Why You Should Start a Business Rather than Have a Job

 

For most of us, there are two ways in which we can earn a living. We can either take up a job at some company where we get paid a regular salary with perks and incentives, or we can start a business of our own and earn the profits of whatever we sell. The former option is considered to be the more stable option, the more traditional one. That is why when most people think about what they would want to do in their lives, they think of nice cushy jobs that could pay them a large amount of money.

 

However, you should not completely denounce the second option either—starting a business of your own. Today, most of the people who are highly successful are those who have control over their lives in a professional manner of speaking. And this is only possible if you have a business. If you have your own company, however small, then you are your own boss. That even gives you more satisfaction from what you do.

 

It might have been true that businesses were difficult to start and manage once upon a time, but that is definitely not applicable in today’s world. Today, a lot of people are carrying out their business pursuits from the comforts of their home. The Internet has made it possible for all of us to be able to pursue our profession from our home itself—several people are managing entire virtual offices with dozens of employees from all over the world, just through their laptops.

 

But, the benefits of even these Internet based businesses are the same. You still get to be your own boss, you control your life, you have the option to work as much or as little as you want, which means you can decide on the size of the paycheck you get.

 

There is actually no point being in a job if you don’t want to. Why would you work for someone else when you could work for yourself so easily? If you have entrepreneurial skills, then it is certainly not a good idea to get into a job and work for mere wages.

 

So, plan your professional life well. Maybe you could consider a job if you are sure of growth and if the job is really good and from a very well-established company that pays handsomely, but if that is not the case, then a business is also not out of the realms of possibility either.

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Top 8 Tips for Delivering Your Elevator Pitch at Networking Events

You probably know how important networking is for maximizing your career. But it’s not always enjoyable. You can make networking a whole lot less painful by being prepared and by having your personal elevator pitch rehearsed and ready to go. 

 

Here are eight tips to help you polish your pitch for your next networking event. 

 

1.    Keep it punchy

 

A good elevator pitch should be no more than 45 seconds (yes, the average length of an elevator ride). It should be interesting, memorable, and brief, and you should feel comfortable delivering it. It should sound natural and not like an elevator pitch!

 

2.    Keep it focused

 

You can tailor your elevator pitch to the event. Are you there representing your organization or there to get your next sale or your next job? Keep your two- or three-line pitch focused on that objective. If the person you’re talking to is from the same sector or went to your college, include that to get their attention. If you have an existing connection, you can start to build the relationship there. 

 

3.    Mention your career experience or goals 

 

Be clear about your experience or your business goals. Tell them you’ve worked in 3D printing or horse-breaking for however many years, or that you’re an entrepreneur or a human right advocate. Mention any specializations without falling into jargon and make sure to steer away from too much detail.

 

4.    Mention your qualifications

 

If you have a diploma of jurisprudence or an MBA, mention them. If you’ve just graduated, you can specify your college major. You might want to include any significant achievements, leadership skills, or standout strengths. 

 

5.    Highlight what makes you unique

 

Think of what makes you stand out. Do you speak other languages? Have you worked or volunteered overseas? What unique qualities or experiences make you memorable?

 

6.    Include a question

 

Your elevator pitch isn’t a party piece that just finishes, and that’s it. It’s an invitation to continue the conversation. You should consider including an open-ended question, perhaps asking about the other person’s company or an opportunity to speak again. 

 

7.    Slow down!

 

In your eagerness to get your elevator pitch across, it’s easy to speak too fast or even appear desperate to impress. Remember to breathe, slow down, and smile! Make eye contact and allow the other person to respond. 

 

8.    Practice!

 

Above all, once you’ve written your elevator pitch, you should rehearse and refine until it’s second nature. Practice repeatedly with your partners, a friend, or even your dog. Practice in front of the mirror and observe your expression and body language. What image are you projecting? You want to look calm, confident and engaging. 

