The Physics of Business

Running a business is part of life. And life is subject to the laws of Nature. Therefore, it is logical that business must also follow natural laws.

Just think of some of the sayings that are commonly used in business. "We need to accelerate the growth of the company." The business is starting to gain momentum." "Things will take off when we get enough leverage with the market."

It is clear that people intuitively know that life and business follows the laws of nature. The problem is that we tend to forget that since it is a 'law," it always applies. We think that we can escape through some short cut or special exception. However, to hijack the famous quote from George Santayana "Those who cannot remember the laws of nature are condemned to repeat their failures."

Basic Physics

To start off with the science discussion, let's first visit some laws of physics. Sir Isaac Newton developed Three Laws of Motion, which describe basic rules about how the motion of physical objects changes. Newton was able to define the fundamental relationship between the acceleration of an object and the total forces acting upon it.

To illustrate the relationship with life and business, let's focus on just the first and third law for now.

The first law states that every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it. A pool ball runs in a straight line until it hits another ball or one of the bumpers. If a business is failing, it will continue to fail unless some action is taken.

The third law states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. If one jumps off the dock into a rowboat, the rowboat moves away from the dock. If a business lowers their prices, sales will increase.

"A more meaningful translation of Newton's third law is -- for every effect there is a cause," says Hugh Shearar, an international trader who developed a course blending business, life, physics and ancient wisdom together called Wisdom, Wealth & Success.

If one's business or life is not where it should be (the effect), what is the cause? To make any changes, one needs to move beyond the "effect" and focus on adjusting the "cause." If a car is stuck in the mud (the "effect"), there is no sense focusing on that fact. Action needs to be taken to create a new "cause" and a different "effect."

Just because we live in the physical world, we experience the impact of these laws everyday. We as humans often feel we are exempt from the consequence if we ignore the laws. A business owner needs to keep these laws in mind and apply them to their advantage.

Thermodynamics and Energy

Jumping to thermodynamics, the First Law is that heat supplied to a system equals the increase in internal energy of the system plus the work done by the system. In its simplest form, the First Law of Thermodynamics states that neither matter nor energy can be created or destroyed.

The amount of energy in the universe is constant - energy can be changed, moved, controlled, stored, or dissipated. Heating up a pot of water will increase the energy (temperature) in the water while the bubbling and steam can be considered work (release of energy) done by the system.

For a business, the energy one put into the business, will be transformed into the energy of the business. The trick is to put the energy into the right parts of the business. How often will a small business owner put tons of time into something like designing their own website, only to see the return on their effort as a failure. Website design is a commodity that is best outsourced if one is an insurance agent.

The focus of energy for an insurance agent should be on selling insurance. A business owner that wants to grow should shift their focus from them personally selling insurance to instead creating a business structure with many employees that sell insurance.

Many people work really hard on their business with poor results. The key is to use their energy in the areas that are most meaningful. A small concentration in the right area will deliver better results than spreading lots of energy over a wide area. The goal is to work on the business, notin the business.

Also, if the right amount of energy is focused in the right area, but the results are less than expected, then the energy is being dissipated, usually through friction or resistance. Friction and resistance take energy to overcome. More "work" can be done with less "power" when "friction" and "resistance" are reduced.

Note the areas in the business where "friction" or "resistance" is wasting energy and causing poor results. This could be an employee with poor morale, or a producer that ignores policies and procedures, or a client that always has problems. Removal of "friction" should then produce the desired results.

Power, Time and Work

Another law of physics is the equation for power. One way to define it is that power is equal to the amount of work done over a specific time period. It takes a certain amount of power to push a stalled car along the road for 5 minutes.

In life, the power we achieve is based on the amount of work we do over a period of time. People who have a lot of "power" in a small town are those that spent a lifetime building up their success. It is important to note that power can be derived from the accumulated work of others. Rockefeller, Gates and Buffet leveraged the work of many people to gain tremendous amounts of "power."

