10 Ways to Earn More, Work Less, and Enjoy Your Summer
Copyright 2006 Alicia M Forest and ClientAbundance.com
If you're anything like me, you start looking forward to summer as soon as the calendar flips to a new year. Take advantage of summer's slower pace and people's more casual attitudes and plan to not only take time off but to make some money while you do!
1. Commit to your vacation time.
If you haven't already scheduled a break for this summer, stop reading this right now and do so! Even if you don't have plans to go away or if your budget is tight, I strongly encourage you to put at least a long weekend break into your calendar now - and then make sure you do anything you want for those few days - EXCEPT work. You'll come back to your business refreshed and recharged. You know you will and you know you need it.
2. Have a summer sale.
Are there some products or programs in your funnel that you could offer a summer discount on? I'd be willing to bet there's at least one. Kick off the summer season by offering your prospects a special deal on one or more of your offerings.
3. Make a special offer to your current clients and customers.
Summer's a great time to give your current clients and customers a special deal. For example, if they've already purchased something from you at the first level of your funnel, offer them a special deal for investing in an additional offering of yours, maybe at the next higher-priced level of your funnel.
So, if they've already spent $50 on one of your products, offer them a $50 discount towards another of your offerings.
4. Trim your expenses.
Are there some business-related expenses that could be put on hold for the next few months, without a negative impact to your bottom line? There are probably at least two or three things that you could eliminate for the summer, and you may find out that you can eliminate them completely come the fall.
For example, I've stopped my monthly subscription to the screen-sharing software I use because I know I won't be using it for at least the next three months. That's $150 in savings for my business!
5. Create summer hours.
Start later in the day, take a mid-day break for a few hours, or end your day earlier. Take one day a week off. Work half days. Take four-day weekends. It's your choice, but by creating summer hours, you're not only giving yourself some time to enjoy the fleeting days of warmer weather, but you'll also find that you'll be much more likely to focus only on your priorities, which means you'll actually move ahead much faster!
6. Repeat a previously profitable product.
Do you have a product that when you first launched it, it sold really well? Maybe it just needs some new life and a new promotion. Don't re-invent the wheel and simply repeat what's already worked for you in the past.
7. Republish your best articles in your newsletter.
For the summer, consider giving some of your best articles (the ones people commented on, or were reprinted most often) an encore presentation in your ezine. If you've been publishing for awhile, your readers most likely will appreciate the reminder the articles will bring, while it will be new content to your newer subscribers.
8. Declutter your office.
I simply can't think when my office falls into chaos, and I'm always amazed by how much better I feel and how much more productive I immediately become once I get rid of the clutter.
Summer is a great time to declutter and reorganize. Enlist a friend to help, or hire a professional organizer to really get you geared up for the summer (and the fall!).
9. Declutter your mind.
When you started your business, did you write down your vision for it? If you haven't, or if you haven't visited your vision in awhile if you have, the next few months are perfect for reflection, dreaming, and planning what you want the rest of your year to look like.
I'll be dreaming up mine on the dock at the lake. Where will you be dreaming up yours?
10. Plan some fun stuff.
Even if you don't have plans to travel this summer, you can still plan some really fun things to do near your home. Having something to look forward to will help you enjoy some time away from your desk while the sun is shining.
Believe me, I know how hard that can be. I love what I do, too. But one main reason we work for ourselves is so we can enjoy our lives, right?
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WANT TO REPRINT THIS ARTICLE? You may, as long as it remains intact and you include this complete blurb with it: Alicia M Forest, MBA, Multiple Streams Queen & Coach(TM), founder of http://www.ClientAbundance.com , and creator of "21 Easy & Essential Steps to Online Success System(TM), teaches coaches, consultants, online entrepreneurs, and self-employed professionals how to attract more clients, create profit-making products and services, make more sales, and ultimately live the life they desire and deserve. For FREE tips on how to create abundance in your business, visit http://www.ClientAbundance.com
IT Consulting: 3 Steps You Need to Take
To begin your IT consulting practice, there are 21 steps you should take before you hit your first day on the job. In this article, you'll learn about three of the steps you should take before entering the business of full-time IT consulting.
Step Four. Engage Professional Services
You should have an accountant and an attorney before you start your IT consulting business. Sit down with them for a few minutes and tell them about your business plans. They'll help you pick out what kind of business entity makes the most sense for you - whether it is a sole proprietor, limited partnership, or a corporation.
They can introduce you to the pros and cons of each option and you can do your own research, too. A professional's advice is money well-spent for your IT consulting business. Even buying a half hour or hour of an attorney or accountant's time can help.
