The 3 Ways to Split Your Time to Grow Your Business

Even the most passionate and dedicated business professionals need a break from time to time. You work too hard and too much at one thing and you're sure to burn out. That's why Bar Rescue host Jon Taffer suggests balancing your time between three things:

1. Working in your business
2. Working on your business
3. Getting away from your business

Seventy percent of your time should be working in your business, Taffer says. That's the day-to-day stuff like overseeing operations and managing the books, among other tasks. Twenty percent of your time should be spent working on your business. In other words, "making marketing better, operations better, products better, relationships better," Taffer says.

The other 10 percent of your time should be spent getting away from your business. You've heard it before: Unplug, relax and recharge. Come back refreshed and re-energized. 

How To Start A Profitable Local Food Packaging Business With As Low As N40,000

Three Leading Industry Players Reveal:

• Hot Selling Products To Package And Make Money From
• How To Do This Business Without Owning Equipment
• Huge Local And Export Market To Exploit
• How To Market And Sell Your Products And Get Customers Coming Back
• How To Run The Business And Make Great Profit 
• 
  

The Nigerian society is development fast and a few entrepreneurial minded individuals are seeing, and in fact already reaping the business opportunities that are also evolving.
 
Mrs. Funmilola Osifowora, Director, Adlov Foods Limited, Dr. Temitope Farounbi, Director, Temitope Hannah Farounbi (THF) Integrated Limited – Producer of Cassy Crunchies, and Mrs. Christiana Nwachukwu, Director, Wingrace Foods Limited all have one thing in common. They are entrepreneurs who saw that the working class group of the society, who make up a large chunk of our population, would appreciate having packaged local food stuff like Ogbono, which have been properly processed, such that they can cook them directly without having to do the preliminary work needed before cooking.
 
By making such food items available at a reasonable price, these entrepreneurs have cut down on the time for cooking such foods, and have also helped the customer to pick the best quality food stuff available, which they might not have found if they were to source the original food stuff themselves.
 
Speaking with SuccessDigest recently, they alluded to the fact that this business is highly profitable and that more opportunities are still open for people to come into the industry. They shared their knowledge and experience of the industry for interested individuals to have the relevant information about the industry that they can work with in starting and running the business to success. Happy reading:
 
What Are The Kinds Of Food Stuff You Package?
Funmilola says, “I package crayfish, ogbono, chili pepper (ata gigun in Yoruba), hot/Cameroonian pepper, beans flour and pepper soup spices.”
 
Temitope says, “Currently, we are into the packaging of food stuffs that are readily made – cassava products packaging - and we are making cassava flakes in form of cereals, which can also be had as snacks.”
 
Christiana, on her own, says, “Aside the soya powdered milk that we produce, we also package plantain, potato chips, and pap; I’m also into catering services.”
 
What Does Packaging Of Food Stuff Entails?
Funmilola says, “I actually help in easing the stress of cooking. What I do is to buy these food stuffs, take them to my factory, pick and clean them one-by-one if need be to ensure there is no stone or dirt. I also dry them if need be, after which I mill and package them ready for marketing. For instance, if you are a male customer, you just have to buy any of my products in the supermarket and you are good to go with your cooking.

“Moreso, Ogbono is a very sensitive food stuff product and it is not everybody that knows the good ones. So, as Ogbono is my major product thriving in the market, I go for the quality ones in the market, because there are varieties of it in the market.
 
“Well, aside my bestselling Ogbono, I have other two in the list to make them three – crayfish and hot pepper. My Hot pepper is also used by the Igbos because it is hotter and reddish than the chili pepper and to the extent that when it is being grinded, you can’t stay there. So, I have to go through that stress for my customers.”
 
Temitope admits that it is just a quickie on the go to have a quick meal. She says, “Actually, my product is made from cassava, as earlier said and we mix a few things with it to form a flake that you can have like a crunchy snack or put inside milk, as if you are drinking gari or cornflakes.”
 
Christiana also says that food stuff packaging business simply entails buying the raw food stuff materials, picking them, grinding them, and packaging them inside a container.
 
What Are The Processes Involved In This Business?
Funmilola says, “I will have to source for the raw food stuffs by buying them at the available market, take them to my factory, pick and clean them to make sure there is no stone or dirt in it, and then mill and package them ready for the market.”
 
Temitope highlights the processes involved as follow: get a readymade cassava flakes, mix them with honey, sugar and butter. Then you stir-fry and left in a cool-dry place to dry, after which you cut into chips and package it – note that what you stir-fry stays hot, but usually molded together.
 
What Are The Equipment Needed For Packaging These Food Stuffs?
Funmilola says, “I make use of stainless milling machine, as this is the directive and one of the requirements of NAFDAC. If you care to know, I am undergoing NAFDAC processing and I have been scheduled for inspection. I make use of drying machine for vegetables, I have sealing machine when I package with nylon, but presently I use non-disposable plastics, I use weighing machine to measure them in grams. I also have different silver bowls I make use of – these are the major equipment I use for now.”
 
Temitope says, “Generally, for packaging my cassava flake we use mixer, because we need to mix all the products together to give us a consistent flake. After doing that, there is need for us to get an industrial stirrer, where we pour it and it stirs itself under a particular heat condition. Once this is done, we will get a golden-yellow consistent flake and a propeller will have to bring it out, after which we spread and cut it. So, we need the mixer, stirrer, spreading tray, and the cutter, after which we seal it in a packaging nylon. Currently, our product is packaged and ready for sale in an hundred gram nylon.
 
