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Secrets to Starting a Successful Internet Business

Most people are under the impression that they need so much funds to build a successful online business but this is not the case rather there are certain sterling qualities required of such a person to get involved in this business and succeed.

Apart from the time to be committed to the business you will need determination alongside great ideas with which to fire the business into life. Although the beginning might be treacherous you will need to devote full time to the business and the end will definitely justify the means.

Try to find what you are best at and work so passionately on it till it brings you to your promised land. This means taking up your interests or favorite past times and turning those ideas into a business concept.

If for instance you are good at writing try working on setting up a blog and alternatively if it is selling you are good at, get involved in affiliate marketing. Knowledge is powerful so you will need to go into research and try to find useful resources from the internet which will help your quest in setting up a successful online business.

You will also be expected to sign up for news letters on your areas of interest so that you are always kept abreast of current trends in your field of interest and this will definitely help your business growth because by keeping up with such information it will make you adapt to favorable and unfavorable conditions in the market which if you were ignorant of could affect your business negatively.

In acquiring knowledge you must be ready and determined to use it in the market place because without venturing you are not sure of making any gains. Online business involves risk and you must be ready to take that plunge into the unknown in order to achieve the known and be celebrated for it.

Having acquired knowledge in the quest of setting your business goals you will need to transmit what you have learned through your relationship with your prospective clients and if you are not able to communicate effectively with them you will not get any feedback which means no business.

So you have to hone your communications skills so that your clients will get your message and understand your business thrust the moment they are accessing your communication channels.

Considering the nature of online business where you do not have to meet physically or personally with your clients there is the need to transmit your message and intentions clearly without any room for equivocation.

More so, by keeping abreast of current trends in your business circle it will do you good to share this information with other and by so doing you will be respected and reckoned with in your field. You need to understand that when you are starting up your business you need to devote time to running it full time but with time and growth pressure will ease up.

In spite of pressure also make sure that you keep your business organized by ensuring that all important content are readily available for use when the need arises.

Secrets to Generate Profitable Business Ideas

Business if done carefully may provide you with the riches that you are dreaming of, but if you are careless about it, then you might fall into debt. Therefore, it is very important to find business ideas to increase your income. It can be a difficult process in sorting out the perfect ideas for your business, but with some efforts and spending time on the research, you may actually come up with ideas that will suit your business. Putting yourself as a customer will make you understand the needs of the people, and therefore, will provide you with better ideas for the growth of your business.

One of the most important ways to find business ideas is, understanding the customer. Customers are the main source of your business, as without them, there will be no business. Your business idea should satisfy the desire of the customer and not what you think might be important for the customers. Try to find out the need or desire of the customers. Often, the owners have a tendency to act according to their ideas, and later on, they find that their customers don’t want the products that they are offering. So spend some time in understanding your consumers, their needs or desires, and plan accordingly.

To develop a perfect business idea, passion is very important. Passion here is not being obsessed about your products. Passion means showing interest in what you are doing. If you don’t have passion in what you are doing, something which doesn’t motivate you to work, then it will be very difficult to give your time and energy to make your business successful. It is also very important to understand the type of competition you are in, to develop a perfect business idea. If you don’t have any idea about the competition, then your competitors may take the advantage. You will be investing more in the competition of pricing, instead of finding plans to grow your business. By knowing your competitors, you will be able to spend quality time in developing plans for your business.

Knowing yourself is the most important factor in developing plans for your business. You should know your strengths and weakness. You should be willing to give what it takes to achieve success. Many businessmen due to their unwillingness to spend their time, energy and money have failed in developing plans for the growth of their business, and thus, have failed in their business too. Try to avoid distraction that may cause hindrance like your personal financial situation and you will be able to focus on developing plans for the growth of your business and earn more income.

Why You Won’t Sleep Tonight Until You Discover 5 Secrets to Gain New Customers

Is your business growth starting to plateau or stagnate? It’s easy to sit back, take the foot off the accelerator and watch the sales roll in, especially if you are satisfied with how well your business is doing. But keep in mind that if you slack off too much, your competitors will soon catch up and eventually put you out of business.

Marketing your business is even more important than ever if you want to succeed in challenging economic times. Competitors are closing their doors – which means more potential customers for the businesses that do survive. Today is the best time to take steps to revamp your marketing efforts and respond to the needs of your target market. In these times, it’s going to take more than “thinking outside the box” and goodwill with existing customers to secure the survival of your business.

What you need are new and innovative ways to bring attention and profitable sales to your business instead of depending on the “old ways” to get people to learn about you. Here are “5 New & Innovative BE’s” to market you business during challenging economic times. Use these little known ways to increase your market share and watch your business soar.

1. Be Resourceful – It’s Not Stealing, It’s Called “Market Research”

Steal, don’t invent your success from scratch! Watch what other successful companies do – take their innovative ideas, adapt them to your own business and then apply them.

For example, even small or mid size businesses can benefit from carving out a unique image for their vehicles (whether you have 1 car or 100). Think of how quickly you recognize a yellow taxi cab, an emergency vehicle, a Linfox truck. All of these well known icons have been developed because of necessity, purpose and design. You don’t need to spend $1000 to make your branding impactful and memorable either – stickers, magnetic signs and personalized license plates can start from as little as $150. On an average day commuting back and forth to work in traffic, how many vehicles do you think you might see? Statistics indicate that in a busy city like Melbourne, the average commuter is exposed to 5000+ vehicles/hour. That’s 5000+ opportunities to get your brand and contact details out there for very little cost. Can you afford not to try it?

Do yourself a massive favour and STOP concentrating on selling 1 thing to 1 person. What can you do right now to sell your product/service in bunches or bulk? If you are a bookseller, look for opportunities to form alliances with schools, book clubs or companies to generate large orders or group sales. Coaches and trainers may want to consider holding workshops and seminars to increase their leverage and reach. Even if you are in the dry cleaning business, you could arrange to stop by a corporate office on Friday to pick up a pile of orders and then deliver the clean, pressed garments on Monday. I don’t care what business you are in – if you can sell to one person (or business), you can make more money for virtually the same time and effort selling to 10 or 100 people (or companies). Think about it – thinking BIG and selling BIG is the best use of your time.

You may even want to go so far as to consider bribing a “significant other” in order to attract a new, dream client or get in front of a key decision maker. If there is a person that you really want to meet but you can’t seem to get your foot in the door to have an appointment with him/her, you may want to get resourceful and win the backing of a key motivator – i.e. the producer of the radio host’s show, the spouse of the client, the EA (or right hand) of the decision maker etc. Find out what that person likes – whether it’s chocolate, flowers or tickets to a sports event or music concert – and use it to build a relationship and get your foot in the door with the endorsement of this influencer. You will find it pays huge dividends to be sincere and generous!

