Author: Sally Mortonbr
Source: articleage.combr
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Its a dream shared by millions around the world -turning their hobby into a business; actually making money from doing what they love. Its what journalists and authors do when they write. Its what mechanics do when they tinker on motors and get paid for it. Its what artists do when they draw, sculpt, or paint.
When youre in a business that you love – its more like pleasure than work. The difference youll feel leaving working for a living for doing what you love is astounding. Imagine what the person who loves to bake feels when they bring the loaf out of the oven and smell the overwhelming aroma of fresh-baked bread, hear the customer exclaim mmm, and hear the cash register go ka-ching at the same time.
Tiger Woods once said, I get to play golf for a living. What more can you ask for – getting paid for doing what you love.
Back when I began my career, I was skeptical about being able to survive as a writer; because Id heard so many starving writer stories. My first job was as a secretary, but in my personal time, I wanted to research things and write books, articles, poetry, songs—anything. People were always coming to me to write their resumes and speeches, to help with their essays and reports, or to fill out their paperwork. Yet, I was actually in my 30s before I finally got around to believing that my real love and talent—writing—could become a viable career and a business.
Maybe youre one of those people who have discovered that your hobby is expensive to maintain, and youd like a way simply for your hobby to pay for itself. Thats the case of a man I know who loves flying his airplane, looking at all different types of airplanes, and talking about airplanes (this man has miniature airplanes on his second Christmas tree). After retiring from his real job, he merged his work with his hobby, and now he gets paid to manage the airport where he keeps his plane. Many businesses and careers have been started for that reason.
Business savvy individuals and tax attorneys may share with you a semi-guarded trade secret: You can deduct hobby losses from your main income if you can prove the hobby is a legitimate, profit-motivated business. That means you must be engaged in the activity for profit. If you want to go that route, you will need to set your hobby up as a legitimate business with: business cards, a separate set of books, a separate business bank account, advertising, business cards, etc.
You should also make sure to obtain all the required business licenses and permits. For those of you, who love to travel, consider how nice it would be to have your travel and entertainment expenses deducted from your taxes as a business expense. It happens every day, all around the world.
Two great resources for further information are: Home Business Tax Deductions: Keep What you Earn by Stephen Fishman, and Women Biz Mentors, where experienced business women mentor other women who want to start their own business.
You may be someone who engages in your hobby part-time and you accidentally made income from it. Thats how a lot of hobby businesses start too. You sold a friend some outdoor furniture you made in your hobby shop; word got around; and soon, you were making money on the weekends, just because you liked woodworking.
The guy who loves exotic sports cars may broker the sale of a few each year just to support his own passion for cars. Nuts for Cars, one of the businesses I write for, began because three friends were searching for car events to attend one weekend and couldnt find anything in the local newspapers or magazines. Later on, they learned theyd missed a big car show that was near them. So they solved their problem – and in the process, created a viable business—by getting together to create an auto event club and online directory of auto events.
Could it be that Shakespeare was really enlightened when he said:
This above all: to thine own self be true; And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Take a few minutes today to consider what you love to do. Do you find yourself always talking about your hobby or favorite interest? Do other people say youre really good at a particular skill or talent? Whether you use your hobby/talent/passion as a tax shelter; use it simply to make your hobby pay for itself; or use it to make your fortune, it is worth your time to consider making your hobby a business today. Life is too short to spend it in a miserable job if you dont have to, and you give your best to the universe when you operate within the sphere of your primary talent.
Sally H. Morton is Publications Editor and Senior Writer with Partners Online LLC (d/b/a http://www.hobbiesgeneratecash.com and http://www.womenbizmentors.com). An experienced freelance writer, copywriter, and editor, Sally can be reached at sally1@ncfreedom.netbr
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Author: Laurence Abbott
Source: articleage.com