However, Christiana says, “For now I don’t have any equipment for my packaged food stuff, I only contract Evina Foods for the packaging of my products – I just have to take my products to them, which they conveniently process for me under my supervision. Talking about the process at Evina where I use for my packaging, it is perfect, as they wash, grind, fry, and set in the machine for packaging.”
 
How Do You Effectively Market These Products?
Funmilola says, “I pitched my tent with the well acclaimed social media – as I sell bulk of my products on facebook, and also I use twitter. Off the Internet, I sell my products through the distribution of fliers. In another development, aside my major target audience in Lekki and the Island, I visit various supermarkets myself with samples of my products. Even if some supermarkets seem skeptical about the products in the initial stage, customers do contact me after being satisfied with some of my sample products dropped with the supermarket.
 
“There is a limit I can go visiting supermarkets because of the challenge of getting NAFDAC number. Normally, one’s product shouldn’t be out yet without the organization’s approval, but owing to the fact that I have been to their office and have gone through series of processes, it gave me confidence to showcase my products, as they are already aware of them.
 
“The quest to market my products has also taken me to my church members. People who want to travel abroad do buy ogbono, crayfish and other products from me. On Sundays, I go to church with my products and anywhere I go, even at ceremonial events I give out my products as souvenir.
 
“So, apart from the NAFDAC number that I have not gotten, I have the Food Drugs Administration of the US (FDA) license to export products to the United States of America – this gives me an edge over others into the packaging of food stuffs.”
 
Temitope says, “We are just introducing our product, which is the first of it kind to the market. Firstly, we are looking at the product’s acceptability to the school children and to some adults. Secondly, we are in the process of getting our NAFDAC number so as to have it spread across the country.”
 
In her own way, Christiana says, “I take the products from shop to shop and I sell to individuals. At times, people, including friends, church members, and colleagues who have been aware of my products demand for it and I supply them.”
 
What Is The Startup Capital Like?
Funmilola submits that it depends on how and the level you want to start. She says, “For me, I didn’t start with very huge amount of money because I didn’t have such at hand then, even presently I have not met up with all the machines I need to buy. But what I did was that I started with the little savings I had – I started with less than N40,000.
 
“This was made possible by buying “derica” measurement of Ogbono. I actually started by undergoing a training session from someone who has been into this same business. It was during the training session that I was told that I didn’t actually need huge amount of money. So, I went to the popular market where I could get things cheaper.
 
“Anyone can start this business with the little money he/she has. If you care to know, I started the business packaging of picked beans, as it is where I got the business idea. I realized that people who love to eat beans will have to pick it first, so I started the business of packaging picked beans.
 
“Later, the package picked beans idea brought about and pushed me into packaging other food stuff products. In a nut shell, this business can be started with minimal capital, even as little as N20,000 by starting with only one product, unlike in my own case, as I started with multiple products.”
 
Temitope says, “For someone who wants to start this business, the range of N500,000 can be okay, but if you are looking at starting big, at least a startup capital of N2 million to N3 million would not be bad. In my own case, I have currently spent close to that amount.”
 
Christiana says, “If you want to start with the way and manner that I started, you will need to have a token of N50,000 to start. I did not start by having my own equipment. So, the aforementioned amount is for the purchase of the raw food stuffs and pay for the service of the processing and packaging company that will help you to process and package your product.”
 
Where Do You Buy Your Raw Food Stuff Products Cheaply From?
Funmilola simply says, “I buy my raw products majorly from Oyingbo and Mile 12 markets in Lagos.”
 
Temitope says, “The raw material of my packaged food stuff is cassava, so to ensure consistency and proper hygiene; we are collecting through a NAFDAC certified cassava and gari company. For now, we are using Tosmat Foods as the basis for our own raw material and then make something better from it.”
 
Are There Any Other Business Opportunities In This Business?
Funmilola reveals that there are lots of business opportunities embedded therein. She says, “For instance, as I’m doing this business, it has exposed me to many opportunities – one of which is that I do lots of seminars and trainings. Also, people employ my service as a consultant and I’m always on air on Inspirational FM where I talk on what I’m into.
 
“This has brought about interested people calling for training and mentoring, even on one-on-one training so to say. Also, people use to ask where I get the equipment I use, so you can as well go into the sales of food processing equipment. For instance, I realize that new entrants now make use of nylon, which I deal on. However, I have upgraded to the use of plastics from nylon which I use before though I still package with nylon from request by some of my supermarket clients. So, the question is why not go into the sale of packaging nylon and equipment.”
 
Temitope also says there are really lots of business opportunities in the business. she says, “For those who want to join the chain they can be our distributors or retailers, forming a kind of employment opportunity for them because it is a consumer product. Even for those who readily work with us, they have a secured job as long as they are working with us.”
 
How Lucrative Is The Business?
Funmilola confesses that the business is very lucrative, she says, “Though I might not be able to pin-point how lucrative the business is, however, I make bold to say that I have been able to start another business from what I realized from packaging and marketing of food stuff. Also, there are lots of products to be packaged – more than one thousand food products you can package.”
 
