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Archives
June 10, 2010
Getting Credit for Your Small Business... How to Talk in Front
of a Live Audience... Don't Go Broke as the Boss... Make Your
Words Your Own and Achieve Success...
and More.
Getting Credit for Your Small Business
By Adrian Newman, Founder of e-Wealth Daily
These days it can feel next to impossible to find financing for
your small business.
In fact, the risky nature of small business means that finding a
lender to help you get started could be the biggest hurdle you're
facing over the next several months.
There is good news though. While you may not be able to
control the markets, there is one thing you have the ability to
monitor and track as well as influence. That is your credit
score.
For many, the way that your credit score is calculated is a
confusing mass of numbers and other variables. Knowing
exactly how your score is calculated isn't completely necessary,
but knowing the factors you can control certainly is.
According to "The New York Times," roughly 35% of your
FICO credit score is based on paying your bills on time. This
includes all of your credit card bills, utilities, phone service,
mortgage and even doctor's bills. All it takes is a late-payment
report from any one of these and your score is going to take a
hit.
Another thing is consider is just how much of your current
available credit limit is being used. While you may think that
credit card companies are happy that you carry a balance and
continue to rack up interest charges, once your balance
becomes too high, you get into a higher-risk situation.
"The New York Times" provides this example: if you have a
credit card with a $5,000 limit and spend $4,000 a month on it
and pay that balance off, your credit score would actually be
better if you split your debt between two credit cards putting $2,000 a month on each. This way you're keeping your usage
of available credit below 50% and helping boost your credit
score.
Knowing that you can control your credit score can help you
control the amount of credit available to you and your small
business. Monitoring your credit score is an almost essential
step you must take now to help you manage your credit.
How to Talk in Front of a Live Audience
By Doug D'Anna, the "Hundred-Million-Dollar Man"
You know how to talk to your clients one-on-one. This has
never been a problem for you. You have spent the last few
years learning how to start up conversations with strangers in
the hopes of recruiting new business.
Door-to-door canvassing? That's a breeze for you.
Now, one of your clients has offered you an advertising dream:
come to his company and sell your stuff.
Your stomach is in knots, you feel feverish and nauseous, and
you can hardly stomach your morning coffee, let alone think
about eating.
A wave of panic has hit you like a ton of bricks. Why? A
debilitating fear of public speaking. You can already picture
the room full of people, all of them staring at you.
Finally you sum up the courage to walk into the conference
room...there are more people than you imagined!
As you walk up to the podium, you wonder, "Are all the
buttons done up on my shirt? Did I remember to put pants on?
Is there something on my face?" This perpetual fear that people
are laughing at you sits with you through your whole
presentation. While you are able to get much of the information
across, you can sense from the lack of questions that nobody
really understood what you had to say.
You realize you have gained not a single new client.
Why? Because you were not confident enough in yourself to
stand in front of a live audience and sell not only your
business, but yourself as well. How you present yourself is
critical to the success of your business.
In order to do this, you must exude and feel copious amounts
of confidence. People, similar to animals, can sense fear -- we
also sometimes mistake fear for lying.
But how do we make ourselves feel confident enough to give
off a feeling of confidence to everyone in the room?
The trick is not to picture everyone sitting in their underwear. It
takes practice for many, but once you get the hang of it, it's
similar to riding a bike -- you won't forget!
It all starts out with a well-written speech.
Start by deciding what message you want to get across to the
audience. Figure out what your most important message is and
build on that.
Once you have decided what to tell them, you need to figure
out how to tell them. This is where your personality comes into
play. Think about how you would get your message across if
you were talking to just one person and then write your
delivery in a similar fashion. If you use humor to get your point
across in a one-on-one conversation, make sure you add some
in this delivery. If you write a speech that doesn't have your
voice or personality in it, you will never feel confident or
natural when delivering it.
Now it is time to learn your speech. Deliver it in front of co-workers, friends, family members, your pet, or anyone who
will listen. You need to be comfortable with the material so
that you are not reading from the paper. You can make point-form notes, but make sure they are just that -- notes.
When you can deliver your speech in front of people you know
with ease and comfort, you are almost ready to deliver it to a
group of strangers.
From now until delivery time, it is a game of confidence. You
are that step ahead because you know your material and you
are comfortable with what you have to say.
You must convince yourself that you are capable of delivering
your speech with confidence and poise.
Don't talk with your hands or move around a lot. Make eye
contact with the people in the audience instead. Try to move
your eyes around, so that each person in the audience feels as
though you are talking directly to them.
Speak in a clear and confident voice -- do not speak louder than
necessary. Try to use a conversational tone.
