• How much do I really want to earn?
• How much do I really need to spend on the business? (See below.)
• How much do I really need to have fun for myself?
• How much money is left?
• Is that the number I have to keep in the bank so I can sleep at night?

2. Do only what you love. The rest, delegate to partners, employees and competitors.

3. Ensure that there is a market demand for what you love to do.

4. Do it with the people that you love, or at least like doing business with. Ask yourself:

• Where are they?
• Who are they?
• Where do they hang out?
• How do they buy?
• Who do they take recommendations from?
• How much money do they spend?
• Is there enough of them?

5. Position yourself as a narrowly focused “expert”. Ask yourself:

• What do we do differently from our competitors that people actually find value in?
• How do we do things differently from our competitors that people actually find value in?
• What do I know that our competitors do not and our clients see value in?

6. Ensure that you can deliver it for the amount of money that they will spend. Ask yourself:

• Can we deliver the solution for the price that the client wants us to and still make a hefty profit? If the answer is “No”, move on to another thing that you love. Repeat Steps 1 through 5.

7. Write professionally edited articles and get them published in trade and other magazines read by your clients and professionals in your “referral circle”. Ask yourself:

• Which successful organizations do I need to join where I will be recognized by my peers and provide referral business for my clients?
• What documentation does my “referral circle” and clients like to read?
• Who do I need to contact to submit my professionally edited copy to?

8. Hire a PR Consultant. Brian Scudamore, owner of 1-800-Got-Junk hired his first Public Relations consultant six years ago. Now he has 8 fulltime PR consultants who’s job is to “sell” his company to the media. They have so much stuff going on they have to have 8 people sharing their story to the media all over the world. No “trees falling in the forest with no one around to hear them” going on around there. They are based in quiet little seaside Vancouver and Brian and his crew were featured on Oprah!

9. Continue to build your database. Consider using Salesforce.com. You can retrieve all of your info from your blackberry. Ask yourself:

• What are the names of people in my geographic area that I like to work with? (Get them from their business card, the newspaper, the internet.)
• Who belongs to the organizations that can refer my company?
• Whom should I make an appointment to meet with?
  Keep in consistent contact with these people. Send out a quarterly e-newsletter or printed copy of the latest article published with a story of your latest success.

10. Get in front of people. Book at least 5 business development appointments a week with “influencers” who can introduce their clients to your firm. One of our “solo-flyer” friends said it best: Once she’s in front of a client she has a 97% closing ratio. She is in the interior design business. Her influencers are architects, contractors, clients-to-be, magazine editors, furniture/appliance retailers, kitchen designers and tv producers.

You have a gift that needs to be shared. By interacting with people who share your passion, your heart is fuelled with the energy to go on and create more beautiful solutions each and every day.

One of the key challenges for any business is to remain focused and invest resources for maximum pay-off. It’s said that 80% of a business’s activity accounts for only 20% of total profits. In plain language, most of the work we do is unfocused, poorly designed and ineffective. In today’s competitive world, no business, whether it’s an individual professional or a large manufacturing operation, can survive with that much lost time and wasted effort. A business plan can help, but most small business owners (and some managers/supervisors) hate doing them! In the spirit that any map is better than no map, here are my top ten keys to creating your own map to success:

1. Have a dream. This sounds simple and obvious, but answering the questions: “Why am I doing this? What’s the big picture?” can lead to profound changes in many organizations. Too often in the daily grind, we forget to think about where we want to go, or why we started the business or took the job in the first place.

2. Make the dream bigger.What if the whole world bought your products or loved your service? What would it mean if your profits, or your personal income were 10 times greater? How about 100, or 1000 times greater? What shifts in focus would that require? Would your daily routine change? Would you spend your time and energy on different problems, attend to different priorities? Why wait?

3. Make the dream clearer. Have a precise description of exactly what you want and hang it in your office, in the employee lunch room, in the restrooms, and on the dash of your car. Use key words, phrases, a photograph of your future office building or whatever symbol will crystallize the dream and make it real for you and for every member of your team

4. List 100 obstacles that will get in your way. Enlist staff, friends, competitors to help. Ask your customers to join with you in looking for the roadblocks, blindspots and bottlenecks that prevent you from growing. Make it a matter of personal pride to never have a problem pop up that you haven’t already considered.

