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What a question! What’s that supposed to mean?

I ask the question because so many people today who profess to be interested in operating their own business spend far too much time “tire-kicking.”

While I would never underestimate the importance of exercising due diligence when investigating any type of business or income opportunity, there comes a time when you simply have to make a decision and act upon it.

Let’s face it…no one business is right for everyone. We all have different interests, different abilities, different financial goals. But one thing’s for certain…you’ll never get off the ground if you sit on your hands!

Take my own experience, for instance. I started with an idea, a concept. I wanted to help others learn that with a little knowledge and a lot of sweat equity, anyone with the desire can earn an income from home.

This is not the first business I’ve operated from home; far from it. My first foray into the home-business scene was with a direct sales company called Discovery Toys. At that time it was in its infancy (as a matter of fact, I was the very first representative in my home state of Mississippi). For those of you not familiar with Discovery Toys, it markets educational toys and games through a variety of sales methods. It also provides an opportunity for residual income by building your own sales force. I chose to only do sales, and I did very well with it. Why? Not because I sat around wondering IF it would work; I just did it!

Another business I operated from home was as a tutor for young children whose parents wanted them to learn how to use a computer. I invested in a computer and software and marketed my business to day cares and preschools as an optional service to those parents willing to pay for it. Once again, I took a chance…and it paid off. But it didn’t happen by accident, and it didn’t happen overnight.

You can spend your time analyzing the daylights out of each and every venture, but I can assure you that if you do, at some point you’ll convince yourself that it just won’t work! And you know what? It WON’T work unless you are confident in your ability to succeed.

Here’s another news flash…when you do start your own business, you’re going to make some mistakes. If you’re not willing to learn from those mistakes and use that knowledge to improve yourself and your business, then maybe you’d just better stay in that 9-to-5 job.

Operating your own business involves risk-taking and decision-making; no one can tell you exactly how to run your business. If you’re looking for someone to answer every question for you, make every decision, and show you exactly what to do every step of the way, you don’t need to be in business for yourself.

Getting started is the hardest part, but once you do, don’t look back. You’ll get discouraged and want to give up, but you have to hang in there. The rewards are many.

Like…not having any more bruised toes!

There are some few exceptions as the right to get married or vote. As an individual and principal you can grant unlimited power known as a general power of attorney.

The attorney-in-fact generally can only carry out an action if the individual and principal can exercise the same power. This stops the attorney-in-fact from acting when the principal is incapacitated. If an individual is unable to sign a contract the attorney-in-fact is also unable to sign a contract for the principal. But if you have a Durable Power of Attorney the attorney-in-fact is allowed to execute the powers granted by the principal even after the principal becomes ill.

At the Time of Death A Power of Attorney Ends

Whether you have a Durable Power of Attorney or you do not, at the time of death all power of attorney ends. If the individual and principal has granted attorney-in-fact rights to perform certain tasks, upon death all those rights are terminated.

How A Power of Attorney is Revoked

As long as you are alive you have the power to revoke the power of attorney. To revoke the power of attorney you must contact your attorney-in-fact that the power of attorney has been revoked. You can also detail at what date the power of attorney will expire.

A Springing Power of Attorney

A power of attorney can be designed to spring into effect if you become disabled or at some predetermined time or event. This is a springing power of attorney. The springing power of attorney prevents your attorney-in-fact from using the powers while you are able to take care of them yourself.

The attorney-in-fact must prove that the individual where your powers are concerned is in fact disabled and can not perform the tasks needed. You will need a written document from the physician or hospital that you are incapacitated.

It should be a current document and not several days old or it could be questioned as to whether you are still ill or disabled. So to save yourself, added turmoil, and be required to furnish a more current document take care of it the same day.

Instant Power of Attorney

Your powers of attorney can become effective immediately, as soon as it is signed, This is the type of power of attorney people use when they will be in another country for a long period of time and will not be available to handle such matters. It is generally a durable power of attorney that will expire in one year. You can also have provisions built into the powers of attorney will you can extent it. If you become incompetent or ill when the power of attorney expires, and you’re attorney-in-fact or agent, will need to go before the court to get approval to continue.

