Advertising, Business, Marketing, Referral

The Best Advertising Money Can’t Buy

It’s 1956. I remember my best friend at the time, Eddie, and he was a pretty with-it guy. His mom came home from work one afternoon with a brand-new Schwinn Tiger bicycle. It was well after dark before Eddie’s mom could get him off his new bike and into the house for dinner. By that time, every kid in a 3-block radius had seen, touched, some even got to ride, the bike.  That night began a lobbying effort on the part of every one of us kids, begging our parents to buy us a bike just like Eddie’s.

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Business, Startup

The Role of Risk — Part 2

How much risk determines whether to start or continue a business?

That may seem an odd question. After all, wherein lies the risk of starting a new business, if not with money, and how much? And in fact, there is a start-up investment, but in the case of most micro-businesses, start-up financial costs are generally minimal. The funds needed to buy a laptop, a router, and a printer, are  more often than not, less than $1,000. You will likely need some software.

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Business, Startup

The Role of Risk — Part 1

There is one crucial principle that underlies everything about starting and running a business. On Wall Street, smart traders look at one thing above all else when deciding whether to purchase a security, or not: risk! Those traders look for any number of ways to reduce the risk of owning a particular stock, bond or derivative. This allows them to limit potential losses and maximize hoped-for gains. In a new business, the initial risk is the money (investment capital) spent before one even engages their first client.

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Business, Expense

Surviving

In 2008, I had roughly twenty-five active clients. By the end of 2011, I was down to five. Just as it did to those previous twenty clients, many whose businesses failed, the Great Recession rained devastation on all I had worked so hard to build. No doubt, those of you reading this suffered, as well.

Yet, I’m writing this post, which will appear on the website that represents that same company, Your.Virtual.Assistant. I am convinced I survived that calamitous economic downturn through two activities: controlling expenses, and I kept moving.

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