The statistics on small businesses going broke in the first 12 months of operation are nothing short of obscene and seriously scary. In Australia and other western countries such as the United States 70% of all small businesses fail within the first 12 months of operation but let me tell you from experience, surviving after that 12 months is no less harrowing.After 10 years of running four small businesses and creating them from scratch I can tell you with some authority, that I did not do this on my own. In fact, I reckon I have made every mistake in the book on how not to run a small business, but yet I have still survived. The secret to staying in business is all down to being able to talk to my ten Small Business Mastermind Advisers.My ten Small Business Mastermind Advisers are there as my support team in helping me make the right decisions. See often when we make a decision in small business, it might be right at the time but down the track it can do you a lot of harm. Having your small business mastermind advisers on call, you can simply call them and ask them the consequences of the choices you are about to make.For example, having the right business structure and putting your business assets in the right structure will play a major roll in the success of your business when you decide to exit the business. Se e most people who go into business only ever think of the business as a job they do not look at it from the perspective of how they will exit the business when they have built it into an enterprise.Those ten small business mastermind advisers will help you to ensure that you have met your obligations and that there are no hidden issues that might come up in the future for your business. For example, we recently chose to sell off our car cleaning business as my wife wanted to pursue something different. Because of the way I had structured some of the trademarks in my company that related to hers, when we went and sold the business it created a number of headaches in the sale process. Essentially we had to shift ownership of those trademarks to her company prior to the sale which created a number of financial costs that we have had to endure even though my company never made any money. This issue arose simply because in the early days, I did not have my 10 Small Business Mastermind Advisers to tell me how my choices would impact on me in the future.Adviser 1: AccountantIn business today, with the complexities of superannuation, sales tax or GST, income tax and all the other taxes out there an accountant is a must. As a small business owner you need to find an accountant that is a small business specialist and is proactive in working with you.What I have found is that some accountants will only do what you ask them to do and will not step in and give you advice if you do not ask. You want an accountant that if they see you are doing something wrong then they will tell you without you asking.The other thing you will need to ensure is that you hire an accountant that outlines where all of their hours are going. It is very easy for you with accountants and solicitors to end up with 5 or 6 figure bills.Adviser 2: SolicitorThe solicitor is another important Small Business Mastermind adviser. Just like the accountant you need to make sure that the solicitor is a small business specialist. The role of the solicitor is to help you with all legal issues like what structure suits what you want to achieve, do your forms and policies meet your legal obligations, like your privacy policy, recruitment policy etc.They can also help you protect your assets and in particular your intellectual property like trademarks, copyright etc. Often small business owners do not do the basics of trademarking their business name and logos to stop other business predators using their identities.Adviser 3: Marketing and Advertising ExpertA Marketing and Advertising Expert is a must in today’s market place. I have found that with the various media types, people in the industry can get better deals than if you dealt with the media owners. For example, recently I chose a new advertising specialist to join my small business mastermind advisers because their company was able to negotiate lower television advert placements, than what I could dealing directly with the station.Your marketing and advertising expert should have some experience in your industry and be able to show real statistics of adverts and marketing campaigns that actually achieved results. More so, they should also have a mantra of test and measure to ensure that your campaigns are giving you value for money and more so, are making you a profit.Adviser 4: BookkeeperSome accountants have their own bookkeepers, but I have found that quite often they are more expensive than bookkeepers not tied into an accountant. Further to this you should always check to make sure the bookkeeper is certified. In some countries, including Australia, bookkeepers can be certified through the National Bookkeepers association or the CPA.Your bookkeeper must be prepared to work with your accountant and if they have questions you must give them permission to speak with your accountant and more so, you need to make sure that they document all communications with your accountant.Remember one thing, it does not matter whether your Bookkeeper or your accountant makes a mistake, ultimately, you as the business owner are responsible for your books. If they get it wrong, it will be on your head, so always make sure that you understand what they are doing.Adviser 5: IT PersonEverybody hates computers and I am a 20 year veteran of the industry and I still hate them. Having a good IT person is essential. Most businesses today are now totally reliant on their IT Technology and if your technology goes down, the question you need to ask is, “could your business still operate?” If the answer is no, then you need to hire an IT person who will be there in an emergency.When choosing