How I Write About Anything — And I Get Paid For It

My 7 step guide on becoming a prolific writer in subjects you’re totally clueless

Kostas Farmakis

Sep 26, 2019 · 4 min read

Photo by Alena Shekhovtcova from Pexels

One of my best-received articles ever was about cigars, written for a highly specialized magazine. I knew nothing about cigars, I’d never smoked one, and I was utterly clueless about them right until the day I took on the assignment.

Five days later, I delivered a story so well-crafted, informative, and inspiring, that they accepted the article and hired me on the spot. I never told them that five days ago, I could not tell the one end of the cigar from the other. They congratulated me, and I got paid.

Over the years, I’ve written hundreds of articles for printed magazines and online publications about:

• Technology and gadgets
• Economy and commerce
• Startups and business
• Self-help
• US politics and international relations
• Health and fitness
• Environment
• Sex advice
• History
• I’ve also worked for a TV documentary series.

I’m not an expert by profession in any of these fields. I hold no college degree. All I have is my curiosity, and the ability to turn large pieces of information into easily consumed chunks of every-day wisdom.

Let’s see how it works.

Step 1: Find a subject that appeals to you

It’s much easier to write about something that inspires you. Only your interests can boost your curiosity. I once wrote a how-to story about scuba diving in the Greek islands. I knew nothing about scuba, but I love snorkeling and marine life. The connection was already there.

Step 2: Research

It’s the Internet age; everything is one click away. Start reading articles, essays, and book summaries. Watch TED talks, keep notes, highlight content. Put an asterisk on terms or ideas you don’t understand.

For my cigar story, I read several magazines and online articles. I made a list of applicable terms that would make me appear as an expert. I interviewed the owner of a cigar shop with carefully crafted questions. And I googled everything to death.

Step 3: Ask an expert

Most people love to share their wisdom. Find an expert in the subject and pick her brain. But do your homework. You don’t want to appear silly or clueless. They will appreciate it if you arrive prepared.

Take notes, highlight terms, use whole sentences, and attribute them to the expert. Your information needs to be valid and verifiable. Your audience needs facts, not just your opinion.

Image by José Manuel de Laá from Pixabay

Step 4: Connect the dots

With all the information in hand, start making connections. For me, it’s all about comprehension and interpretation. A successful columnist is the one who can find hidden relationships between seemingly unconnected items.

Your readers will be delighted to discover unexpected connections that, in hindsight, look perfectly explainable. Where everyone sees a cooking pot, you will show them the Ursa Major.

Step 5: Explain it to a child

Albert Einstein said, “If you can’t explain it to a six-year-old, you don’t understand it yourself.” The online audience has the attention span of a six-year-old, and you need to keep their attention long enough to continue reading.

You don’t want to delve deep, because they may realize that you’re trying to explain what you don’t understand, and they won’t follow you anyway. Keep it simple, short, and exciting, and they’ll think you’re Einstein.

Step 6: Wrap it like a present

Everybody loves gifts. Your readers will be delighted to find hard-collected information with profound meaning, in easily consumed paragraphs and a scannable format.

Don’t just make it look like a giveaway; Make it a real giveaway. Share the knowledge and people will return to you for more.

Step 7: Inspire your readers

Your audience doesn’t need a lecture. Your readers need information they can use. They need the knowledge they can share with their friends and family. Some of them will use your article to appear as experts themselves.

People may forget your name, but they will never forget how you made them feel. The best stories are those who inspire you to change, even a little. And that’s what writing is all about.

5 Ways to Stay Afloat When Business is Slow

 

It is always easier for entrepreneurs to start and run a business when the economy’s in an upturn. Starting an enterprise in a favourable economic climate will less stressful as it is relatively easy to get business plans and credit applications approved. However, businesses go through ups and downs, depending on what happens in the economy. As the Eurozone and the USA readjust and recover, the Singapore economy is also feeling the impact.

‘Tough times don’t last, tough people do’ is a popular and timeless adage that has inspired many to keep the faith and not back down when the going gets tough. Here are some suggestions for startups to steer their ship safely and keep it on course even in choppy waters.

