If you were sitting on your deathbed, having been just told you have one single hour to live, how much would a second hour of life be worth to you? $100? $1000? Every cent you have? Chances are, at that point in your life, nothing would be worth more than another hour to spend with your friends, family, loved ones, or even just sitting under a tree, listening to the birds sing. Or maybe you would ask for just enough time for a quick nine rounds of golf on the public course?
So there's no question we'd value our time more when we know we have only a little left, but why does it take us so long to get to that mindset? We know we'll all die eventually, we know our time on this earth is limited, so why do we trade hours of our existence for minimum wage? Why do we slave at a job we hate for just $12 an hour, or $15 an hour, or even $30 an hour? Why don't we enjoy our time, rather than sell it off at rock bottom prices?
The answer to that is simple - we need cash. But rather than take the time to set up a situation where we make money for doing nothing, we do it the old fashioned, short-term thinking way - we go to work. We let someone else play golf, while we sit in a cubicle and help pay his or her mortgage off.
So why not make the change? Why not take the plunge and start a home-based business? Why not be the guy who strolls around a golf course working on his chip shot while others work for us, or while customers send you bags of money for maybe an hour of work each day?
Why not indeed.
Today's online world offers a litany of home-based business opportunities, from mail order businesses to consignment programs, to affiliate systems, to sub-contracting opportunities, and even the age-old multi-level marketing routine.
The first question to ask yourself is 'what do you want to do for a living?'
If you're a golf freak, you might say you want to be out on the course, so why not start there? The world of golf holds many possibilities, from selling golf products and accessories online, to creating a golf web portal with dozens of affiliate program ads hanging off it, to selling ebooks on how to improve your swing.
But those are just the home-based business ideas that everyone else is working on - in order to really set yourself apart and make ongoing passive income for minimal effort in return, you need to think outside the box, and make effort early to set things up so they can earn more and more over time.
There's no such thing as a 'get rich quick' home based business that pays you tens of thousands right away. Well, okay, maybe it exists somewhere, but systems that pay out large sums quickly invariably fall on their ear soon after. To really establish a business that pays you every week for eternity, you need to plan, work smart, invest a small amount of money and a large amount of time.
Turn Your Love Of Golf Into A Career With A Home-Based Business
Creating Your Vision for Your Business, Career, and Life
Many people go through their daily lives feeling overwhelmed. There are so many things to do and there never seems to be enough time or energy to do them all. Is this how you feel about your business, career, or life?
Have you promised yourself that this month you are going to make some serious changes but you just aren't sure what those changes need to be?
Think about laying out a vision, but make it a big vision. One that encompasses your passion in life and the gifts you have come to share. No matter what the focus of your business or career you have a lot to offer. You are unique and only you can contribute your strengths in your special way. Whether it’s staying at home and raising a family, making the best widget there is, the CEO of a company, a manager in IT Life is not a dress rehearsal so create your vision of what you really want and then take inspired action steps to attract it to you.
Don’t think of creating a little vision for your life, it’s time to stop thinking small. You will also need to let go of the excuse that you don’t have enough time. When that comes to mind think of this quote from Life's Little Instruction Book, compiled by H. Jackson Brown, Jr. "Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein."
These are the same steps I take with my clients to help them make the changes in focus and habit that bring them meaningful results. First you must be willing to take action.
Without changing your focus and habits you will never be able to change the results.
Without taking action you will never move forward and reach the results you want. Coaching is about getting results; listening to what the client really wants and working together, setting out the measurable steps to be taken that result in action and success.
You are responsible for the momentum; it will be up to you to take the actions on your own unless you choose to have the support, encouragement, guidance, and accountability that a coach provides.
Without the forward momentum and inspired actions it's just a good thought. In order for your business to be successful, to be happy and fulfilled in your career, or prosperous and content in your life you need to have one common thread. Vision.
The process of creation starts with a thought, a great idea, a passionate want, or a dream of something magnificent to achieve. These are the intangible sparks that ignite our drive to move forward and turn the intangible into our reality.
Begin by brainstorming on paper, yes you must write it down to bring clarity, to make it real.
The first brainstorming session should be free flowing, don't edit your thoughts or ideas. If you are working on your personal vision and your work vision to define what you want and how you want to spend your time, start with the personal vision.
