Invest Time If You Dont Have Money to Start a Business

Invest Time If You Dont Have Money to Start a BusinessInvest Time If You Dont Have Money to Start a BusinessStarting a new business often takes a lot mora time than it does money.If you are short on cash (or even have no money at all) to start a business, it should not stop you from taking the initial steps now that wont cost you anything but time. Write a Mission stellungnahme Your mission statement is a great daily reminder to yourself about what it is you want to accomplish.A good mission statement is short, clear, and should embrace your core values.It should state who you are serving (your market), how you are serving them (your services or products), and what makes your business unique. Write a Business Plan It is the most basic of all steps, and it is one that many people skip.A business plan can help you map out your ideas and strategies and goals in a way that you can see the big picture and other people can understand your business.It is particularly crucial because lenders often want to see two thingsa business plan and a feasibility study. Conduct a Feasibility Study Feasibility studies are a great way to answer your own questions, and questions investors will have about your business.For example, a marketing feasibility study looks at the market to assess competition, find niches, and will help you identify who might buy your products or services. A technical feasibility study addresses how you will get your product to market (i.e., how your business will produce, store, deliver, and track its products or services.)A financial feasibility study projects how much start-up capital is needed, sources of capital, returns on investment, and other financial considerations. It looks at how much cash is required, where it will come from, and how it will be spent. The more you know about your own business needs upfront, the fewer problems you will have in raising capital and getting started when you are ready to launch. If You Have a Small Am ount of Cash Buy a Website Domain - Cost $10 Even if you dont have the funds to develop a website just yet, grab a domain with your business name.You dont even have to pay for hosting to register a domain until you decide to build a website.If you are planning to build a site right away, budget about $10 per month for web hosting (Dreamhost.com and GoDaddy.com are two reputable shared hosting companies to consider.) Get Business Cards - Cost $25 Vistaprint.com is one of many online printing companies that offer cheap rates for custom business cards. Need a logo? Need Help Writing a Mission Statement? - Cost $5 Try fiverr.com.This is a free website that allows people to offer a wide array of services for only five bucks.Writers, web designers, social networkers, graphic artists, and many other creative professionals offer services here hoping to gain exposure and new business.It is a great place to get affordable help with many basic business needs or to try out other companies serv ices before spending more money with them. Buy Self-Help Books - Cost$50 If you dont have money to talk to a business lawyer, buy self-help books.Nolo and For Dummies books are a great way to get step-by-step instructions on how to set up gemeinwohlorientiert organizations, corporations, social networks, your website and help you understand just about everything there is to know about starting a business. Find a Mentor - CostFree If you are new to the business, rely on the expertise of a business mentor.A mentor wont tell you what to do but will help you think through your problems and offer guidance to help you avoid future problems. The Small Business Administrationis a great place to find a free business mentor. Register Your Business Name - CostVaries No matter where you plan to do business you will need to register or license your business with your state, county, and/or local municipality.If you are going to use a fictitious business name (sometimes referred to as Doing Busin ess As or DBA) you may need to run an ad in a newspaper for a certain number of weeks before you can use the name. Educate Yourself About Business - CostFree Take online courses to help you learn about business.Edx.org offers free business courses from MIT, Harvard, Berklee, and many other higher institutions. Start Building Social Networks Immediately Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Pinterest are the staples of most business owners today. Open a Business Bank Account - CostVaries It may cost more than $100 depending on how much your bank requires for an initial deposit.Connect the account to PayPal or a payment gateway if you are starting an e-store or collecting money online.If you operate as a sole proprietorship, you can collect funds into your personal bank account, but that lends the appearance your business is small or even unstable.Whenever possible, it is always better to have a separate business account for checking and savings.

Dust Off Your Résumé This Spring

Dust Off Your Rsum This SpringDust Off Your Rsum This SpringEvery night you go home from your lesss are excellent written and oral communication skills, demonstrated time management skills and team leader and player with the ability to get the job done. Its fantastic that you possess those skills, but it doesnt make you stand out from a crowd. Candidates write those things all the time, so you want to go a step further andshow these characteristics by providing specific examples of how youve demonstrated those great qualities on the job. 5. Are there mistakes in the text?Are there a consistent number of spaces between aber sichers and after periods? Did you misspell a word?If you have even a slight mistake, it is a huge distraction because the reader will stop paying attention to you and will be looking for other mistakes. Managers are likely to weed outrsums with only a few mistakes or withminuscule or distracting font to whittle down the pile.The best way to rid yourrsumof mistakes is to review it on paper. Review it once, twice or even up to five times. Ask three additionalpeople, family members or friends, to look at it for you after youve done multiple reviews of it yourself. Then you need to review it again after youve received their edits. This is so important, and yet, so many people send inrsums withmistakes.If you follow this advice, it will take several weeks to get a goodrsumclear of mistakes, but it is worth it. Yourrsumisyouronly way in. If you dont clean it up, you may not get that call.

