Analyze Yourself

• Do you have the confident, take-charge personality it takes to run your own show?
• Does your family support your entrepreneurial project?
• Do you have the tenacity to stick with it?
• Are you ready for a significant time commitment? Starting a business often involves more than a 40 hours a week.
• Are you comfortable with a certain level of uncertainty and chaos?
• Are you a risk-taker?

Identify Your Product or Service

• Take the time to choose. Carefully compare the pros and cons, the risks and benefits, of each type of business.
• Look for a business that allows you to specialize and fills a growing need.
• Learn the business by working for someone in the same business first.
• Pick something that you will enjoy doing.

Know the Financial Risks

• Don’t use your retirement income to start a business. Consider a small business loan to get you started.
• Know that you have the resources and cash flow to cover a start-up period of a year or more.
• Consider “moonlighting,” that is, starting a business in your off-hours while still working. But avoid all possible conflicts with your existing job.
• Beware of self-employment scams.

Develop a Good Business Plan

• A business plan shows why your idea is workable, how your business will operate, and how much your income and expenses will be.
• The checklist for starting a company from the Small Business Administration is a good place to start. It helps you assess your situation, identify a niche, analyze the market, and organize your finances.
• It’s not enough to have a good product. You must know how to market and sell it. How will you reach your targeted market? What will make people buy your product?
• Use the online workshops and templates from the Small Business Administration to help you develop your plan.

Get Help

• Contact SCORE—Counselors to America’s Small Business—for free, confidential counseling on starting up a business.
• The Riley Guide has links to many sources of help for setting up your small business.

Source: AARP

A personal website is a very effective job search technique!

You can build and customize your own professional looking Web site using materials you have already prepared, such as your resume and marketing plan.

Check this short video from Commoncraft: Blogs (a personal website) in Plain English

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here are a few of the most popular reasons to make a personal Web site part of your communications strategy:

• Directing contacts to your site after an initial meeting adds another dimension to the meeting and reinforces your abilities and availability.
• Your general networking contacts can review your resume, marketing plan, and target list at any time – and refer their contacts to it as well.
• A personalized Web site with an address that includes your name is an impressive addition to your business cards, resumes and networking letters.
• A site with a customized and professional look and feel suggests that you are computer literate and up to date on Web usage.

Many sources can help you set up a new personal Web site or re-purpose an existing one for a job search. Usually no HTML or programming skills are needed. Often you can copy and paste text and use online text formatting tools with button bars much like your word processor. Most personal Web site suppliers offer a variety of templates and graphics so you can customize the look and feel of your site.

Points to Consider:

1.    Your Internet Service Provider may offer free web storage space, an online tool for building a simple personal Web page and technical support for personal Web page issues.

2.   Often this service is bundled with your high-speed internet connection for free or for only a modest additional charge. Major telephone carriers, cable television providers, and web sites like Yahoo, Google, AOL and others have online services that can help you create your space on the Web.

3.   Some professional networking and association web sites offer members tools to build a profile, portfolio or a multi-page web site.

4.   Consider the URL web address, page titles, graphics and other text you put on your personal web site part of your overall communications strategy.

5.   Most personal Web sites are publicly accessible and therefore you may have unintended viewers of the information you post.

6.   If you participate in public Web discussion groups or blogs, your colleagues and potential employers may see what you’ve posted.

7.   Keep your personal Web site current with updates that reflect recent career and educational achievements.

Ensure the provider of your personal Web site is perceived by others in your industry as reputable, professional and attractive. Using social networking sites, such as LinkedIn® strengthens and extends your existing network of trusted contacts. Casual social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook may be useful in some circumstances, but can also seem far too casual for professional communication needs.

Make sure your “Internet presence” is appropriate and will not hinder your job search. A presence that features pictures of you in inappropriate dress or “edgy” material can render you a less than desirable candidate. Human Resources managers commonly check such sites, and even the sites of those to whom you are linked.

Choose an e-mail address for your resume and other job search communications wisely. Avoid using addresses such as
nocando@yourISP.com or geometric@yourISP.com. You can get a free email account at Gmail or Hotmail for your job search purposes.

More About A Web Presence…

A Web Presence From Scratch

With unemployment at a 23-year high, job seekers need to expand the ways in which they search, say career and workplace experts. These days setting up and maintaining an online presence is often critical to finding work. But for an accomplished professional, it might seem daunting to build up a social-networking presence from scratch. Here’s how to do it:

Claim your name.

