Need help to start a business? Visit www.WhizVentures.com and look at the excellent, easy to follow start-up books available on the site.

It has been another busy week and has been a while since I wrote a blog, but many things have been happening!

Newsletter

We have launched a newsletter. When you register, you receive our free e-Book: 10 Steps to Creating Your Dream Job by Starting a Business. This FREE 38 page (748K PDF file) e-book explains what starting a business means in all areas of your life. You will know what to expect and how to go about it with a step-by-step method that is easy to follow. To get your free copy, got to http://www.whizventures.com/ebook.html

Radio Shows & Entrepreneur Showcase

We have also started a series of interviews of young entrepreneurs on BlogTalkRadio. Our first guest was Ben Weissenstein of Grand Slam Garage. Ben started a lemonade stand at 4, then started his current business, Grand Slam Garage, at 14 and he has added a few more businesses to his repertoire. Follow the story and listen to the interviews at http://www.whizventures.com/showcase.html

Think Tank

If you want your jaw to hit the floor, take a few seconds to check out the evolution of employment since 2004 and see how acute the problem has gotten in 2008-2009. This little animation is short and well worth it. http://tipstrategies.com/archive/geography-of-jobs/

After seeing that, what are we supposed to think? Isn’t it difficult to figure out what is going on in this economy? Is it getting better or worse? Is it wise to start a business now? Are things going to get back to how they were before the recession? How can we make sense of all of this?

To answer these questions and more, we have set up a special Think Tank of very perceptive people, to help us navigate these tumultuous waters. No, things are not going to get back to where they were before, but there is hope at the end of the tunnel. To learn more about what our Think Tank foresees and recommends, see http://www.whizventures.com/thinktank.html

Eggs All Over Your Business…

We have started a system to recognizing and acknowledge excellent customer service. In this day and age, customer service is not always what it should be, so good service is worth noting.

Have you noticed the 3 golden eggs appearing besides our banner at the top of our WhizVentures.com Web site? Those are the golden eggs used in our grading system. This time, eggs all over your business is really good!

And Now the Eggs Go To…

This week I had 2 very positive customer service experiences with 2 of my suppliers. First, after updating my Flock browser, I encountered a little technical glitch. Imagine my surprise when I received an e-mail from a real person within a few hours of submitting my problem! The problem was rapidly resolved, even if it took several e-mails back and forth. I received answers quickly and the problem was solved.

Three eggs to Flock!

Second positive experience: with my Web hosting supplier, 1&1.com. I called the customer service and got a real person on the line fast and the problem was solved and everything was explained very clearly.

Three eggs to 1&1 as well!

By the way, customer service is one of the recommendations from our Think Tank. And 1&1.com has a special going on right now, if you need very affordable Web hosting. They offer you the first 3 months of hosting for free. Check it out at http://www.whizventures.com/web.html

Of Other Scams…

This week, I have been notified twice that I had won several million dollars in an e-mail lottery. All I need to do now is to give them all my personal information in order to collect my prize. Right! I just hope none of you are getting caught by this! If you want to watch a free tutorial on how to recognize a fraudulent e-mail, go to WhizVentures.com’s Business Tutorials

Many people would like you to believe that there are miracle recipes and want to let you know about them provided that you fork out many hundreds if not thousands of dollars. The trick is to sell you information that you can find for free on the Web for $50, $100, $1,000 and up to $3,000. That is a good business to be in, provided that you have no conscience and do not mind taking advantage of people who are already down on their luck…

At the moment, very few people have a clue of what is really going only , and the few who do have only a partial idea because things are relentlessly moving and nothing is stable. If you want to get an insight and try to understand the situation in order to position yourself for what is coming in the next months and years, read what our Think Tank has to say… (See the Think Tank link above.) And remember that scams take many shapes and forms, and some really look legitimate. To read and learn more about scams, go to http://www.whizventures.com/scams.html

When a regular client starts delaying your payments, you have to make a decision: tough it out and wait for long periods before being paid (if you do so, chances are that this trend will remain for good), or try to diplomatically rectify the situation in order to get your payments more promptly. This usually starts with polite inquiries with the people responsible for the payment.

If you contact the client in order to be paid faster, you may encounter one of the following situations:

1.    The client cooperates and expedites your payment (unlikely but lucky you if it happens!).
2.    You have to contact the client several times and tables start to turn on you, as you become the perceived “harasser” (not a pleasant feeling). You will most likely be given a vague time for the payment, or you are given dates that are not met. After many phone calls and notices, you finally get a late payment or you are not told when the payment is going to be made and you still get it late. (Not pleasant either!).
3.    You deal with an accountant who reigns on the business finances and gives you no cooperation whatsoever and tells you that you simply will be paid at the end of the month (and they don’t necessarily mean the current month).
4.    You aggravate the client and he/she decides to do business with someone else.
5.    You find a diplomatic way to solve the problem and have to do it all over again every time you deliver the work.
6.    You find a diplomatic way to solve the problem once and for all.

