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Start up your own business

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Is 2011 going to be your year to start up your own business?  Have you got something a little different to offer?  Have you got what it takes to survive and grow?  Here are the top 7 traits that I am looking for in my business coaching Brisbane – online class of 2011:

1. Is your motive true?

If you are frustrated with your job or have visions of easy money then you are doing this for the wrong reason.  You need to be passionate about the value of a product, a service or a cause.  You business will reflect who you are; it will become your life – so make it count!

2. Do you have an ethic of hard work?

Most people in business work hard until they learn to work not so hard, but a lot smarter.  However, if you think that business means easy money and that all business people are rich, then you are clearly not cut out for this.

3. Do have persistence?

You are more likely to succeed if you have the determination to keep going especially when things get a little tough.  Business is a journey and success, regardless of how you measure it, is not an overnight achievement.

4. Do know your own strengths and weaknesses?

It is important to have an honest appreciation of what is lacking.  If you know what you are not good at then you can outsource to someone with the desired expertise.  Similarly if you know what you’re good at then you’ll be doing what you do best.

5. Are you a planner or an impulsive leaper?

In business it pays to be a planner.  That is not to say that you shouldn’t take risks.  Planning simply takes the needless risk out of a venture.  Good people, good advice and a thorough understanding of your market will remove a lot of risk.

6. Are you optimistic and opportunistic?

If you can see opportunity where other people see problems, business is probably for you.  You will encounter plenty of problems along the way so having a ‘cup half full’ attitude is desirable.

7. Can you enlist others to your cause?

This is where shallow motives will bring you undone.  If you are living your truth then you will have passion and belief.  They will radiate from you in all directions.  Passion and belief are infectious and people will follow.  Without it, you will be just another struggling merchant.

Until next time!

Gary

For 100 ideas to start up your own business and valuable knowledge that every entrepreneur should have, read my latest book at:

http://garyweigh.com/recession-riches-and-wealth

Starting up your own business – Entrepreneurial ego

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Science World, Vancouver B.C.

It takes a lot of self-belief and courage to blaze your own business trail.  It takes considerable self confidence to start up your own business in spite of skepticism; and to convince partners, financiers and other stakeholders that you are pursuing a valuable opportunity and that you have the know how and resources to make it happen.

To then market your own products and services and to constantly talk about yourself and your business usually requires more front than a bus.

These characteristics define many startup entrepreneurs.  They also define the attributes of a healthy ego if arrogance and an exaggerated sense of superiority are not present.

The shy retiring types generally don’t do as well in the start up stage unless they have a strategy to circumvent their shyness.  They just don’t have the pushing power required.  However, they often make good implementers, managers and technicians once the business is up and running.

One trait that defines a healthy entrepreneurial ego is attracting people smarter than themselves and people who have expertise that they don’t.   The unhealthy ego either tries to go it alone or hire substandard talent who pose no threat.  The problem is that substandard talent is still a significant expense but doesn’t contribute much to the bottom line.

Similarly the smart entrepreneurs know how to get the best out of other people by not feeling the need to micro-manage everything, but by making others accountable and by leveraging income and profit off their skill and hard work.

It still takes great confidence and self belief to start up your own business, take the ownership reins firmly and manage it.  Managing by being the boss is always preferable to managing by consensus or by being popular.   In my experience, employees still respect a clear job description, clear rules and a strong, fair, decisive leader.

Being a firm and fair leader doesn’t require arrogance or an overwhelming need to be right all the time.  It means ensuring that people work to the plan and to the systems in place.  Being decisive means making timely decisions; not ignoring good advice.

Starting a business and making a profit requires a healthy positive ego, not an unhealthy negative ego.  After all, the successful entrepreneur must make him or herself attractive to many stakeholders before they can even get out of the blocks.

Until next time!

Gary

For more reading about an Aiki way of life visit my Aikido Secrets blog at

http://www.aikido-secrets-to-calm-success.com

I have just released a new guide for any entrepreneur who is starting up a business or even thinking about it.  It’s an investment and a time saver because it is brimming with business ideas and you don’t have to make the mistakes that others do.

Visit http://www.garyweigh.com/recession-riches-and-wealth

Starting up your own business – the good and bad of ego

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Ego can be harmful to your business.   While healthy ego can drive self belief, set standards of quality and customer service, unhealthy ego can cause a business operator to become too self absorbed, with insufficient focus on the needs of customers.

Business should not be about you.  If it’s about you, then it isn’t about the customer, and all businesses must stay customer focused to thrive.  You are not in business to create a self legacy.  That might be an outcome but not your initial intention.

