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I had the honor of speaking this week at a women’s business association luncheon on the topic of entrepreneurship. When I mentioned to my wife the day before that I was speaking to group of women entrepreneurs she asked, “Why on earth would they ask you to speak?”

In her defense, my dear wife has no idea what I do for a living. She’s never read a single one of the several hundred columns I’ve written. She’s never attended a function where I’m speaking or sat in the audience at any of my seminars.

She just knows that we live a very comfortable lifestyle and believes me when I tell her our money doesn’t come from the drug trade.

Beyond that, she’s incredibly happy in her ignorance of her husband’s skills.

When I feigned hurt feelings she waved a hand at me and said, “My point is, what in the world can a man tell a roomful of women that they don’t already know?”

Henny Youngman, Ralph Cramden, Rodney Dangerfield, Tim Knox. At least I’m in good company.

But she had a point. What the heck did I know about women in business? So as not to look like a total idiot in front of this group of what I now call “women entrepreneurs” I decided to do a little research on the topic.

Here’s what I discovered: while some still believe it’s a man’s world, when it comes to business, women are catching up fast.

According to the Center For Women’s Business Research there are over 10 million women-owned businesses in the US, employing 18 million people and generating $2.32 trillion in sales.

Women start businesses at two times the rate of men and women-owned businesses account for 28 percent of all businesses in the United States and represent about 775,000 new startups per year and account for 55% of new startups.

One thing that I found particularly interesting was that the top growth industries for women-owned businesses in recent years were construction, wholesale trade, transportation/communications, agribusiness and manufacturing, industries traditionally dominated by men.

In the past 25 years the number of women-owned firms in the US has doubled, employment has increased four-fold and their revenues have risen five-fold.

Here is the question I sought particularly to answer: Do women approach business differently than men? I’ve been compared to a bull in a china shop when it comes to business. Would a female counterpart approach things differently? More gracefully, perhaps? As my lovely bride would say, “Duh.”

In her book, How to Run Your Business Like a Girl, Elizabeth Cogswell Baskin explored common female traits and how women entrepreneurs – and perhaps men, as well – can use those traits to their entrepreneurial advantage.

Baskin reported that women tend to use three unique strengths more than their male counterparts: trusting their intuition, focusing on relationships, and putting more emphasis on keeping their life in balance.

Trust Your Gut

Women are much more likely to make a decision based on a gut feeling. Women may gather the facts and figures necessary to back up that feeling, but they generally know what they want to do based on intuition.

Build Strong Relationships

Men play the game of business like a sport. They are out to win and dominate. “Women,” Baskin says, “are much more interested in establishing a connection.”

Find A Balance Between Work and Life.

A number of women interviewed for this book cited on quality of life as their reason for starting a business, alluding to their desire to find a way to juggle family and work. “If having more time for your family is important to you, find a way to work that into your day. It’s not so much how much work you do, but being able to decide when you’ll do it.”

Baskin offers one more piece of advice to women in the early stages of their business:

You Don’t Have To Know Everything.

My wife would argue this point because she really does know everything, but Baskin says when it comes to business, thinking you know everything is not the key to success.

“It’s amazing how many women say they didn’t know anything when they started their business,” Baskin said. “Don’t be afraid to ask for help – you don’t have to be perfect at everything.”

Solid business advice: for guys and gals.

Here’s to your success!

Business if tough in today’s world! Most small businesses go bankrupt or are closed abruptly in the first five years. Over the course of the next five years many of the remainders also “pack up” shop and lock their doors. Why do so many businesses fail?

The reasons lie in three main spheres. Those spheres of influence can be labeled personal, customer, and operations.

The Personal Sphere deals with the owner’s personal motivation to start a business. For example, if an owner wants to start their own business, but isn’t willing to make the sacrifices necessary to make it thrive, then they are at a disadvantage when compared to other motivated businesspeople. When a business starts for the first time often it doesn’t have a lot of money. Owners are required to sacrifice time, money, and happiness to succeed. If you can’t do that, it is unlikely that such a business will flourish. Many times owners thought they could handle the hardship but once the novelty of “being your own boss” wears off they close the door.

The Customer Sphere is one of the most important components of your business. Without customers you do not have sales, without sales you do not have money and without money you do not have a business. Many factors go into generating a good customer base. In the beginning you must have a cost effective marketing strategy that targets your intended buyers. This can be done by developing a psychological profile of your customer and then advertising in those places that they frequent. Because it is more expensive to get a new customer than it is to keep one you must make sure they are satisfied with your business and product. Keep in touch with them by sending them a follow-up letter with a survey.

