People often overlook one important factor when looking for a niche to start a business: they should follow their own interests. People sometimes forget that it’s easiest to follow their own heart when opening a new business. If you love what you are doing, you’ll have a higher chance of succeeding in your venture. For people with a passion for food, one of the best industries to get into is catering. Of course, success in the catering business is not that easy to achieve; but it’s not really that hard to attain. For those who are interested, here is a simple and basic how to catering business guide:

The very first tip in the how to catering business guide is to find a specialization. Yes, catering is indeed a sub-category of the food industry, but catering itself has even smaller categories. If you want to make it, you have to pick one and focus on it. Of course, like always, make sure the specialization you choose is something you are interested in. You don’t specialize in wedding catering if you don’t even believe in the concept of marriage or love. You have to stick with your strengths.

The next entry in the how to catering business guide is to use all means to make yourself known. Make yourself visible in the market you want to get into and set yourself apart. Remember that the food and catering industries are one of the most saturated markets in the world. If you want to be remembered, you have to be extremely visible. You can participate in expositions on your specialization or market yourself online via social media sites. Do something that will differentiate your business like offering unique services. This way, people will remember you better.

The last entry from the how to catering business guide is to make yourself affordable. Don’t overprice your services. People have financial limitations. If you are just an up and comer, stay with the boundaries of being reasonable. If you make it big, then you can research charging more for your services. Making adjustments is a very big part of succeeding.

The most important thing on your way to the personal success, after you have made up a decision to start, is to find out the right team. Like in sports, an individual is bad in the bad team and excellent in the excellent team. It’s so simple!

Must #1: Start Your Own Internet Business By Joining The Top Marketing Forum.

Why? Because the top internet marketing forum will be your team. You as a team member must play with the rules, ask advice, give advice (yes, you can do that) and support your team members as much as you can.

The top internet marketing forums are very lively, like WarriorForum, with thousands of internet marketer members, who present all levels of internet marketing skills, starting from a 100% newbie up to the millionaire gurus. You’ll recognize the real gurus very soon, they lead the discussions on the forums.

The funny thing is, which you’ll find out very soon, that when you as a newbie will start your own internet business, you’ll be accepted as a team-member immediately. You’ll also find out how good ones are the so called “stupid questions”, because what really matters in the internet home business, are the small details. That’s where the profits are!

Must #2: Require The Best Internet Marketing Course.

On the top of the internet marketing tips, you’ll need the best internet marketing course, which will guide you from scratch to the mastery. This is one cornerstone for you to keep up your motivation.

The “style” – things are important, when you start your own internet business. The copystyle must be enthusiastic and written with the “street-man-words”, so that you as a newbie affiliate-business-opportunity owner will maintain your spirit.

The best internet marketing course, you have selected, must proceed step-by-step by one day lessons. A very good way is to teach the theory first and right after that to run a promotional campaign with the tips you just learned. A combination of the internet marketing theory and the praxis.

Must #3: Internet-Marketing-Tool set.

When you selected the best internet marketing course, it must offer you a wide selection of the best quality internet-marketing-tool set: suppliers, software, banners, text-ads, buttons, ready-written ezine-ads, etc.

Note that this internet-marketing-tool set will be in your use during the course, when you start your own internet business and afterwards, when you have to recall, what you have learnt.

Roughly 75% of the business owners I speak with in any given town or city see little, if any, need for an online presence. They believe in doing business the way it’s always been done, with local advertising, foot traffic, telephone book listing or advertisement, special promotions, and word-of-mouth marketing, and assume that local residents will find out about their business in these same ways.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with these promotional methods, but it does create a tunnel vision view of marketing in this day and age. In September 2004, a Kelsey Group-BizRate.com study found that more than 74% of respondents said they had conducted local searches and confirmed that 20% of all searches among respondents was local. Whether business owners acknowledge it or not, the Internet is here to stay, and using the Internet to find local businesses has now become mainstream, and will only continue to grow as today’s children and teens, who have been online almost all of their lives, become adults.

