Learn about business opportunities, business ideas, and real estate investing here at Bizops.ca. We take a look at these topics and put a Canadian spin on them on this business opportunities blog.
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Written by Marc on February 16th, 2011
As the work at home industry has grown over the past decade, the number of kids with parents at home has grown. This has allowed many parents (like myself) to spend more time with their children while enjoying the financial rewards that a business can provide. Even though it might seem like a good idea, it doesn’t come without its’ challenges.
One of the problems that I have been plagued with is interruptions from my children. Our children are not that old (8, 5, and 3), so they quite often barge into my office unannounced putting their needs and questions first. This has caused me …
Read more articles on Entrepreneur and Thoughts.
Written by Marc on November 29th, 2009
One of the things that I had always thought was sacred in my home was my office. I have told the kids a number of times over the years that the office is off limits, and I thought that they understood that.
But just this past week while on a business trip, my four year old decided that she wanted to spin around on my office chair. I am sure she had a grand old time, but it didn’t last long.
You see, she knocked my computer over, which in turn made my headset smash on the floor and break too. Thankfully the damage wasn’t any worse, but it certainly could have been.
Needless to say, I learned a valuable lesson this week, …
Read more articles on Entrepreneur.
Written by Marc on August 18th, 2009
One of the things that every business person needs to be aware of is seasonal trends. Essentially, you should know what times of year are the most profitable for your business and be ready for them. If you are not, you are missing opportunities to increase your bottom line.
Some of the most common examples would be the Christmas shopping season from September through to December which applies to retailers both online and offline. Another good example is the season that we are in right now in North America – back to school. If you are a retailer (online or offline) that sells school supplies, clothing, or computers, your income should be up right now.
The point is that if you know …
Read more articles on Entrepreneur.
Written by Marc on July 23rd, 2009
I know that one of my biggest challenges with my online business is staying focused. The problem for me is there are many different distractions like Facebook, checking email, or keeping up on the latest news on Twitter. Though these tasks are interesting, they also reduce my ability to get some useful work done in a day.
So, I have decided to purchase an Asus EEE PC which is a netbook computer. If you aren’t familiar with what a netbook is, you can think of it as a really small laptop (10” screen in this case) that has exceptional battery life (up to 9.5 hours on the one I bought). Now, being that it is a smaller computer, for some people, typing on the …
Read more articles on Business Ideas.
Written by Marc on July 15th, 2009
If you have an online presence (either a business website, or a number of sites) you will have some sort of hosting plan. Whether you are paying for this or not, you will be hosting your websites with one or more companies. For most people that have one or two sites chances are that you will have one hosting account with just one company.
But is hosting your websites with just one company smart?
This is a question that I was faced with this week. You see, I have a number of my sites spread out over a variety of servers, but that is most because of the SEO benefits that I obtain multiple webhosts. But, the bulk of my sites have been hosted …
Read more articles on Thoughts.
Written by Marc on June 6th, 2009
I know that pretty much every website that you will read will tell you that you should use keyword tools to do your research. Some of the more common ones that come up include Wordtracker, Adwords external tool, and a few others. These tools do provide valuable advice and can be a great resource to find a niche for your next site.
But you can do keyword research without keyword tools.
I know that this might be a little bit against the grain, but hear me out. You see, lately I have been working on creating some niche store websites. Specifically, these are eBay affiliate websites and they will just be another income stream in my business operations. Though I started out using keyword tools, I really haven’t been using them for these types of sites. In fact, the following is the “keyword tool” that I have been …
Read more articles on Business Ideas and Online Opportunities.
Written by Marc on May 5th, 2009
In an article that I wrote just a month ago about Small Town Real Estate Flipping, I touched on the topic of investing in real estate in small towns. Not only do they offer attractive prices, but they also give you the opportunity to get good return on investment (ROI) if you do things right.
But the one thing that I didn’t touch on were some good practices to follow when looking for small town investment properties. Since most of us would be more familiar with city real estate, there are some things (and potential quirks) that you need to be aware of when investing outside of larger cities.
The first thing that should be on your mind is employment opportunities within the community that you are looking at as well as the employment opportunities in surrounding areas. Ideally, the small town would be within driving distance …
Read more articles on Real Estate Investing.
Written by Marc on May 4th, 2009
I have been talking to a number of people lately in some Skype rooms I frequent, and for the most part, most of them have at least a site or two. Their sites cover many topics, and it is great to see that the Internet can provide an outlet for you to express your passion, no matter what it is.
But at the same time, I hear a lot of grumbling from these same people that they really aren’t making any money online. I know that this can be a challenge for some people, but in the case of these people that I have been talking to, they are all doing something wrong: they aren’t monetizing their sites.
Now, I suppose that this would be common sense if you were to look in from the outside, but somehow during the time that these people have been building their …
Read more articles on Online Opportunities and Thoughts.
Written by Marc on April 27th, 2009
One of the things that I somehow decided on early on in my online business career was that bigger was better. This meant that instead of having one or two websites (like everyone else), I would need 40 or 50. I think I assumed that more sites would equal more money and in some respects, I still hold to that ideal today.
But the truth of the matter is that bigger isn’t always better especially when you don’t have systems in place to deal with the magnitude of your organization. This can be problematic in both real world and online businesses when the business outgrows the original scope that was intended with it. It is at this stage that one of two things happen: …
Read more articles on Business Management.
Written by Marc on April 26th, 2009
I guess that the title of this post is maybe a little straight forward and almost hints that you might just not have the common sense to do what you are supposed to do. I don’t mean to be rude or anything, but this realization just hit me this week: I am very distracted.
It seems that with my increase in use of Twitter and Skype, I spend an inordinate amount of time using these two applications. I have been known to interrupt whatever I am doing at the time to see what has just been tweeted, or posted in a Skype room. Now I know that some of you will say that it is good to keep up on current events and participate in discussions, but what happens to your business because of these activities?
It suffers.
I am a good example of this, as …
Read more articles on Entrepreneur and Thoughts.