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A while back I did an “Entrepreneurship 101″ series on whether or not you’re ready to start your own business and what you should be prepared for if you do.

Back in March (okay, so I’ve got a big backlog of Blog posting material!), the Money Smart Life blog did a great complementary series on Entrepreneurship.

One topic that I didn’t cover in my material was part-time entrepreneurship.

In other words, having a “day job” while you’re running your business on the side. I think it is an excellent way to get started, but I’ve also seen it mess up people’s lives.

Beware the dangers of part-time entrepreneurship.

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So, you say that you’re unhappy in your job. You say that it’s making you miserable, sucking the life out of you, and estranging you from your family.

All of the MLM people are calling about making $100,000 a year in your pajamas and you’re tempted, but haven’t jumped.

The thing every single MLM person says that resonates, however, is, “Why work yourself to death for someone else? Build your own long-term business and put your own kids through college!”

What are you going to do about it? How about (and I know this is shocking) preparing? And to do that, you’re going to need money to start your own business.

And I’ve discovered one of the most realistic and comprehensive “Get Your Finances Together In A Year” plan out there for you to use.
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Just time for a quickie today. I hope you still respect me in the morning.

From the archives of the Business Pundit Blog, here’s some scientific evidence that networking helps entrepreneurs survive all of the ups and downs of business.

A very interesting section of this report states:

The findings suggest that small-firm survivors talk not among themselves but prefer to talk to larger firms. In addition, larger non-survivors talk too much among themselves. The authors observed grouping by communication networks into a group of larger survivors and larger non-survivors. They determined that informal grouping in a “club of winners” and a “club of losers” is done well before the winners and the losers are known. These results may lend themselves to predict future winners.

So, take a look around at the people you’re hanging out with. Are they, on average, succeeding or failing? Chances are that you’ll do the same.


Enjoy the Search!

Dan
—–
Daniel R. Sweet
Owner / Author / Chief Cook-And-Bottle-Washer / Sr. Recruiter
FRACAT.com - Free Resume and Career Toolbox
LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielrsweet
Call Me On Jaxter: http://www.jaxtr.com/fracat


Photo by: Clinton Steeds

[NOTE: This post is the last in a series on Entrepreneurship 101 to give a kick-start to those who are thinking about starting their own business. Our regular Job-Seeking and Career-Improvement programming will continue tomorrow!]

Because of the all the hard work that small business owners put into their business, they tend to get a little…. um…. sensitive about that business.

It becomes a little like a child that they are there to help grow, protect, and mold into a productive member of society. They pour all of their time, love, and affection into the business and jump to respond whenever it had a need.

This, just to clarify, is unhealthy and, if something goes wrong, can suddenly make Vincent VanGogh seem lucid and understandable.

So, before you start thinking, “I get it! That whole ear thing makes sense now!”, let’s talk a little about how to think about your small business and maintain your sanity.
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[NOTE: This post is part of a series on Entrepreneurship 101 to give a kick-start to those who are thinking about starting their own business. Our regular Job-Seeking and Career-Improvement programming will continue soon!]

After all the things that I’ve been saying about getting your small business going, whodathunk I’d be talking about problems and small business success in the same sentence.

But, it’s true! There are almost as many problems with succeeding in your small business as there are in getting it started in the first place. They’re much better paying problems, but they’re still problems.

And the reason that I’m telling you about them here, in a series about just getting your business started, is because this is the easiest place to fix them. If you plan ahead and set guidelines for yourself, you won’t fall into these traps.

So, let’s see the pitfalls associated with success, shall we?

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[NOTE: This post is part of a series on Entrepreneurship 101 to give a kick-start to those who are thinking about starting their own business. Our regular Job-Seeking and Career-Improvement programming will continue soon!]

In addition to being involved in a number of small businesses, I’ve also talked with quite a few small businesspeople that have called it quits.

My first assumption for these people were that they just weren’t making the money they needed to in order to survive until business really took off. And that was the case for some of these people, though the reasons for that were not what I expected.

However, I’ve also talked with people who left their business for other reasons. For example, one guy I know complained to me about having to go to his PO box every other day to pick up checks people had sent in, drop them at the bank, process the orders, and then go all the way to the post office to send them out.

You see, if he waited more than one day, his PO box would be too full of checks and the post office people would complain to him. Obviously, this wasn’t a “not enough business” situation.

So, let’s talk a little bit about why most small businesses fail and make sure that your business doesn’t fall into these traps.

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[NOTE: This post is part of a series on Entrepreneurship 101 to give a kick-start to those who are thinking about starting their own business. Our regular Job-Seeking and Career-Improvement programming will continue soon!]

I know every business book and business site everywhere tells you that you need to build a business plan. But, just between you and me, is it true?

Will a business plan make your business succeed and the lack thereof make it fail?

Well, yes and no. Today, we’ll talk about what business plans are, in what circumstances you need them, and a little bit about what I like to call “business plans for the 21st century”.

Join me, won’t you? I promise not to be dry-as-week-old-toast boring about it, too.

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[NOTE: This post is part of a series on Entrepreneurship 101 to give a kick-start to those who are thinking about starting their own business. Our regular Job-Seeking and Career-Improvement programming will continue soon!]

Okay, so I’m going to take another day to talk a little more about sales and marketing. And relationship.

Why? Because, as the old sales axe goes, “People buy from people they like”. And it’s true! When’s the last time you bought from a company or a salesperson that ticked you off?

But - and this is the big question - how do you create a relationship with all of your potential clients, whom you don’t know?

Let’s find out…

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[NOTE: This post is part of a series on Entrepreneurship 101 to give a kick-start to those who are thinking about starting their own business. Our regular Job-Seeking and Career-Improvement programming will continue soon!]

Here’s the most difficult reality for the majority of technically proficient people starting a new business: You MUST sell. To people you don’t know. Every day.

How you do that is another matter (which we’ll discuss today). But until you’re ready to grasp the truth above, you’re not ready to start your business.

Grasped it? Great!

Now let’s move on to the more tactical discussion of how you’re going to do that selling. Don’t be afraid. It’s not that scary.

DISCLAIMER: This discussion is a little long, I admit. But, heck! We’re discussing all of sales and marketing (a very large topic) in one post, so cut me some slack!

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SITE PROBLEMS

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I understand that there have been some problems with the blog being up and down this morning (and perhaps some yesterday). I have it on good (Indian Call-Center-based) authority that they are “aware of this issue” and “administrators are working on it now”.

There. Don’t we all feel better now?

In any case, if you come to the blog later and can’t get through, they’re still working on whatever mysterious SQL problem is causing all of this. The front page (www.fracat.com) should still be working fine so that you can test it if you run into these problems.


OUCH! I’VE BEEN STUMBLED UPON

Also, I wanted to thank all of the StumbleUpon folks for stumbling upon FRACAT.

Apparently, yesterday, we were tagged by a number of users and that drove a good deal of traffic here. I can’t figure out who did what just yet (as I’m not familiar with StumbleUpon), but I’m working on it!

I truly appreciate it and welcome all the new folks.

Feel free to ask whatever job seeking / career / Entrepreneurship 101 questions you have!

I’ve even included a little StumbleUpon button at the bottom of each individual post now so that you can more easily tell people what cool stuff is here. Or just call attention to me making a fool out of myself. Whatever.


BACK TO OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAM

I will return to the Entrepreneurship 101 posts as soon as all of the SQL issues are taken care of.

It’ll probably be tomorrow.


Thanks for your patience!

-Dan


Photo by: dieselbug2007