Solomon’s Wisdom…con’t.

Why is Solomon perceived to be so wise? What did he do that made him the topic of discussion in First Kings where he was touted by philosophers and prophets of his day as the wisest man in the region…in all the earth? For one thing, he found out who the true mother of a child was by offering to cut the child in two pieces and give both mothers half. The “counterfeit” mother out of jealously and selfishness said that would be fine, whereas the real mother pleaded with Solomon to spare the child’s life, and give it to the other woman.

It took a little wisdom to figure out who was telling the truth, and who only wanted a selfish gain for herself no matter who would be hurt in the process. Solomon called them out and made them face a difficult decision that would affect all three of them in a dramatic way.

Solomon built a vast empire. His rule and reign was so immense that it encompassed millions of acres of land; very powerful cities; trade routes that created wealth so vast that he was a billionaire by today’s standards in a time when no one came close to the enormous amount of wealth that he had attained.

Solomon’s empire included strategic alliances that kept his enemies at bay, and yet allowed him to freely trade with any country he wished. He controlled food sources and had enough allies in the surrounding countries, that if there were to be a famine, his people would not suffer.

This “empire” that Solomon built was the envy of all kings of the world in his day. And, this empire is the example that I wish to turn to in the study of how this king used wisdom to build his empire.

Solomon of course was human, and he had his faults and shortcomings. He was by no means a perfect little angel all of his life. No one is perfect and we all have faults. We can still learn from the imperfection of others, as well as in ourselves…I hope. But if we ever say we have learned it all, and there is nothing more to improve on, well then there is a problem, and maybe if we reach that point it’s time to go on vacation. If we can’t learn, and dream and hope and be curious then what is the point in going on…even living?

I am much wiser today after raising six children—all with different personalities, wants and desires. I learn each and every day that each child is different and wants to do or achieve different things in life. There are times when I wish I could just fit them into the perfect little life that my wife and I would like them to experience and achieve, but that defeats the purpose of learning and growing. We provide them with the necessities of life, a good example, and the “track to run on”. Some choose to run in the fast lane, while others may hold back and wish to see how the rest of us roll out life.

Let’s get back to the wisdom that we need today. Achieving business wisdom is also knowing that you have a short term tactical plan with immediate, measurable results that will roll up to a long term strategy.

The long term strategy must fit with the short term plan. The tactics plug into a cohesive, tight action plan that make up the successful overall plan. It’s like a mathematics equation…8 X 3 = 24; and 3 X 8 = 24; and 24 ÷ 8 = 3. They fit together so that the answer is the same no matter how you change it up. Tactics and strategies need to work in the same fashion.

To know instruction then is to listen to experts in their field and mold their tutoring in to your set of circumstances and solutions. We are constantly learning (at least I’m assuming you are still interested in the concept of learning) and applying the valuable tidbits of information into our own set of circumstances.

I am still learning from my children and many situations in business each day. I learn things from my wife each day that makes me a better person. I learn from business colleagues and situations in business that all serve to provide volumes of information and processes to follow. I learn from catching up on the news that people will do just about anything to move ahead as they exercise selfish dominion.

The 12 Principles of Building a Successful Empire included in my book Everlasting Wisdom are simple, yet powerful reminders of what will help us find success in business and in our personal lives.

Principle #1 – Seek Wisdom

www.brianhazelgren.com

What Can The Wisdom of Solomon Offer Us Today?

What can Solomon offer us today, and is there a direct tie into living a good life and being a God-fearing person; applying principles and the wisdom of Solomon to business operations and ethics? Yes these teachings work for day-to-day life, but what can these teachings do for us in the world of business?

It poses an interesting question and is worth the effort to study out what Solomon may provide a world of fast-paced, make as much money as possible…in any way possible, and use whatever means to keep increasing wealth and raising our status in society.

I was sitting at my home one winter morning and an idea popped into my head. The idea was to take the writings of Solomon, particularly Proverbs, and draw a correlation of how those words written over 3,000 years ago might be applicable to today in business.