Most importantly, dress for the occasion. This will add to your
professionalism.
And breathe. You will do great!
Don't Go Broke as the Boss
By Michael Newman, Self-made Millionaire
Can you afford to go broke when you're running a business?
Probably not, so it's interesting that so many entrepreneurs and
small business owners insist on doing so.
For some reason, many entrepreneurs feel as though they
shouldn't pay themselves a decent salary as they build their
business. They focus too much on paying contractors and
employees, paying bills and re-investing into the business that
oftentimes they neglect themselves. Instead, they stick to the
notion that all their hard work and sacrifice will pay off down
the line when they eventually sell.
This shows that the entrepreneurs believe in hard work, and
that's a good thing. At the same time, however, it's quite
important that they pay themselves a decent salary along the
way.
Remember, you're the boss and should be paid like one. If
employees or contractors see that you're paying them more --
or at least a comparable wage -- it takes a little bit away from
your authority. After all, you're the boss; you should be making
the big bucks!
Furthermore, paying yourself a decent salary can keep you
motivated to build. By taking 3-4 cents of each dollar of
revenue, you can pay yourself like a CEO and watch your bank
account grow. Take the rest to cover your costs and you'll start
noticing how rewarding it is to watch both yourself and your
company get richer.
The fact is that, if all the money your business makes is going
into expenses and operating costs and you're unable to afford a
salary for yourself, it's not really working. In this case, you're
probably just pumping your time, money and effort into
something that likely has a root problem that will make it
unlikely to succeed. Tweaking your business plan may be
something worth looking into if you can't pay yourself!
Remember, you should be rewarded for your hard work both
now and in the future. After all, you've taken the risk and likely
started your business with the dream of being successful and
living a comfortable life. Pay yourself accordingly and grow
along with your business!
Make Your Words Your Own and Achieve Success
By James Burt, Online Marketing Expert
As an information marketer, you work hard to create
everything yourself. You create your own business title, your
own products, and your own flow of income. It's something
that takes effort and creativity, but allows you to create success
on your own terms.
But then there's the question of plagiarism -- that big, ugly
word that means you have been, well, stealing material from
some other sources and marketing it as your own. It's
something that can get you kicked out of college and can get
you into court in the professional world.
I've been lucky to not have seen too many episodes of
plagiarism by other info marketers. Most of the pros I have
encountered take pride in their work and want to create their
own information content and products right from scratch. But
in these days of online information and the ability to get
written material information quickly, it's tempting to "borrow" someone else's information and use it as your own.
This should never be an option. Aside from whatever legal
problems you might incur from plagiarizing someone else's
work, you might as well consider your professional reputation
to be finished. I mean, would you want to do business with
someone who is professionally dishonest?
So...how do you avoid plagiarizing for information marketing?
Well, it does take some work, but it can be a rewarding
process, too.
Your beginning point is something you learned back in school:
you have to do your own research. Whatever information you
want to produce, you have to get the sources together and go
over the material yourself. The benefits of this are not only
avoiding plagiarism, but also editing material out that you
won't use in your final products. You find out what material is
and isn't necessary to creating your products and leave the
excess behind.
Along with doing your own research, you have to take that
other plunge in rewriting everything into your own words.
Again, this sounds like your history teacher harping on you.
But it is something you have to do. But this has benefits as
well. It allows you to sit down and creatively structure your
information products in a way that is uniquely your own. You
can write in your own simple way about whatever info source
you love and present it to the public in a way they have never
seen it. Don't be like someone else. Your material is inspired
by sources, but it really comes out of your own heart and brain.
Keep it as such.
Now, before you start to get nightmares about doing research
papers again, one thing you can relax about is citing your
sources. When you write newsletters or brief material that
comes right from your brain, there is no need for endnotes or
citing sources. This stuff is brief and is directed right to your
clients without heavy details. However, if you do create larger
information products with stats, graphics, and quotes in them,
be sure to briefly site where you got your info from. This will
save you headaches later.
One note about avoiding plagiarism is that you can get some
help for it. If you live close to a university or research site, you
can solicit someone else to help you properly research and
rewriter material. You can also get editors, fellow info
marketers, and even your own info sources -- i.e. magazines,
newsfeeds -- to contribute to your work in exchange for some
ad spaces. Search out assistance right at your local library,
employment or small business centers.
Is avoiding plagiarism a hard job for information marketers?
Absolutely. But all good work does take some elbow grease to
make it right. If you take that extra couple of hours to really
create your own information products, you will really make
something the public can acknowledge as your own and save
some hassles in the process. It can be tough, but it's always
worth it.
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