an IT Person or company make sure they are qualified in the technology you are using. For example, if you are using Microsoft Windows technology in your office, then your IT Person should have at the very least the Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician qualification.Adviser 6: Website and Search Engine ExpertIf your business is not on the web and you are not selling products to the global market then you are making your life incredibly difficult and you are missing out on lots of opportunities. The internet is a fantastic tool for doing business but be warned there are lots of crooks out there, especially in the search engine optimization industry.Before choosing a web builder and search engine expert ask to speak with some of their existing clients or talk to other business associates and find out who they use. I will say you should expect to pay anywhere between $1,500 to $5,000 per month for this service depending on your business and what sort of income you want to derive from the internet.Adviser 7: Business CoachBusiness Coaches, are like website and search engine experts, there are a lot of snakes out there who have no real small business experience. Before choosing a Business Coach ask them if they have ever owned a small business or if they had been a principle small business manager.If you have been in small business for a while, then it will be very obvious to you as to which business coaches have owned businesses before going into business coaching. Their approach will tend to be more practical then something out of a book. Once again before choosing a business coach, talk to your business colleagues and see if they can recommend someone.Adviser 8: Financial PlannerManaging your money is a major issue and most accountants will not give you Financial Planning Advice. A good financial planner will be able to help you where to put your business money, to get good growth but also to be easily accessible.You should also have a good financial planner for your personal 401k or superannuation policy but also if you are managing an employer superannuation program. Most small business owners forget to build their own 401k or superannuation policy as they are building their business and when they get to selling their business they find they do not have enough to live on once they retire because once the business debts are paid off, nothing is left.Adviser 9: Business BankerFinding the right bank and right business banker is essential to succeeding in business. You definitely need to build a constructive relationship with your business banker as they will be your life line in a dire cashflow situation or if you need money for a deal you just could not let go by.Business Bankers can also help you with other issues like leasing and hire purchase accounts, but also other facilities like merchant facilities, sales tax bank accounts etc.Adviser 10: Insurance BrokerI learned the hard way on how important an insurance broker is to your business. The previous insurance company I dealt with did not advise me that none of the glass in my building was covered if I was broken into. I have extensive insurance, but because Glass was an optional extra, the previous insurance company did not tell me this and when we were broken into, even though I pay over $5,000 per year in insurance, I still had a $4,000 bill for all the glass damaged during a break and enter.This particular experience really drove home, how a good insurance broker, whilst upfront might cost you more, in the future will save you more.Just like any employee when you are putting together your Small Business Mastermind Advisers you need to interview each adviser and ensure that you are able to work with them. Further to this, to get the best advice from your Small Business Mastermind Advisers you must be 100% honest and open with them, even when things are looking dire. If you are not totally honest, then they cannot give you the advice that will help you get out of trouble.
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Social Media and Children
Social media, in its current form, means a lot more than just a small number of adults spending time connecting with others and researching various topics. There are millions of children that are involved with social media in all sorts of ways.Children’s interactions with social media
There are reasons why the thought of children getting involved with social media may be objectionable (and are certainly not preferable). A great deal of the objections, in all likelihood, come from the parents of those children. Many parents grow concerned if their children start to interact on social media channels because of the potentially dangerous nature of the Internet (at least certain aspects of it).One of the best safety measures is something that parents can make happen. That is education. Adults in a position of authority must educate children, without frightening them, so that they understand what to do and what not to do in order to stay safe. The Internet definitely holds some potentially powerful educational possibilities for children if used appropriately. Part of the education is showing children where they should and should not go online. They also need to understand that the virtual world can quickly become the real world if they venture into places online where they have no control and where their parents and teachers don’t have control either.The positives of children using social media