"Power can also be measured in terms of money," notes Shearar. "Those who producer more work over more time have generated more money." This is a tangible way to show the value of work and time. An experienced CSR that handles a large book of business should get a larger paycheck that a new employee that is less productive.

Shearar also points out that the time to do a task can be "calculated" by using the power equation. Time equals the amount of work done divided by power. So, in other words, the time for someone to do a task decreases with the amount of power they have.

Think of employees, if they are not given a lot of "power" (such as resources and authority) it will take much longer to get the job done. So, providing employees the right "powers" to get the job done will make the business much more productive.

Summary

How can this be applied to business and the daily lives of a business owner?

There are no secrets to life and business success. It is all out there in the open. Successful people have "learned" how to apply the laws of nature to their lives and their businesses.

Understanding the Need of Having Adequate Business Insurance Cover

Insurance is a means to protect the businesses from unforeseen risks; it provides peace of mind to the business owners. However, choosing adequate insurance cover is crucial to leverage the benefits it offers. This article sheds light on the negative impact of under or over insuring a business and the importance of having adequate insurance cover.

Under-insurance or over-insurance - impact

Besides determining various risks that your business is likely to face, you also need to calculate the amount required to cover the risk to determine adequate cover, failing which you may face the following issues -

• Revenue loss: Under-insurance may cost you dearly. The low premium may initially attract you, but it may lead to revenue losses when the risk arises. If any risk arises and your business is not covered with adequate insurance, it may affect your business financially, as you have paid for an insurance cover that is less than its value and you have to bear with the loss of revenue.

• Business interruption: Being under-insured may lead to business interruption, because, if your business is not covered with adequate insurance, you have to endure losses in case of physical property damage or liability claims. Until you spend some money from your pocket to re-build the business, you may not be able to run your business. Business interruption, thus, halts the revenue you are generating.

• High premium rates: Over-insurance results in paying high premium costs, for a coverage that goes beyond the actual cash value of the risk that was insured by the policy holder. If your business is over-insured, and you are paying high premium, which is actually not required, you will be in a loss.

Adequate insurance and its importance: Incidents such as accidents, natural calamities like storms, etc. can result in interruption/closure of your business. Having adequate insurance coverage is, therefore, very critical to protect your business from such kind of risk. Following are two more benefits of having adequate insurance -

• Smooth business operation: If your business is insured with adequate insurance coverage, you can operate your business smoothly. You need not worrying about the risks that may occur in your premises.

• Resume operations after unexpected events: After an unexpected event at your business premises, you need to rebuild your business to resume operations. At this critical time, having business insurance is very helpful; it will cover the loss incurred. It helps rebuild your business and resume operations.

Determining the insurance cover for your business

Before you purchase insurance for your business, it is important to calculate the total value of assets and costs required to repair/replace them when an unforeseen event happens. For this, take help of tools such as property value calculator, replacement cost estimator, etc. which enable you to determine the coverage required for your business. This way, you can avoid the instances of both under and over insurance.

Take expert advice

After knowing the importance of having adequate insurance for your business, purchasing it on your own can prove risky, as you may miss on a few things. Therefore, it is better to take advice of insurance brokers as they will help you in choosing adequate insurance coverage after looking at all the aspects of the business.

Your business may be thriving well; however it might face difficulties which you cannot foresee. Purchasing insurance that covers all the potential risks to your business adequately is, therefore, a sensible business idea.

The "WHY" of How To Start a Business

How to Start a Business is a big question asked by a lot of people. Why? Well, it is because a lot of people have aspirations of running their own business. It may have been something they wanted to do since childhood, or perhaps something they were exposed to in school, or an idea that came to them while working for someone else. Whatever the reason, starting a business is a lofty goal and knowing how to start a business is the foundation.

There are three basic philosophical questions to answer before starting a business. Of course, these questions are broken down into many other smaller questions, but for our purposes here, we will discuss the basics. They are:

1. The Operation

2. The Motivation

3. The Culmination

First, the Operation. The obvious and most basic question starts here. What is the business? This may seem elemental, but really, it is the most important question. Many people have a plan to start a business. Some want to start a business because the business makes lot of money. Others want to start a business because the business is something they love.

