5 Skills I Need to Start My Own Business
What skills do I need to start my own business? Sounds like a stupid question but very few people who try to start a web business or any business ever think about it.
An overload of communications (Photo credit: windsordi)
Just imagine yourself starting a business with no previous experience or help. You have no plan. You do not know how to organize your activities, and you do not really know why you want to start a web business.
Okay, so your motive may be that you need money but ask yourself, “what do I need to start my own business?” You’ll at least need some of the following five skills or some version of it and fortunately skills can be acquired.
- You’ need some management skills. That does not mean that you need to know how to manage people or a shop. It just means that you should have some organizing skills like how to organize your time that you spend on your business. You should know how to coordinate and prioritize your efforts so instead of spending too much time on only certain parts of the day to day running of the business.
- You will need some people skills because any business depends on people. They may be called customers but they are people and you need to build a long term relationship with them, especially on the internet. Not only do you need to get to know your customers in some way but they also need to know you. You need to build credibility that way.
- The following skill ties in with the previous one and that is to have communication skills. Normally if you have good people skills you’ll have good communications skills but in business there is an added element and that is to also communicate on some sort of professional level.
- Drive or perseverance is another skill you need. To push through against all odds when you feel overwhelmed or when you fail at something. Give yourself permission to fail because that is a process we need to go through to learn anything, but keep on pushing. Be disciplined and look after your health because it is much easier to be persistent when you feel good and do what you know you need to do on a daily basis.
- I would say focus is one of the most important skills you need. Because of our instant gratification culture, attention, retention and listening skills suffered. It is hard for many people to focus on something important for even short periods of time. This also tie in with people and communication skills because if you cannot focus on what your customers are saying, you’re going to lose out.
So as I’m going to start my own business, I’m going to focus on honing these skills. While doing that I’m going to look at a business plan and strategies.
See ya next time.
Work From Home and Internet Marketing
"Every man is a fool for at least five minutes every day; wisdom consists of not exceeding the limit." Elbert Hubbard (Photo credit: Foto_di_Signorina)
According to many knowledgeable people, the recession was slowly but surely losing its grip on world economies. Think again… Unfortunately for many of us, unemployment is not going to go away any time soon so many people has to look at industries like Internet Marketing to replace lost income.
Many of you are looking at home based opportunities and unfortunately many are also looking for quick fix solutions. You and I know by now that it is an absolute certainty that a lot of people are going to lose a lot of money on scams invented by con-artists for times like this.
Please don’t go looking for promises of instant riches. You are just going to get burned because you should know by now that there is no such thing as something for nothing. We all have to work at something to make it successful.
I think and I hope that this is one of the reasons why the Federal Trade Commission has published new regulations to curb fraud such as paid testimonials. I have seen this trend bloom on the internet over the past five years.
I even know people who got paid to give false testimonials but let’s get back to the problem of supplementing or replacing income. The internet really is one of the most lucrative medias to start your own business.
You can really start a business for a few dollars but again, it is something you have to start right, right from the beginning otherwise you can still lose a lot of money. You also have to realize that it is going to take effort on your part to do this.
It took me the best part of five years and a lot of research. I’m by no means raking it in hand over fist but I decided that since I lost my job I’m not going to jeopardize the little money I still had on get rich quick schemes. I’m building a business.
You absolutely can build a solid business working from home on the internet but you have to do it for the right reasons. This has to be something you really want to do and be willing to be passionate about it and grow it steadily day by day like any business.
“There is no failure except in no longer trying. There is no defeat except from within, no insurmountable barrier except our own inherent weakness of purpose.”
Elbert Hubbard
1856-1915, Writer and Publisher
Start Work From Home Online
How to start work from home online?
Ooh boy! This is where the proverbial rubber meets the road. Most people who try to start a business online struggle with the concept of what to do. What business can I start and then when they decide on something they completely lose sight of the business aspect.
They get all bogged down in small stuff and the technical side completely freaks them out. To top it all they start subscribing to all the “stuff” that promise help and emails start to flood their mail box. Overwhelm hell!
