Posts Tagged ‘business’

February 27th, 2023

11 Steps to Start Your Own Business (Part 2)

by Rahimah Sultan






Advertising Disclosure: Marketing Success Review may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links posted on this website. There is no expense to you.


In the last article 11 Steps to Start Your Own Business Part 1, we covered the first five steps of starting your own business. We’ll now cover the remaining six steps.


Now that the business is set up, what’s next?


6. Get Your Finances in Order

Open a business bank account and keep your business and personal finances separate. Your business account can be used for business transactions such as invoicing customers or paying suppliers. Usually, a bank will insist you have a separate business bank account in case you want a business loan or line of credit. You’ll have to provide your business name and business tax identification number (EIN) when opening a business bank account.

You’ll need to hire a bookkeeper or get accounting software. There are some software programs that double as bookkeeping tools and often include features such as check writing and managing receivables and payables. The software can also be used to generate invoices, track your income and expenses, run reports and calculate taxes. These services can be accessed online from any computer or mobile device.

You must get an idea of your startup costs before funding your business. To do this list all physical supplies you need, estimate the cost of any professional services you’ll need, add the cost of any licenses or permits required to operate, and calculate office space cost or other real estate. If applicable, add payroll and benefits costs.

Since businesses can take years to make a profit, it’s better to overestimate startup costs and have too much cash on hand rather than too little. Some experts recommend having enough cash to cover six months of operating expenses. You should also know your break-even point; the point at which your business makes money.


7. Fund Your Business

There are many ways to fund your business. Some require more effort than others. There are two categories of funding: internal and external.

Internal funding includes credit cards, personal savings, and family and friends. This option has the inherent risks of lost wealth due to not paying debts or hard feelings because of strained relationships if the company goes under.

External funding includes:

Small business loans and grants
Angel investors
Venture capital
Crowdfunding

Whatever the source plan for profit. It’s much better to take home all your money rather than lose part of it.

To choose the right funding source consider the amount of money you need, the time frame for repayment, and risk tolerance.


8. Apply for Business Insurance

Even if you don’t have employees or you have a home-based business, you need to have insurance. The type depends on your business model and your risks. You might need more than one kind of policy and, as your business grows, you might need additional coverage. In most states, if you have employees, workers’ compensation insurance is required by law.

The basic types of business insurance coverage are:

Liability insurance which protects your business against third-party claims of bodily injury, property damage, and personal injury such as defamation or false advertising.

Property insurance for covering the physical assets of your business, including your office space, equipment, and inventory.

Business interruption insurance to pay for the loss of income if your business is forced to close temporarily due to a covered event such as a natural disaster.

Product liability insurance for protection against claims that your products caused bodily injury or property damage.

Employee practices liability insurance that covers claims from employees alleging discrimination, sexual harassment, or other wrongful termination.

Workers’ compensation insurance for medical expenses and income replacement for employees who are injured on the job.


9. Have the Right Business Tools

The right business tools can help make your life easier and your business run a lot smoother. They can also help save time, automate tasks, and aid you in making better decisions.

Following are some tools to consider:

Accounting software
Customer relationship management software (CRM)
Project management software
Credit card processor
Point of sale (POS)
Virtual private network (VPN)
Merchant services
Email Hosting


10. Market Your Business

Don’t spend so much time creating the products that you have no marketing budget by launch time.

A web presence is essential even if you’re a brick-and-mortar business. Here are tips for establishing a web presence. You can have a standard informational site or an e-commerce site where you sell products online.

After getting a website or e-commerce site you need to optimize it for search engines so that when a potential customer searches for specific keywords for your products, search engines can direct them to your site.

As SEO is a long-term strategy, don’t expect a lot of traffic from search engines initially—even when you’re using all the correct keywords.

Provide quality, relevant digital content on your site. Content marketing should be one of the most critical tasks on your daily to-do list and should be used in conjunction with social media.

Get listed in online directories like Yelp, Google My Business, and Facebook to find local businesses. Include your business in as many relevant directories as possible and create listings for your business in specific directories that focus on your subject matter.

Develop a social media strategy and use social media to drive traffic back to your website where customers can learn more about what you do and buy your products or services.

You don’t have to use all the social media platforms. But you should have a presence on Facebook and Instagram as they offer e-commerce features that allow you to sell directly from your social media accounts. Both platforms have free ad training to help you market your business.


11. Scale Your Business

In order to scale your business, you’ll need to grow your customer base and revenue. You can do this by increasing your marketing efforts, collaborating with other creators, improving your product or service, or adding new products or services that complement what you already offer.

Consider ways you can automate or outsource particular tasks so that you can focus on scaling your business. For example, if social media marketing is occupying too much of your time, you can use a platform such as Hootsuite to help you manage your accounts more efficiently. You can also completely outsource the time-consumer.