Risk and cost analysis

Carry out an analysis of the risks that your business might have to go through and formulate a plan to mitigate them effectively. Strategize how you will retain your customers in the face of increased competition and how your business will adapt to the ever changing market conditions and global economy.

It is also important to anticipate issues related to capital flow that might crop up in the future. Always keep a track of your spending and be aware of how much money you have, how much is owed to you and how much you owe to others. Additionally, you will also have to ensure that confidential information about your finances and other business plans are adequately protected. If possible, always have a Plan B in store to deal with unpleasant surprises.

Working with the right business model

The right type of business model will help you decipher your market and also help you gain clarity on how you can press for a competitive advantage in today’s economic scenario. This has to be done at a strategic level so you will do well to consult experienced entrepreneurs or engage the services of someone who has designed successful business models. This is going to be a crucial step in determining business success as it covers all the key aspects of activities related to the business including partnerships, revenue and cost structures, and resources, among others.

More often than not, you will be tempted to grab every opportunity that you come across. But don’t fall for such enticements. Stick to the basics and focus on your business model to stay consistent in your approach to your business and delivery of products, services and ideas.

Cut down on unnecessary costs

This is one of the first methods that even large multinationals and corporate giants resort to during a downturn. You will have to be very careful while setting the budget for your business to avoid unnecessary expenses. When it comes to expansion plans, you will need to put it on hold or take it very slowly. Recruitment and investments will need to be looked into or stalled.

Do not fall prey to marketing gimmicks that ask you to deposit your money with them with the promise of doubling it in a very short span of time. Be patient, keep tabs on the market, invest wisely and concentrate on getting rid of your debts.

Network and build relationships

In a foreign land, your internal (employees) as well as external stakeholders can work as your best or worst brand ambassadors. Focus on strengthening your relationship with existing customers and keep your eyes open for new ones.

While you look for new business, don’t forget the relationships with the people who work hard for you. No matter how small your team is, without your employees, you will have no business left to run.

Be Patient

Remember, slow and steady wins the race! Running your business in a tough economy might seem like an uphill task and you might be finding it difficult to be patient in raking in the profits, but always bear in mind that it usually takes a great deal of time and effort to establish a successful business, especially during a downturn.

The Bottom Line

Tough times call for some tough decision making. The key to stay afloat when business is slow is by turning your business challenges into opportunities. You can rest assured that there will be many lessons to be learnt, experiences to be savoured, many interesting people to meet, and insights to be gained. On a positive note, think of it this way – if you can surf along this tide, then success will come easily to you once the tough times wane.

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What’d I Wish I Known Before Starting My Own Business

 

When you first began your business, you probably hoped for a fun time full of growth and money being made. But once you were in the trenches of business ownership, you realized that you had a lot to learn in order to successfully run your business.

Maybe nobody in your family was an entrepreneur. You most likely worked a traditional job the majority of your life. Whatever your background, the concept of entrepreneurship was foreign to you. You had to adjust quickly if you wanted your business to succeed.

There are some things many of us wish we knew before starting our businesses. We could have saved ourselves money, time, and frustration. We were so eager to start our businesses, that we rushed the process, and paid the price for it.

The journey of entrepreneurship is not a smooth process. Sometimes it is best to learn painful lessons early in our journey, so that we are quickly taught that entrepreneurship requires patience, a strong strategy, and the ability to pivot when our plans go awry.

If you are just starting out on your entrepreneurial journey, don’t think that you have made the wrong decision if you are experiencing stumbling blocks. Many of the entrepreneur success stories you hear today came into fruition despite experiencing setbacks. Experiencing difficulties will only help to make you a more knowledgeable and resourceful entrepreneur.

Related: A Beginner’s Guide for Incorporating Tech Start-ups in Singapore

Nurturing professional relationships and building your own support system

As an entrepreneur, you will tend to feel like you are operating in a word completely different from your family and friends. While they are worried about work, bills and the latest reality tv show, you are solely focused on making your business successful. When you have no one else who shares your experiences, it can get quite lonely.

