Everyday when I walk down the street I see a lot of  things but one thing is always common; everyone is busy.People are busy pursuing careers/jobs than they have ever been and as the result the upbringing of children which is more the responsibility of the parents become less prioritized.It's a proven fact that JOBS which take at least 80% percent of active hours of many people's working life.Due to this many parents find other people to take care of their children from the very small age (which I do not discourage ) but its sad to realize that many parents forget completely their parenting responsibility and leave it for the day-care or school institutions to do which is not so efficient because every child has different abilities,thought process,experience and genes and so it's impractical for the class full of children to be treated by the same means.That's something a parent alone can do.Many have confused parenting with provision of basic needs,that if they eat,dress and sleep in as afe place that's it but truth be told,YOUR CHILDREN NEEDS MORE THAN THAT. They need a person who really understand them,a person who spend time with them,share moments together and a person who shows great interest in their talents and abilities,support and nourish them. That's what parenting is about...

It's a great challenge to many parents to balance between work and family but its also important to understand that family is the greatest companion one can ever have.That goes also to your spouse (wife or husband). Parents must give time their families and especially children because they need to be taught and shown which way they should go.Sad news is that even when you don't consider this as a full-time obligation,they will learn anyway.The question is: what will they learn? well,in the digital age we are living the possibilities are endless.He can be whatever the world wants him to be.As they grow up they are exposed to many things including the internet (whose use is inevitable)  in which everyone is trying to sell something; values & virtues and whatever there is and your kid will pick any of which he/she finds attractive,not necessarily useful or healthy only to realize when things have gotten out of control.

It's my call to all parents to make parenting a number one agenda in their daily life.Do not let your job take all your time and the world steal away your children.

Important:You are allowed to re-post this article on your website or blog as long as you acknoweledge the original author and give the backlink to this site.

Today people judge the company by it's website so this makes web presence a serious business for the sake of your brand image. Your website is your public face hence it must be able to portray what you really want people to see your business. For small business, its way too important to have the website so that customers, potential employees, business partners and perhaps even investors can quickly and easily find out more about your business and the products or services you have to offer.

Having a website opens up your business and your business and your products to a global audience, which is especially important if you utilize your website as an e-store. Selling your products online is a great way to supplement your offline business, and even if you’re not selling a product even the simplest of websites offers exposure to a free market otherwise left untapped.

One of the great things about the internet is that it has leveled the playing field when it comes to competing with the big businesses. You have one shot at making a good first impression. Unless your website is well-designed, instantly informative, and user-friendly you’re likely to lose a customer. Just like your business front, it is your job to create the first impression that passersby have of your shop.

A good web designer knows how to implement a style that evokes the impression you intend users to have leaving your business. With a well-designed site, your little operation can project the image and professionalism of a much larger company. The inverse is also true. I've seen many big company websites that were so badly designed and hard to navigate that they completely lacked professionalism and credibility. Good for you, too bad for them.
  
Remember: It's actually better to have no website at all than to have one that makes your business look bad. Your site speaks volumes about your business. It either says, "Hey, look, we take our business so seriously that we have created this wonderful site for our customers!" or it screams, "Hey, look, I let my 10-year-old nephew design my site. Good luck finding anything!"


Important: You are allowed to re-post this article on your website or blog as long as you acknowledge the original author and give the backlink to this site.

If you’d claimed it was possible for the average guy on the street to make millions of dollars online just a decade ago, the chances are good you’d have heard nothing but laughter in response. Today, though, there are countless Internet millionaires who turned a great idea into obscene profit, used the power of the web to promote their offline business or simply worked their butt off to sell their skills online.



1. Sell Stock Photography
This is a good way to make money while pursuing a fun hobby. Since people search for stock photos by keyword, your work will be on the same playing field as everyone else’s, meaning you should submit any photo you think is decent. Once it has posted, your work is done, and while you won’t generally make much per sale, having a good number of photos can mean accumulating a nice monthly side income with virtually no upkeep. iStockphoto, ShutterStock, and Fotolia are a few good places to shop around.

Yuri Arcurs is the man everyone turns to for their stock photo needs. As the world’s top selling stock photographer he sells an image every 8 seconds, 24 hours a day (that works out to over 4 million images each year). Arcurs makes millions of dollars each year simply by being the best at what he does. There are lots of great photographers in the world and the barrier to entry is as low as ownership of a camera, but Arcurs has managed to build a reputation online for consistent, high quality and imaginative images.

If you’re a professional photographer (or even just a hobbyist) you should consider the possibilities of selling stock images online.


2. Blogging
If you have a particular passion for something, whether it's a hobby or an obsession, and you have something to say about it, blogging could be a profitable way to pour out your endless stream of thought. The key here, as with many other services on the Internet, is in selling advertising.
After starting up a personal blog, many writers sign up for ad services like Google AdSense, which post those familiar sponsored links like the one you see on the side of  my blog. The more times your blog readers click on those ads, the more money you'll make through the ad service. This works fine if you're a casual blogger, and you may make some extra spending money. But if the blog is consistently interesting, well-written and really takes off, you may be approached by companies who want to reach your fan base with graphical advertising around your blog.

3. Write and sell an e-book
 In recent years the self-publishing world has exploded online to the point at which you don’t even have to run your own site in order to promote a book. Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Kobo are just a few of the sites on which you could self-publish today, with commission rates of around 70% available on every sale.
The number of eBooks on Amazon reached 8 million last year, and Amazon stated that eBooks are outselling hard backs 2 to 1, 62% of ebook sales fell into the Thriller and Mystery genre, so if you feel that you could pull this style of genre off then you will be in for a good chance of sales.