These may appear to be good answers to the first question, but in truth, they are not. Not at all. Why? Because making money is a benefit but doesn't necessarily give you a life. Doing something you love is a benefit but won't necessarily give you income. The answer to this most basic question must be something which encompasses both.

Making money in a business that is boring and monotonous is a mistake millions have made. A life of making money in something you have no concern for or even despise will make a bitter person out of you. So you may have money, but if you cannot enjoy the making of it, where is the benefit?

Running a business for a product or service about which you are imbued with passion but can barely pay the bills is an exercise in futility. Ever known someone who did this? I have. They struggle to remain in a business simply because they like the doing of it. These people have confused a business with a hobby. One makes money; the other is for kicks.

The right answer to this most basic question is a business for which you really care or enjoy, and has potential of making good money. If it has both these qualities, it may be the right choice.

The second question in the quest to find how to start a business is the Motivation. What is the motivation for your venture?

In other words, if you had to summarize why you are taking on debt, working endlessly, depriving yourself of free time, and bearing substantial responsibility, what would the answer be? This most crucial step is one which cannot be ignored. Assuming you love the subject, and the business had a track record of money-making opportunities, if you can address the why of your venture you have answered many, many potential questions that will surface down the road.

Do you wish to change something about your world? How about your specific industry? Does the business provide for the particular needs of a specific group of people for which you deeply care? Does it better the lives of people, or does it increase the effectiveness of people?

Whatever the motivation, it needs to be something about which you feel you were created for. It must be "you" to the core. This concept runs far deeper than merely enjoying the subject of your business. It is more about the inner motivation which drives you onward. It is the essence of what the business is about.

If the business you are contemplating is something you enjoy, something that makes money, and something which fills your heart and mind with ideas and plans about how it can impact the world, it just may be the right choice for you.

But there is one more thing to consider.

The Culmination.

The culmination of your business is the peak, the highest point, the "future" of your business. Put into a question, it is: where is the business going?

Someone may love the newspaper industry. They may love to write and edit. They may love to cover current news and tell stories. They may even work in an area of high newspaper subscriptions. But one who would consider starting a newspaper today is most likely ignoring the culmination step.

It doesn't take a research team to figure out where the newspaper industry is going. It's not up. It's away.

For someone starting a newspaper franchise 4 decades ago, the future was bright and that person could make a lot of money if done right. But not so anymore. It might have been a wise goal at some time in the past; today it most likely a trip to failure.

So a substantial consideration in the quest for the perfect business involves looking to the future of the business, and asking the simple question: where is the industry going? While no one can see the future or know if a certain industry will still be here in the days ahead, we can make educated guesses that will greatly influence our profitability.

Some businesses never seem to fade or expire or lose their appeal. And others never seem to last more than a decade. Yet most businesses have a "peak". They have a period during which they will produce more and have more impact than at any other time.

It is your job to determine with some certainty when that time is. Is it in five years, is it two decades, or is it impossible to know?

If you can take these most basic and fundamental steps and answer these questions with clarity, you will have likely saved yourself time and money and heartache in your search for the perfect business. Knowing how to start a business begins here. And after these first elemental steps are complete, it is then time to move into the more specific questions of tax implications, business entity structures, and other such considerations.

Business To Business Blog Sites - Capturing Top Internet Real Estate

Capturing and developing real estate has been good short and longterm investment strategy for many savvy investors. What I have found is most successful business to business blog sites are also capturing and controlling certain pieces of internet real estate called keyword searches. When these keywords are requested by a user, the search engines will have categorized and indexed content that best meets the search requirements, a formula known as algorithm, and deliver most relevant information to the individual requesting information. If your blog is top in the search engine rankings it will be your content and information that will be delivered for easy access and reading.