Before someone else does it, you’ll want to “claim your name” on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, says brand strategist Catherine Kaputa and author of “U R A Brand.” You’ll also want to try to purchase the domain for your name — they typically are priced starting at less than $10. This way, you control how you will be perceived, says Ms. Kaputa. If your name is taken, use a slight variation, such as a middle name or initial, suggests Ms. Kaputa. Then begin developing a Web presence, starting with basic information like your résumé and then add to it as you go.

Practice prudence.

Sree Sreenivasan, a professor of digital media at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, made the decision early on to limit himself to three social-networking sites: Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. “There is just not enough time,” he says. “Pick two or three, then cultivate a presence there.” If you only manage to join one site, most experts agree that it should be LinkedIn. “It is the one crucial place to be if you are a business executive, professional or entrepreneur,” says Ms. Kaputa. It might help you land a job. For example, more than half of the candidates in Salesforce.com Inc.’s recruiting process are connected to someone at the company, says Scott Morrison, director of
recruiting programs. Many of those connections come from the 98% of the company’s more than 3,500 employees who have LinkedIn profiles. “It’s a tremendous resource for us and our recruiters,” says Mr. Morrison.

Choose connections wisely.

You’ll also want to choose your network carefully; only add people you actually know or with whom you’ve done business. Whether it’s on LinkedIn, Facebook or any other networking site, “it’s much more of a quality game than a quantity game,” says Krista Canfield, a LinkedIn spokeswoman. A recruiter may choose to contact one of your connections to ask about you; make sure that person is someone you know and trust.

Consistency is key.

You’ll need to update your profile regularly. “Curate [your online profile] the same way you would curate your one-page résumé,” says Mr. Sreenivasan. And remember, many recruiters Google candidates before the interview, says Ms. Kaputa. Google yourself to see how you stack up on the Web compared with others and whether your “personal brand” is compromised in any way.

Source: Elizabeth Garone, cjeditor@dowjones.com

This article comes from Peter Bregman and is extremely insightful.  Read about how to go through these times with less pain and more success.

• A way to increase your chances of getting that job.
• Of winning a new client.
• And maybe even enjoying it.

Peter says to  stop trying so hard with your job search.  At most, spend 1-2 hours a day on your job search.

Here are his job searching “rules”:

* Write your resume quickly and efficiently. Get the basic point across and then let it go. Same with a cover letter. Your resumé is not going to get you a job. If you’re a company, the same holds true for your marketing materials. I’m sure they’re already good enough.

* Don’t spend time on job sites. It’s highly unlikely, with all the people who are looking, that someone will hire someone they don’t already know (or someone they know doesn’t already know). Same goes for companies: don’t respond to RFPs unless you already have the relationship.

* Spend all your hunting time with people: at lunch, on the phone, going for walks. Finding a job or new clients is all about human relationships.

If you’re only going to spend 1-2 hours a day on this, what should you do with your other 12 hours? If you aren’t going to spend your days looking for work, how will you find it?

Here is his job searching “recipe”:

1. Make a list of all the things you love doing or things that intrigue you that you’d like to try doing. This is brainstorming so don’t limit the list or judge it; write down everything you can think of.

2. Separate the activities you do with people from the activities you do alone. For example, gardening, reading, meditating, and writing are alone activities. Volunteering to run a fundraiser is with people.

3. Look at the activities you do alone and figure out if you can (and want to) do them in a way that includes other people. For example, join a garden club. Or a reading or meditation group. Or write something that other people read (a blog counts). If you can (and want to) make them activities that include other people, keep them on the list. If not, then cross them off the list.

4. Now’s the fun part:  Spend 90% of your time doing things you love (or have always wanted to try) with other people who also love doing those things. If possible, take a leadership role.

A good friend of Peters has recently gotten involved in a church she adores. She loves all the pastors; she came to our house for dinner the other day and couldn’t stop talking about them. So she met with them and offered to help in whatever way they needed. She’s now leading a monthly strategy breakfast with the pastors and lay leaders of the church.

Another friend is training for a triathlon with a group of 15 others. He’s in the best shape of his life and can’t stop talking about it.

A company I know is doing pro bono work for charities and the government. Everyone working on those projects is energized.

Why does this work? Woody Allen once said that eighty percent of success is just showing up. When I first started my business, a great mentor of mine told me to join the boards of not-for-profits and do what I do best for them. Other board members will then see the results and want to hire my company to do the same for them and their companies. That’s the obvious reason.