I know that when I do a search for local businesses, I am often taken to one of the local city directories, where I am given the address and phone number of the business, and if I’m lucky, the website URL, if they have a website. Most days, I search out the website of a local business to “check them out” before deciding to do business with them.

One of my most frustrating times comes when I want to place a takeout order at a local restaurant and don’t have a takeout menu handy. I’ll go online to find the menu of the restaurant, and unfortunately, unless it’s a local chain with multiple locations, I don’t typically find what I’m seeking. That restaurant usually ends up losing my business to one in which I can scope out the menu online and call in a takeout order.

If you have a brick-and-mortar business, how much business are you losing because you don’t have an online presence, or your website doesn’t contain enough information to help someone decide to do business with you? Or, if you have a virtual company, what if no one can find you when they conduct a local search of businesses in your industry?

I do no marketing locally, as there is little demand for the type of services I provide in this area. However, I began to wonder if I were losing out on what little local business might exist for my virtual company, so I did some research to find what websites would help my company website show up in any local searches.

1. Local Portal Sites: Search Google, Yahoo, and MSN for your city name and see what comes up. Are there any sites on the list with which you can exchange links, buy advertising, purchase a membership, submit articles, etc.? If you live in a small city, as I do, you might also search for larger cities that are close to your location, or search for a regional name that your area might have. For example, I found more portal sites by using “Southeast Texas” as a search term, rather than an individual city name.

2. Search Engine Directories: Search Google Directory, http://directory.google.com for your city name and look for a category that ends with “Guides and Directories”. When you click on that, you’ll see the directories listed by importance, as determined by Google’s Page Rank feature (you’ll need to download Google’s toolbar to see this info. The toolbar can be found at http://toolbar.google.com. The higher the rank (10 is high), the more traffic the site has. Or, you can manually search Google as follows: Regional Directories (by continent/country): http://www.google.com/Top/Regional/ By state in the US: http://www.google.com/Top/Regional/North_America/United_States/

You can also search Yahoo Directories, http://dir.yahoo.com. To suggest your business for inclusion, see Yahoo’s guidelines here: http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/dir/suggest/index.html Yahoo’s regional directory listing can be found here: http://dir.yahoo.com/Regional/ and listing for the US states is found here: http://dir.yahoo.com/Regional/U_S__States/

3. Yellow Pages Sites: There are a number of bigger city options here: YellowPages.com (SBC and BellSouth): http://www.yellowpages.com/guide/cityguides/ Super Pages (Verizon): http://www.superpages.com

4. Nationally-Based City Guides: The largest of these services, CitySearch, http://www.citysearch.com/, drives content to many other city guides. Other city guides include AOL CityGuide, http://www.digitalcity.com, Area Guides, http://www.areaguides.net, Online City Guide, http://www.onlinecityguide.com, and Associated Cities, http://www.associatedcities.com/

5. Newspaper-Based Local Sites: If you live in a larger urban area, your local newspaper may sponsor a site for your city, like Charlotte.com, sponsored by the Charlotte Observer) or Boston.com, sponsored by the Boston Globe.

6. Locally-Based City Guides: Again, in larger urban areas, your local chamber of commerce, convention and visitor’s bureau, or a private business may operate a local portal for your city. Here in Southeast Texas, our locally based site is SoutheastTexas.com, owned by a private business. Others, like FortWorth.org, is sponsored by the Ft. Worth Convention and Visitor’s Bureau.

7. Association Guides: Your membership to your local chamber of commerce, convention and visitor’s bureau, professional association (by industry), general business groups (networking groups, men’s or women’s business associations, civic groups) may pay off if the association has an online membership directory where your listing might be found. Make sure that the listing includes both your contact info and a link to your website.

I’ve only scratched the surface of the local possibilities available for both virtual and brick-and-mortal companies. In doing the research for this article, I discovered there are thousands of businesses who aren’t listed in these directories. Don’t let yours be one of them. Get your business listed locally so you local customers can find you!