This will give you absolute clarity about what is important to you, what you want, what are the things in your life you are passionate about and that make you feel fulfilled.
Then from there you can create the vision of your ideal business or career and take action to bring want you really want into your life.
Focus on what you really want, be very specific. Don't just say you want lots of money, a nice home and no stress. Create a picture in your mind of exactly what you want down to the color of the carpet and the list of clients, and then using words draw that picture until your vision is clear.
For example:
I want a profitable and fulfilling holistic health practice.
I want to see clients in three different specialties plus passive income revenue streams.
A full successful practice will have 30-40 clients.
I will work five days a week between noon and six devoting the rest of the day to self-care, gardening, exercising, and spending time with family and friends.
I will make 100,000 a year and take 5 weeks vacation throughout the year.
I love to learn so I will spend 3 weeks a year in educational workshops and training programs to advance my career and myself.
I have several tape sets, workbooks, & learning products that fit into my personal and vision statement providing my clients excellent value and tools that help them to get on track with their lives.
These products are very rewarding to me because I can make money without having to be there. Making a contribution and improving people's lives is very important to me so this is always something I carry out in my business practices and my community involvement.
I have redesigned my home to be bright and airy and laid out the gardens for ease of care, and to provide color and fragrance from my flowers and tastes and aromas from my organic vegetables. I avoid stress by focusing on the positive and focusing my energy on the things that are really important to me and just let the rest go.
You create what you put your energy on. If you concentrate on all the things you don't want on all the things you don't have enough of that is what you will create more of. Start creating what you do want.
Start with your vision; clearly lay out your life, career, and business vision and then take the steps to make it your reality. One of the steps might include hiring a coach to make it happen faster for you.
Home Business Career – A Writers Dream
Have you ever wondered if a home business career is for you? Do you hate your nine to five job? Do you dread waking up in the morning? Very few people are lucky enough to work at a job they enjoy, but I’m happy to say that I’m one of them.
Using Your Talents For Your Stay At Home Business
I’ve worked at lots of dead end, gruelling and mind numbing jobs. Now I pull up a comfortable computer chair to my desk, sip on a hot cup of coffee and work from home writing articles like these ones. For me, it’s the best work from home job I could possibly have. Finding a home business career that suits you all depends on what it is you would like to do. For many people writing is something that comes naturally and with this gift you really can work from home.
Everyone can write, but few have the time or the inclination to do so. There are millions of web sites that need content, magazines that need articles, newspapers that want insightful news articles and that’s where I come in. For me this is an easy home business opportunity and probably the best work from home job I could have.
I even write fictional short stories and sell them to online and print magazines. It’s an easy home business opportunity that many people don’t even consider. All you need to do is be able to write, and finding joy doing so is a big plus too. There are hundreds of work from home writing opportunities on the internet and all you will need to do is register with a few freelancing websites and you are ready to start your home business career.
The great thing about my stay at home business is that I can choose to write to supplement my income, or you can go it alone and do it full time. All you have to do is find the work, target an area or become an “expert” in a certain subject...and write! This is probably one of the safest work from home jobs, you write and you get paid. Of course with this home business career it’s not the easy money that most people look for when they look for a work from home job, but if done correctly you really can make the money and create a successful home business career that will last a lifetime.
Business Skills Training Can Help You Succeed in Your Career
New Horizons Learning Centers offers a complete, simplified learning solution that focuses on knowledge transfer, retention and skills development. Our training programs are based on the market's needs. With our clients' input, we tailor our training programs to the needs of the industry, giving our students a distinct advantage. You will be trained and prepared to pass the industry certifications required by employers, setting you apart from the competition.
Business Skills Training
The Financial Risk Manager (FRM) - Certificate has been adopted by companies as a benchmark to ensure their risk management employees are well versed in the latest financial risk concepts. This course will cover the primary topics and sub-topics under the five risk-related disciplines in the FRM examination including theories, concepts & real-world work experience.
The Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) - designation is one of the fastest growing professional credentials in the world and is a globally recognized standard for measuring the competence and integrity of investment professionals. This program is comprised of three levels, each culminating in an examination.
Project Management Professional (PMP) - In a competitive business climate, an organization's ability to efficiently align resources and business activities with strategic objectives can mean the difference between succeeding and just surviving. To achieve strategic alignment, organizations are increasingly managing their activities and processes as projects — in essence, projectizing their business — to monitor performance more closely and make better business decisions about their project portfolio.
