepparttar 117623 time and exercisingrepparttar 117624 discipline needed to really focus your mind onrepparttar 117625 important issues facing your business, you will be forced to take a long hard look at your idea through very objective and realistic eyes.

If your idea passesrepparttar 117626 business plan test, then you can be reasonably confident that this isrepparttar 117627 right business for you. If you come away from this exercise feeling hesitant, uncertain and unsure, either do more research (ifrepparttar 117628 reason for your hesitancy and uncertainty is lack of information) or discardrepparttar 117629 idea (if it's because you don't think your idea is going to fly). If this happens, just keep repeating Steps 5 and 6 until you end up with an idea and a business plan that you're confident is going to work!

Although it's frustrating to wait once you've made up your mind to start a business from home, this really is one situation whererepparttar 117630 tortoise winsrepparttar 117631 race. By taking a methodical, systematic and disciplined approach to identifyingrepparttar 117632 right home business for you, you give your businessrepparttar 117633 best possible chance for long-term survival, hopefully avoiding some very expensive mistakes alongrepparttar 117634 way.

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** Reprinting of this article is welcome! ** This article may be freely reproduced provided that: (1) you includerepparttar 117635 following resource box; and (2) you only mail to a 100% opt-in list.

Here'srepparttar 117636 resource box to use if reprinting this article:

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Elena Fawkner is editor of A Home-Based Business Online ... practical business ideas, opportunities and solutions forrepparttar 117637 work-from-home entrepreneur. http://www.ahbbo.com



Elena Fawkner is editor of A Home-Based Business Online ... practical business ideas, opportunities and solutions for the work-from-home entrepreneur. http://www.ahbbo.com


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