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Have you heard that it is possible to earn money online? Maybe you have heard that it is possible to make money on the internet with the skills that you have. This could be with photography, writing, creating jewellery or even making websites. Here are some ways to help utilise your skill and start earning money today.

1. Figure out Which Skills to Utilise : Not all skills are great for setting up businesses so make a list of all the skills that you have. Do you enjoy gardening? Maybe you’re an excellent baker but have never had the courage to work at a bakery. By making a list of your skills, you will be able to go through them and put a mark against those that you can utilise and sell online – that doesn’t mean the deliveries have to be done online, just that it gives you the place to sell!

Now that you have some ideas, it is time to move onto the next step.

2. Do Some Research into Your Skills : Find out how others are using the same skills to make money? This will help you determine whether it is a profitable business or whether there is just too much competition to get work. You will also get some ideas about marketing and how to show off your talents to start earning money. You may find a hidden niche that is extremely lucrative for you.

This research will help you narrow down your list and choose one to start earning money. You may find that you have a couple but start slow and build your way up.

3. Create a Website : All sellers need to have a website, whether you have a store or you are doing everything out of your own home. Without a website, there will be limited ways for people to contact you and it will be much harder to make the money you are dreaming about. You don’t have to spend a lot and there are free options available to help you get started – however, free domain names aren’t the most professional looking.

You may find that hiring a website developer is the best thing to do. However, you will be on short funds and there are content management systems to help you do it all yourself. Think about the type of functions you will need for your website to do to determine whether you need to hire a professional.

4. Market Your New Business Everywhere : Think all the hard work is done? That’s where you’re mistaken! Just because you have a website doesn’t mean that people will be able to find you. You will need to market yourself and make sure people know that you exist. The first part of this step is to set up a marketing plan. Who is your target audience and what marketing options do you have? Which forms of promotion will be better for your type of business.

The more marketing you do, the more you will become known. You can’t just stop when you’ve spent a week doing it. This is an ongoing thing. You will need to track your progress, determine if parts of your marketing plan are working better than others and then concentrate on those.

Earning money from your skills is possible but you need to do some work. This is like starting a business and you need to find the lucrative markets. Spend some time researching before you decide on this journey to make sure you have something valuable to offer.

The recent app explosion has transformed the world’s smart phones from over-powered toys into incredibly productive business accessories. However, if you’re not convinced of their worth, then you might want to consider that over 1 billion of the world’s 4 billion mobile phones are smartphones.

In addition, experts predict that by 2014, Internet usage is set to be overtaken by mobile Internet usage, and the majority of Internet activity will be conducted through mobile phones. Currently, over 50% of Internet activity is conducted through mobile phones and apps – so isn’t it time you thought about bringing these into play?

Integrate your systems

Apps offer the SME owner a chance to perform on a corporate level, streamlining the way your business performs and at a fraction of the cost of the technology that larger businesses spend. Perhaps the most important advantage that apps give you is the ability to work from anywhere and at any time. The days in which a business owner works from one computer that’s fixed in one geographical place are well and truly over. Not only does this mean you can conduct your business on the road or from a coffee shop, but you can also make on-the-spot decisions without having to worry about getting back to the office. Cloud apps allow you to access important data, quickly and efficiently.

Manage your money

The numbers game is an important aspect of business, no matter how large or small your company may be. Doubtless, larger companies will have dedicated teams of accountants to crunch the figures whilst the business takes care of itself, but SME owners won’t always have the time or the cash to spend on their accounts.

Intuit has a neat little app up its sleeve in the form of QuickBooks Mobile. Most people are aware of QuickBooks – it’s consistently voted as the best accounting software in the world. However, well aware of the app revolution, Intuit has crunched the program down into an app that offers all the same features, but you can manage your accounts on the go. Not only does this make accounting massively easier, but it also means that SME owners have access to expert accounting, for free.

Business on the go

There are even apps that turn your mobile phone or tablet into on-the-spot card readers. Often, opportunities pass business owners by, as there’s no way to facilitate payment. Using these apps, every in-the-flesh encounter is a possible sale. It works the same way as a traditional card reader; all the customer has to do is punch in their security details and the transaction is authorized. With so much onus being placed on online security, these apps use the latest encryption codings to ensure that any transactions are risk-free and a copy of the receipt can be sent to your accounting software; all the aspects of instant business are taken care of.

