How to Write a Winning Business Plan | The Labor Academy Like this article? Please share it! If you’ve ever written a business plan you know that it can be one of the most difficult documents you’ll ever create. I’ve written numerous plans both for myself and others and it was an arduous task – but also a necessary one – especially if it was to be used to secure formal outside funding. The Traditional Business Plan The typical plan I produced usually included the following - - Executive summary – Mission statement – Success factors – Objectives – Company summary – Start- up Summary (funding & requirements) – Locations – Ownership – Services – Competitive comparison – Market Analysis (Trends, Growth, Needs) – Strategy and Implementation – Sales summary (Strategy, Forecast, Milestones) – Management summary (Executive profiles) – Financial Plan – Projected P/L Those are the sections of the typical business plan. The Problem with Traditional Business Plans Why? A Better Business Plan Vision – this is the “big idea” of your company. Like this:
How to Make Money From Your Blog StevePavlina.com was launched on Oct 1st, 2004. By April 2005 it was averaging $4.12/day in income. Now it brings in over $200/day $1000/day (updated as of 10/29/06). This article is seriously long (over 7300 words), but you’re sure to get your money’s worth (hehehe). Do you actually want to monetize your blog? Some people have strong personal feelings with respect to making money from their blogs. If you have mixed feelings about monetizing your blog, then sort out those feelings first. If you do decide to generate income from your blog, then don’t be shy about it. You can reasonably expect that when you begin commercializing a free site, some people will complain, depending on how you do it. Can you make a decent income online? Yes, absolutely. Can most people do it? No, they can’t. If that last paragraph doesn’t flood my inbox with flames, I don’t know what will. This kind of 99-1 ratio isn’t unique to blogging though. Web savvy What do I mean by web savvy? Thriving on change Expenses
How to use LinkedIn to drive Massive Traffic to your Site Exploiting the LinkedIn Traffic Goldmine by Steve Hughes LinkedIn is, amazingly, often overlooked by so many when talking about generating traffic from Social Media. Digital Point Forum: Social Media Section Unbelievably, LinkedIn doesn’t even get a look in, even if you scroll down through the main Social Media folders. There appears to be a common misconception that LinkedIn is just a glorified Resume or CV site, this could not be further from the truth. LinkedIn: The Statistics Before I delve into how to fully utilise this fantastic resource, let’s have a look at some of the statistics, so you can realise just what a potent force LinkedIn, can and will play, in Traffic Generation. LinkedIn has more than doubled in size (OVER 160 million Members) in the past year! Pretty impressive eh? Setting up and Utilising your LinkedIn Profile Your profile is the first thing that anyone on LinkedIn will see. Firstly, upload a recent photograph of you. LinkedIn Skills & Expertise LinkedIn Connections Steve
10 Tips for College Students After writing the time management article Do It Now, which was based on my experience of graduating college in three semesters with two degrees, I received many follow-up questions from students asking for more advice. Here are 10 tips to help you create a productive and memorable college experience… and most of all, to deeply enjoy this time in your life. 1. Answer the question, “Why am I going to college?” Many college students really don’t have a clear reason for being there other than the fact that they don’t know what else to do yet. As I’ve stated previously on this blog, the three-semester deal wasn’t my first time at college. That experience sent me into a bit of a tailspin. Your goals for college will likely be different than mine. 2. Once you know why you’re going to college, imagine your ideal outcome. Before I returned to school, I spent hours visualizing the kind of experience I wanted to have. This was a really important step. 3. What about prerequisites? 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
Hidden Gems: The 100 .edu sites every Entrepreneur Should Read Whether you’re an ivy-leaguer or a high school dropout, chances are you still have quite a bit to learn from others. Why not learn from the people who do learning best? Check out these .edu blogs and other informative sites for strategies, theory, and concrete resources for building and growing your business. Marketing Marketing may be one of the many things you try to squeeze into your business, but for the people behind these sites, this is all they do. Take advantage of their ability to specialize and use their knowledge to better market your business. Innovation Inside every great entrepreneur is an inventor, constantly thinking of new and exciting ways to solve problems and create new things. Industries Educational resources can sometimes be frustrating because they tend to focus on theory, while you’re looking for concrete ideas. International Business In today’s global economy, entrepreneurs must be familiar with the ideas of international business. Knowledge & Information Accounting
How to Build a High-Traffic Web Site (or Blog) Since posting my 2005 traffic figures recently, I’ve received many questions about how I was able to start this web site from scratch and build its traffic to over 700,000 visitors per month (Jan 2006 projection) in about 15 months – without spending any money on marketing or promotion. Building a high-traffic web site was my intention from the very beginning, so I don’t think this result was accidental. My traffic-building strategy isn’t based on tricks or techniques that will go out of style. It’s mainly about providing genuine value and letting word of mouth do the rest. Sadly, this makes me something of a contrarian today, since I happen to disagree with much of what I’ve seen written about traffic-building elsewhere. Here are 10 of my best suggestions for building a high traffic web site: 1. Is your content worthy of being read by millions of people? When I sit down to write, I sometimes imagine myself standing on an outdoor concert stage before an audience of a million people. 2.
