Empowered Entrepreneur - Becoming a Leader and Building Value Through Knowledge

Another important and critical element of becoming an empowered entrepreneur is your mindset. An empowered entrepreneur must learn to assume the mindset of a true leader. You must become a leader in all aspects and all relationships of your life if you are going to be an empowered entrepreneur. Most of us start as followers. As we study and learn and observe empowered leaders we grow into aspiring leaders. We assume more responsibility and self-reliance. Finally as our knowledge grows and our connection to our inner power increases we step forward as leaders in our own right. It is all mindset and it is real. You cannot fake it. Empowered Entrepreneurs are leaders, not fakers. Spend 10 minutes with an empowered entrepreneur and you'll sense the leadership.

But don't mistake domination and coercion of others as leadership. It isn't. It is how the weak attempt to lead. Empowered entrepreneurs never dominate or coerce any follower. They empower their followers with knowledge and encouragement. They are teachers who care about others and want to help them grow and succeed like themselves. Therefore leaders offer value to followers, which is why they attract followers. Leadership, offering value and attracting people to your energy is a sign of a true empowered entrepreneur.

Skill building and expertise are absolutely a necessity to survive in this industry. Empowered entrepreneurs have an absolute hunger for knowledge. At an empowered entrepreneur's house, you can always spot the entrepreneur because he or she is the one sitting with the family reading while they watch TV. Every empowered entrepreneur has a library full of books, training courses, CD's and DVD's.

One area of particular acumen is the area of marketing and sales. If you want to be an empowered entrepreneur you will be developing your sales and marketing skills immensely. That is because as an empowered entrepreneur you will be marketing yourself, your skill, knowledge and the value you bring to others. This will be the core of your appeal and your success. Be ready to become a master marketer my friends if you are to become an empowered entrepreneur.

So are you ready to begin the journey into empowerment as an entrepreneur? Are you ready to become a leader and help others? Are you ready to devote time each day to learning and honing your skills? These are traits and skills which will distinguish you in your business and attract customers for growth.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/2139985

Job Opportunities For Entrepreneurs - Five Key Components of a Successful Network Marketing System

Of the thousands of jobs offered online, most of which most are frauds, scams, or systems that simply don't work, network marketing is definitely the best option and will give you the quickest means of reaching your financial goals. Not all networking opportunities are created equal, of course, so if you are serious about finding your freedom through an online opportunity, do your due diligence and research very carefully.

Here are Five Key Components to a successful network marketing system that you want to look for (the definitions of these components are by no means comprehensive but they will give you a good outline to follow):

1. Marketing System: Is it proven? Is it easily duplicated? Are there plenty of legitimate testimonials from average people who have been able to plug-in and make it work for them?

2. Compensation: Is there a clearly outlined payment plan? How do you get your money? Who gets paid first, you or the company you work with? (preferably you because then you get your commissions much sooner.) Also, is it pennies per sale or is it a substantial amount with which you could support yourself ? (You want to be sure the money you make is worth the time you invest.)

3. Training: This is huge! Ninety percent of success in the online entrepreneurial world is psychological, the other ten percent is marketing. Now if you have a great mindset, are committed and dedicated but don't have the proper training to direct your energies and efforts into money making channels, you will fail in this business. Be sure the system you choose offers solid, step-by-step, easy to follow training which will give you the platform to personally brand yourself and will ultimately teach you to become a master marketer.

4. Community: You are not in this alone! When you join a good network marketing company, you also join a supportive community of fellow entrepreneurs like yourself. This is powerful! You can learn incredibly from others and their knowledge. Most people in such a community are helpful and eager to share their knowledge with you. Learn to leverage that knowledge to grow personally and in your business.

5. Products: It goes without saying that you want to sell a product that holds value to the customer, and one that you will be proud to stand behind and promote as something that will indeed enrich the life of those who choose to purchase it.