In my experience, prime real estate on the internet can be just as valuable as downtown space in Manhattan when monetized properly. Location is just as important for your business to business blog as it is in real estate. Success for an online marketer and blogger lies in how many people can find them on the internet. Obviously the more people who view their content the more followers and eventual brand awareness and sales they will have. I know those who blog for business that are not great communicators of the written word but do wonderful as a result of high page rankings. High page ranking is the real estate all online marketers wish to capture. Eighty percent of business to business blog success comes from search engine optimization and cross linking strategies that are not readily known by the average blogger.

6 Solid Reasons to Have a Business to Business Blog

1. Low Capital Investment - and minimum fees to maintain site. The only real investment is your time used for blogging. This gives back a high ROI for blog for business owners.

2. Time, Freedom and Flexibility - if you start out part-time with your business to business blog you can have your blog sizzling in as little as 60 to 90 days following a consistent step by step blogging system. Increasing your business through blogging can provide you with choices over time on how much you want to work or how little you want to work. No more missing your children and grandchildren's little league games, school plays or family birthday parties because your current work schedule does not allow time off. You can now be in control of your own destiny.

3. Free Training and Education is available that will show you step by step how to set up your business to business blog for maximum Search Engine Optimization and build a campaign from scratch.

4. Blogging Communities or Networks are available where your posts are placed on the front page of the network and indexed according to industry and niche for easy identification by search engines for ranking. These blog networks have a vested interest in helping you succeed.

5. E-commerce - covers nearly all industries on the internet. Setting up a blog for business strategy eliminates saturation possibilities as there are so many niche products and industries to market. The world is your oyster. Pick any affiliate program to market and receive both initial income and residual income. Or simply continue to build your current business to business blog sites promoting your current company or product line, you are in control and can monetize for local, national or international traffic and business.

6. Income Earnings - can be substantial through blogging when you monetize your blog for Google AdSense as well as affiliate products. Substantial monthly incomes are being earned. Diversification of your marketing is a solid and profitable strategy.

If your company is currently blogging for business or looking to begin a blog for business site, you must focus on capturing as much real estate on the internet through popular keyword searches as possible. There are a tremendous amount of opportunities to create real wealth on the internet today even more so than have been in the past. Ranking an article and blog page is so much easier than ranking a website ever was. It must work, as you are reading this article. If you truly have a desire to take your company to the next level consider a business to business blog where you can tailor your message to an individual niche market as well as to mass audiences.

A Few Business Opportunities For Women

Today every person wants to work and earn some money because high the cost of living. Women who are housewives, mothers etc can help family's financial status. For this, a home business is best for them. Here are some ideas:

1. Catering:

Many women have started catering business from their homes. Do you love to cook, why not start selling the food? You can contact to several organizations and offices for your service.

2. Childcare

This is the business for those women who have children. They can start childcare business from home. There are two certain benefits in childcare business. First one is It will give you extra income and secondly it will keep your child busy.

3. Direct selling

Direct selling is very popular way to earn some extra money from home. If you think you can tell others something about new products, Start direct selling business. There are some very good direct selling companies in the market. Think about your interest and relate it to products.

4. Event Planning

Event planning is the way of planning the festivals, ceremony, party etc. and An event planner handle all the event related jobs. To become an event planer you should be creative and you should know how to manage situation. You can start event planning business from home.

5. Tutoring

Tutoring is very cheap home based business idea but it is not for anyone. For tutoring you need to be smart and knowledgeable according to subject. If you have these two qualities then start with one or two children and charge hourly.

6. Home Decoration

Sometime it is called interior designing. For home decoration business you have to be creative and need an eye for design. You can start with no college degree, little investment. Today many people have not enough time to decorate their homes. That is why they want a professional for decoration.

For any business you have to advertise your business. Tell about your business to your friends, relatives, and others as well. Be patient. Every business needs time to grow.

Deciding the Perfect Time to Sell a Business

As a business owner, your business is your baby. It might not only be your source of income, but also your identity and your life. The thought of selling your baby is hard to consider especially now and so you wait.

Many business owners will delay the thought of when to sell until it is far too late; leaving them frustrated and felling regret that they didn't sell when they could have.

Often business owners think that a family member or key employee will take over the business. Sadly we are seeing that many family members do not want the business and the business owners is left considering a plan b.

