Category: General

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Features:

• 100% Pure Steven Seagal Juice
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Specifications:

• Size: 16oz Can
• Servings: 1.9 Per Can

“Dear sir,

I recently saw your website, read some of your articles – which I think are very well written, but the thing is – I run a very small business and I don’t think any of the things you say are actually practical. Running a small business is time-consuming and it’s expensive, I don’t have the time or money to “think big” – how can a small business think big on a small budget?”

That’s a great question.

Thinking big is seen by many as something done by big companies, by marketing gurus, by people who write blogs – or people who may or may not have had the experience of actually running a small business.

I know from personal experience that running a small business is time-consuming and it can be very expensive to run, to operate and yet still have the time/money to think big.

Think big doesn’t mean “Oh I can do this too, and I can add that” — most businesses don’t have the capacity to do more than what they offer or provide – what think big means is how you can deliver more, how you promote better, how you work smarter.

The most crucial aspect of thinking big that people forget is — “is it actually practical?” — “can we actually do this” and “how do we do this?”

A bad example of thinking big

Recently a colleague of mine had a great street-smart marketing idea to promote resturants – he thought big about how to promote it, about “catching the big fish” – but once I asked “how do you actually deliver it?” he stared blankly – as if it were somebody else’s job to help deliver it.

If you say you can do a particular job and then can’t actually deliver it, that’s not thinking big at all – it’s called “winging it”.

Thinking big must be practical – sure shoot for the moon, think about going nationwide, think about going global – think how much you can make and think about how many contacts you will see — but always think “okay, this is the idea – how do we actually deliver it”

So, getting back to the question — how can a small business think big on a small budget?

Well, think big on low-cost ways of marketing, and promoting your business… think big on attending at least 1 or 2 networking events, and put a budget on it and ask is the investment worth the hassle.

It might be that you can’t do it, or it’s too expensive or the risk isn’t worth the investment – you can always do it later, you can always downsize your idea or do it bits.

To think big doesn’t mean you think without rules, without a budget — all you need is an idea and know how to deliver it – be it advertising, promotions or marketing.

In short, a small business *can* think big – simply choose one area you want to think big, be practical about the idea, then shoot for the moon!

So, you got a small business, its up and running (finally) — does this make you an entrepreneur? What is the difference between running a business and being an entrepreneur — and does it really matter?

According to the highly acclaimed book “The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It” by Michael E. Gerber as well as the many other E-Myth books that Mr Gerber has written — a small business isn’t the same as being an entrepreneur.

IDEA #1 – There is a mythI call it the E-Myth – which says that small businesses are started by entrepreneurs risking capital to make a profit. This is simply not so. The real reasons people start businesses have little to do with entrepreneurship. In fact, this belief in the Entrepreneurial Myth is the most important factor in the devasting rate of small business failure today.
— Michael E. Gerber, The E-Myth Revisited.

According to the E-Myth you should be building a business that you can either sell at a great profit, or a business you can franchise and again sell off your success formula.

The concept of the E-Myth is that most businesses are not started by entrepreneurs, but by people with a skill or passion and that most they fail because they remain in the technician’s mindset, instead of learning to think like an entrepreneur and a manager.

But what other myths are there?

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What makes a website successful? If youve ever asked yourself this question, youre not alone there are many people who wonder what makes a website successful.

There are many components of a successful website. Here are just 7;

1. Content
   Although debated by some whether or not content is important. If youre selling suits online, you need to educate your customers why your suits are the best. If youre selling train tickets online you optimise content to increase people to buy the tickets content is still king in my book.
2. Search Engine Readiness
   Making your website easy for search engines to trawl, record and utilise your site. The ranking and optimisation of content and keywords for search engine readiness is one of the corner-points of a successful website.
3. Customers
   If you dont have visitors and prospective customers then your website and business is suffering and you need to promote the site more effectively.
4. Communication
   What does your website communicate to your audience? What should it look like to help communicate the website better?
5. Metrics
   How are you measuring the success of your website? Forget about hits. Concentrate on page views, unique page views, subscribers, returning subscribers, number of purchases, number of sales, and number of clicks on article/e-zine. If you’re website is making you money you can help improve your website by concentrating on 1 or 2 things you are interested in measuring, recording it every week and then evaluating it every month. Remember to ask yourself how can I improve the numbers coming to my website?
6. Promotion
   How are you promoting the website? If you are not promoting the website, this may be the cause for your lack of website success. You need to promote your website everywhere, anywhere, and anyhow. Combine traditional marketing with online promotions. Use promotion to help attract prospects and turn them into customers. Use promotion to help turn customers into loyal ones
7. Purpose
   What is the purpose of your website? Is it to inform, and articulate debate? Is it to give customers a phone number to call? Do you want them to buy things from you? Knowing the purpose of your website is important because without it you may make critical mistakes that impact on its overall success