You can use technology to automate certain business processes including accounting, lead generation, and email marketing. By doing this you will have more time to focus on other parts of your business.

It’s important to watch your finances and make sure you’re still profitable when scaling your business. Make sure you have enough money to cover your costs. You may need to either reduce your expenses or find ways to increase your revenue.

As your business grows, you will eventually need a team of people who can help you run the day-to-day operations. This might include hiring additional staff, contractors, or freelancers.

Now, with these 11 steps to start your own business, you can get started today.


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February 13th, 2023

11 Steps to Start Your Own Business (Part 1)

by Rahimah Sultan






Advertising Disclosure: Marketing Success Review may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links posted on this website. There is no expense to you.



Where do you start?

Starting a business can be very exciting and rewarding. But where do you start? There are many ways to approach creating a business as well as many important considerations.

What is often touted as overnight success requires years of dreaming, building, and positioning before a big public launch. So, remember to focus on your business journey and not measure your success against anyone else’s.

Before beginning these 11 steps to start your own business you need to get in the right mindset. You should know that it takes consistency, creating habits and follow-up routines, and writing out every possible step it takes to achieve your goal. Then order those steps by what needs to be done first. Some steps may take a few minutes to accomplish while others will take a long time. The point is to always take the next step and keep moving forward.


1. Determine Your Business Concept

How do you determine your business concept?

Before deciding what type of business to start, there are several things to consider:

What kind of financing do you have?
How much time do you have to devote to your business?
Do you prefer to work from home, at a workshop, or from an office?
What passions or interests do you have?
Can you sell information (a course) rather than a product?
What expertise or skills do you have?
How fast do you need to scale your business?
What kind of support do you have to start your business?
Will you be partnering with someone else?
Does the franchise model make more sense to you?


If you’re not sure of what kind of business to start, consider one of the following:

Start a blog
Start an online store
Start a franchise
Start a cleaning business
Start a bookkeeping business
Start a drop shipping business
Start a clothing business
Start a landscaping business
Start a consulting business
Start a vending machine business
Start a photography business


2. Research Your Market and Your Competitors

As an entrepreneur, you should spend more time on getting to know the competition rather than on products. If you ever apply for outside funding, your potential lender or partner will want to know what makes you (or your business idea) different from the rest.

If market analysis shows that your product or service is saturated in your area, see if you can come up with something different. For example – housekeeping. Rather than general cleaning services, you can specialize in homes with pets or focus on garage cleanups.

Primary research is the first stage of any competition study. This means getting data directly from potential customers and not basing your conclusions on past data. For this, you can use surveys, questionnaires, and interviews to learn what consumers want and would actually buy.

Secondary research uses existing sources of information, such as census data, to gather information. The current data may be studied, compiled, and analyzed in various ways that are appropriate for your needs but it probably won’t be as detailed as your primary research.

Thirdly, you can do a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis which will allow you to get the facts about how your product or idea might perform if taken to market. It can also help you make decisions about the objective of your idea. Your business idea might have some weaknesses that you hadn’t considered or there may be opportunities to improve on a competitor’s product.


3. Create A Business Plan

A business plan is a document that serves as a roadmap for establishing your new business. It outlines your company’s objectives and how you plan to meet them.

Even if you intend to self-finance, a business plan can help you bring to life your idea and spot potential problems. When you write your well-rounded business plan, include the following sections:

Executive summary
Company description
Market analysis
Organization and structure
Mission and goals
Products and/or services
Background summary
Marketing plan
Financial plan


Come up with an exit strategy. The most common ones include:

Selling the business to another party
Passing the business down to family members
Liquidating the business assets
Closing the doors and walking away

The best option for you will depend on your goals and circumstances.

It’s important to have a scalable business model that can be replicated easily to serve more customers without acquiring a significant increase in expenses.

Some standard scalable business models are:

Subscription-based businesses
Businesses that sell digital products
Franchise businesses
Network marketing businesses


One of the most important things to do when starting a small business is to plan for taxes which can be very complex. There are several different types of taxes you may be liable for, including income tax, self-employment tax, sales tax, and property tax. Depending on the type of business you’re operating, you may also be required to pay other taxes, such as payroll tax or unemployment tax.


4. Choose Your Business Structure

When structuring your business, it’s essential to consider how each structure impacts the amount of taxes you owe, daily operations, and whether your personal assets are at risk.

The most common business structures in the US are LLC, LLP, Sole proprietorship, and corporation.

Follow this link for more information.


5. Register Your Business and get Licenses

After choosing a business structure, you have several legal issues to address. Following is a good checklist of items to consider when establishing your business:

Choose a business name
Register your business and get an EIN
Get appropriate licenses and permits


You’ll officially create your business entity by filing forms with your state’s business agency. As part of this process, you’ll need to choose a registered agent to accept legal documents on behalf of your business. You’ll also pay a filing fee. The state will send you a certificate that you can use to apply for licenses, a tax identification number (TIN), and business bank accounts.