Temitope says, “Despite the challenge of acceptability that it is having now because of being a new product, it is still lucrative running this business. I believe once it is accepted and people see it as stable milk, flakes or snacks, the sky is going to be the product’s limit. This is because we are actually looking at having our products beyond the shores of this country – we are looking at other African countries as they take cassava flakes as their own staple food.”
 
What Is The Return On Investment Like?
Funmilola concludes that the return on investment is encouragingly high. She says, “Though, I don’t feel like placing an amount, but I have had the opportunity recently to be called from UK and within for partnership. Even though I have not put in my very best on a full time basis on this business as I have other commitments, yet I know what I’m getting.”
 
Christiana says, “For a start, at the small level, the return on investment might be between 40 and 50 percent, as you might be processing just a bag in a month. So, when it is continued and the level is stepped up doing like three to four bags a month, it is sure the return on investment will rise.”
 
What Are The Challenges Of The Packaging Business?
Funmilola says, “NAFDAC is our major challenge. This is because for you to register only one product you need the sum of N52,500, which is aside other analysis tests to be carried out– the charges are killing! The last time I met with the Director of Foods at NAFDAC, he mentioned that they are still trying to liaise with the Federal Government for the charges to be brought down for new entrants, as you are just starting and your products need to be in the market. Unlike the FDA license I talked about before, you are getting just only one FDA number for as many products as you might have.
 
“Marketing is another major challenge – for instance, some supermarkets will tell you they have their own packaged products, but when you get to check the products, you won’t find any producer contact on them – if anything happens to the buyer of such products, there is nobody to be held responsible. But my company is registered and I have a name to protect, so it means I won’t misbehave with quality. I will say this is not helping those who are trying to do business the right way.”
 
Being a new business, Temitope says, “The challenges are enormous and finance is one big one except you are able to get good investors or you have access to loan for expansion. Well, as for now people are accepting the product and are seeing it as being ingenious as they are seeing it every day – the comment we get is very wonderful.”
 
Christiana highlights the challenges as: lack of equipment, no access to good transportation system – struggle to the market and struggle back home, acceptability is not too encouraging and few helping hands, to mention a few.
 
What Prompted You Into This Type Of Business?
Funmilola says, “The first thing that prompted me into the business is that I have passion for business and entrepreneurship, as I have been and still into catering service.
 
“Secondly, the business is almost three years old, exactly about three years ago that I lost my husband, an unexpected occurrence that happened on our wedding anniversary as he was attacked by armed robbers. Most unfortunately, I was left with very young kids. Though, I’m a very young woman, I realized that I can’t just sit and look; I want to be there for the kids, I need to work extra mile, among other valuable things. So, the time I need to sit back and morn my husband was just sought out to learn tangible thing to do, even as I have had it in mind before. In a nut shell, that was how I started the business.
 
Temitope says, “I was actually inspired when I was in the UK from 2013 to 2014 where I noticed that they packaged everything including cooked rice. So, I found out almost all our food products are in waste in Nigeria – we are not able to package them such that we can keep them for subsequent consumption. Then, as I got interested in this area, I was thinking if cooked rice could be packaged; there are lots of food products to be packaged instead of throwing them away.
 
“So, when I came back to Nigeria, I thought that if someone can package corn to have cornflakes, cassava flakes in form of gari seems good instead of drinking as gari or eating it as “eba.” Now, if you make it and can add few things to it, it can become a household snacks or cereal for people.
 
“Also, we want to remove the stigmatization by some people who look down on those who drink gari and make them hide it under the table. The packaged cassava flake is done in such a way that it can considerably compete with other foreign foods – you can conveniently display it on your office table and people will see it as if you are drinking cornflake, but this is cassava flakes.
 
Christiana also says, “It was a vision I had, not that I dabbled into it just for doing sake. I had a vision to be a producer of baby foods and foods for Nigerians that will be affordable to most Nigerians and also be of good quality. In a nut shell, God gave me a condition that if I will do His work, He will show me what to do. So, as I answered God’s call, He gave me the vision and began to connect me with my helper.”
 
What Has Been Your Achievements So Far?
Funmilola says, “The fact that I could train people – teaching them how to catch fish and not giving fish to them alone is an honourable thing which I am pleased with. As earlier said, I was in Ghana in 2014 – an all-expense paid exhibition by the Nigerian Export Promotion Council, where I had the opportunity to exhibit my products, and presently, my products are being exported to Ghana. Not quite long I finished a scholarship programme mainly for women in business at the Enterprise Development Centre of the Lagos Business School. So, if I am not doing this business, I won’t have the opportunity to be one of those who were given the scholarship.
 
“There is another fact that it has exposed me to exporting, as I now know the right way to do things, though, I am still having some challenge in getting marketers. I have export license, but I have not been able to export en mass the way I want it. To cap it up, despite the demise of my husband, I have been able to sustain the family, as my kids attend one of the best schools around and the business has an edge over others. If I don’t tell you I am a widow you won’t know. If you care to know, I am and I have not been lonely because of the business – there is something to think about, there is a place to go, it has helped my thinking as a woman and I can get to any level I want to get to.”
 
Temitope says, though this is a new business idea, however, so far we have achieved acceptability for the product and that is very important to us. We are expanding; we started with a small drier, but now we are able to acquire few equipment and we are making it more industrialized.”
 