It is important for you to know other entrepreneurs so that you have a source to share experiences, gain feedback from, and learn valuable information regarding entrepreneurship. You will feel better and actually become more productive and effective when you surround yourself with those who understand your journey.

How do you find other entrepreneurs?

• Go to networking events dedicated to entrepreneurs and small businesses
• Join business/ entrepreneur associations and organizations
• Join a mastermind group
• Start your own networking group on Meetup

Whatever path you decide to take, just make sure that you are placing yourself in the company of other entrepreneurs. You will benefit tremendously from doing so.

Related: Singapore Company Registration + Entrepreneur Pass

Why “doing it all yourself” can be a dangerous choice for entrepreneurs

Just because you are your own boss, it doesn’t mean that you must do everything by yourself. When you first start off as an entrepreneur, you will be required to wear many hats. You are the CEO, the marketer, the salesman, the administrator, the accountant – you are in charge of every process within your business.

As you expand, it becomes time to relinquish many of those roles. If you continue to wear all hats, not only will your business suffer, your own personal health will suffer. You won’t have time to focus on growth related task for your business because you are completely tied up with handling so many tasks. Your health will start to deteriorate because you never give yourself any time to rest and recover – you are constantly working straining yourself.

As a business owner, your role is to oversee your business’s growth and delegate tasks to others to complete. Don’t stunt your business’s ability to grow because you want to manage every aspect of it. Do you want a high six figure, seven figure business or do you want to remain barely scratching the surface of your potential?

Related: Why Your Startup Should Consider Coworking

The difference between your gifts and your passions, and how it affects your business

What are the skills that you have that allow you to accomplish a task with little effort being expended?

Whatever those skill set are, that is what you should focus on building a business around. Having a business that revolves around your skills enables you to get more done and flourish – quickly growing from a startup phase to a fully functioning business.

While it is ok to follow your passions, how long will it take your passions to payoff in regards to a successful business? Just because you are passionate about something, it doesn’t mean that the marketplace holds the same regards. Also, when it comes to passion, people tend to not think of theirs in a business manner, and they completely disregard forming a solid business strategy around their passion.

Your business should be built around your specific skills. Once that business is built, and able to stand on its own, then you can move towards your business of passion. Think in terms of creating a great stream of income first. When you produce the financial ability to experiment with different opportunities, your passion can then be explored.

Related: Common Mistakes to Avoid while Incorporating a Start-up in Singapore

Advice on overcoming your anxieties around selling, money, and the value of your business

Selling is a big issue for many entrepreneurs. They get into business to make money, but they are afraid to ask people for money.  It is a strange rationale to have considering people start a business to produce more money than they currently make, but it is a real fear that is common amongst new entrepreneurs.

You must understand that we live in a supply and demand world. If people want something they will purchase it. Your business is no different from any of the other big businesses you purchase from yourself. Therefore, you must realize that selling is your main objective as a business.

You don’t have to look at it as selling though. Instead you can view the exchange of money for your products or services as an exchange of value. People are paying you for the value you provide in their lives.

Therefore, you must understand the value your business provides. Once you understand your value, you will have no problem with charging people for the your time or for the products you invested time and money into.

Related: 5 Ways to Stay Afloat When Business is Slow

How peer pressure can be a powerful tool for growth

Peer pressure is the ability to assert influence over someone else, dictating their thoughts and resulting actions. Peer pressure can either be a good thing or a bad thing, that is why it is important to wisely choose the group of people that you surround yourself with.

I am sure that you have heard the saying, You are the  average of the 5 people you spend the most time with. This statement is very true. Average people only hang around with average people. They are hardly in the same vicinities of successful people. This is because successful people are always on the go and reaching for higher levels to ascend. They don’t really have the time to just sit around and waste time, there are goals that must be accomplished.

When it comes to being an entrepreneur, you should only find yourself in the company of those who motivate and inspire you. Seek out people who are more successful than you and those who are working just as hard to grow their businesses as you are. Anything less than ambitious and successful will only drag you down.