So, even if you have a family member or key employee that will be buying the business, you still have to decide when you will make the transfer. Often since no formal planning or decision has been made, the decision defaults to when the business owner just does not want to work the business any more. And although this might seem like a logical time, it does guarantee greatest value for the business.

Sadly, waiting until you just can't do it any more, might actually be at the lowest value of the business. Here's why. As you start to fall out of love with the business, you are no longer putting everything into the business and the business is no longer operating a peak, the owner is relaxing and the business is as well.

Often sales drop, marketing slows down and the business drops in profit and revenues, hence dropping in value.

So instead of waiting until you can't do it anymore, plan to exit when the business is at its peak.

For business owners this is a VERY hard time to sell. Image as a business owner you have built your business to almost run itself and the economy takes off and suddenly you are making more money than you have ever made and your business is running at its best.

It is easy to think the curve will continue to go up, but this never happens. As the saying goes, what goes up, must come down. Eventually the business will decline.

Because the value of the business is highly weighed on its revenues and profit, now is the ideal time to sell, but emotionally the hardest time to sell.

When talking to friends and family about selling, they will think you are crazy. Your spouse might question your sanity and you probably still love your business.

If you understand the growth curve of a business you know that after ever good period is a down period and either you can be the one working through the down period or the new owner can.

Sadly many business owners get comfortable and when a growth spurt like this occurs, they hold on and think it will last forever. Then they kick themselves years later when they had an offer to sell (near the peak) and they turned it down.

When you get an offer and the business is growing, now is the time to consult with a business broker or business intermediary. Get the business valued and ask for the market trends to see if there are indications of being towards the top of the peak.

5 Ways Business Value Statements Impact Business

DEFINE THE FUNDAMENTAL VALUES BY WHICH YOU WILL RUN YOUR BUSINESS

Okay - so now that you are here, you know that:

Your Business Mission Statement provides a path to understand the business vision in line with its values; defining your business' purpose and primary objectives

Your Business Vision Statement defines both the purpose and values of your business and can encourage you to achieve defined objectives, even if they are objectives that stretch you, knowing that the vision is SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time bound).

Your Vision Statement also defines your business' reason, in terms of your business' values.

These statements have a direct influence on your business' bottom-line and success.

Business Values are guiding beliefs about how YOU want things done.

Value Statements: You demonstrate and represent your values in action in your personal and work behaviors, decision-making, and interpersonal interaction.

Here are a few value statements:

Marketing is a constant, learning process.

Maintaining outstanding customer relationships is key.

Operate with integrity and accountability.

Give back and support participation in the community activities that empower others.

Provide quality and thoughtful services

Showing improvement, innovative actions, credibility, and honesty.

Enjoy your business, achieve your vision!

Consolidate the common values by which your business will be operated.

Example of value statement: In conducting our business, we will realize our vision by performing our affairs so that our actions provide confirmation of the high value we place on:

INTEGRITY: by dealing honestly with our clients, staff, vendors and community.

RESPONSIBILITY: by considering the environment in which we do business, community views and the common good.

PROFITABILITY: by being aware that an appropriate level of profit is necessary to maintain our business and allow our values to continue to be observed.

VALUE: by providing quality products/services that deliver value for money.

Once your Business Value Statement has been defined, these values will impact every piece of your business.

How can the values you identify have an impact on your business?

1. Value Statements provide boundaries on how your business successes will be achieved. Business objectives and goals are grounded in the established values.

2. You and your staff demonstrate and model the values in action in personal work behaviors, decision-making, contribution, and interpersonal communication, to ensure a value-based, shared culture.

3. Your Business Values will help establish priorities in your daily work life.

4. Values will guide decisions that are made.

5. When hiring and promoting others - their outlook and actions will need to be congruent with these values.

The work and art of a successful business includes planning - And, that is where a business coach comes in to help you put this together. Because success is a piece of art.