2. Be Partners – I’ll Scratch Your Back, If You Scratch Mine

This strategy follows along the same lines as what we just discussed above. Question – if given the choice at a networking function, would you rather find one potential customer or a strategic alliance that could help you win 10 customers?

This is not a trick question – of course you would rather develop a relationship with a complementary business or strategic partner who can recommend or refer you to many customers. But how many of you go to events and spend the majority of the time talking about what you do and trying to sell your products/services to anyone who will listen? You only have one mouth and two ears – the key to getting the best result and really growing your business is to use each in the correct proportion. Spend at least 2/3 of the time asking questions and really finding out (1) what is important to the other business and (2) who their customers and suppliers are. Great companies develop great people who really know how to listen. Unfortunately in most prospecting or networking conversations, both people are just waiting for the other person to finish! If you are not listening, you are likely missing opportunities and buying signals.

Be patient and persist – sometimes the synergies are not immediately obvious. I was at a networking event myself last year and met a woman with a small IT company. On the face of it, our businesses really had very little in common. However, after chatting for some time I discovered that one of her suppliers was a company that I was very interested in working with and she also had many contacts (from her previous career in HR) that could be extremely beneficial for my business. She also revealed that she really needed solid business content for her website and ezines that I could provide very easily, at no cost and with little incremental effort on my part. Always think Win-Win.

The easiest way to find potential partners and alliances is to start off by making a list of all of the businesses that might be interested in working with you. Where else does your ideal customer shop? What other products and services do they need? What are they interested in? Get as many ideas down on paper as you can and then sort by order of priority – write a note on your to do list each week to contact 5 people or businesses from this list to set up a meeting and discuss ways that you can work together to become even more successful.

It may be as simple as having a commission in place for referrals between you or as complicated as providing special pricing to customers on bundled packages of goods. Perhaps you may even want to offer free trials of your product to the best customers of your new alliance? This may make perfect sense if the acquisition cost of a customer is high in your industry or if you are looking to break into an established market where there are well known players who dominate the market.

When looking for potential partners, contemplate:

o Businesses in your same industry

o Businesses that sell items that naturally go along with what you are selling

o Businesses that sell similar items but do not compete directly with you

There are an unlimited number of options available – the ways that you can work together and produce a mutually beneficial result are limited only by your imagination. Consider:

o Giving out promotional materials on behalf of your partner with every sale

o Trading existing customer and mailing lists

o Selling your products cooperatively

o Holding a closed door sale or VIP night where both companies cooperate to offer excellent value and enticements

o Linking to each other’s websites

o Offering tickets to a joint workshop or seminar

o FREE trials/demos to best customers on each other’s database

o Combining sales teams or shipping on bulky items (or items that go out each month)

o Press releases out to media or best customers about how you are working together to make it easier/better for your customers

o Coalition loyalty (giving great value back for purchases by customers across multiple brands)

o Writing a joint newsletter or combining materials into a book or audio file that customers can get for free

Remember to do your due diligence and thoroughly research your potential partners online and offline. Google searches are an excellent way to get a preliminary feel about your potential partners and it will also reveal how committed they are to promoting themselves and growing their business.

3. Be Out There – Master PR & Social Media

A good press release should be between 200 and 400 words. Less is more. The priority is to give only enough information to whet the appetite of the reporters and entice them to contact you to for the main course.

Most make the mistake of thinking that a press release is the opportunity to give every conceivable fact and overload the media with data. A press release is really just an elevator pitch–something you could comfortably say to someone in about 30 seconds. You wouldn’t dream of giving a three-hour lecture in order to get someone’s phone number at a bar. Similarly, you don’t need a 1,000-word press release to get booked in a newspaper or on a radio show. Keep it short, news worthy and intriguing.

The story should be about how what you do/sell relates to something newsworthy or will help the audience to fix an annoying or costly problem once and for all.

Did you know that most individuals and businesses are posting press releases purely to boost website traffic? A press release is much more than just a way to get media attention and free editorial. It can also be a great way to increase the organic traffic you get from Google and other search engines. The online press release services focus time and money on search engine optimization and rank extremely well in search results. You can literally piggyback all of this for next to nothing! All of these links create more ways for your potential customers to find you PLUS you receive the added bonus of appearing to be the expert in your field. You can literally receive thousands of visits to your website, without paying a dime on advertising.

Aside from organic traffic, search engine optimization has the potential to produce radio and TV bookings months after your release is sent out and long after you have forgotten that you even sent it! Think about it, a busy, overworked journalist, booker or producer may search on Google for “self sabotage experts” only to find your well-written, opinionated and informative release appearing on the first page – and a direct link to your website!

In addition to the above, social media and viral marketing are the latest phenomena to generate massive exposure and rocket people/companies from relative obscurity to international fame. If you are not involved (or don’t even know what I am talking about), you need to seriously assess your commitment to your business. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, MySpace, Linked In, blogs etc. are just some of the many ways to build your community and get the “word out” globally about what you do, your products and services, for little or no cost.

In my experience working with the Top 22 brands in this country, 90% of their customers lived within a 10km radius of their office/store. However, the biggest competitor to almost every single one of these businesses was the internet – not another physical location or office. Yet most companies focus on marketing to a set pool of customers. They fall into a fatal trap of doing mail drops and advertising in local newspapers to customers within a certain distance from their store. There is a huge fallacy in this level of thinking – if 20,000 people live within 10km of your business this year, you can bet that the same 20,000 (or similar group) also live within the same radius next year. You are effectively marketing to the same group of people over and over again but you are not reaching many new customers or addressing your #1 competitor – the internet.

Your customers are online right now looking for various goods and services and they are watching the YouTube videos, Facebook profiles and blogs about your competitors. If you continue to ignore the power and reach of the internet, you will do so at your peril. If you want to build a successful business and prosper despite what is happening in the global economy, you need to educate yourself on what is available and what will work best to build relationships with your potential customers. Many of these mediums deliver audio and video right to the computers of your customers – what better way to make a good, personal first impression?

And don’t make the mistake of thinking that the Baby Boomers and retirees are not online. A recent national study showed that this demographic was one of the fastest growing consumer segments in online research and purchases for travel, insurance, health care and several other categories. No matter what business you are in, someone somewhere is selling a similar product/service online and is capturing the trust, interest, permission and sales of your potential customers. When is NOW a good time to do something about it?

4. Be Direct – Ask For Referrals

Chances are your best customers hang around with or know other [potential] best customers. Asking for referrals is the best way to capture opportunities and acquire new customers that have the ability to become best customers.