Medical Decisions

When you have a durable power of attorney it can be used to allow your attorney-in-fact the power to make medical decisions in case you become incapacitated. Most individuals have separate power of attorneys for medical and financial affairs. Sometimes the same person handles both powers of attorneys.

How to Choose your Attorney- In-Fact

Since this is one of the most important documents of your life it goes without saying it should be the most trusted of people with impeccably credentials who understand your wishes And how to handle your business. One other thing to bear in mind is when you give someone this power they have the ability to do as they wish, and may not follow your instructions. That’s why you must be very careful. When it comes to money sometimes people do things for their own interest. Your attorney-in-fact is a fiduciary. Which means that they are there to manage your assets to help you, and not themselves. The person you choose will be called under difficult circumstances. So generally it will be a family member or a close friend and sometimes an attorney you trust and respect. If you do not have a power of attorney in place it will fall to the laws of the state.

You open your computer, the flashing button says, “We have a new update for your software program. Do you wish to update now or later?” You choose the Update Now button and immediately your computer begins to download a new version of the software program.

What is the program updating? It’s fixing broken parts of the software program; it’s adding new features. It does this quickly and easily. Right before your eyes you see the update taking place. You click a button and you have the newest software update.

Computer software and hardware companies have learned that “updating” is a necessary tool in today’s computer world. Without updates, users would drift towards other vendors who have the latest features and best programs.

What about your own business? When was the last time you updated your business operations? In our fast paced, every changing business climate, your either update or customers will drift to your competitors.

Your business needs are no different than computer software companies. You need to make fixes to your business operations. You need to add new features and benefits of your business and market these new features to your customers.

Here is a short and exercise you can use to “update” your business operations. Look at these four areas in your business.

1. Your Market

Over the course of doing business, has your market message remained the same? Does it still reflect the heart of your business? How would you change it to reflect more precisely what is really happening in your business? Are there parts of your marketing efforts that need to be dropped because they are no longer useful? If your message has changed, should you be looking at different advertising mediums for your business?

I watched a floor covering business change its marketing message over a number of years. At first it offered itself as the company with the cheapest prices. As the business evolved, they realized that creating a great customer shopping experiences was more important than being the lowest price.

Once they realized their market had shifted, they made changes in their advertising. They made changes in their vendors. They made changes in their staffing. By asking a series of simple questions, they were able to update their business operations.

2. Your Customers

This business aspect is closely related to your marketing issues. Over a period of time, you can begin working with different customers. At first, the change happens gradually. Then one day, you realize your customers are different from your original business.

How do the new customers compare to your original customers? What customers need to be dropped so you can concentrate on new customers? Where is the best place to reach and contact these new customers? What other effects does this new customer population have on your business?

3. Your Buyer’s Shopping Experience

If your customers and market have changed, how do these changes affect your customer’s buying experience? Customers today have many buying options. Does the presence of chain stores affect your operations? Do internet buying options affect your business operations?

Customers today are looking for specific types of shopping experiences. Some want to buy simple and fast. Others want to make purchases slow and leisurely. What changes could you make in your customer’s shopping experience that would set you apart form your competitors?

Think of the difference in getting your oil changed at a Jiffy Lube business with plastic chairs and left over coffee. Compare this to getting the same oil changed at a Lexus dealer with a plush waiting room and high speed internet access.

4. Your Customer Follow Up Activities

Having customers buy more from you and buying more often is triggered by the relationships you establish with them and your follow up efforts. Once upon a time, sending postcards was enough. Today, the option of email notices, electronic newsletters and other fast, quick and inexpensive communication options change customer follow up’s.

Have you looked at your follow up activities to see if you can update these functions to make them faster, easier and more efficient for both you and the customer? Today’s customers expect you to use contemporary forms of communications. Are you taking advantage of these forms?

Conclusion

These are several key areas you can use to update your business operations. Just as your software is updated on a regular basis, you need to make the fixes and enhancements to your business on a regular basis. The next time you see the question on your computer, “Do you want to update now?” remind yourself to update your business operations.

Leaders in the business world need public relations big time, and they show it every day.

How? By staying in touch with their most important external audiences and by carefully monitoring their perceptions about the company, audience member feelings about hot topics at issue, and the behaviors that inevitably follow.

