When you think of the internet and how you log on every single day, you probably don’t think about all of the work that goes on behind the scenes to make web pages load properly on your end. Most of us don’t. But, if you’re one of those people that takes into consideration all of the ins and outs of the internet and are interested in starting your own ISP to provide that same service to other people and make some money while you’re at it, keep reading. If you’re not ready for hours of hard work and a large startup cost, starting your own ISP may not be for you. But, if you can foot some potentially large startup capital in exchange for a large payout, the ISP game could be the thing for you.

1. Before you do anything else, you’re going to want to find a place to host your ISP. Obviously, you can start out operating things from your house or a small office building, but if you’re going to get serious, you’ll need a fairly large space to house all of your help support employees as well as your other IT professionals. Estimate a staff of about ten to fifteen to start and find a space that’s large enough to hold all of them on a daily basis. With that part laid out, go ahead and register your ISP with the state you live in and get a tax number. This, along with a bank account tied to your newly created business’ name will be enough to get started operating your business.

2. The next thing to consider is how you’re going to get your customers online. Laying your own cable is unfeasible unless you’re a multi million dollar corporation, so you’ll have to piggyback off of other network’s hubs. Contact some ISPs in your area and see how much they charge to rent T1 connections each month. Most starting ISPs put a few hundred users on a single T1 connection and depending on the time of day, you may need more or less bandwidth to handle the load of everyone trying to connect. But, to get started a single T1 from a local ISP should suffice.

3. Although you have the connection in place, how do you get users online with it? Well, you’re going to need some equipment. Firstly, you’ll need a PRI, or Primary Rate Interface. This allows you to route large amounts of traffic from users to the connection at any given time. Next up is a few dedicated servers to handle all of the basic tasks of an ISP. This includes a DNS Server, an email server (if you want to provide an email service), and a web browsing server. While all of these functions can be performed by a single machine, it is not advisable to put that much load onto a single server. We advise you house these servers at your local ISP’s office so they’re near your connection at all times. Finally, you’ll need to hook all of your devices together with a network hub that will get everything routed to the access switch, which will ultimately connect to the T1 connection that the ISP rents you. From here, you’re ready to get your customers online.

Obviously it would be impossible to cover every single aspect of how to become an ISP in a single article. But, you need to have a thorough understanding of networking to even get started and if you’re still confused, contact your IT friends to get their opinions and help. There’s a lot of work involved in getting your own ISP up and running, but if you put in the time and effort, as well as the research behind everything you need to do to have happy customers, there’s no reason why you can’t have one up and running in a few months from now.

The internet is a very large beast to try and tame and if you’re like the millions of other users out there, you’re probably wondering if there is a way to make some extra cash from the time you spend online. Well, luckily for you there is. Through a process called affiliate marketing, you can start a website and make money by guiding related traffic to your site and pulling money in from the adverts that will be displayed on your website. In a nutshell, affiliate marketing works by picking a very specific topic, referred to as a niche, and then finding other websites that relate to that topic as well. These affiliate sites all link back and forth to one another to generate as much traffic between them as possible. In turn, once visitors visit your website, you can make ad revenue any time they click on one of the ads posted on your site. So, through affiliate marketing, it’s possible to increase your website’s traffic tenfold as well as your profits.

1.The first step is to develop a website that fits a certain niche. Because there are obviously tens of thousands of websites already dedicated to your specific topic, it’s important to try and diversify a little. Say you want to start a website about cars. You’ll want to not only include lots of information about cars on your site but also information about car dealerships, places to buy cars online, and various other niche specific content that’s related to your overall topic. Finding the balance between being broad and not broad enough is a challenge but with some practice, you’ll get it down.

2.With your website together and content on the site, it’s time to start researching how to link back to your site from other sites. The most common approach is to add your website to your email signature or your blog signature so that whenever you post, your website is automatically attached to the end of your text. This way, whenever people see you posting, they’ll also see that you have a website and through sheer curiosity, will check it out.

3.If sending a lot of emails and posting religiously to no name blogs doesn’t seem like the best way to get affiliate marketing and traffic to your site, you’re right. There are many affiliate programs on the web too. Do a little researching with your favorite web browser and see which affiliate programs suit the type of marketing you’re trying to go for. Affiliate marketing sites are capable of matching sites with related content together and through a little internet magic, pair them up so that they appear on each other’s sites. You can of course scour the web yourself and email every web admin that seems like a potential partner and ask them if they’d be interested in trading links, or you can let an affiliate marketing company handle all of the work for you. But, be wary. Some affiliate sites can be scams and it’s important that you do your research beforehand.

