Cash Flow

Written by Bob Osgoodby


It doesn't matter how great your product is or how wonderful your service, if you don't have customers, all you have is a skill, or a product. People don't go into business normally as a hobby, although a lot of hobbies do turn into a business. The trick however, is to turn it into a positive cash flow.

If you're serious about doing business, you must plan forrepparttar long run. Successful businesses don't normally just happen. They arerepparttar 118000 result of long hours of planning, and a great deal of work.

There must also be a "war chest" of funds available until a positive cash flow is achieved. One ofrepparttar 118001 major problems that many encounter when starting up, is that they overextend their financial resources. No matter what your business, or how it is run, you must be able to meet current bills when they come due.

The "dot.coms" which were started on such a wave of exuberance, had plenty of cash behind them. They dealt in promises of huge earnings, which however never materialized. Now,repparttar 118002 majority of them have joinedrepparttar 118003 history books as "also rans". While they did haverepparttar 118004 backing, sales atrepparttar 118005 level they needed just didn't happen at a rate to sustain them.

The pundits will argue thatrepparttar 118006 economy is what brought them down. They violated however, one ofrepparttar 118007 basic rules of business. They overextended themselves, torepparttar 118008 point that their cash inflow wasn't enough to cover their expenses. When their "war chest" was depleted, they were gone. How does this affectrepparttar 118009 small entrepreneur? Can we learn a lesson from this?

Let's examine a program thatrepparttar 118010 average person can get into. Network Marketing isrepparttar 118011 current "buzzword" for Multi-Level Marketing, or MLM for short. MLM got a bad rap overrepparttar 118012 past six or seven years, due torepparttar 118013 scamsters that abounded. A number of companies were founded that were simply "Ponzies" in disguise. The majority of their cash inflow wasrepparttar 118014 result of signing up new members. Whenrepparttar 118015 cash flow from new recruits dried up, so didrepparttar 118016 investment of those who had joined.

Are there legitimate companies out there - sure and many have a great track record. They don't rely on attracting high priced recruits, but have a legitimate product or service that they offer. If you are going to get involved in one of these companies, that should be a major concern.

The Dabbler

Written by Bob Osgoodby


Many web sites of major companies came down with a resounding crash, and there are more to follow. Very few ofrepparttar "deep pocket guys" are making any money with their sites, and as money tightens, they realize their pockets may not have been quite as deep as they originally thought. Their sites are being taken down in droves, and the, "techno-wizes" are falling into disfavor.

Asrepparttar 117999 Economy slowed, many companies down sized their operations, and employee layoffs are onrepparttar 118000 rise. There is a general "belt tightening" at every level, andrepparttar 118001 heady expenditures of last year are being looked at with a "jaundiced eye".

So what does this mean torepparttar 118002 small entrepreneur? Is it time to also crawl under a rock, and wait for better times? The answer to this is a resounding - NO. Whilerepparttar 118003 unemployment rate increased slightly to 4.2 percent, it is worth noting thatrepparttar 118004 proportion ofrepparttar 118005 population with jobs, at 64.5 percent, remains near a record high.

Now is probablyrepparttar 118006 best time to promote your small business onrepparttar 118007 web. You will be facing less competition fromrepparttar 118008 web sites that have gone south. Not only will your potential market share increase, butrepparttar 118009 sites that have been monopolizing "surfing time" will no longer be there. People will be looking other places for their information. The question should not be whether to get your own web site, but when you should get it.

Yahoo has made a major change in their policy of accepting web sites for review. While it used to take several months to get a site reviewed, they now say it will be done within 7 working days. Sounds good onrepparttar 118010 surface, but is there a catch? Sure - what used to be free, now costs $199.

A cursory examination ofrepparttar 118011 results of any web engine search, reveals a lot of "garbage" up there. Many ofrepparttar 118012 sites are no longer in existence, or you had to wade through a lot of "junk" to find something meaningful. This could accurately be described asrepparttar 118013 age ofrepparttar 118014 "dabbler". People who got a new computer thought they could make their millions onrepparttar 118015 web. The "arm chair" entrepreneurs prevailed, and buriedrepparttar 118016 serious ones with their submissions. When their free AOL account expired, they were out of business and their web site went away.

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