Starting a business is one of the best things you can do to guaranteed your financial future and independence. A business of your own is one of the best ways to enjoy financial freedom and turn your passion or hobby into a lucrative earning opportunity.

Things To Consider Before Starting A Business

Whether you are beginning a business on a part cycle or full instant basis, it is sizeable to consider a few situations first. One of the most important circumstances to consider is what type of business you are most comfortable with.

One of the a large amount of important Times when starting a new business is to start a business that is a reflection of your own interests. Starting a business that is based around an neighborhood in that you have expertise can vastly reduce the learning curve and increase your chances for success.

After all you will be able to already have to learn the ins and outs of running a business; starting a sector based around a familiar subject can make getting that arena off the ground a great deal easier.

Research The Availability Of Small Business Loans

When it comes to appearing a new business, it is crucial to ask for out the financing and help to which you are entitled. Starting a boom can be an steep proposition, but fortunately there is plenty of help available, in the form of grants, loans and other opportunities.

It is a good concept to thoroughly research the availability of small business financing options and financing before you embark on up this new business.

Consult With A Tax Advisor And An Accountant

It is as well a good underlying thought to consult with tax advisor and an accountant before starting that new business.

A good tax advisor can help you influence your tax burden while the arena gets going; while an accountant can aide you structure your business in a way that will maximize profit possible while on the rise the odds for success.

Writing A Business Plan

Before you start your business it is a good idea to produce a business plan. The boom rules is one of the a large amount of crucial documents you can suffer when starting a business.

Set Yourself Free From The Nine To Five

Starting a business is not an easy process, but it can be an important step toward getting the financial freedom you have always strived for. Starting a business of your own can be a great way to achieve success and set yourself free of charge from the nine to five world.

Starting a home based business is a common step for those seem to be to create additional wealth or leave the daily grind of the rat race. Starting your own home founded business requires a great bargain of planning to ensure who you are on the correct path to achieving your goals. Many businessess fail without adequate planning, and indeed a home based arena serves to do the same.

There are a few fundamental questions so you wish to mull over in starting your own house rooted business.

1) Your motivation: ie: Why do you want to create your own home based business? Understanding why you are starting a home based sector will put up you better grounding for all coming years endeavours. This plans to be the anchor to your purpose in starting your own home centered business. Some matters to help you determine why you want to start your own home founded business:

a) Do you want to directed better hours? not 9-5?

b) Do you fancy to be your own boss? Why?

c) Do you ask for to inflate your mortgage position? By how much? When do you want to do it by? Why?

2) Are you prepared: ie: Are you prepared for the demands of starting your own home based business? Starting your own home based business means you will be working at multiple roles during the business. This can be stressful to your physical and emotional health. Some subjects to improve the ability of you determine why you need to start your own residential structure based business:

a) Are you keen to put in the hours required to suceed?

b) Do you experience the substantiation of your family in starting your own residence centered business?

c) Are you forecasted to lower your standard of residing until your own home rooted economy is ideally established?

3) What skills and undergo you have which you can bring into begun your own home founded business?

a) Do you have have in the field you are starting your own home based business in?

b) Are you terrific at making quick decisions?

c) Are you prepared to learn new skills in starting your own home centered business?

4) What are your cash in starting your own home founded business? Are you able to fund the initial investment opportunities and operating cash flows in the early stages of starting your own home based business?

a) Do you suffer enough money to start your own home based business?

b) Do you can make out how much finances you can borrow start your own piece of real estate based business?

c) Are you comfortable taking financial risks in begun your own home based business?

These are a couple of of the key circumstances that trouble to be measured when initiating your own home based business. The above points are often overlooked, and planning stages rushed through when everyone are starting this own residential structure centered business. By getting prepared to the above questions, your will have clear indications on why you are starting your own home based economy and a reference guide may you run into any hassles in starting your own residence based business.

The way to get started is quit talking and begin doing.