Breaking our unspoken rule about article length being about five minutes or less, today we’re going to cover everything you need to know about starting a business. It is quite a feat to try and consolidate everything you need to know about making it on your own in a guide that doesn’t consume your afternoon, as well as keep it in depth enough to keep your attention and provide some type of valuable outcome. Without wasting too much time in introductions, let’s jump right in. This guide won’t be a “step by step” approach that you may be used to, but rather a “here are some of the steps and here are some pointers.”

Obviously the first thing you want to do is come up with some type of idea and business model. A common misconception about starting your own business is that you have to have a new product and a new idea to get anyone even remotely interested in what you’re doing. Wrong. There are plenty of businesses out there that merely expand on existing ideas and improve on them so that the public has a choice in what they buy or use. It’s this very idea that makes starting your own business so great. For instance, if you only have one grocery store in your home town that sells everything you could possibly need, but doesn’t ever stay open passed 5PM during the week, an hour before everyone gets off from work, you would make a fortune starting a competing store that stays open until say, 8PM. You’re not selling any new revolutionary products, nor are you creating a whole new type of store, you’re merely improving on an existing idea and making it better.

But, if you’re starting your own business or got the drive to do so, chances are you already had an idea in mind. So, instead of spending too much time on developing your idea, we’ll jump to the next part of the procedure: the business plan. A good business plan is vital the success of your newly formed business project. Notice that it’s merely called a “project” at the moment. Until you have approval from the state, tax man, and an income coming in, it’s still just a project. Your business plan doesn’t have to look like a blueprint for a journey into space, but it should look professional enough that you’d be proud to show it to people other than your closest friends. Your business plan should include things like the cost of operations each month, your anticipated revenue for the first few months, even for the first year, and what type of market research you have done. In addition to the operation side of things, you’ll want to include any government restrictions that may exist for your business type. Getting all of these things down on paper will help you organize your thoughts and get you ready for the next step.

Who has ever started a business without money? The answer should be “no one.” With your business plan in hand, you can start approaching potential investors with your idea. You may be hard pushed to find a bank willing to loan in these tight times, but if you have any wealthy friends or know a guy who knows a guy, you can pitch your idea to them. Businesses don’t fail for a lack of good ideas, they fail because people never have enough funding to keep them going.

The next few tips and suggestions won’t really help you get your business going, but will rather keep it going. You may notice that there is a lot of gray space in between getting everything ready for your business and the “keep it going” stage. That’s because the space in between is entirely subjective and open to debate. Some people like to take their start up capital and invest it in a new office for themselves to work, while others would rather work from home and put all of their money into products and services and get an office down the road. It would be impossible for any guide to tell you what’s right and wrong in that area. The only good advice we can give you is to keep things sensible and if necessary, find a place of operations that isn’t too lavish, but will still attract customers. See, wasn’t that vague? To determine where to spend your money you can spend hours reading marketing books to learn where your customers are and how to get them through your doors, or you can use common sense. The choice is yours. After you get your business “official” and running, you can move on to the tips that will help you keep things running smoothly and efficiently.

• Take the time to cater to your customers. The old adage about the customer always being right should be tattooed on your arm so you don’t forget. Do everything in your power to make your customer’s experience pleasant and memorable. Think, if you spend an extra dollar or so on a free cup of coffee and a bagel for every customer that walks through your doors, you can almost guarantee that they will come back, as well as tell their friends. You may end up losing money on the front end, but if you can keep paying customers coming through the door, you’ve done well.

• One mistake that a lot of young business owners make is forgetting to organize. Organization is key to making things run smoothly. If you think you can get away with shoving all of your receipts into a drawer and worry about them come tax season, you’re wrong. If you’re one of those people, you may want to start off early and higher a CPA. Also, a secretary or assistant of some kind to keep your life organized while you run things may be beneficial to both the health of your business but also to your own mental health.

• Lastly in the list of things you need to do to keep your business afloat is probably the most important. If you take nothing else from this guide, remember this final tip. Take time for yourself. You say to yourself, “What?! Why would I do that when I have a business to run?” If you don’t take time for yourself, the stress will build and ultimately, your business will suffer. If you can’t take time every evening to sit back and relax without worrying about how the business is doing, you’re doing a disservice to yourself. Take time to relax.

We hope that you learned something from this guide, even if it was only a small little tip or tidbit that inspired a world changing idea. Many of these tips are covered more in depth in other guides available on the site. Feel free to take the time to check them out and learn more about each topic. For now though, best of luck with your business ventures and if you have questions or comments, post them in the comments section below.

Is it possible to use Facebook to make a living? The answer is yes but it depends on how much time you are willing to spend. There are several different ways that an entrepreneur can take advantage of the 180 million Facebook users but I am just going to cover one of the methods. If you don’t already see the potential of having access to that large amount of people then you need to stop and think about it first.

