The entrepreneur's survival list

Written by Godfrey Heron


Small business owners and entrepreneurs are quickly becomingrepparttar dominant business species. Small businesses create thousands of new jobs each year, while floundering large companies lay off scores of people.

Starting a new business venture can be an exciting yet risky project. Our survival guide detailsrepparttar 121616 steps to take to ensure your business not only survives but indeed thrives.

1. Determination - "ARE YOU INSANE?"

Implement your plans with total commitment. Don't give up even when obstacles seem overwhelming. Starting your business will instantly make you an outcast. People whom you love will openly question your sanity. The anticipated competition will berepparttar 121617 least of your worries, you'll be fighting your friends and family to get your business going. They will sit and wait expecting you to fail. Now that doesn't mean they don't love you, but there's no way to prevent this, it just happens. So be forewarned.

2. Devotion -"THE LOVE AFFAIR"

Your business should be something that you love to do, It's this love that will sustain you whenrepparttar 121618 going gets tough. And it'srepparttar 121619 love of your product or service that will make you effective at selling it. Don't attempt to become an affiliate or sell a product that you have not used or assessed for its merits. At best you will be unable to answer legitimate concerns of purchasers andrepparttar 121620 worse case scenario is that you will appear to be a fraud.

Now this does not discountrepparttar 121621 fact thatrepparttar 121622 only business idea that will ever succeed is one that fulfills a need...preferably a *considerable* need. Therefore if no one wants your product your business will never get offrepparttar 121623 ground.

3. Dollars- "OOOOH SWEET MONEY" Getting rich should NOT be your PRIME motivating factor. Persons who have that mindset will inevitably make short term decisions for immediate financial gain atrepparttar 121624 expense ofrepparttar 121625 long term health of their venture. You will also have a difficulty motivating employees who don't stand to profit as much as you do.

Invest all that you can in your business, but be frugal with what you have at your disposal. Keep in mind that your business could either triple in size or go belly up within six months. So it would REALLY be wise to avoid that TEN year lease you've been considering.

If you are running an Internet based business you may even dispense with expending money on office space. Several online businesses are operated successfully from a spare room or basement.

4. Dedication- "100 HOUR WEEKS?"

You will have to make some adjustments to your life when starting up your business. You'll need to work tirelessly just to keep up withrepparttar 121626 competition. Twelve hour days and seven day work weeks are not uncommon when an entrepreneur is striving to get a business offrepparttar 121627 ground.

5. Doers- "THE BIG MISCONCEPTION"

Perhapsrepparttar 121628 biggest misconception about an idea for a new business is thatrepparttar 121629 idea must be unique. Chances are that almost any ideas you can think of also occurred to others. When Einstein was developing his theory of relativity, another scientist, Poincare' formulated a similar theory aroundrepparttar 121630 same time. History is full of examples like these.

It's notrepparttar 121631 idea which is important, they are really a dime a dozen. What is important isrepparttar 121632 ability to takerepparttar 121633 idea, implement it and build a successful it.

TRUCKER GETS NOVEL PUBLISHED.

Written by STEPHAN R HUTCHINSON


PERMISSION TO PRINT OR ALTER AS YOU LIKE. A truck driver has written an exciting new novel and actually got it published. As anyone who has ever tried to get their work published knows, this is quite difficult. America House publishing of Baltimore Maryland discovered this colorful new author and published "The Concrete Cowboy". Stephan R. Hutchinson's story is about a young man who gets out ofrepparttar military and buys a big rig tractor-trailer unit and goes out overrepparttar 121615 nation's highways to make a living without first properly investigatingrepparttar 121616 trucking industry. When asked what inspired him to write a novel he told me that he had been giving his ideas to persons whom he knew to be writers forrepparttar 121617 past twenty years or so. He would then see them onrepparttar 121618 silver screen two to three years later. Another driver then convinced him that he should not be giving his ideas away so easily. Following this advise, he began to take notes. These turned into several pages and then several notebooks. It was not much longer before he started formulating a full novel from his story notes. Finding it impossible to get published without any credentials to his credit, he published his first novel "The Icon Cowboy", volumes one and two, on his own. It seems thatrepparttar 121619 only distributors that would deal with him wantedrepparttar 121620 books placed on consignment. They however, did not want to be responsible forrepparttar 121621 condition of said books if returned to him. Stephan felt that they were safer in his brother's garage and began to sell them to other truckers individually. Disgruntled byrepparttar 121622 fact that he could not get them into distribution, he continued to search for a publisher. Three years later he came across a list of publishers who did not require a literary agent or prior publication. He beganrepparttar 121623 arduous task of sending out query letters. Only three answered requesting a synopsis. All three later requestedrepparttar 121624 first two and final chapters. America House wasrepparttar 121625 first to ask to seerepparttar 121626 entire novel. He then submitted his manuscript. Several months later he received an email message saying that they were going to publish it. He was somewhat skeptical because ofrepparttar 121627 numerous unscrupulous individuals that he had encountered in his quest for publication. His first encounter was with a service that indicated that they could get him published if he used their editing services. This amounted to several thousand dollars. The next was with a literary agent who charged to read his manuscript. When asked which publishers they had to submit it to, their tone gave them away for they did not have anyone to show it to.

Cont'd on page 2 ==>
 
ImproveHomeLife.com © 2005
Terms of Use