-Walt Disney

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by: Daniel Trimpey

Being in the logo design & branding field, we run into a lot of people who are starting up a small company and need to get their promotional items created (business cards, brochures, web site, etc.) A lot of the time it can be confusing knowing exactly what you need to do to start up a business right. Here are a few tips to make sure you get everything set up right. This is by no means a complete list, or a sequential list, but just a set of recommendations based on some common problems we run into with clients and some lessons we've learned well from our own experiences: 1) Get Ready to Spend Money It's true that you have to spend money to make money. It may be tempting to go the cheap route, but if you want your business to succeed, I've found that doing it right the first time is worth the money your spend up front. If you try to cut corners, you may not be real happy with the results. Get a loan and pay off these expenses later when you have money coming in. At least you can know that you are putting your best foot forward and you're not sabotaging your business's success over the relatively minimal amount of money you need to spend up front to develop a good image for your company. 2) Pick a good company name It sounds simple, but it can be one of the hardest tasks you face. You want a name that reflects the services or products you offer, but you also want to be catchy. That's tough. A good trademark attorney will help you with this process, and this leads to a very valuable point: Trademark your company name! This is a painful (and sometimes costly) process, but a good idea because it keeps another company for taking you to court over your name and it keeps other companies from stealing glory from you by resembling your business. If you own a small bait & tackle shop on the edge of a lake in the middle of no where, trademarking your business may not be so important, but we're not all so.... err.... lucky. There are two primary ways to trademark your business: Text onlyStylized graphic logoThese are both necessary to protect your name and your logo. Your text trademark will be evaluated to make sure it doesn't resemble or sound like any other registered trademarks. Especially other companies that are similer to yours in what services or products they offer. The stylized trademark takes into account your font, colors and any other graphical elements in your logo. You can't change these things after you apply without resubmitting another application, so make sure you get it right the first time! It'll cost you around $325 to trademark each method. A trademark attorney will help you search for a clear name and logo and file the paperwork for you, although he'll charge you waaaay more than $325 each. You can search for trademarks online at the US Patent and Trademark website here. Then you can submit your application here. NOTE: It can take up to a YEAR to find out if your trademark was approved and you have to pay your filing fee regardless if you get the trademark or not. At this point you will probably need to get a federal tax ID for your business, or EIN. You also need to file with your local secretary of state to register your business name. You may also be required to get a business license/permit. Here is a good website for people in NC. You'll need to figure out if you want to do business as a sole proprietor, LLC, S-Corp, etc. too. Your accountant can help you with that and you can file online or get an attorney to help you. Then you can get a bank account as a DBA or "Doing Business As" if you are a sole proprietor or get a bank account in the name of your corporation if you incorporate. Usually you need to do business for about 2 years before a bank will let you open a company bank account. DBAs are immediately available to you though. Also note that if you incorporate later, you'll need to get another tax ID and your bank account will have to be closed and reopened with the new ID. Fun! 3) Get your Logo and Branding Done This step goes hand-in-hand with the second step. Find a graphic design company that does logos, corporate identity and branding and get a logo created that you really like and you feel represents your business well. They should work with your attorney to make sure your logo doesn't conflict with another logo that is already trademarked. This is the building point for all your marketing materials. To have a consistent corporate identity, you want to get your logo on everything you put out there: business cards, letterhead, website, etc. Why is corporate identity important? Why can't you just put out generic marketing materials? Well, you can, but studies show that people need to see (or hear about) your company up to seven times before company recognition occurs. Having consistent branding helps to build credibility and help people remember you. Think "The golden arches" or the Nike "Swoosh." 4) Market your Business Whether you find a marketing agency or do this yourself, you need to figure out how you are going to promote your new business. Believe it or not, just getting some business cards and a website most likely won't bring a mass exodus of customers to knock down your door. You have to get the word out. There are many ways to do this, such as press releases, phonebook ads, online ads, TV and radio, ads, etc. A marketing company can help you determine where your money is best spent to get the most return on your investment. Your marketing agency will work with your designer to develop good marketing materials like postcards, flyers, brochures, etc. They can also help you figure out where postcards need to be sent and where you can send email promotions to get the best response. Note: Marketing companies, despite what they tell you, are not always the best equipped to design your marketing materials. Some marketing companies have good internal design teams or contract out with good design agencies, but often you can run into pretty unimpressive stuff if you don't get a designer involved. There are also many other things you can do to get the word out like joining your local Chamber of Commerce, attend trade shows, etc. Networking in this way can prove to be very valuable and it's pretty inexpensive. 5) Run Your Business Well Well, duh! If you don't do a good job of running your business, all of the above will be for naught. Sure, you'll make a few mistakes along the way, but don't let that keep you from forging ahead. Make sure you get a good attourney to take care of any legal concerns, get some insurance for your company - and you may want to look into disability and health insurance while you're at it. Your accountant can help advise you on setting up a retirement account too. Better safe than sorry! One of the keys to running any business successfully is to provide friendly and prompt customer service. So establishing a way to handle that up front is important. Impersonal phone systems, busy signals and answering machine messages are usually going to send a cold message to your customers. People are starved for good customer service these days and most people don't mind spending a little extra money to know that they are being taken care of well. Daniel Trimpey President of Technigrafa, LLC Print design, web design and web hosting in Raleigh, NC 919.374.3014 toll-free: 1.877.GRAFA.NC http://www.technigrafa.com About The Author Daniel Trimpey Well, I keep very busy with my business, but here's some other information that may help you understand who I am. I am a Christian and attend Colonial Baptist Church in Cary, NC. I play the drums (and sometimes bass) for church and also for a blues band in Raleigh. I taught middle school at Centennial Campus Middle School for five years before going full time with Technigrafa. I love riding my 1980 Kawasaki 440 LTD motorcycle when the weather is nice. I am a HUGE Pittsburgh Steelers fan.