Could there be an angle here for your business?

What I mean is, once you interact with, then learn what that key target audience of yours believes about you and your organization, a corrective public relations goal a specific behavior change can be established.

Which then requires that you identify a strategy. There are just three choices here, create opinion where none exists, change existing opinion, or reinforce it.

It’s a logical sequence. With your goal and strategy now set, you need persuasive messages with a good chance of moving perceptions (and thus behaviors) in your organization’s direction. But you must make sure the messages talk not only to the current topic at issue, but to any misconceptions or inaccuracies encountered during your information gathering, and to any problems that might be brewing.

What will you do with your new message? You will carry it to the attention of your priority audience. You’ll use communications tactics that are credible in the eyes of the receiver, and effective in reaching him or her. You’ll also want tactics that stand a good chance of moving opinion in that target audience, on the topic at issue, in your direction.

Fortunately, there are many communications tactics to choose from: newsworthy announcements, letters-to-the-editor, news releases, radio and newspaper interviews, brochures, speeches and on and on.

Now, you’re back to the monitoring mode as you interact once again with members of the key target audience. With your communications tactics hammering away, you keep one eye peeled for signs of target audience opinion shifts in your direction. The other eye, (and ears) stay alert for any references by print and broadcast media, or other local thoughtleaders to your carefully prepared message.

The bottom line is, are perceptions and behaviors within the target audience being modified? If not, adjustments to your communications tactics often a big increase in, and wider selection must be made. Your message may also need to be sharpened and its factual basis strengthened.

Gradually, you’ll begin to notice changes in opinion starting to appear along with a growing receptiveness to those messages of yours. This is real progress.

Should you still need encouragement to hang in there with your brand new public relations program, consider this. A single issue for example, a potentially dangerous, unattended perception among a key audience can spread like wildfire nudging any business closer to failure than success.

That statistic alone should make you feel pretty good about public relations.

Q. I am transitioning to a new career after sixteen years to spend more time with my family. We moved to a very small town (less than ten thousand people) and I want to start an coffee shop business and also offer PC repair. How can Iinvestigate and then promote this business?

A. In a big city, you’ll make decisions by numbers and neighborhoods. In a small town, you schmooze!

On the surface, everyone will be friendly, optimistic and positive.

Your challenge: Get below the surface and learn the true story. You might consider asking a lot of questions before you disclose your own intentions. Listen for, “I wish we had”

1. Talk to others who have opened businesses recently.

What challenges have they faced? What works and what doesn’t? Were others newcomers successful? If so, were they truly new or did they have deep roots in the town, such as a brother who lived here forty years?

If nobody’s opened a business for awhile, dig deeper. Maybe there’s no market. Or maybe they’re just waiting for you to arrive! Sometimes a new business can generate latent demand. It’s a judgment call. Read the rest of 7 Tips for Starting a New Business in a Small Town »

You bet a name is important. Many small business owners try to come up with a clever name for their business rather than one that explains what they do. And, nine times out of ten, that is a mistake. Your business name should give your prospects some idea of what your business is about.

One of the most useful processes I’ve used to help my clients come up with a good name is to turn it around. Rather than looking at the name from your perspective, approach it from your prospect’s perspective.

1. Identify your target market. Be specific. What are their wants and needs? Specific gender? How big are they? Do they make a certain amount of revenue? What do they look like? Draw a picture of your prospect.

2. Why should they do business with you? What are the benefits? What makes you different from all the other businesses in your industry?

Based on your answers to 1 and 2 above, brainstorm a list of words that could potentially turn into a company name. Put those combinations together and see what works best for you.

If you manage a department, division or subsidiary for a business, non-profit or association, your primary public relations model probably should read this way: people act on their own perception of the facts before them, which leads to predictable behaviors about which something can be done. When we create, change or reinforce that opinion by reaching, persuading and moving-to-desired- action the very people whose behaviors affect the organization the most, the public relations mission is accomplished.

Properly executed, this comprehensive blueprint will help you persuade your key external stakeholders to your way of thinking, then move them to take actions that lead to your unit’s success.