The method that I am going to cover is by setting up Facebook groups and getting a large number of members joining. This is obviously more effective if you have some way to convert your members into money, so the thought of what type of group you want to start is extremely critical.

The very first step is to get the idea for the group. What works very well is creating a group to stand against a certain cause. People love to stand up and speak for what they believe in which will lead to them talking to their friends about the group and increasing your group size. This is what is known as going viral and Facebook has an insane amount of viral ability the way their site works with posting stories on profiles and feeds.

When you come up with the idea it is now time to come up with a catchy title. The title is the most important part of this because you get one shot to get future members to join, and that is decided if they even click on the link or not. To accomplish this goal you need to be somewhat deceiving to make it easier. For instance if you are trying to make a group and promote to people that love dogs then you should create some nonsense about people in the US starting to cook and eat dogs for dinner. Then the purpose of your group is for people to join up and speak out against it so that dogs in the US won’t die to be someone’s dinner. Even though none of that is true, at least I don’t think it is, the purpose is to get people to join your group so you can then advertise to them.

Once your group starts going and members are flooding in to protect dogs, or whatever your group is about, it is time to start making money. There is tons of different affiliate programs out there that will work for your group you created but for going along with the example above I would probably shoot for something like dog food coupons. You can easily find dog food stores that you can promote with a coupon. Basically, you put that link on the group page and now 50,000 (or however big your group is) can click on your link and make you some money.

The best part of this is that your group will most likely be a targeting group. Just imagine the power to take 180 million users and separate them into specific groups where you can advertise certain products or services to. This is an UNBELIEVABLE opportunity for any internet marketer and can be easily done by any new entrepreneur.

The typical office conditions often seem like hell traps designed for our misery and torture as we endure our eight or nine hours of servitude. But, in recent trends throughout industries, government and private, many offices are now opting for a “greener” approach to the way they operate which in turn creates for a more sustainable work environment that results in fewer sick days and increased productivity.

Most offices consist of cubicles from wall to wall, with employees practically breathing down each other’s necks because of the cramped space they occupy. It doesn’t take a genius to look at a situation like that and see that if people are spending most of their time in such close quarters, the likelihood of infections and health problems are going to rise significantly. A recent trend has been shaping up that is letting employees go home early. “Go home early?,” you say. Yes, that’s right. Companies are trying out new programs that cut work weeks down to just six or seven hours a day, thereby cutting out “the fat.” Let’s be honest here. Most people don’t spend their entire eight hours a day working themselves to death. Most of us take breaks here and there to go and visit with our coworkers. By getting rid of that useless hour, employees are able to get more rest at home and feel more motivated at work.

Shorter work days aren’t the only trend. A new strategy in which work weeks, like those in Europe, are cut back to four, ten hour days, as opposed to five, eight hour days. All of these shortened work week plans are in an effort to reduce the amount of time employees are in the buildings. The less time that is spent in the office, the more money that can be saved on electricity powering all of the computers and lights. And, with less time in the office comes higher morale, resulting in more productivity. The whole thing seems counter intuitive, that is, making employees work less to do more. And if the recent study published by the University of San Diego is any indication of success, making employees work less results in better health for them as well as greatly reduced energy costs. In a time where money is tight, saving money in any sector is important. Companies have always struggled with energy waste in the past, but if they all start following the trend of shorter work weeks and greener offices, they could save a lot of money in the long run.

To finish off the “business” series on EverydayCareer, we are going to look away from the successes of a business to potential failures. We’re sure all of you are more than capable of running business, but there are some things that even you can’t control. Things like natural disasters can’t be prevented. That’s why, if you haven’t already set up a backup plan for your small business, you should. In fact, before you walk through the doors of your office tomorrow, you should get the ball rolling on a backup plan.

1. The first thing that could get in your way is a natural disaster of some kind. Depending on the area of the country you live in, you may be more prone to floods or tornadoes than say, someone in New York City. Whatever you feel to be the most threatening, and even the things you think pose no risk at all, like an earthquake in Kansas, prepare for them. The first thing to do is, with your insurance company, set up insurance for the most likely events to cause damage to your establishment. This usually includes flood and earthquake insurance. You’ll then want to back that entire up with some type of property insurance that protects things that may get damaged from the disaster. You can never be too careful when it comes to planning for disaster.

2. As the natural disaster rolls through, there’s a possibility that a lot of your important documents may get destroyed. To counter this you should first make copies of everything you consider valuable. That includes every tax return, receipt, fax, and insurance paperwork. Once you’ve got everything backed up you will either want to invest in a waterproof/fireproof safe that will keep things in tip top shape if things ever get destroyed, or talk to your local bank branch about getting a safe deposit box. Keeping paperwork backed up is a must if you’re planning for the worst.

