The World Business

Archive for the ‘Entrepreneurship’ Category

Business activities play an enormous role in the economy and in the lives of people in general. They help provide goods and services as well as income to individuals and groups. Despite the high number of investments existing in all economies of the world, high rates of unemployment still prevail.

Self employment in an already flooded business world can prove to be a rather daunting task. The process of distinguishing a prospective business idea can be quite hectic and can sometimes discouraging. Many have opted to create small business units that require small capital and less management skills. They prefer tried out methods and ready markets for their goods. However, the best business opportunity calls for an entrepreneur to be innovative.

A product with a small or rather scattered market is unfit as the growth of the business will be inhabited. Where the market is geographically dispersed, it will be difficult to serve customers from one central point. Such markets do not justify large scale production and are best served by having several branches.

Another factor in evaluating a business opportunity is the availability of land for expansion. Land for future expansion is scarce especially in urban areas while it is a major determinant in the success of a business. A business essentially seeks to create a large organization that will generate a lot of income and serve a larger market.

An entrepreneur might also need to know the nature of the product that he will be offering, because in some cases, the nature of the product makes mass production impossible. A good example is where the firm is offering personal services.

In order to excel, one needs to observe business trends and evaluate the markets keenly so as to predict whether a business will grow with time.

An art form that provides meticulously manicured gardens and lawns for the business' backdrop is known as professional landscaping. The subtle and delicate use of lawns, tree lines, flowerbeds and shrubbery are the first thing both employees and clients will notice. To ensure you provide a favorable image of your company to prospective clients and employees, proper maintenance and upkeep of the business premises is vital to your success.

Though sometimes clients and employees may overlook aesthetic arrangements made in your business premises, for those who notice them, it will speak a thousand words about your business. Make sure you hire landscape contractors to take care of the premises. Their duties are watering the flowerbed, making sure the grass is properly trimmed etc. You must also let them know of the magnitude of keeping well kept premises and that they have an enormous responsibility on their shoulders.

It is the business owner's responsibility to ensure adequate assistance is available on all floors and that the receptionists have good diction and are well trained to handle queries. If you neglect the overall upkeep of the premises, there are high chances your business will be spoken poorly of during meetings and small conferences. Like they say, "first impressions are last impressions" and the role of a landscaper and receptionist is as important as a top level management executive. Sometimes, the subtle things can have a drastic impact on bigger, more important things and these subtle things could be a weed free lawn, an aesthetically designed flower bed, adequate customer support mechanisms and knowledgeable receptionists.

A home-based business through the Internet is truly something everyone presently dreams of owning. There are too many business options that you could consider and take if you are planning to put up your own home-based venture soon. You could certainly work right at the comfort of your own home. Do you intend to work at home? You should start thinking of feasible ideas and strategies to earn as a home-based entrepreneur. Here are some ideas.

First, get into the buy and sell business online. The popular eBay and other similar shopping and auctioneering Websites could be most advantageous for you. You could get into an eBay store, where you could find and sell your products. It would require a monthly standard fee to get into the service. When putting up a home-based business through eBay, get ready to attend to your stock inventory. Before you market and post merchandise online, make sure you have enough items on your own inventory. Purchasers must find you convenient and reliable especially when they buy and bid for your items.

Second, you could get into Website establishment and maintenance. If newspapers, radio, and television had dominated advertising revenues in the past decades, now is the era for the Internet. You could put up a popular and informative blog or Website. If the traffic of your online site shoots up, you could enjoy heavy ad revenues. Get to know more about online ad concepts like pay-per-click. Your Website could instantly attract dozens of ad sponsors who are willing to pay just to reach your regular online visitors and readers. It may be tedious and meticulous to startup and maintain your own online site though. You have to produce all-original and interesting content to lure Internet users.