Good ideas are literally “a dime a dozen”. Individuals conceptualize revolutionary new products and new services with each passing minute of each day. Although there is such a steady stream of ideas that can be marketed successfully and developed into a lucrative business, there are actually few new businesses that make it past the “initial stages” into actual existence.

Why is this, and what factors contribute to the abandonment of great ideas that could’ve possibly netted the creators a small fortune?

There seem to be two major psychological forces at work when a great idea is abandoned before completion or a business fails for no apparent reason. These two psychological syndromes are:

1. Fear of Success 2. Fear of Failure

It is a very frightening prospect to start and maintain a home-based business. There’s no doubt about that. And every business owner feels the “fear” of being responsible for their own destinies, and for their own futures. It’s quite common, to be somewhat nervous and stressed about our businesses, especially in the beginning.

Conquering this fear is a necessity, however, as no one can be effective in a business if they allow the fear to overwhelm them.

Fear can be “healthy” in a way, as it can keep an individual alert and aware of any failures of the business, which thwarts problems before they start. Fear can also be “unhealthy” when an individual experiences such fear that it leads to inaction and the business never really gets off the ground as a result.

The two fears above seem to be the most prominent among new business owners. In the first, Fear of Success, a new business owner may have a great idea, and may develop every facet of the business thoroughly, yet they never seem to “open” the doors of the business. They may find excuse after excuse, why they can’t really put the business into play, although all facets of the business are established. They may find that they run into repeated crises in their lives, sickness of themselves or a loved one, disasters that are not “really” disasters crop up repeatedly. This is simple Fear of Success, and part of a psychological pattern.

Although crises do occur to us all, we go on with life despite these, and no one has crises that are continuous. A business owner with this syndrome is merely afraid that success will “change” their lives and they are afraid they won’t be able to cope with the changes. Of course, success will change someone’s life. However, the Fear of Success can be so overwhelming, that some new business owners simply let the business fall by the wayside, thereby ensuring its failure. After all, if the business fails to get started or to succeed, they never have to face the reality of their “Fear of Success”.

The second fear is just as detrimental as the Fear of Success. This fear is the Fear of Failure. This fear seems slightly more common and is characterized by the inability of future business owners to even get “started” with any plans or any concrete method of establishing a business. They constantly procrastinate in even the most simple of business chores. They fail to ever establish the business in any way, and for the most part are always promising to “start tomorrow”, only tomorrow may never come. They also may jump from “idea to idea” always hatching a new plan for the next great business. Unfortunately, the plans are the only thing that is ever hatched, as nothing concrete ever materializes. They can be seen by their family and friends as mere “schemers”/ “daydreamers”.

Occasionally, business owners can “waver” between the two fears, actually experiencing both Fear of Failure and Fear of Success simultaneously, becoming almost paralyzed with the emotions of all this, and unable to attend to the business with any degree of rationality. They can start businesses over and over, or make plans for businesses over and over, and yet never see any real degree of success.

These fears, like all other fears, can be overcome. There are many methods to use to overcome them:

1. A business owner needs to stop “projecting the worst case scenarios” onto the business. This is by far the most effective method. Business owners that worry too much about the worst happening, eventually make this projection a reality.

2. Business owners need to be realistic about the timeframe involved in success. A good business may take months or even years to stabilize.

3. Business owners need to be aware of their own feelings and motives. When “stalled” within a business, they have to question their own inner emotions and ask themselves if perhaps their emotions are overruling their own common sense.

4. A business owner will need to have as much personal and business support as possible behind them. This includes family, friends, and of course, other business people. Knowing we are not “alone” can easily alleviate misgivings and misconceptions.

5. A business owner should take time to relax and de-stress whenever needed. Fears become more palpable and real during times of extended stress.

6. Business owners should always have well thought out plans of action. Good plans reduce stress and the symptoms of stress, which exacerbate our fears overall.

It is best if any potential business owner addresses their fears and their approach to life as well as their motives before starting a new business. It is better to address any underlying issues prior to beginning a business, as addressing them while “within” the throes of a hectic business start up is difficult, if not impossible.