Personally, I tend to favor the last option. Here is how I did it recently, when one of my good clients started delaying several payments. After a few invoices were paid more than 2 months after the delivery of the work (and I have to add an additional delay for the bank to clear the check), I decided to send out a little note to my client (not the accountant) that read as follows:

“Dear (name withheld),

I just need to let you know that I have to adjust my work schedule to ensure a timely revenue stream.

Since I know that your company will pay me for my work only in two months, if that is okay with you, I will schedule the larger document that I currently have on hand to translate for later this month. I am sure that you understand that no landlord or supermarket is giving me that kind of deferral, and I have to make sure to survive in this tough economy.

If that does not suit your timeline, please let me know as soon as possible, so I can make the necessary adjustments to my schedule.

Thank you and best regards…”

The result was that I received notice the very next day that new arrangements were taken and I could receive Paypal payments instead of checks. I did not have to contact the client: the client contacted me. Where before they were sending checks 2 months later, the payment is now made with PayPal on the day following my delivery of the work.

Always remember that you deserve a prompt payment for the high-quality work that you deliver promptly. This is to underline the importance of diplomacy and doing business with the right person. Being an entrepreneur means being solution-oriented and creative in all areas!

This BLOG is originally published by Danielle Vallee at http://blog.whizventures.com

Job Creation and Small Business Blog by Danielle Vallee at www.WhizVentures.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at blog.whizventures.com.

In this day and age, it is sometimes difficult to know whether a risk is genuine or derives mainly from media hype. But whatever the case is, precautions never hurt. Also, I consider that knowledge comes with a responsibility for sharing it. This is why I want to let you know about a little piece of equipment that zaps parasites, virus and bacteria right out of your blood. It is called a zapper and has been devised by a wonderful lady, Dr Hulda Clark, who has a Doctorate degree in physiology. I must add that I do not sell the thing, nor do I get a commission on sales or anything like it.

I have personally been using the zapper for two years now, both on myself, my family and with friends, and the results are quite impressive. I came across it while researching a way to efficiently get rid of parasites while living in Central America. Natural remedies are not always effective enough for parasite-based illnesses and even when they are, their action tend to be slower than the parasites’. During my two-year stay in Central America I was faced with parasite-based illnesses such as malaria, dengue fever and the like. I was not used to these types of illnesses, so I needed to find new solutions. I have tested the zapper with malaria and dengue cases that were already well installed. The affected people were not getting any better even with medication. But as soon as I used the zapper with them, we really started to see an improvement.

To keep the story short, the action of the zapper is to subtly energize the bloodstream with frequencies that are deadly to parasites, including virus and bacteria. Various organisms vibrate at various frequencies, and parasites have a definite range that is different than for other organisms such as animals and humans. Three sessions of 7 minutes, spaced by 20 minutes of rest will do the trick, provided that the zapper is used properly and as soon as symptoms or discomfort arise. The important thing is to position it over an artery, such as on the wrist, and everything is well explained on the site.

I personally use it as soon as I feel that I am “fighting something” and the discomfort disappears within a few minutes. During the whole time that I was living in Central America, I was never sick. The only health issues I had were a vague feeling of being under the weather, in which case I immediately took my zapper out and that solved the problem and still does. As with all natural therapies, the sooner you take care of the problem, the better the results. Allowing an illness to settle before taking action always makes it harder to get rid of it. Just like ignoring a problem in our business: it rarely goes away but tends to grow and be harder to solve if we wait before addressing it.

This is one precious little tool to have handy in an era where antibiotics are gradually becoming ineffective to fight stronger and deadlier bugs. No matter the strength of the bugs, they cannot survive the electric frequency! Dr Clark even offers for free her plans to build your own zapper. She has excellent books on the subject of healing illnesses. Personally, I am not ready to start building my own zapper, so I use the tiny Terminator II, one of the smallest of the series. If you want to learn more about it, go to www.toolsforhealing.com

Disclaimer: Of course, legally speaking we can never say that a natural remedy or therapy will cure you, even when it does, but here it is: the zapper will not cure you. Anyhow, only you can heal yourself and no one else…

Be healthy and happy!

Even though they are called “small businesses”, there is nothing small about them. My previous posts and available statistics demonstrate clearly that small businesses are the engine of the economy. The President’s message reiterated that 99.7% of all businesses are small businesses, and 70% of all new jobs of the pas decade have been created by small businesses!

The financial help that has been announced was in the form of assistance to the secondary market. What this means is that it is going to free more funds to finance small ventures. However, this does not mean a free ticket for someone to improvise and try her hand at starting a business without being prepared. Anyone undertaking a new venture should be well prepared, and that is what the Whiz Biz in Changing Times is helping you with. But here is an overview of the most immediate action this plan should have.