5. List 1000 solutions, 10 for each potential problem. The key here is creativity, flexibility, and responding instantly when the unexpected happens. Expect the unexpected, and have a file of alternative solutions at your finger tips. It’s called contingency planning. Do it!

6. Get tons of advice. Have your accountant, your attorney, your insurance agent, your spouse and your cousin take a look at this. If you can’t explain it to them, will you be able to explain it to your staff? If these people don’t understand and support your plan, will you be able to maintain your own enthusiasm over the long haul?

7. Get GOOD advice. After explaining your dream and your plan to lots of people, sit down with a handful of those you trust the most, and pay them to give you their best feedback. Lots of people can give you technical advice, expert advice, and even friendly advice. Wisdom is more important, and harder to find.

8. Create the path of least resistance. Using the dream as your goal, and knowing the obstacles that could get in your way, begin mapping your way through the wilderness to your destination. What’s the easiest, most direct, route? What’s the safest route? Which combination of activities and priorities makes the most sense?

9. Take action. Once you know where you want to go and have a path to get there, start walking! Too many managers put their business plan into a nice file folder that is never looked at because they are too busy working “hard”. Instead, use your efforts and your plan together so that your effort is focused, productive and smart!

10. Re-assess often. Just as someone hiking across barren territory needs to periodically stop and check their map and compass to avoid walking in circles, business owners and managers need to check their direction and their priorities. Conditions change. Opportunities pop up or disappear, new problems arrive or the nature of the dream changes. All of these things will happen. Plan for it! Regularly step outside your business to re-assess and redefine your most important tasks. You can’t afford to spend 80% of your effort in busywork and unprofitable distractions. Re-assess and stay on course.

1. Enlarge your circle of friends. To increase the number of opportunities available, you need to go beyond traditional networking to generate friendships and trust with people who “aren’t like me”. Use any system you prefer, but be certain that your friendships include various ethnic, economic and social backgrounds, people who “think differently” – artists, engineers, teachers, “kids” and “old timers”. Don’t just “think outside the box”; network outside your circle!
2. Always be open to possibility. Years ago one of my mentors told me, “Everything I have is for sale, except my wife.” That may be rather crude and politically incorrect today, but his point was that any business opportunity, any creative idea or investment suggestion was worth at least a few seconds of his time. Look for the unlikely, consider the unthinkable and ponder the improbable. Life’s biggest opportunities are often disguised.
3. Practice creativity. Intentionally think of a way to turn every crack-pot, bad idea into something useful. This is not about finding a way to invest in every scheme that comes your way, it’s about practicing creativity, turning ideas on their heads, finding the kernel of wisdom or value, and throwing the rest away.
4. Avoid being overly tied to your goals. Goals, and plans for achieving them, can be extremely useful. They can keep us on track, focus our efforts, and motivate us when we’re tired. But they can also blind us to new possibilities. Work toward your goals; don’t let them run your life. New ideas and alternative possibilities will come along. Don’t drive right past them in your hurry to finish last year’s project!
5. “He who hesitates is a damned fool!” This quote from Mae West is a classic call to action. Being “light on your feet”, or in Muhammad Ali’s old phrase, being able to “float like a butterfly and sting like a bee” is useful business advice. There are times when opportunity knocks, but only stays at the door for a moment. Be prepared to respond quickly.
6. “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.” Being able to respond quickly is not the same as being foolish. About 95% of the opportunities, ideas and invitations that come your way will not be worth pursuing. If it’s a good idea today, it will likely still be a good idea after a night’s sleep and consultation with your trusted advisors. Balance, thoughtfulness and a healthy skepticism are also critical.
7. Assess the probability of success. Just as risk management compares the odds of being struck by lightening (extremely unlikely) to the chances of a critical shipment being lost (more likely), and assigns different values to each, so opportunities have differing probabilities of success. Just because an opportunity could work out, doesn’t mean it will.
8. Assess the potential payoffs. Again, borrowing from risk management, it’s essential to asses the potential for “winning big”. The guy who invented the Frisbee had a strange idea with a low probability of catching on, but the rewards have been enormous! The same goes for turning a coffee bar into Starbucks or sneakers into Nike. What were the probabilities that a couple of college students could turn some computer code into an operating system and end up with Microsoft? Low probability of success, but huge payoffs!
9. Actively invite opportunities. Let friends, co-workers, colleagues, competitors and customers know that you are receptive to new ideas. They are much more likely to share a possibility with you if they know you are always “looking for ideas”, having fun with possibilities and trying to understand the “next big thing”. Let them know you aren’t necessarily hoping to change careers, just open and interested in new opportunities. And don’t ridicule anything! Every idea is someone’s baby and, amazingly, most of them have some value hidden in there somewhere!
10. Assess opportunities in terms of your values. You know your strengths, your interests and your core values. There will be opportunities that will ask you to become someone you aren’t. You could make a fortune in stocks, real estate, software, or a thousand other industries, but you have to live with yourself. First, maintain your integrity.