The one quality you need to reach your most important goals

The one quality you need to reach yur most important goalsThe one quality you need to reach your most important goalsResearcher Angela Lee Duckworth studied West Point cadets, National Spelling Bee contestants, teachers in tough schools, and sales peoples, asking who would succeed and why.In all those very different contexts one characteristic emerged as a significant predictor of success, shesaid in a popular TED Talk. And it wasnt the usual suspects. What was it? It was grit.Duckworth defines grit as passion and perseverance for very long-term goals . . . sticking with your future, day in day out. . . . I call thatpersistence.Weve all had dreams about the future that havent come true. Weve probably let some of those dreams die. But what if we could develop the grit and persistence required to revive those dreams and achieve them?We can. And its simpler than you might think. Here are six techniques proven by research and practical experience that can help you break through to have y our best year ever.1. Find yourwhyNo one perseveres unless they care. To maximize our persistence, we have to pursue goals that really matter to us.That doesnt mean we always find these goals fun or even that theyre our idea. They just have to be personally rewarding. Researchers sometimes call these autonomous motives.Think about parenting or getting fit or hitting a major professional goal. All of these challenges will test our perseverance. The trick is to connect with whats at stake. Why does it matter?If we dont stay connected to your why, asone study put it, the infusion of goals with energy may be distressingly temporary. In other words, chances are good well burn out and bail.But, asanother study found,Autonomous goal motives will result in greater objectively assessed persistence toward an increasingly difficult goal. If individuals strive with more autonomous motives, they will be better equipped to overcome challenges in goal pursuit.Finding our why is the first step to developing the persistence we need to attain our goals. This forms one whole section of my new bookYour Best Year Ever A 5-Step Plan for Achieving Your Most Important Goals.2. Believe the possibilityTo accomplish anything, we have to believe were up to the challenge. That doesnt mean it will be easy or that even know how were going to accomplish it. Usually we dont know. It just means we believe were capable.Every goal has obstacles. When some people have trouble getting over obstacles, they doubt they have what it takes.Others just work harder. Whats the difference?According toHeidi Grant Halvorson, researchers label the first group entity theorists. They think their abilities are set in stone. Youve heard people say this Im just no good atx,y, orz.The second group are called incremental theorists. behauptung are the possibility thinkers. When they cant seem to get over an obstacle, they dont blame it on themselves. Since they believe theyve got what it takes, they just look for ne w approaches to the problem.This gritty attitude pays off in a big way, says Halvorson, leading to far greater long-term accomplishments.So whats your mindset? Developing persistence requires possibility thinking.What if thats not you? The good news is that we can become possibility thinkers by gaining confidence in our abilities. One way to do that is to get some wins under our belt.3. Set your targetsSo lets say weve found our why and believe weve got what it takes. Its time to address the goals were pursuing.Ive always recommended going after goals that push us into the discomfort zone. Why?Research shows a direct link between the difficulty of a goal and our enthusiasm and performance. And the emotional payoff of attaining big goals rewards our persistence. It becomes self-perpetuating.The trick is setting milestones that are squarelyinsideyour comfort zone. Big, risky goals can also feel daunting. If we chunk them up, we can get some wins under our belt. And those wins can keep our energy up for the big goals. How?According toChristopher Bergland, when we accomplish small tasks and hit deadlines, our brains give us a hit of dopamine and we feel good.The more we train our minds toward accomplishing the small goals, the more persistence well display for major long-term accomplishments.4. Measure your gainsWhen we set big, challenging goals its easy to see how far we have to go and lose enthusiasm. We can start criticizing ourselves and get dispirited, cant we?Something I learned from Dan Sullivan has helped me rethink this problem. Dan talks about measuring the gain and not the gap.If your goal is to write a book, pay off your mortgage, build up your retirement - whatever - it can be daunting to look up and realize how far you still have to go.Thats the gap. But look at the gain. binnensee how far youve already come and let your progress inspire your perseverance.This another reason setting milestone is helpful. Not only do they help break up the big goal into manageable chunks, they give us something to measure - forward or backward.And heres a plus If we get good at measuring the gains, well not only cultivate persistence. We can also sustain momentum.5. Build your teamWe have a very powerful myth in our culture - the myth of the self-made individual. Ive got news for you. Theres no such thing.Success requires help, usually lots of it. After the surprise success ofThe Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien was asked to write a sequel. But when he began writingThe Lord of the Ringshe couldnt make any progress.So how did he finish what became one of the best-selling books of the twentieth century? The constant encouragement of his friends - especially C. S. Lewis, who kept him focused and energized.There are two kinds of relationships that we need to develop to help us persist in the face of adversityMentors. Everyone needs a guide, preferably many. These are people with experience and maturity who can counsel, inspire, and challenge us. These relationships can be personal or virtual. They can even been literary through biographies, histories, and great novels.Peers. We also need a circle of co-travelers, people who are at our level struggling with their own goals. Facing the world with friends and colleagues gives us confidence. It also provides us insights and solutions we wouldnt have considered on our own.Building a team of mentors and peers will help us persist toward even the most daunting of goals. We all need community, especially when the going gets tough.6. Celebrate your wins (especially the small ones)In the Genesis story, it says that God looked at everything he created and called it good. But he didnt wait until the whole creation was finished. He did it at each stage. Its a good model for us too.I firmly believe in celebrating our wins. I recently took my whole company on aCaribbean cruiseto acknowledge a major win. But its important to pause and celebrate the small wins too.When we celebrate reaching our milestones, we stay emotionally engaged for the long haul. Bergland says its about harnessing your reward circuitry and tapping your dopamine pipeline.All I know is thats exciting. And I want more after every win.Winning helps keep us in the game. That means we need to be serious about celebrating our wins. And the bigger our goals, the more important it becomes to celebrate small victories.So forget about talent, brains, and all the rest. The real question is are you tenacious? Do you have grit? Because when the dust clears, only the persistent are still around to claim the prize.This article first appeared on Goins, Writer.