Three Rules To Help You Make A Good First Impression

Making a great first impression isn’t always easy, but it’s well worth attempting as much as you possibly can. To help you make it happen more often, here are three simple rules you should always follow. While they are not the only great advice on making a good first impression, they are the things that will have the biggest impact – whether you get them right or wrong. I suggest you get them right :) 

 

Rule #1 – Dress To Impress 

 

Pay attention to what you’re wearing. This may seem very superficial, but that’s what first impressions are all about. They are a first, quick judgment based on things like appearance. Overdress just a little if it’s an important first meeting like going to a job interview or meeting the future in-laws for the first time. 

 

At the very least make sure that what you’re wearing is neat and flattering. Don’t go crazy and when in doubt go for something somewhat conservative. You can always let your personality shine after you’ve made that great first impression. 

 

Rule #2 – Be On Time 

 

Another very important thing to remember is to always be on time. It makes you look prepared and reliable. But there’s another important reason for this. The world is made up of two types of people. The first group is a stickler for time. Being late is one of their biggest pet peeves. The other group has a more looseinterpretation of being on time and doesn’t mind waiting for someone for a few minutes, or being late themselves. 

 

The problem is that you never know what camp the person you’re about to meet will fall into ahead of time. So be prepared and make sure you get there on time or even a little early. It’ll look good no matter how the person you’re meeting will feel about time and it will definitely keep you from making a bad impression with a time stickler. 

 

Rule #3 – Think Before You Speak 

 

Last but not least, think before you speak. It’s easy to get nervous and just prattle on about anything and everything. It makes you look nervous and silly. Even worse, if you don’t think before you talk it’s very easy to put your foot in your mouth. Trust me, I’ve done it plenty of times. It’s not a good feeling and definitely a quick and easy way to ruin that first impression. 

 

Use Low-Ticket Offers to Boost Your Profits

A low-ticket offer, as a general guideline, is a product with a price tag of $50 or less. These low-cost items are usually digital products, like an eBook, video course, or resource guide. A low-ticket offer, if chosen wisely, is a powerful way to qualify leads and drive sales. 

 

As your prospects progress through your sales funnel, various offers direct them towards the ultimate destination: your core offer, a higher-priced item at the end of the funnel. 

 

By presenting prospects with a low-ticket item up top, you can gauge whether they have true customer potential or if they’re just freebie seekers. If they purchase your inexpensive offer, you can start building a relationship with them and priming them for purchase. 

 

Why Use Low-Ticket Offers?

 

There are several benefits to pitching low-ticket offers. 

 

Low-ticket offers provide you with another way to earn income. They are usually digital products, so they cost very little to produce and have no delivery or storage fees. It’s just an electronic file, so your margin is high, even if you’re only charging few dollars. Although the primary focus is your core offer, these small products can generate some money and offset any expenses associated with your higher-ticket items. 

 

The reason low-ticket offers work well near the beginning of a sales funnel is that they help to qualify leads. Many people who sign up for your lead magnet are only after the freebies. They’ll consume your content in exchange for their email address, but they have no intention of paying even a few dollars for a premium product. A low-ticket offer helps you identify these people right away. 

 

Low-ticket offers also help build relationships with new leads. By providing your target audience with an instant solution at a reasonable price, you establish trust and these customers will want to learn more. 

 

This inexpensive offer also provides an opportunity to demonstrate your expertise. Use your low-ticket offer to showcase your knowledge and the results you can deliver, and your customers will be more likely to purchase future offers with higher price tags. 

 

Low-ticket offers move prospects closer to your core offer and weed out those who won’t buy. It’s a low-risk and valuable lead qualification tool that costs very little to produce and distribute. 

 

The Key to Success: Know Your Audience

 

How do you maximize the effectiveness of your low-ticket offer? Get to know your audience. If you understand the issues they face, you can develop a low-ticket offer that will solve a particular problem for them and increase the likelihood of future purchases.

 

The best way to get a clear picture of your audience is to create an ideal customer profile. This process involves imagining your target audience as an individual – the one person who would most benefit from your core offer. Get to know their likes and dislikes, problems, and passions. This description will be a valuable tool when developing all of the offers in your funnel. 