And speaking as someone who knows, the best way to encourage a customer to refer new customers to you is to offer a referral bonus. Do not fall into the trap of blindly offering them a $20 bonus, 15% off or free merchandise for every new sales lead. The key to preserving the relationship and building the lifetime value of your existing customer is to give them a valuable offer (if possible) on a product they do not already purchase from you. Giving them a discount on what they would already buy erodes your profitability on existing sales. This is not a good strategy for you in the long term.

You want to increase their business with you by introducing them to additional products and services that they could buy from you. The key is to identify something that is of value and give them an irresistible offer. Make it easy for your customer to refer others to you – keep your offer simple and concise. Consider holding a special by-invitation only event where they can bring a friend and remember to follow up with a hand-written thank you note and their bonus in a timely fashion. Statistics show that a simple, personalized thank you (with no actual offer) has the potential to increase sales by 12-18%!

In my experience, this simple and effective strategy is overlooked by about 90% of businesses. This is by far the most lucrative and cost effective strategy to get new customers. If you are not doing it, you are likely missing out on about 20-25% of sales from top [potential] customers. Can you afford to continue throwing money out the window on mass advertising when you are not doing this 1 simple strategy that could cost you less than $1/customer?

It is not enough to casually ask your customers to come back and bring their friends – you need to put it in writing and make it worth their while. You are essentially asking them to sell your business for you and they will gladly do it, if you reward and thank them for their effort.

5. Be Unique – Do What Others Don’t

Stop right now and make a list of everything that you (and your competitors) do not do for your customers. Next, I want you to start asking customers what they want. If you want to succeed you will take a good hard look at both of these lists and find a way to do whatever it takes, for as long as it takes, to win customers and keep them. Those who are unwilling to do this will never build a truly successful business. End of story.

I had a couple come to me once for advice and coaching – both the business (they were partners in a retail shop) and the relationship, were at the breaking point. The husband said to me “I don’t understand it. I do everything humanly possible for my wife and she doesn’t appreciate me and I don’t think I can possibly do anything more to satisfy my customers – they are never happy and always want more.”

My answer to this age old dilemma is simple and it applies to both relationships and business. “Sounds like you may be doing a lot. Too bad it’s everything BUT what your partner and customers want.”

Let’s take a moment of silence now to contemplate the obvious implications of this poignant story for your own business…

I don’t really care what you are doing or how hard you are working. There is no prize for volume or quantity here….what counts is quality. Are you giving your customers what they want and are you willing to do whatever it takes to give them what they want? More of the “same old same old” is not going to differentiate you from the pack, build trust, win customers and grow a business.

Take some time today to really think about what you offer and how it could be improved (either simply or via a complete overhaul) to revolutionize your business. If all of your customers were to leave today, what would you need to do in order to attract new customers? Consider:

o Everyone loves a freebie – can you offer a free trial or sample?

o Do you offer a guarantee that takes 100% of the risk out of trying your product?

o Is someone (who is respected) willing to endorse your product/service?

o Are you on the cutting edge of technology – are your products/services able to better fulfil a need or fix a problem?

o Do you make it easier than your competitors for customers to buy from you?

o Can you offer free installation or maintenance?

o Is there a unique way to introduce what you do to prospective customers – without all the pressure of a typical sales meeting?

o Can you offer free upgrades or special financing terms?

o Can you negotiate other products/services for your customers at no charge?

o Can you create a sense of community for your customers that will be perceived as valuable?

o Do you incorporate customer feedback into your product improvements or customer service standards?

o Do you offer free training, manuals and assistance?

o Does the relationship with your customer begin or end with the sale itself?

o Do your team members believe in the product and are they willing to go the extra mile for your customers?

At the end of the day, price is never the determining factor. People will always be willing to pay a fair price for a superior product and for the peace of mind that comes with excellent service and a strong guarantee. If you solely focus on having the lowest price, it will eventually put you out of business. Take stock of what the competition is not willing to do and what your customers want most from you. Do something unique – listen and be willing to do whatever it takes to deliver what they want. Anything less, is simply a lot of time, energy and money wasted on all the things that don’t really matter.

Facebook Presentation Secrets for Social Media

Facebook Presentation Secrets for Social Networking.

Presentation is all about what your visitor sees first (usually an image and/or video) on Facebook and social networking. Scrolling through the feed content, your social media post must attract attention. Therefore, a featured image or video thumbnail of the required dimensions and file size is of paramount importance.

Learn how to create curiosity with presentation in social networking and on Facebook. Know what your audience on social media is looking for. There are 3 basic requirements to meet the criteria. Address an identified need within your niche on Facebook and social media. Offer a solution and create curiosity.

Your content must do the talking and consistent posting on Facebook. But we will get around to consistent posting with Facebook and social media later in this article. Done with an exceptionally well designed auto posting tool.

Timing Strategy for Social Media and Facebook.

Consistent posting needs timing and strategic writing with attention grabbing presentation. Therefore, it will require a few days and even weeks of sharing posts to establish optimized engagement time. That is why I mentioned the auto posting tool for social networking and Facebook. Which you will have access to shortly.

To target the right audience on Facebook and social media you post at times when audiences are most active. If you want to target a United States audience for instance, then search Google for the time zone. Then calculate the time you must post to social media and Facebook from your location.

Posting to Facebook and social networking at the wrong time can be devastating from a marketing point of view. Because your audience you wish to target may be sleeping. Therefore, all that presentation work just goes down the social media and Facebook feed in hope of some hits.

Creating presentations (posts) that will keep your visitors occupied is the whole point to posting on social networking and Facebook. Therefore, posting at the wrong time completely defeats the purpose. You have 2 powerful free tools, Google, and YouTube. Learn the secrets of how and what to do research on.

Creating Content for Facebook and Social Media.

Text position for social networking and Facebook post featured images are important for presentation. The key is consistent content and presenting your message in a timely and curios fashion. With social networks and Facebook, timing and presentation is crucial.

The image displayed with your post being it social networks, Facebook, or blog post. Will be cropped from the sides for mobile content display. Avoid creating “broken message” presentations this way with your writing and designing. Text focused to the sides of images will be cut off.

Although for social networking and Facebook posts our goal with text position is focused more on creating curiosity. Again, leveraging presentation and what your visitor sees first is the secret. URLs shared must be from your own blog, YouTube videos and/or bridge and landing pages. But never an affiliate link.

Social media and Facebook does have quite a few “hoops” to jump through. Like adding hashtags for instance. Because you are preparing your presentation (post) to share to selected Facebook Groups. The list of Facebook Groups I personally use will be available at the end of this article.

For knowing which hashtags are currently trending on social networking and Facebook, you can use a tool called (hashtags dot org). First you need to get to know your way around creating content consistently for social media and successful presentation.

