It's VERY COOL to start your business in your Basement or Garage

 

Monday's blog was about finding a suitable place to start your business if you have to venture outside of your home . I posted information about business incubators which would allow you to pool your resources with other business owners in one building. This allows you to have all of the perks of working for a big organizations with the comfort of self employment or small business ownership.However if you chose to work from home there are amazing options and you will be in great company.

Sometimes, working home can be scoffed at by people working in big organizations. I don't understand the humor because what place is more comfortable that your very own home. An example, I worked for a company that scoffed at someone that left their big office organization to start their own business because it started in the former employees home. One of the big account managers said..."Ha! [Fictitious Name] Bob left here now he's working from his basement....."

Well Fictitious Name Bob is in some pretty lofty company as some of the biggest names in business now started from a basement, garage or dorm room. Some of those companies are Google, LinkedIn and Facebook, I wouldn't mind being in a league with any of them.

If they can do it, so can you!

Check out the video below that will show you how to set up a Home Office in a small corner of your home.

 

Wednesday book selection: START your business in DELAWARE!

When considering a new business there are so many things to take into consideration. A big part of that process is determining if we want to start the business in our place of residence or elsewhere. In some cities, which will go nameless [cough..cough..Philadelphia] business ownership is challenging to say the very least.

What a lot of people don't know is that you DO NOT have to start your business within the same city/state that you are residing in. 

More than 850,000 business entities have their legal home in Delaware including more than 50% of all U.S. publicly-traded companies and 63% of the Fortune 500.

That is AMAZING!

Another reason to consider Delaware is:

It’s Free! (Well, almost). Delaware charges $89 to incorporate. A little bit cheaper than California ($100..but they nail you for $800 every year in franchise fees), New York ($125), and a lot cheaper than Texas ($300). [note: Even if you incorporate in a foreign state like Delaware, your startup company may still be subject to registration as a "foreign entity" and compliance with the laws of states you transact business in.

So the Book of the week is a PDF that you can Download, Called Why Corporations Choose Delaware

Take a look at the video below to get more information.

 

QR Code Marketing: Introducing WearYourQRCode.com

QR or Quick Response, codes are relatively new and being used by some of the most cutting edge companies such as Facebook and Google. It allows your information to be scanned by way of mobile device. This barcode creates a fun and interactive way to get your message to potential and current customers.

This is how it works, the QR code is a special code that allows you to embed your information within. We can add your website address, Facebook page or your telephone number. People have been using this to promote their websites, special promotions and Facebook Fan pages however the uses are almost infinite.

At Anise Smith Marketing we are one of the most cutting edge companies offering the newest technologies to market your company. We are currently one of the ONLY companies that are providing this amazing line of marketing items. This allows you and or your customers to wear the company QR code. We are currently offering wholesale quantities with your company QR code to be used for mobile marketing, trade-show, giveaways and various other ways of promoting your brand. Get it NOW!

Check out our video below:

Shared Resources and space for NEW BUSINESS OWNERS

One of the biggest obstacles in starting your own business, in addition to financing is deciding on what kind of location you plan to use for your business. Some people opt to work from home which is a great choice. However sometimes working at home may not be feasible for whatever reason. In this situation new companies, in particular, are put in a very hard postion as new businesses may not have the financial resources to consider this option. This can create a HUGE obstacle at the very beginning of the business planning stage.

Well there is an option available that not many people are familiar with and that's Business Incubators. Business Incubators have been around for a while but have increasingly become more popular due to the decline in available jobs, an increase in unemployment and more people starting small businesses. Business Incubators may even have a positive effect on the economy due to so many small businesses that have been starting to utilize them more.

Take a real life virtual tour of a Business Incubator in Real Life (RL) and in Second Life (SL) by watching the video below.

 

Weekend Recipe: Low Carb Talapia

Video Recipe

Low Carb Cajun Tilapia Ingredients

Here are our ingredients:

• 1 tilapia fillet
• 2 tablespoons paprika
• 1 tablespoon dried thyme
• 1 tablespoon granulated garlic
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 tablespoon coriander
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 2 teaspoons black pepper
• blended olive oil

Mix the Cajun Tilapia Spices

First you want to combine all of your dry ingredients into a bowl. Take a little fork and mix everything together until it's fully incorporated. Here is your Cajun spice mix. You want to put this into a smaller container. For demonstration purposes I am preparing one portion of fish. You have enough spice mix to do 8 to 12 portions.

Season the Tilapia

Here we have our fillet of tilapia. Let's season it with our spice mix. Just a thin little coating on top. Now I will just pat it right into the fillet. Let it sit for about five minutes before you begin cooking.