You can find a lot of info about starting a buisiness at Entrepreneur website. This site list step by step guides for starting a buisiness, starting from getting buisiness license and permit until write down your own marketing plan. Read more from this Entrepreneur.com site.

This is good advice for starting a buisiness. Have a look at this video to gain more knowledge about starting a buisiness.

I found this site is very good about cool business ideas and trends. This guy share with us new business ideas. They compile all the coolest business ideas they published in 2006 in a single document. You can read the story originally from Small Business Trends. They offer the free ebook to the reader of Small Business Trends. You can download it at Small Business Trends.

By Dane

Too often, many would-be entrepreneurs spend all of their time planning their corporate structure, getting all of the necessary permits, licenses, bank accounts, and doing all of the other minutiae of business before they actually figure out whether or not they actually have a product or service that someone will pay for.

I advise everyone that asks me, and some that don’t, not to quit their day job until they have actually gone out, talked to potential buyers and had someone they didn’t already know pay for their product or service. Nine times out of ten, what you originally thought was going to be a big hit in the marketplace is a dud, and you have to go back and rework your product. If you spend all of your savings establishing your corporate presence, you won’t have any money left to pay yourself when you have to go back to the drawing board.

In addition to not quitting your day job, here’s my list of twenty things not to do before starting a business:

1. Don’t quit your day job.
2. Don’t incorporate. Seventy five percent of all businesses are sole proprietorships, and they already make money.
3. Don’t get a bank account. Your personal banking account will work just fine if someone wants to write you a check, or if you need to pay for something.
4. Don’t rent an office. Work from home. It won’t require a first, last and security deposit. Plus, it’s tax deductible.
5. Don’t hire an attorney. What’s an attorney going to tell that you didn’t already know, or couldn’t figure out on Nolo or in a good bookstore? There are only two times to call an attorney: if you’re in jail, or if someone else’s attorney contacts you.
6. Don’t hire an accountant. Quickbooks Simple Start will get you going.
7. Don’t get a loan. To get a loan from anyone, even your family, will require that you do too many items on this list. And besides, if you get a loan, you know work for the bank — not for yourself.
8. Don’t hire anyone. Don’t hire someone if you can do it yourself. For everything else, use contractors and give them 1099.
9. Don’t get a business license. I’m not advocating that anyone cheat the government. Once you can sell your product/service, go out immediately and get all of the necessary business licenses and permits in your jurisdiction.
10. Don’t try to patent anything. It takes 1.5 to 2.5 years to get a patent. Who knows what the market will look like then.
11. Don’t design a logo. You are your own brand, you don’t need a logo.
12. Don’t waste time picking a business name. As a sole proprietor, you already have a business name: your own!
13. Don’t advertise. Advertising costs money, and takes time to perfect. Selling takes only you.
14. Don’t buy office supplies. If you need a pencil, get one out of the kitchen or your son’s backpack. You are working from home, aren’t you?
15. Don’t buy any equipment. Outsource everything. Fedex Kinkos can handle all of your printing, and instead of splurging on a postal meter head down the post office. Need something big? Rent it! If it’s not something you can rent by the day, maybe there’s another local business with one. Can you rent it during their off hours in the middle of the night?
16. Don’t try to find a partner. What do you need a parter for? Capital? Don’t take loans. Need someone with some sales experience? If you the inventor of your product/service can’t sell it — no one will be able to.
17. Don’t join the Chamber of Commerce. Chambers of Commerce have great mixers where you can meet and network with other local business people. Right now, you don’t need to network, you need to sell! Plus, you can always go as a visitor.