The side-benefit of all of these apps is that they can help you manage your time better. The problem for many start-up business owners is that getting a business off the ground can eat into personal time and disrupt your private life. Apps allow you to automate manual tasks and jump at opportunities as they arise – but they also allow greater freedom to choose just where and when you make your business decisions.

While all things seem to change at one point or another, the business world seems to be stuck in a state of constant transformation, with new businesses being spawned and old businesses either prospering or falling into failure. With such a huge wildcard being thrown up, if you want to survive contemporary business, then it is absolutely vital that you keep with the times, adapting to the ever-changing environment and taking advantage of new technology.

Speaking of technology, if you have not noticed, you see that more and more business is being conducted through mobile and virtual means; in other words—smartphones, computers, and tablets such as the iPad. These nifty devices are now home to a world of helpful resources and tools, but most people refer to these aspects as “apps,” short for applications. Whether you find yourself playing a few rounds of bingo over at www.partybingo.com during a long, boring business flight, or you simply need to use your iPad to give a brief presentation, as common media puts it, “there’s an app for that.”

However, as far as business-oriented apps are concerned, there are several out there that can make an array of tasks much more convenient for business owners. Three of these apps can be found below:

Keynote: If you are a business owner, as well as a Mac-user, then chances are good that you have a little (or a lot) of experience with the Keynote app. The techies over at Apple have been working hard though, now being able to offer Keynote for iPad users as well.

Keynote is a presentation app, and a rather powerful one at that. Using this app, users are able to do everything from full-color presentations equipped with transitions, to building a pie chart to show expenditures.

Numbers: Also debuting on a Mac, but being completely reworked to coordinate with iPad users, is the Numbers app. If there is one thing business owners probably see too much of, it is the dreaded spreadsheet. As dreaded as it can be sometimes, it is vital to create important financial reports and charts compiled from inputted data that has been collected.

Boasting more than 250 features and functions, the Numbers app offers users a variety of charts, tables, graphics, and photos, making any spreadsheet go from bland and boring, to sleek and edgy. Need to distribute a spreadsheet or two? Not a problem for the Numbers app as it allows user to export data to Excel, convert to PDF, or simply send it as an email.

Roambi Analytics: What is more important to a business owner, small and large alike, than the status of his or her business? Luckily, the Roambi Analytics app allows users to do just that. Even better, this app is not just for iPad, but it also works on the iPhone too, allowing one to become even more mobile.

The Roambi Analytics app is capable of converting important statistics and other data from Excel, Google Docs, and other financially-oriented program, into nifty little visual “presentations” for you to view on your iPad or iPhone. Pretty simple, eh?
There you have it folks! The three apps mentioned above are sublime at making the complicated, and broad, task of business, and making it much more convenient. Naturally, the three above are just a tiny portion of the literally thousands of apps available to business owners. Plus, should you find yourself with some free time, you could always play Angry Birds or some other game.

Strategy #1: Expand by Contracting

While it may initially appear counterintuitive, for many small businesses, the best way to expand is to contract. The logic of this strategy is fairly straightforward when we recognize that the number one metric owners want to increase is profitability (as opposed to simply adding growth for growth sake), as additional sales can often be closed, but at the expense of margins.

Two of the ways that businesses can expand profitability include adding more high-profit work and subtracting more low-profit work. By reviewing their client base and actively pruning those projects which take up large amounts of resources yet yield a small amount of profit, firms can better optimize their workforce to pursue higher margin work and expand their profitability for 2013.

Strategy #2: Specialize

An off-shoot of Strategy #1, specialization challenges companies to narrow their brand messaging and business model to focus on going deeper within a specific domain, and thereby becoming more valuable and dominant in their sector. The proliferation of advanced technology, and a connected, worldwide workforce means that competition will only increase in intensity in the years to come. By choosing to double-down on specific verticals riddled with complexity, small business owners can increase barriers to entry for potential competitors and buttress their reputation within the industry.

