If you are looking for a way to get a home based business, you need to make sure that you take a look at several different factors that figure into your home based business. These factors include the ease of learning the business, the track record that the home business has when it comes to others as well as the information that the home business plan can provide to you to help you get started. You need to have some sort of proof that the home business plan works before you sign up to minimize your risk.There are many chances to have a home based business online. Unfortunately, many of them do not end up panning out. Many people rush into a home business that they find online without finding out what they need to do in order to succeed in the business. It is important for someone to minimize the risk that they are undertaking when they go into a home business so that they have less of a potential for risk. All business entails some sort of risk, but the more a person can minimize the risk, the less they stand to lose.Seeking proof that the business will pan out is one of the first tips that someone should take if they are looking to start a home business. There are many opportunities that are online, but not all of them are good businesses to get into. Some of the businesses that are online are good and some are not so good. In order to find a business that you are sure will pan out, it is important to look for proof.In addition to finding a business that can show proof that their plan works, it is also important to find a business opportunity that will be easy to use. The home business should be easy to for you to implement, especially if you do not have a vast amount of business experience. You do not want to get bogged down when it comes to details with regard to your business opportunity plan.The opportunity should also be something that you enjoy. If you do not enjoy working at your home based business opportunity, then you will end up not feeling good about what you do. If you want to feel good about your business, find one that will be enjoyable for you. One that offers you the chance to make the most money is likely something that you will enjoy.Tips that you need to follow when you are looking for an opportunity to start your own business include making sure that the plan is solid and has proof that it will work to minimize your risk, finding an easy business to operate and also finding something that will make you a great deal of money that you will enjoy working at.
Tips on Finding the Best Home Based Business
Will Social Media Change Higher Education?
There is a shift in the way we do business, communicate and get our information today. Do you think higher education needs a makeover for the 21st century to keep up with the shift? The old schools of teaching may not be applicable for many of our young generation now and in the near future.
Yesterday, I had a conversation with a mother whose daughter graduated with a liberal arts degree from a prestigious private school. She said the only thing she can show is a paper degree. Her daughter does not possess skills that are relevant in the marketplace. Not to mention, the amount of money she spent to get that paper. How can we make her marketable in today’s economy?
According to Professor David Wiley of Brigham Young University, “if universities can’t find the will to innovate and adapt to changes in the world around them, universities will be irrelevant by 2020″.
If you type in Google search engine, “What is social media?” There are a number of definitions. This is one of them: social media are works of user-created video, audio, text or multimedia that are published and shared in a social environment, such as a blog, wiki or video hosting site. Social media applications include Google, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
Why do we need to pay attention to social media for higher education?
1. Over 50% of the world’s population is under 30 years old. 96% millenials have joined social network. We don’t have a choice on whether we do social media; the question is how well we do it. The U.S. Department of Education found out that online students outperformed those receiving face-to face instruction. 80% of companies use social media for recruitment. (Quotes taken from Social Media Revolution 2, YouTube video)
2. The recent event in Egypt is an eye opener to all of us.CBS reported on February 16th 2011, that Wael Ghonim, a 30-year-old Google marketing manager in Egypt, has been credited with launching the Facebook page that sparked Egypt’s uprising and ousted President Mubarak.
3. The millenials (also known as Generation Y) are already at their computers, Facebook and smart phones everyday. So, why not use all these tools effectively for higher education to cut cost, save time and increase efficiency? Most families today can’t keep up with the high cost of education and most education system are already outdated. Most institutions are still using the industrial age ideology and philosophy for education.
4. Across the globe 6.1 trillion text messages are sent per year. In 2007, there were only 1.8 trillion. Added to that country like Nigeria with a population of 152,217,341 has 80,944,643 cell phones. Over half of its population owns cell phones. Can you imagine getting eBooks and pdfs into the hands of all these cell phone holders for education purposes? (Data from Afar magazine, March/April edition).
5. President Obama flew to San Francisco this week to meet with Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Eric Schmidt of Google and Steve Jobs of Apple. He must have recognized the importance of social media for the future of America.