Related: How to Create the Right Culture in Your Startup

Tips for maximizing your time spent working

Great time management is required in order to build a successful business. You have so many things to accomplish in what seems like so little time, so you must know how to get a great deal of things done in an allocated amount of time.

Don’t operate with that mindset of, I can just get to it later. No you can’t! This is the behavior of average people. The more you put things off, the more you have to get done, which means it is less likely to get done.

You must practice discipline and operate with accountability if you want to make the most out of your time. Without both, you will waste a lot of time, while others are getting further ahead because they are more focused on getting things done.

Tips on how to be more productive:

• Plan out your day of work and activities
• Do your most important tasks for the day first
• Give yourself specific time constraints to work within
• Eliminate all distractions while working
• Schedule time to rest in between working

What I wish I had known before starting my business, and more

Traveling along this journey called entrepreneurship has taught me many things. While there has been ups and downs, can say that the lessons learned has made me a better entrepreneur. Without experiencing challenges, I know I would not be the entrepreneur I am today.  The challenges that I have experienced have taught me how to be more resourceful, more strategic, and also have made more ambitious.

What I wish had known before starting my business is that success is produced by a process of consistent actions. You can’t work hard one and take off for the rest of the week and expect to produce successful results. It just doesn’t work like that. Success is built upon momentum, and momentum is only built and grown by consistency.

If I had been consistent early on, I would have been successful much earlier, rather than later in my entrepreneurial journey. But I had to realize that others around me were producing success because they were completely focused on their short-term goals and long-term vision, I wasn’t. I wanted success but I wasn’t willing to dedicate all my time and energy into producing the success I desired.

Once I understood what would be required of me to be successful, I started to see better results that built upon one another. As I began producing more results it led to me climbing the entrepreneurial ladder of success. I stopped talking about success and wishing for success, and instead went to work building my business. I learned that actions speak louder than words, so I shut up and started producing.

Related: Why Do Some Startups Fail Within 2 Years?

What do you wish you had known before starting your business?

None of us are perfect so I know you. have made some mistakes that you later learned could have been avoided as you gained experience as an entrepreneur.

As you have learned from your mistakes, become a mentor for new entrepreneurs. Even if you can’t dedicate one on one time, you can provide advice via a blog, social media, a podcast, YouTube videos, or writing articles on business websites. Do your part in helping new entrepreneurs avoid the same mistakes you made.

For new entrepreneurs, soak up as much free knowledge that you can. Successful entrepreneurs are always willing to give out advice, it I’d just up to you to comprehend their advice and apply it to your process. Don’t be so headstrong that you operate with the mindset to prove everybody wrong by doing it your way. You are only sabotaging yourself and your business.

You will most certainly make mistakes when building a business, it is a part of the process, but you want to avoid common mistakes that are always warned about. Cut your learning curve in half so that you can reach the destination of success much quicker, rather than being slowed down my mistake after mistake.

Related Reading » Company Registration in Singapore

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How to Start a Business in 10 Days

 

You are ready to start a business now. Then don’t wait for months to start your business, you need to get started immediately so that you can start making money.

Luckily, it doesn’t take extremely long to start a business today. With the power of the internet, you can design a business concept and potentially be in front of a thousand customers within days of your business idea’s conception.

Of course, this will take a lot of hard work to achieve – having an operating business that is servicing customers within a week and a half is no easy feat.

To develop a business this quickly, you will need a well-defined plan that is supported by swift and effective actions. Every step you take has to be strategic in order for your business to succeed in such a short amount of time. Any misstep can make 10 days drag out to a couple of weeks. You don’t want this to occur if your objective is to make money asap.

Therefore, you must outline your plan of action that will make your 10 day process achievable.

The following information will provide you with a comprehensive guideline on how to start your business in 10 days.

Related Article : What I wish to know before starting my own business

Day 1: Create a Business Plan

Your business plan is your detailed piece of documentation that guides the actions of your business. Without your business plan, you will be wasting more time and money, than actually accomplishing real business progress. With 10 days from conception to operating business, you have no time to waste.

