<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><?xml-stylesheet href="http://www.blogger.com/styles/atom.css" type="text/css"?><feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom' xmlns:openSearch='http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/' xmlns:blogger='http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008' xmlns:georss='http://www.georss.org/georss' xmlns:gd="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005" xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3450843316701006578</id><updated>2024-09-20T07:42:24.397-07:00</updated><category term="online business ideas"/><category term="business start up ideas"/><category term="home business ideas"/><category term="new business ideas"/><category term="business startup ideas"/><category term="small business marketing ideas"/><category term="ideas for small business"/><category term="business and marketing"/><category term="business ideas"/><category term="start your own business"/><category term="london"/><category term="small business ideas"/><category term="small business start up"/><title type='text'>Business Start Up Ideas London</title><subtitle type='html'>I&#39;m thinking of many business start up ideas that I can apply either in London, California or anywhere in the world. It wouldn&#39;t matter whether it is about marketing or management as long as it&#39;s about new business start up ideas that will grow my business&#39; revenue.</subtitle><link rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://businessstartupideaslondon.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3450843316701006578/posts/default'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://businessstartupideaslondon.blogspot.com/'/><link rel='hub' href='http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/'/><author><name>Jake The Man</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/04318814249020441013</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='27' height='32' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_3GebYLhtVlI/S_lHdHJvYUI/AAAAAAAAAC4/9SJkOIaGwWs/S220/Ako+Picture.jpg'/></author><generator version='7.00' uri='http://www.blogger.com'>Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>9</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>25</openSearch:itemsPerPage><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3450843316701006578.post-6358667815951549417</id><published>2010-07-27T21:44:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2010-07-27T21:44:05.119-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="business and marketing"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="business start up ideas"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="business startup ideas"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="home business ideas"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="ideas for small business"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="online business ideas"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="small business marketing ideas"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="start your own business"/><title type='text'>Leave Your Competitors Behind - Be The Leader!</title><content type='html'>&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF87WHNcEcPmTIYfDTJY4_Xu_XsZbZnHqaeV1SVrUcMo2PsZlvTVxUFeeIaoKTWM5uvuldvoavJGEIGsjmPztKSYTyFz8IxyKuyGnd_svu7-0CK00ETIj_6wS7SJAs7Wvxxt7ApvGgAmox/s1600/women_racing.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;220&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF87WHNcEcPmTIYfDTJY4_Xu_XsZbZnHqaeV1SVrUcMo2PsZlvTVxUFeeIaoKTWM5uvuldvoavJGEIGsjmPztKSYTyFz8IxyKuyGnd_svu7-0CK00ETIj_6wS7SJAs7Wvxxt7ApvGgAmox/s320/women_racing.jpg&quot; width=&quot;412&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;color: red; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: xx-small;&quot;&gt;source : http://www.flickr.com/photos/dalager/&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
I remember at the time when I was still connected with a very big ice cream company. My boss scolded me because I wasn&#39;t prudent enough to monitor what my competitor was doing. Hence, I did what I was told and made a competitive analysis on the promotional activities of the top two (2) competitors that we had. &lt;br /&gt;
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Management really liked my presentation but at the end, the company could not compete in terms of spending for that kind of cost. Apparently, instead of pursuing the vision that started our company in the first place,`management diluted it by focusing on what the competitors were doing and ended up being a mediocre in the ice cream industry. &lt;br /&gt;
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In any business, whether how small or large, it is of the utmost importance that you start with a vision for the future. This will be your guiding path to a successful business. Hence, this vision will give you the right focus and will allow you to play the game wherein you are the best.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a name=&#39;more&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;b&gt;So here&#39;s my &lt;a href=&quot;http://businessstartupideaslondon.blogspot.com/&quot;&gt;business start up idea&lt;/a&gt; for today, focus on your own game.&lt;/b&gt; &lt;br /&gt;
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There are enormous benefits that you will get from focusing on your game, and here are just a few : &lt;br /&gt;
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1. You Make the Rules &lt;br /&gt;
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Since you are playing your own game, you make the rules. You dictate the tempo. You take the lead, in which the other companies will only tend to follow. And the great benefit to this is since you create the rules, you can change the rules anytime you need to. &lt;br /&gt;
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2. There are no mistakes&lt;br /&gt;
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Having made the game and the rules yourself, there is no such thing as making a mistake. Only temporary experiments. Your &lt;a href=&quot;http://businessstartupideaslondon.blogspot.com/&quot;&gt;business start up ideas&lt;/a&gt; are always fresh and hence, they are only experiments being done to improve the entire ballgame. &lt;br /&gt;
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3. Everyone looks to you for direction&lt;br /&gt;
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Rather than being a follower, you are the compass to all the businesses in your industry. Take for example the great companies like Microsoft and Apple. Both companies are the ones dictating the direction of their respective industries. They create the new &lt;a href=&quot;http://businessstartupideaslondon.blogspot.com/&quot;&gt;business start up ideas&lt;/a&gt; and everybody just follows.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;br /&gt;
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Above are only a few benefits that you can get from focusing on your own game. So before thinking of a business start up idea, first, focus on creating a vision and mission for your company. &lt;br /&gt;
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Dedicated to your business success.&lt;br /&gt;
Jake&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://businessstartupideaslondon.blogspot.com/feeds/6358667815951549417/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://businessstartupideaslondon.blogspot.com/2010/07/leave-your-competitors-behind-be-leader.html#comment-form' title='6 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3450843316701006578/posts/default/6358667815951549417'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3450843316701006578/posts/default/6358667815951549417'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://businessstartupideaslondon.blogspot.com/2010/07/leave-your-competitors-behind-be-leader.html' title='Leave Your Competitors Behind - Be The Leader!'/><author><name>Jake The Man</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/04318814249020441013</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='27' height='32' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_3GebYLhtVlI/S_lHdHJvYUI/AAAAAAAAAC4/9SJkOIaGwWs/S220/Ako+Picture.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF87WHNcEcPmTIYfDTJY4_Xu_XsZbZnHqaeV1SVrUcMo2PsZlvTVxUFeeIaoKTWM5uvuldvoavJGEIGsjmPztKSYTyFz8IxyKuyGnd_svu7-0CK00ETIj_6wS7SJAs7Wvxxt7ApvGgAmox/s72-c/women_racing.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>6</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3450843316701006578.post-2776574124576684610</id><published>2010-05-23T06:30:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2010-05-23T08:20:43.398-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="business ideas"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="business start up ideas"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="business startup ideas"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="home business ideas"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="new business ideas"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="online business ideas"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="small business marketing ideas"/><title type='text'>6 Effective Ways To Improve Your Cash Flow</title><content type='html'>&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC6PxihR6NMGMFxglWz16Io6LZFhj0cIQ9gjeUTPY8ezotIoSK5JIR-JkQCysodn77FAuxxkFybRAJYQhOXzXz-td6PtOJBSzR6BIYNpiYAas7f9QeIocUTj5KO2AnNJHFvvUoGfnGPWpx/s1600/3017515135_6c61e9d9c5_o.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC6PxihR6NMGMFxglWz16Io6LZFhj0cIQ9gjeUTPY8ezotIoSK5JIR-JkQCysodn77FAuxxkFybRAJYQhOXzXz-td6PtOJBSzR6BIYNpiYAas7f9QeIocUTj5KO2AnNJHFvvUoGfnGPWpx/s320/3017515135_6c61e9d9c5_o.jpg&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: red; font-size: x-small;&quot;&gt;Picture Source : http://www.flickr.com/photos/dexxus/3017515135/&lt;/span&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Based on my last post, we talked about cash flow and how important it is in our business start up. (&lt;a href=&quot;http://businessstartupideaslondon.blogspot.com/2010/05/cash-flow-is-life-blood-of-your.html&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read my previous post)&lt;br /&gt;
