Sure you will read articles and sales letters all claiming that they have "secret" but success at business or anything you do for that matter starts with YOU. You are one who has got to be willing to do whatever it takes to see your wishes and dreams through to fruition. You are one who has to do work.

Ok, so we know that you are foundation for success, however, success does leave clues, or in this case we will refer to them as tips. Here are seven, which will help, build upon your foundation for success. It is important to know that these tips need a driving force...and that force is YOU!

Success Tip #1 - Find Your Passion

Starting any sort of business whether on or off line takes a lot of time and effort. With that said, stick with starting a business in an area that you know or love to do. The hours you spend in trying to get your business off ground won't seem so daunting if you love what you are doing, whereas if you just get into something for sake of it, eventually you may grow to resent it.

You may find that you have more than one idea for starting a business and in that case there is a process you can go through that will help narrow choice down. When you start out, make a list of ideas you find interesting and that you could see yourself doing. Then in a second column, write down skills you have in relation to each of those items. This will help you narrow choices down based on interest and skill, which gets you started in right direction for success.

Ok, you have a couple of ideas and you have listed your skill sets, now it comes time to see if there is a market for what you could potentially get into. There are several tools out there to help you with this part of process, two resources I highly recommend are from Ken Evoy and they are the:

Affiliates Masters Course http://aff-masters.sitesell.com/proven-web-tactics.html

Service Sellers Course http://services.sitesell.com/proven-web-tactics.html

Don't let titles scare you, it doesn't matter if you are building a business around affiliate programs or if your idea is in service/retail industries. It is process for researching an idea to see if it is viable is what we are after here and these two resources are tickets for that.

Success Tip #2 - Time, Time, Time

Two aspects to concept of time that we have to consider here. The first we talked about in Tip #1 and fact that it takes time to build a successful business. NOTHING happens overnight and if you believe hype you read about having business success in a matter of days...well I have some real good marshy land in Florida I want to sell you :o(

Yup there are some who do see success within a very short period of time, but these tended to be fads and of course haven't stood test of time...when was last time you saw a pet rock for sale??

The second aspect is fact that you need to take into consideration your current situation. If you work and/or have a family you need to ensure that they are not neglected in process. Take that and of course any other things you may have on go, because they all cut into one commodity we never have enough of...TIME! Success Tip #3 - Fail to Plan...Plan to Fail

You need a business plan and I know, I know what you're thinking...

"but I am just a small one person operation, working from my makeshift spare bedroom/turned quasi office...I don't need a business plan. I am just looking at starting something to help make ends meet, I don't want to go through all this trouble. I am not looking for investors or financing from a bank."

I have heard this countless times from people so you aren't alone in your thinking. A business plan actually helps you put your thoughts on paper and it serves, when it is done, as a roadmap. I mean you already have a starting point and you already have an idea as to where you want to end up - business success, right? Well, business plan helps by filling in gaps and helps you plot your course of action to getting to that business success.

There are some aspects of business plan that might not be applicable for specific business you are involved with and it is ok to leave out. Also, some of homework you did in researching your idea will be useful for plan as well, so in some aspects you are not re-inventing wheel here either.

The Business Plan will consist of:

market trends - you need to know if you have a market that will sustain you and your business for long haul and where trends are going. As an example right now a trend is that people as they get older become more health conscious, therefore health and nutrition is a trend. Will it be say 5, 7, or even 10 years down road? Well that is something that this research will help you gain an insight to, and from there you can determine just how it will affect your business.

How powerful is that!!

While everyone is focusing on their "eBusiness" they are missing potential that exists in using off line marketing approaches to boost their online marketing efforts.

Here are five things you can do to heat up your efforts.

Articles

Actually if you are already using Articles as a marketing tactic for your on line marketing efforts, use same articles for off line publications as well. Publishers regardless of fact they are on or off line are ALL looking for good, valuable content.

Advertising

You know effects that advertising on line can have for your business. You already have an ad that pulls for you on line. Then why not give it a shot off line and see if you can tap into another possible market.

Again, with local newsletters in your community and any small business groups there are. Check out their rates and start using off line advertising to generate some exposure from off line sources.

Remember that you have to pay for this advertising so in that regard, advertising in something that you can afford and afford for a long period of time.

Networking

By attending a networking mixer you are getting best of both worlds. You get chance to get out and break out of that bubble AND you also get to spread word about your business by talking with others!!

Depending upon format, many of these mixers are of a referral nature. Meaning they allow only one business from each industry and through each member's dealings if they find someone looking for your service or product... then you will get a referral to follow up on.

Business Cards