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Many people who want to start their own small business have yet to do so because they simply cannot decide on what business to start. The reasons for this indecision are many. However the main culprit may very well be that the individual has yet to find an idea that truly sparks his interest. While finding a concept upon which to build a business is a very unique and highly personalized endeavor, a simple method does exist that makes this discovery process easier.It is a well known fact that people are consistently more successful in their business endeavors when they enjoy what they do. This enjoyment can come from many aspects of the business. Perhaps the business owner likes working with the products he sells. Maybe he enjoys having the freedom to make quick decisions. Often times simply the business environment or atmosphere plays a key role in positively driving business enjoyment. Regardless of the reasons, the first and most important step in finding a business to start is figuring out what it truly is that you want to get out of your business.To start, set aside an hour or two of time where you can do some serious, uninterrupted thinking. The goal and outcome of this mental jam session is to define a list of desired criteria for your business. In other words, how do you want to define the nature of your business? Note that your business criteria are not the same thing as your business! Rather, your business criteria will help you filter business ideas to determine the best one for you to start.To help walk through the process, assume that Samantha is thinking of starting her own small business. Samantha is in her mid-20′s and has always dreamed of starting her own company. She struggles, however, with finding a business idea that really excites her. Using the process outlined in this article, Samantha first sets aside some personal time where she will define the criteria for her ideal business. While your criteria should include 15-20 items, we will narrow Samantha’s list to five. Here is her criteria list:
“I want my business to be involved with children”
“In my business, I want to work outdoors”
“I want to start my business with less than $5,000″
“I want to run my business out of my apartment”
“I want my business to be service-oriented”
Once you have established your own set of criteria, the next step is to prioritize each item. Priority values should be high, medium and low. These priorities correspond to how relatively important each criteria is to you. Your initial inclination may likely be to rank all of the items with a “high” priority. Unfortunately this approach will not help you when it comes time to narrow down business ideas. Your goal should be to have approximately 30% high priority items, 50% medium priority items and 20% low priority items. We will now revisit Samantha and her example. After thinking carefully about her priorities and interests, Samantha segmented her business criteria into the following brackets:High Priority
“I want to start my business with less than $5,000″
“I want to run my business out of my apartment”
Medium Priority
“I want my business to be service-oriented”
“I want my business to be involved with children”
Low Priority “In my business, I want to work outdoors”Priorities are crucial for this process since they are used to score and rank potential business ideas. While you can certainly apply your own scoring values to the priorities, the following values are good guidelines:
High Priority = 10 points
Medium Priority = 5 points
Low Priority = 1 point
The final step in the process is to list out and rank all business ideas that interest you. The priorities you just defined are used to score and rank the business ideas. Going back to Samantha’s example, she has identified the following business ideas that pique her interest:
Day care operations
Swim lessons
Limousine service
Graphic artist
Public relations
Samantha applies her criteria to each business idea and then scores accordingly. She uses the priorities and scoring values she defined above. A zero value indicates that the business idea does not meet a certain criteria.
Day care operations (0 + 0 + 5 + 0 + 0) = 5 points
Swim lessons (10 + 10 + 5 + 5 + 1) = 31 points
Limousine service (0 + 10 + 5 + 0 + 1) = 16 points
Graphic artist (10 + 10 + 5 + 0 + 0) = 25 points
Public relations (10 + 10 + 5 + 0 + 0) = 25 points
To help clarify the scoring, take the Graphic Artist business idea as an example.
Can I start this business with less than $5,000? Yes, +10 points
Can I run this business out of my apartment? Yes, +10 points
Is this business service oriented? Yes, +5 points
Is this business involved with children? No, +0 points
Do I work outdoors in this business? No, +0 points
As you can see from the scoring above, Samantha’s best business bet based on her criteria and priorities is Swim Lessons (31 points). While this may very well not be the exact business she chooses to start, she can certainly identify other business ideas that are similar in nature to those that scored highly.The process outlined above provides a logical, repeatable and customizable process for evaluating potential business ideas. Applying unique business criteria and priorities, prospective business owners can use this process to come up with business ideas that best fit their personal and professional preferences and goals.