At the moment, certain community banks provide financial assistance to small businesses in the form of loans. They have a certain amount of money at their disposal to do so. Once they have used up this fund, there is none left for any new loan.

A percentage of each loan is guaranteed by the government. What the bank does is bundle up that proportion of small loans (1) into a bigger bundle (2) that can then be sold to a larger financial institution (3).

This larger institution does not normally get involve with small loans, because there is not enough money to be made on them. You see, it is as much trouble doing the work for a $50,000 loan as it is for a $5,000,000 loan. But the profit is not the same. However, buying larger loans (2) does make sense for them and they do not mind that it is a bunch of smaller loans. This, in turn, frees money (4) for the community bank to offer more loans (5).

What the government wants to do is increase the guarantee and various conditions, so the community banks can sell a higher proportion of loans to the secondary market, freeing more funds to finance new small businesses. They also want to see a decrease in fees charged by banks for those loans and for other business services.

As President Obama said, making things easier for small entrepreneurs will allow more people to say “Why not me? Let me try!” And isn’t it uplifting to learn be told by the President of our country that we are limited only by our willingness to take a chance?

This BLOG is brought to you by www.WhizVentures.com and is originally published by Danielle Vallee at http://blog.whizventures.com

It is possible to start with very little money, if your plan takes it into account. While there will always be small expenses, it is possible to start gradually and set something up in a way that does not require a big initial investment. The key is to do the exercise on paper first. Starting a business on paper does not require any money. You can make as many adjustments as you want until you get the ideal scenario for you, i.e. find a way to start your business with what you have on hand and keep going until you start making money. This is done with an operating budget. Preparing the operating budget is described in detail in the book Whiz Biz in Changing Times.

Starting on a low budget is particularly feasible in two ways:

1)    Offering your services to existing businesses
2)    Setting up a virtual business using the Internet

1. Service Business: There should be an increase in the demand for services from existing businesses. As many larger businesses have to downsize and cut jobs, some of their needs do not completely disappear. When the need for certain services decreases, it may not justify a full time job and when that job is abolished, enterprises may turn to freelance services. This has been done for many years. There are several advantages for employers: first, they don’t have to pay someone full time but only for the hours worked or the services rendered. Second, they don’t have to pay benefits to freelancers. Third, very often freelance services are paid out of different budgets than salaries are. This may be an advantage for managers. If you can package your knowledge into a range of interesting services and visit businesses that may have a need for your services, you could be starting on a shoestring. Remember that networking can be of great help to find new clients. You can find more information about networking in the book Whiz Biz in Changing Times.

2. The Internet offers many business possibilities on several levels:
• You can offer your services online. For instance, you can do translation, programming, illustration, counseling consultations (with webcams and audio), etc. If you already own a computer and have access to the Internet, you can start making money now. Even if you don’t have Internet access, you can visit the local coffee shop and plug into their wireless network.
• Writing and publishing: the possibilities are endless! Web sites, Blogs, participating to surveys, evaluating products, writing books and self-publishing are but a few of the options.
• Reselling other company’s products. One good example is Amazon.com. When people click on a link on your Web site and buy a book or other merchandise, you get a commission (provided that you have registered with the company, of course). Same thing with Web hosting services.

One important thing: beware of scams. There is currently an unprecedented number of them online and they seem to be multiplying every day. Read more about this here.

It is a fact that expanding your business may take some money later on, in order to have the necessary resources to expand. For instance, you may need additional equipment or stocks. However, you should be able to see it in advance on your operating budget, if you include some business growth in your scenario. You should also be able to determine exactly how much money you will need and when, according to how fast you want to expand, and you can adjust your expansion plans accordingly. Again, all this is explained in detail in the Whiz Biz in Changing Times book.

This BLOG is originally published by Danielle Vallée at http://blog.whizventures.com

Job Creation and Small Business Blog by Danielle Vallee is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at blog.whizventures.com

Most new entrepreneurs think that their products or new store is so great that people cannot help but come shopping. They neglect to do a market study to learn about their customers and they fail to let potential customers know that they exist. After going on a shopping spree for their initial set-up, they run out of money before they can do anything else. They count on the first few sales to get money to both live on and advertise.

However, they soon find out that it takes more time than they originally anticipated to make enough sales to keep going. They just run out of money and have to close shortly after having started the business, especially when they have some overhead. The more overhead they have, the more expensive it is and the less time they will last, because it is more than they can sustain. This is quite sad because often, the business idea is indeed very good and has a lot of potential.

