Finance Book

Project management is simply managing

what has to be done when it needs to be done within certain cost constraints

Did you know that a lot of what we do in our everyday lives is very similar to project management? Can you answer YES to any of these questions:

have you arranged a holiday? have you hosted a dinner party? have you built or purchased a house or done renovations to your home? have you organised a surprise party for someone? have you arranged a picnic with a group of friends

All of the tasks listed above require you to use project management skills. You need to work out what you want to achieve, put together a plan of how you’re going to achieve it, work out whose help you need to pull it off, and you set a budget.

For a holiday – you might delegate a lot of this work to your travel agent, and similarly to your Builder for building a house. But for things like organizing a surprise party, you need to:

work out who’s invited select a time and location send out the invitations organize catering (or bring a plate) arrange music organize where everyone will park to keep the party a surprise work out a cover story for the guest of honor

If you think that doesn’t take project management skills – think again! And do you know what skill I think is the most critical? Common sense (or pragmatism).

If I had a dollar for every Project Manager who “talks the talk” at the start of a project, I’d be a very rich woman. And if I had a dollar for every Project Manager who successfully delivers what they set out to (who “walks the walk”), I’d be a very poor woman. And why is that? Because most people get lazy and take their eye off the ball.

It’s easy to start a project, create a nice looking Project Management Plan, and set up lots of important meetings. But when things start to go wrong, many people go to pieces, overreact, or focus on the really non important stuff (like whether their status report makes them look bad). Common sense, especially when it comes to being able to prioritize effectively, and knowing when to compromise, is a key skill for a project manager. I’d take this over a university degree any day!

Give me someone who can sort the wheat from the chaff; who knows not to sweat the small stuff; who knows when they can afford to compromise and when not to, rather than standing their ground just for the sake of it.

By: Diane Ellis

I’ve had a little over 150 “hops” to the ClickBank products that I am promoting and I wanted to find ways to better my chances of conversions and for getting even more traffic as well.

What I found was a source that ended up being extremely informative. Usually when I do a search for article marketing or “get more traffic” I get a bunch of hype or just plain crap that is common sense and is pretty much useless information, but the source I’m about to summarize is fantastic, very informative, and actually provided me with a greater marketing strategy.

The source I am speaking of is Rosalind Gardner’s Super Affiliate Handbook. I have read through quite a few ebooks claiming to teach you “secrets” and such about affiliate marketing, but they end up being just a huge promo prompting you to buy even more ebooks. Rosalind Gradner’s handbook is nothing like that.

To summarize what her book covers, here is a list of the major topics of what the book is comprised of:

Intro To Affiliate Marketing – Rosalind really breaks down exactly what affiliate marketing is and what it’s about. She covers what the business is about, 6 ways that affiliates earn money, an overview of the business building process, and tells you the software that may help you, and gives you service and organization tips as well. How To Find A Profitable Niche – In this chapter Rosalind tells you what it takes to find and/or make a niche profitable for you and even shows you how to find out what the demand and competition for that particular niche are. Plan And Build Your Site – This chapter covers every aspect you need to know about building a professional website including: domain names, web hosting, blog setups, themes and design. She makes a point to clearly define all that you need to do to make a site that will help you make even more even on a budget. Content Really is King – Rosalind discusses how and why content is so important to your success. She also goes over 6 ways to build your content, gives you her list of 5 “must have” website pages, tells you how to plan your content around keywords and categories to help you rank better in SEO (search engine optimization), and explains how to make your site “Google friendly”. Monetize Your Site – Anything and everything that is legitimate and will make your site profitable for you is listed in detail in this chapter. 31 Ways to Market Your Site (I especially love this chapter simply because it not only applies to your website, but even how to market your individual articles and products) – This chapter details 31 methods of marketing. From email marketing to social bookmarking, you will find a vast amount of information that will help you get out there and have your content noticed. If you don’t read anything else throughout this book, READ THIS CHAPTER. Manage Your Business – Rosalind gives you a great schedule of tasks that you should be doing daily, weekly, monthly, and even yearly to keep track of your business. She teaches you how to really treat this like a business and to learn how to improve your business as it moves along. Grow Your Business – This chapter discusses how to negotiate raises (yes it is possible once you reach a certain status) and also goes over even more ways to make profit from your business. Problem Solving and Annoyances – As with any business, you may run into a few minor issues here and there. This chapter tells you how to get through them and prevent them from happening in the future. There is also a list of 25 things to avoid as an affiliate that are very helpful tips.Overall this book has been a tremendous blessing. This has been the first book that I have found that has actually covered EVERYTHING that I wanted to know. And it has helped me to better my marketing campaigns and I am glad that I picked it up so early on into my 2 month long journal.

If you’re planning on getting into selling on ClickBank, Plimus, or any other affiliate program, I highly recommend you grab a copy of this to read through. It’s worth it’s weight in gold.

Again the book is The Super Affiliate Handbook by Rosalind Gardner.

My research took up a good portion of my day, but I also managed to put up a couple of free blogs to use for promotional purposes as well. If you choose to use free blogs I would recommend using either Wordpress or Blogger. Both platforms are great and actually rank well in Google.

By: Bradley James Jones

“I want to start my own business and be my own boss!” Sound familiar? It may, because nearly 95 percent of people have this pass through their thoughts at some point in their working lifetime.

“Get rich quick” schemes never work. Yet we are repeatedly bombarded with TV and other advertizing promising us riches and status if we join their programs to gain “financial success.” But regardless of if the program they offer is a valid means of making an income or being successful, the truth is, new businesses rarely show any amount of profit in their first two years.

It has been estimated that as many as 90 percent of new businesses fail in their first year. Lack of planning is the number one cause of new business failure; “financial planning” tops that list. Being financial smart is perhaps your best chance at success. Follow the basic guidelines listed here:

Avoid business loans requiring the collateral of your home. Never mortgage (or sell) your home to finance your business. Never use a credit card to start or operate a new business. Keep your business idea in proportion with the amount of money you have available.

Use common sense; if your means of financing your new business might potentially put a strain on your personal finances, look for other means to support the new venture. One should NEVER try starting a business to “save” a poor personal financial situation, unless the new business requires no monetary investment and can eventually supplement the personal income. Consider a business which utilizes your skills or services and requires little or no financial investment to start.

Be financially prepared to survive your first two years in a new business. Allow for personal income needs as well as the businesses financial requirements. You may need to “keep your day job” until the business gets established.

Better to be one of the 10 percent of new businesses who succeed, rather than facing financial and emotional devastation due to poor financial planning.

Carol Denbow is the author of Are You Ready to Be Your Own Boss? For more on new business start-up or to read about the author, visit www.BooksByDenbow.Weebly.com

By: Carol Denbow