Anya Kamenetz has strategically named her book DIY U. She quoted DIY U is an evolution from expensive institutions to expansive networks… with personal learning network on Google Reader, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, websites and email. She said, learning networks in previous decades were insular groups formed around academic journals, learned societies and professional conferences. Today, they are using blogs, wikis, and presentation tools like Slide share, YouTube videos and email lists to collaborate, pursue and present knowledge in any discipline.
Ms. Kamenetz gave a really good example in her book which I think will be one of the best ways to get educated. She called it the alternatives to higher education’s cartel.
Julia Fierro graduated from the prestigious Iowa Writer’s Workshop in 2000 and got a job at Hofstra University teaching honors creative writing class. Lost her job one day and decided to put an ad on Craigslist offering writer’s workshop for $175 per person for eight weeks. Since 2002, she had over 850 students. Alumni of her program have found agents, published novels, nonfiction books, short story collections, won awards and competitions. Her eighth week course cost a tenth of Masters in Fine Arts program at a university. She almost has no overhead, only a few hundred dollars on web hosting and online ads. (Taken from DIY U by Anya Kamenetz)
In my own experience, after staying home for many years, my skills are no longer competitive. I have to retrain myself. Many of my peers have gone back to traditional schools to get another degree or a diploma hoping to get a job. Will they find a job?
I took a different route. I am discovering the importance of social media and the internet. Working with a mentor using a phone and the internet, learning step by step on how to start a business online. What alternatives do you have in educating yourself and your children to be relevant for the shift in our economy? Do you still doubt social media as a way to educate yourself and your children?
Children are all unique. Some will excel in alternative route and others will thrive in the traditional route for education. It all depends on which profession they will be pursuing.
Why New Real Estate Investors Should Hire a Professional Property Manager
I have a confession to make… you see; when I first started out in real estate investing I didn’t do everything on my own. I had a little secret that most people do not understand. In fact, most people make this mistake over and over again and never even realize how much this same mistake is costing them.
Let me explain, most beginner and intermediate real estate investors do all the work themselves. This includes finding tenants, credit checks, signing leases, maintenance, tenant relationship, rent collection, evictions, accounting, routine inspections and all of the other 100′s of things a property owner must do to keep their real estate investments profitable. Seems like a lot doesn’t it? That’s because it is!
If you are an experience real estate investor you quickly learn that the tenant stuff is a lot of work and not very profitable. The real money in this business is finding new profitable deals and arranging good financing not collecting rent and doing maintenance.
So the secret that most new real estate investors do not know is hiring a professional property manager and letting them handle the 100′s of tenant issues will free your time to focus on new deals and financing. By hiring a professional property manager to oversee your properties you can rest assure that all of the tenant activities will be attended to and your property and tenant will be managed in a way that protects your property and keeps it value as high as possible. I was able to learn this early on it saved me from making many costly mistakes.
By hiring a professional property manager I was able to see how they marketed for new tenants, how they collected rent and occasional went to court, how they did the accounting and financial record keeping, and how they managed difficult tenants. All of these issues I could have learned by making own mistakes several times and then learned how to do it right by “trial and error”. But this is costly way to learn. It is far better for the new real estate investor to hire a professional property manager and learn from how they handle these issues.
You may want to eventually manage your own properties but in the early years you should hire a property manager and learn how they do things first. Then after you have seen how it is done you can self manage with a sense experience.
I will also say that tenants are very good at sensing when someone is inexperienced at property management and I assure you they will take advantage of that inexperience to your determent. Tenant will test you to see if you will give them some breaks or if you do not know the local landlord laws. This is also why a professional property manager can help you establish some experience and the ability to stand up to tough tenants.
Your goal as a real estate investor is to create long-lasting PASSIVE income for yourself. Passive income means that you should be earning income from your investments with little to no effort on your behalf. Managing your own properties is not passive income.
Stop wasting your efforts and let a professional property manager oversee your property investments and focus your time on finding new properties and your real estate investment business.