This time we will talk of the simple strategies and business ideas to increase your cash inflow. &lt;br /&gt;
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Actually, I&#39;ve combined the personal lessons that I have learned in my business as well as from the books that I have read.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
1. Pay your bills on time&lt;/b&gt; &lt;br /&gt;
Often when we start a business we use leverage to our advantage like OPM (other peoples money) and OPT (other peoples time). The problem with leverage is that it is a double edge sword. It can either drown or keep your business afloat. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a name=&#39;more&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Hence in using leverage, make sure you pay them on time or you will suffer additional charges that will contribute to your cash out-flow.&lt;br /&gt;
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Also most suppliers give incentives when you pay on time. I have an example from one of my suppliers, if I pay cash for an entire month, they will give a 2% rebate on all my purchases for the entire month, allowing me to gain extra cash in-flow with not much strategy. Although that cash is only about $220 dollars a month, but it contributes $2,640 of positive cash in my income statement at the end of each year. &lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;b&gt;2. Register your business start up as a corporation&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
There are many advantages of being a corporation, and being able to declare partial expenses is part of them. For example, I have a friend who uses his business credit card on his travel and meals so that he can declare it as miscellaneous expenses.&lt;br /&gt;
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There are many ways to improve your cash flow just by little tweaks on business entity for being a corporation. Because I am not a lawyer, I advice you to take legal counsel on your respective cities and countries. &lt;br /&gt;
It is important for you to know that your business as a corporation has many advantages on how you gain a positive cash flow. &lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;b&gt;3. Request for advance payments&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
If your service is delivered over an extended period of time then asking for a one-time payment isn&#39;t realistic and would be unfair to your customer. Instead divide the payment into segments and request a portion of the payment in advance. &lt;br /&gt;
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Whether you are a product or service based business, splitting payments in segments allows you to ask the customer for advances. This payment can be a part of regular payment term for your top 20% customers that contribute 80% of your business&#39; revenue. &lt;b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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4. Focus efforts on sales, marketing, and cash conversion&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Once you focus on sales and marketing, it is expected the gross revenue will increase. But the problem with most business start up is that they are awed by high sales yet, their cash conversions are still very low.&lt;br /&gt;
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Converting your sales into cash that can be used in your business start up is what is important and not just mere sales and marketing. What can your high sales do when you do not have money to pay your sales people? &lt;br /&gt;
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In my opinion cash in-flow must be at least 40% of the actual sales revenue of your business or your business start up will be in the ICU (intensive care unit) in a couple of months. Even if you have a fat bank account, sooner or later the leak in your cash flow will make you choose to close down your business start up. &lt;b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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5. Create a business model that allows you to earn money over and over again.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
A very common business model is real estate. You offer to buy a foreclosed property, clean it up a bit, market it and rent it out for the rest of your business. You can still earn through all the years you will rent it out and your hard work was just done once.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;b&gt;6. Monitor your cash flow&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
I think this is one of the important things to do as a business owner. You need to know whether you will have enough money for your next monthly operations. In fact, in the business start up stage, you should be monitoring your cash flow on a weekly basis. &lt;br /&gt;
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In monitoring your cash flow, you can then pinpoint the leaks of your business therefore allowing you to make effective-corrective action. &lt;br /&gt;
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Start with these simple business start up ideas and it will surely help you on your future business success. Continue to brainstorm ideas with your team on how you can further improve your cash flow.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;br /&gt;
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That&#39;s it for today, please don&#39;t forget to leave your comments below. &lt;br /&gt;
&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://businessstartupideaslondon.blogspot.com/feeds/2776574124576684610/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://businessstartupideaslondon.blogspot.com/2010/05/6-effective-ways-to-improve-your-cash.html#comment-form' title='2 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3450843316701006578/posts/default/2776574124576684610'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3450843316701006578/posts/default/2776574124576684610'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://businessstartupideaslondon.blogspot.com/2010/05/6-effective-ways-to-improve-your-cash.html' title='6 Effective Ways To Improve Your Cash Flow'/><author><name>Jake The Man</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/04318814249020441013</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='27' height='32' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_3GebYLhtVlI/S_lHdHJvYUI/AAAAAAAAAC4/9SJkOIaGwWs/S220/Ako+Picture.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC6PxihR6NMGMFxglWz16Io6LZFhj0cIQ9gjeUTPY8ezotIoSK5JIR-JkQCysodn77FAuxxkFybRAJYQhOXzXz-td6PtOJBSzR6BIYNpiYAas7f9QeIocUTj5KO2AnNJHFvvUoGfnGPWpx/s72-c/3017515135_6c61e9d9c5_o.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>2</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3450843316701006578.post-6268942409641923064</id><published>2010-05-21T08:58:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2010-05-21T09:05:28.526-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="business start up ideas"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="business startup ideas"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="home business ideas"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="ideas for small business"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="london"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="new business ideas"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="online business ideas"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="small business marketing ideas"/><title type='text'>Cash Flow Is The Life Blood Of Your Business Start Up</title><content type='html'>&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT3ISZb4JkCdf_KLG5_7Lh3uxu4rO0cBGbADMjfo6ne5HDJbOoMhU_u0dLRj5pOIu5IGc369lOmHFydjm5MPBh4t4G7sbyax0TOSVLA8qNg1rzyZ-fLcghvR7H3ptoGqIv0R0plFiKA70G/s1600/2143212474_6aebfc5d7b.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT3ISZb4JkCdf_KLG5_7Lh3uxu4rO0cBGbADMjfo6ne5HDJbOoMhU_u0dLRj5pOIu5IGc369lOmHFydjm5MPBh4t4G7sbyax0TOSVLA8qNg1rzyZ-fLcghvR7H3ptoGqIv0R0plFiKA70G/s320/2143212474_6aebfc5d7b.jpg&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: red; font-size: x-small;&quot;&gt;picture source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/joeshlabotnik/&lt;/span&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
As like many business start ups, we are most satisfied when our accountant shows our income statement having a healthy profit, yet it doesn&#39;t really show the entire picture. This in fact is misleading specially if you are not good at reading financial statements.&amp;nbsp; &lt;br /&gt;