Secrets for Social Networking and Facebook Posting.

The secrets of using emojis for social media and Facebook post presentations come highly recommended. Draw your visitor’s attention to the presentation by making it colourful. Create interesting 1 – 3 sentence posts. Make those first few sentences powerful and “need” specific.

But also use your free Facebook posting tools to add H1 and H2 headers to your presentations (posts). To focus your presentation on the H1 and H2 headers, add hashtags at the end of your presentation. Because then your H1 Header is the first text in your social media and/or Facebook post.

Adding headers however is only available when you do manual posts in Facebook groups. But it is a great way to make your presentation easier understandable by both your social media audiences and search engines. Remember to include your target keywords in the presentation (post) headers.

Use emojis to replace words in the text for Facebook posts, triggering curiosity. Use Bold and Italic text to highlight focus points as demonstrated above. And remember that all these social media presentation techniques can be accessed and leveraged 100% for free! All you need is to be a little creative really.

You can also ask your friends on Facebook if your post draws attention. Listen to people’s opinion and adjust accordingly. Remember, with social networks and Facebook our primary objective is to create curiosity through presentation. Because as mentioned earlier, the only secrets are presentation and timing!

Bridge Pages for Social Media and Facebook.

The fact that Facebook will not ban or block Google links, give us the upper hand from an affiliate marketing point of view. Google sites is an outstanding method to create consistent social media and Facebook posts. A Google site is a custom URL, and the slug can contain your target keywords.

But we will get to writing SEO friendly content and backlinks for the bloggers here a little later in the article. Keep reading, these social network and Facebook presentation secrets are rather simple to follow. You have 3 options for Bridge Pages with affiliate marketing on Facebook.

1. CB Pro Ads

2. One Page Profits

3. Clone Me

With Google sites all the work is on you, from writing to creating images. It is your job to create striking presentations for social media and Facebook. With the remaining 3 tools, all the bridge pages are done-for-you. You do not need to create any content or write anything except linking your affiliate networks.

We are creating Goole Sites and using Bridge Pages because sharing raw affiliate links will get you suspended on social networks and Facebook. Social media marketing is all about bridge pages, landing pages and funnels.

But for the purpose of this article. We are only going to focus on bridge pages for social networks and Facebook. And generating sales with affiliate marketing through this technique. Leveraging social networking, social media along with writing and media design secrets.

Secrets to using Google Sites for Facebook.

The secrets to using Google sites for social media and Facebook presentations is almost an unfair advantage. On second thought, no, not almost. It is an unfair secret advantage, especially once you get the hang of SEO. Because SEO is just the ability to best tell search engines what your content is about.

Share with Groups on Facebook but with different text on each share. But before you do there is one paramount requirement with regards to your presentation. Your Google Site URL will select a particular image on your Google site as social media post presentation image.

The question is, which “secret” image is automatically selected for social media and Facebook? And the answer is, the Google site logo. And a good, suggested dimension is 940 x 788 / 950 x 650. These presentation images can be created with Microsoft Paint or Canva for social media and Facebook.

But there are also a few great SEO techniques we will discuss under the last subheading. Keep reading and learn a lot about content creation, social media, Facebook, writing and presentation. You will be blown away by the traffic potential with social media and Facebook.

Apart from link building, strategic keyword placement in titles are important. But so is the first 2 – 4 lines of your Google site content. Much the same as the requirements for a great post on social media and Facebook. All part of the secrets to presentation and creating curiosity.

Get More out of Social Networking and Facebook.

Multiple social network profiles (pages, groups, spaces, communities) play a major role with presentation secrets for social media and Facebook. Especially Facebook pages because you get to leverage the call-to-action button. Which then redirects to a bridge page, Google site or landing page.

Audience engagement with Facebook is great for building reputation. Adding presentation secrets to the mix and creating curiosity makes success imminent. The more active and consistent you are the more visible you will become.

So, the secrets to getting the most out of social networks and Facebook. Focus on quality content and presentation, along with consistency and engagement. It is a lot of work to stand out on the internet, especially on social media. Because it had become rather crowded with marketers chasing the quick buck.

Always be real and do not make everything you offer on social networks a sales pitch. In fact, if your presentation creates enough curiosity, you will never have to sales pitch again. Ever. Commenting and offering solutions without any sales pitch and/or URL is another secret to build recognition on Facebook.

Be sure to get known as “the guy who helped” instead of the guy trying to sell something on social media. When people on social networks and Facebook recognise your knowledge, you will be unstoppable. Growing your audiences through presentation secrets and knowledge.

Secret List of Groups for Facebook Presentations.

Giving you 11 of my favourite secret Facebook Groups with social media that will drive a lot of traffic to your posts (presentations). Because we are looking at a total group member count of 1 824 800. Almost 2 Million Members! But that is just the tip of the traffic iceberg with social media and Facebook!

Make Money Online (151.6K Members)

Make Money Online Club Australia (193.3K Members)

Earn Money Online USA – Canada – Australia (85.3K Members)

Affiliate Marketing – Worldwide (335.3K Members)

Make Money Online Club (218.5K Members)

Affiliate Marketing Work – Worldwide (222.3K Members)

No1 Online Earning Community (245.6K Members)

Advertise Business and Make Money (69K Members)

Affiliate Marketing for Everyone (163.4K Members)

Unlimited Advertising + (80.2K Members)

Network Marketing Pro (60.3K Members)

Remember to follow the presentation and design secrets in this article. You will soon master the art of leveraging social media and Facebook for traffic. Getting unlimited free traffic can be done, but it is hard work. And unfortunately, there are no shortcuts. Competitive presentation requires maximum effort!

Establish the right time to post your presentations (Google Sites) on social networks and Facebook. And post only one post per day to each Facebook group. But read the group rules and understand what is allowed. Spamming and over posting is not a good idea. The secret is to build an audience over time.

Bonus Traffic Technique with Facebook Pages.

Leveraging Google sites and the call-to-action button with Facebook pages for social network traffic. One important thing to remember is that for everything we discuss in this post. There is probably a Google article and/or YouTube video that will show you exactly how it is done.

Therefore, just search your browser or YouTube for a video on how to use the call-to-action button with Facebook pages. Then follow the steps and redirect the call-to-action button to your landing page. Like a Google site or bridge page that must then redirect to your affiliate offer.

Using the post scheduling tool mentioned earlier is a fantastic way to build Facebook audiences. And eventually they start clicking on the call-to-action button. That is why interesting content with curios presentation is the secret to social media. Give people reason to want to like and follow your content.

