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Archives
June 24, 2010
The Importance of Risk Management... What to Do When
Good Plans Go Bad... You Never Know When You're Going to
Need Extra Money... References Count in Info Marketing...
and More.
The Importance of Risk Management
By Adrian Newman, Founder of e-Wealth Daily
I would never push anyone to be a pessimist when starting a
business. Your thoughts should always be positive and
encouraging. However, there is a difference between being
negative or pessimistic and being realistic. And being realistic
is something that I would definitely encourage.
It would be a mistake to go into a business thinking that
nothing could go wrong. That is how people end up flat broke
with a failed business. You should have confidence in your
business idea and in your own abilities, but you also need to
think about risk management and planning for the worst-case
scenario as well.
The idea of risk management should start before you even get
your business up and running. In fact, you can even include a
section on potential risks in your business plan. Now, you
might think that it's a bad idea to tell potential lenders or
investors about the associated risks, but the point is to tell them
how you will avoid these risks and get around them. They want
to see that you have thought of everything -- and risks are
certainly going to present themselves. I wouldn't recommend
putting every single risk you can think of in your business plan,
but put one or two in there along with your solutions.
This is a great start. However, for your own purposes, you
should put together a full and comprehensive risk-management
plan for the future -- one that's for your eyes only.
It's important to be realistic when you're starting a business. It
only makes sense to consider the possibilities of something
going wrong or encountering an obstacle along the way. There
are external influences that you'll have no control over, such as
issues with your industry. And, there are internal influences
such as poor sales and lagging employees that you can attempt
to control.
This is the entire purpose of having a risk-management plan.
You have to consider the possibilities so you can properly put
together strategies that will help you to avoid disaster. Have a
plan in place before anything even happens and you could
prevent a bigger problem from occurring down the road.
It's simply impractical to assume that everything will be
absolutely perfect when you start a business. It might go quite
smoothly, and I have no doubt that you will find success, but
there are always bumps in the road that even the most
successful business owners encounter.
However, if you think about those bumps before you hit them,
you can get over or around them a lot more easily. Consider
possible influences on your business and what you can do now
to avoid having any of them hinder your ability to run your
business well in the future. Just knowing about the possibilities
shows that you are thinking of your business in terms of its
future success.
What to Do When Good Plans Go Bad
By John Hurd, Chief Wealth Researcher
I'm the sort of guy who likes to be prepared for most things. I'll
do a little extra research before meetings, I'll pack a lunch for
long trips, and I always have a spare tube of toothpaste so I
never run out.
As you can see, being prepared for the things I know will
happen is something I've worked into my daily routine. I know
I'll get hungry, I know that the toothpaste tube will one day be
empty, and I know that there is always more information to
collect and learn.
However, there are times when the unexpected will happen.
Being caught off guard is nothing to feel too guilty about.
Neither you nor I have the power to be prepared for everything
all the time.
But what you can do is predict how you will react when things
take an unexpected turn. This is something you can prepare for
and something you certainly should be preparing for at all
times.
Here then are three tips I use to help me focus when the going
gets tough:
1. Don't lose your cool. Let's face it; we're all emotional human
beings. We're going to get angry and upset and we're probably
going to want to vent some of that anger. Yet, there is one
thing we've all seen, and we know that it doesn't help the
situation. The irate customer yelling at the girl in the coffee
shop won't get him his coffee any faster; in fact, it will most
likely slow down the entire process. So take a deep breath, take
one step backward and keep a level head.
2. Think in achievable steps. You know how things were
originally supposed to pan out. So you have to keep your end
goal in mind. However, roadblocks and mess-ups can make it
difficult to see your final destination. So, instead of just
charging ahead, handle the problems one by one before even
attempting to get back on track.
3. Work from experience. Now, there may be situations you've
never been in before and they can certainly pop up. However,
you're probably seen your fair share of situations that
demanded control, so think about something you've dealt with
in the past and apply the solutions that worked.
Unfortunately, not every situation will work out for the best.
But, by keeping a level head and working your way through the
problem, you can limit the damage that could occur.
You Never Know When You're Going to Need Extra
Money
By Michael Newman, Self-made Millionaire
You never know when a financial emergency may arise. Heck,
you could be returning to your office from lunch when all of a
sudden a parked car jumps out at you, forcing you to smash
into it! All of a sudden, you're looking at a sizeable bill
showing up out of nowhere.
