Raise your hand if you enjoy selling a product or service to friends or acquaintances in social situations.  My guess is that most people find the idea repulsive.  Well, it just so happens, the single most effective sales tactic is face to face encounters; not TV, radio, direct mail or anything else.  When you start a business, you have to put the odds of success in your favor, and that means selling to everyone you know or meet.  The good news is that there is an approach you can use that is not only casual and easy but it also happens to be very effective.

When you’re in a social situation, you will have about 30 seconds to one minute to get your sales pitch across.  Some people refer to this as your “elevator pitch.”   One of the most effective elevator pitches involves the following five steps.  As you read through the steps I will use my business as an… Read the rest

If you are working as a technology professional in the small business space and wondering how to become a software reseller, think carefully about how you are packaging your products and services.

The truth is, most technology professionals that want to resell software and other products solely in the small business space can’t expect to see very high, if any profit margins.  This is why, if you want to make product reselling a part of your business, you need to think of other services you can provide to your valued clients.  This might include on-going service agreements that will have you working with small business clients on a steady basis and bringing them real, total business solutions they can’t live without.

Here are 3 ways for you to learn how to become a software reseller successfully and profitably by building up the value proposition that you provide to your clients.

1. Create Sound Pricing Strategies. Make sure you set your

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Have you ever considered starting your own business from home? Considering the present job market with a steady flow of layoffs and downsizing, working from home seem to be very attractive these days. In this article we will discuss two characteristic you must have in order to have a successful work at home business.

When you start a home business your first impressions are usually from emails you receive from doing research and you begin to feel confident and excited about the opportunity you have found. However, having these emotional feelings are fine but you need to have more than just feelings. You need to start right here …

Change your mindset

When you become an entrepreneur your mindset will determine how successful your business will be. As an example: When you start your own home business you look for opportunities to test different things. In other words, when things doesn’t go as planned, it’s just an opportunity to try… Read the rest

A person who needs help achieving personal growth and goals often hires a life coach. Life coaching is a service offered to people who desire to reach their fullest potential and work to the best of their personal ability.

There are several areas in which a life coach can help a person improve or become more focused. Time management, physical fitness, motivation, direction, starting a new career, or learning to adjust to new situations are all areas in which a life coach can be qualified to advise.

Many life coaches are available to speak to a client over the phone. They often offer a free assessment, a welcome package, or a survey to make sure a client would benefit from a life coach; it also helps match the client with an appropriate coach or program. Phone sessions are often supplemented by email exchanges.

Life coaches do not strip away everything a person has worked hard… Read the rest

Many IT professionals trying to figure out how to start a PC repair business find themselves wondering, “How can I provide a service that will be valuable to my clients, without giving away the store for free?”

A lot of times those trying to start their own businesses give away way too many free advice and services in the beginning as they try to attract and keep clients. There are a lot of reasons why computer repair specialists give away too many free services.  Often they lack confidence in their abilities and expertise.  Or, they don’t have a grasp on the true expenses of operating their PC repair business.  Or they simply have never been taught any other way.

The truth is, if you want to stay alive in the PC repair business, you can’t give away all of your valuable services for free.  While the “give it to them free” philosophy might seem to be a way to gain… Read the rest

In a very similar fashion to the way that the industrial revolution re-shaped the financial world of business, we have seen the next great revoltuion begin to take shape over the last few years. Unlike the last one however, the gain is there to be had regardless of geographical location and levels of accessibility.

It was very difficult to begin competing nationally before the Internet, let alone globally. This was because there were no affordable methods of advertising. You could have had TV or radio ad, which would have been very expensive. Magazine advertising would have only appealed to a niche market, and ads in national newspapers are also very expensive. Despite the cost, before the explosion of the Internet, these were all reliable and effective ways of attracting business.

There have been several points in history where the businesses that managed to adapt to new technologies the quickest and the best often succeeded where… Read the rest