Insider Secrets to Investing in Real Estate in Nicaragua

The word is out: “Nicaragua is the new Costa Rica” but with prices 45-55% lower than its southern neighbor. Nicaragua is well and truly bouncing back from its troubled and often misunderstood past and beginning to transform into a sought-after investment and tourism destination. Misconceptions still persist, but in many ways that only increases the opportunity that Nicaragua offers.

Nicaragua’s democratically elected government is showing a great capacity to reform in line with its commitment to a free-market economy. The country is booming and tourism is now the number-one industry, increasing by over 19% in 2005 even considering a record-breaking year in 2004. There is a real buzz in the air for this land of opportunity. Whether you are looking for a retirement or vacation destination, a place to start a business or a place to invest for the future, Nicaragua is definitely worth considering.

How much is good real estate information worth?

Market knowledge based on fact and base trends, rather than exaggeration and hype (in both directions) can make the difference between a good investment and a great one. The aim of this article is to capture the essence of the successful real estate investor in Nicaragua. We have consolidated the experience of hundreds of investors and identified seven success strategies for successful real estate investing in Nicaragua.

We hope that this encourages more investors into taking the first step in exploring real estate opportunities outside their home countries with confidence. Although imbued with a Nicaraguan flavor for the purposes of this article, many of the principles and steps highlighted in this article will also hold true in other investment destinations and contexts.

Seven success strategies for real estate investing in Nicaragua

1. Understand the link between tourism and real estate

Tourism brought in almost $200 million in 2005, according to the Nicaraguan government, more than any other single industry in its $5 billion economy. Current projections indicate that by 2007 there will be more than one million visitors to the country. The profile of visitors has shown a marked shift from budget tourists to more affluent and sophisticated travellers and higher-end hotels in tourist areas show consistently high occupancy.

There is strong relationship between leisure and vocational markets and the market for second homes and retirement homes. The areas attracting the most tourism are also generating the greatest levels of real estate activity. For certain real estate products, the link between tourism and real estate is particularly direct and immediate. Pelican Eyes…Piedras y Olas the highest quality hotel in San Juan del Sur, boasting occupancy levels well above industry standards since it opened, offers the possibility for investors to purchase a villa or duplex unit and participate in the revenues generated by the hotel.

2. Know where you are in a property cycle

Nicaragua has seen considerable price rises in the past few years. We have calculated percentage price changes for serviced lots between 2002 and 2005 for seven well known real estate developments on the Pacific that have been active over this period (most developments are more recent) and are still selling property. Over this period prices have risen by an average of 87%. Unimproved colonial homes in Granada have been rising by around 25% per year for the past three years. These price rises indicate that Nicaragua is now on the map as an investment destination, the positive price trend has started, but we are only just seeing the beginnings of a “second wave” of investors: the pre-retirement and retirement market.

Speculators still make up a considerable proportion of investors but an increasing number of pre-retirement / retirement and second home buyers are emerging. Much has been made of the ‘baby boomer’ generation when analyzing future buying trends in many markets worldwide. Baby boomers began turning 50 in 1996 and 78 million of them began to enter their period of highest earnings and greatest discretionary dollars. It is said that over the next 20 years the baby boomer generation will likely constitute the largest potential market ever for real estate products, especially second homes and timeshare/fractional ownership offerings.

The real estate product on offer has also evolved from simple lot sales (sold mainly to speculative buyers) to turnkey products with sophisticated facilities and services for longer term investors and the retirement market. A consistent growth in condominium constructions and sales has been evident for 18 months and is accelerating.

3. Follow trends not events

The bulk of foreign investment into the real estate and tourism sectors in Nicaragua is focused on the south-western part of the country. To take the Pacific coast as an example, in conjunction with Calvet & Associates, we have catalogued over 70 developments on the Pacific marketing to foreign buyers between El Transito and the Costa Rican border. The south-west of the country also includes the colonial town of Granada, Lake Nicaragua and the beautiful Laguna de Apoyo crater lake.

A number of investors are seeking out areas where there is less activity, for example beachfront areas further north. The prices may be lower in the northern part of the coastline – but for a reason – and it is important for investors to take this into account before they make an property purchase. The south western coastline has more dramatic geography, whiter sand beaches, richer biodiversity, better surfing, safer swimming areas and cooling lake and ocean breezes and, yes, also more recently investor momentum. This is not to say that there will be no price appreciation and development on beach areas further to the north but that a significant price differential will likely remain into the future.

4. Build a good network

Investors commonly complain of an overload of market information and building a good network will allow you to triangulate and contextualize information that you receive. Not surprisingly, given the excitement about the real estate market, there is a great deal of story telling and exaggeration that goes on. Do your due diligence, work with realtors who know the market, learn from professionals and be skeptical about claims that you can flip your property for 100% more “when the International Living investors come into town in a few weeks.”

A solid piece of advice is to buy only what you see. Make up your mind on what you think the inherent value is of the property that you are looking at is. Don’t factor in the “new coastal road” the “new airport” the “new Marriott” into the price. Certainly not if you are investing for the short term. Coldwell Banker Nicaragua has a network of lawyers, project managers, master planners and investment analysts who have a long track record of advising investors on real estate acquisition and development in Central America – these are independent third parties who can provide un-emotive grounded advice.

5. Due diligence everything

More specifically, retain competent legal representation and take out title insurance. Nicaragua has a particularly complex title history and some buyers who have not looked deeply enough into the title history of purchased property are now mired in difficult legal problems. A number of real estate developers try and persuade buyers to use their own legal team for property purchasing. Our advice is to employ independent legal advise at least to review (if not draw up) the purchase contract you are signing and check the title history on the property.

Coldwell Banker Nicaragua recommends investors to take out a title insurance policy. Other realtors do not recommend title insurance as the due diligence that ensues can slow down the purchase process and raise difficult questions. Seeking title insurance will force your lawyer to delve many years back into the property history of the property you are purchasing and follow a set of criteria in their reporting. If you are buying raw land parcels outside of a development your due diligence list needs to be longer and will cover infrastructure issues, environmental issues and development permits.

6. Invest with a confidence, develop with a conscience

This is the strap-line of the Nica Dev campaign run by Donn Wilson a developer, entrepreneur and surfer who has made San Juan del Sur his home. Nica Dev recognizes that real estate investors are entering into another country and have an obligation to respect the land, the people and the environment. When you arrive in Nicaragua the impression that you get is of a warmhearted nation that is welcoming to international visitors. In order for this warm feeling to endure into the future, local Nicaraguan also need to benefit from the real estate and tourism activity that is going on in the country.