The Operations Sphere is only second to the Customer Sphere. In operations you must have an appropriate method of reducing costs, keeping track of paperwork, and maintaining improvement. Operations can also take into effect the tax paperwork, accounting, scheduling of workers, benefits or any non-producing functions.

If all of these three components are well thought out and are appropriately designed you will increases your chances of survival. Failure to understand the integral details of your business and what it takes to succeed may mean failure in the long run. If you are having difficulty putting all the pieces together then consider a small business consultant.

Are you a businessperson that is a natural with children? If so, learn more about having a tutor franchise or other child learning franchise. There is not much you can do that makes you feel better than doing work with children and their parents to make both their lives better. As the proud owner of a child franchise you do more than just make a good living. You also change lives. Instruction based franchises come in many different styles. For the person that wants a home based business, a tutoring franchise is probably a good business idea. For somebody that wants a more substantial business, and more money, then an education Franchise may fit better. No matter what you need, there exists a tutor or educational business for your personality.

One type of business income opportunity that is popular and that usually does well is an in home tutor franchise. This type of education Franchise can be run as a simple one entrepreneur operation or can be controlled on a bigger scale with lots of teachers and educational professionals all working below the leadership of one franchise. This gives more options for the owner operator and gives the owner a larger range to provide tutoring services to. Instead of having only clients locally, a franchise owner can expand anywhere there is a tutor to choose from. One other benefit of Tutoring franchises is that they are usually cheaper than a bigger education franchise opportunity.

The other major type of educational business is the learning center tutor or education franchise. The emphasis on academic success has never had so much priority and the parents of these kids understand this and want their kids to do well. These training franchises are dedicated to helping kids do great in school and to assisting people that are trying hard but need some guidance. These kinds of franchises are an opportunity that helps the community, but also have a high profit potential. Parents trust these training and instruction franchise businesses because they have many years of outstanding results.

If owning a business helping little kids is what you want then look at a child development franchise opportunity. There are many to choose from with each specializing in a different area of child development. The Little Gym franchise works with young children to build motor skills by playing games and doing fun physical exercise. The Little Gym franchise is way more than a child care place and if you see one in person you’ll see the kids are having fun.

If you really want to keep the business focused on education, but still would like to own an educational business, you can explore franchise investments like Kidzart. The kidz art franchise puts the emphasis on art in education. Kids like to express themselves through artistic modes, but due to cutbacks in art and music programs many children are not getting the chance. When you own and art franchise you are the one that brings out the art in the kids around you.

There are other tutoring and educational opportunities in franching that you can own. There are those that specialize in health and Fitness, others science, some math, and others in unique areas you have not thought of. Don’t forget your skill set and what makes you happy. If you love art then one of the art education businesses may be a good selection for you. If you are good with numbers then a math tutoring business is probably a good choice. Whether you are interested in a home business opportunity or a larger business you can acquire it with an education franchise opportunity. When you as an investor buy a franchise you most likely want to possess it for a while, so ensure you decide upon a tutor or education franchise that is the very best for your personality type.

Being around youngsters most often makes many people happy with their life. For someone that loves children but still would like to invest in a business then a child tutoring franchise or teaching business might be perfect. As the owner of a child franchise opportunity you will know that you are making the world better for kids while making your dream of owning a business a reality. You will notice the kids that you’ve worked with do better and better in school and make it in life and all of this happens while also investing in your future from your work. Recently more children have been born than at any other time and the need for good child education resources has never been better. Profit from these statistics and own your own educational or tutor franchise. Free Download: How To Make Insane Profits

The Reality of Online Entrepreneurship

Who doesn’t want to run a business from their home and wear a bathrobe to virtual business meetings? Since the go-go days of the dotcom boom, the ideal of starting an online business has drawn many to try their business legs in the challenges of online commerce. And indeed, the statistics are attractive: Fifty-five percent of American households are wired for the Internet, and nearly a third, or 32 percent have made a purchase online, according to the US Census Bureau. There’s buckets of money being made online, but who’s making it and who’s not?

When one speaks of “making money online,” one creates an image of simply turning on a computer and getting money out of it as if it were an ATM machine. In fact, the Internet, and all the commercial features of it, are merely tools in the entrepreneur’s toolbox that should be used alongside other, more traditional tools. When you’re building a house, sometimes that high-tech, laser pointing thingamabob is great, but sometimes you just need a hammer. And so it is with online business, and supplementing all that high-tech with old-fashioned business, or in many cases, supplementing old-fashioned business with some high-tech, is what it takes to be successful. Success online comes not in replacing the old with the new, but blending them together.

