• Will becoming self-employed meet my career goals?
• Am I willing to work long hours each day?
• Do I have skills in a profession, trade, or hobby that can be
  converted into a business?
• Does my idea for a business effectively use my skills and
  abilities?
• Am I a good planner and organizer?
• Can I make my own decisions?
• Am I willing to postpone my plans in order to get more education,
  if necessary?
• Does my family support my endeavor?
• Can I afford the financial and emotional risks if the business fails?

Adapted from OOQ Article

Image by Kal Brinker

For related information on Careers.org:

• Browse thousands of Occupational Profiles organized by Career Field
• Find available job listings in your local area through our Employment Center
• Find a relevant education opportunity that matches your goals and interests with our Online Degree Finder

Find the complete New York Times article here.

Encouraging News: Now living longer and healthier lives, America’s generation of baby boomers may have the experience and skills necessary to achieve entrepreneurial success even in their retirements.

For full HeraldNet article: “For many boomers, retirement is a time…“

For full Entrepreneur article: “Start a Business Without Going Broke.“

“When you put up your own money and operate your own business, you prize your independence. It’s MY business, you can tell yourself, in good times and in bad.

In a family company, however, it’s OUR business.

When family members work together, emotions may interfere with business decisions. Conflicts may arise as relatives see the business from different perspectives. Those who are silent partners, stockholders and directors are likely to judge capital expenditures, growth and other critical matters primarily by dollar signs. Those engaged in daily operations are more likely to be concerned about production and sales figures and personnel matters. Obviously, there is potential for conflict.

In some family companies, daily operations are hampered by conflict; in others, the challenge is a high turnover rate among nonfamily employees. Growth also may be a dilemma if some relatives are reluctant to plow profits back into the business. Conflict in the business also can be aggravated by family members who have little talent for money or business — the offspring of company founders who lack business acumen or in-laws who must be employed without regard to their ability or the company’s needs.

The manager of a family-owned business faces the same challenges as the owner-manager of any small company. However, the job of family manager may be complicated by relatives who must be reconciled to working together in a business.
This publication discusses such challenges from the viewpoint of the family member who is the company’s manager or who is involved in management. It offers suggestions to help you manage effectively and profitably.”

Read Entire SBA Article Here

Home Business/Entrepreneur: Failure to control distractions is an easy way to put an otherwise promising home business out of business.

For full Young Entrepreneur article: “Having the right personality to work at home.“

“DevHub is a free website publishing platform with full monetization capabilities. We bring hosting, publishing tools, API integrations, and exclusive partnerships together into an easy to use ecosystem of reusable building blocks for accelerated development.”

DevHub.com

Although the concept of SEO can be somewhat complex, there are a number of basic search engine optimization practices you should note before starting any SEO related activity. These basic principles are essential for any web page or website for which you are attempting to optimize. Keep in mind that these are just some of the fundamental SEO practices you should consider.

1. MetaTags

Metatags are simple lines of code at the top of your page (source code) that tell the search engines about your page. I recommend that you be sure to include the following meta tags: title (no more than 7 words and unique for each page), keywords, description, author, and robots tag. The robots tag instructs the search engines to read all or some of your website.

2. Create or update your sitemap

Developing a site map is a simple yet highly effective way of giving search engines the information they need to crawl your entire website. This ensures that the engine has an up-to-date record of your pages and content. The key to improving search engine results is making it easy for your website pages to be located and crawled. There is free software on the web (like www.xml-sitemaps.com) that helps you generate a sitemap. Once you create a sitemap for your website, submit to Google and Yahoo. Additionally, place a link to the site map on your home page.

3. Ensure that all navigation is in HTML

Too often I see navigation in the form of java script or images. Even though the navigation technically still works in this format, it’s not optimized. The benefit of creating your navigation in HTML is that you consistently build internal links throughout your website by keeping the navigation constant and easily identified by search engines.

4. Check that all images include ALT text

Your image alt text is spidered by search engines. If you’re not including your keywords in your alt text, your missing out on a huge opportunity for improved search engine result placement. Be sure to label your images appropriately and they may even show up as the number one result on Google. Additionally, Google has a database of images (Google Image Search) that indexes pictures as well.

5. Use Flash content sparingly

As mentioned earlier, content generated through java script or flash is a big no-no. Some webmasters like to use flash because of the presentation. It’s okay to use sparingly, but only after your site has been properly optimized with basic SEO in mind.