 

One low-ticket offer isn’t going to completely transform the customer’s life, but it should offer a “quick win” and a concrete improvement, no matter how small. 

 

Creating Your Low-Ticket Offer Content

 

It’s not necessary to invest a lot of money into the production of a low-ticket offer. But what it can cost you is time and energy. Content creation can easily become a burden and a drain on your resources. 

 

Since the key to generating income with a low-priced product is to cut overhead, look for shortcuts to content creation. A few ideas include:

 

• Creating a smaller version of a bigger product. Extract a section of your core offer and transform it into a low-ticket item. 

• Offering a bundle of products. You can take several small pieces of existing content and put them together into a high-value bundle.

• Providing more content to help with your lead magnet. Make a resource guide, template, or tool that the customer can use to get more out of the free lead magnet they received from you.

• Repurposing existing content. Take content you’ve already created and alter it in some way, so it offers unique value.

 

The Right Timing for Your Low-Ticket Offer

 

The standard practice is to present prospects with a low-ticket offer at the beginning of the sales funnel, so you can start qualifying leads right away. But sometimes, it may be beneficial to engage with the prospect a bit more before pitching paid products. Think about your ideal customer and what they would prefer. For some people, and particular types of products, a low-ticket offer may be more appropriate later in the funnel. 

 

Or, conversely, you can offer a low-ticket item as a lead magnet, at the front of your funnel. To do this, you would create a dedicated landing page and drive traffic to it. Once they purchase it, customers are added to your email list, where you can then start communicating with them. 

 

There is no perfect place or time to present your low-ticket offer. Map out the customer journey through your sales funnel and experiment to see what works best for your target audience. 

 

Monitor Your Results and Make It Perfect

 

Track your results, check conversions, and then make the necessary adjustments. It will take some trial and error to perfect your low-ticket offer strategy, but once you do, it will be worth the effort. 

 

Are you ready to learn, step-by-step, how to create a low-ticket offer that will earn you more and qualify prospects for your core offer?

 

5 Advantages Of Living Intentionally

Living intentionally is the best way of attaining the things you desire and succeeding in your various fields of endeavor. It enables you to appreciate your journey to success and keeps you observant of opportunities. It improves your self-confidence by keeping you focused on your abilities, not your shortcomings.

 

Living intentionally means knowing the right steps to take. It means thinking about your moves before making them, and making time for things that are in line with your end goal. Living with intention enables you to live your life the way you see fit as opposed to how others see it.

 

Advantages Of Living Intentionally

 

1. Making smart decisions.

 

Living intentionally helps you to make smart decisions by making you more conscious of who you are and not on how other people see you. You are more capable of standing by what you believe in and you aren’t easily swayed by the opinions of others. Living intentionally helps you implement the kind of methods you strongly believe in. Methods that have the power to get you to your destination whether or not the next person believes in them. 

 

Intentional people keep their main goal in sight and never make room for distractions. That means when something comes along that isn’t in line with your values or beliefs you don’t compromise. You always think about the step you are about to take and find out how it impacts your vision before going ahead with it.

 

2. Seeing your vision clearer. 

 

Taking intentional actions and living an intentional life helps you see your vision clearer and keeps you believing in yourself. You understand that valuable things take time and appreciate the process that gets you to your destiny. Instead of complaining about the sacrifices you have to make along the way, you express your gratitude for the chance to do what’s necessary to get to where you intend to go.

 

3. Setting smart goals.

 

Everyone has goals but the reason why some people succeed in reaching them while others don’t is that those who succeed understand the importance of setting smart goals. An intentional life enables you to set smart goals because your plan of action is determined by what you want to achieve in the end. You learn to break down larger goals into smaller ones that you can work at daily. 

 

You think “What small step can I take right now that will get me a step closer to my goal today than I was yesterday?” Living intentionally helps you realize the significance of small steps that make a huge difference in the long run and keeps you moving forward.