18. Don’t tell all of your friends about the business that you’re going to start someday soon. Every minute that you spend telling someone you love about your future business is one less minute you have to either try to find someone to buy your product/service or to refine it. Plus, everyone knows an “entrepreneur” that is all talk and no action: don’t be one yourself.
19. Don’t write a business plan. Sure you need to know what you’re going to do and how you’re going to make money, but don’t waste time formatting it into a structured plan.
20. Don’t get a business telephone number or mailing address. You have a cellphone, use it. If someone needs to mail you something, have them send it to your house. You’re working there, remember.

Source:Business Opportunities Weblog

For every great business idea there are scores of others that just won't work. You will save yourself a great deal of time, trouble and money if you put your ideas to the test before you try to implement them. Half an hour of careful thought, an afternoon of research or a phone conversation with a knowledgeable friend might steer you away from a flawed idea -- and months of wasted effort and thousands of dollars of losses.

Moreover, the process of testing your ideas will help you determine the kinds of things to take into account when you're creating a business concept. Eventually, your efforts will help lead you to an idea that has a solid chance of success. See

Unlike giant corporations that invest huge sums of money to test potential toothpaste flavors or product names, you probably won't have to spend a lot of time or money to evaluate your ideas. If you don't know your target market (see Understanding Your Target Market), however, and haven't done some basic market research (see Market-Research Techniques), chances are you won't succeed.

Begin with these simple steps:

1. Ask your friends and associates to help you evaluate the concept. If you know successful entrepreneurs, ask them what they think of your idea. Chances are, they'll think of problems you are likely to encounter. You may be willing to face those obstacles -- or you might decide that some of them are insurmountable.

2. Ask potential customers how much they'd pay for your product or service. Their answers will help you focus on your potential market, and will give you a sense of how strong that market is. Once you have some answers to this question, you can begin to estimate your prospective firm's potential revenues.

3. Consider whether you are excited about the idea. Will you actually enjoy the work that will be required to make your venture a success? If not, move on.

The Feasibility Study: Getting Down to Details

If your initial research and thinking turns up positive results, begin work on a feasibility study. The study can take the form of a formal document that will help you recruit potential partners, investors or lenders. Alternatively, however, it can be a simple memo to yourself -- a series of questions designed to help you decide whether you should proceed to the next level of commitment.

Either way, your feasibility study should address the following issues, each of which will require in-depth consideration.

* The product or service. What are its unique features? How will it be designed, manufactured and delivered to customers?

* The management team. Does your team have experience in the industry? What skills or qualifications are missing from the current team?

* The market. Who are the target customers? How big is the potential market? Is the market growing? What are the costs required to reach the target market?

* The competition. Who are your major competitors? Is your product or service superior to the competition? Would it be easy for competitors to duplicate your product or service? What are your competitors' strengths and weaknesses? How will competitors respond when your firm enters their market?

* The costs. What will it cost to start and run your business? Where will you raise the money?

Find more great tips and advice on buying, starting or selling businesses at AllBusiness.com.

Starting a business is often considered the most difficult phase for every entrepreneur. You have to be hands-on to ensure that everything is working according to what you have planned. At the same time, you exert every effort in promoting the product or services that your business has to offer, one of which is flyer printing.