3. To piggyback on number two, you will also want to backup all of your clients’ information. All of the phone numbers you’ve collected over the years should be archived along with your important documents.

4. Lastly, if your business does get damaged during a disaster or through something out of your control, you will want to have a line of credit at your disposal. Be this a credit card or some type of loan on reserve, you will want to make sure that you have some way of getting back on your feet if everything disappears.

We hope that your business never has to go through a disaster. The sad part is though, many businesses never think it will happen to them, and when it does, they lose it all. Prepare now and take solace in the fact that if and when something ever happens, you’re ready to start business in a relatively short period of time instead of struggling to restart and losing all of your customers.

Everyone knows that you’re not going to get anyone through the doors of your store without proper advertising. By now you should have the right employees for your workplace, and are making enough money to keep yourself afloat each month. If you’ve made it this far without quitting, give yourself a pat on the back and a congratulatory handshake for a job well done. Starting a business isn’t easy and getting one that’s sustainable is even more difficult. The next step in turning your small business into an empire (OK, maybe not an empire) is to start advertising. There are a few ways you can go about it, all of which may cost you money. But, if you feel as though you’re not getting enough draw from just word of mouth, letting people know who you are and what you’re all about is the best way to get exposure. Word of mouth can only travel so far.

1. TV: Obviously, the number one way to get people in to your store to see what you’re all about is by putting yourself on TV. You can either have a commercial professionally done, which may set you back a few thousand dollars, or you can ask some of your local high schools for help. I’m sure they have students eager to work on video projects. Whatever route you take, try and get your advertising on local stations as opposed to big name networks. Many local news stations have a very devout following and advertising in between news segments won’t cost nearly as much as you might think.

2. Newspapers: Newspaper advertising could go one of two ways. If you put an honest ad in the local paper, maybe somewhere near the classifieds, you may stand a chance to get more business out of it. But if you go for over the top advertising, even to the point where it looks as though it’s an actual news article, you’re bound to be skipped over. People want to be reassured that buying from you is safe and honest. A big ad with lots of exclamation points and bold text screams dishonesty and “big corporation.” Keep it simple and aesthetically pleasing.

3. Viral advertising: The last thing to try is really in experimental territory. You may have heard the term viral advertising before, and if you have, it was probably talking about some type of video or stunt that went “viral.” Because you know about viral advertising, it has done its job. Viral advertising is essentially creating some type of video or advertising campaign that is so outrageous and out of the norm, that people will remember it. Everyone has seen commercials before, but has everyone seen someone fight a bear? The more ridiculous you can be with your publicity stunts, the better. Like a virus that spreads, word of the publicity stunt will be sure to spread, as well as video footage online. Use word of mouth in this regard to help spread the video and your product both online and in the community.

If you managed to get your business off the ground successfully after following the other parts of this guide, then you should be doing pretty well for yourself. Today we’re going to look at hiring employees for your business so you don’t have to be there from opening to closing every single day. You have the option to hire employees on the front end to completely remove yourself from the front-end operation from the get-go or you can hire employees after you’ve been open for a few weeks or months and know that the business can be successful even if you’re not there. Don’t remove your presence if you’re not sure if the business can sustain itself. Presuming though that you’ve decided you need some extra help, we’re going to look at how to find suitable employees for your business. Keep in mind throughout all of this though that depending on your business type, some of these options may not apply.

1. The most obvious suggestion to try first is to put a ‘Now Hiring’ sign outside of your retail store. Considering the way the economy is, advertising that you’re hiring to a large number of people, many of whom may be unemployed, is a great way to start. If you own a small retail store or a restaurant, finding extra help with signs is very easy. If you’re like some employers, you want your potential employees to “inquire within” so you can get a feel for them before you hand them an application. But, if you’re just looking for someone quickly, putting a phone number to call right under the “Now Hiring” sign, will entice more people to call so they don’t have to spend time going in and talking to you.

2. College help or student help is a viable option if you’re in the right part of town. If you’ve started your business within a few miles of a college campus, chances are there are many college aged students in the general area of your facility. Not to knock college students, but they’re desperate for money. When jobs are scarce, college students are generally the first people to jump on board for below average jobs. Hiring students is also a great way to find help over the holidays. Many students do migrate back home to see their families, but others stay to capitalize on the holiday job market. Many stores (like yours) need help when help isn’t available.

3. If you don’t manage to find extra help through college students or with a “Now Hiring” sign, you may want to try your look online. Resume sites are a good way to peruse many resumes at once and see which one would fit the bill for the job you’re looking to fill. In addition to resume sites, government work agencies can help you out. If you contact the agency with the position you’re trying to fill, they can see what they can do in terms of finding someone currently unemployed and sending them your way. Of course, at the end of the day it’s ultimately your decision who you hire and who you don’t, but having many options available to you is a good way to start.