If interested, leverage my research and the information I've learned. Through trial and error, I have found a network marketing system which completely embodies all Five Key Components. If you desire, see if the system is a fit for you, or choose another. Once you find your network marketing company, with persistence and determination, you will soon be on your way to gaining your time and financial freedom!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/2603377

Network Marketing Entrepreneurs Wealth Tip - Trick Yourself Into a Network Marketing Success

Let's agree on something first and foremost: You want to be successful as an entrepreneur and network marketer. Obviously you wouldn't have even glanced at this article otherwise.

But maybe the problem is that, whatever your definition of it is, success seems to be alluding you?

What I want you to do right now is read the next line over again until it imprints in your mind:

There are actually only two REAL reasons that you have not had the succes you want in your network marketing business yet.

1. You are living in quiet desperation...

2. You simply don't have the correct training, information, or knowledge to utilize and succeed with...

There is no one who can truly help you with the first one. That's all up to you. The second one I can help you with and you can also help yourself.

At this point, would it be safe to say that if you DID have the right training, information, and knowledge - and the self motivation - to utilize right now that you WOULD be successful?

Of course you would! It is guaranteed.

There are people out there like me who have dedicated their entire lives to mastering the network marketing industry - including the mindset, marketing, and entrpreneurism that goes along with it.

And do you realize that if you can just find a mentor (I know it seems like an impossible task to do - especially on the internet where everyone seems to hide behind their computers these days), that you COULD and WOULD succeed!

Are you getting excited about that yet? About the fact that there is someone (more than one, actually) who not only will teach you everything you need to know to be successful, but they'll do it for FREE.

And that is the best thing about network marketing is that people help people. You actually can't succeed if you don't help others.

Okay, so I promised to tell you how to trick yourself into success in your network marketing business...This is actually how I personally 'tricked' myself to be successful, and you can copy exactly what I did to become successful too.

Here's how:

Back when I first started my Network Marketing business, it occurred to me that I had no clue how to market online. It also occurred to me that in order to make the REALLY big money, I would need to get my hands on what the top earner's knew- and that the only way to get that was to literally buy it.

Here's the problem, how was I going to trick myself into sitting through hours and hours of training classes? This was originally an issue for me because I seem to

have some impatient 'issues' and it just takes too much time to get the million dollar information from the courses. I wanted results RIGHT NOW.

So here's what I did to trick myself (pay attention now!) It's so easy. And it totally changed my life. This is really all I did and you can do the same:

I told myself, "Okay Eric, you know how some people get really excited and go rent a bunch of movies and watch them all weekend? They spend 2, 3, 4 hours or more watching movies. Well, here is what we are going to do: You are going to be just as excited to watch this million dollar information. And then, I promise you, that you will go be able to live a life of such passion and fun and adventure and service that it deserves to be made into a movie...You'll get to have a REAL life instead of simply watching other people's imaginary lives in movies.

This really inspired me and motivated me to make it BIG time!

And how did it happen? Well, through tricking myself.

I just learned to tell myself a different story about what training courses actually were. I compared them to the exciting release of a new movie.

You see, when you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.

I then remind myself, "There are many people out there who borrow thousands of dollars for college, graduate and get a job they hate until they get laid off, then go out and get another job they hate and start the cycle all over again."

Or, I can spend a little bit of money and a lot of "sweat equity" and learn from a multi-millionaire (not a broke college professor...no offense to any college professors)...and I can come out of that course with real knowledge that will give me a real shot at controlling my financial future, my time freedom, and my deeply - cherished bossless life of independence.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/4395420

Change in Working Capital

Running a business comes with its share of financial responsibilities. Accounting is all about keeping track of every dollar and every last penny. A business without good accounting professionals is bound to fail. Just like a car needs its own engine control unit for monitoring its functioning, a company needs its accounting department. There are various financial constructs and calculations, which are used in accounting to analyze the performance of a company. One of the most important ones is the net working capital of the company. It is closely related to the degree of liquidity that is available to a company for day-to-day operations. In the following lines, you will find an explanation of what is working capital and how to calculate change in working capital of any business.