 

4. Staying motivated.

 

We all need a bit of motivation now and then because motivation has the power to cause you to act when the odds are against you. It draws your attention to important things that have a noteworthy impact on your development, growth, and wellbeing. Motivation keeps you thinking “What can I do next?” “How best can I handle this” instead of “This has the potential to fail so, why act?” 

 

An intentional life is a life that fixes your attention on your abilities, the change you desire to bring about, as well as what you are expecting to achieve not what you are failing at. So, one of the main advantages of living intentionally is that you remain motivated to keep moving, keep trying, and keep believing. 

 

5. Taking risks.

 

“This may not turn out the way I’m expecting” “This may be too big a risk for me” are words and thoughts that stop you from taking big risks that have the potential of changing your life. Not being comfortable with taking risks is by far one of the main reasons why people never live the lives they desire. You think about all the reasons why that risk you are about to take will lead to your downfall and never go through with it. 

 

Nonetheless, the only way of advancing in life and living the life you want is by learning to take risks. Big or small. Be strong enough to take huge risks but be smart about it. Instead of allowing a promising bid, idea, or investment pass you by start thinking about all the right reasons why saying YES is going to work in your favor and go ahead with it.

 

Living with intention and being guided by intentional actions can help you recognize worthwhile risks that will impact your life positively. It eliminates your fear of taking chances on things that aren’t promising to other people and strengthens the faith you have in yourself when things work out.

 

Countless people who have managed to reach their highest aims and who continue to do so are risk-takers. So, become a risk-taker by living intentionally and discovering the link between certain risks and your goal. 

10 Habits For An Intentional Life

Habits are repeated action or an unconscious pattern of behavior. They affect all areas of our lives and determine how we make use of each day. We all know of good and bad habits and are probably struggling to let go of some bad practices. Unfortunately, there is nothing as hard as fighting against self. It is who you have been for a while and it takes time to let go of something that has become a part of you. However, if we are to live an intentional life and be successful in what we do, we will need to cultivate habits that are in sync with the life we want.

 

An intentional life is one where we carefully choose what to do and how we do it in order to achieve certain goals. It is a purposeful life. Needless to say, one needs to be principled to be able to live such a life. Below are ten habits that can help us stay principled as we seek to live an intentional life.

 

1.  Self-introspection – make it a habit to do a self-check. Sometimes we are our own stumbling blocks and we do not realize it. We behave in a self-sabotaging way. Therefore, we must learn to first look deep inside ourselves before we find anyone or anything else to blame for anything that is not going right in our lives. Look for your own weaknesses and areas that need to be improved and work on yourself. This will improve your relationships and your approaches as you work on your personal goals.

 

2.  Recite your life goals – this reminds you where each plan for the day is meant to take you. Remind yourself what you want to achieve every now and then. In other words, keep your eyes on the goal to avoid wasting time on things that do not bring value to your life.

 

3.  Say no – learn to say no to anything that is not in alignment with your goals. This includes saying no to your desires, your friends, and everyone else. Teach them to respect your routine and working time, and that your interests and goals matter too. Also, do not embrace excuses, they help you feel comfortable in your weaknesses. 

 

4.  Draw a lesson from each challenge you face – challenges happen for a reason. They could be from our own miscalculations of or from external forces. Regardless of the cause, there is always something to learn from them. These range from misunderstandings to failed businesses. Identify opportunities too where possible.

 

5.  Listen more and talk less – when you learn to listen more you learn more from others. You do not only get valuable information related to your dreams, but you also understand them better and improve relationships. Listening also gives you enough time to think before you talk or react. It also helps you understand the contents of a discussion and lessens the chances of a misunderstanding or conflict.

 

6.  Show appreciation – be grateful for your achievements and growth and learn to express genuine gratitude to others. An intentional life is nearly impossible to follow if one is ungrateful. The person tends to be driven by their desire to achieve more and they are never content. Such an attitude can drive a person to do anything including things that are out of character. Following a straight path feels like a burden. Appreciating what we have helps us stay calm and takes away focus from a single goal.

