Small Business Owners - Want to Achieve Greatness in Your Business? Be Enthusiastic!

I grew up in a family that share the common belief that a stable job is a solution to avoid poverty. It is hard for me to prove my point to them that I wanted to start as a small business owner while I am having my daily job but I will not be an employee forever. For them, climbing the corporate ladder is the best goal in life. For me, creating my own ladder so that other people will climb my own ladder. I do not want to work for other but I want people work for me, for all of us. But why did I continue pursuing my dream of becoming an entrepreneur despite of criticisms I am receiving? Because I am ENTHUSIASTIC! Yes, I am enthusiastic in everything I do especially when I started to set up my small business together with a couple of friends.


I learned that before you put up a small business, you need to be enthusiastic about it. You need to be so full of energy and be positive to everything. That is the key to be a successful business owner. When we are thinking of what business to put up, there are a lot of ideas that came, but when we think of our current business which is "personalized items," we suddenly became so positive! And right now, even all of us are full time employees, we can still manage our small business. You can even take a peek of our small business here: http://diversityclothing.multiply.com/ 

BE ENTHUSIASTIC!!!

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I found an article here about this topic. I totally agree with the author of this article. Read on!!

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Before you start groaning at the thought of another "article," just hear me out. Small business owners, you have to be enthusiastic about your business. You have to literally eat, breathe, drink and sleep your business. If you don't enjoy what you are doing it will show. It will show in your articles, your blog posts, everything you do. You have to love what it is you are doing to be successful in your own business. If you have started a business just because someone told you that you could make a lot of money doing it, stop right now and go get a job. You won't be successful because you are in business for the wrong reason. In order to start a business you can be enthusiastic about, think about something you do just for fun. Do you like to write? Do give unsolicited advice to strangers? Are you always making something? Do you sew, crochet or knit? Are you a techie that can create a website in 45 minutes flat? Just because something comes easy to you doesn't mean it comes easy to someone else.

You must do your research to determine if you can make money at what you have skills in. Nothing kills enthusiasm worse than not making any money in your business. Before you start a small business, join some forums related to what you think you might want to do. Look at what the members are posting. These people are looking for a solution to a problem. If you have skills related to a problem that you see over and over again on the forums, you may have a viable idea for a business. Don't just stop there with your research.

Next you want to see how much it will cost you market this business. The best gauge for this is to see what other people are paying in your niche. This will tell you how much you need to budget for advertising. You also need to see how many incoming links you will need on your website. The best way to do this is to go to Google, type in some keywords you may want to use for your business and observe the websites that are on the first page. Take the top ten and put them in Alexa. This will tell you how many incoming links they have. This is important to you because in order to get on the first page of Google you need to beat the people that are on the first page already. If the people that are already on the first page have thousands of links you may want to think about another niche.

Running a small business can be a rewarding experience. It does take hard work and enthusiasm to sustain a small business. There will be some challenges for you to face. With the right support system in place, you can run the successful small business you have been dreaming about.

Article Source:http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=DeAnna_Troupe

Yehey! A Blog about Small Business in the Philippines is here!

"Filipinos are so creative in many ways."


This line looks so promising to me. It will make you say "WOW" right? But the poverty rate in the Philippines as of today is so high.

Why?

Because most of the Filipinos do not have a WEALTHY MINDSET.

Wealthy mindset? What is it?


When I was a kid, I was always reminded to be excellent at school so that I can work in an elegant office anywhere in Metro Manila. I know most of the Filipinos have the same experience. Everybody is expected to do well at school so that when you finished school, you will land in a very good JOB.

A job. This is the goal of many of the Filipinos since then even up to now. A job.

Many Filipinos are really intelligent. We cannot deny that fact because ACADEMIC awards from all over the world still continue to grow in numbers. There are a lot of INTELLIGENT Filipino graduates.

