Small Business Ideas

So you had that fantastic business idea, the one that’s going to be wildly successful and make you a fortune – even better, you actually did something about it and started your own business. Good for you! Not everyone gets that far. Most people sit and day dream about what they might do if only ….

“The world is full of dreamers, there aren’t enough who will move ahead and begin to take concrete steps to actualize their vision” – W. Clement Stone

But you got over the biggest hurdle, that first step and you actually created something.

Well done – you did more than most. Now you have the day to day details of running your business so how do you keep going?

There are several things to look at here:

1. What are you good at and what do you enjoy doing? Make two lists – one of the jobs you like and one of the jobs you don’t do very well. Take the second list and have a look at what you might outsource or automate. Do you love doing those accounts or would your time be better spent in forward planning while your accountant does the sums? Must you personally reply to every enquiry or could you create a FAQ which you can post on your website and refer people to by autoresponder? In the early stages of your business you might find you don’t have the money to pay someone to do the jobs you hate. Could you swap skills to get the help you need?

2. Why are you doing this? You need to be motivated to start a business and keep it going. The best way to do this is to know what the effort is for. What really moves you to get up in the morning and do what you need to do even when you don’t really feel like it? Write your reasons down. Find pictures of that house, or that holiday and put them where you can see them.

3. How do you deal with those bumps in the road? Not everything you do will be perfect – sometimes things you’ve tried will be a disaster – it’s the way you react to problems that matters. If you curl up in a ball and give up at the first sign of failure you’d better not be in business. It’s all about attitude.

4. Have a plan and stick to it as far as possible but be prepared to be flexible and open minded. Sometimes the most unexpected opportunities come and you need to be ready to seize them. – as Joe Vitale says ‘Money likes speed’.

5. Get a mentor – learn from someone who has done it. Someone to bounce ideas off and who can encourage you when things get tough is invaluable.

And most importantly, never let anyone put you down and never be afraid of failure:

“It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who, at worst, if he fails at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat” – Theodore Roosevelt.

Don’t ever forget that!

Great men are born once in a while. Men are great not because they are born with some attribute of greatness but their deeds make them great and remarkable individuals in history. Such people thus are not born overnight it takes one’s whole lifetime to achieve that success and fame that one only dreamt of. The article throws light on some of the great men who brought revolution in the business world. Their achievements not just brought tremendous credit to their name but are largely beneficial to the multitude.

• The Tobacco Industrialist Washington Duke (1820-1905)- the personal life of this farmer from North Carolina was a sad story for both his wife and son died of the same disease. Adding to the disaster, his cotton crop too failed at the same time. Btu Duke did not let this stop himself from proceeding in life. His life was full of struggle he even became a prisoner of war during the Civil War. Finally the big break that changed his entire life came when he manufactured the popular product ‘tobacco’. The Union Army that was staying in the North Carolina had a great liking for tobacco. Duke’s manufactured tobacco which came to be known as ‘Pro Bono Publico’ was a brilliant sensation that won the heart of all the tobacco lovers very soon. Later Duke also manufactures cigarettes under the name of his company W. Duke, Sons and Company which too was a big hit.

• The inventor of the reaper Cyrus McCormick (1809-1884) has his own place in the B-world. McCormick was the son of a blacksmith who had influenced and helped the people of Shenandoah Valley with his exuberant skill in making agricultural devices. The father made the reaping machine that the son modified extremely and took it to places. The McCormick’s designed inventor was a huge success at his birth place and even when he went abroad. McCormick went to Chicago in 1847 where he opened a factory named the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company. The factory scaled new heights despite massive competition. McCormick’s device that he had invented and built drastically shrunk the labor and time required to produce grain. Where in 1830 it used to take 20 hours to harvest an acre of wheat, it took just one hour to do so in 1895…all thanks to the great mind behind it- McCormick.

• The industrialist Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) needs no introduction in the business market. He was a man who had strived hard against poverty during his childhood. He worked as a bobbin boy and as a telegrapher and also as a superintendent for the Pennsylvania Railroad. His petite savings that hye invested in oil, iron and steel during the Civil War fetched him a turning point in his life. in 1880 Carnegie had brought a lot of companies under the Carnegie Steel Company. By 1990 this company produced a fourth of all the steel in United States. Known to be one of the richest men of the world then, Carnegie believed that rich men act as trustees to their wealth and they must administer it in the favor of the public.

• Thomas Edison (1847-1931) perhaps is unknown to none and has his own coveted place in the history. Edison was the man who had about 1100 inventions in his name that have unbeatable use in the world today and then. The man who spent few hours in school, worked as a railroad newsboy was the first to start of a publication typeset and printed on a moving train. The other inventions added to his list are an electronic vote recorder in 1868, quadruplex telegraph in 1874, phonograph, light bulb and a Dictaphone to name a few. But many of these were mere improvements on what a team or so had manufactured and at times he helped others in creating devices. For instance the Dictaphone, working motion picture system that synchronized pictures with sound and the stock ticker were prepared by others under the help and guidance of Edison. He also formed a company that later became General Electric.

• Apart from these the glorious men like George Eastman, Henry Ford, Madam C.J Walker, Joseph Pulitzer and many others have made significant contributions that has greatly helped mankind every now and then