I believe that it’s easier to succeed with small businesses than ever before. There are more opportunities for entrepreneurs to start small businesses today than at any previous time.
Here are some good reasons for why I believe this is true.
A) With the increase in population comes an increase in opportunities for small businesses.
Generally, a sparse population requires a small business owner to provide a wide variety of goods or services to survive. With a denser population, the small businesses can still survive by providing a very narrow range of products or services.
For example, in a smaller population a small business which provides gardening services would probably need to offer many things. Services could include general garden maintenance, planning, tree felling, lawn cutting, vermin control, pond planning and maintenance, hard landscaping etc.
With a bigger population a small business could thrive perfectly well by providing just one of these services, as there are more people who will need it.
B) The costs involved in starting and running small businesses has never been so low in proportion to income.
Technology has replaced many of the things which people used to do, and technology does the job a lot more cheaply.
Today it’s possible to reach literally millions of potential customers around the world very cheaply.
For example, only a few decades ago the cost of mailing to thousands of households was prohibitively high. Unless you had a very good product or service which sold well, a small business just wouldn’t risk it.
Another example, business premises security used to involve security guards walking around checking that all was well. Now a good security system can be bought for less than 1 week’s pay for that security guard, and it will work 24 hrs per day for years, for no pay.
C) Because modern life is so complex today, small businesses and individuals are open to new ideas, products and services like never before.
This creates a huge market for training courses, information provision services, educational aids, specialised products and services, novelties, etc.
With this great diversity come great opportunities to combine different products and technologies, thus making whole new areas of business possible.
For example, you can combine a low-light camera with wireless communications and a bird box. This means a nest may be watched remotely on a television or personal computer screen.
Another example would be to combine voice-chip technology with passive infrared technology to make it sound as though you have a huge dog indoors whenever anyone approaches your house.
In our recent history, these opportunities just didn’t exist.
D) It may not feel like it, but many people today have a lot more leisure time and a higher disposable income than in any previous age.
This spare income (and with the current attitudes to loans, a little more besides) tends to get spent on sports, games, hobbies, crafts, amusements, entertainments, holidays and weekend breaks etc.
This creates many opportunities for the entrepreneur to start up small businesses to satisfy all this extra demand.
E) To thrive in a modern society you need to have a lot of different skills.
Nowadays people cope with a variety of complex tasks. They buy and use a wide range of consumer equipment, fill out many forms, and communicate with all kinds of people from all walks of life (often from different countries and cultures). They also do difficult transactions like house purchasing, and so on.
All this is a long way from the average people who were around just a few hundred years ago. Many were farm labourers who could barely read or write and never travelled more than a few miles from home.
So now, the pool of potential business people is far greater than ever before. If a person can live well in a modern society, they already have the abilities they need to start up a small business enterprise and succeed.
The good news also is that if you lack a certain skill which your small business needs, then you can probably employ someone with that skill far more easily than ever before.
F) More people have access to money than ever before.
Until the late 1960s, most people were paid weekly and spent money as they earned it.
It was normal among manual workers to run right out of money around the time of their next pay packet, which often contained notes and coins!
Today most people have many bank accounts (with overdrafts) and access to credit cards, which alone have spending limits equal to a half or full year’s income.
Savings and share holdings are greater than ever before. A large proportion of the population can raise money on their house and if they don’t mind paying a high interest percentage, they can borrow with no security at all.
A great variety of people and institutions are now willing to lend money for good small businesses proposals.
With access to credit, you can buy the product, ship it to the customer and get paid before you have to pay for the goods which you sold. This just wasn’t possible until very recently.
G) Advice, courses and books about starting small businesses are within easy reach of everyone.
Researching your chosen business area has never been easier with the Internet so readily available.
Not so long ago, you would have needed to buy many books and read them all to get the specific information you required. Now you can ask a search engine very specific questions and get very specific answers, almost immediately.
This frees up small businesses and enables them to be far more productive and enterprising.
H) If you start a small business today you have an immense amount of technology available to you.
Computers, printers, copiers, audio and video recording and playback equipment, telephony and the internet are all easily available to any entrepreneur wanting to get started in a new small business enterprise.
Not long ago, the average multi-national company lacked the computing, communicating and printing power available to the ordinary person today.
You can probably think of at least 6 different ways to get a simple message to someone on the other side of the world. 5 of those messages would typically arrive less than 1 minute after you sent them.
Just 100 years ago, (and remember mankind has been around for about 3 million years) this same message would have involved horses and steam ships and would have taken months.
This massive improvement in technology (especially in communications and information) has really opened up the field to the individual who wants to go ahead with a new small business venture.
I) Small businesses starting up today have far more choices available to them.
In previous times, it was quite common for there to be only a few companies that they could go to, to buy business supplies. Whatever business you care to name, you would not find many suppliers of the materials needed to conduct that business.
Unless your business is in a very specialist area, you will now find you can source your supplies from a great many firms. This in turn drives your costs down, as you can shop around for the best deals.
For example, there used to be very few ways to get your goods delivered to your customers. Nowadays you could chose from literally hundreds of different carriers.
New companies can chose anywhere in the world to set up their small businesses, or indeed where to place any part of their business.
I know of a successful paintball company, which operates in the UK in summer. But when the business falls off due to the cold winter, they find new customers by simply moving the company to Brazil, and then return the following spring.
They also take advantage of the cheaper labour in Brazil to manufacture the paint balling equipment, and when back in the UK use the greater expertise in the UK to program their systems.
Not so long ago this flexibility of operating a small business would have been totally impractical.
Conclusion.
There are far more opportunities to start small businesses than ever before and entrepreneurs who do start new small businesses at home are more likely to succeed.
There are more potential customers, it costs less to start up and you have more choice over the kind of business to go into. Other benefits are a more skilled and educated workforce, and easy access to financial support.
If you do want your own enterprise, you can also use the power of the Internet to carry out good and fast research, and to support your business in many ways. I believe there has never been a better time to start up new small businesses.
Laurence Abbott brings to you an abundance of experience of starting and running small businesses. From hundreds of ideas for small businesses to recommendations for many services, small businesses will profit by visiting 4-Small-Businesses.Co.UK