Could there even be a correlation drawn to today — with all of the chaos of daily life? We are so far more advanced as a society than the people of Solomon’s time, at least in technology, medicine, and science. But are we that much more advanced in wisdom?

Take a look a few inventions, processes, and successes during the past 100 years. There are many to list, but for now it is staggering to think about the incredible advances our global society has made.

• We have computers that think faster than the human brain, however, computers have evolved much faster than the human brain. Computers have been around for only a few decades, yet rapid technological advancements have made computers faster, smaller and more powerful.

• We have upwards of 50 micro processors in an automobile, and planes that carry hundreds of people to a destination in hours, thousands of miles away, instead of days or weeks.

• We have the Internet and billions of pages of information to learn from right at our fingertips.

• We have space shuttles that take our astronauts into space and back again in a matter of days. The Space Shuttle travels at a constant speed of 17,500 per hour.

• We have ways of turning goods into profits with people in a different country, and they pay the same moment that they make a decision to purchase, with the Internet and a credit card.

• We have companies like Wal Mart that bring in $4.5 billion in one week (yes billion with a “b”).

• We can hold meetings with others who might be 8,000 miles away, all in real time, and you can see them on the screen as you interact with them.

• We can cure deadly diseases and help people live normal lives that would not have been able to do so even 10 years ago.

• Credit card processing companies can process over $20 trillion
(yes, trillion with a “t”) in one year.

• We can see planets through a telescope – 42 light years away. To put that into perspective, one light year is equal to 5,878,625,373,183 miles (that is 5.8 trillion miles). Pretty staggering once you think about the many advances that our society has made even in the past 100 years.

So what can a king who lived 3,000 years ago teach a society that is so far advanced in its culture? What could he possibly do for us in this day and age, and could his wisdom actually assist us in our current
business practices?

For starters Solomon can take us back to our humble beginnings and help us realize that although these things are wonderful inventions to make our lives better and more productive, they don’t always remind us that we have a God that is providing us with so many blessings.

Solomon’s teachings can assist us in doing what is good, and what is right, and what can affect us for the eternities, not just in this life. I would dare say that the Proverbs of Solomon are more applicable today that they were 3,000 years ago.

I wrote this book with the intention that Solomon’s wisdom is even more applicable in business today… but don’t stop there. His wisdom continues to enlighten millions of people on all continents, and in many ways.

Solomon wrote: To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding. What is “wisdom” and why should we care to achieve it in this lifetime? Wisdom is defined as “good sense and a wise attitude, belief, or course of action; the teachings of the ancient wise men.” To add to the “official definition”, I believe wisdom is a combination of:

• maturity,

• self confidence,

• reliance upon God,

• listening to your inner feelings, and

• being mature enough to accept the feelings that you experience.

It’s interesting that there is one additional word that by its very nature, will help you achieve wisdom in this life: experience. When we experience something, we have a baseline to form some kind of judgment about how we will act or re-act in the future. We have a reference point to look back to and remember how we reacted, or not. We will either avoid the same situation in the future, or we will embrace it and possibly even improve upon it.

We lack wisdom if we continue to make the same mistake(s) over and over. You’ve probably heard that one definition of insanity is to do something over and over and expect a different result. Someone with a little wisdom will stop the insanity and try something a little different, or in a different order, or add one more ingredient.

Check out my book Everlasting Wisdom, and tell me what you think! Thanks for listening…

http://www.brianhazelgren.com/everlasting_wisdom.html

Carving Out a Successful Niche

Carving Out a Successful Niche – Part 1

By Brian Hazelgren

Do you know precisely who your customers are? You may know many of them by name, but do you really know what type of people or businesses they are? For example, if you sell to consumers, do you have demographic information (i.e., what are their average income ranges, education, typical occupations, geographic location, family makeup, etc.) that identifies your target buyer?