Fortunately, there is an inexpensive way wherein businesses can pull-in clients and customers. Through flyer printing, entrepreneurs can have quality posters without costing them a fortune.

Flyers have been used for years especially when introducing new products or services. Compared with other advertising print materials, flyers are quite easy to send out and distribute. They can be passed on to people, they can be posted virtually anywhere owing to its compact size, and for a quick flyer delivery, it can be thrown out of airplanes to the mass population.

With its brief and direct-to-the-point message, it readily grabs the attention of the public and provides the necessary information about the business.

Using catchy phrases to go with such information, news can then be spread easily. These bits and pieces of information too can viably spread by word of mouth.

Printing flyers is no longer a complicated thing. Various flyer printing services offer amazing deals and options especially for start-up businesses. In just a few mouse clicks, you can design and print your flyers all at the same time. You can even access the help of the professionals from the printing company of your choice (provided of course, they offer this kind of service).

If you are a new business owner, here are a few design tips to help you create the perfect flyer to generate customer interest.

1. Make your message brief but catchy. Flyers are like short, handwritten messages that can be read in a single swoop. It pays that you use catchy one-liners because they are more memorable.

Stay away from long sentences and long explanations. You'll have plenty of time for that when you already have the customer inside your store.

2. Fill out the complete information. A lot of times, people keep flyers with the intention of referring to it some other time. They look it up when they feel that they already have the need for the product or the service.

It would be really helpful if potential customers can easily refer back to the flyers and find complete business details including official and alternate phone numbers. Remember that everyone who has read the flyers will instantly visit the store. A good number of them will go some time later and just so that they don't get lost, be sure to put the address in the flyer.

3. Be creative. When it comes to flyers, image is everything. The more unique or colorful your flyer is, the more buzz it will generate. The way businesses are competing for attention now, it pays to be the best-looking flyer. No kidding. 4. Use color. This goes side-by-side with being creative. Make use of colors to attract attention. Better yet, use your business logo to determine the color scheme you will adapt for your flyer. Not only will this create a sense of uniformity, but it will help customers to readily identify the new business or product better.

5. Fonts. Need help with the flyer design? Don't have plenty of images to use? No problem. Use a variety of fonts to create your business logo or the whole design itself. Fonts are a graphic artist's secret weapon in place of images. All it takes is imagination and creativity.

Even without illustrations or photos, your flyers can still generate attention using different font options. Colors, sizes and styles can all be mixed and matched to produce a flyer with impact and interest.

Businesses rely a great deal on advertising and marketing to reach out to consumers. For new businesses, it may spell the difference between survival and continuity. Yet, all this need not be complicated. What one must do is to just employ simple marketing methods such as flyer printing which can be quite as effective compared with more expensive ones.

With a catch phrase or logo and product and business information, the flyer gets the marketing job done. And this makes cost-effective flyer printing good news to new businesses, for now, they can get the upper hand they need.
About the Author

Flyers have been an advertising campaign material for decades now, it has been a proven material that can generate leads to your product or services. For more Flyer Printing advices and tips you can go to Flyer Printing Company - Uprinting

by Ove Nordkvist

The best small business ideas are the simple ones. You don't need a lot of money to start up with, and it will allow you the option to work from home. There are plenty of business ideas available for anyone looking to entrepreneurship as their next step of life.

Of course it will take some time and effort to figure out the best small business ideas with great income potential, and the possibility of freedom to enjoy your life. Now, To determine what small business ideas that would work best for you, you'll have to investigate and penetrate your options. You'll have the best chance to find your small business ideas in something you know and love.

You can take your pick of many different and interesting small business ideas, from work at home businesses, to mobile catering, travel, eBay, franchise and others. There are so many opportunities out there, just sitting, waiting for you to step up and grab your new small business.

Before you start your own business, it is very important that you check the business opportunities in detail. Whether you are looking for ways to earn extra income, or are an unemployed who want to start a business from scratch, there will be several opportunities and ideas that you can tap, to start a business on a moderate budget.

In the start up phase, you need to force yourself to relax and keep a cool mind. Starting your own business can be a traumatic experience, or a fairly simple thing as long as you know the basics. To make it a smooth and pleasant ride, educate yourself, learn the basics before you jump on the wagon. Make a plan for how many hours and when you will work. Stick with your plan. If you find it's not working, rework the plan, all to maintain your discipline.

