The title of this short article asks the question: Home Based Businesses, are they real? Well, a bit of a silly question you may think. Of course they’re real. But, with one caveat…if they work for you! What I mean by that is, there are an abundance of Home Based Businesses out there, some better than others, but the one critical criteria will always remain, will it work for me?Let’s take a step back before we move forward. Most of us are in the ‘Rat Race,’ right? We are destined to work for approximately 40 hours per week, for about 40 years of our lives and then retire on approximately 40% of what we used to earn if we are very fortunate. In reality, most of us will stumble through painful periods of our work life and almost certainly never attain that magic 40% income in retirement. So, the upshot is we work with someone else pulling our strings, dictating our time off, the holidays we take, the car we drive and ultimately the amount of money we can have when we retire. Remember, this is a version of a good scenario; it’s still a very real version of ‘The Rat Race.’Now, back to Home Based Businesses, are they real?Well, that is subjective. How much do you want to get away from ‘The Rat Race’ and how much are you willing to put up with it like the majority of your neighbours? Right there is the determining factor. That question on its own will separate the wheat from the chaff, the boys from the men, so to speak.You see, of course there are some scams out there in the big wide world of Home Based Businesses or Online Businesses BUT, almost without exception, for the real opportunities that are available to virtually everyone; it’s your level of desire, your ‘want,’ your determination, that will ultimately decide whether or not a Home Based Business is real.Do you get it? I mean it, do you really get it? Without wishing to labour the point, if anyone goes at ANY business half-heartedly, they will, without exception, fail. There is no grey area here, commit or don’t even bother getting started, is my strongest advice.The problem with Home Based Business you see is that most of us are actually conditioned to be satisfied, almost to the point of believing we are utterly secure, with ‘The Rat Race’ and today more than ever, nothing could be further from the truth, what an economic mess the world is in! Whilst we have this ‘warm feeling’ that ‘The Rat Race’ gives us, then almost any Home Based Business that an individual may start or get involved in will simply not work and therefore will be labelled as ‘not real.’They are of course very real in most cases, but until an individual takes a massive, and I mean massive, attitude adjustment and realise that Home Based Businesses won’t work whilst you’re still holding tightly onto the promise of a pitiful pension from ‘The Rat Race,’ then the internet and the TV watchdog programmes will be littered with reports that Home Based Businesses aren’t real or are some kind of scam. They’re wrong.
Small Business Websites – Why A Small Business Website Does Not Produce Results
When a small business decides to take their business online there are usually several mistakes that they do. This is partially due to lack of experience and often lack of knowledge. There seems to be a trend that small businesses think of their website as an online business card instead of a marketing tool. That is where the majority of them go wrong. So let’s take a look at some of the most common mistakes done when a small business takes their business online.
1. Order of links
So many times you visit a small business website and they proudly flag the “about us” link as their first link. This is called the pride link because they often think that telling people about the company is the most important thing. The links should be in order of importance. Not in the order of the business owners EGO! If you use a website designer and he does consult you on the order of links, chances are you should be using someone else or at least make sure you educate yourself about online marketing because your website designer sure hasn’t!
2. No focus
Most small business websites lack focus. When you enter you are not sure where to go next which makes it hard for the user to understand exactly what he is supposed to do. The website should flow and the user should be able to make sense of the site within a few seconds of opening it up.
3. No sale / No lead setup
Many small businesses do not use their website to increase sales directly or capture leads. It is nothing more than an online brochure or business card. Sometimes the information is more confusing than it is helpful. If you competitors site is easier to navigate and captures either the sale or lead, you just lost a client. A small business websites needs to be even more on top of catching leads than a corporate website because every client lost counts more!
4. No analytics
Most small business websites have no clue what people do when they enter their site. No clue what users are really looking at and where they are losing their potential sale or lead. If customers just walked in and out of their place of work eyebrows would be raised and something would be done. Shouldn’t the same thought process apply to the site? You need to know what is going on with your small business website and what users are doing.
5. No marketing purpose
This is the biggest “Whammy” of them all. Small business websites tend to fail seeing the potential of using the website as a complete marketing tool. The fundamental reason to take a business online would be to do marketing. The lack of marketing vision explains the mistakes from above. If just this single piece was in place when a small business builds their website, many of the other things would be solved because they would educate themselves about what it means to have a marketing tool!
6. No results!
This is no surprise considering everything above. If there is no purpose, no focus, no vision and no marketing thought behind the site then there are probably no results from the site either. What is even worse is that most small business websites do not even measure results or understand how to measure results from their site. Once again it is a lack of understanding more than anything!
So what can a small business do when they are ready to take their business online and setup their small business website? The most important thing is to educate themselves in a few areas. The most important ones being, what you need to consider before building or having someone build your website. How to use the website as a marketing tool and it would be extremely beneficial to you if you at least had some understanding of what SEO is and how it works. What is the difference between a website designer, website developer and an online marketing company? All of them do different things and have a different understanding of how to use the internet; the question is what purpose is your website supposed to serve? For most it should be a marketing tool, because the internet is the most effective marketing tool available!
If you own, operate, manage or you are starting up a small business then we suggest that you take a look at the 10make90: Get your website up right. (Can be found on www.10thatmake90.com [http://www.10thatmake90.com]). It is a great resource for small businesses looking to build a website and take the step online. You can find all the basic information you need to know before taking that step and taking your business online. Make sure that you are utilizing the power of the internet fully as a small business. The rate of businesses that fail is high enough; at least make sure your business is getting all the leads and sales that it can be getting. Don’t make the same mistakes that others are doing, it takes so little effort for you as a small business owner to avoid those common mistakes!
Education in Canada
The average earnings of the residents of Ontario are the highest in Canada. Ontario also spends the most money on post-secondary education, has the greatest number of residents of any province with post-secondary education, and the largest work force in education and related fields. Other provinces that lack the educational investment of Ontario have a lower average salary. Several factors affect the average salary, so in order to minimize variation, only Canadian provinces are compared to each- other. As such, three major factors were identified through analyzing statistical information. Therefore, spending on post-secondary education, the number of residents with a diploma or degree and the work force in the field of education directly affect the average yearly earnings of the residents of a Canadian province.
Ontario is the larges province in Canada and also the biggest spender on education. Ontario spends almost as much as Quebec and B.C. combined. However, Ontario is also the most populous province in Canada and as such, the ratio of money spent to residents is not much different than any of the other provinces. In Ontario’s case, the government spends less per capita on education, yet the statistics show that it yields a greater return economically. The number of residents of a province with post-secondary education also affects the average salary because businesses are more likely to locate their corporate offices or production facilities in an area where they can easily secure highly educated employees.
Ontario’s achievements in efficiency and also its ability to produce and maintain the highest number of post-secondary residents out of all of Canada’s provinces is in no small part due to the educational work force, which includes support staff, teachers and professors, administration and other workers too numerous to mention.
Investing in education has shown to improve a province, and in turn a country not only in its cultural wealth but its monetary wealth as well. By having a properly funded system with quality educators as well as creating a tradition of education, the population of a country can obtain higher wages. Introduction:
The average earnings of the residents of Ontario are the highest in Canada. Ontario also spends the most money on post-secondary education, has the greatest number of residents of any province with post-secondary education, and the largest work force in education and related fields. Other provinces that lack the educational investment of Ontario have a lower average salary. Several factors affect the average salary, so in order to minimize variation, only Canadian provinces were compared to each- other. As such, three major factors were identified through analyzing statistical information. Therefore, spending on post-secondary education, the number of residents with a diploma or degree and the work force in the field of education directly affect the average yearly earnings of the residents of a Canadian province.