Niche Business Franchises

"Put all your eggs in one basket and then watch that basket very carefully" - Is a popular idiom that was refurbished and used by the popular investor Warren Buffet. It is hard for most people to do this because of the risks involved. However, with focus and the urge to go beyond the limits, anyone can do it without much risk.

If planning to start a niche business, you must be willing to concentrate "all your eggs" in one basket. By using the term 'all your eggs', I refer to pulling all your resources together to ensure that you run a successful business.

Niche Businesses as an Industry

A niche business is as a small segment of market that targets a particular group of people with a specific interest, desire or passion. The aim of a niche business is to satisfy specific needs, price range, demographics and production quality intended for that particular group of people.

It is the complete opposite of a shopping mall where one can find all sorts of products and services. With a niche business, a customer is definitely going to find specific or related products and services. For instance, a beauty store can be considered a niche business because it sells products or services related to beauty.

Niche businesses as an industry have managed to be more popular than other forms of businesses because they provide exceptional opportunity for the owner to establish better relationship with their customers, resulting in higher consumer loyalty and potentially long-term consumer.

Niche Products and Services

These are products and services that enable a niche business owner to satisfy his/her chosen market where others cannot. To simplify this, niche products and services are things that your targeted people would want to buy to answer their specific problem.

In some cases, niche products and services can be narrowed down into a micro-niche. For instance, if you are a fashion business, you can break down your business to women's wear, men's wear or children's wear. These are more detailed categories in the fashion business.

The same applies to service providers. If you are a hairdresser, you can also be a cosmetologist or a barber. Micro-niche is a common term that you will come across several times as you continue to learn more about niche marketing.

Tips on How to Find the Right Niche

The first step when planning a business is to determine a target group of people and reasons they would buy from you. It seems a simple task, but you should be in a position to understand the products or services you will be selling and to whom.

If you are not sure about what involves a niche business, then you should revisit your business plan. The following are tips to help you identify what your business has to offer, your target market, and how to build a niche from there.

Unique product or service: If you are going to start a niche business, you will need a unique product or service because you want to be the only one selling that particular product or service. You should come up with a product or service near the borders of unsatisfied needs. For instance, you may want to concentrate on creating hand-made fabrics or outfits, which most costume clothes stores or large retailers don't supply.

An already available niche: Niche markets are small markets with many players. Therefore, when finding the right niche, remember to choose a niche that is already available before you find yourself out of the game. For instance, if you are planning to start a pet-food related business, you need to research carefully the size and competition of that market to find out if there is room for a new business.

Choose wanted products or services: You may be having magnificent products or services, but if no one wants to purchase them, all your efforts will be in vain. For instance, if no one is selling any type of street food along your block, it does not mean it is a good idea because of health-related risks involved.

Additionally, the niche market of people likely to enjoy street food is smaller around your block compared to other places. This means that there must be significant demand for your product or service for your business to be profitable.

No matter what product or service you want to sell, the most important thing is that you satisfy your target market in order to make the business profitable. You can also choose to go with franchising, which has more benefits than risks.

Benefits of Owning a Franchise

As an entrepreneur, you already know the definition of a franchise. However, if you are a potential entrepreneur, here is the definition. A franchise is defined as a right granted to a person or group of people to market certain goods or services of a particular company within a specific location or territory.

There are many types of franchises, although the most popular ones are fast-food related such as Domino Pizza, Subway, and McDonald's. However, before you choose to go with franchising, you need to understand the following benefits.

Name recognition: This is an obvious benefit business owners get from franchises. Usually, startup businesses take years to establish their brands because they are not guaranteed that customers will recognize them as giant players in the marketplace. With franchises, new businesses benefit from instant name recognition. However, this can be tricky, especially if the business is new in a certain area.

Proven strategy: While most new businesses struggle to create a reliable and lucrative business plan, franchises have proven to be profitable over the years. However, even with such a benefit, it is important to do your homework carefully. Find out how potential is the franchise you want to get involved with before buying one.

Help for businesspersons: If you get involved with a certain franchise, it will help with starting up and running your business afterwards. The franchise will provide you with all the requirements you need, and management and marketing strategies.