The effective implementation of this strategy will initially involve entrepreneurs scrutinizing the current offerings of their firm, aligning them with the expected trajectory of the industry, and then making the tough decisions to refine the product mix from trying to be a “Jack of All Trades” towards becoming a highly specialized industry expert commanding top dollar. By applying the 80/20 Rule and determining which 20% of their clients are responsible for 80% of their financial success, small business owners can better customize their offerings, and selectively cater to the most profitable niche of their marketplace.

Strategy #3: Embrace Daily Deals

Over the past 24 months, there has been a meteoric rise and fall of the “Deal of the Day” or “Flash Sale” phenomenon. While the frenzied euphoria of this business model is now behind us, the measured and pragmatic benefits of a correctly applied Daily Deal approach can serve as a valuable arrow in the quiver of entrepreneurs seeking growth. Whereas earlier, small business owners would look at Daily Deals as a profit maker, today they are leveraging this model as an inventory management tool (facilitating rapid turnover of aging products to make way for new shipments), as well as utilizing the visibility of these deals to complement ongoing marketing initiatives and build brand awareness. While many firms still can and do generate profit from Daily Deals, the true business value of this marketing strategy must be taken in total with these other organizational benefits.

Strategy #4: Offer Self-Serve Options

For years, the Internet has offered individuals the opportunity to peruse and purchase products 24/7, yet many companies have still not structured their business to accommodate this environment. By designing a website and ecommerce system with a wealth of information on request, as well as FAQ’s and standardized order forms, businesses can leverage the power of automation to take some of the burden off of their staff using highly refined online content to advance prospects through the marketing funnel and engage them precisely at the critical time they are making a buying decision.

Strategy#5: Go Big or Go Home

While Strategies 1-4 provide solid expansion options for 2013, for those small business owners for whom incremental growth is just not enough, private equity funding is the way to go. By providing the founder with the security of cash in his pocket, plus sufficient capital to pay off all outstanding debts, expand internal systems and infrastructure, add more top leadership, and scale the organizational footprint to bigger markets, a private equity investment offers the fastest way to get there. By removing the month-to-month financial pressures of payroll and production costs, business owners can enjoy a renewed focus on making the strategic decisions that will position the firm for accelerated growth in 2013 and beyond.

In the current economic climate it can be difficult to keep things afloat. The last 5 to 10 years have seen many businesses struggling to get by, prompting dramatic changes of business models or steps towards insolvency or recovery. If you’re worried about your business it only takes a walk down any high street to see you’re not alone. Large retailers BlockBuster, HMV and Jessops have gone into administration since Christmas, so now is the time to take action.

Things are ok at the moment. What steps can I take to keep my business afloat?

With the current state of the economy, even if you are making profit, things can spiral downhill very quickly if you’re not careful. You’ll need a watertight business plan, so talk to an advisor. Their help can save you a fortune later on. They will help you see your business through the eyes of potential customers, including the shopping experience and services you provide. You might be advised to make changes, and it’s important you follow these changes through.

Things are already bad. What options do I have?

Insolvency and recovery options depend largely on just how bad your business’s financial situation is. If you notice difficulties arise, it’s important to take action as soon as possible and not to wait for issues to resolve themselves over time. If this happens you can halt your insolvency or recovery programme, but if your company is trading while insolvent directors can be liable for wrongful trading. You don’t want to find yourself facing legal action or being personally responsible for debts, so take action now. A financial advisor will guide you through your options, which may include refinance, administration and liquidation.

Liquidation is the winding up of a business so it ceases to trade. Creditors’ Voluntary Liquidation is the most common form in the UK, involving closing the business and selling its assets to pay debts.

Pre-pack administration is when the company is sold to a third party (the administer). This is a good option if you are under a lot of pressure to react quickly, but it does mean the administer can sell the company without the agreement of creditors – unlike in liquidation cases. It can, however, be sold to the current directors to create a phoenix company; essentially your old business with a new name.

If a bank (or other creditor) decides the directors aren’t suitable, they may appoint an administrative receiver to take over running the company. This person can sell off assets and recover money as they see fit, and will primarily serve their own interests. This is called receivership, and means the conduct of directors will be investigated.

Voluntary arrangements and voluntary liquidation are a much better option than court ordered compulsory options, but your business doesn’t have to get to those stages. Consider debt management, lending money or restructuring before your cash flow problems get out of hand. Business recovery experts will be able to help you, whatever your situation.