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FAST START DO'S AND DON'TS

Guest post by: Kerri Salls

Article Overview: Industry jobs keep vanishing. They aren’t coming back any time soon. You need to take control and make things happen to build the career you want. In my opinion, your best and most secure and least risky option is to step out on your own in your own business. Here are a few quick tips of where to start and where not to start.

FAST START DO'S AND DON'TS

Industry jobs keep vanishing. They aren’t coming back any time soon. You need to take control and make things happen to build the career you want. In my opinion, your best and most secure and least risky option is to step out on your own in your own business. Here are a few quick tips of where to start and where not to start.

Where to Start

1. Take responsibility for your future and your career – no one owes you a job. Unlike our parents who were secure in job with the same company for 20, 30, 40 years and a guaranteed pension; we are much more likely to have five or more totally different careers in our lifetime. Think outside the box of what those other careers could be.
2. A goal or a mission – You must have a clear idea of what your purpose is that’s bigger than you and bigger than the paycheck you want to replace. Your mission has to be driven by your own core values, who you are as a unique person.
3. Determine the reason behind the business idea – the WHY – You must have a WHY. That’s the emotional reason behind your business that will get you up every morning and keep you going no matter how tough yesterday way.
4. A Roadmap/an Outline/a Plan – You need a plan of action. You don’t ever drive someplace new without using your GPS to guide you (or at least checking online for directions before you start out). The same is even more essential for your business. Start with a plan.
5. Be passionate – Your passion is contagious to your ideal client. They will love to engage with you because of your conviction and passion. They can tell it comes from your gut, that you’re sincere, that you love what you do. That passion sells.

Where NOT to Start

1. Don’t hide in your office – Answers, clients, and opportunities don’t arrive magically in your inbox. You must get out and be visible and find where your ideal client hangs out. Getting out does wonders for your morale and enthusiasm too.
2. Don’t be afraid of the phone – The worst thing you can do is wait for the phone to ring. Make the phone your friend. Phone calls are powerful. Create a powerful, compelling script. Use it. Make the calls you need to make on a regular basis. Track your results (yes, write down every lead, dial, contact, conversation, next steps, dates, etc). Treat your business as a business.
3. Don’t assume family and friends will be or will refer all the clients you need – In fact the sooner you move beyond family and friends to reach prospects who only know you as the professional expert you are, the faster you’ll get qualified prospects saying yes.
4. Don’t start with your website or business cards – These are tools. You need a plan of action, a marketing plan, a description of your ideal client, a tag line, maybe a logo – all before you spend money on a website or business cards. Do your homework first or you’ll be redoing your website many times and buying many business cards over the next 6-12 months as you evolve/refine your business.
5. Don’t abandon your family for your new business – Keep everything in perspective. You don’t want to abandon the people you love and need most to launch your business. You want them around you to celebrate your successes and inspiring you to even greater things.

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Article Tags: launch a business, mistakes starting a business, start, startup, where not to start a business, where to start a business



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Re: Hi From START.ac CrowdFunding - Hi Mal, I would love to explain a little further. START(dot)ac is a new International CrowdFunding website, and we are launching this May 2012. CrowdFunding is when a large number of people each contribute a small amount of money to fund a project. We are forming a website to host these projects on, and building a strong and large community of individuals who are interested in helping the "next big thing" be a success. Imagine if you were there for the beginning of Google or Apple, and your donations of $1 or $500 helped to bring it to life! Along with major bragging rights, if a project is successful, people who funded it get rewards depending on how much money they gave the project. At the summary level - We expands the CrowdFunding market to make a home for startup businesses and technology products. STARTac is the professional CrowdFunding site for startups and tech products. We also accept projects in many other categories (listed at the bottom). We have made nine innovations that improve upon the status quo in CrowdFunding. One is that we have inverted the selection process of projects. Potential projects go into CrowdAudition™, where our members give feedback and advice to improve the projects where relevant. The members' input plays a key role in selection of which projects go to funding. Taking this approach also means that rejected project' drivers know why they were rejected, and can better decide if and how to improve their current project, or start from scratch. We are assembling a bench of Mentors - experienced entrepreneurs and executives who want to help the new guys avoid the mistakes they made. Please let me know what you think. When we launch we will be revealing all of our nine innovative programs to the public. We are also looking for projects to host on our website for when we launch. These projects will get extra media attention and publicity throughout our social media. If you have any other questions, PLEASE feel free to ask! The categories of projects we accept are below: Art Comics Dance Design Do Good (altruistic projects) Fashion Film Food Gadgets Games Invention Kids (Youth-driven projects) Music Photography Products Publishing Small Business Start-Ups Social Enterprise (aka Social Business) Sports Technology Theater Toys Transmedia (anything that doesn’t fit into Art, Film & Video, or Photography) Writing (any writing that is not published as a book) Other


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