What is Net Working Capital?

It is essential that the basic concept of what is net working capital be known, before we talk about how to calculate changes in it. It is one of the most basic concept in accounting when it comes to evaluating the financial condition of a company. As the name itself suggests, working capital is the cash available for the daily operations of the company.

The net working capital can be defined as the difference between total current assets of the company and its current liabilities. The current assets of the company include its inventory and accounts receivable, while the liabilities include the accounts payable. Securities and investments are also included in current assets, while current liabilities may also include debt, when calculating the net working capital. Thus the formula for calculating net working capital is:

Net Working Capital (WC) = Current Assets - Current Liabilities

When there is a change in working capital which may happen due to a number of reasons. Either there has been a spurt in the accounts receivable or there is a decrease in the number of liabilities. Analyzing the reason for change will require that you investigate the change in current assets and the amount of liabilities. If you want to look at cash flow, the operating working capital is a better choice as it only monitors the accounts receivable and accounts payable.

How to Calculate Change in Working Capital?

Now that I have explained how to calculate working capital, we can attack the question of how to calculate the change in working capital. I think the method for calculation will be clear after you have seen the above formula for working capital. The change in working capital formula is the same one.

To calculate working capital change in two successive years, you need to calculate the net or operating working capital for both years and simply subtract the second year's value from the first year's amount. For successive years, you must do the same change in working capital calculation.

The change in operating working capital will demonstrate the changes in cash flow, while the change is net working capital, will highlight the macroscopic changes in the fortunes of the company. For example, consider that the operating working capital for year 2009 of a certain company is $90,000, while the successive year sees, it rising to $120,000. Then the change in working capital cash flow will obviously be $30,000, which is good news for the company.

As you can see, calculating change in working capital is a simple exercise, if you have all the data needed for calculation. The total change in net working capital over a few years can reveal the progress made by the company in revenues, as more cash becomes available for its operations. A positive change in working capital of a company is an important indicator of its overall progress, while a negative change in working capital indicates a drop in sales. When comparing the balance sheets of successive years for a company, one needs to monitor this net working capital change. Hope, this article has cleared out all the doubts you might have regarding changing working capital calculation and its significance.

Property Management Fees Explained

Handing over your responsibilities as a landlord to a property management firm, can let you rest easy and devote your time to personal projects. Many of my acquaintances who have properties spread all over the country, find it impossible to personally spare time for managing the day-to-day affairs of a rental property. They find it easy to outsource the entire job to a property management business, which handles everything from looking for tenants to renewing their lease contracts, besides handling day-to-day responsibilities like maintenance. If you are mulling over handing over your rental estate to such a company, the property management fees explained in this article, will provide you with an insight into the overall costs involved.

Rental Property Management Fees Explained

Most firms will provide you with an itemized list of fees that will be charged for the job of managing your rental property. There are some companies that will handle everything from rent collection and tenant search to maintenance and some which will carry out only a part of the job. Depending on the services provided and the property management contract that you sign, the total property management fees will vary. Let us see what are the itemized costs, generally charged as a part of overall rental property management fees, in the following lines.

Advertising Cost
Be it residential property management fees or commercial property management fees, one of the service components is the advertising cost of your property, which may be borne by the management company. To get tenants, your property has to be advertised in newspapers and websites with real estate property listings. Many firms handle this job of advertising for your property and charge you with whatever costs are involved for the same. So expect this to be a part of the contract.

Basic Property Management Commission
Besides the advertising costs, once you hand over a property to a management company, it charges you with a fixed commission, which may be a percentage of the rent you are paid or just a fixed fee. This may range anywhere between 10% to 15% of the total rent you receive or a fixed fee ranging from $100 to $200.