To an automotive website market you are targeting two groups of people online. Want to reach car buyers, as well as car salesman. When the two come together on a Web site, transactions are made, and that is if you make money (webmaster). How to contact these people on the Internet? You can highly qualified traffic to your website with article marketing.

Writing for car salesman.

They provide useful car selling tips. -Many car salesman want advertising on an automotive site in an attempt to sell their cars. They want quick results, but they are not sure what in their advertising. Share your experience with car salesman in your articles. Provide you tips on how to design of an advertisement, the owners help their cars to sell faster. For example, owner as important information to provide in particular the condition of the car, mileage, brand and model, year of manufacture, etc. in their advertisements. If potential buyers of such information is displayed, you can a fraction of a second decision whether you make contact with the owner or not.

Writing for car buyers.

Neglect not the buyers as well. Your business will prosper only if buyers to your site. Car owners know that they can get results, if they to advertise your site. Thus mind paying them. You a drive targeted buyers to your website by writing and publishing articles about used cars used the purchase. For example, buyers can teachings, to negotiate with car owners like you for a better price.

Make Sure You Understand Your Motivation for Selling

Are you thinking about selling your business?

This simple one-question quiz will help you to better understand your motivations behind this thought. A better understanding of your underlying motivations will help you make the right decision.

Select the answer closest to your actual reason for thinking about selling your business.

A. “I’m selling my business because of the money I will make on the sale”.
B. “I’m just tired and it’s not fun anymore.”
C. “I have too many irons in the fire and can’t keep up”.
D. “I’m ready to retire from owning my business”.

A. “I’m selling my business because of the money I will make on the sale”.

This is rarely a good answer if it is the primary answer. Most small businesses sell for 1 to 3 times yearly cash flow after adding back all owner salary, benefits, fringes, interest and amortization/ depreciation.

Larger mid-sized businesses generally sell for to 3 to 7 times cash flow after deducting for the cost of executive management. While this sum can be significant, it is usually only a few times what you will make this year.

Continuing on with the business will usually make you more money in the long run. On the other hand if you have an offer in hand from a public company at 20 times earnings, take it.

B. “I’m just tired and it’s not fun anymore.”

This question requires careful digging into the reasons for the thought. If you are really ready to get out of the business, then it is a good reason. If the real reason is that you are just tired under the current conditions and as soon as things improve you will get excited again, think long and hard.

Often during the sales process your broker, intermediary, or other advisor will provide coaching to improve obvious defects in the business to make it more salable. Sometimes measurable improvements occur for the business. Suddenly the owner doesn’t really want to sell now that things are moving again.

This is a bad situation for everyone. If what you need is coaching to get out of a rut, hire a coach; don’t sell your business. But, if you are really mentally done, sell the business before you completely run it into the ground.

C. “I have too many irons in the fire and can’t keep up”.

This is a valid reason to sell a business. It is a somewhat common occurrence for multi-location operators who either buy one too many sites or just end up with one or two sites that are too far away to manage.

Often the constant attention you must diverte to an under-performing site will lower earnings of the whole chain. Just remember when pricing the underperforming site for sale that if your not selling much in terms of profits or revenues your not going to get much in terms of price. An old adage that applies here is that the first loss is the cheapest loss. In this instance be prepared to take your loss and move on.

Another variation is the entrepreneur who has a new venture that is overtaking the older established business. Time constraints, management abilities, and variations in potential down stream financial returns may make it desirable to sell the older business. This can free up resources allowing better overall financial returns.

D. “I’m ready to retire from owning my business”.

This is the king of reasons to sell. Just make sure its true. Selling a business often means walking away from it completely. Retiring sellers often want to think that they will be invited guests indefinitely.

Usually once the nuances of the business are understood the new owner will want to take the reins and run the business his way. At settlement you will sign an enforceable non-compete that legally and ethically obligates you to leave your old client base behind.