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One of the biggest mistakes made by most business start up owners is allowing clients and customers to buy now and pay later. In other words, extending credit in exchange for your services or product. &lt;br /&gt;
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I believe there should be a big line between you as a business start up owner and credit. The business idea is, since you are still at the start up level, cash flow is the lifeblood of your business. Without cash flow, your business will slowly wither and very soon, it will cause the closure of the business. Irregardless of how many sales you made or how much money is owed to you, without cash flow, your business start up will be short lived. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a name=&#39;more&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Cash flow represents the amount of money coming in to your business through services rendered and products sold, and money going out to cover expenses and certain operating costs. &lt;br /&gt;
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As a business start up owner, your main concern is to balance the money that is coming in and out of your business. It is of most importance that the flow of cash is consistent, with more money coming in rather than the opposite. Although, since you are at the Business start up, it is considerable to have a negative cash flow on the first two months of your business. &lt;br /&gt;
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Once your business experiences a surplus on cash coming in, this will continue to contribute to your business viability. Such examples are, it allows you to make early payments so you can benefit from vendor discounts, take advantage of special deals, capitalize on new found opportunities and many more.&lt;br /&gt;
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Also in my personal experience, having a positive cash flow early on the start of my business gives me a certain assurance that I am doing okay. It gives me, as an owner, a sense of &quot;temporary success&quot; which makes me be more positive in keeping the business that way. &lt;br /&gt;
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Of course the opposite happens when your business start up is experiencing a negative cash flow. As soon as cash flow fails to produce the surplus funds you need, challenges arises, stress levels go up and an overwhelming feeling will quickly follow. Not only that, your employees will feel it too. Once their paycheck is delayed, fear and doubt starts to affect their performance in their respective tasks. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Like real estate investor Trace Trajano says, &quot;cash is king&quot;. So in any business start up, the idea is to monitor your cash flow always and target to get a surplus by the end of 2 months.</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://businessstartupideaslondon.blogspot.com/feeds/6268942409641923064/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://businessstartupideaslondon.blogspot.com/2010/05/cash-flow-is-life-blood-of-your.html#comment-form' title='3 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3450843316701006578/posts/default/6268942409641923064'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3450843316701006578/posts/default/6268942409641923064'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://businessstartupideaslondon.blogspot.com/2010/05/cash-flow-is-life-blood-of-your.html' title='Cash Flow Is The Life Blood Of Your Business Start Up'/><author><name>Jake The Man</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/04318814249020441013</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='27' height='32' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_3GebYLhtVlI/S_lHdHJvYUI/AAAAAAAAAC4/9SJkOIaGwWs/S220/Ako+Picture.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT3ISZb4JkCdf_KLG5_7Lh3uxu4rO0cBGbADMjfo6ne5HDJbOoMhU_u0dLRj5pOIu5IGc369lOmHFydjm5MPBh4t4G7sbyax0TOSVLA8qNg1rzyZ-fLcghvR7H3ptoGqIv0R0plFiKA70G/s72-c/2143212474_6aebfc5d7b.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>3</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3450843316701006578.post-9032762184264502878</id><published>2010-05-06T11:08:00.001-07:00</published><updated>2010-05-11T21:36:01.835-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="business start up ideas"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="business startup ideas"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="home business ideas"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="new business ideas"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="online business ideas"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="small business marketing ideas"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="start your own business"/><title type='text'>Nurture Your Customer Relationships</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur=&quot;try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}&quot; href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIusXTyl0dfoyybCjpHPYkhJbZ2Xp3uGshtKNCh4K8iZ2bsSopb4M2WQYRGCS96AAdQFyev-DmSZBZiH5mQJALVksQoRvwKrZQZzQM7wzVJpz6DaIp3zbRlQTx5MyGUOStXgc-EnqdagZx/s1600/2869502638_d79e15421d_m.jpg&quot;&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 180px;&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIusXTyl0dfoyybCjpHPYkhJbZ2Xp3uGshtKNCh4K8iZ2bsSopb4M2WQYRGCS96AAdQFyev-DmSZBZiH5mQJALVksQoRvwKrZQZzQM7wzVJpz6DaIp3zbRlQTx5MyGUOStXgc-EnqdagZx/s320/2869502638_d79e15421d_m.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; id=&quot;BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5470235918622478914&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Just yesterday, I went to check on a new style of badminton shoes for myself in a small sports store across the highway of my hometown city (how I wish I was in a city like London). The name of the store is &lt;span style=&quot;font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;Racket Plus&lt;/span&gt; and I had bought most of my badminton equipments there.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As I was trying on their new stock of badminton shoes like the ones from Mizumo, I was expecting that I will be entertained by one of the sales agents but surprisingly, I was approached by the owner himself and he greeted me using my first name.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Our conversation centered mostly about shoes; where they got their supplies, how they handled their inventory, and marketing. Of course, he asked me what I did for a living and how I got to know their store. Through out the conversation, I noticed from him a very important trait that any business start up should have and that is nurturing his relationships with his customers.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As a sales and marketing person myself, I am a bit keen and very particular to customer relations. Although in essence, I do not fully agree with the belief that the &quot;customer is always right&quot;, yet I have a bias on the importance of the customers&#39; right to know. For me, there is no business if there are no customers. We business people exist because we are there to provide and serve our customers.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a name=&#39;more&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Now that we agree, here are several ideas that I used to nurture my business specially in the start up stage.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;1. Create an atmosphere of open communication&lt;/span&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Like any relationship, open and continuous communication is very important. In my experience, this usually contributes 90% of disengagements of business entities. Being uncommunicative is like a small leak in a dam, once it is not treated it will soon create large cracks along the dam which will eventually cause the dam to collapse.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In my case, I follow the Pareto Principle and concentrate on the 20% of my customers that contribute to the 80% of my business income. More than just being partners in the business, I treat my top 20% as real friends. I talk to them personally, give them time and enough attention and even invite them in personal activities like anniversary parties, product launches, and even a simple office blessing.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I also taught my supervisors and managers that no matter what the issue or problem that we encounter in dealing with our customers, respect and understanding should be their top priority.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;2. Give surprise incentives&lt;/span&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I believe this is one of the long and existing business start up ideas that can still grow any kind of business. As you all know, I started my career as a sales and marketing person (&lt;a href=&quot;http://salesmentoronlinephilippines.blogspot.com/&quot;&gt;click my free sales lesson here&lt;/a&gt; ), hence, I had a comprehensive training on this and I was able to use it in all of my business ventures.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Maybe a lot of you would complain and say, &quot;ah that will only make my ROI longer, I will just stick to current marketing strategies so than I can save on overhead cost&quot;. Please bear in mind that surprise incentives do not need to cost much, in fact there are many ways you can give incentives for free.