Three Things Everyone Who Wants to Start a Small Business Should Know

You have about to launch a new business venture and are so excited that your palms are sweaty and your throat is dry. For the past few months you have thought about all the things you could do and finally settled on that IDEA that will transform your life. Anyone who is going to start a business should think deeply about and research operations, financials, and their market.

1. Operations: You will need to know the flow of your business and how you are going to create value. Your operations should take into account all of your materials, processes, and outputs. Understanding the products you have and how they will be produced is the core of your business.

2. Financials: The financials include items like your sunk investment, taxes, costs, revenue, and projections. Start with how much it will cost you in supplies and equipment to start your business, think through your daily operating costs, and understand your potential revenues and tax liabilities.

3. Market: Without a market you don't have a business. Define your customer and how you are going to reach them. For some businesses it could be people in the neighborhood while for others it could be those interested in a specific aspect of your business. All of your marketing efforts and products/services will be geared toward this market.

Staying Focused on Your Education

Education is important for your life and the lives of your children. You will naturally set the standards for what has value and what wont have value in your life. Education is only one thing out of many. Some will choose immediate gratification to buy the things they want while others will delay that gratification for more knowledge. If you are going to spend money on an education then it is beneficial to stay focused to maximize your return.

What and and where you spend your money says a lot about you in the same way as where you spend your time. If you are crunched over your video game for 6 hours a day or out fixing your car every moment you can afford then you are obviously very interested in games or your car. The same can be said of your education.

Those students who make it through have persistence because they have the willpower to stay at it day-after-day and year after year until they get to the end. Those who want a degree but couldn't care less about the education will focus on the degree and grade while completely neglecting the higher responsibility of learning.

Staying focused means spending your time and effort on learning instead of wandering into other activities. Each person is different in this respect. Some are capable of balancing their time and energy while others do not have this ability. If you are having a hard time with distractions then cut them out completely so they are no longer pulling on your attention strings.

Getting ahead in life is not easy and does sometimes require sacrifice. There are things that will come easy and there are things that take more time. If you have the right skills and your research and writing come easy then you obviously don't need all the time someone who doesn't have these skills will need. Be honest with yourself, stay focused, and be diligent with your efforts.

How the Department of Education's "College Scorecard" Will Change the Market

College comparison can change the market. The Department of Education's College Scorecard will make an impact on the market simply by the way in which data is presented and offered. Informational is powerful because it becomes a way we think about the world through impacting our mental structures and models. College Scorecard will not only change the way we think about college but also which get the best advertising through the site.

Let us first cover the idea of mental structures and models.  The ways we think about the world are socially constructed so a large website that contains lots of interesting data will naturally change the way we think about higher education. By relaying information by cost, graduation rate and wages we begin to view these things as most important. Right or wrong it will not make a difference.

No doubt they are important but those universities that rely heavily on subsidies, endowments, taxpayer dollars, and legacies are likely to rank higher. Land grant universities and those with taxpayer dollars will come out with the best rates. If given a choice of one school or another you might just chose that ranks the best. Who wouldn't want to go to a prestigious land grant university?

Costs are skewed based on whether someone is in or outside a state. For example, if I attend an out of state school I could be paying a much larger rate when compared to in-state students. Most public universities are going to have a higher local rate based simply on that cost. The information only applies to local candidates and isn't a true reflection of all the costs.

It is also possible that elitist schools that are highly selective and restrictive to those with all the right financial and social connections will rank the best in terms of graduation rates and employment income. It is the same process with public high schools and how the neighborhood demographics influence school success rates. Those without the right backgrounds will be pushed into lower quality schools with lower graduation rates.

The website is beneficial but it should be seen with a grain of salt as no data can perfectly capture and reflect what is going on in the market. The data gives a hint at what is happening but won't truly show the whole situation without additional research. Most of us are not going to do that research so we will take what the site says at face value. When it impacts hiring decisions and college placement we may have a future problem leaving out those who appreciate the word "opportunity" the most.