Large cities are fast paced and busy. Sometimes your can spend hours stranded in traffic while travelling very short distances during peak hours. This makes visiting clients very time-consuming for sales reps on the road.In a world where time is money, more and more business owners are turning to the internet to generate new customers and grow their company revenue. But achieving success online is not as easy as it once was.With more and more companies jumping online the competition is getting fierce. Regardless, SEO still provides one of the best returns for marketing investment. With more and more people using Google to conduct research before making a purchase, it is essential that your business can be found on Google.However, if you are like most business owners I talk with you don’t have the time to market your own business online. After all staying up to date with the latest search engine guidelines and rules is a fulltime job.It makes sense that most business owners would rather pay an SEO agency, company or individual to complete this work for them. If this is you then make sure you follow these 5 essential tips to achieve a successful SEO strategy for your business.Tip #1 – Choose a Local Provider: The internet and advancements in communication technology now allows us to connect with someone on the other side of the world in realtime. With this technology you may be tempted to find anyone in the world to provide your SEO services.However, the internet has also allowed many doors to open up for scam and fraud artists. For this reason it is always best to be able to meet your future SEO provider in person.By finding a local SEO expert, agency or SEO company to carry out your search engine optimisation campaign, you have the flexibility of being able to catch up with them in person. You can get a lot out of meeting someone in the flesh as opposed to only meeting them via email, texts or even a phone call. Also when dealing with large amounts of money over the internet I am always cautious until I have a good understanding of who I am doing business with.Create a strong relationship between you and your SEO provider by meeting in person, to ensure a strong result from your campaign.Tip #2 – No Overseas Outsourcing: Once you have found a local SEO provider ask them if they outsource any of their SEO work overseas. If they do then you might as well work with someone overseas directly. But of course this is going against the first tip!By outsourcing SEO work overseas, SEO companies can often charge higher amounts in-line with local prices and then get the work done overseas for a fraction of the cost. Meanwhile an overseas SEO provider may have poor English and not fully understand the location they are creating content for. Also they may use automation techniques for their copy writing and link building strategies which can lead to Google penalties. Unfortunately this is a common practice for SEO providers from third world countries.When your SEO campaign is completed overseas you often receive a very poor standard of work. This can portray an unprofessional image for your business and can even lead to your website getting penalised. So avoid this at all costs.Tip #3 – Get a Customised SEO Strategy: Achieving a successful SEO strategy requires complex analysis and planning. There are no one-size-fits-all approaches when it comes to SEO. And for that reason you should not choose an SEO package off the shelf and expect to achieve awesome results.All reputable SEO providers offer a search engine optimisation service that is custom designed for each business they partner with. Reason being is that every business is different in terms of their market, products and services, and business goals.A successful SEO strategy must take all of this into account and needs to be tailored to the individual business to meet their exact needs.Tip #4 – Get Progress Reports: Another vital tip is to ensure that your local SEO provider provides progress reports.Most common is to have a monthly report showing what work was done and how your website rank is tracking. If you are not getting this data then your SEO agency could be doing nothing while taking your money.Make sure you review this report each time you get it and ensure progress is being made on your business goals.Tip #5 – Play Safe: At the end of the day choosing who to partner with to provide your SEO services is not an easy task.Even the most successful SEO strategies take time to blossom into a positive outcome. This is how scam artists get away with ripping people off in the online marketing world. They convey hope to their clients that the benefits will be coming, meanwhile they are simply pocketing your monthly investment each month.Above all else beware of extremely low prices offered from an SEO provider. Quality SEO services normally costs anywhere in the range of $750-$5000 per month. If you are paying any less than this the SEO company may be using dodgy tactics which may result in a penalty once Google catches on.Choose WiselyNo-one said choosing an SEO provider would be easy. However, by following these 5 essential tips you will have a much better chance at success.Do your research and take your time in your decision for choosing who to partner with for your SEO strategy. And also be aware that SEO does take time. But when all the quality work starts to gain momentum your SEO strategy will cause your business to steamroll ahead. Best of luck.