With a few high-profile exceptions, most businesses that “make money online” successfully aren’t exclusive virtual sales companies, but instead, they use the Internet as just one of several sales channels. While people are buying things online, they enjoy having the Internet as an option–but don’t want it to be their only option. More often, the Internet is used as a vehicle for researching products that will actually be bought in an actual brick-and-mortar store.
Creating a virtual business doesn’t mean that it should be exclusively virtual.

The most successful online businesses are those that have promoted themselves offline as well as on, through traditional media such as television and newspaper as well as via clickthroughs and email advertising. Yahoo! is an excellent example of a fabulously successful online company–but what do we remember most when we think of Yahoo!? The silly yodel from their television commercials.

Perhaps one of the most important things to remember when starting an online business, is not to get lost in the online mystique. The Internet revolution has, and continues to bring us all manner of useful tools and techniques for commerce, but if you want to get customers to visit your new online boutique, you have to actually change out of your bathrobe, get out of your den, and actually talk to some people face-to-face.

I was asked the other day what personality traits I thought were important to entrepreneurial success. I immediately gave my preprogrammed reply about passion and dedication and hard work. After taking some time later to ponder the question a little deeper (I normally operate in shallow waters), I came up with a more detailed checklist for entrepreneurial success. This is by no means a definitive list, but I’d be willing to bet that if you don’t have at least a majority of these traits, your chances of business success will be greatly diminished.

You must be self motivated.

If you don’t have the wherewithal to bounce out of bed each day without your spouse drenching you with cold water, chances are you don’t have the self motivation or discipline required to be an entrepreneur. Business demands that you take action based solely on your own volition. You have to do a hundred things every day that will not get done unless you make yourself do them.

You can’t be afraid of hard work.

If you think working for someone else is hard work, try starting your own business. You will be required to give every ounce of blood, sweat, and tears you can muster and then some. You will have to work long hours and be on call 24/7, at least in the beginning. If the mere thought of hard work makes you tired, maybe you should just keep your cushy day job.

You should have experience in the type of business you plan to start.

If you can’t locate your car’s engine you have no business buying an oil change franchise. The most successful business owners have prior experience in the industry in which they have set up shop. Consider working in an industry at least part time for a year before jumping in with both feet.

You must be able to climb back on the horse.

I always say: “If business was easy, everybody would do it.” Starting a business is hard work and the odds for failure are against you in the first few years. If you want to ride herd on your own business, you must be willing to fall off your horse and get back on a few times without giving up.

You need the support of your family.

When you start a business you may have to spend more time away from the family than you like. The business may also put a strain on you financially. You will have enough obstacles in your way without having to worry if you have the support of your family and those closest to you

You must have a thick skin.

If your feelings are easily hurt, keep your non-threatening day job because business is not for you. Many days in business, rejection waits around every corner and you must be able to handle rejection without taking it personally.

You must interact well with others.

Being an entrepreneur requires interacting with a variety of people, from your own employees to vendors to customers to investors. You must have the ability to effectively manage people without offending them; the ability to accept good advice from mentors and politely discount the bad; the ability to overlook mistakes or quietly rectify them; and the one I have trouble with: the ability to tolerate incompetence without losing your cool (at least not on the outside).

The deeper your pockets the better.

The number one cause of business failure is a lack of money. Before you start your business you should have access to enough capital to see you through until the business can sustain itself.

You must be able to delegate.

Running a business requires the performance of dozens of simultaneous tasks and it’s foolish to try to handle them all yourself. You must learn to put your trust in others. If you can’t dish out responsibility without worrying over the result, your business growth will be limited.

Previous business ownership is a plus.

Prior business ownership is not a prerequisite, but it can’t hurt. Many successful entrepreneurs have the skeletons of past businesses rattling around in their closet.

Another of my sayings:

Business is a lot like marriage: you learn a lot from the first one that may come in handy the second or third time around.

With that kind of advice you can see why I didn’t go into marriage counseling.

Here’s to your success!

Very few people ever got rich by working for someone else. Leaving aside pop musicians, sportsmen and similarly gifted people, the only way to acquire wealth by work is to build a business of your own. The type of business you decide upon will depend on: a) how much money you have available as start-up capital and working capital; b) your business idea; and c) your confidence level.

There are three types of business: 1) the traditional one in which you are reliant solely on your own efforts; 2) a franchise where you follow a proven idea and receive considerable training and back-up from the franchise company; and 3) network marketing.

Each business type has its pros and cons.