One key thing to know is that your business plan is supposed to be written to focus on your long-term business vision. Of-course you want to start making money immediately, but you will need to ensure that you develop a system that produces money consistently, and not just quick money that doesn’t last. Therefore, you must focus on satisfying your customers’ needs rather than your needs.

When creating your business plan, focus primarily on your marketing, sales, and financial projections. You will need to know how you will communicate to your target market, how you will convert them into customers and what are the numbers needed to make a profit. These 3 things will be the core of your business operations, helping you generate money quickly.

You should refer to your business plan everyday to ensure that you are working towards your defined goals. This will help you keep your short-term actions in line with your long-term goals, which is how consistent progress and growth are produced.

Day 2: Analyze the Marketplace

When analyzing the marketplace, determine who your competitors are, the products or services they provide, and what their strengths and weaknesses are. This provides you with the information that helps you differentiate your business from the competition. As your business is differentiated, it will stand out to consumers, increasing their interest in learning about what you have to offer.

Knowing exactly who defines your target market is a must for your business’s success. You must know what your customer’s problems are so that you can provide them with the perfect solutions. Many businesses supply answers to problems, which are nothing but band-aids that eventually lose their strength. Your goal is to provide solutions that produce real results.

It is best to gather this valuable information directly from your target market. Here are some of the best ways to do this:

Participate in online forums

People use online forums to gather information about whatever the particular subject matter they are interested in. People who respond on forums usually have deep knowledge about the particular subject being discussed – establishing themselves as experts. Therefore you must utilize forums to establish your expertise, working to develop people’s interest in what your business will offer.

Engage on social media

Social media is a breeding ground for learning the needs and wants of your target market in real time. People are always praising or criticizing a product or service they have used via social media. You will need to insert yourself in these conversations and explain why your business provides a better solution. Now you are doing two things at one time – developing your social media presence and following and creating warm leads that can be converted into customers.

Talk to your competition’s customers

Find out who uses your competition’s products or services and ask them questions about the experience they are having. Use this valuable information to develop a business that is very attractive to your target market due to your ability to accurately communicate their pain points, and by effectively communicating the relief your business provides for their pain.

Day 3: Define Your Brand

You can’t have a successful business if people don’t know it exist. Your business’s branding process is about communicating the value or experience it provides, and establishing your presence in the marketplace. People’s interest are stimulated by visual images and hearing audio messages. Therefore, your business will have to communicate its message in multiple ways in order for your brand to resonate in the marketplace.

Since you will be working primarily online to build a business quickly, you will have various online marketing tools at your disposal to use for effective communication. The key when doing this is to have multiple branding messages operating at the same time, on many different platforms, so that your business is reaching as many people as possible. Just focusing on one platform for communication severely limits your reach, which will negatively affect your ability to create sales opportunities.

Here are a few platforms you can utilize for your branding campaign:

YouTube

YouTube is the second most used site in the world. People are always on YouTube looking at videos related to their particular interest at the moment. Your business will need to produce interesting videos that showcase the ins and outs of its operations. Show people the behind the scenes process of your business, show your business in action, and show people the fun times in your business. You want to showcase the many facets of your business so that people will feel like they are a part of your business – forming a closer connection which helps to build your business’s community of loyal supporters.

Facebook

It is almost mandatory for a business to have a presence on Facebook if it plans to succeed online. When using Facebook, your business needs to appeal to people’s emotions, which means you have to be effective with your words and provide appealing images. Facebook is community-based, so you want to involve people as much as possible. Instead of just broadcasting your business, ask people about their opinions about your product or service, create polls for people to participate within, create contest and giveaways – your goal is to be as interactive as possible on Facebook. And definitely utilize Facebook advertising to attract people who fit your business’s target market.

LinkendIn

If you want to build your network of professional connections or have a business that is B2B focused, LinkendIn is a definite platform for your business to develop its brand on. LinkedIn Pulse is a tool that business owners use to showcase their expertise by writing about various business issues. The goal is to effectively demonstrate your knowledge, having people follow your post because they believe your information is beneficial to their own business.