&lt;br /&gt;In my next post I will be giving you more ideas on how to give surprises that cost little or nothing at all.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;3.  Make it easier for your customers&lt;/span&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Remember that the world is an ever growing continuum, and with people having limited time to do so many things in a day, so this really makes &quot;their time&quot; very important. We are in a world full of too much clutter, so everyone wants everything to be automated.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Hence, we too as entrepreneurs must make everything easier for our customers. Specially the process of buying and acquiring the goods.&lt;br /&gt;As humans, we usually want fast gratification of our needs and wants. By nature, when we buy something we want to get it fast and use it right away.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Think of it this way, our business acts as a solution to a need or want and the fastest business to provide the solution gains the most number of customers. For example, if you are selling a computer program to build websites and your instructions are unclear and insufficient, other products of the same nature who offer simple, user-friendly &quot;newbie&quot; steps with good customer support will eventually overtake your business.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It is important that as your business grows and your list of avid customers grows, your business needs to improve on how to make your customers&#39; lives even better.  Service is one of the many secrets to business success.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Now go apply this to your business start up, and move from start up to success.</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://businessstartupideaslondon.blogspot.com/feeds/9032762184264502878/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://businessstartupideaslondon.blogspot.com/2010/05/nurture-your-customer-relationships.html#comment-form' title='3 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3450843316701006578/posts/default/9032762184264502878'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3450843316701006578/posts/default/9032762184264502878'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://businessstartupideaslondon.blogspot.com/2010/05/nurture-your-customer-relationships.html' title='Nurture Your Customer Relationships'/><author><name>Jake The Man</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/04318814249020441013</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='27' height='32' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_3GebYLhtVlI/S_lHdHJvYUI/AAAAAAAAAC4/9SJkOIaGwWs/S220/Ako+Picture.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIusXTyl0dfoyybCjpHPYkhJbZ2Xp3uGshtKNCh4K8iZ2bsSopb4M2WQYRGCS96AAdQFyev-DmSZBZiH5mQJALVksQoRvwKrZQZzQM7wzVJpz6DaIp3zbRlQTx5MyGUOStXgc-EnqdagZx/s72-c/2869502638_d79e15421d_m.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>3</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3450843316701006578.post-5001912574944393691</id><published>2010-04-21T09:29:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2010-04-22T06:28:46.910-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="business start up ideas"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="business startup ideas"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="new business ideas"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="online business ideas"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="small business marketing ideas"/><title type='text'>Improve Your Merchandising To Increase Sales in the Business Start Up</title><content type='html'>&lt;span style=&quot;color: rgb(255, 102, 102);font-size:85%;&quot; &gt;http://www.flickr.com/photos/pauldineen/&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a style=&quot;color: rgb(0, 0, 0);&quot; onblur=&quot;try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}&quot; href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNUP3zcqlRbLh3CpsX-BkhVDs1db87U3atNEwQ6aM4ULgIscevVhMf-bD704K8dsSYgQVxr-PL1CnL439nm8gYhZ0xQ9FW1BSLJLeINklUSGpfBOY161soQQIBlJbOHQ8idyCKlmhEilUo/s1600/4419078509_462274f246.jpg&quot;&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 235px;&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNUP3zcqlRbLh3CpsX-BkhVDs1db87U3atNEwQ6aM4ULgIscevVhMf-bD704K8dsSYgQVxr-PL1CnL439nm8gYhZ0xQ9FW1BSLJLeINklUSGpfBOY161soQQIBlJbOHQ8idyCKlmhEilUo/s320/4419078509_462274f246.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; id=&quot;BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5462652140746741602&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:85%;&quot; &gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: rgb(255, 102, 102);&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;&quot; &gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:georgia;&quot;&gt;I remember when I was seven (7) years old, there was this small retail store in our city. This small retail store had a really small shelf space, that you would have to inform the sales clerks of your orders and wait for it since they will need to get the stocks from their backyard.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:georgia;&quot;&gt;The only thing that I noticed was that, they had this attractive posters that announce brand names and certain promos like &quot;buy 3 soap of brand x and get one for free&quot; or &quot;2% off on all sandwich spreads of brand z&quot;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a name=&#39;more&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:georgia;&quot;&gt;And on the exterior of that small retail store, they had big tarpaulins that said &quot;first 150 customers get 2 lotto tickets for free&quot;. Almost every week they had catchy tarpaulins outside that describe a short summary of their ongoing promo for the week.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:georgia;&quot;&gt;After 20 years, that little store has become a giant grocery store, alongside it are three more buildings. A mall, a commercial building, and a call center and they own all of these properties. That small-humid retail store suddenly became a giant business in our city in just a span of 20 years.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:georgia;&quot;&gt;One weekend I went  to that giant grocery store to buy snack items for my wife (she likes to eat dark chocolate and chips a lot)  and had a chance to see the owner (currently president of their corporation) of the &quot;now&quot; giant company.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:georgia;&quot;&gt;He was actually doing his usual rounds to check the store&#39;s promotional  merchandising.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:georgia;&quot;&gt;I actually knew the owner since my grandmother was one of her biggest  customers on their business start up.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:georgia;&quot;&gt;My grandmother used to bake cakes  and other pastries that she sells to many small canteens in our city. Also, when I was still working as an account executive for one the biggest companies in the Philippines, his store was one on my clients list. Although during that time, I was already talking to his purchaser, we had conversations from time to time.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:georgia;&quot;&gt;He told me he just got back from his trip to London, so I got a bit curious and I asked him &quot;what is a 67-year-old man bothering to check little details like promotional merchandising, shouldn&#39;t you be resting?&quot;. I was floored and sort of humiliated by his answer &quot;Well son, that little detail has been the x-factor of our successful business&quot;. He added saying &quot;no business enterprise can survive without having tactical and promotional merchandising&quot;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:georgia;&quot;&gt;Having been in the world of marketing and business, I thought to myself he certainly has a point. We, as a new emerging entrepreneurs, have really taken for granted the importance of&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;&quot;  &gt; Merchandising&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;&quot; &gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:georgia;&quot;&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:georgia;&quot;&gt;Well I want you all to be guided since we are talking of business start up ideas here, so I urge you to follow that old man&#39;s strategy. But first, let&#39;s define what Merchandising is so we are at the same page.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:georgia;&quot;&gt;In a nutshell, merchandising is just maximizing the sales of your products through good display, good product design, packaging, visual pricing, and product description.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:georgia;&quot;&gt;So here are the business ideas that I have learned from our conversation:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:georgia;&quot;&gt;Idea # 1 - &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;&quot;  &gt;Merchandising does not involve much additional cost.