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Looking For Creative Business Ideas? - Event, Holiday & Life Milestone Business Ideas

Thu, 14 Nov 2008 18:26:40 GMT

posted by clardelune

If you are looking for creative business ideas to start a small business, there are an abundance of services needed by people coordinating a major event or seminar, and also by people celebrating a major life milestone such as a wedding, special anniversary or birthday.

Now add in all the major holidays and the inspiration for creative business ideas can become infinite. Let's look at some of the ways you could start a small business and create an extra income for yourself helping people organize, manage, decorate and clean up after these happenings.

Halloween has just come and gone and now the Christmas season is coming. Do you know what people need the most help with when preparing to celebrate a major holiday? It's time! Most people are just too busy with all the aspects of their daily lives and adding something like Christmas on top of that can mean major overwhelm. This is where you can come in.

Services such as indoor and outdoor decorating, specialty food catering for parties, gift shopping, preparing and mailing Christmas cards and many other services are all a boon to the average stressed out family. And starting a service business like this requires a minimal start-up cost.

Now moving on to major events like seminars and conferences, there can be requirements for food services, decorating, child care, clean-up and more. Have you ever wondered who cleans up after a major rock concert or other big outdoor gathering? Specialty clean-up services are usually contracted to do this type of work.

Providing a service like this can mean making a lot more money than just having a regular house-cleaning service and this is where creative business ideas can start. Look at already existing businesses and find a specialty or niche that you can service within the industry.

Moving on to the major life milestone events such as a wedding, could you find a niche to service here? How about a service that drapes ceilings for a reception hall? Putting up yards and yards of tulle netting and lights to transform a drab reception hall into a wonderland would be a specific niche service within the wedding planning industry.

I went to a wedding once at the community center in my town where the ceilings had been draped and lighted beautifully and it was the most profound transformation. The space was just concrete and normally very unattractive and everyone that attended the wedding was just dumbfounded that such an ugly space could become so inviting. The tables had all been set beautifully and the chairs all slip covered with slip on cloths and ribbon and the effect was just stunning. And these are all services that the bride ordered and paid for, small businesses providing a niche service and doing a successful job too.

Of course with a service like this and/or outdoor holiday decorating you would have to be very comfortable on a ladder, but these ideas are just the tip of the iceberg when you start to look around and notice all the possibilities for creating a small business related to major events and life milestones.

Now perhaps this area doesn't interest you, but at Creative-Small-Business-Ideas.com there are creative business ideas for pets, fashion, toys, vehicles, writing, websites, photography, selling on ebay, travel and many other areas that will fit your unique talents and interests.

You'll find lots of creative business ideas to start your own small business at Creative-Small-Business- Ideas.com. With 20 different categories of free business ideas to research you are sure to find just the right business idea or inspiration for your own idea to take shape. Get start up costs, marketing info, resources and more.

9 Keys To Starting An Internet Business

Sun, 25 Feb 2008 11:58:55 GMT

posted by dacomputerman

Here is a sound starting place for the would be internet entrepreneur. Nine (9) Keys for starting your own internet based business. The world wide web is a great medium for home based businesses in the 21st century. Like their counterparts, the brick and mortar businesses on main street, there are basics that should not be over looked. Nine basics that the Tennessee Mountain Man and the Computer Man website design team recommend are listed here.

1. You must have a basic idea of what you are going to do and why.

A cursory review of sample business plans will quickly press the idea that you need to define your business desires as narrowly as possible.

If your only desire is to make money and your attitude is everything and everyone else be damned, you have a hard road to hoe. And, if you manage to succeed, chances are your financial success will literally cost you everything that makes life worth living and will certainly steal all pleasure you might otherwise have enjoyed.

If, however, you can grasp the idea of helping others achieve their dreams as your main objective all things are possible. Help enough people reach their goals and yours will follow along with an enjoyable life.

2. You must educate yourself.

Using your favorite search engine or better yet a combination of search engines research your future. Learn all you can about the business and who is currently king of the mountain. How did they get there? How do they stay there? Can you compete? If not move on.

3. Write A Business Plan.

Once armed with the information you need, again using a search engine to get business plan ideas examining the designs of others in your field if you need to, create a business plan. While the business plan is not written in stone, it should be sufficient to keep you going for awhile. It can always and will need to be amended from time to time.

Choose a search engine and search for "business plan sample" or "internet business plan sample". You will find several... many free. Compare them. Select the business plan best aligned with your hopes and ideas and start designing your own.

4. Choosing suppliers, drop shippers, etc.

Back to research which will become a part of your routine. You must always know where you can get the best deals and service (don't forget timeliness and shipping costs) with the least amount of warehousing.

5. Build your website.

Do this on your computer then sign up for and move it to a free host for testing.

Do not promote this testing site. In fact you should place a "robots.txt" file in the root stopping search engines from cataloguing it.