By this stage in our ongoing segment about how to start your own business, you should be prepared to open your doors to the public. Of course, you can’t just let the doors fly open and expect success. You have to prepare your rented space to be as perfect as possible, not only to have a good first impression, but to make sure that your customers’ first impressions last and they keep coming back. This means that after you find a place to rent, you redesign the interior to match the style and feeling that you’re going for with your products. This may also mean repainting the walls (only with your landlord’s approval) or changing the light fixtures.

Changing the building walls and roof are only the first step in a lengthy process. But luckily, once the “hard labor” is done to remodel the place, the finishing touches include what I like to call “frills.” The frills to a business are the furniture and the presentation of the goods on the display cabinets. A good place to start with getting your store ready for the day customers walk in is to get some new furniture. Depending on the products you’re trying to sell, the quality of the furniture you have may or may not matter. But, as it seems to be a recent trend, stores like IKEA and companies that sell similar furniture, are very popular at the moment. Considering the furniture sold at these stores is cheap, you can more than likely pick out a whole store’s worth of shelving and cabinet space for just under a few thousand dollars. I’m sure the “new age” trend will die off in a few years but for the time being, the sleek corners and minimalistic approach to furniture is staying strong. The sleek corner of a new IKEA cabinet or similar shelf attracts a younger generation into your stores, and if your products are good, it will keep you memorable.

When you get all of the furniture in place, it’s time to put your products out on display. There are a few different psychological tricks and secrets that can help you get more sold each month. Products placed at eye level to the consumer, like food snacks in your local grocery store, are put there for a reason. Customers are more inclined to purchase things that they can see at eye level than if they have to hunt for it. Also, products that are considered “in” at the moment, such as the newest jeans or shoes, are usually placed along the main aisles of a store so customers see them as they browse for other things. Also, because they’re in high traffic areas, people assume that everyone else is going to see them as well, creating a, “I better get it now before it’s gone” mentality. Selling things is a psychological game and if you don’t play it, you may not be making as much as you could.

Since most people don’t even know about this still that means that there is plenty of opportunity to get into this career and still have a good chance of being successful.

Choosing Your Blogging Platform

There are plenty of different blogging platforms that you can use to get started. The two most popular options are Blogger and WordPress. With these two websites you can register and get a blog for free. If you are just starting out in blogging and want to give it a try without spending any money at all then these are the choice for you. The biggest downside for these is you do not get complete control over the look and feel for these.

If you are looking into a blogging platform that you can have complete control over then you will need to register your own domain and get a web server for hosting. The two largest companies that offer these services is Godaddy for domains and Hostgator for web hosting. The domain will run around $8 a year, and the hosting will be around $60 a year. So for around $70 a year you can have your own website with complete control.

The most popular software that you can use for your own blogging platform on your own server is WordPress. It is highly recommended that you use this due to the enormous amount of templates, plugins, and tutorials that are available for free to help get you started.

Choosing Your Niche

The best advice that can be given is to choose a topic for your website that you have extensive knowledge on. You need to be passionate on your subject because the quality of your work will directly affect the success of your blog. If you don’t have any subject that you can consider yourself as a subject matter expert then choose a subject that you are interested in and willing to learn. You need to remember that your site needs to contain information that can’t be found anywhere else on the internet so research is a necessity and if you are not interested in the subject then it will make it very difficult.

Along with chosing your niche to write about you need to think about competition. For instance, if you wanted to write about loans then that is a very competitive niche and getting people to your website could be an impossible task. But if you chose something like building picture frames then that is not competitive at all.

No website can be successful if people are not interested in seeing your content. To get an idea on what people are searching for on the internet in order to chose your niche you can use Googles Keyword Tool to get an estimated monthly search for each term. Just enter in the keyword and it will return the amount of monthly searches.

After you found a niche or keyword that has a good amount of searches you need to see how competitive that niche is. The easiest way is to enter a search query in Google like below.

allintitle:”your keyword”
allinanchor:”your keyword”

These searches will return the amount of webpages on the internet that have the title or anchor text for that page. The lower the number is better and I would aim for something around 10,000. Anything over that will be too competitive your just starting out your first website.

Setting Up Your Blog

If you are going the paid route with your own domain and server then you will need to set it all up yourself. Doing this is fairly simple but here is a quick list on what you will need to do. (These steps start after you purchase your domain name and web hosting).

1. Change your DNS settings from your domain control panel to point to your server. Every computer has an IP address and what DNS does is match your domain name to that IP. When you enter in your site in your web browser it needs to know what IP address is matched to that name in order to find the site and files. That is what DNS does. This process can take a few days but most of the time it is done in hours. (The DNS settings will come in an email when you buy the hosting or you can see it in your cPanel).