What about lifestyle information (i.e., hobbies, interests, recreational/entertainment activities, political beliefs, cultural practices, etc.) on your target buyer?

This type of information can help you in two very important ways. It can help you make changes to your product or service itself, in order to better match with what your customers are likely to want. It can also tell you how to reach your customers through advertising, promotions, etc.

For an obvious example, a company that sells athletic shoes may know that its typical customer is also a sports fan. Thus, if that company can build shoes good enough to be worn by professional athletes; it will have a convincing story about quality to tell. It can also benefit by using well-known athletes as spokespersons in its advertising, and by placing advertisements in sports magazines where its customers are likely to see them.

How can you refine your understanding of your own customer base? I suggest you look at the issue from two angles:

Niche marketing— identifying the heavy users of your product so you can direct your marketing efforts more precisely to those users

Segmenting the market— dividing the existing market up into sections or segments that may become new niches for your business

Niche Marketing

Most marketers know that “20 percent of buyers consume 80 percent of product volume.” If you could identify that key 20 percent and find others like them, you could sell much more product with much less effort.

The “heavy users” of your product can be thought of as a market “niche” that you should attempt to dominate. Niche marketing today means targeting, communicating with, selling to, and obtaining feedback from the heaviest users of your business’s products or services.

Picking the right segment of the market is important to achieving sufficiently large sales volume and profitability to survive and prosper as a company. Picking the right market segment means that it is:

• Made up of consumers who will buy from you
• Measurable in quantitative terms
• Substantial enough to generate planned sales volume
• Accessible to your company’s distribution methods
• Sensitive to planned/affordable marketing spending events

 

In identifying your niche and the segment of the market you will target, it is also important to examine other factors that could affect your company’s success. You will want to consider:

• Strength of competitors to attract your niche buyers away from your products
• Similarity of competitive products in the buyers’ minds
• Rate of new product introductions by competitors
• Ease of entry/protectability in the market for your niche

 

Perhaps the driving force behind “niche” marketing or “segmentation” is the need to satisfy and keep those consumers who really love your products or services. Consumers become increasingly more sophisticated and demanding. And product choices continue to expand with prosperity and global competition.

Even large companies have embraced niche marketing, continuing to refine and target their product offerings to different buyer groups. As an example, Nike restaged a multi-billion dollar company that had plateaued by pursuing a segmentation strategy. Nike designed and marketed athletic shoes for each different sport, often further segmenting with specialized models within each sport (i.e., “Air Jordan” basketball shoes, additional basketball models called “Force,” represented by Charles Barkley and David Robinson, and “Flight,” represented by Scottie Pippin).

In addition to the considerations listed above, it also is important to be able to identify and estimate the size of your target market, particularly if you’re thinking about a new venture, so that you can tell if the customer base is large enough to support your business or new product idea. Remember that it’s not enough that people like your business concept. There must be enough target buyers on a frequent-enough basis to sustain your company sales, spending, and profits from year to year.

For example, selling a product or service that people may need only once in a lifetime (i.e., an indestructible pair of shoes) may not be a sustainable business, unless a large number of people need it at any given time, or everyone needs it eventually (i.e., funeral services), or your profit margins generate a substantial income.

How to Segment Your Market

If the universe of all potential buyers is your “market,” then the market can be divided up into sections or “segments” based on any number of factors. For example, you might divide up your customers by age group and find that you sell most of your products to people aged 18 to 34. You might divide them up by family size and find that you sell most of your products to married couples with young children. You might divide them up by economic status and find that you sell most products to people with an annual income of about $50,000 to $75,000. You may even divide them up by geographic location and find that you sell most of your products to people living within two specific ZIP codes.

 

Many small businesses stop there, thinking they have enough information to be able to identify and communicate with their most likely customers. However, larger companies will attempt to push on further and find out even more information about their customers’ lifestyles, values, life stage, and so forth.

 

Let’s define some terms:

 

Demographics refers to age, sex, income, education, race, martial status, size of household, geographic location, size of city, and profession.