6. Make sure that important page elements are HTML

Keep in mind when optimizing a web page crawlers are basically only looking at your source code. Anything you’ve put together using an image or other multimedia component is likely to be invisible to search engines. Therefore, the most important elements of your page, where the heart of your content is presented, should be presented in W3C optimized HTML source code.

7. Place keywords in your page content the right way

I’m sure you’ve heard the importance of placing the right keywords or keyword phrases in your content. To show the search engines that your article is focused on a particular keyword or keyword phrase, be sure to sprinkle it throughout the content. Additionally, include your keyword in headers and sub-heads. That is to say that your keyword should be contained in an h1, h2, or h3 tag.

Learning to optimize your website for search engines takes time and most of all, patience. Start with the basic principles I’ve outline here and you’re off to a good start. If you’re new to SEO, or even a well seasoned veteran, begin by prioritizing which pages are most important for you to optimize. Sometimes people think that they need to optimize all their pages right away and the task becomes too overwhelming. Start small, begin with your primary and/or secondary pages, and go from there.

*Michael Fleischner is a Marketing Expert and Search Engine Optimization Specialist. He has more than 12 years of marketing experience and had appeared on The TODAY Show, Bloomberg Radio, and other major media. Visit MarketingScoop.com for further details and more free marketing articles.

A freelancer will need to keep abreast of the latest developments to be able to compete in the highly competitive freelance market. This requires long hours of reading and researching, understanding the needs of the market. You need to maintain constant contact with the trends in the market and needs of the clients and see where your services can be used.

Because of the highly competitive nature of the freelance market, assessing your skills and marketing your work effectively forms the basis of a long-lasting freelance career. You can offer your services in areas that you are passionate about, that you have enough knowledge of, and where you are sure you can do a great job. There are various fields to choose from, like web designing, writing, accounting, proof reading, medical transcription, programming, graphic designing, photographer, translator, illustrator and thousands of others. Decide on your niche in which you are competent to offer your services.

The next step is to get your resume or profile ready. A resume should be exceptionally well written, be able to sell your strengths to your potential clients. Do not make it complicated, keep it simple, using short easy to read paragraphs, clearly outlining your qualifications or any experience you may have. The resume should be a reflection of your personality and at the same time professional.

Remember, once you are out there, you only have a short time to make an impact on your potential client. This can make the difference between getting hired or losing out on a project. There are several freelance job boards and you need to find the right one. It is worth investing your time in the beginning to see what the different boards out there are and see what suits your needs. If you were a freelance writer, you definitely would not want to waste your time on a site for designers. Another very important thing to take into consideration is to see who your competitors are. If there are people that are offering prices that you cannot beat and you feel the prices are not worth your effort, then do not waste your time sticking on there.

Once you have decided on the board, enter the details of your already prepared resume or profile. Although, this is time consuming, entering this in each and every board you choose is needed. This is an essential tool to get you going and that’s the first thing clients see before going further.

Getting freelance jobs when you are just starting off takes time and you should have the patience to keep marketing yourself until you land yourself that first job. One of the most common mistakes people make is to bring their prices down when they do not land themselves a job. Remember never ever sell yourself short. Bid a fair price, that is not too high or too low, making sure it is worth your time. The people looking for freelancers need you. Never show desperation because that will have an impact on your future bids.

Freelance jobs can provide a steady income and satisfaction of being your own boss. Just be smart and market yourself the right way, with clear communication. Nothing will stop you from having a glorious growing online freelance business.

When a Winnipeg factory owner traveled recently to Toronto to drum up some venture capital to start a facility there, he had a tough time getting attention. But then New Brunswick beckoned with an offer he couldn’t refuse. The province ponied up a forgivable loan, while the federal government provided a repayable contribution and covered the cost of a lease. The value of the deal? Nearly $3 million.

“The federal and provincial governments identify regions that need job stimulation, and they’re willing to invest heavily in those areas,” says Byrne. “If you’re in a position to make the move, you could be wooed financially.”

He advises that you should expect the process to take longer than it would with a straightforward grant or loan, and that you should be prepared to provide some guarantees of your own, such as the number of employees you’ll hire within a certain period.

“There’s another advantage to considering a move,” says Byrne. “If you’re an employer and your regional government knows you’re thinking of pulling up stakes, they might just come up with some incentives of their own to get you to stay.”

Would you like to receive money to launch and grow your own business too? There are monies available now for qualified existing