 

7.  Reward yourself for good work – we need to be easy going and not make everything about the future while forgetting to live in the present. Reward yourself when you achieve a goal or finish a task. It makes you feel good and motivates you to do more as you realize the results of committing to your goals. This further encourages you to cultivate more good habits. “When we give ourselves treats, we feel energized, cared for, and contented, which boosts our self-command — and self-command helps us maintain our healthy habits.” Gretchen Rubin.

 

8.  Do not spend more than enough time on the phone or television – social media, television, and games can be addictive. We should learn to limit the time we spend on them to avoid losing work and study time. 

 

9.  Rest when you need to – your body and mind require you to rest. Sometimes we stay up late trying to finish a task. Taking time to rest helps us refresh our minds such that when its time to return to the task our brains will function more efficiently and makes you more productive. Resting helps our muscles recover, reduces stress, gives us more energy, and improves our mood.

 

10. Control your spending habits – know how much you need to spend and on what. It is necessary to have a budget and controlling your spending habits can help you stick to it. Budgeting helps you keep in mind what is worth spending on. As we master how to control our spending habits, it becomes easier to reach our financial goals. 

Be An Intentional Person

“When I grow up I want to be a doctor. I like this job because it serves humanity in the most phenomenal way. Every day will be an opportunity for me to learn more about diseases and their cures. I see myself become so excellent at my job that people will refer each other to me for the best medical attention. Seeing my uncle parade the hospital in his white coat, stethoscope around his neck, and with a determined look on his face inspired me towards this dream. Seeing my dad recover and be discharged from the intensive care unit in a few days sealed it. I am going to study hard therefore to achieve this goal and then buy a big house in the suburbs and raise my beautiful, big, and happy family there.”

 

This is an extract from an essay I wrote at age eleven and I must say this was the style for most of my peers at that time. Some wanted to be accountants, teachers, soldiers, nurses, and so forth but the common ground for all of us was that we were made to imagine ourselves years into the future. That insight of oneself in the future was in no doubt a good thing, there is only one problem that I got to realize when I was older and that was the fact that this exercise which we repeated almost every year always only focused distant future. What if we had been asked to write about our future in the next five, two or one year? What would have been different had I been made to create an image of myself in a year or a school term? If the topic had been, “This coming month” instead of “When I grow up”?

 

The major goals of self in the next ten years are exciting, they show you that indeed you can create anything you want in this life. They revive hope for a future far ahead of the present but if they are not accompanied by smaller ones aiming at the nearer future, they are of no use. Most of those kids who said they wanted to become doctors including myself never became so. It all stayed put in our composition books. 

A few days ago, I listened with sadness as a grown woman who was soon to be evicted from a rented apartment said that she was waiting in hope for a solution concerning where she would go next. The more I tried to question her plan the greater the stress I seemed to put her under so I gave up. It was right then that it struck me how important it is to be an intentional person. I quickly realized the importance of a plan, not just a fantasy about the future in the next five or ten years but a plan that affects one’s choices and actions today.

 

Intentional people don’t collide with their destiny, they create it; block by block. They are strong-willed and determined to get the best out of life. These are the people who wait for nobody to help them, they strategically gather the help they need and use it. This is the breed of winners that train their emotions to follow their actions and not the other way round. Rarely are these people surprised by the turnout of events because every day they take calculated moves towards their clear goals. 

 

Be that person who is intentional. Become that person today who has plans for today, tomorrow, the week, and the month in an effort to reach your epitome in the next three, five, or ten years. Refuse to let life constantly take you by surprise, fight to sit on the driver seat of yours every day, and head towards your most excellent self. Have answers for the whys around your behavior and circumstances. If you are on a job you dislike, let it be because it pays your bills now as you strategize on how to get the one that resonates with your soul.

 

Permission and validation from someone else may never come, give it to yourself today. What if you started by commanding joy into your day and your life as a whole? Let me assure you that you would lose your temper less often if you did. You would be less confused, less discouraged, and less frustrated. Intentionally smile at that person who gets on your nerves and watch as your relationship evolves into something pleasant. Deliberately give to the poor even while you feel that you are also going through a rough patch in your financial life. The law of giving and receiving will not let you down.

