Starting something up means creating a new thing out of something that’s already existing. A lot of startups begin at the smallest level before becoming a huge deal later on.

Starting up a business is an exciting experience. it however entails proper financial and strategic planning. Profit-making is the sole purpose of starting a business.

TIPS

FEASIBILITY STUDY :Having thoughts to start up a business, the first thing to do is to conduct a feasibility study. It’s a way to gather information about potential customers and businesses already operating in your line of interest. If you will be having an office or store, this is the time to scan the area and do a mini research about what people view about the business you want to start up

BUSINESS PLAN: Also, a well detailed business plan is essential. A business plan is a dynamic document that serves as a guide for establishing a new business. Potential investors and financial institutions find it easier to understand what they are putting in for and what the returns/yields would be. Potential problems are spot on by the intending business owner and readjustments can be made before things go south.

FUNDING is also a very important factor to consider. Having a well detailed business plan will help figure out how much you need to start up. It would help you realize if you can fund it yourself, take up a loan, find investors or crowdfund.

LOCATION: this is also an integral part of starting a business. A good location is needed to help sell whatever product you have. Which is why conducting a feasibility study is important. You can’t just be in a location that you can’t get customers as to what you are doing. For instance, if a building project is going on around an area, it can be a good location for you if you sell building materials

BUSINESS NAME: picking a name that represents what your business is about and ensuring it is not in use by another business. For fashion and food businesses, names like ‘couture’, ‘clothing’s’, ‘apparel’ and ‘foodcity’, ‘foodies’, ‘delicacy’ and co exhibits already what you do. Choosing a name outside your business representation may confuse potential customers.

Get familiar with your competition: earlier stated business that are doing what you are intending may already exist. You need to get familiar and see how you can outshine them and be better. Everyone wants something better. You need to fill the vacuum they aren’t filling and break the ice.

Registering your business is next up. Get a legalized documentation for your business. This not only gives your customers peace of mind when dealing with you, it also gives you a proper backup.

marketing your business. Every business must have a way of communicating to customers and potential customers what they do through billboards, television adverts, handbill, social media and lots more. Find the one you think is best and fast and cost effective to market your business.

Have a separate account for your business. This is for discipline and also to be accountable for every penny.

In summary, starting a business is easy, interesting and fun if you are passionate about what you want to do, conduct a feasibility study, have a well detailed business plan and have the required funds to start up amongst others.

The most important criterion for getting a job at an ad agency is having tons of creativity. Advertising business is all about creativity; once the creative juices begin to flow the rewards are overwhelming. Advertising doesn’t just consist of coming up with slogans, graphic billboards, creatives or placing ads on TV and newspapers anymore, It’s pure branding: being able to represent that brand as transparently as possible, building a following through social media, managing the messages in online conversations and more.  A good degree can take you places. Any course or a degree at a reputed university or an advertising school is a big advantage. People with fewer resources can utilize the Internet to maximum, as lots of material regarding advertising is available online, learning from the comfort of home. Having internship experience counts when trying in an ad agency. Internship provides ample exposure to the advertising industry and basic training can be skipped after getting a job. It is better to opt for an entry-level position as this makes your foundation in advertising very strong. Many successful people are known to have started from the bottom most position. This provides us with an opportunity to work outside the job zone assigned which helps to learn the tricks of the trade. Even if future doesn’t look bright enough in the present institution this experience will certainly count when looking for a job elsewhere.

The resume is an important part of the job search and should reflect the creativity of the applicant. Tailoring your portfolio to the kind of work the agency does is very crucial. It should be amusing and at the same time professional too. If the response is taking time don’t hesitate to post another letter. Calls are usually not appreciated as most of the people at an ad agency are busy round the clock and professionals at a higher position have to deal with many projects at once.

You’ve heard it before: “It’s all about who you know.” And that’s also true for advertising. Reach out to people you know—and even those you don’t. Look out for people in the network which can sometimes fetch opportunities through references. These networks can be a source of information about the seminars, educational workshops and local advertising clubs. Doing voluntary work for special events will be worth the effort because if the work is really eye catching it will be appreciated by the guests who visited the event and one of them can be a potential employer.

If the big break seems real far it’s better to start freelancing rather than wasting time. Some agencies appreciate work examples better than training or credentials. Advertising agencies want to evaluate your abilities. While some firms are willing to take a risk on you if you have the right personality or background for the position, a majority of firms will want to see work that you’ve actually done. A great way to build your portfolio to work in advertising is to work as a freelancer while you are in school or while you are looking for employment. Try creating original work and approach ad agencies and small business with your work. This can spice up the on-going job hunt. A graphic designer and a copywriter will have an advantage in this approach. If it’s hard to get a start create spec ads. Spec ads are personal versions of a published ad. A little bit of twist can sometimes result in a better ad than the actual one. Even if it isn’t this sure will bring you opportunities in small local businesses. Freelancing has many benefits. Not only will you have something to add to your portfolio to show off, but you can also polish your skills through the experience that you gain with your work

Start with businesses residing in your locality like the grocery store or the butcher’s shop. Later on approach television and radio stations. They always have vacancies for commercial writers and need a helping hand to develop programs. Since the income is less in these type of jobs its easier for a beginner to get a job.

Working in advertising can be difficult, but at the end of the day passion for work and persistence really counts. Sometime or the other there will be an employer who will have respect for true passion and creativity and all that energy will give you that much needed break and take you places.

 Let’s assume had a phone or camera in your hand and you wanted to take a picture but instead you take a picture of how your life is. This is called self-reflection. Self-reflection is a learning process; it requires a perspective on one’s own behaviour.