All businesses, other than sole proprietorships with no employees, must have a federal employer identification number. You can submit your application to the IRS and you’ll usually receive your number in minutes.


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December 19th, 2022

MLM Marketing Online

by Rahimah Sultan





Advertising Disclosure: Marketing Success Review may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links posted on this website. There is no expense to you.


To build a business in this day and age, you need to use some form of MLM online for the duplication process.

The old form of MLM required people to attend meetings, and conferences, and to do in-person recruiting to build their teams and grow their businesses.

Now, everyone wants to be able to be on their phone or laptop and successfully recruit new distributors and build a money-making side business. Here are two strategies for doing MLM marketing online.


Strategy #1 – Social Media

Social media has taken over, and there are people who have never known a world where social media didn’t exist.

Every day people spend hours online. It’s how many socialize, get entertainment, news, and communicate and participate with others.

So anyone in MLM should be using social media to market their business. It’s not hard to do and is a simple way to meet people and prospect them for your business.

There’s a right way and a wrong way to do this. Most people fail because they forget to act like humans and just start spamming their business and product links on their personal profiles, on pages, in groups, and in private messages on messenger to perfect strangers.

This does not work.


When it comes to links for your MLM business or product, do NOT:

Post them on your personal page
Post them in groups
Post them on pages or as a reply to other peoples’ comments and
NEVER send a link to anyone in a message without first having their permission


For success in MLM, you only have to meet as many people as you can, get them to know, like, and trust you, and then ask them if they’re open to looking at your opportunity.

If you do this on a daily basis, you’ll be successful.


Let’s use Facebook as an example.

You should be adding friends daily, about 5 at a time and up to 20 a day.   Don’t overdo it, as you will be shut down by FB.

You can join pages and groups that interest you, and start talking with these people and adding them as friends.

Facebook has a feature where they suggest friends to you. These are friends of friends you already have.

Add those people and send them a message that states something like:

Facebook suggested we become friends. I sent a friend request. I see we both know so and so. How are you?

Get to know your new friends by commenting on their posts, messaging them, and having normal conversations.

You’re growing your network, so take your time and don’t rush. When the time is right in the relationship, you can ask them if they’re receptive to looking at your business.

With some friends, it could take 2 to 4 days, while others may take a month or longer.

It doesn’t matter, because you’re consistently adding people as friends and engaging with them.


Strategy #2 – Create Influence

Influence is a strong and powerful thing. Just about all of the top earners have it in some form. Unlike offline influence, which is hard and takes a long time, online influence is quite simple and straightforward.

You can do it by creating your personal Facebook profile (or any social media profile) and by using what is called Attraction Marketing.

You start by focusing on whom you want to recruit, and by picking a target audience. These are people who you do or can relate to; realtors, hikers, bikers, people interested in good health, etc.

Now that you’ve chosen your target market you need to set up your profile in a way that they’ll find attractive. You need a nice personal picture and a compelling cover photo. Your about me section should sound appealing.

Don’t mention or refer to your business or product in any way, shape, or form.

Now, start posting things that your target market will find interesting, informative, educational, and entertaining.

Let people get to know, like, and trust you by posting things about yourself and your life. Show them posts of you out and about enjoying life and having a good time with friends, family, etc.

Then you can post about your business or product but do it sparingly.

Only post about your MLM business or product about 10% of the time. When you do post about the business, just give hints. Don’t give everything away.

Instead, make people curious by giving them a little bit of information about what you’re doing but not everything, like a movie preview.

Don’t say the name of your business or product. Don’t post a link, and don’t make spammy posts like: “I’m looking for 4 people to help me make $1200 in the next month.”

Attraction Marketing uses marketing techniques such as blogging, Facebook advertising, video marketing, and email marketing to set you up as an authority in your chosen niche.

When you use these marketing methods, people get to know, like, and trust you as an expert in your niche. They’ll look up to you and will want to work with you and buy from you.

Using these 2 strategies for MLM marketing online should enable you to easily transfer skills from the old form of MLM business building to today’s online method.


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March 27th, 2022

Home-Based Business Ideas


by Rahimah Sultan







Advertising Disclosure: Marketing Success Review may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links posted on this website. There is no expense to you.





Are you looking for home-based business ideas?


Opportunities to create a low-cost home-based business have never been easier.

New technology and software have made this possible.

There’s web development, affiliate marketing, personal training, and more.



Check out these seven ideas for a home-based business.