Twitter

Smart businesses use Twitter to direct people to other platforms, such as their website, Facebook, landing pages. Your business should also use Twitter to start is on conversations, using it is own #hashtag to build its community of followers.

Day 4: Incorporation of Business

Incorporating your business validates that you operate a legitimate business. The incorporation of your business also establishes the tax guidelines you will follow and the legal liability you will face as a business owner in case you face a lawsuit.

Luckily the incorporation of a business in Singapore is a very simple and quick process. Once you reserve your business name, and no objections are brought up about your chosen name, you can file for your business incorporation. The incorporation process in Singapore can take 2 days or less.

The legal entities that you can choose for your business include:

Limited Liability Company

A Limited Liability Company (LLC) is a company limited by shares, which means its liabilities are limited to the amount of share capital. LLC is a business entity registered under the Singapore Companies Act and a separate legal entity from its members. In a LLC, the liabilities of the owners are limited to the assets in the company and their personal assets are protected from business liabilities.

Private Limited Company

A private limited company is a LLC in which the shares are held by less than 50 persons and are not available to general public. A private limited company is the most advanced, flexible, and scalable type of business incorporation in Singapore. It’s also the most preferred type of Singapore business entity for serious entrepreneurs.

See also: Private Limited Company Registration

Sole Proprietorship

A sole proprietorship is the simplest but the riskiest type of business form in Singapore. From a legal perspective, sole proprietorship is not a separately incorporated entity and therefore the owner and the business are one and the same. The owner personally owns all assets and liabilities of the business. There is no protection of personal assets from business risks and liabilities. As the sole proprietor of a business, you have unlimited liability, meaning that if your business can’t pay all its liabilities, the creditors to whom your business owes money can come after your personal assets.

Partnership

The partnership type of business structure attempts to address the limited-expansion constraint faced by a sole proprietorship by allowing two or more people to establish and co-own a business. A partnership firm has no legal existence separate from its partners. It comes to an end with death, insolvency, incapacity or the retirement of a partner. Further, any unsatisfied or discontent partner can also give notice at any time for the dissolution of the partnership.

Day 5: Operate Lean

Don’t try to operate a big business when first starting out. Your goal is to start quickly, keep your overheads low, and make money. You can’t make money if you have expenses that keep your finances in the red rather than the black. Unless you are developing a product that will be used by millions of people and backed by venture capital and public investments, you won’t be able to lose money and still remain in business.

You don’t need an expensive office space and a team of employees to get your business started. All you need is a computer, a distraction-free location to work, and the ability to conduct sales transaction. That’s all you need. There is no need to make the process complicated, detracting from the basic purpose of a business – the exchange of goods and services for money.

The are many people operating 6 figure businesses that were ran by themselves (besides back-end support) within their homes, their local coffee shop or co-working space, or from anywhere in the world. The development of the online business world has made the ability to reach customers all over the world very easy. Once again, keep your operating expenses low and your sales high and your business will produce profit rather than revenue.

Day 6: Sell Immediately

People won’t just find your business and start buying. You will need to get out and hustle up customers. Even if your business isn’t officially open for business, you will still need to focus all your efforts on selling. Without sales taking place, your business makes no money and you don’t eat. You didn’t create a business for such a circumstance to occur.

Look for any networking events that are taking place near you, create online advertising, go door-to-door to businesses or homes – do whatever it takes to place yourself in front of actual people. Sales is a numbers game. You will receive more no’s than yes’s, but a yes could turn into a big sales transaction. Therefore you never give up when turned down, because there is always an opportunity to turn the next person into a customer.

The key to selling is knowing your customer’s pain points and effectively communicating your business’s solutions. This develops the perceived value related to your products or services, which can either be beneficial or a deterrent in regards to the prices you can set. High value means you can charge high prices. Low values means you have to charge low prices.

Another important factor to have in mind when selling is having tiered pricing. Tiered pricing allows your business to capture many people within that marketplace, at various price points. This allows you to make more money because your customer base is not too narrow, and it also provides you with the opportunity to upsell to lower tiered priced customers.