 

Psychographics refers to personality and emotionally based behavior linked to purchase choices; for example, whether customers are risk-takers or risk-avoiders, impulsive buyers, etc.

 

Lifestyle refers to the collective choice of hobbies, recreational pursuits, entertainment, vacations, and other non-work time pursuits

 

Belief and value systems include religious, political, nationalistic, and cultural beliefs and values.

 

Life stage refers to chronological benchmarking of people’s lives at different ages (i.e., pre-teens, teenagers, empty-nesters, etc.).

 

How can you find out more about your customers? Through market research, of course.

Larger companies segment their markets by conducting extensive market research projects, consisting of several rounds of exploratory research.

 

Customer and product data collection: Researchers gather data from users of similar products regarding:

 

• Consumable products, and how often they are consumed
• Number and timing of brand purchases
• Reasons for purchases
• Consumers’ attitudes about various product attributes
• Importance of the product to the lifestyle of consumer
• Category user information (demographics, psychographics, media habits, etc.)
• Seasonal uses, and seasonal colors

 

Factor and cluster analysis: Researchers analyze the data collected in ways to find correlations between product purchases and other factors, as a basis for identifying actionable consumer target “clusters.” Clusters are defined as “niche markets,” where there are identifiable numbers of buyers or users who share the same characteristics and who thus can be reached by adept advertising and promotion.

 

Cluster identification and importance ranking: Researchers then determine whether clusters are large and viable enough to spend marketing funds on them whether potential marketing niche clusters fit strategic company objectives; i.e., does marketing to this group fit your existing image and long-term goals?

What can smaller companies do to segment their markets?

Smaller companies can research secondary data sources and conduct individual interviews with key trade buyers and consumers or end users of their products and services (qualitative research). Often qualitative research can be accomplished for free or little expense.

Smaller companies also can conduct informal factor and cluster analysis by:

• Watching key competitors’ marketing efforts and copying them
• Talking to key trade buyers about new product introductions
• Conducting needs analyses from qualitative research with individuals and groups

 

In many cases, smaller companies have access to the same databases as large companies for estimating the sizes of market segment clusters and their importance. Some low-cost sources of external secondary data include:

• Trade and association publications and experts
• Basic research publications
• External measurement services (large market research firms include ACNielsen, Burke, and Information Resources, Inc. (IRI)
• Government publications

 

Smaller companies can segment markets by geography, distribution, price, packaging, sizes, product life, and other tangible factors in addition to demographics and lifestyle and psychographic clustering.

Service businesses will want to go as far as developing a cluster of clients based on a radius within a certain geographical area. For example, an interior designer may want to focus on a 50-mile radius, and a math tutor may look at a 20-mile radius for servicing customer needs. Some service businesses like dry cleaners will even tighten down the radius to about 3 to 5 miles.

You decide how large the radius around your business should be, but put some type of limits to where you are physically capable of servicing your customer’s needs.

Incredible Advances in Our Society

Take a look a few inventions, processes, and successes during the past 100 years. There are many to list, but for now it is staggering to think about the incredible advances our global society has made.

• We have computers that think faster than the human brain, however, computers have evolved much faster than the human brain. Computers have been around for only a few decades, yet rapid technological advancements have made computers faster, smaller and more powerful.
• We have upwards of 50 micro processors in an automobile, and planes that carry hundreds of people to a destination in hours, thousands of miles away, instead of days or weeks.
• We have the Internet and billions of pages of information to learn from right at our fingertips.
• We have space shuttles that take our astronauts into space and back again in a matter of days. The Space Shuttle travels at a constant speed of 17,500 per hour.
• We have ways of turning goods into profits with people in a different country, and they pay the same moment that they make a decision to purchase, with the Internet and a credit card.
• We have companies like Wal Mart that bring in $4.5 billion in one week (yes billion with a “b”).
• We can hold meetings with others who might be 8,000 miles away, all in real time, and you can see them on the screen as you interact with them.
• We can cure deadly diseases and help people live normal lives that would not have been able to do so even 10 years ago.
• Credit card processing companies can process over $20 trillion (yes, trillion with a “t”) in one year.
• We can see planets through a telescope – 42 light years away. To put that into perspective, one light year is equal to 5,878,625,373,183 miles (that is 5.8 trillion miles). Pretty staggering once you think about the many advances that our society has made even in the past 100 years.