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;&quot; &gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:georgia;&quot;&gt;In most cases, the product description, packaging, pricing are already included in your initial business start up research, so cost is actually involve. The important thing that all point-of-sales merchandising are emphasize on your product itself.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:georgia;&quot;&gt;Idea # 2 - &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;&quot;  &gt;Visual Merchandising does not take much time from the customer.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;&quot; &gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:georgia;&quot;&gt;I think you all agree with me that we are all living in an ever fast environment. Hence, having good display merchandising attracts customers who are pressed for time and therefore picks up a product without second thoughts and go directly to the check out counter. A visual merchandising strategy is often considered the &quot;availability of all consumer needs&quot; in which in one scan he can already find what his looking for.  &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:georgia;&quot;&gt;Idea # - &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;&quot;  &gt;Highlighted Promotional Merchandising works.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;&quot; &gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:georgia;&quot;&gt;Based on experience, promotions really work in boosting sales for your business start up. I remember when I started in my distribution business, we sold canned condensed milk to retail stores in our city and had a very good price advantage over competition.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:georgia;&quot;&gt;But even with this advantage, sales never really came in that well. So I did a back check on my top 20 customers and found out that almost all of my product shelving were not at an eye-level, and worse, it did not have highlighted pricing.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:georgia;&quot;&gt;I talked to all the owners of my top 20 customers and were able to get a &quot;free&quot; compromise to adjust display sharing and give me eye-level display between my competitors. Also I instructed all their respective display personnel to provide emphasis on pricing through well-designed price strips and price talkers.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:georgia;&quot;&gt;And the results were amazing, during that week alone we are able to grow our sales for canned milk to 227% just by using a few promotional merchandising techniques.    &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:georgia;&quot;&gt;Now I hope you already get the business start up idea on how simple but effective merchandising works. It does not only apply to consumer products but also even to any business start up. As long as you want to get a message across, use good merchandising materials that are straight forward and attractive.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:georgia;&quot;&gt;Now go and apply this to your thriving business start up.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://businessstartupideaslondon.blogspot.com/feeds/5001912574944393691/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://businessstartupideaslondon.blogspot.com/2010/04/improve-your-merchandising-to-increase.html#comment-form' title='2 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3450843316701006578/posts/default/5001912574944393691'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3450843316701006578/posts/default/5001912574944393691'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://businessstartupideaslondon.blogspot.com/2010/04/improve-your-merchandising-to-increase.html' title='Improve Your Merchandising To Increase Sales in the Business Start Up'/><author><name>Jake The Man</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/04318814249020441013</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='27' height='32' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_3GebYLhtVlI/S_lHdHJvYUI/AAAAAAAAAC4/9SJkOIaGwWs/S220/Ako+Picture.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNUP3zcqlRbLh3CpsX-BkhVDs1db87U3atNEwQ6aM4ULgIscevVhMf-bD704K8dsSYgQVxr-PL1CnL439nm8gYhZ0xQ9FW1BSLJLeINklUSGpfBOY161soQQIBlJbOHQ8idyCKlmhEilUo/s72-c/4419078509_462274f246.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>2</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3450843316701006578.post-7456611517646654375</id><published>2010-04-13T18:58:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2010-04-15T05:49:51.659-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="business and marketing"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="business ideas"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="business start up ideas"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="home business ideas"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="ideas for small business"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="london"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="new business ideas"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="online business ideas"/><title type='text'>5 Important Tips to Overcome Business Start Up Fears</title><content type='html'>&lt;a style=&quot;font-family: georgia;&quot; onblur=&quot;try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}&quot; href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_ha8DV32cR3ItQqVj7SVAlhNOnow9pUWAsUydyOAmjXhifI-BjsxogTnmb7ouyfmp2L6Ubgn1XoUbiNsDIfFsu4-Eg4LhNfgKUg9u4Fj-Rv6GsJAtIHZ1xV6RztbPg7DUnyEAOJAR_zxX/s1600/2939337382_d7e1268752_m.jpg&quot;&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 160px;&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_ha8DV32cR3ItQqVj7SVAlhNOnow9pUWAsUydyOAmjXhifI-BjsxogTnmb7ouyfmp2L6Ubgn1XoUbiNsDIfFsu4-Eg4LhNfgKUg9u4Fj-Rv6GsJAtIHZ1xV6RztbPg7DUnyEAOJAR_zxX/s320/2939337382_d7e1268752_m.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; id=&quot;BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5459897711592250786&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;&quot; &gt;Just a week ago, I met two of my college friends. It&#39;s been four (4) years since we&#39;ve last seen each other, so we decided to have a cup of coffee to do some catching-up.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;&quot; &gt;We mostly talked about our life back in college, how the school culture has evolved, the people we were with, the education system that our school had, and our careers. Apparently, when we got to talk about our careers, they were so shocked to know that I already had two businesses. They even got more shocked to learn that I have been investing in the stock market, and still kept my day job. (If you knew me during my college days, I bet you&#39;d also be shocked)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a name=&#39;more&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;&quot; &gt;They were really intrigued with the fact that I already had two businesses and could even afford to keep my full time job in one of the biggest companies in the Philippines. They asked me questions like - how I started, how big was my capital, how much do I earn, and many other questions. (I wanted to tell them to join our &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a style=&quot;color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: georgia;&quot; href=&quot;http://bosanchezmembers.com/amember/go.php?r=2042&quot;&gt;Truly Rich Club&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;&quot; &gt; with &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a style=&quot;color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: georgia;&quot; href=&quot;http://bosanchezmembers.com/amember/go.php?r=2042&quot;&gt;Bo Sanchez&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;&quot; &gt; and they will be able to start their own business as well)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;&quot; &gt;I had so much fun telling them my story, and even told them about my future business plans like acquiring real estate properties and renting it out to receive cash flow.   &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;&quot; &gt;After telling them my story, I encouraged them to start their own business as well and ironically, both of them seemed to look like &quot;squirrels trying to get back in their hole&quot; to hide from people. The feeling in their eyes suddenly changes from excitement to sadness or worse - fear.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;&quot; &gt;At one moment we were so happy talking about business and how it drastically grew my income, and eventually change my life but when I asked them to do the same, all they could think about was the negative factors in starting a business. Both made excuses like I do not have the capital, I don&#39;t know how to start, I&#39;m not the business type of person, I do not have the time, I do not have an idea what business to start.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;&quot; &gt;It really saddens me to think that a lot of people really want a business of their own, yet only a few even try start. They complain about their income and how they are treated at their job, but they still work anyway.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;&quot; &gt;In my case, I started dreaming about having a business of my own even when I was still very young. Hence, I unconsciously pursued that dream without even realizing it. Now, it wasn&#39;t really that easy, I even failed tremendously. But as I tried more and more, I became better and better.