2. After you can access your website in your web browser then you are ready to go to the next step. Most likely what you will see is a blank page with some filenames on there, which is what will tell you that you are ready to go.

3. Now there are two options to get WordPress installed on your server. You can either do it manually or if your host has Fantastico you can install it with the touch of a button. If you are a beginner then I would just install it in your cPanel. To do this go to your www.yourdomain.com /cpanel and login. Then find an icon called Fantastico and click it. After that you will see an option for WordPress. All you need to do is run that and it will install everything you need and then supply you with your admin login and password.

Customizing Your Blog

After your blog is all setup it is time to customize the way it looks. WordPress offers over 1,000 free themes that you can use on your website. Depending on what your site is going to be about there are plenty of options that you can choose from to find the perfect one. If you would like to get a custom theme made for your site, there are plenty of freelance web designers out there just waiting for you to place your order.

The next part of customizing is choosing what plugins you would like to install. Plugins are additional features that can be added that include items such as spam protection, search engine optimization, stat counter, ect. There are so many plugins available that you can turn your WordPress site into anything that you wish. For example you can sell products with a shopping cart, turn it into a photo gallery, or even make an auction house. The possibilities are endless.

Now What?

By this time you will have your own website ready to go for you to start writing. The key with blogging is to be consistent. As your readers start to follow your website they will expect new information at certain intervals. If you are blogging daily then you need to continue that trend because if you don’t then you can lose your readers.

Right now you should be focusing on creating and publishing great content. Do not worry about how to convert that content and web traffic into money yet. Personally I would not include advertisements on your site until your site is at least 6 months old. The reason being is visitors are more likely to come back if you are providing them the information they need without flashing a bunch of advertisements at them. A great example of this would be Youtube. They went years with no advertisements and then when Google acquired them and started placing ads then it did not affect the users at all because it already became a site that people need and won’t leave.

The last and best advice I can give is do not give up. You may feel like you’re writing and no one is listening for a long time but if you are patient then it will eventually change. If it was easy then everyone would be doing it and be retired already.

Last week in this segment we went over how to get a plan together for your business. This time around we’re going to take a look at the next step. But, before we get going, don’t take this as a definitive guide that you should follow to a tee. In the case of this guide for instance, not every business needs a location to conduct their daily affairs. Many times a business can be run from home just fine depending on the type of products or services you’re selling. This article is directed more towards people who are actually selling something and need a storefront to do so. Having said all of that, let’s get started.

1. Market Research: If I could make this point triple bolded and underlined, I would. Market research is at the top of the list in terms of things you need to do to ensure your business is successful. You may have the best idea in the world but if you try to sell those cute new animal salt and pepper shakers from a booth on the outskirts of town between the unemployment office and a farm, you’re not going to do so well. When you think you’ve gotten enough information about your clients, keep researching. The steps for conducting proper market research are too lengthy to include here but you should be able to find out some valuable info online with a quick Google search.

2. Budget: Assuming you’ve found the best part of town to start your business, you’re ready to move on to the next step; budgeting. A crucial part of your market research and planning stage is to figure out how much money you plan to be bringing in each month. If you are unable to bring in enough money to pay the bills then obviously you’re not going to go anywhere. It’s OK to rely on savings for the first few months while you build a client base but if you’re not netting a profit after a few months, enough to pay the rent on the location you find, it’s time to reevaluate. Considering the current state of the economy, finding a place to start your business for a relatively small sum of money shouldn’t be too difficult. And even if you find the perfect place and think it’s a little too expensive, see if you can whittle the price down as well as the rent. People are flexible these days.

3. Legal: Depending on where you decide to plop yourself down and set up shop, you may run into some legal implications. Each and every area of a city is zoned as either commercial or residential and each of those categories is divided even more. Before you put any signatures down onto a lease agreement or mortgage agreement, talk to an attorney about the implications of the zoning of your potential property. They may or may not affect your business practices for the location. The best case scenario is that everything will go smoothly and you can sign on the dotted line, but if you sign before you find out everything about a property, you could be in a heap of trouble.

Over the course of the next few weeks we will be adding multiple parts to a full series that guides you through all the steps of starting your own business. Today we’re going to start from the bottom and eventually work our way up to the top. The first installment of the overall segment is “Formulate a Plan.” A plan is quintessential to succeeding with your own business so having everything outlined from the beginning is the best way to ensure a higher probability of success. We can’t guarantee that your pet food store will be the next big sensation, but we can help you prepare the best way possible so you have a good shot.

1. Idea: For the rest of this article we’re going to assume you already have an idea of what you want to do with your business. If you don’t know what you want to do and just want to break free from your boss, no problem. Write some things down that you would like to work on and come back here when you’re ready to go.

