They are quite straight forward points which can be rather self-explanatory. But if you wish to read more about each point without having to read the book, you can read this article that is an excerpt of the Ultimate Homebased Business Handbook. If you really want to get down to the details, then read the book.

Here are the common traits of a successful enterpreneur. There is no short cut or easy way out. Each of these traits need discipline, hard and smart work!

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1. They enjoy what they do.

2. They take their work seriously.

3. They plan everything, from A to Z.

4. They are wise in managing their finances.

5. They sell and close the sale.

6. They know that customer is king.

7. They are not afraid to self promote.

8. They know how to position and project a positive image for the business and themselves.

9. They get to know their customers.

10. They take advantage of technology and make use of it to their greatest efficiency.

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11. They hire the right people.

12. They become the expert in their own field.

13. They differentiate and create a competitive advantage for themselves.

14. They upgrade the level of knowledge and keep improving themselves.

15. They make it easy for customers to reach them.

16. They create a positive and reliable reputation for the business and themselves.

17. They directly sell the benefits of their products and services, not just hard pushing on products.

18. They network and get involved with parties or communities that help to grow the business.

19. They focus and play smart to grab attention without spending a lot of money.

20. They are good negotiators.

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21. They have a proper and professional work place that will not distract them from work.

22. They are systematic and organised, and establish good processes to work.

23. They take time off to live life. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

24. They don’t do everything themselves, they delegate and stay focused.

25. They never fail to follow up consistently.

Related Business Ideas

• Pros and cons about getting into multi-level marketing business

To find more business ideas, visit Smart Business Ideas.

This is the 4th year running for Best Countries for Business and here are the top five countries rated for 2009:

1. Denmark

2. United States

3. Canada

4. Singapore

5. New Zealand

Where does Malaysia rank in this exercise that rates 127 economies? Malaysia is rated at number 25.

To read the full report on the best countries to do business for the year, read the article here on Channel News Asia.

More Business Ideas

• Setting up a fashion business
• 25 characteristics of a successful enterpreneur
• 5 business ideas to target in the kids market
• Pros and cons about getting into multi-level marketing business
• Starting a home bakery business

To find more business ideas, visit Smart Business Ideas.

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Whenever we hear or see the word Multi-level marketing (MLM), also known as network marketing, we tend to cringe and find ways to not get involved. The perception is that multi-level marketing business does not work for majority of the people and a lot of people end up getting scammed to spend lots of money and time with no returns whatsoever.

Whilst this may hold true for many who have dabbled in network marketing and did not succeed, there are also a handful of people who will beg to differ. Of course, these are the group of people who are successful in the multi-level marketing business. The percentage of such successful entrepreneurs in the network marketing business is rather small compared to the total number of people who got into this type of business.

But isn’t that the same case as with any company? How many General Managers or Chief Executive Officers can there be in one organisation? To reach the top of the game in any business, you can never find everyone at the top. Only the smart workers get there. This is the same case for multi-level marketeers.

If you work on the right strategy, along with good products or services to match, you can make it to the top. There are many factors that can bring about success or failure to being a network marketeer, but this article will not dwell into them for they are too wide and far to cover.

What this article hopes to cover are some points on the pros and cons about getting into the multi-level marketing business as a means to be your own boss. Have an open mind, and maybe you will see some light. At the end of the article, even if you are convinced there are more pros to cons, but feel that it is still not your cup of tea, it is okay.

I’ve personally tried my hands in several multi-level marketing companies but nothing have worked for me. Whilst I didn’t gain any success, I believe that it is not an impossible business. Read on below for some of the common pros and cons of multi-level marketing before you judge that it is definitely not your cup of tea.

Pros of multi-level marketing

1. Easily accessible support

In this business, rather than going at it alone, you can get help from your uplines and they are always there to support you. That’s what they are there for and it’s not really a boss-employee relationship like in the corporate rat race. What’s important is that you must have an upline whom you can work with. So before you blindly sign up as a multi-level marketeer, make sure you know for a fact that you can get along and work with your direct upline.