Lease Up & Lease Renewal Fees
Besides advertising for new tenants, you will have to pay extra for lease agreement creation and renewal of the tenant agreement, that is entirely handled by the firm. This may be around $50 to $100 or more, which also includes a finder's fee, in case of new tenants.

Maintenance Charges
Other than the above main components, most firms also handle the day-to-day maintenance of the property. This may include anything from plumbing repair, to cleaning out the property on a daily basis, electric repair, heating system maintenance and other such varied chores. The fees charged for these jobs, will entirely depend on the maintenance tasks undertaken and costs involved. These will be included in your monthly billing. In case of a large property, maintenance costs can be a large part of the total property management fees charged. In case of small properties, these costs may not form such a large component.

The overall property management fees, will be a sum total of all the above itemized costs. Handing over the entire job to a professional management firm will let you free up your time. If you don't want to get ripped off, I suggest that you survey the property management fees quoted by every firm in your area in detail, before choosing one. This analysis will help you make sure that handling over your responsibilities to a property management firm doesn't eat up too much, into your profits.

Financial Planning Process Steps

Whenever we start a new venture, the first thing that we invariably do is planning. And when it comes to finance and business, needless to say, planning becomes an indispensable activity. So what is financial planning? Financial planning can be termed as a process in which financial needs are assessed first, objectives to achieve monetary goals are set (which include investments) and assets and resources are evaluated and ways to increase them are devised. Why is financial planning important? Of course! This is important! This activity not only allows the person to learn about planning his finances but also helps him understand the importance of cash flows and investments that come handy in the most unexpected situations. How is financial planning done? Yes, this is what this article is all about: the financial planning process steps! Keep reading.

Steps in Financial Planning

Financial planning is an integral part of financial management. This activity requires a lot of study and research, before one goes about drawing a plan and implementing it. Not to miss an important point on this subject, risk assessment is an integral part of any planning. So let's understand the key financial planning process steps. Below are the key steps to consider in your financial planning process.

Identifying Financial Needs
The primary responsibility in the financial planning is conducting a need analysis. An investor has a number of needs of which he needs to prioritize the important ones and plan accordingly. The important goals which are preset are, education of children, down payment of a house, health requirements, life insurance and retirement. Following these needs are the means to increase the wealth in terms of cash and property. Also a person needs to have concrete answers for the following questionnaire:

    What are your investment goals?
    How much money do you have for investments?
    Do you invest in stocks, bonds and mutual funds?
    Are your financial needs short term or are you headed for long term financial planning?
    What benefits are expected from your investments?

Gathering Financial Data
Now that you have identified the financial needs, the second step should be to consolidate your financial planning worksheet to understand your cash flow, investments and liabilities. This can consume a day to week's time depending on your needs. Take the help of a financial planner who would help you out with this marathon. The documents needed for this process would include:

    Assets, Liabilities, tax deductions and tax returns
    Balance sheets
    Income and expenditure statements
    Employee benefit plan booklets
    Retirement planning documents
    Wills and trusts
    Insurance policies
    Investment statements
    Brokerage house statements
    Bank statements

Besides, the planner will also require some more data like:

    What is your retirement age?
    What income is anticipated post retirement?
    How would you want your property to be distributed?
    What is the current economy state and where is it headed towards?
    How much inflation can occur in near future?

The planner will also make a risk tolerance assessment of your personal attitude (aggressive, moderate or conservative) towards financial affairs and at the end of the data gathering process, he is bound to get a hang of what is your current financial state and what it will be or can be in near future.

Developing the Financial Plan
Here starts the actual work of your financial planner who has to devise effective means of developing a fool proof financial planning process. Steps to develop the financial plan start with the following:

    Documenting your plan to fulfill protection, health and retirement. Also wealth creation and preservation requirements are included.
    Explaining to you about the pros and cons of every rationale included in the plan (keeping in mind the risk appetite of the investor: you).
    Understanding the tax laws and the financial operative framework of the system.