Over the years, many people have said to me “I’d love to start a home-based business, but which kind would be the right one for me?” The answer is difficult, as it is different for just about everyone. I looked for five years before finding the right home-based business, only to find out two years later, that it really wasn’t the right business after all! I searched high and low, read just about every book on the subject, and still found myself struggling to find the ‘right’ biz! Luckily time and experience finally led me to that home-based business that really was “the right one”. But I’m sure YOU don’t want to wait that long.

So, what can you do? First, there are some questions you have to answer before you can decide on a business. It’s important to remember, when you work for yourself, you are your only employee–you have to do everything from marketing, to accounting, to taking out the trash–and everything else in between (unless you outsource). You will probably work harder for yourself then for any “Employer” you’ve ever had!

With that having been said, I believe it’s extremely important to find something you love, something you are passionate about, and then you can turn it into your business (or find a home-based business opportunity that is a good fit). It’s much easier to get up in the morning and start doing something you love than it is to get up and force yourself to work. There will be no boss to poke you along–just you.

So, what questions should you ask yourself? First and foremost, what do I love doing? When answering this question, be open minded! Don’t hold yourself back by saying things like “I could never make money doing that!” That is not what this exercise is about. Just jot down some things that you really enjoy doing, and try to be as honest as possible. Try to remember times when you felt happiest, your most vibrant and alive. Write those things down, even if they don’t seem ‘work’ related (yet!).

Once you have finished writing down the things you are most passionate about, try brainstorming about how to turn those ideas into a business.

The next question you must answer is “Where do I have experience?” This can be a very important question, or, believe it or not, a completely irrelevant one. Many people start their own businesses without an ounce of experience in their business field. You may need to take classes, attend seminars, or just practice, practice, practice before you learn your trade.

But the question still needs to be answered. This ‘experience’ need not come only from prior jobs, but also from volunteer positions, hobbies, school, etc. Once you have finished writing this down, try to see how your experience could help you turn your passions into a business.

Another question you should ask yourself “What contacts do I have from my prior experience that could boost my business?” But don’t discount your former employers, teachers, and/or friends and family as possible sources for business and/or networking.

So, taking your passions, experience and contacts into consideration, your answers might look something like this: You have a passion for Art, went to school and received a degree and know many gallery owners. If it’s that cut and dry, you have a link, and a very feasible place to start your brainstorming. Many times these links will not be so obvious.

Finally, “what resources or assets do you have?” This is important. If you want to raise Emu, but live in a condo in the city, you will have to find a way to obtain land and care for the animals. On the other hand, if you have a great computer, and you want to start a desktop publishing business, you may only need some software. The more assets you have related to the business you want to start, the better. Because if start up costs are low, you chances for success should be much higher.

Whatever business you start, you must prioritize. Can you work “from” home (when the actual “work” is done somewhere other then home, like in the cases of the following businesses: landscaping, handyman, direct sales via home parties, etc.) as opposed “at” home (graphic design, newsletter publishing, web design, etc.)? Will your business be full or part time? Will you need to schedule your work around nap times and soccer practice, or a part time job? Will your business fit well with the lifestyle you want? City dwellers probably wouldn’t enjoy ranching, and folks who live in rural areas probably would want to start a personal shopper business.