15 Websites To Sharpen Your Business Skills From management, to marketing, to finances — business skills of all varieties are critical to have in this economy and incredibly beneficial no matter what your situation. In this article we’ve collected 15 different websites that will help you sharpen your business skill set in a number of different ways. Each of these sites is an incredible source of information, and some of them are easily worth reading on a daily basis. Here’s the list: Category: Management, General Bnet is a new-ish website that has become a major resource for anything having to do with business. 2. A collection of Harvard’s best business bloggers, this site is a virtual goldmine of intelligent information. 3. Category: Finance Get Rich Slowly is a personal finance blog with advice that is beneficial to all types of people in many different situations. 4. Category: Online Business, Technology There’s no better site for following online business news and announcements than TechCrunch. 5. 6. Category: General Business 7.
Podcast #009 – Kick-start Your Own Business StevePavlina.com Personal Development for Smart People podcast #9 This podcast will give you some tips on how to kick-start your own business, especially a part-time, home-based business. Incidentally, I know the iTunes podcast subscription for this podcast isn’t working. Enjoy the podcast… Top 10 Social Networks for Entrepreneurs Posted by gbravo on April 8, 2009 in Internet Marketing [ 1 Comment ] Online social networking is a great way for entrepreneurs to gain exposure, promote their ideas and meet other creative and business-minded people who can help them achieve their goals. In today’s information era, a good knowledge of online social networks is almost mandatory for anyone who wishes to successfully launch their own business. Networking sites are a good online marketing tool to help you find other entrepreneurs to partner-up with. They also allow you keep track of growing trends and business news. Here is a top 10 list of the best social networking sites geared towards business owners and entrepreneurs. 1. Entrepreneur Connect is a networking site created over a year ago by Entrepreneur Media (publishers of Entrepreneur Magazine). 2. Killer Startups is a site that allows you to look at and review new startup companies as they emerge. 3. Konnects is a good site for those looking to advertise themselves. 4.
The Game Crafter - Custom board games and card games! The world leader in print-on-demand games. 21 Ways to get Featured in the Media Your business: front and center in the newspaper, feature, on prime-time TV or out there where everyone can see you. It’s what dreams are made of. Media coverage can make or break a business, but landing any bit of coverage is the hard part. From this list of 21 free or low-cost ideas to get featured, concentrate on two or three that fit your business and your personality and go after them with everything you have. 1. Do Something Remarkable It goes without saying that remarkable businesses are the ones that get featured every day. 2. You wouldn’t like it if someone you didn’t know asked you to give something to them. 3. Is it really that easy? 4. My business landed on the front page of our newspaper a few years ago because I highlighted a story about a family I was working with. 5. Press releases are old school but they’re still great ways to announce events and changes within your company. 6. Every day journalists need to take in information. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17.
Arnell Ando's Useful Notes on Making and Publishing Your Own Tarot Deck Since addressing my creative process making Tarot cards in an early essay let's focus on practical aspects of getting your deck (self) published as well ideas for self promotion. Tarot journal exercises to help inspire your writing & intuition (which go hand in hand with making a deck) can be found on the site including the following pages: A Major Arcana Key and also a Suits, Numerology, and Court Cards Sample Key That said, let’s dig into the nuts & bolts of getting your deck out there for all the world to enjoy! Getting a deck published by a reputable company Before sending your work off to a publisher, check their site and find out if they are accepting new submissions. They usually have downloadable submission packets. If you do find a publisher willing to publish your deck, expect it to take at least a year (more likely two). Some benefits to being published by a big company: its great for circulation! A Few Main Tarot deck publishers in U.S.
10 Free Business Tools Too Valuable To Ignore - OPEN Forum Good things rarely come for free anymore, but check out these very valuable business tools that don't cost a thing. July 18, 2011 Small business owners and entrepreneurs love to save money, but at some point we’ve all learned the hard way that “you get what you pay for." But there are, indeed, good free resources. 1. This powerful product ends the challenge of storing and syncing files and documents on different devices and computers. 2. If you have a business, your e-mail address needs to end with @YOURDOMAIN.com. 3. Several weeks ago I was the guest on a Tweetchat, an interview and interactive session conducted entirely on Twitter. 4. A nonprofit organization dedicated to educating and helping entrepreneurs with over 13,000 volunteers and 370 offices around the U.S., SCORE also has a section on its website with free templates and tools. 5. In a business environment that mandates a presence on the Web, Google Analytics helps you maximize your online efforts. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
PlainCards PlainCards are a new product designed for easy creation and printing of your own professional-looking Tarot cards. Each package of Plain Cards contains 22 sheets of four-up micro-perforated cards, a sample printed card to demonstrate the finished texture and appearance, instructions for best printing, and a small square piece of emery board for filing off the perforated tabs and card corners at the end of the project. Made from high quality card stock on sheets of paper 8.5” x 11” in size, each sheet has four perforated 2.75” x 4.75” cards with rounded corners. The Coatable cards are made from true playing card stock and have a very smooth and comparatively glossy finish. The Matte cards are the same size and shape as the coatable cards, but made with regular uncoated card stock. The PlainCards website has useful information to help with designing your tarot cards, such as links to free software programs, free clipart and photos, and how to make custom card boxes from templates.