Christiana sounds a bit funny, as she says, “It has been “work and chop!” But to be candid, even with the level I started from, I have been able to keep the family going and to make ends meet, and my children are in standard schools. Most especially, the vision has not died and I’m looking forward to getting higher and grabbing more achievements in the nearest future.”
                                       
Your Advice To New Entrants
Funmilola says they should first and foremost look at what they have passion for. “I do tell people that they should not start the way and manner I started – starting with four to five food stuffs at a time. They can start with one or two products to avoid delay and they should start small. New entrants should also note that decisions should not be hurriedly taken,” she says.
 
Temitope says, “My advice to new entrants is to open their minds and eyes, as what you need to package are all under your nose. I was just happy to drink gari and thought of making it into something more sophisticated within my own house. You have a lot of things you can turn into a money spinning business.”
 
Christiana says, “I want to tell them that whatever vision God gives you, it must be kept, and that no matter how rough the beginning might be God will assist you to succeed. Like me, I started unnoticed, but I am known today, and as it is said “whatever you lay your hands on or finds yourself doing, do it well.” So, be strong and be courageous in whatever you want to do and do it without looking back – if you continue, you will be successful.

Culled from successdigest!!!

The Right Way To Build And Sell Simple Websites For Great Profit!

Discover:

• Failure-Proof Path To Generating Income From Few Hours Of Work Making And Selling Simple Websites On The Internet
• Fast Selling And Profitable Websites To Build
• How To Command High Price For Your Websites
• How To Receive Payment Without Having A Paypal Account
• What You Did Wrong If You Failed In This Business Before

Imagine if you could create a website in a few hours and then sell it for a few hundred dollars, and then imagine if you could repeat that process again and again. That would make for a pretty nice part-time or even full time job, wouldn’t it? Well, that’s exactly what you’re going to be able to do by the time you’re done reading this.

Flipping websites is akin to flipping houses, with one huge difference. When people set out to flip houses, or real estate in general, they typically have to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars. People who flip houses will find houses that are undervalued, put money into them in order to fix them up and then they’ll sell those houses for a profit.

The same can be done with websites. You can buy a website for a few hundred or even a few thousand dollars, fix it up and then sell it for even more money than you bought it for. That’s not what you’re going to learn here. You’re going to learn how to build the websites that others will buy. In fact, the people who buy your websites may go on to sell them for huge profits. And good for them. To do this, they’re going to need money.

What you’re going to learn here is how to build websites from scratch using very little money so that you can create an income stream that will either supplement your income, or it can even become your sole means of income. It’s completely up to you.

All of this is possible as long as you follow the instructions in this book and follow them as closely as possible.

 The Next Big Thing
 Most people, when they start out building a website with the intention of flipping it, set out to create the next big thing. They want to make the next Facebook, Myspace, Twitter or Digg. Yet the chances of you creating a site like this are very small.

This is the wrong way to look at website flipping. Instead of coming up with the next big thing, just focus on what works.  Throughout your website flipping venture, remember this phrase: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. That phrase simply means taking what others have done to make money and then replicating that idea to make a profit of your own.

 When it comes to flipping websites, the tried and true model is either creating or buying a website that has value, and then selling it to another person for a profit. But what constitutes a website’s value?

A website’s value is based on a number of criteria. These include:

• The value of the domain name - There are several domain name appraisal services, and some domain hosting services even offer an appraisal of the websites they sell.
• The value of your brand. Your brand is your website’s identity within its given niche. Consider the various brands that you know of, such as Facebook and even Coca-Cola, and you will see just how valuable a brand can be.
• Your website’s content. This is very important as content is king when it comes to a website’s value. Your website’s content includes text, photos, videos, audio, etc. The more unique the website’s content, the more value that website will hold.
• Website Traffic. Website traffic refers to how many visitors arrive at your site on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. The more visitors your website attracts, the more valuable it will be.
• Search Engine Ranking. This is another huge one, as the higher your website ranks, the more money people will be willing to spend to acquire that website.
• Now that you know what a valuable site looks like, it’s time to start making one of your own so that you can start making hundreds or even thousands of dollars by creating websites from scratch.

Selecting Your Niche
Your website’s niche is the subject-matter it will deal with. The more specific your niche, the more valuable it will be. However, there are some niches that hold more value than others. For example, Mortgages, Insurance and Credit are extremely profitable niches. Yet the more profitable a niche is, the more competition it will probably have.

Therefore, you have to find sub-niches within those main niches so that you can take advantage of that main niche’s profitability while also targeting a specific group or audience. For example, if you create a site about mortgages, you will likely find millions upon millions of sites just like yours. On the other hand, if you were to choose a site that has to do with mortgages for single moms, your website would then be part of a targeted niche that may not have as many competitors.

Keeping this in mind, you need to create your site around a niche that people will want to pay for. One of the ways to do this is to use Google’s free keyword tool.

 Google Keyword Tool 
Google’s keyword tool (now called keyword planner) is designed for the Pay-Per-Click Adwords platform. It’s free to use and it can give you very valuable information regarding which keywords are hot at the moment. To use the tool, you will have to sign up with Google Adword at http://adwords.google.com/ if you are not a member already, and simply enter a keyword or phrase. You will then be given the amount of searches Google experiences each month for that keyword or phrase as well as how much competition there is for it.