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July 19th, 2017

Home Business Success

by Rahimah Sultan

photo from blog

 

I’m sure you’re familiar with the saying, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” That also applies to business. Don’t depend on one source for all of your income. You need several ways to make money:

 

Sell information products
Sell other people’s products
Create a membership site
Create an online freelance business

 

Read more here

 

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September 24th, 2016

10 Rules for Small Business Success

by Rahimah Sultan







As a new entrepreneur you need to follow certain rules for small business success. You need to quell the enthusiasm a bit and focus on starting out right to avoid later disappointment.



Here are 10 of the most important rules for small business success:



1. Start small and grow. Don’t try to sell to everyone. You need a niche – a specific product or service so that you’re not competing with everyone.



2. Concentrate on what will be the bread and butter of your business. Don’t try to implement all your entrepreneurial ideas at once. You can branch out later.



3. Make sure you have a product or service that customers really want.



4. Develop a business plan that forces you to think through the basic elements of your company, i.e. your market, competition, industry and your position.



5. Know your customers. If you have a clear target market you can be much more effective and efficient in both your product development and marketing efforts.



6. Build one business at a time. Concentrate on one new direction, product or service, one target market or one distribution channel at a time.



7. Don’t re-invent the wheel. Get a piece of an existing market. Creating a market for a brand-new type of product or service is difficult, time-consuming and expensive.



8. Double the estimate of the time and money you originally think you’ll need. Things cost more and take longer than planned.



9. Keep things short and use lots of photos. People don’t like to read.



10. Build strong customer relationships. People like to do business with those they know, like, and trust.



Source: Click here



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December 24th, 2015

No Free Rides in Business

by Rahimah Sultan

photo from blog

 

I think most people realize there are really no free rides in life. This especially applies to business. You cannot get something for nothing. There are so many unscrupulous people trying every way possible to take your hard-earned money by daily touting free websites, automatic money machines, turnkey businesses and systems, your own branded website and on and on. There are no free rides in business. By using one of those sites or systems, you generally have no control. If they disappear so goes the business.

 

When my son was a teen, he pleaded with me to help him get a JVC player for either his Birthday or Christmas. Some of the details have faded from my memory. I do recall saying something like that’s a lot of money for something that probably won’t hold your interest for very long. It was a challenge being a single parent of two children and having to be really careful with my money.

 

My son has always been very industrious and worked part-time jobs as a teen. He offered to help pay for it, but since this was something he wanted so much, more so than anything before, I got it for him. He loved that player, and it was the beginning of a “paying” hobby for him as a DJ before joining the Air Force.

 

Early in his military career he was stationed in Germany, at Ramstein Air Force Base where I spent a month with him, just before the United States became involved in Iraq, in 2002, not knowing if I would see him alive again after that. I am very happy to say, although he went through a lot in his 23 plus years of active duty, he came out alive and well.

 

During that month, mid-December through mid-January, my son was attending school as well as working his base job. It was an unusually bitter winter. He was out in the evenings putting up posters to advertise his upcoming DJing gigs. He had some challenges early on but never gave up. Over the years he has become a major player in the DJ world, playing parties for some of the top hip hop artists around. He still plays today and does his 9-5.

 

Although I did not know it, his DJing dream began before he got that JVC player, which he still has and showed me while I was in Germany that month, and reminded me of what I had said all those years ago about a passing fancy.

 

If you are thinking of starting an Internet business, you must have a plan, be tenacious, and never give up. It will take time and you will see positive results only after doing the work.

 

So, forget about all the shiny objects thrown at you daily and decide what you want to accomplish and plan accordingly, because there are No Free Rides in Business.

 
 

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March 14th, 2014

Internet Marketing Rejection

by Rahimah Sultan

 

Rejection of any kind hurts. It’s no different with Internet Marketing Rejection. What matters is how you deal with it. Rejection does have a place and a purpose in your internet marketing business. You will not get a “yes” all the time. Rather than quitting, use rejection as a motivator. Keep learning about your business and find out what you can do differently or what you can improve.

 

Power of Rejection

Don’t hand your power over to rejection. Don’t let it rule your mind and control you. If you do, it could be devastating, because you can lose your money and not achieve your dreams and goals.


Rejection Mindset

We tend to take rejection personally because we invest so much time and effort in our product or service. So we need to change our mindset about Internet Marketing Rejection. It’s not personal. When someone does not want to use your services, it’s not about you. Most of the time the prospect’s reasons for saying “no” have nothing to do with you. It may not be the right time, it might not be a great fit for their business, or maybe they are having trouble making a decision at the moment. So you just move on, but you can stay in touch.

 

Dwelling on Rejection

Avoid dwelling on rejection. Instead focus on what you are working toward and do the daily tasks required to achieve that end. Learn all you can to improve your chances of success and work on your business daily.

 

Be honest with yourself about what you don’t know so that you can give yourself the opportunity to learn it and to grow, both personally and in your Internet Marketing business. Use the right tools to lessen the chances of Internet Marketing Rejection.

 

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