If you answer these questions, and still don’t have any ideas, give yourself some time . . . do some research. Don’t get sucked into a scam, just because you want to work from home. And don’t get into the latest ‘hot’ home business just because everyone else is doing it, because you will probably end up quitting because it was never something you were passionate about.

On a final note: If you think you must start a home business, because you need money as soon as possible, remember that most businesses don’t actually make money for many months, if not years. Building a business takes time, effort, persistence, and a passion for what you do!

I knew that one day I wanted to start and run my own business. I knew it from the bottom of my heart and I also knew that by starting my own business I was going to be able to work on my passion. I had already earned an MBA and was tired of working for “Corporate America”.

A lot of mentors and friends warned me not to quit my corporate job before getting a few part-time contracts. Well, after following their advice, I realized that I would never dive into the entrepreneurial world simply because there was not enough time while juggling these two jobs. Working as a corporate consultant you simply do not have time for starting a new business – Reality check number one. 

I am not saying that people cannot start their own business while working at their permanent jobs; however, it is more difficult to do this if you have a demanding job with long hours. I would also not recommend it for you because you may not be giving your best to your employer simply due to other priorities. Give your best at your “day job”. After you start your business they will become important contributors to your promotional strategy, therefore it is very important to leave with the best impressions. 

Well, as I realized that there was simply not time to prepare for the launch of the business, I had to make a decision to either work in a corporation or quit my job. My desire for starting my business was so strong that after calculating my finances and seeing that I had enough reserves to live on I went ahead. Oh boy, if I only knew then. 

Confident that I already knew enough about business, from a solid education accompanied with my corporate world experience, I was absolutely sure that I did not have to learn many things. Ha! I was wrong! 

Below are few reality checks about starting your business along with some advantages many women have in this area. 

1. Ask for HELP even with a tight budget
   It does not matter if you graduated from the best business schools and served the most successful companies. Running your own business asks for a different skill-set; one that you are most likely not accustomed to. You will need to wear different hats Marketing, Public Relations, Accounting, Budgeting and others that you probably were not used to. You will have to do a lot of administrative things on your own and these tasks can be very time-consuming. Hire an assistant. Consider virtual assistants who are less expensive than actual employees. The hours they save you will make so much difference. 
   
2. Kill the loneliness-Connect
   As an entrepreneur, you will very often feel lonely and at times unmotivated or discouraged. After all, you work so hard in growing your business that sometimes you do not even track your working hours. What you thought of as working freedom very soon will just seem an illusion. Doubts come to your mind and you are not so sure if you’ve chosen the right direction. Surround yourself with friends and other entrepreneurs. Do not allow yourself to have negative thoughts – and believe me if you are alone for a longer time you will start getting negative feelings. You need to connect and socialize with other fellows. 
   
3. Feel comfortable being small
   Very often I see entrepreneurs, especially the ones that worked for too many years in large companies, wanting to impress by being bigger than what they are. Well, that is absurd and can only harm you. Being small has a lot of advantages and trying to be someone that you are not will cost you your position and image. Project who you are and design your business according to your needs. 
   
4. Stop searching for your perfect clients
   Yes, too often entrepreneurs are wasting time in nailing down their perfect clients. Instead of following this strategy it is better to have the perfect clients come to you. Do you wonder how you can do this? Just concentrate all your efforts on what you do best. Become an expert in your field. Get visible to a target audience that needs your services or products. 
   
5. Balance your life
   This may seem very difficult for someone that is starting his or her business, yet the benefits will amaze you. Set it as a priority in your life and block time out for you. Not only you are going to recuperate but you will gain so much energy momentum to move ahead. Meet people as you are having fun and notice opportunities that surround you.

As you see these little things can really help you in launching your business. Start using these strategies at the moment you commit in starting your business. Do not wait to long to ask for help, connect with people, identify your target audience and attract the people that need you and most importantly balance a life of laughter, fun and self-care.

By Carole Nicolaides ã Copyright 2000