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;&quot; &gt;To help you with overcoming your business start up fears, here are five (5) tips and ideas that have greatly helped me in my business success:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;&quot; &gt;Tip # 1&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;&quot; &gt;Have a strong burning desire -  A dream life!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;&quot; &gt;I put this as the number one tip because I believe that this will be the key to your business start up success. Having a strong dream will keep you going no matter how many times you will fail. Mr. Kiyosaki coins it very well when he said, &quot;It is the WHY that is important to achieving financial abundance, not the HOW&quot;. Know why you want a business, and the how will slowly unfold right in front of your eyes.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;&quot; &gt;Tip # 2&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;&quot; &gt;Stick to your GUNS.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;&quot; &gt;When I started doing business, I tried to do it all at once and never got a single result. I tried flipping foreclosed properties, opening a retail store, joining a networking business, started a logistics business, and on top of that I kept my full time job (yeah I know what you are thinking, I was crazy right). My belief during that time was hitting a single bird with thousands of stones. I told myself, if I want to succeed I must open many businesses at the same time.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;&quot; &gt;Big mistake...&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;&quot; &gt;I ended up frustrated, emotionally drained and broke. Even worse, my friends who invested with me got all mad at me.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;&quot; &gt;Now I learned my lesson. In starting a business, stick to your guns. In fact, just start with one gun first. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;&quot; &gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: rgb(0, 0, 0);&quot;&gt;Do not diversify and &quot;reduce risk&quot; (diversifying is only good when investing in the stock market).&lt;/span&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;&quot; &gt;Focus your efforts in just one business first. Set-up a system to automate it and hire people and professionals to take care of it.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;&quot; &gt;Based on my experience, it would often take at least two (2) to three (3) years to fully automate a business depending on your experience (learning curve) and the nature of your business.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;&quot; &gt;Tip # 3&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;&quot; &gt;Start small always.&lt;/span&gt;   &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;&quot; &gt;This inevitably reduces the fear you have inside you knowing that you are not using your entire savings to start a business. There are many ways to start small and I will discuss this also in my future posts. The important thing is, you do not loose food on your table, and be able to sleep at night knowing you still have enough to survive.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;&quot; &gt;Tip # 4&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;&quot; &gt;Learn to sell and market.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;&quot; &gt;No matter how great your business start up idea maybe, at the end of the day if nobody knew your product existed, getting sales will always be very difficult. Hey we all admit that apart from fulfilling our life mission to be successful businessmen (yes, I believe that is my life mission, I hope you too) we also want to earn money right? So how can your start up business be successful if you can&#39;t sell a single cent from the services or products your start up business offers?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;&quot; &gt;To learn more about selling and marketing I advice you take up sales lessons from someone who has actually experienced this in the actual battle field. (&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a style=&quot;color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: georgia;&quot; href=&quot;http://salesmentoronlinephilippines.blogspot.com/&quot;&gt;Click this link&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;&quot; &gt; to get online selling lessons for free)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;&quot; &gt;Remember this, sales and marketing will be the life blood of your business. So please be sure that your business start up has a strong sales and marketing system, the back up your thriving business.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;&quot; &gt;Tip # 5&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;&quot; &gt;Get yourself a Mentor.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;&quot; &gt;Yup, you heard it right. I had a mentor during all the times I was doing my trial and error in starting a business. Remember that in business, there is really no guarantee. The market is actually free and a lot of things could happen to your business.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;&quot; &gt;Having a mentor on your side, gives you an advantage against your competitors since you are getting valuable advice from someone who has gone to the route that you are about to partake. Your business mentor will be short of a fortune teller of your future. Since he has gone to the process of failure, success, failure, success, failure and success again.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;&quot; &gt;Now where to find these fabled mentors?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;&quot; &gt;Actually finding a mentor is not as hard as it seems, they are actually everywhere. They can be your parents, your rich uncle, your quiet neighbor who owns hundreds of rental properties, or the old woman that you will see in the gym. It doesn&#39;t have to cost you a fortune to get a mentor, you can trade services with him so that he will mentor you for free.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;&quot; &gt;Ask him this question - &quot;what is your biggest project right now that I can help you with?&quot;, and of course you offer your services for free. With this effort alone you gain his trust and his ideas on how he handles his business.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;&quot; &gt;Let me end this business start up idea with the true definition of FEAR. It actually means:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;&quot; &gt;F - False&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;&quot; &gt;E - Expectations&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;&quot; &gt;A - Appearing&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;&quot; &gt;R - Real&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:georgia;&quot; &gt;So when you a come up with a very good business start up idea, remember that your fears are just false expectations that appear real but in real life it does not exist until you have done it. Instead of feeling fear, think of your dream and take action, action, action, action..... until you meet success.&lt;/span&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://businessstartupideaslondon.blogspot.com/feeds/7456611517646654375/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://businessstartupideaslondon.blogspot.com/2010/04/5-important-tips-to-overcome-business.html#comment-form' title='2 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3450843316701006578/posts/default/7456611517646654375'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3450843316701006578/posts/default/7456611517646654375'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://businessstartupideaslondon.blogspot.com/2010/04/5-important-tips-to-overcome-business.html' title='5 Important Tips to Overcome Business Start Up Fears'/><author><name>Jake The Man</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/04318814249020441013</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='27' height='32' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_3GebYLhtVlI/S_lHdHJvYUI/AAAAAAAAAC4/9SJkOIaGwWs/S220/Ako+Picture.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_ha8DV32cR3ItQqVj7SVAlhNOnow9pUWAsUydyOAmjXhifI-BjsxogTnmb7ouyfmp2L6Ubgn1XoUbiNsDIfFsu4-Eg4LhNfgKUg9u4Fj-Rv6GsJAtIHZ1xV6RztbPg7DUnyEAOJAR_zxX/s72-c/2939337382_d7e1268752_m.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>2</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3450843316701006578.post-194952664463751086</id><published>2010-04-03T23:53:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2010-04-12T21:26:19.675-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="business and marketing"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="business ideas"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="business start up ideas"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="home business ideas"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="ideas for small business"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="online business ideas"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="small business ideas"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="small business start up"/><title type='text'>4 General Ideas  For The Business Start Up Stage</title><content type='html'>&lt;div style=&quot;font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;&quot; &gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size:100%;&quot;&gt;In thinking of ideas for business start up companies, it would usually differ from the nature of business you are in. So in this example I will just tackle on the most common business strategies that is crucial on the business start up stage.