Here’s the more subtle reason this works. Nobody wants to hire someone (or a company) who needs to be hired to survive. Depressed is not attractive. People want to hire energized people who are passionate and excited about what they’re doing.  Jobs come from being engaged in the world and building human connections.

And an even more subtle reason. If you’re passionate about what you’re doing, and you’re doing it with other people who are passionate about what they’re doing, then chances are the work you eventually find will be more in line with the stuff you love to do.   And then . . . then your life changes (not to be too dramatic but it’s true). No longer are you, like my consulting friend said, “going after anything that’s out there.” You’re using this crisis as an opportunity to do work you love, at which you excel, with people you enjoy. You can’t help but succeed.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking: that’s a fine strategy if you’re independently wealthy, getting that nice fat trust fund check every week to pay for your gym membership (or mortgage or kid’s tuition). But what about the rest of us? Our inability to pay the monthly bills might actually intrude on our ability to “enjoy” unemployment. I know how scary it is to be without an income.

And that fear is what you have to manage because here’s the kicker. It won’t take longer to find a job even though you’re spending less time looking. It’ll take you less time.

Pursuing things you love doing with people you enjoy will position you better to get a job; other people will notice your commitment, passion, skill, and personality and they’ll want to either hire you or help you get hired.

Also, actively pursuing other activities while looking for a job will make you more qualified for a job–because you’ll end up a more interesting person. When you finally get that job interview, you’ll be able to recount all the many things you’ve been doing (and will probably have a good time relating them) instead of saying that the only thing you’ve been doing for the past three years is looking (unsuccessfully so far) for a job.

The same holds true if you’re a company looking for business. Spend your time doing things that will make you a more interesting company to hire when the business comes back.

And even if it took the same amount of time to find a job, wouldn’t you rather spend your time doing things that are interesting with people you enjoy?

I just heard the story of a woman who decided to do work she didn’t enjoy for a few years in order to make a lot of money. Three years later the company went bankrupt. That could happen to anyone. Bad luck. But here’s what she said that I found the most depressing: “It’s as though I didn’t work for the last three years–it’s all gone. And what’s worse, I worked like a dog and hated it. I just wasted three years of my life.”

Don’t waste this time. The job search. The client search. Do it. But do it in a way that excites you. That teaches you new things. That introduces you to new people who see you at your natural, most excited, most powerful best. Use and develop your strengths. The things at which you excel. The things you love.

It’s well known that people have a harder time getting pregnant when they’re stressed about getting pregnant. And it’s unlikely you’ll get into a relationship if all you think about is getting into a relationship. The same holds true for finding a job (or, for a company, finding new business). However hard it may be, force yourself to do things you love with other people.  Let the work find you.

Source: Peter Bregman, CEO of Bregman Partners, Inc., a global leadership development and change management firm.

Ccommonly referred to as the 80/20 rule,  the Pareto Principle states that 80% of any result will be accomplished with 20% of the effort.

Popular culture has simplified this into what is commonly known as the “80:20 Law” which proposes that 80% of the time expended on a task produces 20% of the results, and 20% of the time expended produces 80% of the results. 20% of a study population accounts for 80 percent of the measure under consideration.

Most job seekers are following the wrong part of the Pareto Principle – 80% of their time is spent on  lower-impact activities — “web surfing” and responding to job board opportunities, posting their resume on line and connecting with executive search professionals; and only 20% of their time on high impact activities — networking and reaching out directly to leads and potential employers.

You will be more effective at getting results if you – the Job Seeker -  will use the 80/20 rule to your advantage:  to spend 80% (or more) of their time on the high-impact, “human interaction” oriented activities, including:

• Talking to and meeting with their network contacts
• Attending and participating in networking functions
• Aggressively utilizing social media applications for network communication purposes (LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, among others)
• Identifying target companies and aggressively contacting those companies directly or through a referral from their network
• Scheduling daily phone calls, daily meetings and getting out and “shaking hands”

Are you achieving the level of results you desire in your job search campaign?

If you are not seeing results then you are either: NOT spending sufficient time and/or are NOT focusing the time required for the highest impact. The job search process simply CANNOT be “Short-Cut” in the current market environment — neither short-cut in terms of time spent nor short-cut in terms of focus on the right things (and usually the “tougher” and more “involved” things).