Make a list of small business ideas at your own leisure. There are small business ideas and opportunities everywhere. keep in mind though, that the average human being spend the rest of her life learning about small business ideas, and never actually get going. Take action, take the plunge!

About the Author
At http://www.small-biz-ideas.net You'll find tips and techniques, small business ideas and inspiration. Learn more. Evaluate a number of different small business ideas, take advantage of tools, courses and usable resources!

Online Entrepreneur Q&A by Tim Knox Founder, OnlineProfits4U.com http://www.onlineprofits4u.com



http://www.onlineprofits4u.com
http://www.digitalgraphiti.com
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These 31 tips will help you face your fears and finally get the guts to become your own boss
by Suzanne Mulvehill

Most startup articles focus on the mechanics of launching a business. But the inner journey to starting a business is just as important as writing a business plan and getting financing. I learned this the hard way.

With a business plan and hard-earned savings in hand, I didn't have the guts to leave my job. After quitting my job and taking it back twice, I developed techniques to help myself build courage and break through my fears. These techniques worked--and when I quit for the third time, I was finally able to let go of my job and start Profit Strategies in Lake Worth, Florida, in 1998.

What started out as a marketing consulting firm eventually evolved into an entrepreneurial advocacy business. After accepting a contract with a Small Business Development Center, I taught more than 500 entrepreneurs the techniques I used to help myself. In 2003, I wrote Employee to Entrepreneur: The Employee's Guide to Entrepreneurial Success, coined the term "Emotional Endurance," and developed Emotional Endurance training programs. Today, I present Emotional Endurance techniques at conferences in the United States and abroad, host The Entrepreneur Hour Radio Show (Mondays at noon EST, www.wbzt.com), moderate an online discussion group on business networking site Ryze.com, and head up a series of online interactive seminars titled "Getting the Guts" (www.gettingtheguts.com).

The following 31 strategies are ones I share in my book and in my workshops. They've worked for me and can work for you, too:

1. SAY YES TO YOUR YEARNING. You don't have to know at this moment what you will do or how you will do it. Simply acknowledge the inner voice that's been nudging you to venture into the world of entrepreneurship. Write "Yes! I accept my yearning!" on a big piece of paper, and post it on your wall, just to remind yourself that you are moving forward. It took me two years to write down those five words, but once I did, I began to see the possibility of being my own boss.

2. START A JOURNAL. Use it daily to write down your ideas, goals, feelings and whatever is going on in your life. Keeping a journal helps you get to know yourself better, and you'll see your progress when you look back. My journal was especially helpful to me when I was scared and could read about times when I felt confident.

3. WRITE DOWN YOUR GOALS. Studies have revealed that people who write down their goals are five times more likely to achieve them. When would you like to start a business? Leave your job? How much money would you like to have saved? Set goals, and work toward achieving them.

4. VISUALIZE YOUR SUCCESS. Create a vision of what you desire as an entrepreneur, and write it down. In my business counseling experience, the clients who created visions were most likely to experience them. Ask questions like "What kind of office space do I want to work in?" and "What kind of clients do I want to serve?"

5. CREATE AND READ AFFIRMATIONS. Affirmations are "I am" statements about what you want to happen, written in the present tense as if they are already happening. "I am a successful entrepreneur" is a good one to start with. Create a list of 10 to 20 affirmations on index cards. Hang them where you'll see them and read them daily. Affirmations helped me believe in myself, and launch and grow my business.

6. EVALUATE YOUR BELIEFS. Grab a sheet of paper and write your beliefs about yourself, money, your business and the future on the left. See if these beliefs reflect what you want to believe. If not, write your new beliefs on the right, and add them to your affirmations. One client of mine discovered that his beliefs about money were actually his parents' beliefs, so he created new beliefs that were more closely aligned with his goals.

7. DO WHAT YOU LOVE. This helps you discover and clarify what you want to do as an entrepreneur. If you don't know what you love to do, think back to what you loved to do as a kid. When I was a child, I loved to teach imaginary children math. When I started my business, I began giving seminars locally; I now present at national and international conferences.

8. DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT EVERY DAY. Shake up your routine, and get used to change. One of my clients thought this would be an easy exercise, and she later told me it took her three days just to get up on the other side of the bed. Her little changes helped release her fears and prepare her for starting a business.

9. ACT "AS IF." Start acting as if you are your own boss. Feel what it's like to make your own schedule and generate your own revenue. Once my clients started doing this, they realized it built their confidence.

10. GO OUT AND SCARE YOURSELF. Are you afraid of doing something, saying something or going somewhere? Do it afraid! Being afraid and doing it anyway builds courage and confidence. One of my clients made up the maxim "Do it afraid!" to help her take action and challenge herself to do things that scare her.

11. SPEND TIME IN NATURE. Do some gardening, or take a walk on the beach or in the forest. Natural environments offer clarity and inner peace and can be especially nurturing during times of transition and change.

12. ACCEPT ALL YOUR FEELINGS. You can expect all kinds of feelings as you start or even think about starting your own business. Feelings like vulnerability, uncertainty, doubt, fear and insecurity are all normal and expected. Create a positive inner dialog with yourself, and talk about your feelings with a trusted friend. Remind yourself that you are OK.

13. FINISH UNFINISHED BUSINESS. Make a list of things that bother you and need to be completed, repaired or finalized. Make room for your new business by finishing the things on your list one by one. My list included things like fixing a leaking refrigerator, letting go of a grudge and weeding my garden.

14. GET EDUCATED. Knowledge is power. Take classes or attend seminars to learn practical skills to start, market and grow your business. One client who was starting his business attended a press-release writing workshop; the new skills he acquired resulted in his business being featured in a newspaper.

15. ACCEPT AND BELIEVE COMPLIMENTS. When people first told me they enjoyed my presentations, I didn't believe them. Over time, I accepted and believed the compliments and built my confidence about my speaking abilities.

16. ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR GIFTS. Recognize and acknowledge your gifts and special talents. What would you like to do even if you weren't paid for it? I discovered I was a writer when I wrote an award-nomination letter for a friend and she won. Eventually, I began getting paid for my writing talents.

17. GIVE UP EXCUSES. If you hear yourself making excuses, write them down and become consciously aware of them. One of my excuses was that I was not the entrepreneurial type. I changed this excuse into the following affirmation: I am capable of doing whatever I set my mind to.

18. ELIMINATE" I CAN'TS." Become aware of when and why you say "I can't," and change it to an open-ended question like "How can I?" One client changed her "I can't" statement from, "I can't get a loan because my credit is bad" to, "How can I get a loan?" She met with a debt consolidator, worked on repairing her credit, started her business with savings and eventually got a loan.

19. ACCEPT CONFUSION. Confusion is part of the process of starting a business. Write about it in your journal, talk about it with friends, and know that it will pass. I realized through my own experience and the experience of clients that confusion passes most quickly when we accept it.

20. KNOW THERE IS NO "RIGHT" TIME. Entrepreneurs have started businesses in debt, with little money, with lots of money, with little experience and in all sorts of circumstances. One of my colleagues started her business with $30,000 in debt and a whole lot of perseverance. Last year, she won an entrepreneur of the year award.

21. START SMALL. You don't need to start your business with a big bang. Be realistic and ask yourself, "What do I really need to start a business?" Then start. One client came to me thinking he needed a $25,000 loan to start. He left realizing he could start his business without any loan at all.

22. SAY NO WHEN YOU MEAN NO AND YES WHEN YOU MEAN YES. Next time you're asked to do something, say yes or no depending on what you really want to do. If you haven't decided yet, say, "I'll have to get back to you." One of my clients practiced this exercise, and it expanded her sense of self-worth, resulting in her raising her consulting fees.

23. RESIST SELF-JUDGMENT. If you hear yourself saying things like "That's a stupid idea," gently remind yourself that you're choosing to accept yourself as you start and grow your business. My clients often find that as they become more accepting of themselves, new and creative ideas come to them to help grow their businesses.

