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Learn how to start your business while driving to your regular job. Startup Bizcast has short 15 minute lessons on how to get your startup going.

From the website:
Startup BizCast
Startup BizCast is the small business advice podcast that’s shorter than your coffee break. Episodes are 15 minutes or less (perfect for the busy small business owner) and new shows are published every week. Each show will provide tips about small business from owners of small businesses and other experts. The podcast is a “must listen” for anyone who owns a business, or is thinking of starting one.

There is one hard and fast rule in generating income for your website: A steady flow of website traffic. If no one goes to your site, it hardly bares a chance of generating an income. Many sites have tried and failed in doing so, and these results to the sites demise. It takes money to maintain an income generating site; it also takes money to make money.

BUT, it doesn’t take a whole caboodle of cash to generate website traffic for your site.

Ever wonder how does big hit sites drive traffic top their site? Most of them are spending tons of money to drive the traffic to their sites, investing in many advertising campaigns and different forms of marketing schemes and gimmickries. This is all worthwhile because, well, they are what they are now, high earning, big hitting websites.

You don’t have to do this if you don’t really have their resources. There are many ways to generate low cost website traffic without having to spend what you don’t have or can’t afford. Many people have banked on high cost methods and have ended up losing their shirt over it.

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NetBooks

The creator of the popular QuickBooks accounting software has launched NetBooks, a web-based solution for handling many aspects (including bookkeeping) of running a small-to-mid size business.

Much like Salesforce.com, NetBooks touts its “software as a service” business model that revolves around monthly subscription fees as opposed to licensing. Additionally, the company tackles many areas of business management that are not part of QuickBooks, such as customer relationship management, marketing, and inventory. NetBooks believes it is optimal for companies with 2 to 50 employees in an inventory-focused business.

Pricing for NetBooks starts at $200 for up to 5 users, with a $20 fee for each additional. The company appears to be taking direct aim at founder Ridgely Evers former employer (Intuit, owner of the QuickBooks franchise), not only drawing inspiration from the name, but also featuring a comparison chart of NetBooks and QuickBooks
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via Mashable

“How to get a million dollars and NOT pay taxes— First, get a million dollars.”
Steve Martin

The top 10 ways to get wealthy

Marry someone for their money
This is a very popular way of becoming rich. However, do you really want to try this?

Be a crook
The problem with being a crook is that you hang out with crooks and you can never trust them. Sooner or later, one will rat on you or kill you. Not much of a retirement plan.

Be greedy
Greedy people or one of the most despised people in the world. You will be very lonely.

Be cheap
People who live by being cheap often limit themselves by living below their means rather than trying to expand their means

Via hard work
Although this is very noble and an honest way to make a dollar, hard working people very often do not have the time to enjoy the money they are earning. They are too busy with the job and career.

Be exceptionally smart , talented, attractive or gifted
The world is full of UN-employed and poor gifted and talented people. Its a long shot at best.

Be lucky
This is as popular as being cheap. Millions of dollars are spent looking for the big payoff in the lottery and gambling.

Inherit Money
By the time you are in your 20’s, you should know if you are going to inherit anything. Otherwise you will need to find some other method of getting rich.

Investing
This takes money to invest and also the risk is high if you do not know what you are doing. Education is needed.

Build a business
This is probably the most riskiest of all the ways to get rich. Even purchasing a franchise, which is less risky, takes a large sum of money. Statistic say that 1/3 of all franchises eventually will go broke.

Build a Network Marketing Business
If you glance over the first 10 ways of getting rich, you will notice that they focus is self-centered. Even a big business is focused on getting a few select people rich.

A network marketing system is setup to make it possible for anyone to share the wealth. This is a very democratic way of wealth creation.The systems is open to anyone who has drive, determination and perseverance. A network marketing system does not care what college you went to, who your parents are, or how popular you are.

Network Marketing systems are primarily about how willing you are to learn, change, grow and if you are willing to stick it out through think and thin while building the business.

There are many ways to become rich. However, only one of them is focused on sharing the wealth in a democratized fashion. Anyone, regardless of background can become wealthy in a network marketing system.

For more information about Network Marketing and how it can help you, please e-mail me at jeff.christman (at) gmail(dot)com

Sample Business Plans

Just a quick link to a resource. Hundreds of sample business plans to any type of business. Brought to you by funding universe.

Go Crazy….

First, the Disclaimer: I cannot guarantee you’ll make any return, in fact you may lose money. I am not an investment adviser and this should not be
construed as investment advice. It is merely my impression of a service. Only you and a registered investment professional can make determinations regarding what investment is right for you.

OK now for the good stuff.

Prosper is an online peer to peer lending service that is offering high return rates depending on the credit rating. Typically, 8% to 20+% depending on the person’s credit score, and how quickly they need money.

When a borrower signs up and joins a group, the interest rate can get lower because the group will pressure the borrower to repay the loan. After all, the group depends on its rating to get the low interest rate. A little peer pressure can go long way.

As a lender, you can make much more money than a regular savings account. However, as with any risk, there is a chance you could lose all of it. IF the account goes into collection, the collection agency will also take a cut. Overall , though the risk is pretty good and who does not want to make double digit interest on their money.

Prosper Special
Prosper has a special for HomeBizChat readers and I have set up a group for all HomeBizChat readers who want to make money on their savings.

First, as a special offer, prosper is offering you $25 if you sign up as lender and fund one loan. The minimum amount to “fund” a loan is $50. That means if you lend someone $50 at a great interest rate, Prosper will pay you $25. In addition, they’ll give me $25 for sending you their way. But hurry, this limited time offer will only be around until December 31, 2007.