- 74 of major IT project initiatives fail to be completed on time and on budget
- Every year $75 billion dollars is spent on failed projects
Source: Project Management Institute (PMI)
Multi-billion-dollar corporations, governments, and smaller organizations alike face challenges such as a rapid rate of change, the need for fast deployment of new technology and an unusually high level of skills shortage. Strategic initiatives to address these challenges are increasingly being driven through projects. Making your strategic goals a reality requires proper training, so your organization can gain visibility, insight, and control its portfolio of projects, as well as improve productivity, reduce cycle times, decrease costs, and increase quality.
E-Six Sigma (Six Sigma) - E-Six Sigma Foundation Course introduces the fundamentals of Six Sigma to individual process owners and operators who can then act as team members on Six Sigma projects. Not only do these members gain the skills necessary to identify, monitor and control profit-eating practices in their own processes, but they are also prepared to feed that information to Black Belts and Green Belts working on larger system projects.
For enquiries, please contact us for details at 2155 1855 or email us at info@newhorizons.edu.hk.
Change Your Career and Change Your Life By Starting Your Own Business
Even if you're not a born entrepreneur, at some point in your life you've probably toyed with the idea of starting your own business. Perhaps you've even opted out of your mainstream career to strike out on your own. If you have, you're among the legions of men and women who have made the choice to start their own businesses.
Unfortunately, many dreams of self-employment turn into nightmares, primarily because many of those who start businesses don't know how to critically assess business opportunities, how to create a business plan, how to read a financial report, or how to design and implement a marketing plan. Truly, the difference between those who succeed and those who fail most often boils down to whether or not the person has acquired the knowledge necessary to launch and operate a business.
What most aspiring entrepreneurs don't realize is that the skill set necessary to start a business isn't out of reach. It's simply a matter of finding the right tools and using them to your best advantage. These tools can be found in books, through online college courses, through training, or through the mentorship of a successful businessperson.
In a nutshell, these are the steps you need to take in order to change your career and change your life through starting your own business:
1. Identify and build on your strengths. If you are a creative person who thrives on the unexpected, starting a bookkeeping business that requires endless hours of number crunching is a recipe for disaster. You need to assess your talents and interests, and then discover how you can use them to create a niche and demand for your product or service.
2. Create a business plan. A business plan is both your vision for your business and your roadmap to achieve your goals. It must include defining your product or service, identifying your competitors and differentiating yourself from them, and pinpointing funding and financial opportunities.
3. Lay the groundwork. Businesses aren't built in a day, and you have to go through the mundane tasks of setting up bank accounts, securing business licenses, and jumping through the necessary regulatory hoops.
4. Create a marketing plan. Whether or not your business includes e-commerce, you can be sure that the Internet will play a major role in marketing your new business. But there are many other ways of garnering low cost or free advertising and marketing, and you need to make it your business to learn about them. You must also identify your target market and come up with a strategy to bring your product or service to that market.
5. Pay attention to the details. Many businesses fail because of a lack of attention to details - whether that means sloppy accounting practices, poor inventory control, or missing the deadline for a funding source. Launching a business is a balancing act, and you and your team must walk the high wire with aplomb.
6. Acknowledge and dismiss fear. Fear is what often holds us back from achieving our dreams. There's no doubt that leaving your career to start your own business is a downright frightening proposition. But with the right tools, you can acknowledge your fears for what they are, and then boldly move forward on your new career path of self-employment.
Balancing A Home Business And An Office Career
While many people struggle with just the concept of balancing a career and family life, still others are trying to find a way to have a successful career to pay the bills and get a home business off the ground for the future. Few things are as professionally stimulating in life as running a successful business, but the risks are great and it can take time for the average home business to bring in enough money to support a family or even an individual full time. For this reason, juggling both a day job and a home business is sometimes necessary for a while, if not indefinitely. Here are some traits and tips to properly balance a home business and a career.
The most important thing you’ll need to balance a career and a home business is drive and determination. Juggling both can be stressful and there will be times when you find yourself envious of your friends who have the time to go out, do fun activities with their kids, and basically enjoy a life after work. During these same hours, you’ll be working harder than ever at getting your business off the ground. It will be tempting to quit. Those that can avoid this temptation, and continue to work double time, will be the ones that are successful in the long run. Keep the end goal in mind at all times, and it will be you with all the free time later on down the line while all your friends are stuck in an office all day.