Some people claim that the Google keyword tool isn’t very accurate but it can give you a great idea of what keywords are popular and which ones will make you the most amount of money. When you find a keyword that has a lot of searches with minimal competition, you may have found a winner. You can also select an option within the tool that reveals how much advertisers are paying for certain keywords, so that you can see which ones are most profitable.

Whilst the Google keyword tool is a great way to find a profitable niche for your website, it can also be time consuming. If you want to save time, there is a better way to find a successful niche for your site and that’s to check which sites people are buying at the moment.

Which Sites Are People Buying?
At the end of the book, you are going to be told how to sell the sites you create for profit. This includes listing it on popular web flipping sites such as Sitepoint and Flippa. Yet before you even build a site, it’s a good idea to visit these sites to see which niches are the best selling. These sites are the most popular website flipping sites on the internet. People advertise their websites and buyers can either buy them outright or they can bid on them.

You’ll want to focus on those sites that have either been sold already or the ones that are receiving the most bids. This will give you a great idea of which sites are the most valuable in the minds of website buyers.

 When you do this, pay attention to several things, such as:
1. The website’s topic or niche.
2. The type of site. Is it a blog, an Adsense site, an affiliate site, etc.?
3. How much money the site is going for.

This is probably the best way to find out which sites you should be focused on. Once you have a niche in mind, it’s time to start creating your website. The first thing you’re going to need is a domain name.

Registering Your Domain
There are many domain registrars on the internet, but not all of them are created equally. You can often register a domain name for as little as $10-$20/year, depending on which registrar you choose. When choosing a registrar you’ll of course want to be focused on the price, but you’ll also want to consider what kind of customer support they offer.

Once you choose a registrar, you’ll be able to search for the domain you want right on the site to see if it’s available. You will usually always want to go with a domain that ends in .com. Sites that end in .com tend to be more valuable than sites that end in .net, .org, or .info.

You can find a great domain name for your given niche using the same keyword tool we just spoke about. If you can’t register your .com name because it’s already taken, go back to the tool and find one similar. You may find that the new name you come up with is even better than the old one.

You will have to use a PayPal account or a credit card to register the domain name. Then, once you own that domain, it’s time to host that domain using a domain hosting service.

Domain Hosting
 Domain hosting, like domain registration, doesn’t cost very much. In fact, you can host a domain for as little as $10 or less per month if you find the right host. Most people recommend Host Gator but you should do your own homework so that you can find the best host for you.

Again, choose one that offers good customer support. You’ll also want to make sure that the host offers Cpanel. This is a graphic interface that makes managing your websites much easier, even if you’re not very technically proficient. If you don’t know anything about websites, the host’s customer service can usually walk you through most of it, and that’s why you’ll want to choose a host that offers superior customer service in case you get stuck.

You’ll also want to make sure you host your domain on its own account. That’s because hosting a domain on an account with other domains makes it more difficult when you try to sell that account and then transfer it. It’s best to keep everything separate so that the transfer process as is clean and easy as possible. You’ll also want to create a reseller account, which is designed for doing exactly what we’ll be doing: flipping websites for profit.

Ok, so let’s assume your website is now registered, hosted and now all that’s left is the actual building of the website, which is the most fun part of the entire process.

 Building Your Site
 When building your site, you need to keep several things in mind so that you can ensure it retains the most value. These are:

• Uniqueness: The more unique your website is the better.
• Monetization: Your website must be set up to make money, either through affiliate sales, Adsense or Amazon.
• Promotion: Promoting your site means more people will see it and that means more traffic, which equals more money.

As far as what type of site you want to build, there are many to choose from. I’ll go over several types here but you can choose any type you like. Just remember that the more unique your site is, the more people will be willing to spend for it, so really think outside of the box and use your creativity to create the ultimate money making site people will really want to get a hold of.

E-Book Site
 An e-book site is a great way to design a site in just a few hours that will fetch a lot of money in the marketplace. You simply create an e-book that solves a problem. It doesn’t have to be an award winning book and it doesn’t even need to be better than all the other e-books out there. It simply needs to provide useful, relevant information that people can use.

A good way to go about this is to write a series of articles that solve a particular problem and then just put those articles together in book form. Then, create a website that doubles as a sales letter. Create sales copy that describes the benefits of the e-book and why your visitors need to buy it and download it. Remember, use what works. Find other e-books being sold on the internet and copy the format of the sales letters used to sell those books. Then, at the bottom of that sales letter, you simply include a buy button that’s linked to your PayPal account.

What you’re left with is a website that has to do with a valuable niche, that’s monetized by offering an e-book for sale, and that has original, unique content.  A website like this can easily fetch a couple hundred dollars in the marketplace and it took you only a few hours to create.

Blog Site
 Blog sites are easy to set up and they can be very profitable. You simply set up a WordPress theme, which can be downloaded using Fantastico in your site’s CPanel. For help with this, contact your domain host’s customer support. There are quite a few free WordPress themes, and some of them are even designed to be optimized for Adsense so they come already monetized. You simply include your Adsense ID# in the theme’s code and you’re ready to go.

For help on this, just use Google as there are plenty of free tutorials available. Be careful, however, because some free WordPress themes are to be used for personal use only. For that reason, make sure you read the terms and conditions before using any theme to create your website.