2. Market Research: For all intents and purposes, let’s say you DO want to start the next great pet store. You’re going to need to do some market research before you commit to anything. See where the other pet food stores in your area are located and figure out why they are where they are. Do you live in a college town? Near an old-folks community? Is there a lack of pet food stores in your area, creating an opening for you to jump in? Hell, you could even ask shoppers coming out of PetsMart or something similar why they shop where they do. I wouldn’t advise doing it too much simply because it may be construed as soliciting, but a little research goes a long way.

3. Manage Time: If you’re serious about starting a business you’re going to need to set some time for yourself to work. Design your schedule so that, for instance, from 12-1 you are going to look online for property in the area that would be a suitable business front. From 1-3 you will research the costs involved with ordering products each week and keeping your inventory full. For the first few weeks you’re going to have to get used to changing your schedule around a lot so you can accommodate all of the business needs.

4. Outline: Once you have all of the information you need to start your business, meaning you have everything from who you’re going to purchase a toilet from to what time you’re going to close your doors every day, write it all down. The average business plan is usually between 30 and 50 pages in length, but there really isn’t a limit or restriction on how long the plan has to be. Once you have your plan written, you can either take it to potential investors or follow it yourself so you know how to move forward.

Stay tuned for the next installment!

It’s guaranteed that there has been a time where you said, “I wish I have thought of that first”. The only way that is ever going to happen is if you train yourself to start looking for these ideas.

In order to become a successful entrepreneur you need to first start thinking like one. The thought process behind every entrepreneur is actually different than most peoples. The goldmine when it comes to entrepreneurship is and always has been the idea. The idea is the one thing that will make or break you and has to be unique, but also profitable.

When you are searching for that unique idea that can rocket you to riches you need to be always thinking during your everyday events. Even while you read this article you should be looking for ideas. For most people it takes years to come up with that idea, while some never do. The following are questions that you should ask yourself while brainstorming.

1. Is there a market for it?

2. Can it be done with today’s technology?

3. Are you able to make profit after the costs?

4. How can I cheaply get the product to my customers?

5. What would a competitor do to beat me?

6. Is it legal?

7. Can you do it?

If your idea does not provide a good result to these questions then you shouldn’t do it because most likely it will not be successful.

When you are watching a TV commercial, don’t focus on being a customer, you need to be thinking about that product and what they are doing. You should always be learning and there is an infinite amount of knowledge out there that is absolutely free. All you need to do is open your eyes and your mind and pay attention. The people that run these businesses already are successful or they wouldn’t be doing it. That is why it is extremely important to see what they are doing in order to spark ideas and learn from it.

If you are in a routine that you basically do everything the same everyday then you should break that habit. Ideas come at the strangest times in our lives and if you are doing the same thing over and over then you are just hurting yourself. Some ideas would be to drive a different way to work, watch new TV shows, shop at different stores, or to start a new hobby. The more you experience in life, the greater of a chance you have to get that brain power working for you.

No copycat idea is ever going to be extremely successful. Yes, you can still make money off of copycat ideas but the goal should not be to try it. If you are going to attempt it then you need to bring new life and include something that the customers of the old idea have been craving. A prime example of that would be creating a smaller niche off a successful large niche. Example, creating a Facebook type of site but just for people that are looking to lose weight.

Anyway you decide to go I wish you luck in your ventures!

There are tons of reasons why entrepreneurs fail at achieving their goals. As statistics have shown only, only 3% of entrepreneurs can actually turn their business into a full-time job that will be successful past the five-year mark. If you are seriously interested in entrepreneurship then you need to really understand these top six reasons on why they fail.

Thinking Inside The Box

The majority of startup businesses that fail do so because the product or service they are offering is not unique. The chances of being successful by copying someone’s idea are slim to none. Even if you do come up with a brilliant idea, if you execute that idea the same way that everyone else does then it is less likely to be a success.

No Concept of Networking

Small businesses are less likely to feel the impact of not knowing how to network, but all the major players need to fully understand how to network in order to build successful relationships. In today’s world networking is becoming a dummy proof with the existence of social media websites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace. Through these websites is extremely easy to find contacts that can help you in your entrepreneurship.

Lack of Discipline

If you are not willing to give it your all, then you will fail. People believe that there are still get rich quick schemes that actually work. This is far from the truth because every business no matter what it is takes hard work and the insane amount of time invested. You need to be able to focus on your goal and always be heading towards it.

Fear of Failing

The fear that your business will fail can actually make it fail. If you are always focused on the negative aspects of your business and not focusing on the positive then you will start heading down the road to failure. The fear can also cause a bad attitude and discouragement that makes most entrepreneurs give up before they even start.