Imagining our life as a movie or a photograph is a good way of examining our life and the things in it we like and the things in it we would like to see changed. When we give important life experiences a name, we can focus on the important events in our life and especially on those ones that continue to influence us today.

Have you ever noticed when you take a wide angled shot of a scene you see a lot of picture but very little detail and when you zoom in on one part of the picture you miss out on the big picture, though you get a very good view of one part of the picture that really interests you? We often look at life like this. We look at the big picture and forget the details that bring beauty and interest to our lives, or we focus on one thing and forget the bigger picture. Either way, we risk losing our perspective if we only look at life from one or the other perspective. We need both perspectives to understand our life experiences and that is the purpose of giving a name to the scene

Visualize the shift in your self-reflection and experience the magic of having two perspectives- zoom in and zoom out. How different does the picture look close up and how does it look at a distance. If the picture is distressing, close up, try to zoom back and look at the picture from a distance to give you a big picture perspective. Does it change the picture at all?

Sometimes when we focus on things in our life we feel distressed, but when we see it as part of a bigger picture we can deal with it. leveraging the zoom out and zoom in approach helps you to make connections between your past and future decisions and broaden your horizon.

Goals are very essential in life, providing a sense of direction, motivation and a clear focus. It won’t be wrong to say that people without goals in their life, merely exist. People who have goals are the ones who discover the real value in their life. By setting goals, you are establishing a target to aim for. Few things to keep in mind when setting goals are:

1. What purpose will this goal achieve? Do you really want that result? Will it help you in some way? We need to set priorities about the things we want out of life when we are setting goals. It is only when the goal is practical and purposeful will we stay motivated to achieve it.
2. What constraints and difficulties will you have when you are setting your goal? Your goal achievement is not going to be a simple process. Of all the constraints, you will find that there is one constraint, which you can term as the primary constraint. In most cases, this primary constraint is money. It could be something else for you, like a mindset that you have developed and you need to fight with in order to reach towards your goal. Analyze this primary constraint.
3. Make your plans to fight this primary constraint. You need to move on ahead, and overcoming this chief difficulty is going to take you several notches ahead towards fulfilling your goals. So, focus your energies on this one primary constraint and the remainder of your path will smoothen itself out.
4. Look forward to the results. You should always want your goals to be fulfilled so bad that you can almost taste it. You want to make it happen. It is only when you are so relentless about it can you make a good deal out of your goal setting and, thus, your life.

However, we like to abide by theories; they put a concrete spin on things. They make difficult tasks seem achievable. Even for your goal setting practices, there is a wonderful theory that you can use. This theory, popularly known as SMART, is a strategy you can implement to set goals that you can easily achieve. SMART is an acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely.

SPECIFIC: every goal must be clear and unambiguous. It must be well defined.

MEASURSBLE: goals set must be measurable towards accomplishment. For example, “I will go for a run every other day”

ACHIEVABLE:  you should be practical about your set goals and stay within attainable limits. Your goals shouldn’t go over individual capacity too much. Although it’s okay to challenge yourself, going too far will only make you lose motivation and give up.

REALISTIC: it is important to set realistic and relevant goals. It is impossible to say I want to be a president today without doing the necessary things.

TIMELY: create a clearly defined timeline including a start and end date. This is to create a focus and keep you on track and in check. For example, saving money for a particular thing, say holiday, you have a start and end date towards that goal.

In summary, goals are achievable when you stay focused and implement the SMART strategy. Smart goals ensure success and helps push you further. It helps you organize and reach your goals.

Advertising for free seems like an impossible thing when heard. You’ve heard the old saying. “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.” However, when it comes to advertising for a small business that saying is not true. In fact, there are some good ways to get free advertising.

A business wanting to advertise, can write articles related to their field of expertise that can be submitted to media and publications having interest in that particular field. The advertising article can have information about the company and dealership opportunity. Due to the rise in Internet users and websites, new websites have sprung up which offer free services. Articles can be written for these websites and they can be broadcasted for free, which will be viewed by hundreds of people everyday.

Free advertising methods have three advantages:

Cost:

Obviously, free options can stretch a tight marketing budget making it go farther.

Creativity:

Free options inspire you to be creative. They are perfect for shaking up a tired marketing strategy with fresh ideas.

Word of Mouth:

Many “no cost” solutions involve community engagement, spurring others to amplify positive word-of-mouth. This not only drives new sales, it can powerfully counteract reputation management issues such as bad reviews.

There are various ways to advertise for free such as;

Free bulletin board located in the neighborhood, like in grocery stores, libraries, and salons, are another good idea. Advertising circulars can be posted on such boards for free. Circulars for mass distribution can be handed out at the mall, shopping center, bus stops, particularly on weekends when there is a big rush. Students can be hired on part time basis for this purpose.

Promotional advertisement can be printed on the envelopes used by the business firms. Both the sender and the receiver can view this advertisement. Promotional offers can be sent to customers through emails. Some of the new mail order publications offer free first time and seasonal deductions for advertisers, flash sales, giveaways or free samples. Other publications offer pay per inquiry space. Inquiries can be made about stand-by space, which means that the publication holds the submission of advertisement until the space is not sold and in that case, thirty three percent saving can be achieved. Usually local newspapers provide these kinds of offers.

Free offers can be provided to the customer. This can be done by emailing or printing newsletter about information regarding the area of interest of the targeted customers and can be made popular by using tag lines. Attach a free coupon with it, which the customers can use it for shopping, if a criterion is met like minimum purchase of $ 50. By this the response will be huge and most of them will purchase something or the other to avail the free offer. The basic ingredient for advertising for free is imagination and research. Opportunities should be searched and a strong working force should be applied to increase the sales.