There are many positive attributes that can be leveraged when it comes to children. One of those is the idea that children can become technically savvy from an early age and that will help them in their future lives and careers. That is extremely important for them. All of that will definitely affect their future in an extremely profound manner. As young adults, they will be able to use social media to build relationships who share common interests and who have networking connections that will benefit both of them. Those relationships will help them to realize their long-term goals successfully. Of course, another thing to remember is that if a child is very young, he or she may be restricted from using certain social media channels. The adults need to pay attention to that on behalf of the children. Of course, those restrictions are in place for good reasons.Another thing that is important to remember is that when you are choosing the appropriate social media channels, you should do so with the idea in mind that you (or the teachers) will not need to monitor every word that the child types. Children need some degree of privacy and the adults need to respect that as long as they children are not allowed to have freedom that causes them harm in any way. Children do not like the idea that their parents and teachers are watching their every move. An appropriate analogy would be if the child receives something in the mail (with his or her name on it). The parent should not open that piece of mail. Aside from being illegal, it is also important to make the child feel that since that envelope is addressed to him or her, he or she has the right to open it.What is being built
There are many positive attributes that are being build by allowing children to get involved with social media and making them feel that they have entered a world that will allow them to grow, learn, and benefit. There is no doubt that the Internet has made all sorts of opportunities available that would never have been available before. Referring back to the networking opportunities and relationship building that occurs because of social media, there is absolutely nothing that can replace that. If children can learn from a young age how to be comfortable with other people and with themselves in a professional situation, they will be one step ahead of the game.Conclusion
Social media and children are a natural combination, although that doesn’t mean that caution does not need to be exercised. As parents and educators, it is important to make sure that children use social media in the most productive, valuable and safe manner possible. It is all in the education. If you do that up front, you will hopefully be able to sit back and watch the children flourish. Social media has many benefits (for adults and children). It allows people to stay connected, form and sustain relationships, share interesting and valuable pieces of information, and develop a personal brand. There are many different social media channels that have been created with children in mind. It is important to find the ones that are the most appropriate and the most beneficial.
The Truth About Network Marketing – From One Sceptic to Another
What is Network MarketingNetwork Marketing is often called Direct Selling, Affiliate Marketing, or Multi-Level-Marketing(MLM). It is an honest, viable business structure. It is designed to build a marketing and sales force by compensating not only sales made by the individual but also the sales made by the people that individual has introduced to the company. This structure effectively moves the task of building and supporting a sales force away from the company and onto the individual. The company benefits from this because it can focus on the product instead of building a sales force and the individual benefits because it can hire others and make overrides on their efforts in addition to their own. A company can use the structure to create a sales force quicker and easier than traditional means. That may be critical to the company’s success, particularly if the company has a new hot product.What Network Marketing Is NotNetwork Marketing is not a pyramid scheme. It is not a scam. A pyramid scheme is illegal, Network Marketing is not. A pyramid scheme is a business setup where the primary and many times the only way to be compensated is to recruit others into the business. In a pyramid scheme, there is essentially no product. Instead you simply sell “nothing” to others in order to get them to join. While con artists will attempt to use the structure as a guise for their pyramid schemes, it doesn’t mean all companies that use Network Marketing as a sales structure are themselves a pyramid scheme. In fact, it is fast becoming a recognized structure among business leaders today, including Donald Trump. It has also been used in part by respected companies such as PayPal, AT&T Wireless, Wachovia, and Vonage. It is also not a get rich quick scheme. As with any business, no matter the structure they choose to employ, you have to work to be paid. The same is true of Network Marketing. However, even though it doesn’t offer instant riches, it does offer some unique advantages over traditional employment opportunities.Why Network MarketingNetwork Marketing is a not a get rich program but instead a real business opportunity and one that requires real work. That being said, the unique advantages offered by Network Marketing are incredible compared with what’s available in the traditional job market. First, you get to set your own hours. You are effectively your own boss. So if you do not feel like working one day then you do not have to. Of course it goes without saying that just because you can doesn’t mean you should. But it is nice to know that you could if you wanted to. Another way to look at setting your own hours means that you can literally work as much as you want. You set your business hours and can operate whenever you want. This provides the potential to increase your earnings simply by working harder.The second great benefit is the ability to work from home. We all hear about the work-from-home scams that are posted on those little signs on telephone poles along the roads. Well, unlike most other work-from-home offers, it truly allows you to work from home, provided you have the bare essentials to do business. By bare essentials, I mean a phone line and a computer if you need one. But you