I have a question for you: If there are a lot of intelligent and skilled Filipino graduates, why does National Statistics Office shows 8% unemployment rate and 17.8% underemployment rate as of April 2010? This is a very sad statistics. It's even sadder as I think that if we do not have call centers, maybe this rate is higher that we can never imagine.

Why is it that we already did what our parents wanted us to do and that is to be excellent at school, but still many of us do not land on that dream JOB?

Do not tell me this, "Hey, maybe those that are shown in that rate are people who did not go to school." WRONG. I have a lot of friends who did well during our elementary, high school, and college days, but do not have a JOB. And I am sure you know many of your friends are like this too.

I also know people who has a job, good for them, BUT is that the job they deserve? Isn't it that they sacrificed enough when they are still studying but why are they getting a job that a high school graduate can also qualify? They are getting these jobs because for them, it is better to have a job than no job at all. They are getting these jobs JUST to have a JOB.

NOW, I CHALLENGE ALL OF YOU. Why don't we change our mindset? Let's all have a WEALTHY MINDSET.

As I have said, Filipinos are creative in so many ways. Do not let us waste our creativity for nothing. JOB is not the answer for everything. I believe in the saying that JOB means JUST OVER BROKE. Let our creative minds save us from poverty. Why don't we start using our creative minds to build a small business instead?

"But I told you I do not have money, why am I entering the world of business? I cannot even land on the job that I wanted and you want me to put up a business?!"

Again, that's why I told you build a SMALL business first. Everyone can do this even if you do not have money.

"You're wrong. I already have a small business but I am still poor. You are a liar!"

OK, given you have a small business, but are you practicing a wealthy mindset? It is not because you have a business means you are on your way to financial freedom. It is something to do with your mindset as well. Most of us Filipinos are academically literate but a less portion of the population is FINANCIAL LITERATE.

FINANCIAL LITERACY is a very important term to remember in the rest of our lives.

Financial literacy does not mean a complicated calculation of everything. It does not mean you have to be a graduate of a famous financial school just to learn this. THAT IS NOT FINANCIAL LITERACY.

Financial literacy can be learned by EVERYONE! Yes, you read that right! By everyone! Financial literacy will make you an expert on how to handle your own money, be it a salary of a factory worker or a salary of a Chief Executive Officer. Both will land into financial freedom if you are financially literate.

Did you know that a CEO, a president of the company, a teacher, a staff employee, a supervisor, a janitor, an engineer, a lawyer and other people who have different job positions and different salary ranges LAND ON THE SAME FINANCIAL CATEGORY if they do not know how to be financial literate?

WHAT?! A CEO and a janitor land on the same financial category?! But why?!

It is because job position and salary does not matter. It is your financial literacy that matters. Let us increase our FINANCIAL IQ. According to Robert Kiyosaki, a renowned author and businessman, Financial IQ is a solution to our financial problems.

This is a short video of Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki talking about Increasing Financial IQ.




But I still don't get it. I still don't understand!

That is why I made this blog. I also do not believe in one time learning. You should learn and see many articles, reviews, insights from the experts, ideas, and other links that will help you understand financial literacy.

I named this blog, "Small Business Philippines" because I believe that having a small business is the first step to be financial literate. If you do not have any ideas, I will also provide you in this blog some small business ideas, opportunities, small business related events, small business coaching programs and other things that will help you to be a successful Filipino entrepreneur. Oh by the way, people from all over the world can also use this blog because I also do include book reviews from the successful entrepreneurs, marketing ideas from renowned authors like Seth Godin and Jay Conrad Levinson, reviews of inspirational talks of Bo Sanchez and other successful speakers.

LET'S GO AND GROW TO BE FINANCIAL LITERATE! JUST FOLLOW THIS BLOG AS I SHARE ALL MY EXPERIENCES AND I HOPE THAT YOU WILL UNDERSTAND HOW TO INCREASE YOUR FINANCIAL IQ BETTER THAN I DO.