Here is today’s quote for small business owners.

“A man without a smiling face must not open a shop”

Anonymous, Chinese proverb

A few weeks ago the good people from the 3 Network (Hutchison 3G UK Ltd.) sent me their new USB dongle for my laptop, an Apple MacBook Pro. This happened just when I wanted to change from my current mobile broadband provider anyway, so just in time.

I have to say I’m pleased, very pleased with the performance of this little unit and for once feel always connected to the Internet. Some of the postings to this blog over the past week have been made using this little device and it helps me utilizing every minute of otherwise useless time on a train or waiting somewhere else.

For anyone working in a mobile capacity, having a broadband dongle is a must and using the 3 network is fast, certainly much faster then my old provider. More importantly having this kind of technology will improve your productivity in several areas:

• You can work from anywhere, you can take your work home and be more with your family;
• it really makes our OnlineOffice even more valuable since it’s all online;
• it makes you and your business more accessible, by providing a better client experience;

But don’t take only my word for it, go to the 3 mobilebuzz website and see what other people say. I have written about the 3 Network before and praised them for their deal with skype, their current mobile broadband offering is another step in the right direction for mobile data services.

I’m a happy client, well done 3. — ST.

Disclaimer: I was sent this dongle to test by the 3 Network free of charge, but I will be taking out a subscription after my free trail period is finished.

UPDATE: The 3 Network have cut the price for their dongle in half, so from tomorrow you can get the dongle for £49.99, even less reason not to get one.

Having been a member of ai-amnesty international now for over 30 years, I need to support this appeal by Bloggers Unite. If I could ask all of my fellow bloggers to do the same. While it may be “off-topic” for many of our blogs, it is certainly not “off topic” for our humanity and humility.

On May 15th, 2008, let’s come together and all blog about human rights. There are thousands of hum rights issues you can blog about - anyone of these will do, to create awareness.

Topic you could consider include:

On our flight back from Australia, fiddling with her PowerBook laptop, my wife said to me out of the blue: “Apple (computers, iPod, IPhone, etc.) is like Australia!”

Now here was a comparison I had not heard before. She explained it this way, when ever I want to do something no my computer I think where would it be if I had designed this PowerBook computer and there it is, easy. When ever I want to do something in Australia, I go and talk to people and there you go no problem done. She then carried on and said, “you try doing that in Europe or the US - everybody is stressed, miserable and our political correctness is slowly driving me up the wall.”

And indeed a few weeks ago I read in “The Age” - a daily paper in Australia - that in Europe and the US about 70% of people had a negative outlook for the future, about 20% a positive outlook and the rest didn’t have an outlook.

In Australia, these figures are reversed, over 70% of people have a positive outlook and it shows in everyday life, the whole society is more friendly and less stressed - why is that? I wonder if Australians are really aware of this fundamental difference? Here people are still interested in improving things and have this “go and get ‘em” mentality, while I fear we in the US/Europe often only care about making money fast, we are often not interested in building long lasting value, but have this “quarterly” outlook in life. This kind of behavior my yet come to haunt us, as it has a profound social impact.

As far as Apple products are concerned this is a pretty big endorsement too. It translates - for me anyway - into, “I have less stress in using this computer, in comparison to all others.” Why would that be so? I believe it to be the outlook of people like Steve Jobs, who clearly does not think about himself first, but his company and he is not motivated by making more money, but by moving things forward.

To bring this down to a simple denominator - I guess you could conclude, that chasing the money makes us stressful and ill, chasing a vision is fun and therapeutic.

So I guess, she is right: Apple is like Australia. — ST.