should consider that while working from home sounds great, it does require a certain level of self discipline to keep focused and get some work done.Finally, the single greatest thing is the truly amazing opportunity that exists when they first begin. Imagine being there when Bill Gates decided to start Microsoft or when Google was first starting up and actually having a chance to join. Network Marketing provides that same kind of opportunity. Of course joining a Network Marketing company can be beneficial at any time but it is exponentially true when the company is just starting out. The expression of get in on the ground floor has a certain truth to it when regarding Network Marketing companies. This is mostly due to the fact that the earlier you get in, the more people you will have under you. That isn’t to say that you shouldn’t join a company that is well-established and been around for a while. For example, Mary Kay is still a viable business and you can make some money in that company. However, you have to consider that to get into the company you will be going underneath someone and that person is underneath someone else and so on. Imagine being that first person way up the chain that has thousands of people below them. That is the opportunity that exists by getting in early with a company.Examples of Network Marketing Gone WrongNetworking Marketing companies, like any other business out there, can be fraudulent, unethical, and in certain cases just plain scams. However, when a single business is caught in a scam, say an investment banker, it looks bad for the investment banker but not necessarily for investment banking as a whole. The same is not true of Network Marketing. When one Network Marketing company is caught in a scam people take the assumption that this one bad company represents all Network Marketing. We have all heard of people getting scammed by Network Marketing companies that go out of business, never end up paying out, or simply prove too hard to make a profit in. I’d rather not point fingers but a certain MLM comes to mind. This particular company recently boasted in a national magazine that they had sales of over $2 billion dollars a year. Right below this they said they had over 1 million distributors. For those who can divide, that’s only $2,000 per year per distributor. That’s assuming all distributors were performing the same. In reality, the top 5-10% made decent money while the rest made pocket change or even lost money. In an Independent Business Owner Compensation Plan released by the company itself, it stated that the average distributor earned $115 per month or $1,380 per year BEFORE taxes. Folks, that comes out to about $.69 cents per hour for an average 40 hour a week job. And these people paid to join the program! The good news is that not all Network Marketing companies are bad. There are indeed some very good, honest, and reputable Network Marketing companies out there. Many of which can earn you a decent living with some work. The key to avoiding these kind of Network Marketing disasters is to do some diligent research, run the numbers, use your head (too good to be true and it probably is) and make a sound decision before signing up with any company.Examples of Real Network Marketing Success StoriesLike I said, not all Network Marketing is good, but not all is bad either. You can find several examples of successful Network Marketing companies out there. The key difference with a successful company is that it has a real product to sell. For the company to be successful with the Network Marketing structure, it must focus on the product. One such example is Mary Kay. Mary Kay started in 1963 and has since grown to a trusted global name in skin care, makeup & body care. It is an impressive organization in terms of volume and size. Mary Kay serves as one the few examples of a successful self-consumption company. In my opinion that is because they have a solid product that there is a demand for. Mary Kay offers some unique compensation to its beauty consultants including the very original pink Cadillac. Of course to earn the Cadillac requires you to achieve a certain level of success within the company. However, General Motor’s estimates that they have built over 100,000 pink Cadillacs for Mark Kay.Another great success story is that of Art Williams and his A.L. Williams company which later came to be known as Primerica. Art Williams was a football coach from Georgia. He happened across the idea of replacing old whole-life insurance with term life insurance (which is cheaper) and investing the amount you saved from switching. On a coaches salary, Art had very little chance of getting a company started with traditional means. He instead adopted the MLM or Network Marketing model. This allowed him to hire and train additional part and full-time individuals to help market his product. Using the power of Network Marketing, Art Williams went on to sell billions of dollars worth of insurance surpassing the top two insurance companies combined. Today the company has over 100,000 independent representatives and Art himself has a net worth of $1.4 billion. I have several people who I know that have made millions with the A.L. Williams company. You’ll hear more about them later. For now, just know that A.L. Williams is the perfect example of how a company with a great product can use Network Marketing to become hugely successful.How to Choose the Right Network Marketing CompanyOne of the first things you should do when entertaining the idea of joining a Network Marketing company is research. Find out about the company and what it is offering. As with all real businesses, the product is the key. The company has to have a great product that people are willing to pay for. If the product is not great than neither is the opportunity. Try to put yourself in the customers shoes, would you buy the product? If so, is it affordable compared with the current