Time Commitment. An effective job search campaign should be considered “a full time job.”  If you are currently unemployed, then the 40 hours or so you’d normally spend working should be devoted to your job search.  At a minimum, you should follow an “80/20″ approach to your time commitment — with 80% of your available time during the week devoted directly to your job search, and 20% focused on other important activities — personal time, community activities, training, education, professional development, etc.  Rest assured that your top competition in the job market is taking this approach — without question.

Source:  Andy Robinson; Exectuive Coach, Career Transition Coach
http://twitter.com/AndyInNaples

More on Pareto:

The Pareto Principle, commonly referred to as the 80/20 rule, states that 80% of any result will be accomplished with 20% of the effort.

Another perspective of the Principle – base an observation on the idea that 20% of a population under study, for example, will account for 80% of the population being measured. This universal rule is an effective management tool that produces valuable information in simple terms.

The Principle is named after the 19th century Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923) who found that the significant items in a given group normally constitute a relatively small portion of the total items in the group. Pareto observed an unequal distribution of wealth and power in a relatively small number of the total population.

Popular culture has simplified this into what is commonly known as the “80:20 Law” which proposes that 80% of the time expended on a task produces 20% of the results, and 20% of the time expended produces 80% of the results. 20% of a study population accounts for 80 percent of the measure under consideration.

Examples:

20% of customers provide 80% of cash flow, while the other 80% provide 20%. 20% of product lines yield 80% of sales, while 80% of product lines produce 20% of sales. 20% of your employees give you 80% of your results. 80% of complaints comes from 20% of product while the other 20% come from 80%.
Managers and logisticians alike recognize the Pareto Principle as a viable technique to identify problems, prioritize issues, and help optimize systems. The Pareto Principle is a tool that can effectively communicate the bottom line at any level, and it has application from the micro to the macro level.

The Pareto principle does, however, have its limits. Concentrating on the 20 percent that are the “vital few” today will allow decisions to be made today. As logisticians know, the automated environment of the logistics world requires intense daily management. A caveat to logisticians: The Pareto principle does not have a “magic” breakpoint at the 80-20 line but is simply a rule of thumb. Additionally, all 80 percent of the “trivial many” should not be disregarded. When taking action based on the Pareto principle, it should be remembered that some of today’s “trivial many” may be part of tomorrow’s “vital few.”

Add the Pareto principle to your box of management metric tools and become accustomed to thinking with the whole system in mind, across functional boundaries, and not just in the separate discipline or field. The Pareto analysis is a communication tool that can emphasize disparity, provoke a decision, and trigger action. Most importantly, the Pareto principle can help mold logistics processes into flexible and efficient systems ready to support the 21st century work force.

Steps to take to analyze a situation using the Pareto Principle:
Determine the objective that needs to be attacked (e.g., market share, profit, revenue, quality, and time). Determine measures of this objective. Determine items that influence this objective and their corresponding measures. Rank the items in descending order based on their contribution to the measure. Identify ways to influence the activities that account for roughly 80% of the measure.

Pareto Charts:
The Pareto chart combines a bar graph with a cumulative line graph. The bars are placed from left to right in descending order. The cumulative line graph shows the percent contribution of all preceding bars. The Pareto chart shows where effort can be focused for maximum benefit. It may take two or more Pareto charts to focus the problem to a level that can be successfully analyzed. A common error is to stop at too high a level. Process:

Identify the contributors to the problem: steps, machines, materials, costs. Sort the data in descending order (largest to smallest). Combine small quantities into other. Draw the bar graph. Draw a cumulative line graph on top of the bar graph showing the cumulative percent contribution. Evaluate the pareto pattern: Is the left-most bar significantly higher than the rest or is the pattern a “pareto?” If there is a pareto pattern, shade the bar to make it more clear.

This topic came up at a recent Meet Up with fellow job seekers.  Going into business for yourself during these chaotic economic times.  An entrepreneur is a person who has possession of an enterprise, or venture, and assumes significant accountability for the inherent risks and the outcome.

The definition of Entrepreneur: an ambitious leader who combines land, labour, and capital to create and market new goods or services. The word is French and was first defined by the Irish economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to the type of personality who is willing to take upon herself or himself a new venture or enterprise and accepts full responsibility for the outcome.

Entrepreneurship is often difficult and tricky, resulting in many new ventures failing. The word entrepreneur applies to someone who creates value by offering a product or service, by carving out a niche in the market that may not exist currently. Entrepreneurs tend to identify a market opportunity and exploit it by organizing their resources effectively to accomplish an outcome that changes existing interactions within a given sector.