4. Sell an app.
 In a multi-million-person marketplace, $1 or 2 per sale can go a long way. If you have a great concept but no programming know-how, it might even be worth it to hire a programmer. Just make sure you shop around for similar ideas, find ways to one-up your competition, and comply with the rules of the company on whose devices you’d sell the apps.

5. Create an online store.
Selling online is especially useful if you have a niche item that can’t attract enough business to survive in a physical location, but of course online stores for everyday items aren’t going anywhere, either. If you aren’t particularly web-savvy or can be bothered to maintain a website, you can set up shop on a site like eBay or CafePress (for a fee). Otherwise, you can hire someone to design a website for you or even make your own.

6. Enter contests.
 Since you won’t get paid unless your entry wins, search for a wide range of free contests in a field where you’re already have a lot of possible entries (ex. photos, logo-making, background design) and submit your work to as many places as will have you. It might take a day to get through all of them, but even a few small successes (or, preferably, a great big one) will make up for it. The experience might even steer you in a new creative direction.

7. Flip domain names. Domain names are valuable internet real estate and some people actually make a nice living off of buying and selling them. One strategy is to use Google Adwords to find keywords that are trending and use that information to buy domain names that you think may soon be in demand. However, since short, snappy, or straightforward domain names have already been mostly snatched up, you can also get lucky buying domain names that are random acronyms, as you never know when a person or company with those exact initials will decide to set up a website. (CPC.com, for example, sold for over $200,000 when Contract Pharmaceutical Corporation decided to go online. Not bad for three letters.) For more advice, read How to Buy a Cheap Domain Name.


Important:You are allowed to re-post this article on your website or blog as long as you acknoweledge the original author and give the backlink to this site.

Everyone has ideas. I get ideas by the dozen. When I’m brushing my teeth, when I’m driving to work, when I’m at my desk reading an article. But that does not mean that all can be converted into million-dollar businesses.
Not that these cannot be converted into million-dollar businesses, but I may simply not be driven enough to see those particular ideas through to that milestone.
You may get many ideas, too. But if you don’t, don't despair. You don’t need ideas to start a business. Regardless, your business ideas are worthless. Let me explain why.
Ideas are just ideas. An idea is the seed of a successful product or service. Without proper care and maintenance, it will not bloom. Ideas require solid research of the target market, a good strategy and a sound business plan, without which, ideas cannot go much further.

If you want to start a business and make a go of it, you need more than just an idea. To begin turning startup dream into a million-dollar business, consider the following advice.

1. Settle on one business idea.
If you're mulling a number of ideas, odds are good that none of them will see the light of the day. Why do I say that? Because your approach is all wrong. Skimming through different ideas every day and figuring out whether they motivate you or whether they work won't get you anywhere.
The amount of time you’re spending on them will likely be insufficient. An you're probably not passionate about any of them. So how do you fix it? Take one idea that moves you, that you feel most passionate about and stay with it. Stay with one till you can’t go any further. Until you’ve given it your all.
Only then will you know whether or not that business idea is worth a million dollars.

2. Validate your idea.
Your idea is absolutely worthless if you keep it to yourself and do not test it with actual customers.
Writing a business plan with projections through market research is a sure-shot way to a startup doomsday. Nothing beats an actual customer using your product or service.
So how do you get to customers when you’re at the idea stage and don’t want to spend a huge sum building something they don’t want?
Build a minimum viable product or a prototype. The idea is to put out something that offers the main value of your startup or that solves the core problem of your customers.
The prototype could be a PowerPoint slide, a dialogue box or just a landing page. This is something that you can often build it in a day or a week. A prototype can be an actual functioning product with the core features offered.
Share this with your network and see the response. Are people excited to use it? Do they feel their needs or problems are resolved by using your product? Is it easy to use?

3. Execute.
There is no such thing as a million-dollar idea. Facebook was not a million- (or billion) dollar idea until it saw the light of the day, until it was executed.
Ideas evolve into products which themselves evolve over a period of time through constant customer feedback and use. You must build a prototype, beta or a minimum viable product and get it out in the hands of the customer. Let your customer decide whether the idea is of value or not.

Most people just don’t get their products out in time and spend most of their resources in trying to build that one perfect product. Save yourself some grief, time and, most of all, cash, and build on a product that your customers want.

4. Find a large market.
Don’t waste your time on an idea that does not cater to a large audience. Sure, you can start local and expand later, but is your idea solving the needs of a few hundreds? Is your idea scalable to the next hundred thousand? If not, you’re not building a business.
Validate whether the problem that you are trying to solve is truly the problem of the masses. And not just yours and a few neighbors and friends or your network.
Think big, think global, if you can.
Base your idea on a large audience and you’ve got yourself a product with the potential to grow into a larger and a more successful business.

5. Make it a must-have, not a nice-to-have.
A lot of ideas are utter nonsense. Those can surely be turned into selling products, but you won't end up building a business out of them. These are the nice-to-have ideas.
You must spend time getting to know from the market whether your idea or product is a nice-to-have or a must-have. Nice-to-have products are mostly in the novelty domain or are not compelling enough for customers to buy or own.
If you want your ideas to develop into successful products that help you create and sustain a business, then go after must-have ideas.
So, decide what is important to you: the figment of your imagination that tells you your idea is a million-dollar one or validating it to build something that can get you the actual million dollars.

Originally posted on: Entrepreneur.com

Important:You are allowed to re-post this article on your website or blog as long as you acknoweledge the original author and give the backlink to this site.