So what can a king who lived 3,000 years ago teach a society that is so far advanced in its culture? What could he possibly do for us in this day and age, and could his wisdom actually assist us in our current business practices?

For starters King Solomon can take us back to our humble beginnings and help us realize that although these things are wonderful inventions
to make our lives better and more productive, they don’t always remind us that we have a God that is providing us with so many blessings.

Solomon’s teachings can assist us in doing what is good, and what is right, and what can affect us for the eternities, not just in this life. I would dare say that the Proverbs of Solomon are more applicable today that they were 3,000 years ago.
I wrote Everlasting Wisdom with the intention that Solomon’s wisdom is even more applicable in business today… but don’t stop there. His wisdom continues to enlighten millions of people on all continents, and in many ways.

Solomon wrote: To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding. What is “wisdom” and why should we care
to achieve it in this lifetime? Wisdom is defined as “good sense and a wise attitude, belief, or course of action; the teachings of the ancient wise men.” To add to the “official definition”, I believe wisdom is a combination of:
• maturity,
• self confidence,
• reliance upon God,
• listening to your inner feelings, and
• being mature enough to accept the feelings that you experience.

I hope you buy the book and enjoy reading it…

http://www.brianhazelgren.com/books_cds.html

Making Choices

When I was growing up my Dad used to tell me to be wise in my choices of friends, choosing my career, and how I speak to others. He would remind me that there are people who would only look out for themselves and to always make sure that I could count on my friends to do the right thing. If my friends were unwise in their choices he expected me to exercise wisdom and make the right choice. I wish I could say that I carried out my father’s request to perfection.

If I had, I would not have made some of the stupid choices that I ended up making, and could have saved myself embarrassment, sleepless nights, and a little bit of sanity. Unfortunately even as an adult, I have sometimes relied on my perceived wisdom, and at times ignored the big picture.

I guess we all go through that at one point or another in our lives. You know it’s when we feel like we really want to do something, and then just “know” that we ought to do x_________. “I can make this work, because, well I’m me, and I can make anything work!” Yeah, that has been me in times past…the cavalier, the maverick, the eternal optimist.

Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with this confidence. I love to be around confident people, and consider myself to be one as well. I am still the optimist that believes we must follow some kind of executable plan. What I hope we can all start doing is exercising more wisdom in making decisions. My hope is that this book becomes the foundation for you to find wisdom. We can all learn from the pages penned by one of the most successful ruler’s in the world’s history.

My long time friend George once told me about the “five-finger friends” in life that we should all seek to find. You can usually count on one hand how many people you can count on in life, and that these were the five-finger friends that we should never have to worry about.

Life is based on a series of choices that we make and those choices form who we are, and who we can yet become. During the course of a normal day we end up making hundreds of choices that have an effect on that particular day. Those choices can also end up charting the course set for the rest of our lives. Take a deep breath, think about the potential consequences…and make the right decision.

Check out my book Everlasting Wisdom… http://www.brianhazelgren.com/everlasting_wisdom.html

Making Choices

When I was growing up my Dad used to tell me to be wise in my choices of friends, choosing my career, and how I speak to others. He would remind me that there are people who would only look out for themselves and to always make sure that I could count on my friends to do the right thing. If my friends were unwise in their choices he expected me to exercise wisdom and make the right choice. I wish I could say that I carried out my father’s request to perfection.

If I had, I would not have made some of the stupid choices that I ended up making, and could have saved myself embarrassment, sleepless nights, and a little bit of sanity. Unfortunately even as an adult, I have sometimes relied on my perceived wisdom, and at times ignored the big picture.

