The Safest Way to Start Your Own BusinessWritten by Barnaby Kalan
Many people are frustrated by their current full-time jobs, but hesitate to take that first step toward independence out of fear. When you’re used to a steady paycheck from a regular job, and have family and other financial obligations, stepping out of your comfort zone just seems too risky – no matter how miserable you are with your current situation. Your employer, however, could be your ticket to a successful freelance business. When I started my freelance copywriting practice 10 years ago, I negotiated a contract with my employer – a large advertising agency – for 50 percent of my time for first year. This gave me springboard I needed to go out and find other clients, while covering enough of my monthly expenses to take fear out of starting my own business. You’re probably wondering… “Why on earth would my employer agree to sign a contract for half my time?” There are a number of reasons, and they can result in a “win-win” situation for both of you. If you’re on good terms with your employer, chances are they don’t want to lose you. It’s tough to find new staff these days. It takes time to train them and wait until they’re familiar enough with company’s style and processes to finally become productive. Even if they decide to replace you, it can take months to gather resumes, interview candidates and hire right person. During that time you can be performing job functions from your home office, perhaps even training your replacement, and providing your employer with an easier transition to new employee and minimizing business disruption.
| | Beneath the Surface of Internet MarketingWritten by Mike Morris
To most people Internet Marketing looks like a good way to make money from home, which is possibly main reason while people start. The shame is that people like this don't realize that they are only scratching surface. The aim of this article is to make sure you don’t become one of them and miss out on what lies beneath surface of Internet Marketing. As you read on think about your job or most traditional businesses. Comparing what you know against information here. It will become abundantly clear that your job or traditional business can't give you what being an Internet marketer can. To setup most ordinary businesses requires capital, your own (or a bank’s) money to invest before you do anything. I guess these days $10,000 is possibly a conservative figure for start up costs, dependant of course on what you choose to do. As an internet marketer joining affiliate programs lets you start making money without outlay. Many affiliate programs are free and you can market with free ads. To be fair even getting your own site up could be done for a not too many dollars. When you’ve got going, building your business on a budget is not unrealistic. Obviously less you spend longer it takes, but; remember a normal business doesn’t have that choice. You will have some expenditure like hosting fees and merchant accounts. However, in today’s online business even merchant accounts are not vital, there are several good facilitators providing same service at a lower cost. As your costs are low, each sale means more of money is yours! By selling electronically delivered products such as e-books, you won’t pay for shipping either. Here’s a real gem, you don’t even need your own product! Yes it’s true; there are many affiliate programs from which you can sell some great products. My web site listed in resource box at end of this article has some ideas to start with. You may know this; you can market on internet for little or no money. Online you can submit free ads, do ad swaps with your ezine, use pay per click search engines, etc. Check costs of offline advertising. Just think how much it costs to mail 1,000 letters, compared to e-mailing a 100,000 for free. Time is yours to use as you wish. You can build slow or fast or at whatever speed you like. You might to want put just one a day a week in or all seven. You might be type that when all is quiet at night puts a couple of hours in then. It’s entirely up to you.
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