Run every possible test and make sure there are no broken links and everything on the site functions properly. You will have enough problems and surprises as time goes by. Plan to succeed. Don't sabotage your own internet business before you get started.

6. Now you are ready to find someone to host your website.

Do this last. Contracts for hosting are sometimes month to month, but more usually one or two year terms and the clock starts running as soon as you say "I do". So don't start the clock until you have a website designed and ready to go up on the web.

8. Submit to search engines.

Once your site is on your new host and up (usually within 24 hours) test again. If all is well, hand submit your new site to the major search engines. Not sure which ones? Back to the search engine. You and search engines are going to become fast friends if you are to be all you can be.

If you use a "robots.txt" file on your permanent web site make sure you have removed the block or reputable search engines will not index your site.

9. Now promote...promote...promote. Why? Just like on main street, location is everything and location in this case is determined by search engine ranking and directory indexing.

If time is an issue or if you are not skilled at these you may consider the help of a firm such as Computerman Website Design, Makeover and Promotion. For more information browse to http://computermanwebsitedesign.bravehost.com/ .

Good Luck

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New Program Within SFI That Is Creating TONS of Excitement!

Sat, 27 Jul 2008 20:46:00 GMT

posted by mykidsinheritance
In case you haven't kept up with the latest news within SFI, they have recently announced a program that could be the one thing keeping many aspiring home business owners from being able to commit to leaving their "9-5" job in favor of working from the comforts of their own home: the availability of affordable health insurance benefits.

This is also an incredible opportunity to expand your own affiliate base by promoting and reaping the benefits of providing such a wonderful service to other entrepreneurs!

Please be sure you check out my new informational lens on Squidoo here: IAB Health Insurance for complete information on the program and its benefits!!

Your comments are, as always, welcome!

Melissa

Free Unstoppable Pop Up

Thu, 8 Feb 2008 15:46:21 GMT

posted by dacomputerman

Do you remember this little trick? Ever figure it out?

Or perhaps you spent hard earned money to purchase the program. Perhaps you don't have the program, but would like to know how it works. Read on. We will give it to you not for $97.95, not $67.95, not $24.95, not even $1.95 but Free!! First, however, there are a few things you need to know and understand.

Properly used the popup can dispense data, bring you extra visitors, collect e-mail addresses, and increase your revenue without being perceived as intrusive. On the other hand, abuse it and loose visitors as quickly as the pop up launches... visitors who will in all probability never return.

King Solomon said, "there is nothing new under the sun". What do you think has changed since Solomon's reign?

This neat effect has been important to websites and internet marketers since commerce and the public discovered the world wide web. There are at least two ways to accomplish the unstoppable popup. How do I know? Because some of our websites employ one or both concepts and to date both work equally well.

Pop up stopper programmers are working diligently as we speak to prevent the unstoppable pop up but have, so far, been unable to do so.

Before employing the pop up in any form webmasters must consider that there are reasons why pop up blockers are everywhere. The final nail in the coffin of the pop up was driven by adult web sites. People were tired of these sexually explicit ads popping up in mixed company, in front of their mother, on the church computer and as their children surfed the web.

According to Wikipedia, today anyway, "Opera was the first major browser to incorporate tools to block pop-up ads; the Mozilla browser later improved on this by blocking only pop-ups generated as the page loads. In the early 2000s, all major web browsers except Internet Explorer allowed the user to block unwanted pop-ups almost completely." Notice their caveat, "almost completely".

In 2004, Microsoft finally built one into their Windows XP SP2 operating system along with a fire wall and ad filtering as if it was not slow enough. Microsoft playing the role of a political hack tries to be all things to all people and while that is part of what propelled their operating system to prominence, it may prove to be their undoing in the final analysis.

Remote Helpdesk 1, back in the good old days, purchased Netscape and apparently like many others was incensed at continually having to download plug-ins for anything and everything you wanted to do. Along comes Microsoft with their operating system including a free web browser and the most commonly used plug-ins. Can you say, "jump ship!"?

Now everyone is jumping ship again. Back to the future springs eternal and Linux with its many editions is right on target. Download and install the basics and then get the plug-ins needed as they are needed. How many times have you heard your mother say, "what goes around, comes around"? And, it has been our experience that Linux (Remote Help Desk 1 and Computer Man Website Design use the Debian edition) blocks more pop ups and does much more to protect a computer than most other operating systems while maintaining open source integrity for the computer user.

Like almost everyone else, the Tennessee Mountain Man Computer Man hates to have research interrupted by the couple of seconds it takes for a pop up to launch and be dispatched especially if that intrusion (as often happens) has nothing to do with the subject matter at hand.

That being said it is simply a matter of proper programming. Don't go reinventing the wheel until it no longer serves your purpose.

Option 1: Grab the pop up that occurs at http://remotehelpdesk1.com. Copy the code from the page source and change the information to meet your needs.