I guess we all go through that at one point or another in our lives. You know it’s when we feel like we really want to do something, and then just “know” that we ought to do x_________. “I can make this work, because, well I’m me, and I can make anything work!” Yeah, that has been me in times past…the cavalier, the maverick, the eternal optimist.

Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with this confidence. I love to be around confident people, and consider myself to be one as well. I am still the optimist that believes we must follow some kind of executable plan. What I hope we can all start doing is exercising more wisdom in making decisions. My hope is that this book becomes the foundation for you to find wisdom. We can all learn from the pages penned by one of the most successful ruler’s in the world’s history.

My long time friend George once told me about the “five-finger friends” in life that we should all seek to find. You can usually count on one hand how many people you can count on in life, and that these were the five-finger friends that we should never have to worry about.

Life is based on a series of choices that we make and those choices form who we are, and who we can yet become. During the course of a normal day we end up making hundreds of choices that have an effect on that particular day. Those choices can also end up charting the course set for the rest of our lives. Take a deep breath, think about the potential consequences…and make the right decision.

Check out my book Everlasting Wisdom… http://www.brianhazelgren.com/everlasting_wisdom.html

 

Increase Your Chances of Success

It’s estimated that in the United States, only about 30 percent of all startups are still in business after five years. In some states, the number is only about 10 percent. These are startling numbers; and, yet, they are somewhat understandable. Most small business owners are too busy to plan for the future, or at least they think they are too busy. The fact is, the better you understand the challenges ahead of you and the better you prepare yourself for those challenges, the more likely it is that you’ll be one of the survivors.

In my opinion, the two most common reasons that a business doesn’t succeed come down to (1) poor management because the owner lacks the necessary skills; or (2) money, either because the owner underestimates how much money it will take to start the business or they are under-capitalized. The following sections will address the first cause and will help you determine whether you have the necessary skills or, if not, how you may be able to acquire them.

Evaluating Your Chances for Success

Once you’ve decided that you have the right stuff to be an entrepreneur, you’re ready to determine whether your business idea has the right stuff. Before you pump your life savings into a small business, you want to know if it has a chance to succeed.

Here’s a look at the prime considerations for determining if your business idea has a chance to succeed:

• Market assessment— Is there a market for your product or service? If so, how much income can you expect to derive from it?
• Profitability assessment— How much will starting a new business cost you? Can you afford a lengthy “red ink” period following startup, as well as periodic lulls in cash flow? Can you afford to fail?
• Financing assessment— Will you be able to obtain the necessary financing for your business? If so, from where?
• Legal assessment— What potential legal liabilities are you exposing yourself to by starting a new business? Are the costs of protecting yourself worth the trouble?
• Researching your industry— How can you learn more about your chosen industry and about the resources that are available to help you?

Once you complete these assessments, you will be able to begin to understand the viability of the idea that you have. A closer look at the Free Enterprise Model may help you understand this cycle a little better.

www.brianhazelgren.com

Increase Your Chance of Success

It’s estimated that in the United States, only about 30 percent of all startups are still in business after five years. In some states, the number is only about 10 percent. These are startling numbers; and, yet, they are somewhat understandable. Most small business owners are too busy to plan for the future, or at least they think they are too busy. The fact is, the better you understand the challenges ahead of you and the better you prepare yourself for those challenges, the more likely it is that you’ll be one of the survivors.

In my opinion, the two most common reasons that a business doesn’t succeed come down to (1) poor management because the owner lacks the necessary skills; or (2) money, either because the owner underestimates how much money it will take to start the business or they are undercapitalized. The following sections will address the first cause and will help you determine whether you have the necessary skills or, if not, how you may be able to acquire them.

Evaluating Your Chances for Success

Once you’ve decided that you have the right stuff to be an entrepreneur, you’re ready to determine whether your business idea has the right stuff. Before you pump your life savings into a small business, you want to know if it has a chance to succeed.