This is the kind of situation that preparation will avoid and that the book Whiz Biz in Changing Times explains. We will also explore this issue and several more in the upcoming FREE online business seminar series starting this month. See the details on WhizVentures.com. To see the other issues that we will explore, see the Table of Contents of the book. When we have a business, we must wear many hats, but it is not that difficult when we know what to do!

For the whole month of February, I am offering you a 20% discount on the purchase of the Whiz Biz in Changing Times book (all the tutorials and seminars are free). The Whiz Venture initiative (all the free stuff) is financed by the sales of the business books. Just click on the link https://www.createspace.com/3362471 and enter the coupon number 2CU44DRA after getting to the checkout. And, if you know a teenager who wants to start a business, there is also the Whiz Teens in Business book, which even includes a chapter on how to manage parents! You can use the same discount coupon with the following link: https://www.createspace.com/3356877. Find out more about the books at http://www.daniellevallee.com/books (Table of Contents, book description, formats available, etc.) The books are also available on Amazon.com, but the discounts are only through the CreateSpace e-store (an Amazon company).

If there are any specific topics that you want to discuss, let me know!

This BLOG is originally published by Danielle Vallée at http://blog.whizventures.com

It is easy to get sidetracked because, as economic conditions worsen, we see the offers to make money fast and easily multiply on the Internet. We receive many promises of fast and stellar earnings with practically no work to do. Most of these offers are conditional to you spending an amount of money first, and the only person making a lot of money fast is the one sending you the e-mail if you respond to it. The catch is that you have to spend money first, based on some vague promise of a miracle recipe, and only then you see what you are buying. Even when you are offered free training, what you are getting is often only a sales pitch for the same “miracle recipe” disguised as a seminar, over and over again, without you really learning anything new. Unfortunately, the world is full of inexperienced people who have an Internet access and are fooled easily with that kind of scam. This is because when you are getting desperate, you are living mainly on hope, and these people know it and know how to take advantage of it.

It is not hard to imagine why these scams exist. For instance, let’s say they offer you a magic recipe for $25. If 100 people get caught, that person makes $2,500. 1,000 people equals $25,000 and 10,000 people equals $250,000.  The Internet allows us to reach limitless quantities of people, and offering something at a small price can be very lucrative indeed!

Another scam consists of Web sites offering you to work from your home. When you click on the link, it brings you to an e-commerce page offering you a package for a fee, in order to set yourself up. But the reality is that you will still have to do all the work, even after receiving their “miracle package”.

There are numerous scams of that type. This is an unfortunate situation because these schemes take money from the people who can least afford to spend it. If you need to be “set up”, why don’t you just set yourself up, knowing exactly what you are going to get for the money you are spending? Furthermore, why don’t you start the business you have been dreaming about, instead of doing someone else’s work?

This is exactly why I wrote the book Whiz Biz in Changing Times, discussing everything you need to know about getting a business organized. Plus, you already have access now to free tutorials, and starting in February, to some free online live seminars with REAL content about starting a small business on WhizVentures.com. The accent will be on businesses that cost little or no money to start.

In the meantime, be very careful about “miracle offers and recipes”. If you are required to spend money, make sure you know what you are buying!

I know that times are hard so, to thank you for reading this BLOG, I am offering you a 20% discount on the purchase of the Whiz Biz in Changing Times book (all the tutorials and seminars are free). Just enter the coupon number 2CU44DRA after clicking on the link https://www.createspace.com/3362471 and purchasing the book. And, if you know a teenager who wants to start a business, there is also the book Whiz Teens in Business, which has just been updated. It even includes a chapter on how to manage parents! You can use the same discount coupon number on that one too: https://www.createspace.com/3356877. Find out more about the books at http://www.daniellevallee.com/books (Table of Contents, book description, formats available, etc.) The books are also available on Amazon.com, but the discounts are only through the CreateSpace e-store (an Amazon company).

My goal is to help as many people as possible to create their own job, because we cannot really wait any longer to be hired by large companies who are on a steep decline at the moment. Follow your dream and succeed!

Now, let’s take the example of small business used in the previous blog, i.e. a small decoration store offering artwork from recycled materials, and see the effect. The same individual, when starting that kind of activity on a small scale, produces far more economic activity, as illustrated below. This level of activity manifests itself in a practically exponential manner over time:

Can you see how many more additional services are needed in order to operate the business? How much more business is created for other businesses and other people, just from this simple enterprise? And can you imagine the effect it has when the business grows? This is why small businesses are truly the engine of the economy. We can safely assume that, at this time, small businesses will truly be an important element to salvage the economy!

In the next posting, I will discuss the necessary qualities to be an entrepreneur, and how to inventory your skills in order to create your dream job. In the meantime, read the book “Whiz Biz in Changing Times” available at: WhizVentures.com. A series of new online seminars will start on February 18, 2009. The seminars are free and a maximum of 20 persons can attend at a time. See the content and register for the seminars on WhizVentures.com.