Then, just write 8-10 unique articles that have to do with your niche. Make sure your articles have eye-catching titles and that they offer good, solid information people can use.  It’s always best to create unique articles for your blog. However it is still possible to create and sell a website that is comprised of purely PLR articles if you’re not the best writer. You can also have someone ghostwrite the articles for you, but we’re concentrating mostly on ways to create websites without spending much money.

It doesn’t take much to create an informative article. Just pretend you’re talking to your reader face-to-face and use simple language to get your point across.

Then, monetize your site. You can use the Adsense WordPress themes as already mentioned, you can sell Affiliate products through Clickbank or you can use an Amazon Widget.

 Basic Site
 If neither of those website designs sounds appealing to you, there’s an even easier way to go about building a unique site that will sell. This is a basic site that’s comprised of two or three pages and can be designed in a matter of a couple of hours … tops.

To begin, create your homepage using a photo and a 500+ word article. You will want to ensure that your homepage has a custom header. This can be done using Photoshop or a similar software program. If you don’t have Photoshop, you can always download a free version of Xheader which will allow you to create a unique, professional looking header at no cost to you.

Then, create additional pages that add to your site’s value. For instance, you can create a books page where you sell Amazon products using an Amazon widget, and you can also include a video page that displays YouTube videos that deal with your niche.

Whichever website type you choose, make sure it looks as though you put time into it. Even if you built your website in two hours, it should look like it took you days or even weeks to build. This can be done by paying attention to every detail and by looking at it as though you just laid eyes on it for the first time.

Now that the site is built, you have two choices. You can either sell it as it is or you can establish the site and then sell it. Designing a ready working site and then selling it what is known as a turnkey site. This is a site that buyers need only ‘turn the key’ to use. It’s got the content, the scripts, it’s monetized and it’s essentially ready to go. It’s not uncommon to sell a well designed turnkey site for a couple hundred bucks.

However, if you take the time to develop the site, to promote it and get some traffic to the site, you will essentially establish that site and you’ll be able to command much more money for it.

Promoting Your Website
People who buy and sell businesses usually have two criteria. They want to ensure that their investments are as secure as possible so they only buy businesses that they understand and ones that have a proven track record. When it comes to buying websites, this same concept applies to most buyers. They only want to buy websites that have to do with a niche they understand and they only buy websites that have been proven to make money.

The best way to prove to potential buyers that your website is a moneymaker is to start making money with it. The only way to do that is to get targeted traffic. Targeted traffic describes visitors that have found your website by searching certain keywords, by clicking on an ad, or a banner, or even by clicking on an anchor link. The point is that they were searching for what you’re offering and they’ve arrived at your site hoping that you’ll give them what they want.

To get targeted traffic, you’re going to have to promote your site so that it’s seen by the right people. There are two ways to do this. There are free ways to promote your site and then there are the ways that cost money. You’ll probably want to start off with the free means of promotion first until you get a little more experience. The best way to promote for free is using article marketing.

 Article Marketing
 Remember that keyword tool we used to find your niche? This same keyword tool can be used to find subjects to write about. Using the tool, come up with a few keywords that have a lot of searches but not a lot of competition. Then, write articles using those keywords in the titles and a couple times in the article’s body. This will optimize your articles for the search engines so that you can ensure that you get top ranking. These articles can then be distributed to article directories and ezines.

Then, at the bottom of your articles, in the resource box, include a link to your website. What this does is it allows people to find your articles through the search engines whenever they search for your chosen keywords, and it also allows them to find your website by clicking the link at the bottom.

To maximize your chances for success, make sure you use eye-catching titles and that you provide good, useful information that causes people to read your article to the very end. Your resource box should then seamlessly fit with the article so that your readers are more likely to click on your link.

This is a great way to get the targeted traffic you’re after, and by including links to your site with your articles, you will help to increase your website’s search rankings, thus giving it even more value!

Blogs, Forums and Social Networking
Along with article marketing, searching for blogs and forums that have to do with your niche is another great way to go about free website promotion. Commenting on blogs and forums, while also including a link to your website, is a fantastic way to get targeted traffic. Make sure your comments and posts are relevant and that they offer some sort of insight. Otherwise, they’re likely to get deleted and all your work will be for nothing.

For forums, make sure you include a link to your website in your signature line so that everything you post essentially advertises for your site. You can also use your articles in the forums to provide information people can use. This is great advertising and people will begin to see you as an authority on the subject, which will essentially bring you more and more traffic!

Social networking sites are another great way to get the traffic you want. They’re free to use and, if you use your personality, you can potentially get your website seen by millions of eyeballs. Think of all the traffic your website will receive if you can use Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Digg, Delicious, Reddit, Delicious, StumbleUpon and all the rest of the social networking sites on the internet today. This will take some work but the payoff makes it very worth it!

Your goal is to get visitors to your site to click on your Adsense ads, to buy your affiliate products, etc. Even if you don’t make any money at first, as long as you can get established traffic, you will increase your site’s value significantly and your site will then be that much more attractive to potential buyers. Now all that’s left to do is list your website and wait for bidders and buyers.

 Listing Your Site 
 As I’ve already mentioned, two of the most popular website flipping sites include Sitepoint and Flippa. You can usually list your website on these sites for as little as $10. It should be noted that this money is nonrefundable, even if your website doesn’t sell.