Option 2: Assuming you can prepare a standard pop up script, it should have about a 5 second delay, perhaps the easiest and maybe the best way in the end is to encrypt your source code. You can do this free of cost at http://computermanwebsitedesign.bravehost.com/free_webmaster_tools_of_computer_man.htm or http://remotehelpdesk1.com/html_encrypter.htm

There is a lot of hype that this or that retail (notice you have to buy it to test it and once software is opened it is yours) pup up blocker intercepts and stops all pop-ups. No... not yet anyway!

Publication of Burk Pendergrass, J.D., a Cherokee Indian and Viet Nam Vet specializing in computerman website design computermanwebsitedesign.bravehost.com/ and remotehelpdesk1.com/ specializing in online computer repair. Reprint authorized with credits.

Who Is Alexa And What Has She To Do With Me

Sun, 3 Mar 2008 13:13:49 GMT

posted by dacomputerman

Traffic is the most important thing to any web based entrepreneur. And Alexa pretty much has a monopoly on that data. Ignore her at your own peril.

Alexa reminds the Computer Man Website Design Team of the teaching of Jesus Christ speaking of the rulers and powers of His time as recorded in the Holy Bible, Matthew 23:4, New American Standard Bible, "They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger".

Sure sounds like the few who control internet content to the old Tennessee Mountain Man.

Want to get an Alexa ranking that matters for your website? You should because all other directories, indexes and search engines stop by their website to see who you are and whether or not you are a mover and shaker in your internet niche.

Alexa may well be the world wide web's Dunn and Bradstreet. If you know anything about business, business finances, the Better Business Bureau or the Chamber of Commerce or have had to deal with your broker or banker on business matters you know the importance and the drill. Sounds daunting, doesn't it? Sure it does, and what makes it worse is Alexa's hypocrisy. Like the credit bureaus, Alexa collects, keeps and reports information about you and your website, but it keeps no data on its' own traffic.

The first question asked by your prospective partners, marketers, and promoters is what is your Dunn and Bradstreet... oops sorry, Alexa rating.

Alexa, located the Presidio of San Francisco, CA, was founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat. It offered a toolbar that gave Internet users guidance on where to go next, based on the traffic patterns of its user community. Say what? Yes, this cousin of Big Brother thinks it knows better what you want or need than you do. And, they select who best provides that for you. Based on what? Based on their user traffic.

Who do they think they are, and how do I become a part of this crucial community of the web elite?

They are the people who offer context for each site visited: to whom it was registered, how many pages it had, how many other sites pointed to it, and how frequently it is updated. Engineers at Alexa, in cooperation with the Internet Archive, created the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. The nonprofit organization established to preserve Web sites by taking regular "snapshots". The Wayback Machine provides links to older versions of a webpage. Alexa also supplies the Internet Archive with web crawls.

Amazon dot com acquired Alexa in 1999 for approximately $250 million in Amazon stock.

Alexa entered a partnership with Google in 2002, and with the Open Directory Project about a year later in 2003. Live Search replaced Google as their provider of search results in the summer of 2006. Then in the autumn of that same year they began using their own Search Platform. Then in December they released Alexa Image Search. Built in-house, it is the first major application to be built on their Web Platform. Today, Alexa is primarily a search engine, an Open Directory based web directory, and a general supplier of site information to all suitors.

In late 2005, Alexa opened its extensive search index and web-crawling facilities to third party programs through a comprehensive set of web services and APIs. These could be used, for instance, to construct vertical search engines that could run on Alexa's own servers or elsewhere. Unique to the internet, Alexa's Web Search Platform gives developers access to their raw crawl data reinforcing their comparison with Dunn and Bradstreet. Alexa, like every other web based endeavor feeling the bandwidth pinch changed their API to require comparisons be limited to 3 sites, reduced size embedded graphs be shown using Flash, and mandatory embedded BritePic ads in the early summer of 2007.

So who is Alexa and what does she have to do with me? Alexa is the ultimate remote helpdesk. Accessible only as a self help desk, she is the real gatekeeper. Her stats help determine your Google Page Rank, and Firefox's About This Site are all Alexa metadata. Everyone else also pretty much reports what is in her data base. You know those stats you depend so much on? Irrespective of who supplies them to you... chances are they got them from Alexa.

To join the club browse to Alexa dot com and follow the webmaster instructions. Don't forget the Alexa Tool Bar! It matters! Alexa averages your raw traffic over a three month period to determine your traffic flow and where you rate. Under 100,000 visitors a month over any consecutive three month period and you drop off the radar.

If you don't have the time, do not know how, or are not able to meet Alexa's criteria or internet mover and shaker threshold perhaps a website design and website promotion service like Computerman Website Design, Makeover and Promotion can help. For more information browse to http://computermanwebsitedesign.bravehost.com/ .