 

In all this, set out to be fruitful and progressive. Make false starts, run out of breath, and then pause to take a break, head in the wrong direction sometimes and then bring yourself back to your lane. The adventure involved in doing all this is worth it. Just because you have structure doesn’t mean you will get it right all the time. Be willing to make the moves, all the same, if you have a clear intention of where you are going you will definitely reach there. 

 

Contributed Article

Be Intentional In The Goals You Set

Here is one thing most people love the sound and idea of but struggle to make a reality. Goals! We all know that goals do get us somewhere. Well, if followed through. Goal setting has become a popular theme for the first two months of each year. However, the energy eventually dies down as the year progresses. Then the question is, is what we normally do at the beginning of each year goal setting or just excitement and, simply writing down wishes? And yes, there is a difference between wishes and goals. A wish is a desire or hope for something to happen whereas a goal is defined as the ‘object of a person's ambition or effort; an aim or desired result’. Or, maybe it is goal setting and the only problem is that we are not being intentional about it.

 

We need to be intentional in our goal setting. Being intentional in goal setting means going beyond setting targets. Instead of starting from what we admired from other people, it starts with self-searching and establishing who we are now, and who we want to be in the future. What is its significance? We may ask. Well, here is why we need to be intentional when we set our goals.

Goals as we know them – goals are aims that are meant to connect two points of our lives; where we are in the present and where we want to be in the future. Therefore, to make sure that our path to who we want to be is clearly pronounced, our goals must be set with the intention to direct our steps towards the route that will help us reach our destination. In other words, our goals must be drawn from our purpose and not the other way round. Without being intentional in our goal setting, we would go back and forth and sideways.

Pressure from family – we have families that are doing well in life and it is a blessing to have them support us in everything we do. However, sometimes family including spouses can be so controlling to a point that we lose our individuality and as a result, we give up some of our dreams or temporarily put them aside. We need to learn to be in control of our lives. No one knows better the desires hidden deep inside our hearts than we do. Also, family may not always be there to take care of things and fix our lives for us which may force us to only learn to figure out the reality of life at later stages of our lives or when we are left with no other choice but to get up and act. To maintain our individuality, we need to be honest about who we really are and set goals that best suit our personalities. It allows us to live life to the fullest and reduces the chances of having regrets about the time lost while living in the shadow of other people. 

Pressure from social spaces – the world has become more like a global village. Everything happening all over the world and in our communities is easily accessible. We can’t lie about this, our social media has the most beautiful things we can see and the most inspiring stories in the world. The content is captivating. But we shouldn't ignore the fact that some if not all the posts we see are just captured moments and not the entire truth about life. Being intentional in the goals we set reminds us of who we are and protects us from social pressures. Setting goals based on other people’s ‘achievements’ or ideas may confuse and depress us. We may not have a connection with the goals besides that it might get us money fast or help us fit in. When you are intentional in the goals you set, you are content with your part and you are not easily enticed by other people's lifestyles, which may not even be real.

Finding the meaning of life and appreciating the journey – as mentioned previously intentional goal setting gives life a direction. Knowing what we are living for and what we are aiming at gives us determination and persistence. These help us connect to our life journey and find fulfillment in each and every achievement. Intentional goal setting allows us to experience life for what it is and face challenges head-on. There is no better teacher than that. In the end, the journey is traveled with a clear conscience. An intentional life is a sure ticket to learning to appreciate life and experience genuine happiness. 

Motivation and strength to do your daily activities – when your goals are intentional, you have a good reason to wake up and do something with your life. You know what you are working for, if it’s a relationship, you know why you are in it and don't struggle to prioritize your goals. You cannot afford to waste time or give less. When your goal setting is not intentional, it gets easy to put them on hold and focus on other things.

Commitment – when your job or relationship has a strong link with who you want to be in the future, you feel compelled to commit and give it your all. It is your future after all.