TheAuthorsDesk.

Q: I am interested in starting my own business. I have a business degree and lots of experience in my chosenfield, but I don’t know if I have the necessary skills to really make it on my own. Any advice? Marie C.

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What seems like a century ago, I left school and joined a well-known High Street Bank. In those days workingas a bank clerk was a well-established route for many school leavers and perceived to be a proper job with prospects.It wasn’t long before I became disillusioned with the world of banking and sought a change of job. In complete contrastto my previous job, I became a clerk in the local hospital dealing with the injured and infirm, but it wasa role that I found strangely interesting and rewarding. In today’s parlance, it is known as job satisfaction.

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Frequently overlooked and hidden deep within our marketing tool box is the ultimate marketing vehicle for your business ? you! Manysmall business owners are so busy figuring out how to increase sales and revenue they forget to grow themselves as businessowners. If you aren’t evolving yourself, aren’t you being counterproductive to your business development? Marketing our businesses isn’t just about whatads to buy or what networking event to go to next; it’s about us as people, as entrepreneurs. The following marketingtraits are often overlooked by entrepreneurs but are pivotal to your long-term success. What’s more, they cost very little yet earna savvy entrepreneur a lot. Show Your Personality — Customers want to know who you are. That’s great that you offerthe fastest tax services in town, or your gift baskets can be custom-made and delivered anywhere in 24 hours. But whoare you? Your customers and prospects want to know. Especially if you’re facilitating business on the Internet, building trust is keyto making a prospect feel comfortable buying from you. One of the most effective ways to build trust is to expressyour personality.

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The success and failure for the entrepreneur is largely dictated by the ability to gain access to resources, both personal aswell as those of others.

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So few really understand the drives and motivations of entrepreneurs. Many write about them, some lecture and teach about what theyare, how they operate and what they have achieved; yet so few really understand them. So many fail to realize thededication and sacrifice it takes to win at that level and the super stars are so rare that one just hasto look in awe. One of the greatest stories of Entrepreneurial success is that of Jack Taylor who founded Enterprise Rent-A-Car.I therefore recommend this book about the History of Enterprise Rent-A-Car Book is;

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Starting your own private label clothing company is not as difficult as you may think. I assure you that the foundingmembers of Volcom, Paul Frank, Hurley and Von Dutch, are not mad geniuses of fashion. You can duplicate their riseto brand stardom provided that you have the following:

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The following laws will provide guidance on how to act,
think and work in a lean way. You can apply these laws to
all areas ofyour life, work and business to get bigger
results from the time you invest.

1. Multiple Rewards
Aim to be rewarded multiple timesfor a single effort. Money
can be recovered but time cannot. Time gets spent. You can’t
put it in a bank and youcan’t earn more of it. Wherever
possible, you should look for ways to get paid/rewarded
multiple times for each hour you invest. Youwill never
be truly independent if your income comes from your own
time and labour so package your knowledge as a product.
Once you haveaproduct you can sell your packaged
time again and again.

2. Mistakes Are Gifts
Mistakes are nothing more than “Learning Opportunities”.
The bestway to learn more and grow more is to make more
mistakes. Mistakes are unavoidable when you’re learning so
adopt a ready, fire,aim approach to decisions and learn as
you take action. If it doesn’t work you can easily make
another
decision to put things right again.

3. KnowWhen To Stop
Be prepared to stop what you’re doing. Take stock and try
something different. Don’t let pride, fear of ridicule or
ego get inthe way of good judgement. When a mission is
over, learn from it and move on.

4. Use Your Levers
Do the littlethings that make the biggest difference.
Aim for maximum impact with minimum effort. Focus will help
but there are other forms of leveragetoo. Here are just
two.

OPT - Other People’s Time. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.
You don’t have to do itall yourself. Use your network. Ask
and you shall receive. Give and you shall get.

Recycle - Learn to recognise value ineverything you do.
Turn your ezine into a book and sell it. Write your words
of wisdom down and share them.

5. Don’tBe Busy - Be Effective
Don’t waste your hours simply being “busy”. Being busy does
not cause you to be wealthy. So don’tbe busy - be
effective.
Remember the 80:20 rule. Typically 20 per cent of the things
you do will be responsible for 80 percent of the results
you get. So focus on the 20 per cent that gets the result.

6. Always Look For TheEasy Route
If there’s an easy way to do something and a hard way - take
the easy way first. I call this”inspired laziness”

7. Measure Progress By What You Reap
The only truth is the result. Doing lots of things is not
the same asachieving lots of things. Measure progress by
your outcomes not your inputs.

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