Here is this week’s news round-up for home business, micro business, sole-traders, freelancers, self-employed and any one who is interested in small business news from Australia and New Zealand:

• Extra responsibility comes as you grow: MOST small businesses have a strategy they hope will make them grow, so inevitably there comes a time when they no longer belong in the small category.
• Big business bullies beware: MORE lawsuits about predatory pricing will be brought by small businesses against larger rivals after proposed changes to the Trade Practices Act, the Federal Government predicts.
• Need a director? Look beyond the usual suspects: After robust debate recently about the lack of diversity on the boards of New Zealand companies, some have been criticised for not looking beyond their immediate circle for directors. Operating in a small business community, …
• Business bullies reined in: BIG business will no longer be able to bully their smaller competitors out of their market under tough new competition laws announced today.
• Put idle money to work: SOME businesses are letting their spare cash sit idle in low-interest accounts instead of putting it in new high-interest at-call online accounts.
• One in five Companies make money overseas: Twenty per cent of New Zealand businesses generated some form of overseas income in the last financial year. For 44 per cent of businesses surveyed, their offshore income came from sales of finished goods, and over a third, 38…
• Aussie confidence drops to seven - year low: Australian business confidence is at its lowest in seven years - since the aftermath of the dot-com crash in 2001 - as firms struggle to cope with decade-high interest rates. Financial market volatility is also affecting small,…

As always this list is not exhaustive, but I hope it will give you a little overview. — ST.

In recent years there has been a far greater emphasis placed on the importance of living a healthy lifestyle. Many people wish to get fit and lose some weight and you may be able to help them do this whilst also earning some money. This will involve online weight loss coaching and setting up an extensive knowledge base that will serve as a point of reference.  

The knowledge base will be primarily motivational and should include success stories from your clients. It will be free to access and as such should be seen as one of your major promotional tools. Your income will come from 1-on-1 and group consultations which can take place through a number of mediums ranging from video conferencing to actually meeting in person. Extra income will be generated through affiliation with weight-loss products such as diet pills or videos that you endorse.  

Skills needed: You will need to have a background in personal training and nutrition or have experience of working as a fitness instructor. If you have a personal success story regarding your own loss of weight it will help immensely when selling yourself as a coach. Because you will be in direct contact with the general public you will need excellent communication skills and an approachable personality. In addition, you will need basic web publishing skills in order to update your website.  

Business environment and set-up cost:  There are no barriers to online international coaching other than language (although even this can be overcome by translation). This is a very low cost business to set up if you own computer equipment already as you will only need to pay to have your website developed and hosted. It would also be helpful if you owned a digital camera so that you could take pictures of some of your local clients throughout their weight loss regime. The overall cost will vary from £3,000 to £9,000.  

Marketing Techniques:  

• Participate in the pay-per-click schemes of the popular search engines
• Become mutually linked with as many websites as possible
• Offer a discount to clients who are able to convince their friends to become customers
• Launch a mailing list with a lot of regular dieting content
• Submit articles you have written about weight loss to online health magazines and forums and include a link to your knowledge base and services
• Use OnlineOffice to set up web-site, blog and online shop to promote your business online

Complimentary business ideas: If you are creative, design your own motivational T-shirts to sell through your online shop  

Notes: The main players in this market (such as Weight Watchers) require you to attend sessions at a physical location so you should focus on the niche of people who do not wish to or cannot do this (for example, through shame or busy schedules). You will need to have a legal agreement in place with all your clients because there are complications relating to weight loss that could potentially result in litigation against you.  

Online examples & resources:  

• David Lloyd – An example of the consultation provided by a top gym
• Web MD Health & Diet Center – A great source for diet advice
• Daily Strength – A diet support group community

This is the first of a daily series of famous quotes aiming to inspire and entertain small business owners.  

Successful entrepreneurs judge correctly the need for change, then do something about it 

James Edward Hanson (1922-2004). British entrepreneur and venture capitalist  

Here is this week’s news round-up for home business, micro business, sole-traders, freelancers, self-employed and any one who is interested in small business news from Canada:

• Insurance Premiums Tax Eliminated: A Great Day for Small Business: St. John’s - The Premier rose in the House of Assembly on April 22, 2008 to announce the elimination of the 15 per cent Insurance Premiums Tax, retroactive to January 1, 2008.
• Every Day is Earth Day fro Small Business Owners : St. John’s - According to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), small business owners are ‘‘green’’ and entrepreneurs regard every day as Earth Day - not just April 22.
• Getting top value when selling your business: The best way for an owner of a small- to medium-sized business to prepare for the day when someone else will either inherit it or buy it is to leave key day-to-day decisions to staff.
• Young entrepreneurs get help from an angel: Two young entrepreneurs selling suits online made by small-shop tailors in China have sewed up a tidy sum from angel investors to build their overseas operations and handle increasing global sales.
• Prepare to pay more for loans: OTTAWA — Canadian consumers and businesses eventually will pay more for credit, or find it harder to obtain, because commercial banks have not yet passed on the full increase in their funding costs from the worsening global credit crunch, the head of the Bank of Canada warned Thursday.
• Fiscal Discipline Missing in Action in Tory Budget: Edmonton - The Canadian Federation of Independent Business gave thumbs down to the 2008/09 Alberta budget which was tabled by Finance and Enterprise Minister Iris Evans today.
• Energy incentives already paying off: >Ontario’s investment of $400 million in incentives for businesses to improve energy efficiency will pay off, but more needs to be done.
• Worksafe hands out $4.25 million in penalties: Worksafe B.C. handed out $4.25 million in administrative penalties to businesses and government agencies last year, up from $1.5 million in 2006.

As always this list is not exhaustive, but I hope it will give you a little overview. — ST.

It can be difficult to accurately place a value on a potential investment. A common mistake is to estimate using historical data such as previous profits or assets owned, when in actuality it is far more useful to try and work out the future potential of the company. This is known as the investment approach to valuation:

• Discounted cash flow (DCF) is an estimate of the amount of money a company will make in the future, taking into account that money earned today is worth more than money potentially earned in the future, resulting in a discounted rate reflecting the uncertainty and risk involved
• Net present value (NPV) is the value derived from discounting future cash flow back to the present by a percentage representing the minimum desired rate of return
• Long-term cost of capital is a popular rate used when discounting. The level of risk is also a large factor in determining discount rate – for example, purchasing a foreign business in a different market sector would result in a much higher discount rate than a local business in the same market
• Terminal value (the amount expected to be received when the business is sold) is often also considered. However, only private equity investors usually expect to sell the business within five years - most purchasers see an acquisition as a long-term investment
• Internal rate of return (IRR) is the flip side of NPV and is used to work out a break-even rate of return. It is possible to find out which level of discount rate will result in a positive or negative NPV. A business attempting to assimilate a supplier may be happy with an IRR of 15%, whereas a venture capitalist financing a startup could want an IRR of 35-50% in order for the risk to be worthwhile
• These techniques are best used as a comparison between different potential investments than as a way of deciding whether to invest at all

Hat-tip to Robert Moore from Business Data International Limited

Here is this week’s news round-up for home business, micro business, sole-traders, freelancers, self-employed and any one who is interested in small business news from the United States:

• Netgear Plummets after sales, profit miss estimates: Netgear, the maker of networking equipment for homes and small businesses, dropped 17 percent in Nasdaq trading after first-quarter sales and profit missed analysts’ projections.
• Wells Fargo wins SBA award: The U.S. Small Business Administration said that Wells Fargo, Minneapolis has won its Leadership in Inner City Lending Award.
• Small Business concerned by economy, not cutting spending: FedEx Kinko’s released Thursday the results of its national “Signs of the Times” small business survey which found that small business owners are concerned about the state of the economy.
• San Antonio to promote small-business contracting opportunities: The San Antonio Economic Development Department has launched a new outreach program designed to help get the word out to small businesses that a half-billion dollars worth of contracts will be available over the next five years.
• Shifting Careers: Making Long-Distance Partnerships Work: Even though technology makes it possible to run a business from almost anywhere, can a business partnership thrive if the partners live in different cities?
• Broadband forum for small businesses set for May 23: One Southern Indiana and Indiana University Southeast will host a forum next month for local business owners to learn more about using broadband technology.
• In the Hunt: Raising Rates With Out Losing Clients: In a tough economy, the question consultants, freelancers and other solo service providers have puzzled over — how to raise prices without losing customers — just got harder to answer.
• AT&T releases new BlackBerry for small business market: AT&T Inc. and Research In Motion Ltd. have collaborated on a new product that is specially designed for the small to midsize business market.

As always this list is not exhaustive, but I hope it will give you a little overview. — ST.