planning

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Planning For Success With A Home Business

July 15, 2022 Comments Off on Planning For Success With A Home Business

At this time of year we tend to look back at our Internet Marketing activities and consider what we have achieved. More importantly we need to think about where we are going and what we will achieve in the future. We have all heard that old chestnut about your glass being half full or half empty, that is just a play on words, my simple opinion is that if you have a negative approach you will have negative results.
Over the last year internet marketing has been a bit more of a challenge with the worldwide credit situation, not helped by the banks and financial institutions that we normally depend upon who have largely been responsible for creating this situation. If you have a home business already or maybe considering a home business idea then my advice would be to use to use this time to re-evaluate your existing business or your business plan and to get ready for the busy period in January.
If you own a website and/or a blog then why not use this time to write a few more articles or check out other advertising resources that you may find beneficial or maybe re-design your site to make the content more appealing. Search engine spiders are always looking for new content and that will increase your page rank so it is always a good time to check out your site to see if it is optimised correctly for your keywords. Even with the best home business ideas it is important not to underestimate the power of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) as it is fundamental to your site success.
You can have the best and most interesting website in the world but it is nothing without visitors. If you don’t have a website then that is OK, it just means that you advertise using different methods like classified ads, ezine ads, offline adverts, word of mouth, leaflets etc, it’s all good and you are only limited by your own ambition.
This business is traditionally quiet at this time and in some ways I am happy that it is because our lives are so busy busy busy that it is only right that we share a bit of quality time with our friends and loves ones and re-charge our batteries. In closing may I just wish you a happy and peaceful Christmas and a very prosperous 2011 and as always I am here to help if you need me.
best regards,
Mal Tindle…

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Opportunity

Which Business Planning Book Should I Read?

March 24, 2022 Comments Off on Which Business Planning Book Should I Read?

What’s a good business planning book to read? I skimmed and read as many business planning books I could carry out of the library and came to the conclusion that there really isn’t a one size fits all business planning book. So, the important part of choosing a book is to figure out what your needs are and grab the book that most closely matches those needs.
To start off with, what is the plan all about? They aren’t scary. They’re basically a resume for a company. My favorite definition was from Sharon L. Fuller in How to Write a Great Business Plan for Your Small Business in 60 Minutes or Less.
“A good business plan contains dreams and ideas backed by facts and figures in a standardized format.”
I designed a business plan book comparison table to help pick a book. Here’s how to read the table.
Page design
Page design is my impression on how easy it is to read the book. Did I have to squint? Are the pages broken up with headers and paragraphs or is the book one long stream of tiny text? A rating of one means that the book is easy to look at and read. A rating of five means “The formatting of this book makes it difficult to read and detracts from the content.”
Depth of detail
The category “Depth of detail” refers to how “in depth” the book covers its topics. A rating of one means “This book goes into great detail on exactly what the topic is including how to read it and how to make it.” A rating of five means that the book glosses over some of the topics and just gives a basic definition.
Individual topics
A check mark means that the book covers the topic; a dash means the book did not cover the topic.
Topics that should be covered are what is a business plan, why make one, and what are the elements of one.
Then, the books go into the elements of the plan. Typical elements include an executive summary, business description, products and services, target markets, competition, strategic position, management, personnel, resumes, technology, profit and loss statements, sales forecasts, cash flow, milestones, and a risk assessment section.
Another consideration is if the book has worksheets in it. Worksheets can make the process easier, like “filling in the blanks.”
Here’s the business planning book table. Click on the smaller orange and white table to see a larger, easier-to-read version.…