market? Take the time to research and fully understand the product. Test the product if you can. At the very least try to get some real life feedback from existing customers who have bought the product. Doing so will put you in a position to make an educated decision about joining.As a general rule, there are certain types of Network Marketing companies that you should avoid. The key among those are businesses without a product. That is, you make a majority of the money from recruiting. These are shady MLM companies that are closer to a pyramid scheme than a real Network Marketing company. The second and perhaps more important to avoid is the self-consumption companies. These types of companies depend on you to buy their product as well as sell it. Do NOT invest in these types of companies unless you absolutely love the product and can afford it. Otherwise, you will eventually run out of “friends” and family to market to and will end up with a garage full of “product” and no one to sell it to.Even with a great product a company still finds that a capable management team is essential to long-term success. Before joining a company, do some research on the founders. This is particularly true of new companies. Find out who is behind the curtain and if they have a reputation, good or bad. You are looking for people with a proven track record and lots of experience to make this company work. Another consideration is if the management team has a plan to manage growth. I’ve seen several Network Marketing companies with a great product, build a sales force just to collapse under its own success. The company should be upfront and honest about what plans it has to prevent this from happening. These should be real concrete plans and systems that are in place not just a “we have it covered”. Funding is very important as well. While it is true that Network Marketing companies are easier to start they do take funding to keep going and maintain. Particularly in the beginning when sales are slow and people are just coming on board. And as history shows us, there may well be times when the company needs more money to operate than it is making. Having a management team with access to capital is crucial for long-term success of the company. Most of the companies you hear about going out of business were founded by people without sufficient capital. The last and also one of the most important parts of picking the right company is to evaluate the compensation plan. That’s what Network Marketing is all about right? Making money and hopefully lots of it. So you have to make sure the compensation plan is viable, realistic, and still profitable. Never join any Network Marketing company that isn’t up front and honest about their compensation plan. Always demand to see it and demand that any point systems be fully explained with realistic examples.Can you make money without recruiting people. That is a key question to ask yourself whenever you are introduced to a new compensation plan. Even though you are (or should be) planning to build a sales team, it’s important to know that you can make decent money without doing so. For this to work, the commissions offered by the company have to be sufficient. Depending on the price of the product and the amount of volume you expect to be able to sell the commission will differ. As a rule, you should be very wary of any compensation plan offering commissions less than 20%. Obviously, the higher the commission the better. Almost as important as the initial commission itself is the idea of a residual. Does the compensation plan allow for residuals? It effectively allows you to stack your work. In other words, you can sell something once and continually be paid on that sell every time the client renews. Residuals allow you to build true wealth by earning money on work you already did. That’s exactly how the guys at A.L. Williams got rich. To this day they continue to receive checks on policies they sold more than 10 years ago.The final question related to the compensation plan is how does team building work. It’s important to have a full understanding of the mechanics used in the system. If they use points you need to grasp exactly how points are earned and how they convert into cash. If they use a binary or front line system, you need to understand the rules of both. Again, the company should be very upfront about how their team building works and how you are compensated for it. I’m not usually too interested in the team building because, as a sales man, I usually go after selling the product and consider the team building to be just an added bonus. However, if you are a big networker or well connected, the team building can earn you more money. By hiring and training the right sales people, you can build a very profitable team and earn more money than you could possibly earn just selling yourself.Do Your Research, But Hurry!As I said, you can have success by joining a well-established company. However, if you can manage to find that rare company with a solid product and good management that is just getting started then you should research quickly and jump on it. One key to easy success in any company is getting in early. As the company grows, super stars and rock star marketer will take notice and be recruited into the system. If you can get into the system before them they will be working for you and that can mean a lot of money. The longer you wait the more saturated the market will become and the harder it will be to make money. Time is money no matter what business you are in but it is particularly true in MLM. Once you join an MLM you should within two weeks recruit two other people and sell the product at least once. This is absolutely essential to your long term success with the company. Something about getting that first sell and hiring those first two people just makes it so much easier. Trust me, if you do this you will find the rest seems to just fall into place.