24. STAY OUT OF OVERWHELM. Next time you feel overwhelmed, write down what situation, thought or feeling prompted you to feel overwhelmed. Do this each time you are overwhelmed until you see patterns develop, and then decide what action you need to take to stay out of overwhelm. One client realized that paying bills was overwhelming, and he constantly paid bills late. The actions he took included meeting with an accountant, paying bills on a schedule and getting accounting software.

25. EXPECT RESISTANCE. You can expect to feel resistance within yourself as well as from those around you. Work through resistance by acknowledging it and doing what you need to do anyway. I remember feeling excited about facilitating a planning session, something I had never done before. The night before the session, the excitement turned to resistance and fear. I felt the resistance, got through it, and have been facilitating planning sessions for three years now.

26. ANSWER YOUR "WHAT IFS." What if it doesn't work out? What if I don't make any money? Use your journal to write down your what ifs, and answer them. For example, to answer "What if I don't make any money?" you may respond, "I can get a part-time job while building my business."

27. PRACTICE PATIENCE. Next time you're in a traffic jam or waiting in a line, practice patience. One client discovered that by practicing patience, he became more patient with himself and the process of entrepreneurship.

28. OVERCOME THE "NOT GOOD ENOUGH" SYNDROME. I've seen clients miss opportunities when they turned down or did not pursue projects because they thought they didn't have the right selling skills, the right brochure or the right product. The next time you feel compelled to turn down an opportunity, figure out what would he necessary for you to accept it. Realize that you know enough to grab that opportunity today.

29. ASK FOR HELP. When you're most challenged and least likely to ask for help, reach out and ask. That's the time you need it most. My clients and I can attest to the power and clarity that comes from asking for help when we least want to ask for it.

30. RUSTY OUR INSTINCTS. Others may tell you that you're crazy for giving up a good job or for starting a business. But no one knows you as well as you. Trust what you know, and take action accordingly. The more you act on your instincts, the more instinctive you will become. Trusting my instincts led me to become the entrepreneur that I am today.

31. TREAT YOURSELF WITH TLC. Seek to meet your mental, physical, spiritual and emotional needs by finding balance in all you do. My clients have found that they have more creative energy and can accomplish tasks in less time when they take good care of themselves.

Enjoy the journey!

RECOMMENDED READING

BOOKS THAT CAN HELP YOU ON YOUR PERSONAL ENTREPRENEURIAL JOURNEY INCLUDE:

* Do What You Love and the Money Will Follow: Discovering Your Right Livelihood by Marsha Sinetar: Provides techniques for self-discovery

* Entrepreneur or Employee: Should You Get Out or Stay In Your Current Job? by Ken Chane: Shares common pitfalls when making major career decisions

* The Highest Goal: The Secret That Sustains You in Every Moment by Michael Ray: Combines practical business advice with spiritual motivation and creative insights

* I Could Do Anything If Only I Knew What It Was: How to Discover What You Really Want and How to Get It by Barbara Sher: Helps you recapture long-lost goals and overcome the blocks that inhibit your success

* The Intuitive Way: A Guide to Living From Inner Wisdom by Penney Peirce: Helps you learn to listen to your intuitive wisdom

* Making a Living Without a Job: Winning Ways for Creating Work That You Love by Barbara Winter: Offers insight-provoking self-evaluations, charts and checklists

* The McGraw-Hill Guide to Starting Your Own Business: A Step-By-Step Blueprint For the First-Time Entrepreneur by Stephen C. Harper: A helpful, step-by-step tool for new entrepreneurs

* The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success: A Practical Guide to the Fulfillment of Your Dreams (Based on Creating Affluence) by Deepak Chopra: Helpful for dealing with uncertainty and the unknown

* Success@Life: A Zentrepreneur's Guide--How to Catch and Live Your Dream by Ron Rubin and Stuart Avery Gold: Combines ancient wisdom with sound business practices

* Successful Business Planning in 30 Days by Peter J. Patsula: Shares the essentials for writing a business plan

SUZANNE MULVEHILL (www.profitstrategies.com) is the author of Employee to Entrepreneur, available at Amazon.com and your local bookstore, and host of The Entrepreneur Hour Radio Show.

COPYRIGHT 2005 Entrepreneur Media, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group