The problem is that there are many well meaning people on the internet offering all kinds of help on how to start work from home online but most of them either forgot what it was to start or some just plainly try to confuse the issue because they think that too many people doing business may crowd them out or diminish their income potential.
You better believe there are people like those I mentioned last, I even met some of them. The fact is that only about two to five percent of people starting a business on the internet succeed. So there is more than enough space for a lot more entrepreneurs on the internet.
You can really start with 0nly a few dollars if you do not have a lot of money like most of us. A domain name, which will either be your business name or a niche name based on a keyword phrase, will set you back a couple of dollars depending on the hosting company you choose.
Ah! Now I can literally hear you say: “What the dickens is a niche, a keyword phrase or a hosting company.” I will tell you later. For now I just want you to get your head around the fact that a business on the internet is just as legitimate and real as anywhere else.
You must also understand that it must be something you want to do, preferably with a passion. If you do not have a real purpose behind your efforts, driving you, then your chances for success will be limited. This part is exactly the same as in an offline business.
Success takes effort and there is no free ride especially if you’re working from home.
“Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion. What a man thinks of himself, that is which determines, or rather indicates his fate.”
- Henry David Thoreau 1817 – 1862) -
That quote is really one of the most important deciding factors in any human endeavor. So get your mind around what you want to do, achieve, and decide that you’re going to enjoy it even if it is a regular business. Life is too short to do something you do not really want to do.
I’m going to give you as much information as possible on how to start work from home online.
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How to Start a Web Business?
Tim Berners-Lee: The World Wide Web - Opportunity, Challenge, Responsibility (Photo credit: Fräulein Schiller)
Tonight I’m sitting here in my home office where I’ve been researching and learning the internet boogy for the past five years. Down below my desk my trusty old PC tower is humming away as usual…yes I’ve still got one of those, and I’m feeling kind of nostalgic.
Drum roll please… I’m finally starting a business online, hence the headline “How to Start a Web Business”. Can you believe it?
After five years I’ve decided to join the ranks of the eternally hopeful (just joking).
I mean, it is not a decision I just upped and made. In a way it has been made for me because I now need an income but it is also partly a decision that I’ve been led to for many years.
You see, when I was four or five years old I told my grandmother that I wanted to become a millionaire so I can help people. That dream faded with the advent of adulthood and responsibilities I took on myself, like marriage and raising a family.
Now many years later that dream literally popped up again.
I lost my job and realized that I will never get another because of circumstances beyond my control. So, of course the next thing that popped into my mind was not that I can now relax and enjoy early retirement. It was more like a silent scream. What am I going to do?
I had nothing. No money, because I had to pay off all my debts. Then I remembered what a friend once said to me.
He said that you first have to be hungry to really see the potential of your life and then to take the appropriate action because without action potential means nothing.
The next thing that came to mind is that I’ve been accumulating a lot of knowledge about internet marketing over the past five years and if I can use that I can still help people.
Okay, I never started a web business before so I can already hear the gurus say that you cannot teach something that you’ve had no success with yet.
But, that’s the thing, I’ve learned such a lot from people like John Reece, Rich Schefren, Joel Comm, Jeff Johnson, Frank Kern, Kevin Wilke, Eben Pagan… to just name a few. I’ve read some of their books and even applied it although I never built a business.
The thing is, I did the technical stuff that many people, who really want to start an internet business, have difficulties with.
So I’m going to start writing down all this “stuff” like keyword research and a few other things. I’ll also make up some video tutorials and put them up on this blog for those who struggle to understand how to start a web business, as I did when I first started researching internet business.
You see… I’m going to make this a proper business and I invite anyone who want to start a business to join me on this challenging ride, so to speak.
Then I’m going to turn it into a philanthropic organization that will help the underprivileged children and the aged in my part of Africa.
That is my dream.
If you read this, come and join me and if you’re already a guru, well… you can also have a part in my dream.