So do bear this in mind before advertising your site. Remember in the beginning of this write-up when I mentioned to use what works? You’re going to do the same thing when it comes to listing your website. Go through the listings that advertise sites similar to yours. For instance, if you set up an e-book site, look for listings that offer other ebook sites. You’ll want to pay special attention to those sites that have already sold or that are receiving lots of bids. That’s how you know the advertisement is successful.

Then, make your ad similar to those ads. Like I’ve said, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Make sure you include a very snappy headline. You want people to click on your ad because they won’t be able to resist what you’re offering. In your ad, you’ll want to include a short summary of your site, your domain name, an overview of the site in list format, and you’ll want to go Into detail about how your site will make money.

You will also want to let buyers know why you’re selling your site as well as why it’s better than all the other sites advertised. It’s also a good idea to list a set of frequently asked questions. This list can include such questions as:

• What happens after the sale?
• Where is the domain registered?
• What hosting you offer?
• Who will move the site?

When it comes to pricing, be very careful not to overprice the website you’ve built. When you put time and effort into a website, you can often convince yourself that it’s worth much more than the market is willing to pay for it. Don’t make this mistake.  Instead, price it the same, or a little less, than sites just like have sold for.

You must also take into consideration your track record and whether or not you have feedback on the site you’re selling your site on. If you haven’t sold anything so far, you likely aren’t going to be able to command a very high price. So keep things sort of low at first and you’ll see that you get a much better response.

For example, if you offer a site for $300 but you have no feedback on the site, people may not be very likely to pay that amount simply because you have no proven track record. On the other hand, if you were to actually under-price your site, even if by just a tiny bit, buyers will likely see it as a deal they can’t pass up. That’s when you will begin to see buying signs. These may be other marketers bids or you may have someone buy the site outright.

You may have to play around with different ads and different prices, but soon, as long as the site is valuable, someone will buy it and you’ll be able to celebrate your first sale … very cool!

 Selling Your Website
 When it comes to selling your website, PayPal is probably your best option. That’s because PayPal is available in many countries and it can handle many currencies, as well. However, there are times when you might want to use another form of payment. If you are dealing with a large amount of money, for instance (which is likely to happen once you get better at creating and flipping sites), you may want to use an escrow service such as Escrow.com.

Still some site flippers choose only to deal with checks, money orders, wire transfers or even payments through Western Union. Whichever form of payment you use is completely up to you, as long as it’s most convenient. And for most, PayPal offers a convenience that can’t be beaten.

Transferring Your Site and Files
 Before you transfer anything to any buyer, make sure you have receipt of payment first! This is very important. There are many site flippers who have been burned by scam artists who promise to buy and then never come through. These site-flippers spend all this money, time and effort on creating a site only to hand it over for free. Don’t do that. Get paid first (an escrow service will ensure you do) and only then should you transfer to the site over to the new owner.

On the other hand, there have been many buyers that have been scammed by people who promise to transfer a site and then never come through. So you may be asked to show a sign of good will by giving a piece of the site. If this is the case, just send over a file or a template that is useless without the rest of the site’s files. For the most part, however, the buyer will usually pay for the site with the expectations that you will just sign the site over to them.

Transferring the site is easy enough to do. You simply send the buyer the site files and then the buyer uploads them to his server. You then push your domain to the buyer’s account. The buyer updates his nameserver info and then points the domain to his server. Clean and easy. Or, you can simply provide the buyer with your FTP login and password, as well as your server and account details and the buyer then transfers everything over at his expense.

This should be the easiest part of the entire process. And that’s all it takes to create and then sell a website in just a few hours. The best part is that you did it using only a minimal amount of money.  Of course, you can spend money to get better results. You can have someone design your sites for you, which will usually cost around $50 for a good design, you can hire a ghostwriter to write your content or your e-book, and you can even use paid advertising services like Google Adwords to promote your sites to get even more visitors.

As I said, however, you’ll want to stick to the free and cheap methods first until you get a little more experience. Now, you just have to decide what to do with your newly made flippin’ amazing profit!

 What to do With Your Money 
 The best thing to do with your web-flipping profits is to put that money back into buying more domain names and creating more websites that you can then flip for even more profit! The more sites you build and flip, the better you’ll get and soon you can be selling real premium sites for thousands of dollars.

When you’re first starting out, however, you may experience a little failure. Not every site will sell on the first try, and some sites may not sell at all. However, you must look at failure as your best teacher. The more you fail, the better you’ll get. As long as you stick with it and you keep learning from your mistakes, you’ll be able to flip websites by the dozens and then just think how much money you’ll make.

Now that you know how to do the proper market research to find your niche, register your domain, host your domain, and then build, promote and sell your site, you’ll be able to do it again and again to supplement your income or you can make it your sole income stream. It’s completely up to you.

One thing’s for sure. This is a great way to make money online using very little money of your own and it can be done anywhere, anytime using only a computer and an internet connection. What could be better than that?

So get out there and start making that fortune.  Good luck and happy flipping!

By SuccessDigest!!!