The Life of the Online College Student

The online college student's life is very different than your traditional 18-20 year old fresh faced traditional student that has significant financial and parental support to achieve their goals. The online student is generally older and has lots of responsibilities that include managing a house and taking care of their children. Sometimes they can be stretched thin but show a resilience others students don't.

Despite their tough circumstances they made the choice to go back to school and succeed. They are taking steps to to improve their competitive position. Whether one is a successful MBA student with a solid career or a single mother starting out in life the online degree is one of the only available options that is reasonable.

Where traditional students are heading out with a weekend backpacking trip with their friends the online student is spending his/her weekend taking care of the other life responsibilities. Despite these challenges they continue to attend school day after day reading, writing, posting and engaging. They are the true champions of higher education.

Higher education is about broadening one's mind and learning new skills that can make one competitive on the market. It shouldn't be confided to a certain type of person from a particular background. Those who have to manage life and go to school have a higher degree of motivation than those who have all the support they need. The life of the online college is student is simply just-life.

Philanthropy Through Business Investment

Philanthropy doesn't have to be only about giving money but can be part of something greater than itself when it creates new investments and expands opportunities well beyond the initial amount. Donating money is important but donating money that keeps on giving is a gift that can be felt throughout generations. The long-term impact of resources should be of consideration.

Philanthropic and business interests can work well together. Major failures of revival have occurred because there wasn't enough time or escape velocity to change the fabric of an area. Uncoordinated efforts that don't truly change the fundamental platform or only short-lived changes that end when the resources dry up.

Changing the foundation and structure of an area changes its nature forever. Philanthropy can be about investing in schools, landscape, oversight, clean up, child-care, health-care, training, recreational facilities, or any other contribution. Yet something like reinvestment in new business ventures, property development, and other profit oriented activities is equally philanthropic.

People make the assumption that is is wrong to profit off of philanthropic activities. It isn't. If investment can be considered philanthropic then it is possible that a profit would leave more money for future philanthropic investments in other areas. What is better? Investments that leads to more investments or a one time influx of money?

Take Some Time for Yourself-Go to the Beach!

Your life is busy and you got a lot of things going on. So much so that you look more like a robot going automatically from on task to the next without much thought. If your not sure what you are doing or why you are doing it then it may be time to take a little time and go to the beach. The ocean, water, sun, and fun is one great way to let the stress melt away.

Taking time off to relax and get your focus with the other side of life helps to enhance your current performance. How? It encourages you to maintain you focus, raise your enthusiasm, and get creative. It lets you step back from your current happenings and gain another perspective.

Sitting back from our daily schedule gives us a better perspective because we are able to see the bigger picture. When we are engrained in our busy lives we can see the trees but neglect seeing the larger forest. In essence, we can't see that many of the things we do are unimportant.

Take some time for yourself and gain a better perspective that will help you maintain your motivation and see what is really important for you to work on. Working yourself to the bone without respite isn't going to do you any good and is likely going to lead to burn out. Make sure work hard but also take time to play as well for life fulfillment. 

How to Balance Work, Study and Play

Work, study and play is the simple story of those who want to succeed in life. People have goals and they have to balance between making income, studying during college, and getting their recreational time in. Each can be a compliment to the other but requires a level of planning and balance in order to achieve. For those studying online and trying to take care of other responsibilities it is a necessity.

Life if full of all type of distractions. If you are the type of person that has lots of hopes and dreams but not enough time you should seriously consider the merits of narrowing down those goals to those that matter the most. Start prioritizing! Conquering the world will need to wait until you are out of school and cleared the big things off your plate so you can focus.

Once you have your main objectives narrowed into something feasible which should of course at least include school and work you can then figure out how you are going to achieve them. For some, this will require at a minimum a few hours a day studying and a number of hours a day working to fulfill your financial needs. Recreation will need to take a back step and be squeezed in when time allows.

When you get good at balancing all of your core goal requirements start to incorporate in your recreational activities. This will keep you sane as you work maintain your grueling schedule. People need down time and fun like going to the beach, sports, working out and having fun just as much as achieving their other life objectives. When you get old and look back it won't be all the money you will think about but your memories. Try and ensure a healthy balance so you have memories and a retirement.