Author: Jack Krohn
Source: ezinearticles.com

Home security as you probably already know is a huge business. In some respects it makes sense. After all, your home is your most valuable asset. It makes sense then you would spend a fair amount on home security. The opportunity is certainly there to do just that. It can be avoided too.

You can get very good protection for very little money with some brand new cheap home security tools that are effective and easy to use and install. The first is the Glass Guard Window Alarm.

This cool gizmo is an effective low cost vibration alarm that can help in securing windows or patio doors. The Glass Guard can also be used as a personal property alarm to protect computers, TVs, stereos and cabinets etc.

You turn the switch on the left side to ‘high’ or ‘low’ to begin operating (there is a delay mechanism of about 7 seconds). When the glass is hit, knocked or cut by anyone, the siren-a whopping 101db-will sound for 10-20 seconds and then reset.

The unit can be set to high or low sensitivity. ‘High Sensitive’ mode will detect a little vibration. ‘Low Sensitive’ mode will need a stronger vibration to make the unit react. The unit will also perform well on wooden or metallic windows and doors. If the unit is not placed in the middle of the door or window, use ‘High’ mode.

The unit requires 2 AAA batteries that are not included.

The second is the versatile shock sensitive Door Guard Alarm that is ideal for home, office, hotel, or travel. It requires no installation just hang it on any doorknob. Once hung, it instantly detects any vibration. When the alarm is tripped, it will emit a 98dB alert for 20-30 seconds, then will reset in 3-5 seconds.

The sensitivity of the alarm is easily adjusted with a screwdriver. The Door Guard can be removed from the doorknob and used as an area light with the switch in the “light” position. The Door Guard is ideal for keeping you and your loved ones safe from harm.

The Door Guard is compact, making it portable so you can take it with you when you travel. It is ideal for anyone and can be used virtually anywhere. Not sure about that shady looking hotel, but can’t beat the price, feel confident and safe. Uses 2 AAA batteries (not included).

Chances are very good that you are reading this because in some way crime has touched your life or you want to be proactive and protect yourself, family, home, or business from the ravages of crime. That is the first step.

NOW the next step is for you to take action. Do something to take that first step-today.

Jack Krohn owns Security Solutions and is the author of over 400 articles.

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