Have you heard about affiliate marketing? Conventionally, it means earning from commissions out of marketing other people's products and services. Of course, you could do this activity online. You could use your Websites to offer and sell other people's or Website's products and services. In return, every sale you make for the product would be counted when the business pays you your well-deserved commission. This strategy is perfect for marketing people who want to shift gears and work home-based instead. You could also use and employ other strategies to do affiliate marketing. again, be sure to do an extensive research about the activity before getting into it so that you could make good in the home-based Internet business.

Lastly, you could put up a simple home-based business making products that you could sell across the Internet. Have you ever noticed how many people sell their baked pastries and specialty dishes online? Many home-based business entrepreneurs are strategically using even social networking sites just to make many online people know about the products and services they sell. If you aim to do so, you could open communication with prospective buyers through email, telephone, or mobile. You could be surprised how you could be able to reach a lot of clients and buyers using the Internet.

Running a business comes with its share of problems, in terms of both mechanics and aesthetics. In my experience, one of the most important challenges every entrepreneur faces is the naming or re-naming of a company. I’ve been involved in the creation of more than a dozen companies, and I have had the privilege of advising on the development of hundreds of others. Here are some of the lessons I learned when it comes to picking a name that will garner success, now and in the future:

Easy-to-Remember Names

Names that are easy to remember are a sure-fire way to increase advertising effectiveness. These kinds of names are easy to pronounce and often have a visual component (think Target and Duracell). The difficulty, though, is that they can be tough to trademark. Also, the specificity of easy-to-remember names can limit a business to a particular region or industry. The perk of these names, however, is their high spend-to-result ratio. If an entrepreneur picks a highly memorable name, he or she can spend relatively little and still net huge results in short working less and making more.

Trademarking That Works

By choosing a name that is easy to trademark, entrepreneurs can ensure that they will have a strong legal claim to their business identity. These kinds of names are often "made-up" words like Novartis, Accenture or ZymoGenetics. Other protectable names are based on unique proper nouns, such as Phillip Morris or Martha Stewart. One drawback of easy-to-trademark names is that they can be confusing. Also, entrepreneurs who choose these names can expect to spend more money on advertising to help customers recognize the name and understand the business behind it. This leaves entrepreneurs with a lower spend-to-result ratio.

Nonsense Names

Some companies have reaped great benefits from names that are both familiar enough to be memorable, but distinctive enough that they’re relatively easy to trademark. These are often called nonsense names. Some nonsense names—Apple, Amazon and Yahoo—combine a known word with an unexpected industry. Other nonsense names combine two familiar words people find easy to pronounce and envision, but meet the uniqueness criterion for trade-marking because you wouldn’t expect to see the two words used together. An example of this is Yogabutter (a local yoga studio) and Talking Rain (a soft drinks pioneer). I experimented with this nonsense approach by creating Purespace, a business that did short-term space rental for holistic practitioners. The name provided customers with a sense of our business, and it bred inquiry.

Testing the Name

I’ve learned that the worth of a business name is in the reaction of the customer or trademark attorney. To determine if their name has long-lasting appeal, entrepreneurs should find out if it allows them to access the tools they need for business. One way to do that is to Google the name. Business owners should ensure that someone isn’t already using the name—or something similar—in a way they wouldn’t want associated with their own business. This could cause confusion and lead to potential legal problems. When in doubt, it’s best to consult with an intellectual property attorney.

A carefully selected business name can save thousands of dollars a year in advertising costs, and it can keep the company on an extended path of greatness. The wrong name can sink a business by making marketing expensive and frustrating, or making it difficult to protect your business identity. When it comes to naming a business, you can never be too careful. After all, your success and future are on the line.

Log on to http://www.chrisrugh.com/ for more information!

Christopher Rugh ,EO Seattle

A serial entrepreneur, Christopher is the founder and CEO of several companies, including 1-800-Good Credit, Worldwide Telegraph and CustomTollfree.com. He has
been an EO member since 2001. You can reach Christopher at cmb@customtollfree.com.