Cook the Cajun Spiced Tilapia

Let's turn our grill up to its highest setting at 400 degrees. We want to get really hot to sear the fish. If you want to cook this on the stovetop in a sauté pan turn your heat up to medium-high. So our griddle is nice and hot. Just drizzle some oil right into the middle. Take our fillet and place it spiced side down right in the middle. Let it cook for about a minute and a half and give it a flip.

So it's 90 seconds later we will give this a nice flip. We will cook it for about two more minutes on this side and it's done. Two minutes later, the fish is done. Let's remove it from the heat. So here is your low carb Cajun spiced floppy. Serve it with your favorite low carb salad and/or vegetables.

More recipes like this can be found on the About.com Low Calorie Cooking Recipe Channel.

 

WEB 3.0 or the Future of web may merge Virtual Worlds like Second Life with Social Media

I must say as a fan of Second Life,  when I read about the role that it may play in WEB 3.0,  I was very excited. Second life is a virtual world which is becoming increasingly a part of businesses all over.  Businesses have started to use the virtual location as a meeting place or hub sort of speak for seminars and conferences because it allows people to meet "Virtually" from any place in the world.

I am hearing a lot about platforms that are merging virtual worlds like Second Life with applications such as Facebook. This would allow you to IMMERSE yourself into your computer experience. This is an indication that we are moving swiftly toward Web 3.0.

For those of us that are lovers of Facebook and Second Life this is BEYOND exciting. Most people are very familiar with Facebook but there are many that are not as familiar with Second Life.  Second Life is literally your Second Life, everything that you can experience in your Real Life (RL) you can experience in your Second Life (SL) So due to virtual worlds potentially being a part of the web moving forward, I thought I would share a bit of information about one of the most poplar virtual worlds, Second Life

So SL crash course:

Upon creating a Second Life Account you create an Avatar of yourself, this starts with a very generic looking avatar.  However, this initial avatar can be upgraded by purchasing clothing, hair, eyes and a different skin. This allows you to change your appearance at will.The images above are of my upgraded SL Avatar.

Second Life has it's own currency system called Linden Dollars, named for the creators of Second Life the Lindens. The Linden dollar fluctuates so for $1 US you can purchase between 270 and 300 Lindens. 

It is free to have a basic membership but you can upgrade to a full membership which would allow you to purchase land, build a house or create a business location. Creation of a branded business location is where the future of Web 3.0 may take us. If you are currently on Second Life you can visit our business location. Click her to visit  Anise Smith Marketing's Virtual Office.  If you have never visited Second Life check out the video below, then hop on and  try it out!

 

Also, take a look at the Video below it will give you more information about Second Life:

 

Wednesday's Book: 2020 Web Vision: How the Internet Will Revolutionize Future Homes, Business & Society

The Internet has become a part of every waking moment of our lives, or it could be just my life. I was one of the early waves of people on the Internet train back in the mid 90's before the Internet Bubble when the Internet was text based. Boy have we come a long way from that time.

What instantly grabbed me about the Internet, was my ongoing thirst to know things. I would become so wrapped up in the Internet and I soon became the "GO TO" person at the job that I had at the time. I was the person to ask, the person to train others and the overall walking knowledge base. The Internet has grow so much since then and the road that is on is exciting and I can't wait to see what's in store for us.

So for Wednesday's book I selected 2010 Web Vision: How will the Revolutionize Future Homes, Business & Society

To see more of the Future of the Internet, check out the video below.

New Twitter interface attacked by virus but it doesn't minimize that the New Twitter is COOL!

I guess in this day and age the computer virus is lurking around the any random memory chip within you pc. ( ~subliminal message~Try Mac ~) However in spite of this there are some very cool new happenings in the world of Twitter. I must digress a bit and say that it is a great time to be embracing technology.

Check out the NEW Twitter...

 

 

 

Career & Business Networking right on Facebook using BranchOut

We spend so much time on Facebook that more and more companies are developing strategies that allow us to do most things that we need to do directly in Facebook. One of the few things that we have not been able to do as much of within Facebook is use it for networking and job searching. 

Well that's about to change with a company called BranchOut.  They recently receive 6 million dollars in funding to help make this happen according to Mashable who originally posted the story about Branch out.  Learn more about BranchOut.   Take a look at the video as well.

 

Google's emergence into the SOCIAL playing game heating up...