Now, I know you might not think parked cars are a threat to
your wallet, but trust me, they are -- I speak from experience.
You see, yesterday, I was returning from a lunch appointment,
when the parking lot I pulled into appeared to be full.
However, instead of taking my time to look for an available
space, I tried to make an impossible turn into the first one I
saw. The result was a scratch on my bumper and a little more
than a scratch on the bumper of a colleague's new car.
Now, you see, my lunch has gone from costing me $20 to
much more than that -- an expense I did not and could not
foresee. It is my estimate that my colleague's car will cost me
$300 to $400 to repair, and I'll have to pay him as soon as he
gets it fixed -- which could be tomorrow, or in two weeks from
now.
Although $300 might not be a ton of money in the grand
scheme of things, it can be a lot when you weren't prepared for
it. Just imagine how excited you'd be if you were handed a
$300 check for doing nothing...now imagine how frustrated
you'd be had you lost $300 just as quickly and unexpectedly.
The thing is, there is no way to predict when you'll be hit with
a bill you didn't plan on. This is why establishing an
emergency fund is extremely important. Because I have an
emergency fund, I'll be able to pay my colleague quickly
without it affecting my other expected expenses or regular
spending habits. Of course, I'd rather put the money towards
something else, but things like this happen.
If you haven't got an emergency fund stashed away, I'd
suggest starting one. Take about five percent to 10% of each
paycheck and put it away, until you have about $500. This
way, if a parked car ever decides to attack, you'll be ready!
References Count in Info Marketing
By James Burt, Online Marketing Expert
Recently, I offered up some tips on how to avoid plagiarism in
your info marketing business. I always hope that these tips
really help all info marketers to better their success and save
themselves from headaches.
I ran out of space on the last message. I told you not to
plagiarize, and to use other sources' information in your own
work without rewriting it. I think I got across the "use your
own words" point okay, but not how to reference. So now let's
get to it...
There is likely going to come a time when you are going to
want to "borrow" some other information for your own
information products. Popular info topics like automobiles,
sports, and business/finance usually need some sort of extra
information from someone or some publication. As well,
clients tend to prefer info products that have some facts to
support the content. Don't worry; this isn't something you will
have to do often. But when you do, there is a protocol to
follow.
The skills for referencing for your information marketing
products are really no different than what you did in high
school. I know: who wants to remember those dreadful class
room days? But to be honest, those old essay referencing
methods help on everything from business plans, to legal
publications, and even info products.
When you take from other sources, the first thing you should
do is write down all of your source's information. This includes
the author's name, the article or chapter title, the publication
title, its publication date, and the pages you took from. I'll
explain more about why this stuff is so important in a few
paragraphs.
From there, you have to verify that it's okay to use your
source's material in your own info products. This is the tricky
part. You may have to contact the publisher, the company, or
even the authors themselves to make sure it's okay to use the
material. Usually there is no big issue with this; most people
don't mind lending out small bits of information as long as you
reference it. If they say "no," however, back off. If you use this
material without permission, bad legal matters might ensue!
If you have to use hard stats or graphs in your info products, I
highly recommend getting them from a government or public
source -- i.e. a government web site. Since this stuff is made
for the public to view, you are free to use it, provided you cite
where you got it from. Say you are using business stats for a
particular market and you want to cut in some pie charts to
back up your info. You can do that provided you just put "SOURCE: ..." below the graphic or last paragraph of your
sourced info. There is absolutely no penalty or legal
implication to using public statistics, as long as you cite the
source.
For a larger info product like a book, you have two choices
about how to distribute your references. You can use a footnote
after the referenced sentence and write down your citations on
footer of each page -- this can be done with "Microsoft Word" under the REFERENCES tab. Or you can put in superscripts
labeled "1,2,3 ..." and list the sources in the same order on a
back ENDNOTE page list. Either is acceptable. For more
information on how to cite sources, consult a style guide. You
can find one at a library or in a book store.
There is one main advantage of using someone else's material:
it creates potential for a joint venture. Using another
professional's material in an ethical fashion might spark
interest by them towards your company. If they are brought to
your work, they might offer to partner up for an even more
successful venture. Like-minded pros can work together and
create more success together. In the end, the sharing of info can
benefit everyone.
Like I said, you probably won't have to do a lot of referencing
for your information marketing business. But in the event that
you do, you can follow some exact steps to use good sources
for your own products without any problems. If we truly live in
the information age, sharing it can only be an asset to
everyone.
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