It is customer demand and their favourable buying decisions that form the foundations of our income and wealth.  Satisfying customer demand builds repeat business.  You reap the rewards when your business exists for the problem solving and betterment of others.

One of the symptoms of an unhealthy ego is the need to be right all the time.  Professional advice providers like doctors, accountants, lawyers and financial planners can be prone to this condition.  It is because they are in a position of being experts in a narrow field of knowledge and eventually start to believe that they are experts on everything.  Untreated, this condition may cause the business owner to become obstinate, opinionated, and close minded.  This combination is very unattractive to customers.

Another detrimental symptom arises out of the need to talk about ourselves incessantly during the never-ending process of marketing our business.  This can breed an over-inflated attitude of superiority and self importance.  It can also result in becoming attached to the outcomes of what we do.   If possible, let others do the speaking for you in the form of advocacy and testimonials.

Appropriate behaviour in business is paramount.  All behaviour is preceded by thought, so the way in which a business owner’s ego perceives him or her self in relation to the wider customer population is critical to business success.   This also applies to interaction with staff.

An attitude of arrogance with customers will result in a decline in sales, particularly repeat sales.  Also, there comes a time when being the boss and having your staff follow like drones will stifle future growth.

It is much more enlightened and profitable to delegate responsibility, accountability and decision making, and allow others to shine.  This will get you the human leverage you are already paying salaries for.

Customers like to do business with people who they find attractive.  In general, that means being attracted to someone who is friendly, knowledgeable, attentive and helpful.   In other words, treat customers as you would like to be treated.

A good start to attractiveness is to develop a healthy ego.  Being attentive and making customers feel valued means developing good listening skills.  Knowledge is always an advantage in business but more important is the ability to maintain an open-mind and an attitude of endless learning.

To represent quality and still be able to be humble enough to acknowledge your own frailties and imperfections means combining smart business with humanity.  Customers never tire of dealing with real people, flaws and all.   It makes all of us realize that we are human, and no better and no worse than anyone else.

Until next time!

Gary

If you enjoyed this article and would like to read more, visit my other blogsite at:

http://www.aikido-secrets-to-calm-success.com

Starting up your own business – make money while you sleep

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‘Making money while you sleep’ means earning income without your direct time input.  Most people stay poor because they merely sell their time and do nothing more to supplement their income.

Time-based income will always be limited because you only have 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week and 52 weeks in a year to sell; and you have to sleep sometime, right?

To remove the limits on your income potential, you must disconnect your income from the amount of hours in a day or the time you have for sale.  The key to earning income while you sleep is leveraging.  This means having a quality product or service that is in demand, and then leveraging off other people’s time, other people’s money, other people’s products and resources.

There are many ways to make money while you sleep.  It is all about setting up a number of income-generating systems and then allowing each to do its work.  Recurring income streams can be generated online and offline.

The goal is to diversify!  So you should set up many different recurring income streams so that if a problem occurs with one, the others will still be working for you.  That removes a great deal of the risk of interruption from your overall future income earning ability.

Online income streams usually take some time and effort to set up but they are a lot easier to automate, thereby requiring minimal input from you.  Offline income streams generally require a higher level of ongoing input and maintenance because the offline world has fewer tools to automate the process.

In my latest e-book, Recession Riches and Wealth, I show you 10 ways to make money while you sleep.  I explain the many options that exist for removing the limits from your potential income capacity.

In the book I also explain over 100 easy and practical business ideas that have the potential to make money for you, particularly in times of recession.

In addition, I explain the 15 Golden Rules of Business that I have formulated.  These are the building blocks of a sound business, whether it is online or offline.  To ensure that you have everything you need, I give you plenty of useful business tips that lead to business successes, together with the many common traps and mistakes to avoid.

I am an Australian business trainer and financial planner with decades of experience and success to back it up.  I will tell you the secrets to income generation, business profitability and wealth building.

The irony is that the secrets aren’t really all that secret.  It’s just that few people are trained in these areas; they ignore the basics and fail to do the simple things well.  Instead, they turn to the promise of fast money online solutions.

So choose a different path!  If you are starting up your own business or want to boost your existing business read Recession Riches and Wealth at http://www.garyweigh.com/blog/recession-riches-and-wealth

Until next time!

Gary

Starting up your own business

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Famous Failures of the Most Successful People In The World

I was browsing YouTube when I stumbled on this.  What more can I say except there is hope for us all!

Enjoy!