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;1. Equip your employees for their job positions&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I&#39;ve seen many new good business concepts that has a lot of potential and would have done pretty well but have employees that are &quot;half baked&quot; which causes the business to fail in the start up stage.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a name=&#39;more&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Let us all remember that one of the most important assets of a business is its employees and manpower. If the weakest link of the business is its manpower, then it will soon go to an end.&lt;br /&gt;Statistics say that 9 out of 10 businesses fail at the first 5 years (this five year period is what I consider to be the business start up stage) due to lack of system, unmotivated employees, lack of capital and many more.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For your business to grow, complete training should be given to every employee you have. Each should know their roles and responsibilities. Training should also be a continuous activity on your business start up because engaging in business is a continuous learning. Also the training should involve all levels of the company and make them aware of the direction of the business. Although the trainings should be based on specialization, but it must entail a holistic approach.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Also the word &quot;equipping&quot; our employees must be followed to the letter. Meaning for us to get the full potential of our employees, we do not only need to train them well but give them an environment that is suitable for the kind of business you are pursuing.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;2. Inspire your employees by giving them room for career growth&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;&quot; &gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:trebuchet ms;&quot; &gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;&quot; &gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;font-family: trebuchet ms;&quot; face=&quot;trebuchet ms&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size:100%;&quot;&gt;In my experience, whenever I get hired by a certain company, I would always look at their career pathing and my possible growth areas where I can move on to. I asked them this question - &quot;What are your basis for your promotions  and what are the next level positions?&quot;.  In most cases, a person starting in a new company gets very ecstatic because he is considered as a pioneer and once the company grows, his career grows with it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;&quot; &gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;font-family: trebuchet ms;&quot;&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;&quot; &gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;font-family: trebuchet ms;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size:100%;&quot;&gt;A&lt;span style=&quot;font-size:100%;&quot;&gt;t the idea for business start up, it should be clearly stipulated to each employee that their career has many rooms for growth and promotion or if it will not be with the company itself, encourage them that one day they will be able to use their acquired knowledge and experience through helping your current business start up.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;&quot; &gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;font-family: trebuchet ms;&quot;&gt;  &lt;/div&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;&quot; &gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;font-family: trebuchet ms;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size:100%;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-weight: bold;&quot;&gt;3. Start with a good and proven system&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Business is all about systems and all businesses with good systems will have a good head start among its competitors. Note that I have already mentioned it above that we have to equip our employees during the business start up, hence the business system will be the biggest factor in preparing our employees for the business start up.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The relationship between our employees and our business system will be the main factor of our business&#39; success.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I remember in my early days, I joined a network marketing company that had very good products and even had very good people who worked as trainers and team leaders. At the start, it went very well until slowly there were problems on the monitoring of the affiliate&#39;s commissions. Each affiliate started getting depressed and unmotivated due to the delay in releasing of commissions. In the end that business decided to end it&#39;s operations and left a lot of people mad and cursing the business model of &quot;Multi Level Marketing (commonly known as Networking in the Philippines).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Obviously the main factor here is that the system could not provide the &quot;needed service&quot; that the employees required, leading to the failure of the entire business.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Again in the business start up stage, systems with good people will lead to the success of the business.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;&quot; &gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;font-family: trebuchet ms;&quot;&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;&quot; &gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;font-family: trebuchet ms;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size:100%;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-weight: bold; font-family: trebuchet ms;&quot;&gt;4. Give 50% of your effort to sales and marketing&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:trebuchet ms;&quot;&gt;I repeat, 50% of your efforts should focus on sales and marketing. In my years exploring many businesses, I have never seen any kind of business that survives even without getting a sale. At the end of the day, no matter how great a product or service you have but if your sales people or marketing team can&#39;t sell a single cent, then your business is good as broke.&lt;/span&gt;  &lt;span style=&quot;font-family:trebuchet ms;&quot;&gt;Like they say, your sales force &quot;brings home the bacon&quot; for everybody in the company. They are like honey bees bringing nectar to the beehive, hence giving the queen bee more food and in turn grows more soldier bee&#39;s. Just like in business, the more sales we make, the faster we can grow the business.&lt;/span&gt;  &lt;span style=&quot;font-family:trebuchet ms;&quot;&gt;In my personal belief, management will have to fully focus on their selling and marketing efforts in the business start up stage since this will be the main topic fully discussed by the investors who are also looking at their ROI.&lt;/span&gt;   &lt;span style=&quot;font-family:trebuchet ms;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Well I hope I am able to help you with these four (4) business start up ideas. May these help you in your journey to growing your business.&lt;/span&gt;  &lt;span style=&quot;font-family:trebuchet ms;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Please leave you comments and suggestions below. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://businessstartupideaslondon.blogspot.com/feeds/194952664463751086/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://businessstartupideaslondon.blogspot.com/2010/04/4-general-ideas-for-business-start-up.html#comment-form' title='3 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3450843316701006578/posts/default/194952664463751086'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3450843316701006578/posts/default/194952664463751086'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://businessstartupideaslondon.blogspot.com/2010/04/4-general-ideas-for-business-start-up.html' title='4 General Ideas  For The Business Start Up Stage'/><author><name>Jake The Man</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/04318814249020441013</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='27' height='32' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_3GebYLhtVlI/S_lHdHJvYUI/AAAAAAAAAC4/9SJkOIaGwWs/S220/Ako+Picture.jpg'/></author><thr:total>3</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3450843316701006578.post-268025330059754183</id><published>2010-03-27T03:03:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2010-04-12T21:22:52.775-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="business startup ideas"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="home business ideas"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="new business ideas"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="online business ideas"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="small business ideas"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="small business marketing ideas"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="small business start up"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="start your own business"/><title type='text'>Have You Hug Your Customer Lately?