2. Motivation and training

Multi-level marketeers are often provided free motivation, sales and product training sessions by the companies. These motivational talks are important and useful to help build your confidence and most importantly, boost your motivation to work harder. As a group, you may feel more group dynamics compared to being on your own.

3. Good products

These days, many multi-level marketing companies provide some excellent products. These products, when recognised for their benefits and have gained people’s trust, speak for themselves. Sometimes, you may even find yourself having ready customers for the products. So, choose wisely when it comes to starting off with a multi-level marketing company. Choose a company that carries excellent products that benefit many people.

4. Incentives

Often, network marketing companies have many incentives as rewards to their distributors. This encourages them to do more and excel so that they can win the incentives that include cash, all paid for trips, cars, etc. Whether or not you win these attractive prizes is one thing, but the very existence of such incentives tend to drive you to do better.

Cons of multi-level marketing

1. People’s negative perception

A lot of people have been approached the wrong way by multi-level marketeers and because of the unpleasant experiences, they tend to close up and decline any invitations by other network marketeers. It’s unfortunate that their perception of multi-level marketing has been tainted. 

2. Dealing with rejections

Since people often say no to multi-level marketing, one can expect to face a lot of rejections when approaching people. This is a fact that’s inevitable. But those who persevere and take the right approach may just come out the winner.

3. Stocking up and strapping up cash

Some multi-level companies require their marketeers to have a minimum amount of stock up on the products on a monthly basis. If you are just starting out with a small network of customers or downlines and have low earnings, this may be an issue to you to keep forking out on stocks that you aren’t able to dispose of. Try to find a balance of an affordable monthly take-up rate when finding the right company to join.

As you can see, there are pros and cons to being a multi-level marketeer. However, it is  your call how you can deal with the cons and turn them around to make your business a success. Don’t close your options too soon before you get to see what the potential upside may be.

Related Business Ideas

• 25 characteristics of a successful enterpreneur
• Setting up a fashion business
• How to get started to be a wedding planner
• Starting a home bakery business

To find more business ideas, visit Smart Business Ideas.

Here are five business ideas targeted to the kids or parents market that you can think about, and hopefully they will spin your thoughts into more possibilities. Look out for more business ideas on this topic in future posts.

1. Arts and crafts schools

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Many parents send their kids to such informal learning classrooms normally located in malls so that they learn to get creative from young. Besides, it is also fun for the kids to dabble in some artwork while the parents go shopping! From drawing classes to learning clay works, kids have a variety of arts and crafts courses they can sign up for these days.

2. Pre-schools, nurseries, kindergartens

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Education is a must for toddlers these days, it just depends on when they get started. For some parents who aren’t able to find babysitters or baby care centres that work for them, they resort to sending their young toddlers to pre-schools or nurseries. And when they get older, they then proceed to join kindergarten classes. Before, we used to start kindergarten at the age of 6, but now, some are starting as young as 3 to 4 years of age.

3. Music

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If you are talented and trained in music, you can go a step further to teach music to kids. Parents want their kids to be as much of an all-rounder as possible and these days, music seems to be almost on every parent’s mind besides going for other extra curriculum activities outside of school.

4. Tuition classes

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Most school-going kids these days are attending tuition classes as a means to supplement what they learn in school. Whether they really need these extra classes or not is a different story altogether. Parents feel the need to give more to their children by sending them for more enhanced classes outside the school. Thus, the need for good tuition classes is always there, in every neighbourhood.

5. Baby products

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Mothers are also known to be big spenders on baby products. Every now and then, they need to replenish some baby products and if there are new and interesting baby products on the shelves, they are most keen too. Other than clothes, other good baby items that sell are educational toys or interactive baby products to help stimulate baby’s growth and development.

More Business Ideas

• Starting a home bakery business
• How to get started to be a wedding planner
• Setting up a fashion business
• Pros and cons about getting into multi-level marketing business
• Best Countries for Business 2009

To find more business ideas, visit Smart Business Ideas.