Riding along this same theme, you have to learn how to make the most of the time you have. When it feels like all you want to do is relax and watch some television, you must make yourself stay on the course. People complain every day about not having enough time, but they don’t stop to examine how much of each day is wasted. Weekends, holidays, after work hours. These are the times when you have to sacrifice your rest and relaxation for the good of your home business. Researching, advertising, and creating will be your hobbies.
The last thing you’ll need to successfully juggle your dual careers is patience. Days can stretch into weeks, into months, and even years before your home business is successful enough to support you full time. But if you give up, it will never happen. Have patience, persevere, and eventually it will happen.
Use your drive, determination, patience, and time to make the most out of your dual careers. Have a goal in mind, whether it be making a certain amount of money, furthering an important cause, or being able to make your home business your full time career. By doing this, you will enjoy success.
Business Managers: Communicate Your Career To The Next Level
Not too long ago, I walked into a room where some of the country's top oncologists were preparing to launch a new cancer-fighting drug. The occasion was the group's rehearsal before a big presentation to the Federal Drug Administration. Given that these men and women are some of the best and brightest in their field, I thought the rehearsal would be a breeze. So, I sat down, pen poised to make a few notes so I could help them fine-tune their presentations and be ready for the onslaught of media that was sure to follow.
What a letdown. Five articulate, highly educated, well-dressed presenters, armed with shiny animated slideshows, droned on and on and on and on. It didn't matter what they were saying because the audience wouldn't really hear any of it anyway. Around me, eyes closed, and others pretended to take notes while playing solitaire on their laptops. I wondered how in the world I could help these presenters. I also thought about tripling my consultation fee on the spot.
All presenters believe their words are important, and they are. But if you don't give an audience a good reason to listen, they will quickly tune you out. In an age where sound bite is king, cutting through the clutter is more important now than ever.
Consider the following 7 points before stepping into the limelight:
The Take-Home
No matter how many years and dollars you've spent on research and development, no matter the technical complexity of your subject matter, when speaking to a group your entire presentation must boil down to one key point. If you had to sum up your talk in 10 seconds, what would you want your audience to know?
Ask Yourself the Right Questions
What you think a listener needs to know is not always what that listener wants to know. Put yourself in your listener’s seat and ask the following questions: So what? Who cares? What does this mean to the listener, reader or viewer and me? Until you frame your messages from your audience’s perspective, they won’t care. If they don’t care, you’ll never receive their full attention.
Talk in nuggets
Powerful communicators who can hold attention have something in common with each other. They've learned that speaking is for the ear, not for the eye. Instead of preparing a presentation as a research paper jammed with minutiae, condense complicated information into bite-sized nuggets and present only the information needed to move an audience toward the desired outcome.
Present, Don't Read
Is your presentation written like a term paper? Is it written in sentences? Do you allow room for pauses so the listener can participate? People don't converse in long-winded sentences. We speak in short phrases. So write in phrases or bullet points. You will then find yourself talking more and reading less. Also, take time to pause between key thoughts so your listeners can digest what you're saying.
Paint the Picture
Explaining the features of your product may be important, but explanation without example has no meaning. People can't remember all of the facts, but they do remember impressions. By comparing and contrasting, providing analogies and visual images, your presentation will come to life.
Slideshow or Presentation?
No one comes to a presentation to see a slideshow. They come to hear a knowledgeable person share ideas and talk. Visuals should reinforce what you're saying, not serve as your script. Instead of preparing the slides first, prepare your remarks then create appropriate supporting visuals. Let your words drive the visuals instead of the other way around.
Nix the Jargon
Just because your audience is packed with colleagues or you’re providing information for an industry trade publication doesn't mean you should talk jargon. Get rid of the buzzwords and throw away phrases. Rather, look for opportunities to put your words in context by humanizing your material and telling stories or anecdotes.
As I worked with the oncologist presenters and brought many of these points to their attention, they worried that simplifying the information would harm their credibility. Quite the opposite. By making an effort to connect with their audience rather than throw too much information at them, they created a focused, central theme with real-life examples that excited and inspired listeners. And in the end, the cancer drug they believed in made it to market and received a lot of good press!