I am a home-based entrepreneur. I own a tutor referral service in Southern California and have been a tutor broker for eight years. I just launched my second business. I authored a book about how to begin a tutor referral service and packaged it with a customized website and Accounting Software, support, ads, etc. and am selling it via the internet nationwide and in Canada. Having started two businesses, I have learned about small business planning and strategies for success. Here are my suggestions:

1) Outsource, outsource, outsource!

Small businesses don’t have the capital to devote to entire payroll departments, legal departments, etc. Outsource to independent contractors whenever possible. In the long run it is cheaper and is definitely a smart business decision.

2) Network as much as you can.

Join networking groups comprised of individuals who are entrepreneurs or small business owners like payday loan. Not only might you find some professionals that will help you develop and grow your business, it is also an excellent way to spread the word about your company. Local networking groups usually limit the membership to one person per industry, so you will not be competing with anyone else for referrals.

3) Budget your expenses wisely.

If you can initially work from home, do so. Save the money you would spend renting or leasing an office space and invest in a decent computer system or advertising. Cut your costs wherever you can and take advantage of less well-known but dependable service providers, i.e. Vonage phone systems and e-fax.com.

4) Find a good publicist/virtual assistant.

It’s important to get the word out about your new business. Hiring a Public Relations firm is pricey and not always worth the money. Go online and search for a Virtual Assistant and publicist. Many will offer you a three month retainer at a lower cost than a fancy PR firm and the results can be extremely advantageous. Check out their references first and go with someone who has a proven track record. After the initial three months many VA’s will offer you an hourly or monthly rate.

5) Develop your negotiating skills.

Knowing how to talk to advertisers and getting the best deals you can will pay off big-time, especially when it comes to advertising. Ask your sales representative to tell you about any special rate packages they offer. Quite often, you will not know unless you ask. Tell vendors you are a new business and ask if you can pay for big projects (like a professional website) with monthly payments. If you are dealing with small business professionals, most of them have been in your shoes and will be happy to extend a monthly payment plan to you.

As a small business owner you must be creative yet frugal. Take every opportunity you can to tell people about your business. Word of mouth and referral business is priceless. Carry your business cards at all times and don’t be shy to talk about what you offer. You never know whom you may meet that might just turn into a wonderful opportunity!

What is the difference between successful people on non-successful people? Are successful people more intelligent or do they just have better opportunities than non-successful people?

I heard Brian Tracy say, “Only Difference between successful people and non successful people is this: “Everybody thinks about what they want, but successful people think about what they want, and HOW to get it!”

The most important things is the HOW.

The only way I ever accomplish anything is to figure out what it is I want, then how I am going to get it. Ever since wrestling, my life has been driven by goals and what I want in life, the only way I ever achieve anything is by laying out a plan and working on that plan until I accomplish it.

Another way to look at it is to start backwards, think of the house you want to live in, the cars you want to drive, the lifestyle you want your family to live. You have to lay out a game plan to get their, it is not going to miracously show up on your door step someday. This means each day of your life you need to be doing at least one thing that will help you accomplish that goal.

I love how Robert Kiyosaki explains this concept in his book “Rich Dad Poor Dad”: “Because I had two influential fathers, I learned from both of them. I had to think about each dad’s advice, and in doing so, I gained valuable insight into the power and effect of one’s thoughts on one’s life. For example, one dad had a habit of saying, “I can’t afford it.” The other dad forbade those words to be used. He insisted I say, “How can I afford it?”

One is a statement, and the other is a question. One lets you off the hook, and the other forces you to think. My soon-to-be-rich dad would explain that by automatically saying the words “I can’t afford it,” your brain stops working. By asking the question “How can I afford it?” your brain is put to work. He did not mean buy everything you wanted. He was fanatical about exercising your mind, the most powerful computer in the world. “My brain gets stronger every day because I exercise it. The stronger it gets, the more money I can make.” He believed that automatically saying “I can’t afford it” was a sign of mental laziness.”

So remember, the question isn’t what you want… It’s HOW are you going to get it?

Managing and owning a small business can be very stimulating for the ADD adult. Many ADD entrepreneurs thrive on the fact that they can work on growing their business without all of the structure of being employed by someone else. While the structure of a 9 to 5 job might not be ideal for an ADD adult, an ADD entrepreneur should establish some structure and boundaries in order to be successful with their business opportunities and their personal lives. Here are just a couple of examples of structure and boundaries that an ADD entrepreneur should establish:

1. Keeping your personal finances and your business finances separate.

The larger your business is, the more important it is to separate your finances. Not only is it important for tax purposes, but recording all of your business transactions will give you or someone else all of the information necessary to analyze how well you are doing, and what you need to do to expand your business.

2. Set aside a regular time to pay your bills and to bill your customers.

I find that a lot of ADD entrepreneurs are more reluctant to bill their customers on a regular basis. The main reason is that they are so focused on pleasing the customer, that they don’t focus on actually getting paid for a job. In order to develop a habit, you should decide on a regular set time that you are going to focus on sending out your invoice and paying the bills.

3. Schedule time and/or days each week where you not allowed to do anything related to your business.

In order to be a successful entrepreneur you need to spend a lot of time on your business. It is easy for an ADD entrepreneur to completely focus on their business and not focus on their other needs like eating properly, sleeping, physical activity, and spending time with friends and family. Without spending a little time on the other areas of your life your will burnout or breakdown.

People seem to be coming upwith strange and very innovative ideas to promote their sites and also come up with sites to promote businesses and their brand names. Just a few months back, we had this euphoria where a student got a website up and was selling pixels on his website at the rate of $1 per pixel. Many rip-offs followed this and they too proved quite a bit successful thus making everyone associated with the site very happy. The businesses which put their ads on the site, however invisible they seemed to be in the muddle of ads, also seemed to be happy with the visibility that they got.

Now a slightly different and improved version seems to be doing the rounds on the net. It is called the ‘One in hundred thousand’ website and it can be found at http://oneinhundredthousand.com.

This site is based on the concept that they get your name on the internet (rather, on this site) for $3. The name can be that of an individual or that of a business. And they also link to your homepage (if you have one) as part of the name. To maintain some exclusivity (after all, they cant get the names of 6 billion people on to the site), they have restricted themselves to only 50,000 names and promises to be up for 5 years.

This site seems to have been started by a young man and though it seems a bit similar to the million dollar home page idea, it has its own uniqueness and its advantages. For businesses, it is like having an ad on the net, that too at a place with high number of visitors and for individuals, its just a chance to get the thrill of seeing their name on a website and to see their name when they do a search on google.

The webmaster asks us to view this as another home, a home on the internet for our name and which would be well maintained by him for the next five years. Its a strange idea but it is indeed something that might catch on in due course of time.

People, especially young ones, seem to be coming up with strange and innvovative ideas to keep themselves and help others keep ahead of the competition. Things are sure getting interesting. So what next? A website on the moon??