CHOOSING A BUSINESS Written by Hamoon Arbabi
Creating a Business of Your Own The majority of people who have a home business started from scratch. Creating a successful business requires that you ask yourself "What will people pay for?" Market research will help you find out, and that can be as simple as asking prospective customers what they need and investigating whether you can compete on price, service, quality, variety and ease of use. With these considerations in mind, here are six possibilities for finding ideal business for you. You can: • Turn your favorite hobby or interest into a business Find a need you can fill that's related to your interest. Example: Someone nearing retirement and interested in helping other senior citizens remain active could create a counseling business, advising on how to enjoy retirement. • Turn your existing job skills into a business. Accountants, communications specialists, graphic artists, salespeople, teachers -- people from all walks of life -- can take their skills and reinvent them. Examples: A secretary could start a secretarial service; a personnel director could set up telecommuting guidelines for companies. THE RIGHT BUSINESS FOR YOU • Solve a problem People will pay to have someone do tasks they find unpleasant or need help with. Examples: Errand runners help thousands of people take care of their daily tasks; someone who's dealt with a disease and recovery could provide information and teach classes on coping.
| | Business Coaching Legacy: Reflections on What You Want to Leave Behind?Written by Ruth Zanes
Updating my will has been on my mind for quite some time now. Life circumstances change, kids grow-up, financial situations changes. I procrastinated for a very long time about this will. Now that it is, I feel very satisfied and pleased. There is peace in that corner of my mind that nagged and nagged about it for so long. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to realize that people, myself included, avoid making out wills because they don't want to confront their own mortality or have to face up to making difficult decisions.One of things I learned from process of making a will is that a will is an expression of love for living. After all, loss of you will be difficult enough for your loved ones to bear. Why add to their angst with legal problems, emotional confrontations with family members and possible financial losses. The living, that is, those left behind, will make of a will what they will. Make no mistake, will, is taken seriously by those left behind. Understand there will be no opportunity to explain what you really intended by leaving some treasured object to cousin Jo or why you named Sally your executor instead of your older son Bob. The child who is convinced that you love others more than him will be looking for something in will that proves him right and may very well find it in spite of how careful you are not to have anything in will that might be misconstrued in that direction. So, it is a good idea to use simplest language and clearest grammatical structure as possible. The Last Will and Testament is exactly that. You don't get a second chance. After I dealt with distribution of tangibles - financial assets, money and physical objects accumulated and treasured for so much of a lifetime you confront most important part of your legacy. . Making a will is a poignant reminder that physical stuff, including money, doesn't really amount to very much when all is said and done. Perhaps appropriate background music for will making is song "Is That All There Is?" My answer to that musical conundrum is a resounding, "No." That isn't all there is. The tangible things we leave behind have little to do with real legacy we leave. The real legacy is one we fashion each day of our lives by way we live and who we are being. How do you want to be remembered? Are you living your life in a way that is consistent with legacy you really want to leave. Do you even know nature of legacy you want to leave or are you like Alfred Nobel who was fortunate enough to read his obituary printed prematurely in daily newspaper? Much to his chagrin obituary described fame and fortune he accumulated from his invention of dynamite. Nobel decided then and there that dynamite and its awful potential for destruction was not achievement for which he wanted to be remembered. And, so he established prestigious Nobel Prizes. Today, when name Nobel comes up first association is with prizes. Relatively few know he is inventor of dynamite.
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