* The traditional business requires considerable financial input, either from your own resources or part-funded by your bank. You may need to rent premises; buy equipment; hire staff; pay for advertising, brochures, stationery, and stock. A frighteningly high percentage of this type of business fails in the first year. To succeed you need: a good idea, considerable financial backing, good health, an understanding spouse, and stamina. If you do succeed you will own the business outright and benefit from all the profits.

* Franchises have a high success rate. Banks like them because each franchise operation has a proven track record and thus the banks can accurately judge the risk, consequently they will lend money for this sort of start-up. However, all the support and training comes at a price: the initial entrance fee is likely to be very high, and a percentage of the business’s turnover has to be paid to the franchise company.

* Network marketing, also known as multi-level marketing, has many advantages and few disadvantages. The entrance fee is low and the ongoing expenses are even lower. A network marketing business can be started in your spare time – in fact that is the best way to approach it. Start small, and keep at it. The secret is perseverance, get past the first year and you should find the business has a sound foundation from which you can build a serious income. It is said that 95% of those who survive ten years in network marketing become wealthy beyond their wildest expectations.

So which type of business is for you? If you wish to provide a service or product where you have previous experience from, say, a former employment, the traditional business will be probably be the best choice. However, if you are just tired of working for someone else and making them rich and wish to strike out on your own, then a franchise or network marketing must be the preferred option.

The choice then is determined chiefly by the funds you have access to, and the time and effort you wish to put into your enterprise. A franchise will require substantial funds and 100% commitment. You are jumping in at the deep end, although the franchise company will provide training and support to help you to swim.

On the other hand you can ease yourself gently into network marketing by starting part-time while you continue with your current employment, building your business by ploughing back profits if necessary. Persevere and there will come a time when the income from your own business will be sufficient to support you financially. You will then be able to leave your employment and concentrate on your business, spending more time on it or enjoying considerable free time with your family.

When I first started my business, I went to the bank for a business loan. Simple enough, right? I had my business plan in order, an itemized list of everything that I would need to successfully run my business, and all the necessary documents. To put it plainly, I was turned down. Why? Not because I did not have the credit to back it up, or did not have a good business plan. The reason the bank man gave me was “because I did not understand that over 90% of businesses fail within the first year, and that I was not prepared in case mine did.”

While I understand he was attempting to look out for my best interest, I felt cheated. He was not even going to give me the opportunity to fail. On some level, everyone that goes into business for themselves understand that chances are, the business will not make it past it’s first year, and I was no different. The only thing was I had faith in myself that I would not give up trying. The loan processor took that as I would spend my life savings before giving up, and he did not want to see me financially ruin myself.

So what did I do? I set out on the adventure on my own, only using the limited resources and financial backing that I had. I bought second hand office supplies and furniture. I bought the small cheap laptop instead of the multi-thousand dollar computer specifically designed for what I would be doing. Without the proper money for advertising, I had to get creative. My advertising methods was unconventional, but they worked. I found that I did not need large amounts of money in order to get my business to the world.

So would I have been so successful had the loan processor gave me the business loan I asked for? I am not sure, because after all, I made it without the money, what would have happened if I would have had the proper money for advertising? Whatever the case may have been, I am glad he did not, because I am not better able to understand the limited resources that many small businesses face.

So how can you run your business on limited resources? Here are a few things that I learned along the way.

1) New vs. Used- When starting your business, you do not need everything to be “new.” Second hand items cost substantially less then new items, and work just as well. Plus, if you think about it, customers will be more comfortable around your office if it feels “broke-in”, rather then new and sterile. It gives them the feeling that you have been in business awhile.

2) Creative Advertising- You do not need the hundreds of dollars that it takes to place ads in papers or put commercials on TV. It costs very little to design and print you own flyers and put them in places where your potential clients would gather. Turn your vehicle into a moving billboard by investing in a vinyl signage for your doors or windows. The best thing? Face to Face meetings with your potential clients do not cost a penny, so look for every opportunity to talk with our potential clients.

3) Work At Home- Depending on your type of business, you may consider working at home rather then renting office space. This will save you a lot of money on rent and furnishing an office. Once your business becomes more successful, then you can always rent office space later.

Overall, be thankful for the struggles that you go through now, because in the future, they will have been well worth it. Plus, it will give you a better understanding when it comes to other small businesses.

And, no matter what, never give up on yourself.

Everyone loves ice cream. Ask anyone what type of ice cream they like best and you will listen to a lot of interesting answers and some great stories too. For longer than anyone alive can remember People in America have been eating this simple treat through good times and bad. During rich times and poor times people will look for ways to find great tasting ice cream. While driving by any ice cream shop you will notice that there are more folks wanting ice cream than there are franchises. When there is a demand for a product at this level it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that owning an ice cream franchise can be the best decision you will ever make.