These days, many fashion stores are mushrooming, not only in malls but also on cyberspace. There are many net entrepreneurs who sell their fashion items online either from an e-commerce site or from blogs. And these have become the acceptable channel of purchase for many customers.

If you’re thinking of jumping onto the bandwagon to start a small fashion store, be it a physical store or an online fashion store, read on below for ideas and resources on how to get started.

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If you are completely new to this business, you may want to start small and part time (if you hold down a full time job). Do some market testing before you head into this business big time. You need to see how you can tap into the market and find a niche amongst all other fashion retailers before you spend big money on this business.

Start by researching all kinds of fashion boutiques offline and online to give yourself some knowledge of the fashion industry. Study the trend of what people are selling and what people would buy. Then you need to think about what fashion line you would like to get into, is it going to be clothes, bags, shoes, jewelries or a bit of everything to offer a one-stop shop? If it is a clothes business, what kind of fashion do you want to enter into? Korean and Japanese designs, American or European designs, etc. If you want to go into jewelries, are you going to offer any kind of jewelries or would you want to specialize, say Swarovski crystal jewelries, silver jewelries, etc.

Once you have decided on your fashion products and concept, you need to look for affordable suppliers who can best deliver to your needs. Do lots of homework to check out who has the products as well as quality of products that you want, wholesale prices that fit your budget, delivery options that work for you, as well as payment methods that are acceptable to you. You may want to work with more than one supplier for variation of products that they each have to offer.

If you are cash strapped or concerned about how your business will take off, negotiate with your supplier for you to take in a small order to test the market. Bring in a small shipment to start with so that you are not bogged down with stocks and tie up your cash. You may want to bring in just 3 to 4 colour variation for each product and in just one size each to start. Sometimes, being exclusive in selling limited number of each design works well for customers. Some people pay for designer fashion because they only come in one piece!

You may also contact some new or up and coming local designers and talk about marketing their clothes for your business. You may negotiate and see how they feel about you taking on their labels on consignment basis. This may be a win-win situation for both of you.

Next, you must have ready avenues to be in touch with the market. Be it at your home, shop, weekend markets or online store, you need to start making your products known to people. Get help from others to help spread the word about your new business and your exciting products. You can also invest in some advertising by giving out printed flyers or

If you are selling your products online, it is recommended that you invest in a good camera to take pictures of your products to be posted on your site. A picture paints a thousand words, so take nice and clear pictures of your products and provide some write-ups to accompany the pictures too. Always offer a point of contact so that if potential customers want to have more information or clarification, they can easily look you up. Be sure to respond as quickly as possible to show good customer support and service.

You also need to think about the kind of payment methods to offer to customers. If you are running a physical shop, of course the most direct and easy payment method is cash over the counter when customers purchase your products. You may want to offer the use of credit cards but you will need to apply for this service with your selected payment gateway provider. Being new in business, this may prove to be a difficult task and may cost you quite a bit to set up. So do consider accepting cash only payment terms to start with.

If you are running your fashion business online, you can get your customers to do cash deposits to your selected bank account or payment via PayPal. The former is the most popular method and have come to be very acceptable with many online shoppers. It’s almost hassle free with everyone if they have the use of internet GIRO to transfer their payments online. It’s also by far one of the safer methods that customers feel more secure about.

When running this fashion business online, you may also want to think about whether you want to register an enterprise to run your business or you would just prefer to run it without a registered company. I believe both methods are accepted well, but if you were to expand the business later on, the use of a registered company may be a good move.

These are just some of the more simple methods of what you can do to start planning for a fashion business. To be more detailed, I’m sure there are lots more steps in between to take care of. Do take your time to experience them and learn from every step of the way.

Being in the fashion business is not easy, because you need to be keeping up with the trend and also to offer new and different products frequently. Otherwise, your customers may find the same or repeated products stale and out of style.

So you must be willing to spare the time to find ways to keep up with what’s hot and what’s not.

Related Business Ideas

• Pros and cons about getting into multi-level marketing business
• How to get started to be a wedding planner
• Starting a home bakery business

To find more business ideas, visit Smart Business Ideas.