Read More » 10 Proven Ways to Make Money Online

Day 7: Communicate with Media

If you want your business to become known to the public quickly, you will need to make media connections. The media is always looking for new stories to report on, and if your company is interesting enough, it can gain favorable media coverage.

Reach out to your local news stations, local newspapers, and even national media outlets. It doesn’t matter if it is a big media outlet or a small media outlet, any type of coverage will help boost your business’s profile.The key to doing this is explaining the value of your business – the problem you are solving and in what manner. If your story is compelling it can potentially be broadcast to millions of people.

Such an opportunity would produce a surge in your website traffic, get your phones ringing all day long, and increase your ability to convert hot leads into customers. So you must be prepared for the surge of interest. If you can’t meet the demand brought on from the exposure, then your business could be faced with serious consequences – possibly failure.

Day 8: Look Big

Just because you are a small business, it doesn’t mean that you have to appear like a small business. This doesn’t mean rent a big office to appear like you are making a lot of money. It means that your presence communicates that you operate a professional business.

You can invest in a 1-800 number, which indicates that you have an international presence. Also, instead of using @gmail.com for your emails, your business should use company email accounts. Company email accounts legitimize your business to a customer, establishing your professionalism and ability to conduct good business.

A great website also impacts your business tremendously, so it is essential that you invest in the design and performance of your business’s website. Outdated websites or those that are confusing get bypassed by people, never to be returned to again. Your website should be filled with nothing but easy to read information, it should be simple to navigate, and it should be easy for people to make a purchase. This helps turn your website into a cash generating machine for your business.

Day 9: Build and Grow Your Business

When you are first starting your business, you will have to work both in and on your business. This means you have to handle various business processes, while still working to bring in more customers. It can be a grueling process but it is a necessary if you want to develop a successful business.

Operating an online business might seem like an easy endeavor but it involves a lot of activities to make your business function properly. You will need to develop your products or services, write effective content, sell your products or services, market your products or services, handle customer support and much, much more. Unless you have a nice budget starting out so that you can outsource some of these duties, you will have to handle all these responsibilities on your own.

As your business grows and cash flow is consistent, you can hire in-house help to run your daily activities while you focus on growth activities. At least try to generate a 6 figure business on your own before seeking to hire employees or independent contractors.

Related Article : Signs it’s time for you to become an entrepreneur

Day 10: Celebrate Your Opening

After a lot of hard work, lack of sleep and bouts of anxiety, it is time to celebrate the opening of your business to the public. But even when you are celebrating, your focus is on achieving a business initiative – generating awareness about your business.

When celebrating your incorporated business invite your network of contacts, vendors, friends, family, customers and prospects. This will help you generate buzz and goodwill within your local community. This act enhances your image, communicating to people that you’re open for business.

Creating a business in such a short amount of time can be an exhausting process but well worth the effort when the money starts coming in. During your 10 day marathon, you are developing your foundation, creating your systems of operation, and establishing your business’s presence within the marketplace.

If you do everything right, you will learn that making money isn’t the hard part – keeping up with the demand for your products and services is what’s hard to handle. Develop a business that operates lean and is quick to deliver, attractive to your consumers, and stays ahead of the competition. If you do these things well, your business receives the benefit of having loyal customers and it will experience consistent growth.

So what is stopping you from getting your business started within the next 10 days? If you really want to be a business owner, then you will have no problem stepping up to the 10-day business start challenge. There are entrepreneurs who build products within 10 days and make 5 figure sums as soon as their product is launched. This is because they understand the process of marketing and selling prior to product release. Your business should follow the same format – making money as soon as it opens for business.

Related Reading » Setting up a Retailing Business in Singapore

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Incorporate a company in Singapore quickly and easily

Singapore Company Incorporation is the leading force in company registration in Singapore. With a gamut of services including Work Visas & Relocation, Accounting & Taxation, Business Licenses, Company Secretary and Trademark Registration, we are well-positioned to support your business.

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