Around the turn of the 20th century the ice cream soda was a favorite with teenagers. In some communities the fun snack was considered to be sinful and in a few places it was even prohibited on the Sabbath. Once cheap refrigerators grew to be standard in businesses in the second part, ice cream started to spread all around the world. Ice cream took off even more when the Baskin Robbins franchise introduced ice cream to the world. Enormous growth was again experienced in the frozen treat market because the amount of air was upped and this made the first soft ice cream, forever changing the way the dessert was enjoyed. After the rise of soft ice cream everything was in place for the ice cream franchise explosion.

One of the very first frozen treat franchising opportunities was the Carvel franchise. Tom Carvel at first sold ice cream from a broken down truck in the late 1920s and in the late 1940s created the first retail fun food ice cream store franchise in the U.S.,. This only started the craze and the ice cream franchise industry kept going long after Carvel had started. As a matter of fact, it has grown to be one of the most popular franchise opportunity industries in the mass collection of franchises.

Even though this can be fun there are some things to consider when investing in a franchise or starting a business. A common mistake a lot of investors make is to get frantic and to rush. You must know a lot about the market you would like to own and then it is very important that you follow the necessary steps to business ownership. For any business, whether it’s an ice cream franchise opportunity, a franchise restaurant, a oil change business, or any other type of business franchise it will require extreme dedication and many hours to be successful.

Several things come to mind when the time comes to invest in a franchise, but one thing that can’t be overlooked when buying an ice cream franchise is the marketplace where you are going to start your business. If you study the industry you will see that some business models like restaurant franchises are always busy in all places, but a few franchises can do better at different times of the year. Of course, this does not mean that ice cream franchise opportunities don’t do well all year round in some climates, but these franchises might not make as much money in fringed places up north but in the southern states they may never experience a lull in business. One option for owners in cold climates is to open their ice cream shop franchise in spots like malls where people are protected from bad weather so the patrons can enjoy the frosty treat all winter.

Possessing an ice cream franchise is a fun business where you can make lots of money. The United States eats way more ice cream than any other country in the world with most people eating their body weights of this simple treat and other fun frozen dairy foods per year. Around 98 percent of American households buy ice cream, and if you consider all of that it’s no task to see the demand for quality ice cream. Go ahead and buy a franchise that is very profitable while also creating pleasure in your area then buying and running an ice cream business might be a life changer for you as an investor.

Being a Mom is one of the most rewarding and wonderful years of a woman’s life, so it can be hard for a mom when faced with the thought of having to go out and find a job, to bring in extra money. There are options out there for Moms who want to work from home in their own hours, so they can still enjoy the most important things in life- their children.

Below are some solid informational tips for stay at home moms on starting their home based business in 30 minutes a day. The idea is to create a niche market, or find a market that is missing something that you can provide, and market this over the internet.

To begin with you should consider some things like, what are you really good at? What would you love to do for a full time job? These two questions are really important to finding your niche market, if you don’t like what you do, you might as well not bother doing it, look for something that you love doing, like talking about your kids? What ever it is research it, find out what your industry is missing, it could be anything, lack of information? When you have determined this you have found your niche.

Write down ideas as you get them about you niche market, it doesn’t matter what they are, just write them down so you don’t forget them, then you can ponder them later. Here are some more ideas for finding your niche market:

Improving an Existing Market
Improving an existing market, is there a product that you could make better, for example imagine baby food, if you could make baby food that tasted good, had all of the nutrients and minerals in to help babies grow up healthy, and you could produce this at a competitive price, you would really be on to something!

Adapt an Existing Market
Adapt an existing market, or change something about a product to make it more marketable, an ideal example of this is making a fat free chocolate cake that tastes just as good as a regular chocolate cake and market it to people wanting to loose weight? Although this has been done before, it was a good idea when it was new.

Repackage a Product
Repackage a product, this can be good, but competition is fierce, as a lot of people are already doing this, a good idea is not to limit yourself to just one product, offer a few repackaged items, for example e-books to your niche market.

Solve a Problem
Solve a problem, Find out what people are talking about in your niche market, find out problems that people are having, or what is missing in the industry and develop a service or product that will fill the need. A good way to find out this sort of information is to visit related message boards, forums and blogs to see what people are talking about.

Tap into a Trend
Tap into a trend, keep an eye out for what’s hot, what are people interested in, there are trends started every day, all that you need to do is tap into them, and you have a ready market or a demand, begging for a product or service.

Once you have found your niche market, and found which angle you are going to market it from, it is time to start work on how to get your new niche market internet business off of the ground.