How To Do Business.

Author Janet Horsley - How To Do Business

From My Years As A Business Consultant

My name is Janet Horsley and I'm one of the co-owners of You And Me Enterprises.

This, in turn makes me co-editor of Better Business Builder .com Newsletter - (It's one of my many hats.) I have decided to add this section to our newsletter because it occurred to me one morning when I was thinking - those who know me would say "Uh-Oh!" - about why it is that so many people are not making money on the Internet.

Sure, you see "Hot-shot" programs out there..."join now and we'll build your down-line," and "secrets..." and some others I can think of but don't want to waste your time by attacking them. But if you really take the time to talk with some of them, and if you do the math, you'll realize that a Vast majority, are not making money.

I've been in business for eleven years now. For ten of those years I ran one of the most successful Business Consulting Firms in South Carolina. I didn't get there entirely by luck either.

I learned to do all sorts of things I never even dreamed had to be done.

I'm not exactly why this was but, I can give it an educated guess, I liked what I did and I wanted to do it for myself.

I had two sons, ages 6 and 2, and I was single - in fact, freshly divorced, when I started my first company. I had finally accomplished my dream of becoming an entrepreneur. I was proud the day I signed the contract with my parents who'd, agreed to back me financially. I was also very young and very naive. I'd been a management consultant for years for other businesses...collection agencies and medical professional organizations and figured it would be a piece of cake.

Fortunately, I'd had just enough training in running a business - by working closely with the owners of these businesses - that I knew where to turn to get information. My very first day I went to the library and made a "bee-line" for the card catalogue. Looking for the How-To's, on business startup, I found this wonderful book written by a leading consultant in his day. This is when the "OH $*&^$" started. I found out I needed a business plan...and a budget....and a marketing system....and a bookkeeping system....and, oh no, an inventory system.... and this list grew bigger and bigger by the page of that book.

I knew how to run other people's businesses....they called me after the afore-mentioned chores were already completed. This is when I found out that I had previously been and operational manager. Oh, my! I really didn't know much about running a business,

Knew how to manage people,… knew how to handle finances, had done some budgeting, but, I had a long way to go and a short time to get there to be prepared.

I'd told my parents we'd be successful and I couldn't let them down. Quite honestly,

I might not have lived it down. So I read many how-to books and slowly and painstakingly put together our business that, once I got set up, took off and made exceptionally good money.

Now I'm not talking about millionaire's money but, I am talking about the kind of good money that let me take care of two very rapidly growing boys, by myself and without child support or any other assistance. The kind of good money that let me take them to the waterslides and the beach and camping several times a year. By the time I got out of the business, I'd done well in raising my baby. (My own business)

But, back to the subject matter of why it is people don't make money on the Internet.

I was able to answer my question when I compared my other business, and my current business to the businesses I see online. And the answer is? Well, it's simple but, Complex. It's a many part answer as well.

People who are building businesses on the Internet these days are primarily folks who for whatever reason, want to run a home business. They've heard there's money to be made on the Internet and so they're going to try their luck at it.

We've already established the fact that it takes much more than luck in the first couple paragraphs of this article. It's like anything else you do. You have to plan, you have to invest, you have to sacrifice, you have to organize, You have to have a "never say die" attitude... And if you don't have all of this....well, then you have to go about getting it.

I learned many times over how to "get it". I did it each and every time I helped a client recover from his/her business problems, or change direction. I did it personally. I got it...and the first secret to "getting it" is to realize you never fully "get it." I didn't, and I doubt seriously, if anyone could find a business person who doesn't have anything left to learn.

People change. That means businesses, including types of businesses and how we conduct them, change. The more people we have, the quicker the changes.

Primarily it starts with attitude...how you feel about your business. If you think of it as a hobby, well...think again. Yes, it's true to start a business doing something you love, but there's a reason for that. You have to love what you do because the parts of the business you don't know will require so much attention that you'll hate them...but you have to do them to succeed. The fact that you do what you love to do makes you stay committed however. That's a good thing.

Anyway (I keep getting off track here) if you want to run a successful business you have to know what to do and where to go. Very few of these home-based business programs that promise you wonderfully "VIRALED" responses to your business efforts actually help you get there. Know why? Well, they're people like you and me...they're running businesses on the Internet too. Sometimes they make it and sometimes they don't. They have the same problems in business that we do, and they face them everyday, just like us.

Most folks are simply looking to be an entrepreneur. They don't know how to go about getting the information they need to really RUN a business. Many of them are trying to start a business on a shoestring...which can be done, by the way.

I started my first business on $650.00.

For the next several months, I will be writing this column with subjects such as:

The How-To's of Business.

How To, Be A CEO and an Operations Manager, and a Receptionist

How-To Set Up Your Bookkeeping System!

Not for tax purposes but, so you'll know how to know what's going on with your business, and other similar topics.

How-To, Organize!

How To, Set Up and Run A Marketing System, (the basics behind it)!

How To, Treat Your Customers!

Basically, how to wear the many hats you'll have to wear.

Until next issue,

keep your nose to the grind stone and you will be there before you know it!