Continued speculation about Google's plans to move into a Facebook-esq sort of platform is heating up.  There has been lots of buzz about this and if it does in fact materialize this could possibly explain some of the changes that Google have been implementing. There has even been rumors that Facebook has access to the Oh-So Secret Google plans to "Add a Social Layer.." Read a bit more...
Check out the video: Details of the Google Social Layer Emerge 

Weekend Recipe: Penne Arrabiata

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup olive oil, divided
• 6 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes with garlic and olive oil
• 1/2 cup tomato sauce
• 1 bunch fresh basil, chopped
• 1 (12 ounce) package dried penne pasta
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups bread crumbs
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1 pound thin chicken breast cutlets

Directions

1. Heat 1/4 cup of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic, and saute for a few minutes. Sprinkle in the red pepper flakes, and saute for another minute. Pour in the diced tomatoes and tomato sauce, and add the basil. Simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add penne pasta, and cook for 8 minutes, or until tender. Drain.
3. In a small bowl, whisk eggs with a fork. Place bread crumbs in a separate bowl. Stir the garlic powder, salt and pepper into the bread crumbs. Dip chicken cutlets into the egg, then press into the bread crumbs until completely coated.
4. Heat remaining olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Fry chicken for about 5 minutes per side, or until the coating is a nice dark brown color.
5. Remove chicken, and cut into slices. Toss the chicken slices into the sauce, and simmer for about 10 minutes. Stir in the cooked penne, simmer for a few more minutes to soak up the flavor, then serve.

Prep Time:
  20 Min

Cook Time:
  25 Min

Ready In:
45 Min

What to drink:

Sangiovese

More recipes at: allrecipes.com

 

Color is very important to Branding your NEW company or reBranding your present company.

Recently there was an article posted about the many different companies that utilize the color blue for their brand.  There was a bit of discussion about the posted article as well. The question presented inquired if people were aware of the importance of color and why there were so many companys that chose to represent their company with the color blue. You can read more about that here...

There were quite a lot of responses, to that thread so I thought I would post a bit of information about the importance of selecting the right color to represent your company brand. This is very important to people interested in starting a new business. There are significant thoughts provoked by certain colors so it is important to know this before you select colors for your company to represent your brand. Read more about colors and creation of your brand here....

The Graying of Social Networks could be booming advertising bucks!

More and more older citizens are getting involved with Social Networks such as Facebook. It could be that this booming generation could be a very big boost to advertisers. More ...

 

Wednesday's Book Post: Building your business with limited cash and FREE resources

This book just reached out to me so I had to share it in keeping the momentum going with our business conversations.  As the economy struggles we really become more and more concerned with our finances and our abilty to continue to provide for our families. Even if we still have our traditional jobs, some us feel a bit less secure with those positions. This is primarily due to the economic times.

The economy is struggling, unemployment is through the roof and jobs are scarce.  Most people are almost forced to consider business ownership when it may not have been an option or thought at one time due to the lack of suitable jobs. It seems as if the economy is sluggish in bouncing back, and some of the unemployed, underemployed or just plain fed up folks are seriously considering business ownership as a real solution to their economic woes.

One of the things that you concern yourself with in pursuit of business ownership revolves around financing your new venture.  Well that brings me to the book that I wanted to share for Wednesdays Book Post.  It's called Bootstrapping 101: Tips to Build Your business with Limited Cash and Free Outside Help. Amazing title and applicable in this economy.

A sneak peak into the book:

Many unemployed Americans are discarding their résumés to pursue their dream of owning their own business. Many existing entrepreneurs are struggling to make ends meet in the current economic downturn. Bob Reiss has written Bootstrapping 101 to help these wannabe and existing small business owners improve their odds of success. He shows entrepreneurs how to grow their business with less money than they thought they needed and steers them to free quality advice.

Check out the book....

 

Google loosing ground to Facebook?

WOW!  Yes WOW!  It seems that people are spending more and more time on sites OTHER than Google. People have develped a bigger interest in chatting with their Facebook friends, sending farm animals about and shootin' up the bad guys in Mafia Wars by way of Facebook. This has Google loosing ground ... Read more...

Americans spent more time socializing on Facebook than searching with Google for the first time in August, and Yahoo edged out the search giant in monthly traffic, according to comScore. Users spent 41.1 billion minutes on Facebook in August, 39.8 billion minutes on Google, and 37.7 billion on Yahoo. Yahoo beat out Google in monthly traffic, with 179M unique visitors to Google's 178.8M. Microsoft came in third with 165.3M.

You've been GOOGLE'd

Google is not only an important part of Internet Search, it is also very important of branding yourself to your clients and potential employers. 72% of employers Google job candidates, much higher than the 44% that check Facebook Profiles.  You need to control the information that clients, customers and potential employers read about you. Read more about Why you need to have a Google Profile, then Create your Google profile now!

72% of respondents said they would conduct a web search using the candidate’s name while 59% said they would look at a profile on LinkedIn.  For those of you with questionable content on your Facebook pages, take heart in that only 44% of prospective employers said they would look there.