You may rank one thing higher than another. You might already be saying He forgot about X, Y and Z thats good. It means that youre thinking seriously about the success of your website and how to improve it.

Now get a pen, a piece of paper and write the things you feel are important for the success of your website, then ask your web designer hard questions regarding each part.

These answers will then help you focus your mind on how to improve your website even more!

When I first heard of the Donald Trump “University” I thought it was a really cool way of giving back to the community – a social enterprise to help teach success, and what it means to be entrepreneurial in life, at work, at home and in business.

However the site isn’t really a University – rather its a collection of audio, video, multimedia and e-books that you’ve probably seen a lot of on the Internet from various factions.

I don’t live in the States so I’m not actually sure if the Trump University actually exists or not and I’m surprised to hear that Trump didn’t want to get involved in education.

Perhaps, like the old Chinese kung-fu masters, he’s doesn’t want to revealing everything in fear that a better student may overthrow him – which I can understand and totally respect.

There’s a lot of funny copy on the page, including “I invite you to do business with me.” — hmm, I wonder how open that statement is…

Anyway – check out the Trump e-University, maybe you’ll pay the $39.95 for the entire collection – if you’ve already bought the set and want to write a review, please contact me I’ll be delighted to post a link to it.

The Live 8 event was, in my opinion, a fantastic world-encompassing I watched it on the BBC digital service, allowing me to track back and forth from the events in London, Philadelphia and other events at a press of a button.

I really liked the Philadelphia event, I was very surprised to find out that Def Leppard was still around and I found the Linkin Park bit superb! I also enjoyed flicking over to the African event at the Eden Project it was very lively and exciting.

The London event was certainly the place to be for the many revellers, although I do have reservations about certain performers.

For example, Jimmy Carr why the hell was he there? His cynical, Its all about me deadpan face was not necessary at this event.

I ended up yelling at the TV this is a serious event and your trying to make light of it, what the hell is wrong with you?! Which was strange, because I wasnt even drunk. Come to think of it, I dont even drink.

Why was Jimmy Carr and Peter Kay there? This was meant to be a serious event and they’re making light of it and trying to milk it for their own comedy routine!

Another performer I didnt like was Peter Kay sure hes funny but whats he doing there? His introduction of The Who as The Spice Girls was unfunny, patronising and down right rude

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Do you remember those teenage movies from the 1980s? Remember how no film seems to recapture that time as well? Remember how the movies seem to capture moments in montage moments that stirred the soul?

Movies such as Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Back to the Future and so forth were the embodiment of my childhood and early teens. The movies that had montage moments were also cool.

So lets look back at some of the movies that had stirring montage moments that were decidedly hammy:

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Al Pacino is set to return as Tony Montana in a video game version of Scarface.

Apparantly Tony Montana didn’t die at the end of Scarface, or so a new video game tells us. Al Pacino and a load of heavyweight hollywood actors will bring the world of Tony Montana to the small screen.

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The Guardian has an excellent range of how to… guides on technology, and how to make the Internet work to your benefit.

The how to guides include:

• How to research your family tree
• How to use BitTorrent
• How to sell books online
• How to make the most of eBay
• How to use RSS
• How to choose a VoIP service
• How to make money work for you

For more information, visit the Guardian’s how to guide section.

The Guardian has an interview with Nick Leeson, who lost 1.3bn. Last week he was appointed commercial manager of Galway United in the Irish second division.

Read the full article with Nick Leeson…