Las Fincas, a development aligned with the Nica Dev campaign, is designed with sustainable development principles built in. For example a basic solar power setup is provided for everyone who buys and the project runs a series of active community outreach projects introducing highly effective, yet low-cost and low-tech, solutions for cooking and purifying drinking water. Skills and suppliers for low impact construction with elements such as rain water capture, composting and recycling, hard to find 18 months ago, are now readily available in-country. Coldwell Banker Nicaragua is launching its own campaign to generate funds for the Nica Dev fund as well as other projects that our clients are involved in here in Nicaragua. We will be giving our clients the opportunity to contribute to selected projects at the time of closing.

7. Become and expert in investing in real estate in Nicaragua…before you invest

Coldwell Banker Nicaragua Real Estate has launched a series of concise buyer briefings to help investors interested in the real estate market in Nicaragua in their decision making. The briefings highlight real estate hotspots, analyze market trends and set out good value investment opportunities.

How to Become Wealthy – The Insider Secrets to Become Wealthy

How Can I become wealthy? Many people daydream and even organize their plan of action to obtain wealth. What do the wealthy know, and how can you use that to help you to become wealthy? The fact is majority of people did not create their wealth by buying a lottery ticket, or stumbling across a long lost relative that left them a fortune. Those that created their riches, created it by having the right mindset, and finding the right opportunity to create that life style.

You want to become wealthy; it all starts with evaluating your values, and up bringing. Most of us were geared from a young age to believe you go to school, get a degree and find a job. What is wrong with this philosophy, it is the rule of thumb we all use, but ever wonder why a small population is wealthy. Education is critical in all markets of life, but most will not teach you how to create a rich life style. They will not give you the critical elements and teach you how to build a business to create your own wealth. You don’t hear of a Wealth Building Class, on the high school class list, your core values start as young as pre-school. You can see the challenge with many to start thinking and creating that millionaire mindset.

Become Wealthy – Your Action Game Plan

You have to work on your core values. The rich did not become rich without stepping out of the ordinary. They stepped out of their safety zone, and got rid of the nine to five rule. Majority of the high income brackets are not working for someone else rather they are creating their own businesses, their own products and services to prosper.

Your Action Guide To Become Wealthy

1.) Wealth Building Mindset Change – It all starts with you, and your thought process may have to change a little. This is not often an easy task; as for many they have the work ethic of a nine to five job. What the rich know is that majority of the time that job is not going to make you rich. Start saying today, that I want to stop working for someone else and want to make a change to improving mine. Understand as of this moment the only one in charge of your financial situation is you.

2.) Where Do The Wealthy Start From – Some were born with a silver spoon in their mouth, but there is not since crying over the fact that the silver spoon was not in your cards. Think of some of the top millionaires, usually Donald Trump, trumps the list. What does he do, how did he create his millions? If you examine the trends you will notice the majority of the wealthy, are entrepreneurs.

3.) Where You Are And Where You Want To Be – Okay nine chances out of ten what you are doing now is not working. Where are you now, is their open possibilities in your position that you are not exploring. What do you have to change in order to become wealthy? Now most are going to fire their job, until they are showing real profits and change. But maybe it is time to look in different directions.

4.) Internet Wealth – Becoming an entrepreneur and starting a successful business was more difficult years ago. In modern times there are more platforms and avenues to create your wealth. The worldwide web, and Internet Business start-ups are changing people’s financial services. Compared to starting a bricks and motor business, there are lower start up with higher returns. For thousands each the Internet Business, or home based business industry is giving many a road map to success, without large overhead, and large set up fees.

5.) Online Mentoring and Coaching – Anybody who is wealthy did not achieve those results without finding a mentor and training platform. This is not the type of training you can get in school, rather life methods and business building methods needed to create wealthy. In order to obtain your wealthy you need to align yourself with successful people. Seeking out a mentoring or coaching team to teach you how to build a successful business, and how to get that business to start creating your wealth is critical.

6.) Take Action – The wealthy did not just sit on there hands and wait for the day there life changed. They started to take action steps to become wealthy. Start researching different avenues. Start researching Internet Business, look for a mentoring team that can teach you how to build a successful business.

If you want to become wealthy it has got to start with you. The formula to changing your lifestyle goes beyond wishing and wanting for a better life, it goes toward changing your thought process, and then aligning yourself with successful people and getting the right training towards reaching your goals. The first step to become wealthy is to step out of your safety zone, and reach for those goals. Are you meant to become wealthy, I do not know and neither will you unless you start changing your mindset and breaking out of your safety bubble to seek your own wealth.

5 Insider Secrets To Starting The Best Home Business

There are so many home business ideas, how can you choose the best home business? If you want to know how successful home based entrepreneurs generate a comfortable income, here are 5 secrets that you can use to create the best home business to suit you.

1. You’re Online.

Without a doubt, the best business to start in 2015 has to be on the internet. Not only are the set up costs considerably lower than a conventional bricks and mortar business, but your business can reach customers from all over the world. It can be open for business everyday, 24/7 and be working for you even when you are sleeping.

2. You Don’t Have To Create Your Own Products.

One of the reasons why an online business is the best home business is that you can sell other peoples’ products without having to buy them yourself first and have money tied up in stock. In fact, the product owner will also take care of the product delivery, the customer queries and the payment system. This business model is called affiliate marketing and when somebody buys the product from you, the product owner pays you a commission.

3. You Provide Something Of Value For Free.

Most people who visit your website will not come back. But if you can email them useful information about your products and services after they have visited your website they may buy from you in the future. To get their email address you have to give them something of value in exchange that is relevant to your product or service. This could be a free report or eBook. If you are working with a good affiliate marketing program, they will provide you with the resources that you can give away for free.

4. You’re Always Expanding Your Customer List.

To create the best home business online, building your list should be your number one task everyday. Remember that once you have a prospect’s email, you can contact them anytime you want, for free. That’s not to say you should bombard them with emails trying to sell them something everyday. Email marketing is about building a relationship with your subscribers so as they come to trust and like you, they will be more inclined to buy from you.

5. You’ve Got Multiple Income Steams

If you just sell just one product with no add-ons or up-sells your customers will not have sufficient options to pick from. On the flip side, if you try and sell too many products you may confuse your customers and they’ll buy nothing. The best home business will have a good combination of relevant products that provide 3 revenue streams, basic one-off direct sales income, recurring income, and high ticket income.

Internet Marketing – Uncover 5 Secrets to Breakthrough in Internet Marketing

Making money online will come easy if you know the ropes of internet marketing. Through this, you’ll easily be able to sell any type of products and services and earn amazing revenue in the process.

Here’s how you can breakthrough in internet marketing:

1. Improve your writing skills. Right now, the best way to promote items over the internet is through information base products like article marketing, ezine publishing, forum posting, and blog marketing. Unless you have the money to spare to hire ghostwriters, I recommend that you improve your writing skills. You can easily do this through constant practice, by working closely with some of the great writers in this generation, and by reading relevant online and offline resources to get insider tips and amazing techniques.