Click here to sign up now

It is tough to find good business partners. Starting a company takes a special type of person, and there aren’t many people out there that want to work on something outside of the normal 9-5 workday, let alone do it for free for awhile. On top of all that, you still have to find people that have similar values, interests, and work styles in order for your startup to succeed. I’ve been through quite a few partners over the years - not because they were bad, just because we were a bad fit. A few months ago a company launched that aimed to ease that process -

PartnerUp.com

PartnerUp’s core functionality centers around connecting entrepreneurial-spirited people who have common goals. PartnerUp helps entrepreneurs and businesses find the potential business partners, executives, board members, and skilled employees that they need to make their venture a success. Concurrently, we help professionals (accountants, lawyers, and marketing people to name a few) find opportunities to become involved in helping to grow businesses by using their skills and experience. Finally, we provide a community for building lasting business relationships (and, in many cases, friendships) with others who share the same business and/or career goals.

Do You Want to Run Your Own Business? Read this First » Internet Business Blog - by Yaro Starak

Yaro is one of the big bloggers and makes thousands every month from his blog. He has posted a great article on what its like to run an internet business. Be sure to read his follow up on “the Day in the Life” . This business may not be for everyone.

Hard to Find 800 Numbers

Waiting on hold for customer service or tech support is painful enough, so why do they have to make it so hard to find the toll-free 800 number in the first place? With Hard to Find 800 Numbers, you’ll never have to scramble for contact information again. The site organizes companies alphabetically and displays phone numbers and hours of operation.

30 Free eBooks To Learn Everything You Want to Know About Personal Finance »
When you reach into a broad-ranging topic like personal finance, you find everyone and their cousin trying to reach across the Internet to give you advice. There’s so much information there that it can literally be overwhelming; there’s literally too much for the average person to sort through.

Lisa Haneberg » Podcasts and Webcasts

Lisa has interviewed some of the best minds in the business industry and she has put those interviews in Podcasts for all to download and listen. This is a really great resource to get into the minds of some of the most influential business authors and speakers.

A business is only able to grow as fast as the internal organisation is able to process higher volumes of sales. But how to get an optimal internal organisation? Well, you will need to adapt your internal organisation over and over again. It’s a never ending story. However, a Company/Employee Handbook could assist you to achieve the best internal business organisation.

This brings up the question, What has to be included in a Company/Employee Handbook? Everything what has influence to your business operation. First of all, it has to be outlined which areas the Company/Employee Handbook will cover. As it has to do with internal operation, here is a list of items you should include:

- Company Background Information (Name-Development, Foundation date and place, History-Milestones, Vision)
- Owner and/or Manager Bios/Profiles
- Listing of Officers and Board of Directors
- Employment Roles (Job Roles, Job Descriptions)
- Description of the main products and services (just use your marketing material)
- FAQ (about internal subjects only)
- Company timeline (What, when, where)
- Office procedures (Workflow-Information, Working Procedures)
- List of persons to know (Bank Contact, Tax Advisor, Laywer, Main Suppliers, etc.)
- Overview of agreements (Rental, Leasing, etc.)
- Internal Policies (Dress code, Phone usage and answering, Voice Mail Procedure, Parking,
Business Cards, Drug Policy, etc.).

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There are a number of ways that you can find tax services companies. The yellow pages is a good place to start for companies in your area but, depending on where you live, the list of names may be extremely long. It is a good idea to ask your friends, colleagues and business partners to recommend the tax services that they have found helpful and efficient in the past. Then you can call the tax services professionals that you have on your list and discuss your requirements.

The first step in finding the best tax services for your needs is deciding what level of help you require. Perhaps you simply need someone who can file a simple tax return but has to wade through your slightly disorganised accounting documents, or maybe you have a number of employees and need
assistance sorting out their tax withholdings or you may even want all of these tax services, and more. The size of the tax services company may also be an issue. You may want one person to be able to perform all of your tax work, especially if you are only a small business owner or you may want a team of tax professionals and you want to find tax services that have a number of specialists available. Once you have identified the type of tax services then you can begin your search more easily. Your available tax services budget is obviously going to be an issue but you should try to allocate as much money as possible to ensure that you can afford the best possible tax services. Remember that you can incur heavy fines if you have incorrectly filed your tax return or are late paying any type of tax that your business is liable for.

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If you’ve ever read an article about eBay, you will have seen the kinds of incomes people make - it isn’t unusual to hear of people making thousands of dollars per month on eBay.

Next time you’re on eBay, take a look at how many PowerSellers there are: you’ll find quite a few. Now consider that every single one of one of them must be making at least $1,000 per month, as that’s eBay’s requirement for becoming a PowerSeller. Silver PowerSellers make at least $3,000 each month, while Gold PowerSellers make more than $10,000, and the Platinum level is $25,000. The top ranking is Titanium PowerSeller, and to qualify you must make at least $150,000 in sales every month!

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Printing Costs «

Printing a web page to a color printer can be costly. Especially when printing the useless ads that show up on the page along with the content. Pinter ink is very expensive, not sure why, but Web Worker Daily has some good tips to save money and ink.

My favorite: Print in draft mode. Save the fine printout for final copy. ( Why didn’t I think of that). Also, since black ink is less expensive than color ink, I will print in shades of gray unless I really need th color

Have you any tips to save money and ink ? Post them here