Here’s a look at the prime considerations for determining if your business idea has a chance to succeed:

• Market assessment— Is there a market for your product or service? If so, how much income can you expect to derive from it?
• Profitability assessment— How much will starting a new business cost you? Can you afford a lengthy “red ink” period following startup, as well as periodic lulls in cash flow? Can you afford to fail?
• Financing assessment— Will you be able to obtain the necessary financing for your business? If so, from where?
• Legal assessment— What potential legal liabilities are you exposing yourself to by starting a new business? Are the costs of protecting yourself worth the trouble?
• Researching your industry— How can you learn more about your chosen industry and about the resources that are available to help you?

Once you complete these assessments, you will be able to begin to understand the viability of the idea that you have. A closer look at the Free Enterprise Model may help you understand this cycle a little better.

www.brianhazelgren.com

Learn to Dream

“If a man cannot dream he will soon be asleep to all the important things this life has to offer. If a man cannot pray he will soon only listen to himself. And if he has no charity for others he will soon be the only important thing in his pathetic existence.”  — Brian Hazelgren

Pro’s and Con’s of Owning a Business

Owning a small business is not just another job. It’s a totally different lifestyle. You have to ask yourself whether you’re ready for a complete commitment to the success of your business. Just as importantly, if you are in a relationship, you should ask your partner whether he or she is completely committed to supporting you in your efforts.

As a small business owner, you’re going to have less time for your personal life and you’ll probably be using much of what you own as collateral to raise money for the business. If you are willing to make those sacrifices, then let’s move on to some of the advantages and disadvantages of owning your own business.

Pros:

• You have the chance to make a lot more money than you can make working for someone else.
• You’ll be your own boss and make the decisions that are crucial to your business’s success or failure.
• You may be the boss of other people.
• You’ll have job security — no one can fire you.
• You’ll have the chance to put your ideas into practice.
• You may participate in every aspect of running a business.
• You’ll learn more about every aspect of a business and gain experience in a variety of disciplines.
• You’ll have the chance to work directly with your customers.
• You’ll be able to benefit the local economy, such as by hiring other people to work for you.
• You’ll have the personal satisfaction of creating and running a successful business.
• You’ll be able to work in a field or area that you really enjoy.
• You’ll have the chance to build real retirement value (for example, by selling the business when you retire).
• You’ll have the chance to put down roots in a community and to provide a sense of belonging and stability for your family.

Cons:

• You may have to take a large financial risk.
• You will probably have to work long hours and may have fewer opportunities to take vacations.
• You may end up spending a lot of your time attending to the details of running a business and less time on those things you really enjoy.
• You may find that your income is not steady and that there are times when you don’t have much income coming in at all.
• You may have to undertake tasks you find unpleasant, such as firing someone or refusing to hire a friend or relative, or collecting receivables.
• You may have to learn many new disciplines, such as filing and bookkeeping, inventory control, production planning, advertising and promotion, market research, and general management.

Specific pros and cons of the home-based business:

• Your startup costs will be lower.
• Your operating costs will be lower than they would be if you were renting space and paying utilities.
• Your commute will be shorter!
• If your location is unimportant to your business, you can theoretically live anywhere and still operate your business.
• You may be more flexible in your schedule if your business can be conducted at your convenience or outside “normal” weekday business hours.
• On the other hand, you’re much more vulnerable to interruptions from family members, neighbors, and door-to-door salespeople.
• You may have trouble attracting qualified employees.
• You may be less accessible to suppliers.
• You may worry about your image and about how it “looks” to work from home. However,  with the growing popularity of home businesses, such concerns are becoming far less common.
• You may run out of space at home as your business grows.

Whatever you choose to do, owning and operating a business is exhilarating, thrilling, challenging, highly rewarding, and yes, very difficult. I wish you the absolute best of luck in your launch and operation of a successful business, and will be looking for stories to be written about your incredible company!

 www.brianhazelgren.com