ohiobeekeepers | Small Business Ideas

I talk a lot about building a business around your life. I do so because I think it’s so darn important. As women after 50 we have probably raised our children but we may still have aging parents who need our help. As in the title of this article, it certainly does take faith, action and the determination not to throw in the towel and quit when times get challenging.

It is worth moving through these challenges to get what you want. If you want a business you are in control of you can absolutely have that, but you need to be conscience of designing it the way you want it to run. Can you do this all alone? Probably you can. I wouldn’t suggest it though. It’s really hard to build the business you want in a vacuum, all by yourself in your home office in front of your computer. Faith, action and determination need support!

I can tell you now; there is never the perfect time to start your business. If we all waited till we had enough time or had enough money or had things ‘in place’, no business would ever get off the ground!

There is always going to be risk. There is risk in starting your own business. There is risk when you get hired by someone else because you never know how long you will be there.

Faith: Do you have faith enough in yourself, confidence enough, to believe that you can do this?

Action: Are you ready and willing to get into action not sometime later but now?

Determination: Are you determined enough to do whatever it takes to make this business sing?

I suggest you know your basics. Who do you want to serve? How will you reach them and in what ways? How many hours do you want to work per week?

Even if you start out on your kitchen table a few hours a week and you do this consistently, if you know what you’re doing your business will grow over time. But even if you can take this time at the kitchen table, if you don’t know where to start, ask for help.

I spoke with a woman today with a very successful business and she told me what a big step it was for her to call me because it’s so hard to ask for help. The ironic part of this is, she helps and serves all kinds of people. People come to her for help in various areas, but it’s hard for her to ask for the same thing. I was glad she asked.

Virtually every business these days has founded an online presence, either by starting a website or establishing an online store through which they can sell their products and services. Online business has a great potential to considerably increase your profitability by allowing you to reach a virtually unlimited customer basis of millions of people worldwide. Here are some of the advantages you can enjoy by taking your business online.

Starting up a website requires a minimum investment of money compared with setting up an offline brick-and-mortar store. And unlike offline stores, you don’t have to spend a lot of cash advertising your online business, since you simply have to optimize your site to be search-engine friendly and your customers will find you when they perform searches on search engines like Google and your site has high rankings. There are many techniques that you can adopt on your own to make your website more search engine friendly.

You can automate your business processes such that the website runs itself with minimal supervision. You can avail of e-commerce solutions for your site that will automatically take customer orders, check out their purchases and accept their payments without requiring a person to actually perform these functions. These solutions represent great cost savings on your overhead expenses, which you can bank as profit or pass on to your customers in the form of cheaper prices.

You can promote your business in a cost-effective manner through social media sites. With literally millions of people at any one time using Facebook or Twitter, these networking sites offer a terrific opportunity for you to build a relationship with your customers so that you can not only promote your business but also build brand loyalty that will pay off in the long-term. You can enjoy a lot of great benefits by setting up a Facebook page for your enterprise, as well as opening a Twitter account.

You can easily build your niche. Previously it was very difficult to build specialized businesses that appealed to a limited clients, since it was hard to find and reach them. But with the Internet, you can easily link with your customer base by optimizing your website with the right keywords so that they can find you when they re doing an online search. You can download PDF books that will help you learn more about subjects such as doing keyword research and optimizing your site to reach your niche audience.

The single most important factor in the success of an advertisement is the headline. In fact, studies show that the headline is 50-75 percent responsible for the success or failure of the advertisement! With all that is competing for our time and attention, the headline must stand out, grab our attention, and compel us to read further. The decision to read on or skip the ad completely is made in just seconds, based largely on the effectiveness of the headline. Let’s look at the formula behind some of the most successful headlines of all time.

One of the most important functions of advertising is to present new products or services, tell about new improvements, or special purchasing opportunities. Department stores use news headlines because they reliably bring people into the store. Automobile manufacturers use news headlines because they predictably grab your attention. News headlines are great for getting attention and promoting sales. Here are 7 different news headline formulas along with a couple of examples of each formula in use.

1. Begin your headline with the word “Introducing”

Introducing the All-New Lexus 2013 GS

Introducing a Special Gift for a Special Time of Year

2. Begin your headline with the word “Announcing”

Announcing Flash Media Server 4.5 on Amazon Web Services

Announcing a New Help in Solving the Homeowner’s Problem

An Important Announcement to Homeowners (the word “Announcing” can also be used in other forms or elsewhere in the headline as in this example)

3. Use words that have an announcement quality

Presenting the New iPad

Thank You for Making us America’s Truck Company

4. Begin your headline with the word “New”

New Passenger Side Airbag

New Fuel Efficient Engine

5. Begin your headline with the word “Now”

Now Available for the iPad and Kindle

Now Available in Charlotte!

6. Begin your headline with the words “At last”

At Last! Now You Can Have All of Your Flight Charts on Your iPad

At Last! A Toothbrush Guaranteed for 6 Months

7. Put a date into your headline

Reduce Your Golf Handicap With These New 2012 Golf Clubs

April Air Conditioning Tune-Up Special

Save 20% on Your Utilities this Year

News style headlines are great for standing out and grabbing attention. Above are seven different ways to create a news style headline. There is a reason that you see these formulas for news headlines used so often. They work for other businesses and they’ll work for you too. If you split test your headlines, you’ll soon find out Which headline prduces the biggest response. How can you use a news style headline for your business?