Entrepreneur.com

“There’s a good reason why cable TV networks like HGTV, The Learning Channel and DIY Network have such a huge following from coast to coast: The home design and improvement industry is hot, hot, hot and is showing no signs of cooling off. There may be no better time than the present to tool up your skills and fire up your enthusiasm for a career in this creative and fulfilling field.

But while Americans are keenly interested in home improvement and home design and have made household names out of “Extreme Makeover: Home Editions” Ty Pennington, professional organizer Peter Walsh from “Clean Sweep” and other home design show hosts, the fact is many don’t have the time, talent or inclination to undertake such projects themselves. Or they enthusiastically take up a paintbrush, rearrange the furniture or make a stab at organizing their lives, then toss up their hands in defeat when they realize it’s not as easy as it looks.

All this means there are plenty of opportunities for entrepreneurs like you to start what we are broadly calling a home design business. In our startup guide Home Design Services, we’ve outlined the information you need to start five different home design services: interior design, interior redesign, professional organizing, building preservation/restoration, and faux painting. Here’s a closer look at each of those businesses so you can get feel for the opportunities available in this industry, and what will fit your personality and creativity the best.

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“It is one thing to eliminate ways in which you have blocked yourself, but another to develop the skills to complete things you begin.” – Kenneth Christian

In the world of a network marketing home business we are often faced with the challenge of doing the things others are unwilling to do. In fact, if you desire to become a great leader of leaders in network marketing you must do the things others are unwilling to do.

Many of these things from prospecting to recruiting to leading a team to duplicate your efforts can be a challenge in and of itself. Most people fail miserably at these tasks. They fail not because they can’t complete the task but they fail because they have underdeveloped skills needed to complete the task.

Too often these same people will continue to search for the magical tool or secret formula to help them dramatically take a failing effort to multi-millions in an overnight adventure. Only they find that there really is no magical tool or secret formula. But they continue to search.

It takes 12 years of school plus 4 years of college to get educated to start a $30k to $50k a year job in the traditional workplace. Yet, in network marketing, people will join a business and expect to be earning $10k a month within the first few months. If they don’t earn it, they are off to the next best business opportunity.

Why does this happen? In network marketing, the cost of entry is minimal and most people have a misguided belief that it also requires a low skill level. No wonder 95%+ of those who enter into the network marketing industry fail so miserably.

If you truly want to succeed in your network marketing home business, you must treat it not only as a business but as one would in any profession. This means you start with getting your education. This education begins at Leaders Club. Tap into the training. get coaching. Most importantly, make a commitment to yourself
and the industry to invest in mastering the skills necessary in becoming the success you have always dreamed about becoming.

TIP – Do NOT just eliminate the things standing in your way. You MUST also develop and master the skills necessary to face the challenges and complete the task at hand.

When Doug Mellinger was a student at Syracuse University in the 1980s, there were almost no programs specifically for students bent on owning their own companies. In fact, he created the college’s first major in entrepreneurship and helped found the Young Entrepreneurs’ Organization, www.eonetwork.org, just so he wouldn’t feel so alone.

“You could count college entrepreneurial programs on one hand in those days,” says Mellinger, now a 42-year-old serial entrepreneur and co-founder of Foundation Source, www.foundationsource.com, a technology company serving philanthropic foundations that’s based in Fairfield, Conn.

A decade later, YEO (now called The Entrepreneurs’ Organization) boasted 10,000 members around the world, and some of its early members had gone on to spark a creative technology revolution that would change the world. “That early movement led to the growth and acceptance of young people in business that boomed during the 1990s. Today, people in their 20s and even teens who own businesses are very accepted, but that wasn’t true before,” Mellinger notes.

Along with that newfound acceptance, young entrepreneurs today enjoy networking groups, educational programs, and competitions aimed at supporting and encouraging their efforts. Here are some resources that can help youthful entrepreneurs get started:

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Experts urge small business owners to “brand” their businesses with a logo and a set of consistent marketing materials. But they rarely explain the reasons behind this advice. Below are some of some of the benefits of having a professionally designed logo and identity system.

1. To look “bigger.”

2. To increase your chance of getting venture capital or selling a business.

3. To attract more clients. Some clients look for a well-defined company, and “look and feel” may be one of their criteria in making a purchasing decision.

4. To brand yourself.

5. To convey that you are established.

6. To give clients a sense of stability.

7. To be more memorable.

8. To explain your company name.

9. To endear your company name to your clients.

10. To explain an unusual line of business.

11. To show what practices differentiate you from your competition.

12. To stand out in your field.

13. To comply with expectations.

14. To show your commitment and for the sense of personal pride it will add to your practice. In other words, do it for yourself.

These benefits will boost your business and your confidence, so start thinking about developing a logo and identity as soon as possible. [Read Details of each benefit from BusinessWeek]

MSNBC:

“….. I often hear B-school advisors vigorously warn new grads against entering a business they know nothing about… “If you’re picking a business,” they say, “pick something you know and love.” The reason? Since you’re going to be spending most of your waking hours fussing, worrying about, and promoting it… you darn well better love it!

In the story I’m currently working on, the problem is not that too many enter a world they know nothing about… but the opposite… it’s a world they love far too much — haunted houses.

A hidden industry
In all honesty, I wasn’t even aware of this as a viable industry until I spoke with Leonard Pickel of ‘Haunted Attraction Magazine.” This guy is amazing… he’s got his ‘claws’ into just about every aspect of the haunted house industry… And, I do mean “industry”… complete with several national trade shows www.hauntcon.com … monthly published trade magazines, a cadre of time consultants and endless vendors and suppliers of such specialty products as: Zombie Pinups from www.sinistervisions.com , Haunted Windows www.apparition3d.com , and Sinister Scents “you can smell the fear.”

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