2. Define your audience. There is only one way to make your internet marketing strategies more focused and highly targeted and that is to get to know your potential clients on a deeper level. Make some time to spend talking to these people using several internet mediums. You can communicate with them through relevant blogs or forums, invite them when you are hosting free teleseminars, encourage them to email you, and by sending them newsletters on a regular basis.

3. Choose your marketing tools wisely. Although there are so many marketing tools that you can use, not all of them will be able to help you make a sale. You need to choose your marketing tools based on the online behavior of your clients. For example, if they are avid fans of forums and blogs, you can incorporate forum posting and blog marketing on your marketing strategies to easily connect with them. However, if they seldom sign up to free teleseminars, there is no need to include this on your marketing campaign as it will just mean total waste of time and energy.

4. Outsource. If you think that there is no way that you’ll be able to perform all you marketing related tasks, I recommend that you hire some people who can help you out from various freelancing sites. Depending on your needs, you can hire SEO specialists, bloggers, forum posters, ghostwriters, affiliate marketers, etc. Don’t worry as you don’t need to burn your pockets just to get the services of these people as most of them charge as low as $2/hour.

5. Monitor your progress. At least twice a month, analyze the effectiveness of your internet marketing campaign. Compare the results from your pre-set goals. It is through this that you’ll be able to determine if you need to improve on something or if there are other tools that you must use to reach your marketing goals faster.

Creating Website Content – 5 Secrets to Create Website Content and Make Your Site Sell

The most important key you need is…

Having an understanding to why people use the internet -is the key to success…in starting your internet business.

People search the internet for one thing… relevant information -to solve their problems.

This is why the mantra “content is king” is an axiom you cannot ignore-when it comes to building your website.

When you understand this…that information is the lifeblood of the internet…you set yourself apart from your competition. Your success online is guaranteed.

When provide value for your website visitors. Your visitors will love you and trust you because you add value to their lives. The result is you become wealthy and successful because you add value to your market.

There are insider secrets to every business and these 5 secrets are very important to creating website content that makes your site sell.

Here are the five secrets you need to know….

Secret #1 Have a clear purpose for setting up your website and focus on a niche.

When you have a clear purpose for your business, creating content for your website is easy. Identifying your purpose helps you to clarify the overall content and website type-you want to build for your business. This can also be a time for setting your objectives.

Here are some common objectives for setting up website businesses… see if you can identify your own objective

Reputation…you may want to establish your reputation
Lead generation… to build a customer base
Product information to bring awareness to you market of your product
Entertainment if your business is of the entertainment type
Communication if you want to have an online community or membership site
Distribution if your website has free downloads
Revenue or advertising if you plan to build a legacy site and generate revenue from cost per click advertising
Revenue from products if you are going to sell digital products

Whatever your objectives you are better off -clarifying your purpose- before you start creating content for your website.

I call this back-to-future planning. Stephen Covey bestselling author, “seven habits of highly effective people” calls this” beginning with the end in mind”.

Secret#2 Make Your content entertaining and interactive.

When you make your content entertaining and interactive, you make your website stick.

Stick-ability is the key to having a quality website. Studies have shown that the average website visitor spends no more than 2 minutes. And visitors “stick” or stay longer when the content of a website is compelling enough to solve their problems.

Bob Bly, bestselling author and copywriter talks about the bar stool test as a yardstick- to producing engaging content- for your website.

The bar stool test is measured by comparing your content to having a conversation with a friend in a bar.

If your written content will not engage a friend or visitor in a bar or informally, then the possibility of having an engaging content is low.

Another way to see if your content is engaging is to read your written content aloud. See if your written word sounds right in your ears or to a second person. If your content does not sound right to you then you need to revise your content.

Bottom-line you provide valuable content when the content you provide is entertaining, holds the attention of your website visitors. And they come back to read more content on your website

Secret# 3. Provide informative, current, and up-to-date content about what is happening in your niche.

There is a saying amongst stock market traders, “the trend is your friend”. Trends refer to changes in the market place. Political economic or cultural issues could change market behavior.

Your business must be aware of the trends in your target market so you can tailor your website to cater for your customers. By keeping yourself up to date on happenings in your market…you can constantly update your website content to provide solutions and adjust your product offering to your market place.

You also communicate to your customer you care about them.

Secret#4. Give free valuable information in exchange for relationship with your prospects.

The commonest mistake internet entrepreneurs and even well-established companies make is…to think of only making sales to the customer.

This is counter intuitive to how the internet works.Most contact on the internet starts with web surfers looking for information.

You build your credibility when you give visitors valuable information free. Now there should be a distinction between what is free and what you want them to pay for.

Nevertheless, you are going to rate better as being helpful because you gave your customers free valuable information… and they will come back to you again. When you create an opportunity for ongoing contact with your prospect, you increase your chances of selling to the customer

Secret# 5. Seek to build relationship with your content

When your website provides-valuable content. You create opportunity to build relationship with your prospects. You can convert prospects to paying customers.

The key to building relationship with your market is to get them interacting with your content.

The best way to do this is to create a space on your website for comments, feedback. You could set up a forum or online community. One of the best ways to grow your business online is to use the apple model-get your customer to become advocates for your business.

You can only achieve this status when you become the go-to-business to solve the problems in your niche.

The bottom line……

The internet is going to keep on growing and the competition is going to be fierce, customers are going to get more sophisticated.

The good news is you can still tap into the rich opportunities in the coming years.

You can achieve this by providing valuable content that is entertaining, interactive and uplifts your customers. And this still bores down to the axiom-content is king!

Insider Secrets about Corporations: Or, Why Should I Incorporate?

-“Why should I incorporate? I can just do this business as a sole proprietor, right?”

-“Isn’t it complicated and expensive to form a corporation?”

-“I run my business with my spouse, and we have a partnership. Why would we need to have a corporation?”

These have to be the most frequently asked questions that I–and my own financial and legal advisors–get from our clients. The vast majority of people who operate small business or home-based business are sole proprietors or mom-and-pop shop-type partners. Yet, leading authorities on small business estimate that at least 90% of all small business and home business entrepreneurs would benefit from incorporating and using a corporation as an essential component of their overall business structure.

If this is true, why do so many entrepreneurs elect to operate as sole proprietors and general partners anyway? And why would you be better off incorporating?

The answer to the first question is usually either (1)ignorance of the tremendous risks of operating in this manner or (2) lack of familiarity with corporations and other legal entities and the ease with which they can be established. I should add that if the sole proprietorship is perilous, the partnership is more than twice as bad. This is because the partnership is by default a general partnership, in which each partner is responsible for all actions of the company, including decisions made by the other partner in which she did not participate. Now that’s frightening!

