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April 3, 2009 | By Kenneth Koh |

Recently I’m getting more friends and relatives asking me how to start an online business. It’s not rocket science, but it’s not easy maths too.

Starting an online business is pretty much the same as starting a brick and mortar business, except that the cost is much lower and so is the risk.

When I say it’s pretty much the same as a brick and mortar business, I also mean that you need to be entrepreneurial, to be able to ‘smell’ the needs in a market and to have a vision. Are entrepreneurs born or breed? I don’t know. What I believe is, if you think you are, you are.

So, if you are entrepreneurial and want to learn how to start an online business, read on……

Step 1: Never reinvent the wheel

Believe me. Almost all the smart and innovative ideas you can think of are already done by someone else online, in one way or another. If you think you’ve a unique online business idea, it just means that you’ve not done enough research.

So, if you have any online business idea, the first thing you need to do is head over to Google and type in some keywords related to your business idea. Thoroughly check out all the top websites that provide similar product or service. This means you may have to try out their products/services and find out their pros and cons.

Next, you have to evaluate those pros and cons and come out with a BETTER idea.

Remember, the job of an entrepreneur is not to invent things. His job is to seek proven business ideas, improve on those ideas and get a piece of the pie out of the market, preferably a bigger piece.

Step 2: Think of the marketing system

Most newbie entrepreneurs have one problem. They spend too much time trying to perfect their products.

Having a good product is important. But what’s more important is the marketing system.

Without a good marketing system, no matter how good your product is, it’s going to be hard for your online business to grow.

Regardless of what you sell, your marketing system should answer 3 important questions:

- How can the system attract and capture a list of potential users and/or customers?
- How can you make the system viral, such that users will refer more users?
- How to convert prospects into customers?

For example, recently I developed a great online tool (I think) that can help me to manage all my stocks (I’m talking about the stock market). I believe if I roll this service out to the market, someone will be willing to pay for it. But before I even think of developing the tool for the multiple users, I first have to think of the 3 questions above.

Here’s my thinking process: Read the rest of this entry »

Just think about this for a moment-A South African MLM company with a product everybody MUST use every day of the week.  This is a dream come true.  We have always been subject to American and European companies bringing their product to our door. Now my good friend and mentor, Pieter Pretorius ( http://pietpetoors.com/blog ) has alerted me to this great home grown opportunity. You can be sure that when he recommends a business opportunity, then he has already done his due diligence and that it is a winner

This business just makes so much sense.

Direct Advantage negotiated discount with many of the big stores and chain groups. You get a MasterCard credit card from them and all you have to do to make money is use your card and tell other about it. How difficult can that be?
You can see the list of current partners at http://www.directadvantage.org/affiliates.html . Note that the big names like Pick & Pay, Ackermans, Game, Makro, etc are already there. This means that if your downline buys their groceries at Pick & Pay every month you will earn!

You will earn an average discount of about 5% on all purchases from these stores. You will not get the whole 5%. The 5% discount will be distributed among a network of business partners. If this does not make sense, have a look at the web site mentioned below: When you join please use DAD4607 as reference

For more details and to join go to http://www.directadvantage.org/busopp.html

It is important to note that they are in a pre-launch stage. There might be slight glitches on the web site. They only officially launch 15 April 2009.

I think this one can make it big. All of us have to buy things every day. All you have to do is use a different card to pay for your goodies and tell all of your friends.

If you want to potentially earn R50,000 per month for shopping, go to http://www.directadvantage.org/ today and get your Direct Advantage card.

When you join please use DAD4607 as reference

Cost!

There is a card fee of R35 per month payable. Once they launched you will be requested to pay a R100 activation fee. This will include the first two months’ card fee. Your card will be sent to you by courier like with any other credit card.

These are the only fees. Thus it will only cost you R35 per month.

The Card

Although it is a credit card you will have to deposit money into your card’s account in order to be able to use it. You can make a deposit at any Nedbak or do an electronic transfer. Thus you will have a credit card which you use the same way as a debit card. This also makes it ideal for your online transactions.

Apparently all users will have the option to apply for credit later on. This will be a full credit application with the issuing bank. But for the launch and to get it up and running the cards will be used on a positive balance status.

So what are you waiting for? Join today and let us be proudly South African by using South African products and benifiting from it aswell.

My daughter, Jodeè and son, Matthew are both teenagers and come under peer pressure on a daily basis.

I sat them down to give them some principals that I use when it comes to decision making as life can be hard if you make the wrong decisions.

If however you have a set of principals it makes it easier to live with your decisions.

I have read these 4 principals in a book called Building & Maintaining an Always Positive Attitude. This book was a contribution by different leaders and I found this written by Dr Ron Jenson in chapter 3 under the heading- Living A Principled Centered Life. I have been using these principals for some time now and have added a fifth principal.

I believe that it can help you make better decisions and please share it with your family and especialy you children, if it resonates with you.

You have to ask yourself the following questions when you make a decision:

1) Is it legal? ( either in terms of the law, school or work rules or policy)

2) Is it fair? ( is it a win situation for the other person )

3) How would it make you feel? ( if my decision was printed in the newspaper or my family new
about it )

4) Is it right? ( consider what I believe to be right or wrong according to my value system )

I also use my own principal in conjunction with the above:

5) Did I show mercy(kindness) and did I speak the truth?

( Proverbs 3 verse 3and 4 )
This is the bible verse that I build my life around.
This may sound like a lot to do to make a decision, but it is an excellent guide and it will make you consistent in all your decisions.  The more you practice it, the quicker the process will be.

What is happening behind close doors in our neighbourwoods?

Today is a sad day for me, yet it is a day filled with hope. A contradiction you say?

Crime is usually happening to other people and although you may find it horrible, it does not really concern you until it hit you near to home. My dad phoned me during the week to inform me that his neighbour, Mrs Apollis has been assaulted last Sunday afternoon inside her house. Immediately I was taken back to my youth when I was growing up in front of Mrs Apollis and what a fantastic lady she is. At any age it must be difficult, but to have to go through such trauma at 81 is horrific and it will probable be difficult to recover.

The fact that fills me with resentment and some stronger emotion that I do not know how to verbalise, is that the person that did this to her was her own son! It really hits me in the pit of my stomach. Yes, the person responsible for Mrs Apollis assault is her son. Let me rephrase that as this is in the public domain and lawyers is also bound to read this. The person allege to have done this to Mrs Apollis is her son.

Read the rest of this entry »