It’s well accepted that small businesses form the backbone of the United States and world economies. In recent years, no part of the small-business sector has grown as dramatically as home-based businesses, which now comprise 52 percent of all small businesses and annually contribute $300 billion to the United States economy.A survey of home businesses conducted in 2008 by the Cleveland-based Council of Smaller Enterprises (COSE), revealed that 79 percent of the surveyed companies had annual gross revenues in excess of $51,000. A report by the United States Small Business Administration (SBA) points out that 25 percent of home-based businesses had an annual gross income of between $100,000 and $500,000, and in 2000 there were 20,000 home businesses grossing more than $1 million.Many successful home businesses have never moved away from their home base, while others, such as Lillian Vernon, Hewlett-Packard, Apple Computer, Google, Bonne Bell, and Xerox began in the founder’s home, garage, or basement and grew into mega-corporations.The COSE survey found that home-based businesses create jobs beyond just employing the owner. Almost one-half had at least one employee, and 17 percent employed three or more workers. The survey revealed that most home-business owners are dedicated people who enjoy the benefits of working from their homes and want to continue to do so, dispelling the myth that running a home-based business is a stopgap measure until one finds a “real” corporate job.Until just a few years ago, there was a stigma attached to home-business owners. The sense was that the businesses were temporary or “play” businesses. But with the proliferation of both virtual employees and home businesses, such biases are seldom heard today.Practically any kind of business can be operated from a home – if the house is big enough or the business is small enough, and providing that local regulations permit it. I have consulted with single practitioners sup-plying consulting services, with photographers with in-home studios, with printers running presses in their basements, with light-bulb distributors whose garages are full of inventory, with a garment manufacturer staffed with almost a dozen people working in her basement, and with companies whose offices are in the owner’s homes but which have plants or warehouses in industrial parks.Whether you are expanding a hobby into a business, starting a consult-ing service, or want to establish a manufacturing or distribution operation, operating your business from home can provide a lifestyle that will be the envy of your friends.For an ambitious young person, an employee weary of punching a time clock, a worker who has lost a job, or a retiree seeking a second career, the lure of entrepreneurship can be mighty tempting. The lowest risk way of starting a business is at home which can often be accomplished with just a small investment. What is required is a marketable idea fueled with passion and nurtured by a dedicated and determined owner exercising good business practices.
Information Product Creation: Never Compete on Price Because There Is Only One You
Information product creation requires extensive preparation, no matter which niche you work within and you want to make sure that your information product has a successful launch. That probably sounds scary and intimidating but here’s the thing: this is a one time effort and it will pay off in a foundation that is strong enough to get your ideal clients to invest in your high-end programs and services without the perils of a traditional funnel. This article will teach you a few of the things that you need to remember if you’d like to invest in yourself and start on the information product creation path using your unique talents and abilities. Remember that you never have to worry about anyone ripping off your ideas because if you understand how to properly position yourself around your story.
Understand Both Strengths and Weaknesses: It is good to have an impartial view of your own strengths and weaknesses when lay the foundation of selling yourself within the information product creation process. It helps you figure out where you are, what you lack and how to move forward so that you get as much growth as possible. It is more than important, it is urgent if you want to create fast success for yourself to have personal positive reinforcement and deep belief to provide yourself the support you need so that you can get over your own limitations to ensure that your information product is as valuable as it can be.
You also need to know exactly who your competition is so you can study them and use their methods to help you improve your own standings. Down recreate the wheel, but understand the wheel and position yourself going uphill from the competition. Check out which kinds of opportunities you’ve already got and try to figure out how best to use them while taking care to remember your strengths and weaknesses. This is a great way to figure out where you stand against your competition which helps you figure out how best to grow.
Launch on Time: No matter what, even if you haven’t officially announced your “launch date” you should launch the site when you’ve said you would. This will force you to stick to your goal and actually work on it. Thinking that “I’ll launch it when I think it’s ready to launch” will only hinder your efforts. You’ve got a responsibility that you need to live up to with your launch, and you can’t move back on that one. If you get close to your launch date and you are getting hung up on your self limiting beliefs in your information product creation, don’t worry this about getting it out there and not perfection. As long as it is usable you should launch it. Launching on time is the professional thing to do and it is more important than creating a “wow” effect in your site visitors. You can always update/upgrade your website when you have to, so there shouldn’t be any issue with that.
Analyze Your Own Concept: If you want to make your information product creation successful you need to understand how good your concept is: is it really going to work for your chosen audience or would something else be better? You already know about your competition; how does your concept measure up? If you haven’t come up with your own idea and are trying to work with someone else’s concept, do some more work on your own before your launch. People want original ideas because they’ve seen too many other me-too websites already.
Test Your Concept Before You Commit To The Information Product Creation Process: One of the biggest failures people have with information product creation is not testing an idea before putting a lot of effort into producing an information product. PPC to a small 5 page site with a landing page is a great way to test an offer before you even produce it. If people will sign up to get it, you can be sure that you can create an information product that will target eliminating the pain of your target market. The small amount of money will be invaluable in using crowd sourcing to direct the final outline of the information product creation process.
You’ll have lots of hurdles to clear after the launch of your information product and the only way to truly take care of them is to follow the advice in this article to work smarter. Plenty of people work hard, but it is the ones who work smarter who make real money online with the information product creation business model.
Mobile Education: The Stumbling Blocks
The mobile revolution that has ushered in this decade is nothing short of a history being created. The fact that it has touched every facet of life makes it universally acceptable. Education is not left behind and several companies are trying to use mobile platform to provide a variety of education services. However, if anything to go by, the success is far-flung and no path breaking way has been found that would make mobile a true education device. This article tries to focus on the limitations that are hindering the success of mobile education.
Screen Size
The largest mobile phone in terms of screen size is Dell Streak that has 5 inch display. However, still an average mobile phone screen is no more than 2.8 inches. Students are used to reading from pages that are larger in size. Hence, reading on 2.8 inches screen is never comfortable. The screen of mobile phone is mainly optimized for small text.
Processing power limitations
Barring a few mobile phones, most of the cellular phones have slow processors. These processors are incapable of running animations or digital content effectively. Desktop computers and laptops do not face any such difficulty and therefore have become a preferred medium for online learning.
Fragmented nature of Mobile OS platforms
Application developers find it extremely difficult to develop applications that can be run on all mobile operating systems. Imagine a class with 30 students and some having Nokia phones, others with Blackberries, and some using Androids. This is a real world issue that most of the education providers are grappling with.
Expensive
Education is always considered as a service which is there for the masses. Hence, in many cases, education is affordable for a large number of students across the different economic strata. There is no doubt that devices such as iPhone can be used for mobile education. Unfortunately, not many can afford to buy an iPhone.
Lack of government support
Present day governments have not yet understood that education in 21st century is no longer restricted inside the buildings of schools, colleges, and universities. New modes of imparting education have come up and mobile is one of them. Unless the governments around the world realize this and allocate resources, the mobile education will not succeed.
Even though companies are talking about phones as low as $30, these devices will never be optimized for education. The solutions to the barriers, mentioned above, are hard to find. Even the much touted projects such as OLPC (One laptop per child) have not been able to bring a paradigm shift in the filed of education.
The time has come to change our approach and focus on the innovative products that are coming into the market. Yes! TABLETS! iPad, Galaxy Tab and many other touch screen tablets that can change the game altogether. The level of interactivity on touch devices is extremely high. Moreover, institutions can develop highly engaging and effective educational content. The fact that they can also run web content makes them all the more appealing.