Lack of Funds

For almost every business out there if you need to spend money in order to make money. If you are not willing or don’t have the ability to invest in your business then you can miss out on growth.

No Concept of Marketing

You can have the most extraordinary product or service in the world but if no one ever finds it then it is useless. If your business is either on the Internet or your running your own store you will face similar challenges in marketing. Internet marketing can be extremely hard trying to get people that are interested in your product or service to your website. The big advantage of an off-line business is that your store can actually be seen by people with no advertising necessary. But in the online world that does not exist and you need to find ways to show people that your website exists.

Please take all these suggestions to heart and further research them before you start your entrepreneurship.

As part of what we hope to make an ongoing series here at Everyday Career, we’re going to start covering what it takes to start your own business.

Many people don’t work for “the man” anymore and are looking for alternatives to their old 9-5 lifestyle. So, for all of those people, today is the day we kick it all off with a quick idea at what it takes to start your own bookstore.

Everyone loves books, so what a great place to start.

1. Where You Are: The first step before you even put a penny down on an idea is to figure out who and where your customers are. If you live in a university town or a big city, look around and see where the current bookstores are located and see if you can figure out why they’re in the place they are. Depending on the demographics of an area, a small bookstore located right across the street from a college campus may be a great option or if you’re in a small suburb, a book stall at the local strip mall may be the best thing to do. It will take a lot of time and studying to figure out who the customers are going to be and why they go to certain bookstores and not others.

2. Niche: Obviously, I don’t want to be the deciding factor in what type of bookstore you ultimately run but these days people are looking for a lot more specialized content. Not to say that in days gone by people didn’t want very specific books and products, it’s just that today it’s a lot more expected that a store or vendor have specifics than before. In an age of instant satisfaction, you have to be able to compete with online retailers that can have books to a person’s door in under 2 to 3 days. If you can get them their “Where’s Waldo Super Collection” in just under a few minutes, you’re bound to attract more attention. See if there’s a lack of a certain type of book genre in the area and capitalize on it.

3. Buy Wholesale: When it comes time to open the doors to your business, make sure you’ve saved as much money as possible by buying wholesale. Buying one book at a time can get enormously expensive. There are plenty of wholesale book retailers online and they’re nothing more than a quick Google search away.

4. Make yourself pop: Do you remember that dull coffee shop down the street from you that shut down a few months ago? The key word here is “dull.” To put it bluntly, people are stupid a lot of the time. It doesn’t matter if you have the best store in the world (let’s hope you strive to!), they normally just care about what it looks like. If you can make your store “pop” and be conducive to your customer’s needs, you’ll attract customers like kids to a fair. Make yourself memorable. If you get a great looking logo and a nice interior, people will remember you and will come back.

We hope you enjoyed the first of many business installments we’re planning. Let us know how we’re doing in the comments below!

Starting an online business can be extremely difficult if you wish to tackle this on your own then it is going require an extreme amount of luck to be successful. In today’s online world it takes entrepreneurs to have a good network of people that are willing to help. In every website startup that becomes successful there is usually more than one person that is behind it. In order to start networking and to find connections that will help your business grow you need to know are a lot. Below are the top five social media websites that every entrepreneur needs to have a membership to.

1. LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a social media website that is designed to build a network of contacts that are within your same field. The different specialties on this website range anywhere from cooking to affiliate marketing. It really doesn’t matter what your specialty is, you will be able to find a large amount of people that shares your same interests.

2. Entrepreneur Connect

Entrepreneur Connect is a website specifically for entrepreneurs. The site lets you get advice from others or also you can provide advice if you are skilled. They have different groups that you can join if you are interested in a specific niche or you can just use this website to find possible partners in your future business.

3. PartnerUp

This website is great if you’re looking for a partner to start your small business. It currently has over 150,000 members that you can search through to find the right partner. One of the best features of the site is the forums where you can go get your questions answered by professionals. If you are solely looking for a partner then this is the first place to start.

4. E-Factor

E-Factor is similar to all the other websites and has the same functionality but the special purpose of this social media website is finding investors for your business. This is the place where major investors hang out looking for the next best opportunity to fund a profitable business. If you’re small business requires an investor then you definitely need to check out this place.

5. Startup Nation

Startup Nation is basically a hub of information on everything you need to know for entrepreneurship. The site is packed full of helpful articles that will answer just about any question that you may have. If you can’t find your answer in their articles then you could just use their forums and get your question answered normally within a day due to its high activity.

All of these websites are great tools for you to use when starting your business. You can either use one or all of them if you need to. Before you start your business I would highly recommend that you learn as much as possible to avoid failure. The only way to do that is by talking to other people and learning from their mistakes.