Another frequent issue is that the retiring owner has run the business “just to meet my needs” the last several years. In those instances the lower performance is what the business sale price is going to be based on. If you as a retiring owner want the full price based on what the business could really do – generate those results yourself and sell the business when the numbers are strong.

In general buyers are the least suspicious about dealing with retiring sellers. If the retiring owner has run the business well up to the end they can often get a small premium on their price.

The Bottom Line

There are thousands of variants to these four reasons to sell your business. Each variation comes down to the same underlying thought process-are you selling because of short term issues you will overcome or are you selling because it is time for you to get out? No one can answer this question for you but your future success and happiness may depend upon getting you it right.

If business is slow in your industry but you are hanging on, and you like the business as much as another career, then don’t sell. Get the marketing, accounting, coaching or other help to get out of your rut and make it to the good times.

If you are completely burnt out, it really is time to retire, or you have much better things on the horizon then sell the business while it is still performing well in order to maximize your sales price.

Business cards are one of the most powerful and inexpensive marketing tools you can use. Here are 50 surefire tips to make the most out of your business cards:

Your business card must communicate more than just your contact information. Make sure that your card includes a tag line that explains what you or your company do. Order them in large numbers. By ordering 1000 your cost per card will be significantly lower than if you ordered 500. Even if you can produce your business cards at home using an inkjet printer, have your business cards professionally made by a printing company. Your business card will be the first impression your prospects receive of your business, so let them convey the best possible one. Avoid using standard clip art as your business logo. A logo brings credibility and brand awareness, so before you invest in business cards have a logo professionally made for your business. Nowadays, there are online companies that can produce a professional logo for as little as $25, so there is no excuse for not having one made. Put up a website and use the URL in your business cards. If you don’t have a website, people will notice the absence of a web address in your business card and, depending on the business you are in, it may make you lose credibility. Keep all the information in your business card current. If you changed address or phone number, don’t scratch the old number and write down the new one by hand; get new business cards. Keep your business card simple. Don’t use too many fonts or try to cram too much information in it. Try to use a pleasant layout and make sure that your main message (your tagline or your unique selling proposition) doesn’t get lost. If you live in the US, limit your business card size to 3.5″ x 2″. Anything bigger will not fit in standard card holders and your card may end up in the trash. Business cards in Europe tend to be larger, but so are the wallets and card holders. Make sure that your business card reflects your image. If you are an artist or a graphic designer, it is OK to use trendy colors and fonts. If you are an investment banker, a sober layout and colors such as blue or gray work better. Your business card is an integral part of your brand or corporate identity strategy. It should follow the same graphics standards as the rest of your communications material (stationary, brochures, letterheads, etc.). Find a way to make your business cards stand out. I’ve seen business cards with one of its corners cut in an angle, or with an interesting texture, all of which makes your business card stand out of the crowd. The best one I’ve seen is from an interior designer, who used a hologram to show a room before and after a redesign. Make your business card easy to read: use high contrast between the background and the type. Light background with dark type works better. After your logo, your name should be the largest piece of information on your card. Make sure that all the information on your card is printed in a large enough typeface to be easily readable. Run your business card copy through a spell checker and double-check your contact information. Keep your business cards with you at all times. Keep a stack in your car, in your house, in your office, and in your wallet. Leave your business cards in billboards at supermarkets, schools, stores, libraries, etc. When giving away your card, give two or three at a time, so that your contacts can in turn distribute them to other people. This will not only help you distribute them faster, but will generate a beneficial “endorsing effect”. Include a business card with all your correspondence. People may throw away the letter, but will usually keep the business card. Make your business card go the extra mile: use the back of the card to print more information: special offers, checklists, schedules, etc. Throw in a business card in every product you ship. Send a business card with any gift you send, instead of just a card with your name. Scan your card and use it as an attachment to emails. Use your business cards as name tags. Get a transparent plastic cover with a pin, and attach it to your lapel. Wearing it on your right side tends to make it more noticeable. Use your business card as a name tag on your briefcase. Make sure that your company