To answer the second question, we must first establish what a corporation is precisely. A corporation is an artificial legal entity that is separate from its owner/shareholders in the eyes of the law. The wealthy have learned that there are at least three major advantages that make the corporation an
essential component of your business structure.

1. Asset Protection.

The single most important benefit of the corporation is protection it affords for your personal assets.

The corporation is created when you file appropriate documents–“Articles of Incorporation” in the United States–to the appropriate state legal authorities. A corporation cannot be formed through some private agreement between the parties who elect to form it. It can only come into being by the state in which it is formed creating it, and it has the rights and obligations established by the laws of that state.

Most important here is the notion of the corporate veil–this is the shield that separates your business assets and activities from the private person and assets of the owner/shareholder(s). Because the corporation is a separate legal person, if you are a consultant or translator, for example–or own a small store–and someone claims that that they have suffered injury from your business (say, from a poor translation or a slip on your wet floor), and files a lawsuit, only the assets of your business are in jeopardy. The claimant cannot touch your personal residence or your automobile if these are owned by you and not your corporation.

There are significant differences among individual states and the degree of protection that they afford to the corporate veil. In California, for instance, there are a number of occasions–too many for comfort–in which the corporate veil has been pierced, thus allowing financial predators to seize the personal assets of an entrepreneur. This is almost never happened in Nevada, making it the state of choice for entrepreneurs seeking asset protection.

We will be devoting a separate article to the Nevada corporation in depth in a future issue of this eNewsletter. It is important to note for now that an additional advantage of the Nevada corporation for many is that Nevada has no state income tax. If you use a Nevada corporation to conduct business in your own home state outside Nevada (such as California, our own home state), you may still be subject to state income tax. Because of the superior asset protection afforded by the Nevada corporation, however, it may still be worth while for you to establish a Nevada corporation. Large numbers of entrepreneurs from other countries as well as other states establish Nevada corporations for precisely this reason.

2. The S Corporation versus the C Corporation: Know Which is Right for You

The issue of the personal service corporation only comes up with respect to the C corporation. The other type of corporation is an S corporation, which, like the limited liability company and the limited partnership is a pass-through entity. That is to say that the corporation is itself not taxed as an entity–instead the net income passes through to the shareholders (such as a husband and wife), and is taxed on the individual tax returns of the shareholders/owners.

There are situations in which establishing an S corporation would be preferable to using a C Corporation. If you have significant income from a job, for example, and you anticipate significant losses in early years and you don’t anticipate that your business will earn over $150,000, an S corporation will be your best choice. However, there are limitations on who can be members of an S corporation, and there are limits on employee benefits in an S corporation.

A sophisticated business structure will probably make use of both the C and the S corporation. On the other hand, because of the nature of corporations, you will never want to use either type of corporation to hold real estate. Instead you will want to use a limited liability company or a limited partnership. However, if you are a real estate investor, there might still be room for an S- or C-Corporation in your overall business structure. For example, a corporation could be used to manage your properties held in another entity.

Or–and this is a strategy that could be used for conducting various sorts of business-the corporation could be part of another business entity. For example, if you wish to operate a limited partnership, you will need to have a general partner. But the general partner is responsible for all decisions made and all liability resulting therefrom–the general partner, in short, has unlimited liability. Thus, an intelligent option is to use an S- or C-corporation to be the general partner. This way you have a general partner with the limited liability associated with the corporation.

3. Know How to Manage Your Corporation Properly to Keep the Corporate Veil Intact

Regardless of where you establish your corporation, you will need to make sure that you observe appropriate formalities–otherwise your corporate veil can be pierced very easily, thereby defeating the entire purpose of setting it up. Even if you have an accountant who handles your bookkeeping and tax returns, it remains your responsibility to assure that you are doing this correctly.

This involves holding regular meetings and maintaining minutes in your record book, issuing stock certificates, and other formalities.

The Personal Service Corporation

A final issue that may arise, particularly for independent consultants, translators, and other professionals, concerns the “Personal Service Corporation.” There are two separate categories of professionals who may be affected by this problem: Those, such as lawyers, accountants, psychologists, and health care professionals, who are required by their state laws to incorporate as professional corporations. These corporations are automatically classified by the IRS as personal service corporations.

In addition, the IRS has broadened the definition of “personal service” to include any work, such as translation or consulting, that is personally rendered by the owner/shareholder. This is of particular concern if you are operating on your own as an individual or as a couple. If 95% or more of your earnings come from work in that personal service activity, the corporation becomes qualified as a personal service corporation.

The reason that this is of concern is that a personal service corporation incorporated as a C corporation is subject to a flat 35 percent tax rate and to a lower ceiling ($150,000) for application of the accumulated earnings tax (normally $250,000). However, this is not an insurmountable obstacle to enjoying the benefits of incorporating:

1. First, the other advantages of incorporating still render the C corporation preferable to operating using another structure, such as the sole proprietor. It may be especially attractive if otherwise a high earning couple might be subject to a higher tax bracket.

2. Secondly, it is possible to structure your activities so that more than 5% of the activity is derived from work that falls outside the scope of personal services rendered by the owner/shareholder. For example, a translator or consultant might have a branch of the business involved in network marketing–as a medical professional might have a health food store or other income producing activity–so that the corporation is no longer qualified as a personal service corporation.

As you can see, the corporation is an extremely valuable tool, one that the wealthy have used extremely effectively. If you are operating as an independent entrepreneur and are not using a corporation or the popular alternative of the limited liability company, you are most likely handicapping yourself, limiting your profitability and paying excessive taxes. With the resources that we have available today, especially over the internet, there is no reason that the average individual cannot easily begin to take advantage of this valuable tool. We currently have 3 entities that we formed ourselves and that cost us just the cost of the various resources that we purchased plus the filing fees required by the State of California and postage to get these set up. And we have made sure to obtain the proper forms through the sources we list on our Resources page so that we can maintain the legality of these entities.

“Can’t I wait and start out as a sole proprietor or partner and incorporate later?” we are often asked.

Certainly, if you don’t mind exposing all your personal assets to risk, paying higher taxes, and finding yourself more likely to be subject to an IRS audit. Some people prefer to do things the hard way–but, armed with the right information and resources, there’s no reason why you should have to.

Even if you decide to allow a tax attorney to help you with the formalities, it is better to do so armed with the knowledge you need to judge whether the recommendations she makes are in fact in your best interest.

At the very least, you’ll know enough to head immediately for the nearest exit if any “expert” you consult tells you that you “don’t need” to establish a legal entity to run your business.