Business Development

Free Up Time for Work by Automating Your House Cleaning

Posted by Arwen Taylor on Feb 2, 2012 in Business Development | 0 comments

I’m not a big fan of cleaning. Sometimes I get in the mood and want to scrub down my apartment from top to bottom, but most days I look around and wish I had a genie in a bottle so I could wish the mess away. Maid service Centreville, VA to Seattle, WA is definitely something to think about investing in if you hate cleaning too.

Think about it. How long does it take you to clean your home from top to bottom? My little apartment takes about an hour to 90 minutes depending on how OCD I want to be about it. Let’s say it takes two hours to clean your home from top to bottom. What else could you be doing with that time? You could be working your business and earning income.

I’ve said this before many times. You have to be smart about where you invest your time when it comes to building a successful ibusiness. If you make a $50 sale per hour when you work your business, it costs you $100 in lost opportunities to clean your home. However, if you hire maid service for $25 an hour (prices will vary), then you still come out ahead $50. Plus, you get that awesome new home smell when the maid is done.

Talk to me in the comments. How long does it take to clean your home and what would you do with that extra time?

Everything I know about Entrepreneurship I learned from Spongebob Squarepants

Posted by Arwen Taylor on Nov 14, 2011 in Business Development | 2 comments

Now I know what you’re thinking. What does Spongebob Squarepants have to do with entrepreneurship? More importantly, what’s a grown woman doing watching kid’s cartoons? Let’s just say I have peculiar tastes in television shows and leave it at that.

Spongebob Squarepants is an animated show that highlights the antics of a quirky sea sponge who lives in a pineapple in an underwater city called Bikini Bottom. His best friends are a starfish named Patrick Starr, who literally lives under a rock, and a squirrel named Sandy Cheeks, who lives in an underwater bio-dome. The show has been on the air since 1999 and is one of Nickelodeon’s top rated and longest running cartoons.

Spongebob is what I like to call a clueless newbie. He has no idea how the world works and no plans to change that. For him, life is all about working at a fast food restaurant and chasing jelly fish. So he would seem to be the most unlikely suspect to teach anyone, anything about something as serious as entrepreneurship. But he does. And rather charmingly, I might add.

Protecting Your Online Reputation

Posted by Arwen Taylor on Nov 4, 2011 in Business Development | 2 comments

Awhile ago, I read an article about name squatting and how spammers and other ne’er-do-wells are registering company names on Twitter and other social networking sites. It seems that several brand names (Tim Hortons, Sears, and Coca-Cola) have been registered by squatters. This could potentially pose a problem for those companies should the people who registered those names choose to use them for evil.

The time it takes to build a good reputation is disproportionate to the time it takes to destroy one. I’m talking years vs. seconds. Not only do you have to worry about the natural misunderstandings that often occur online, but you have to also have to worry about internet abusers who thinks it’s fun to destroy another person’s reputation.

Case in point: Exxon Moblie Corp had someone register a Twitter account and person tried to pass themselves off as a representative of the company. While the damage was minimal (at a time when gas was almost $4.00 a gallon in the US, I would say that Exxon dodged a bullet), the incident highlights the need for businesses and individuals to be proactive and vigilante about what is happening with their names online.

Tips for Using PLR Articles to Generate Adsense Income

Posted by Arwen Taylor on Oct 15, 2011 in Business Development | 0 comments

Although there are plenty of ways you can make money by generating advertising revenue, Google Adsense is one of the most well known. This program consists of posting contextual ads to your website that earn you anywhere from one cent to $50.00 each time someone clicks on a link. Since the type of content you post on your website partially determines how much money you make, let’s look at how PLR articles can help you maximize your Adsense income.

First, a Short Adsense Lesson

The types of ads which are displayed on your site are triggered in one of two ways. When Adsense first came out, the code would scan your content and serve up ads based on the dominant keywords it contained. For example, if your PLR article was optimized for “beauty salon”, then ads about beauty salons would be shown.

A few years ago, Google made a change to the code so that it would serve ads based on consumer interests. Basically, the program would scan the visitor’s cookies saved in their browser and serve up ads based on what it found there. So even if you buy PLR articles on ‘plastic surgery’ and post them, if your visitor has cookies showing they were interested in snowboarding they would be shown articles about snowboarding.

3 Home Based Business Ideas for College Students

Posted by Arwen Taylor on Sep 19, 2011 in Business Development | 0 comments

In this day and age, you must have a college degree in order to land a personally and financially rewarding job. As a college student, however, it can be tough trying to find time to study when you work a full time job to pay for books and tuition.

Instead of getting a job like other college students, do yourself a favor and start a home based business. A home based business can provide you with the flexibility you need to get your homework done while also providing you with the income to pay for it all. You’ll also learn valuable skills that will look great on your resume. Here are three business ideas you can use to create a home based business that supports your educational goals.