</title><content type='html'>&lt;div style=&quot;font-family: verdana;&quot;&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: verdana;&quot;&gt;Mushy title huh? To most of you, hugging a customer would definitely sound a bit mushy but being in the world of business, our customers are, for me the only reason why we have a business at all.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: verdana;&quot;&gt;I start with this post and consider this as the best business start up idea in any kind of business you are in. Whenever I start a business, I ask myself this question - &quot;who do I want to serve?&quot; or if ever there is already a player in the current market, &quot;how can I serve them better?&quot;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a name=&#39;more&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: verdana;&quot;&gt;Let&#39;s face it, without customers your business is good as dead. Specifically in a business start up stage, it is necessary to gather a group of loyal customers that enable you continuously operate your business and further it to path of success. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: verdana;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Tell me....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: verdana;&quot;&gt;When you are happy of a product or service what is the first thing you do? You tell everyone you know, right? If you had a great experience with the staff of a store or restaurant what do you do? You go back again!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: verdana;&quot;&gt;Have you ever walk in to a store snubbed and totally ignored at the check out counter? What do you normally do? You walk out and don&#39;t purchase a single item. In fact, in most cases you say to yourself that you will never go back to that store again and tell your friends how rude their staff was. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: verdana;&quot;&gt;Obviously, I am not telling you to literally hug your customers (unless you are really that close to them), I am implying that you show your customer some appreciation. Great customer service is the surest way to success in any kind of business. As a simple way of customer appreciation, I follow this simple steps:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: verdana;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Step 1 : Deliver what you sell&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: verdana;&quot;&gt;Step 2 : Offer a reason for them to re-purchase&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: verdana;&quot;&gt;Step 3 : Be service oriented&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: verdana;&quot;&gt;With this business start up ideas and steps, I now have a goal and the mindset to guide me in achieving customer satisfaction. Good customer service as a very simple business start up idea yet many failed in this aspect of business. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: verdana;&quot;&gt;For example there is this very nice restaurant, ORSO in Wellington Street, London that not only offers great Italian food but a very warm customer service and effective customer attention. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: verdana;&quot;&gt;They deliver what they sell by providing their customers with the sumptuous meal and offer a reason for them to comeback with the kind of service they provide.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: verdana;&quot;&gt;Have you ever been to a nice hotel where they leave a chocolate on your pillow?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: verdana;&quot;&gt;Now, that chocolate only cost them a few pennies but it definitely made your hotel experience a lot nicer, but most of all, it made you remember that particular hotel among the rest.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: verdana;&quot;&gt;How about doing a customer rewards program for your first 50-100 customers for starting business. Or offering a quarterly sales and giving the customers a reason to comeback since all items are at a bargain price.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: verdana;&quot;&gt;Don&#39;t just stop at my examples and steps. The possibilities of improving your customer service are endless. In a business start up, the ideas are definitely unlimited.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: verdana;&quot;&gt;Now go on, plan out the best customer service strategy that you can implement without even spending a single penny!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: verdana;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;To our business success.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: verdana;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Cheers!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: verdana;&quot;&gt;     &lt;/span&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://businessstartupideaslondon.blogspot.com/feeds/268025330059754183/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://businessstartupideaslondon.blogspot.com/2010/03/have-you-hug-your-customer-lately.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3450843316701006578/posts/default/268025330059754183'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3450843316701006578/posts/default/268025330059754183'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://businessstartupideaslondon.blogspot.com/2010/03/have-you-hug-your-customer-lately.html' title='Have You Hug Your Customer Lately?'/><author><name>Jake The Man</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/04318814249020441013</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='27' height='32' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_3GebYLhtVlI/S_lHdHJvYUI/AAAAAAAAAC4/9SJkOIaGwWs/S220/Ako+Picture.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3450843316701006578.post-1870429877411266305</id><published>2010-03-24T23:15:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2010-04-12T21:22:16.679-07:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="business and marketing"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="business ideas"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="business start up ideas"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="home business ideas"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="ideas for small business"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="new business ideas"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="online business ideas"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="start your own business"/><title type='text'>The Business Start Up Ideas London</title><content type='html'>&lt;span style=&quot;font-size:100%;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family:verdana;&quot;&gt;Hi everyone and welcome to the hippest and newest business techniques that will drastically help your thriving start-up business grow into one of the best in your current field.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style=&quot;font-family:verdana;&quot;&gt;In here, we will take on the important business start up ideas that will make your business standout among all the rest just by making little and small-cost tweaks that will generate for you the desire output which will ultimately grow your revenue.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a name=&#39;more&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Since I myself have failed a dozen times and have also found success in the few of my business ventures, I can give you the points and lessons I have learned from my previous experiences. With these insights, you can now avoid the mistakes I committed and even think of other ways to turn things better.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;From here on, we will discuss examples and stories of other successful businessmen that did not only succeed in business but in life as well. Also in some of my insights, we will discuss the importance of marketing and sales and how it affects 50% of the business success.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Now let&#39;s move from being a mediocre business to extraordinary!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;To our business success.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Cheers! &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://businessstartupideaslondon.blogspot.com/feeds/1870429877411266305/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://businessstartupideaslondon.blogspot.com/2010/03/business-start-up-ideas-london.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3450843316701006578/posts/default/1870429877411266305'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3450843316701006578/posts/default/1870429877411266305'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://businessstartupideaslondon.blogspot.com/2010/03/business-start-up-ideas-london.html' title='The Business Start Up Ideas London'/><author><name>Jake The Man</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/04318814249020441013</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='27' height='32' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_3GebYLhtVlI/S_lHdHJvYUI/AAAAAAAAAC4/9SJkOIaGwWs/S220/Ako+Picture.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry></feed>