The Right Way To Handle Your Business Accounts

 I want to dedicate this write-up to Alhaji Raheem A. Adejumo of blessed memory. He’s responsible for the insight that made it possible for me to have a good report to write on in this aspect of my entrepreneurial adventure today.
Alhaji Adejumo, whose generous offer of a storey building for two years without rent helped to plant the feet of our business firmly on the ground, had told me:
"Sunny, a business without records is not a business. Therefore, keep an accurate record of your business." I took this lesson to heart. Today, I thank God that he gave me the hint at the time he did. And, better still, I'm grateful to God that I took the lesson to heart. Otherwise, I would've been out of business today. That is the blunt truth!
What records are we talking about here? The accounting records. The careful and painstaking recording of all sources where money is flowing into your business and a corresponding record of how they are flowing out, not leaving out a single detail, no matter how small.
Later on, as I got more mature running our business, I realized that accurate record keeping is a lifesaver.
The best way to go about this important task is to buy the idea, as I did, from day one. That means you cannot do business without having at least a book keeper to record your day-to-day financial activities; also, you cannot stroll into your company’s account department and take money anyhow, without recording what the money’s meant for.
The biggest mistake I've noticed that most people make about keeping records of their financial activities is that people want to rely on their memory for the processing of this vital information. I agree, your memory is powerful. It's a million times better than that of a computer.
But the problem is that it can only deal effectively with one subject at a time. Which means that if you're interrupted by something else, it will set aside what it was working on and concentrate on the new thing.
You may later say you want to return to the subject of mentally keeping your business’s records, but the question would be: Where did I stop? Without that information written on a paper where you can retrieve it, it may be lost, never to be found again.
To get on top of this record keeping game, you need the services of accountants. These wonderful people are trained to keep your records for you and they do a very good job of it; especially the honest and competent ones among them.
Hint: Never make the mistake of hiring an accountant who is not competent. As for being honest, you have to rely on God to choose an honest one for you. You'll never know who is honest by merely looking at their faces or at the fanciful or low-profile way they're dressed.
If there's one thing I've learnt, in addition to Alhaji Adejumo's all-time lesson, it is that you must check, double-check and cross-check and double, double-check your financial records. If you fail to do this, you will have cause to weep in the middle of the night.
Here's a story someone told me, which illustrates why you must heed my words of caution on this subject: This aged business owner, according to the story, had everything going his way in his business. The demand for his product was steady in the marketplace. And his customers were loyal.
Then it happened. His receivables started piling up.
And his accounts people were able to explain it away. Their long-time customers were facing a hard-time in their business so they were finding it difficult paying consistently as they used to do in the past.
Because they had a reserve of money, they kept on producing and supplying to their customers. Then they too reached a point where they had to be relying on suppliers' credit to keep their operation going.
When the situation persisted, the owner took the names of some customers to go and talk to them and find out exactly why they were finding it difficult to pay their bills. When he went to the first customer and told him his mission, the managing director said he was not aware they were owing him any money, not to talk of their indebtedness being as high as he had claimed.
The MD called his accountant and asked him to come with the current status of their account with this other business. When the accountant brought the record books, which showed that all the monies the business owner was claiming was owed his company had been paid, with the last payment of N1.5m made just about a week earlier, the man almost fainted.
He apologized to the customer and quickly went round to the other companies and got the same feedback. By the time he got back to his office, more than N80m had found its way out of his business!
Although he was able to get the police to round up his accountants for questioning and possible prosecution, those in business know that it's better to be in control of your money than trying to get the police to recover them from wherever it’s been stashed away.
This business owner went down with stroke, got flown abroad, and is still receiving treatment as at press time.
How do you avoid this sort of disaster from happening to you? Simple: Stay on top of your business’s finances. Agreed, it is true that you cannot see everything that is going on in your accounts department. But that is not when you're a small or medium-sized business.
Unless you have another duty (and you'll have to persuade me that that duty is more important than following, on a minute-by-minute basis, how money is flowing into and out of your business), then you MUST sit on top of your business’s cash flow.
Make sure that there is an accounting system in place and that you, as the business owner or the managing director, know how the system operates. You must know all the basic accounting languages and speak them.
If you need to attend a course where you will be properly grounded in bookkeeping, then go for it. The chances of one’s financial records getting muddled up can only be described as so great that not taking steps to avoid such is courting disaster.
Personally, I've been more fortunate than many business owners as far as having good accounting record keepers is concerned. We have been mostly blessed with honest ones. Those with itchy fingers do cross our way from time to time. But before they are able to do any serious damage, God has regularly exposed them.
We thank God for this. But the truth is that we also do our due diligence. That is, we take following the movement of money in and out of our business as a serious business. That, of course, was as a result of the insight that Alhaji Adejumo provided.
I want you to take that lesson from me even if you don't learn any other thing from this book. It's not fun to wind up in a wheel chair with your account dripping in red. Or to get sunk six feet below when, but for the disaster that struck through your accounts department, you could have remained healthy, happy and lived long.
Let me repeat what you must do for emphasis:
Don't leave any aspect of your financial record to a third party, no matter how competent or honest that third party is. Make monitoring your financial affairs a joint venture between you and your financial managers.
Note: I've discovered that it is not every time when your accounts people don't have an accurate record that they are trying to swindle you. Sometimes they're just careless or lazy or both. When this happens, they'll fail to record certain transactions correctly.
If you are doing your own part, and being the business owner, you will spot these potentially dangerous errors before it is too late. 

Culled From Success Digest!!!