Here are 10 Reasons to Start a Business in a Recession from Brad Sugars (he is columnist and the writer of 14 business books including The Business Coach, Instant Cashflow, Successful Franchising and Billionaire in Training)

Brad says there is no better time to start than the present, especially if people around you are more comfortable with their own list of reasons why they shouldn’t start pursuing their own business dreams right now. It only means you’ll be facing a lot less competition.

1. Everything is cheaper.
Let’s face it: There is great value right now in this and in world markets. This is the right time for fantastic deals in virtually every category, from land and equipment to commercial office space, personnel and labor. As asset prices have been knocked down, there is no better time to get into the real estate or financial markets, or even heavy equipment and construction. Some people have waited years to find value in these markets–and now that time has come.

2. You can hire more and better-qualified people.
In an era when even Microsoft is laying off, you can find great resources at affordable rates. Thinking about getting your high-tech startup off the ground? There are plenty of engineers waiting to be hired. Thinking about forming a professional services firm? There are many accountants and attorneys looking for their next opportunity.

3. People are looking to change suppliers.
From a cost perspective, everything is on the table for most companies. Even if your prices are higher, if you can come in with greater value, you have a good chance at winning new business. You also have the advantage of being the new kid on the block when it comes to pitching your products and services. Many companies are desperate to find new partnerships with new companies that have a different, better or more innovative way of delivering those products and services.

4. Ownership equals tax incentives.
Business ownership offers a variety of tax benefits that aren’t available to employees. While taxes should never be the sole reason to go into business for yourself, it should be one reason to add to you “benefits of business ownership” list.

5. Family and friends don’t want to (or can’t) invest more money into the stock or real estate markets.
That means they may be willing to finance a portion of your new venture, or the expansion of an enterprise that has proven itself over time. The main benefit is that they know you and have a relationship with you–and if you have a solid business plan that delivers real numbers, your chances of raising the capital you need increase exponentially.

6. Suppliers are giving better credit.
Because the credit markets have virtually shut down, the B2B credit flows are keeping money circulating out of sheer necessity. That means a bullish outlook for companies looking for good terms on stock and/or inventories. The main advantage is that all parties have more incentive than ever for finding true win-win situations that allow for cash and stock flow. When everyone is looking to survive, great deals can be had.

7. You can get good PR by showing you are going against the trend.
The media loves aberrations, and if you are optimistic by expanding or getting into business now, you would be in that category. That means you can generate some great PR by demonstrating your “alternative” view of the market.

8. You can buy everything you need at auction.
In addition to everything being less expensive, you can find great deals at auctions, especially in terms of any large equipment and office furnishings. Auctions are also a great place to find hardly used or “gently” used restaurant and bar supplies at great prices. These days, you may even be able to get deals on fleets of vehicles and trucks for a delivery service or hauling or construction company.

9. You can find great “low money” or “no money” down deals.
This is simply being aware of good opportunities others have buggered up, and finding deals where you could get an entire business simply by taking over a lease (along with all the equipment). Many business owners want out at any cost, meaning you can negotiate great win-win deals that allow the current owners an escape while giving you an opportunity to turn around what could be, if run right, a very viable business.

10. You’ve lost your job, and you have to do something.
Sometimes, the best business decision is the one you are forced into, and the incentive (as well as need) for income is often enough to push those previously “on the fence” to strike out on their own. There’s nothing wrong with being in this position; it simply means there is greater urgency to do something that will start to generate income as quickly as possible.
______________________________________________

Bonus Tip #1: Listen to this 52 minute audio  http://www.kqed.org/epArchive/R904020900 from PBS reporter Scott Shafer on a program entitled “forced entrepreneurship”

Scott’s guests are experts on the topic:

• Gary Jones, founder of Superstar Tech Support.com
• Laura Forst, currently developing a business plan for her specialty packaged nuts company, Laura’s Nuts
• Mali Dyck, business manager for Garden Fare, planning and installing ‘edible landscapes,’ gardens made completely of edible plants
• Mark Cannice, associate professor of entrepreneurship, founder and executive director of the Entrepreneurship Program in the University of San Francisco’s School of Business and Management
• Marty Nemko, contributing editor, careers for U.S. News and World Report and author of “Cool Careers for Dummies”

Click the link, open up a new browser window, and then listen while you go about your online job searching!

______________________________________________

Bonus Tip #2: Check Ideas4Rent Marketing …. for marketing and advertising news, tips and ideas to help you grow your business.  Go to this Twitter name:    ideas4rent or go to their website:   http://www.ideas4rent.com/