Presenting the Financial Plan
Once the financial plan is well documented, your financial planner will proofread it and present it to you. In the first round of presentation, you have to study the documentation thoroughly, with your spouse. Take your time, and if you have doubts, jot them down in a list and pass them on to your planner. He will give you clear answers for all the doubts raised and then once you have agreed, the planner will make an implementation checklist. So the next mode of the financial planning is implementing the well documented financial plan into action.

Implementing the Financial Plan
This is a pivotal phase of the financial planning process steps. And also this period takes longer time (approx. 4-6 months) than the previous stages of the financial planning. During this phase, intricate details like tax planning, retirement planning, insurance concerns and estate/property planning are discussed thoroughly. To get a clearance on certain issues, attorneys may be involved for guiding and helping out with certain queries. Quite possible, that at the end of the implementation, your financial plan may have more than 20 recommendations (of which some may be major and strategic). So, it depends on you and your planner as to how you want these recommendations to be incorporated. But yes, your financial plan is now ready!

Monitoring the Financial Plan
Once the plan is on roll, it does not mean that the financial planner is required no more. He has to be retained to provide you with periodic updates on portfolio reviews, insurance updates, investment options, tax planning sessions and changing market conditions. Besides, you need to keep your ears open to the planner's alerts on risks that can possibly crop up due to fluctuating economical conditions.

Hope this article on financial planning process steps was informative! So now, you might have understood the importance of financial planning and also you must have understood personal financial planning process steps! One could say, if the planning is complete, your job is halfway done! So, prepare your financial plans meticulously and reap the financial benefits. After all, every penny invested is every penny earned!

Small Business Grants for Veterans

The Obama administration recently passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 which set aside 787 billion dollars to revitalize the ailing economy. Out of the 787 billion dollars 275 billion dollars have been earmarked as federal government grants. You can avail small business grants for veterans from this sum if you meet the strict eligibility criteria. Financial assistance received through government grants is the best way to fund a business as the money need not be repaid.

The government grants are mostly given to non profit organizations and institutes working towards the betterment of society. The government also provides financial aid to business dealing with renewable energy and energy efficiency solution providers. The Obama government has even set up a task force on veterans small business development to support veterans run and start their businesses.

Small Business Assistance for Veterans

If you are looking for small business grants for veterans then one of the things you could do is talk to the officer with the Small Business Administration (SBA). The SBA has set up the Office of Veterans Business Development and you can check out the location of an office near you on the SBA website. The SBA is also the right place to check for small business grants for disabled veterans and small business grants for women.

Another resource for checking small business government grants for veterans is the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistant (CFDA) website. The website has free details of over two thousand federal assistance programs. The website also has a help desk number which you can call for assistance regarding government small business grants and loans.

The local chapter of the Chamber of Commerce is also a good start if you are looking for small business loans and grants for veterans. They have several funding opportunities and if you fit the eligibility criteria you could qualify for a grant and if not you could check their list of available loan opportunities. They have specific grants like small business grants for minorities and women which you could apply for.

If you have seen advertisements that offer small business financing for veterans for a small fee, stay away as most of the information they offer is available free on the government grants website. If you have identified the grant which best qualifies you from the CFDA website, you can use the CFDA number to apply for that particular grant on the governments grant website.

There are several new funding opportunities under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) which a veteran can take advantage of. The details for these new opportunities is made available by the administration on its government recovery website. The 275 billion dollars worth of grants are set to be made available over a period of ten years with most of them being given out in the first three years.

Another resource for small business loans for veterans are the non profit organizations (NPOs). There are many NPOs who work for the betterment of veterans and their families. The Internet is the best resource for finding an organization which will accommodate your needs. Try organizations like 'Rotary' as they have lot of community development programs under which they could provide financial help for veterans.

The US Department of Commerce has a Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) which is another place for you to check for small business grants for veterans from the minority community. It is advisable to invest some time in researching for grants as the financial reward is well worth the effort.