To save money, you can file some of the paperwork if you want to. But at least talk with them about where you are in your IT consulting business and your personal financial situation.
Step Five: Open a Business Bank Account
Clients are going to write checks to your IT consulting business; not you personally. They are not going to want to end up with you being called a statutory employee. They want to make sure that they are actually paying a business that they are employing which is corporation to corporation. So you will need a bank account so you can cash those checks.
Apply for a merchant account if you are planning on reselling products or want more flexibility so you can accept credit cards. Discover, MasterCard, Visa and American Express are the big ones.
Step Six: Buy Some Insurance.
Talk to a property and casualty insurance agent about getting commercial insurance for your IT consulting business. General liability and professional liability are good, as well as Errors and Omissions. You want yourself and your business to be protected in case of problems.
Copyright MMI-MMVI, PC Support Tips .com. All Worldwide Rights Reserved. {Attention Publishers: Live hyperlink in author resource box required for copyright compliance}
About The Author:
Joshua Feinberg helps small business technology providers get more steady, high-paying PC support clients. Sign-up now to get your free access to Joshua's field-tested, proven secrets for generating more monthly recurring service-contract-revenue with PC Support Tips.
Light-Up Your Wholesale Distribution Sales Selling Refillable Lighters to Convenience Stores
Copyright 2006 Jorge Olson
Business Review: Lighters Wholesale Distribution Business.
Lighters are one of the easiest things to wholesale and distribute. Stores buy them like crazy!
I started selling lighters when I had my route in San Diego with about 600 stores. Other distributors told me about how much money they were making with lighters so I decided to give them a try. They were right. Since the first day we introduced them to the stores they were best sellers and they have remained best sellers for years.
The first thing you should know is that I'm not talking about disposable lighters or even name brand lighters like Colibri or Zippo. I'm talking about Novelty or Collector lighters. The kind you see in convenience stores and liquor stores. They are butane refillable lighters.
For example, the top selling lighters were lighters in the form of a gun, torch lighters and chopper motorcycle style lighters.
The lighters cost about $1.25 to $1.50 plus shipping, depending on the style of the lighter. Some of them are regular flame lighters, some of them have a torch, and some are double or even triple wind resistant torch lighters.
Lighters come in a small cardboard counter display. You get all of the same kind in every display. You get from 12 to 30 lighters in each display, depending on the size of each lighter.
When you distribute the lighters you sell them for at least $2 all the way up to $3 or even $3.50. It all depends where you are in the USA or in the world, the size of your town, the size of the stores, etc. You learn how to price them quickly from the first time you go into the stores.
So how much can you make? Well, if you leave an average of 2 displays per store containing an average of 25 lighters each, you'll sell 50 lighters at an average of $3.00 or $150 sale. If you paid $1.50 per lighter including shipping you made $1.50 per lighter or $75 profit in one store. If you sell to 10 stores that day you are selling $1,500 and pocketing $750.00 minus your gas and other expenses. That's not bad for a few hours of work. In my business all of my salespeople have to visit at least 20 stores per day, not 10 stores!
Let's go over the numbers of our example again: -Your cost per lighter including shipping= $1.50 -You sell the lighter to the stores = $3.00 -Each display has an average of how many lighters = 25 -If you sell just 2 displays to the store how many lighters did you sell = 50 lighters -How much was the sale? = $150 -How much was your profit? = $75 -If you sell to 10 stores in a day how much do you sell? = $1,500 -How much do you profit minus gas and other expenses? = $750
Again, your business will vary depending on how many stores you have, how often you visit them the price you sell them for, and many other variables.
Let me tell you what I like and don't like about the business. What I like is that you go through a lot of lighters really fast. They are small and easy to store and carry. They come in their own display so you don't need to buy racks or displays (although you can if you want or if the stores like them). I also like the fact that lighters are small and you don't need a truck or extra storage to sell them.
The thing I like least about the lighter business is that the margins are not as high as with other products. I think it's a fair trade because of the volume you can sell. The other thing with lighters is that people like to choose them. Instead of you selling whatever you have in the car people like to play with them before they buy them, they like to test them, to look at every one. It's a novelty, so they want to buy what they like, not necessarily what sells.
All and all I think it's one of the best businesses to be in.
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Jorge Olson is a consultant, speaker and entrepreneur and owns several Wholesale Distribution companies. Visit his consulting website at http://www.DistributionBiz.com His latest eBook teaches you step by step how to get started and make money in Wholesale Distribution. You can find it at http://www.DistributionBusiness.com