Business Advice Monday: All businesses should start with a business plan

Everything starts with a plan, whether it's a thought or an actual physical step by step plan.  Business plans are no different, actually it is very important to start with a thought then advance to a written business plan.

The difficult thing is actually getting started, forming your thoughts and getting those thoughts down on paper.  I was able to find a great downloadable template that will get you started on your way. It is in word format so you can download it, add your information and save it.

To check out the template go to the Business Plan Start up page.

Small Businesses to Increase Email, Social Media Spend in 2010

Social Media is really taking the smaller businesses by storm. It is reported that  a lot of businesses would be changing how they spend their advertising dollars. The goal is now to increase email and Social Media ad spending in 2010 but reduce budgets for search engine marketing and some online display advertisements.  This is HUGE as it may be a forecast for ad spending in 2011.  Full Article in Verticle Response. 

Businesses were surveyed and 74% said they plan on increasing their email marketing spend and 68% said they plan on increasing their social media budget.

Weekend Recipe: Sweet and Sour Chicken

Ingredients

• 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast meat - cubed
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup sliced green bell pepper
• 1/2 cup sliced red bell pepper
• 1 cup carrot strips
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
• 1 (8 ounce) can pineapple chunks, juice reserved
• 1 tablespoon vinegar
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

Directions

1. Brown chicken in oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add green bell pepper, red bell pepper, carrot and garlic and stir fry for 1 to 2 minutes.
2. In a small bowl, combine cornstarch and soy sauce and mix together; pour mixture into the skillet, along with the pineapple and liquid, vinegar, sugar and ginger. Stir together and bring to a full boil.

I would serve this with brown rice but use the rice of your choice.

Prep Time:
  10 Min

Cook Time:
  10 Min

Ready In:
20 Min

What to drink:

Reisling

Beer

More Recipes on AllRecipes.com

 

Business 101: Business Structure

Before truly considering what KIND of business to start you should consider the different types of business structures. There are :
Sole Proprietorships
Partnerships
Corporations
Subchapter S Corporations
Limited Liability Company (LLC)

All of these structures are different and may or may not fit with what you have in mind when starting your ventures. So it's best to take a look at what each structure has to offer then determine what's best for your future company.
You can read a very detailed description of each structure at the US Small Business Association.
There are a wide array of articles and helpful information that should aid in your new journey toward business ownership!

5 Things that SMART Entrepreneurs could learn from kids......

1. Every new per­son you meet is a poten­tial new friend
2. Tools don’t have to be used as every­one uses them
3. There are no boundaries, only obstacles
4. Life is Simple
5. Failing is NOT Failure

Read More..

Social Media has replaced Traditional advertising Are you READY?

 

Weekend Recipe: YUMMY Lettuce Wraps

I am super excited about this recipe and I my make this one along with you!

What you need:

1 Red Leaf Lettuce

1 Tablespoon soy sauce

1/4 Cup of hoisin sauce

1 Tablespoon fish sauce

2 Teaspoons freshly grated ginger

1 Tablespon crushed red peppers

1Tablespoon rice wine vinegar

1 Tablespoon Asian Chile pepper sauce

1 Tablespoon peanut oil

3 Cloves fresh garlic, minced

1 Large Onion, finely chopped

1 Pound lean ground turkey

1/2 Cup finely chopped red bell pepper

1 Korean red pepper chopped

1 Cup sliced mushrooms

3 Scallions, chopped

2 Teaspoons dark sesame seed oil

Toppings:

2 Medium carrots, shredded

1 Cucumber, shredded

2 Cups mung bean sprouts, ends snapped and cleaned

2 Scallions, shredded

Directions

Rinse lettuce leaves and pat dry. Set aside. Whisk together the soy sauce, hoisin sauce, fish sauce, ginger, crushed red peppers, vinegar,and Asian chile pepper sauce. Set aside. In a medium skillet over high heat add a tablespoon of olive oil sauté the garlic, onions and red bell pepper until softened. Add the ground turkey and brown stirring often and reducing the heat to medium, if necessary. Add the Korean red pepper and stir for another 2 minutes. Add mushrooms and soy sauce mixture and cook for another 3 minutes. Stir in scallions and sesame seed oil, and continue cooking for about 5 minutes.

Putting It All Together

To serve, arrange the meat, lettuce and the toppings on a platter. Allow each person to spoon a portion of the meat into a lettuce leaf. Wrap the lettuce around the meat, top with carrots, cucumbers and scallions. Serve with rice.

For more great recipes check out the Facebook page of Yobodish or Website of Yobodish.

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