And, as you move the emphasis of the public relations crew assigned to your operation from communications tactics to the model outlined above, YOU move ever closer to personal success as a unit manager. Read the rest of A Manager’s PR Paradigm »

There are a great many books and web sites devoted to real estate investing out there, but most of them concentrate on one specific area of investing. It’s often hard to find a general description of real estate investing, one that lists the various real estate investing strategies and how to get started. That’s what this article will set out to do.

Before beginning, you must understand that real estate investing is not a get rich quick scheme. Real estate investing can, and will, make you wealthy, but it certainly won’t happen overnight and it will require work. As you perfect your technique and gain experience, the amount of work needed to gain a lot of money will reduce, but it will take effort and persistance to make it there.

If you’re completely new to real estate investing then the only sort of investing strategy you’re likely aware of is rental properties.

Landlording has been around since there have been houses and people to rent them to, and it will continue to be a wealth builder. In fact, most of the ‘no money down’ real estate strategies you hear about still include rentals as part of their plan. Still, there are other ways to make money from real estate investing out there. Read the rest of A Real Estate Investing Primer »

Quest for new clients shouldn’t ignore those who pay the bills

Acquisition. It’s a big word in small business marketing. Companies are constantly looking at ways to draw new people to the business and generate new streams of revenue. In this quest, some small businesses make the mistake of focusing too much on new customer acquisition, only to find that their existing customers have been lured away by a competitor.

Ironic, isn’t it? The very tactics you use to drive new customers to your business are the same ones that your competitors can use to take them away from you. Losing sight of your existing customer base is truly an example of not seeing the forest for the trees. Did you know that on average, it costs a small business 10 times as much to attract a new client as it does to retain an existing one? Think about that the next time you are planning an acquisition marketing campaign, then use these three tips to ensure that your customers don’t fall prey to your competitor’s acquisition efforts:

Coffee Anyone?: One of the simplest and most cost effective retention initiatives I’ve seen involved sending your customers a brief letter and tossing in a gift certificate for a free coffee at a local coffee shop (if you’re a local business), or a national coffee chain (if you operate in a broader area.) It will only cost you about one dollar for each of your customers plus mailing costs, and you’ll accomplish two things. Firstly, they’ll be reminded of your company name and services thanks to your brief letter, and secondly, they’ll enjoy a hot cup of coffee and feel good about you gesture. That free coffee can go a long way towards client retention.

Get Them a Deal: Who are your customers? Are they small businesspeople operating in your area? Are they pet owners? Are they car lovers? The product you sell will dictate what your clients are interested in. (For example if you sell a new type of car wax, you can be fairly certain that 99% of your clients are car buffs). If you have even a few dozen clients, you could approach another local business that sells a car related product (let’s say a new tire polish) and offer them a deal. You’ll send a letter to all of your customers and offer them a great deal on the tire polish of 40% off the retail price. The company you approach should be willing to do this, as they have the potential to make a number of sales at one time, and your customers receive something of value from you, making them remember your company name and feel good about your offer.

Take it one step further and reciprocate the offer. The tire polish company can tell all of their clients about your car wax, and you’ll offer them a 40% as well since you now have the chance to sell some of your product. Client loyalty and new business too….a total solution! Just make sure that what you offer to your clients is actually valuable and not just a hollow sales pitch. Your reputation may be hurt by partnering with businesses that do not invest as much in client satisfaction as you do.

Build a Community: Keeping in contact with your customers is another way to improve customer retention. If your customers receive a newsletter or ezine from you on a regular basis, it becomes very difficult for them to forget about you or your services. Producing an ezine or newsletter is not as difficult as you think. The Internet is full of articles and opinions on almost every subject imaginable. Most authors will grant you permission to use their articles free of charge provided that you include a link to their website (you can find a great collection of articles on a wide variety of topics at www.ideamarketers.com, www.clickforcontent.com, and others). By building a small newsletter or ezine that contains 2 or 3 articles per month, you will get one opportunity each month to remind your customers that you value their business. Of course you could also include information about your latest product or service offerings in your newsletter in addition to the articles.

Acquiring customers is important, but retaining customers is critical to the ongoing success of your business. Small gestures often go a long way towards thwarting the acquisition efforts of your competition, and ensuring that your customers remain aware of your company and interested in your services.