logo and tagline are visible. This way, your business card will turn into a “conversation piece” during plane rides, which may help you meet interesting people and good business contacts. Use your business card as an ad: many publications offer “business card size” classified ads. If you design your business card properly, it can double up as an ad in those publications. Don’t give your business card too quickly. It may be perceived as pushy. Try to establish a conversation with your prospect first. For example, ask them what do they do. That will usually prompt them to give you their card. That is the perfect moment to give them yours. Don’t try to give your card in situations where many people are giving them to your prospect. Wait for a moment when you can capture your prospect’s attention span. Another tactic you can try when your prospect is overwhelmed and can’t pay you enough attention is to send your card by mail. Pretend you ran out of business cards and ask for theirs. Then, mail them your card and take the opportunity to drop a follow up note. If you have a mobile phone number or a direct phone number that is not listed in your business card, write it at the back of your card before handing it out, and tell your prospect that you are giving them your direct number. This will make your card more important, and less likely to be lost or thrown out. Another way of increasing the chances that your prospect will keep your card is by printing valuable information on the back, for example important phone numbers (local police, hospitals, etc), a calendar, or a football schedule. Offer to hand out cards of complementary (non-competitive) business people in exchange for them distributing yours. An example of non-competitive businesses is real estate brokers and mortgage brokers. If somebody gives you their business card, you should give them yours in return. Always give your business card face up. Take a cue from Far East business people, who hand out business cards with both hands. It helps give the impression that your business card is something very important. If you conduct business internationally, use the back of your card to print a translated version of your business card in your customers’ language. Even if they have no problem reading English, it will be a classy touch and they will appreciate it. If you sell different product brands and want to put their logos on your business card, print them in only one color. Using each logo’s brand colors could make your business card look chaotic and busy. Create a business card in magnet form. Magnets are widely used, to hold important papers on the refrigerator door at home and on file cabinets at work. They are always visible and always get read. When receiving somebody else’s business card, don’t put it away immediately. Instead, keep it in your hand for a while you talk to your prospect, or place it neatly over the table, and try to develop a conversation based on the information on the card. Use the back of the cards you receive to write down important facts about the persons who handed them to you. It will help you enormously when you follow up with them. If you are in a profession where relationship selling is important, it may be a good idea to include your picture in your business card (i.e. real estate brokers). Even if your business is a sole proprietorship, you can still use “account manager” as your title instead of “owner” or “president”. If you do sales (and we all do) “account manager” is a perfectly appropriate title, and it will give the impression that you work for a larger company. Use logos of organizations that you or your business belong to in your business cards. They are an easy way to provide instant credibility to your business. For example, if you operate a repair shop you can display the logo of the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) or the Triple A (AAA). (Check with them first about the terms of use). If you participate in affiliate programs online, you can still use business cards to promote your affiliate links. Use the name of the affiliate company as the company name, use ‘partner’ or ‘associate’ as your title, and the URL of the directory or web page where you have placed your affiliate links as your web address. Just because affiliate programs are online doesn’t mean that you can’t use off-line marketing methods to promote them. If you need to give cards to different kinds of prospects (for example if you are a student looking for work), make business cards with just your name and contact information, and attach custom made self-adhesive labels at the back with information of interest to each specific prospect. Include an information email address (for example: info@yourdomain.com) that is set in autoresponder mode, that automatically triggers an email message with full information about your product, service or company. This will increase the effectiveness of your business card since you will give your prospect much more information that you can fit in a card. Take good care of your business cards. Keep them clean and crisp in a cardholder. Don’t give away cards that are bent or damaged. Try to get a cardholder with two pockets. That way, you can use one for your business cards and the other one for the business cards you receive. Keep all the business cards you receive neatly organized in a rolodex. It will save you time and will provide you with a database of contacts with whom to build positive business relationships. Collect all the business cards you can find, even if you don’t need them. Together, they will act as an “idea file” that will provide you with valuable tips that you can use to design your business cards.