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Online Business

Pet Sitting Business – A Growing Business

There are over 6 million households in Canada who own a pet or two. Dogs and cats are the most popular pets, while dogs are the most favoured dogs among pet owners primarily because dogs are most affectionate.
It used to be that when pet owners go away on holiday, they would leave their pets with a neighbour, relative or friend, or with a kennel service. However, many families do not live close to each other and kennels can be quite expensive while not necessarily providing a happy atmosphere for pets. Thus, a new service business of pet sitting and pet walking is born.
Today, the pet sitting service has become a mature business. NAPPS, the National Association of Professional Pet Sitters provide publications, training videos, insurance information, and other business resources for its members. Canadian equivalent of such an association is the All Canadian Pet Service Network. Typical pet sitting fees are $15 for a one-to-one 15 minute pee break, $20 for a 20 minute pee break. Group walks are also available at lower rates. Clients are not limited to pet owners on vacations. Some stay-at-home pet owners book 2 to 3 services a week for extra relief from walking their pets. Typically, the owner would leave house keys to the pet sitting service, and the sitters would come to the house and take the pets out for a walk. Reputable pet sitting services run a criminal check on their pet sitter employees and provide insurance bonding. Some pet sitting service also offer dog obedience training and puppy potty training as well.
My husband and I had the unfortunate experience of having to care for a pet while her owners went away for a holiday. The first night, we both forgot that we had the dog, and left our front door open. It was not until four hours later than we remembered we were caring for the dog, and had to have a search party. Luckily, we found the dog. She had wandered away to the neighbour’s yard, and was crying. The dog felt so lonely while staying with us, and wouldn’t eat for the first two days. After our valiant efforts in entertaining her and giving her a lot of pats and talk, she finally warmed up and felt comfortable.
After this episode, I have learned not to take care of somebody’s dog and will gladly refer them to a pet sitting service. I am sure many non-pet owners felt the same way. In fact, many pet sitting services sell gift certificates which make ideal presents for all occasions.
Dogs are social animals, and love company. They also need daily walks and exercises at least once, and preferably twice a day. Without proper attention, dogs can be destructive and manifest behavioral problems. Older arthritic dogs who are not so agile, may not adjust well to new surroundings. If you are travelling and will be away from your pet, consider giving your pets quality care by using a pet sitting service.
If you love pets and want to start your own business, consider a pet sitting service. It can be run from home, and has low startup costs. Several add-on products such as dog accessories, and dog food can also bring in additional income. Here’s another plus! This type of jobs cannot be outsourced to a third world country.

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Business Insider

Starting Your Business After 50 – 7 Keys to Success

We 50+ Boomers are now the fastest-growing group of new business owners in the U.S.

We’re being attracted by the freedom to act upon our ideas as we see fit, the chance to achieve much better balance between our work and leisure lives and the opportunity to enjoy a source of income that’s only limited by our personal ambition.

But, as attractive as self-employment may appear at first glance, it’s important that you carefully consider the following seven criteria when considering whether to take the plunge.

Look for a business whose work will truly engage you. This is especially important if you’re feeling burnt out emotionally from the demands of your corporate career. A good starting point for identifying the right business idea for you can be to visualize how you can turn your favorite work activity in your corporate career into a business, or examine a long-held hobby to see if you can turn it into a full-blown business.

Understand the income potential and whether it matches your needs, and how much you are comfortable investing. Take a hard-nosed look at startup costs, your local competition, and your willingness to risk your savings. Take into account the fact that it takes most new businesses at least three years to break even – if they last that long. Later in life is not the time to shoot craps and risk your financial security. It’s worth sitting down with a reputable accountant who has worked with lots of startups and who can help you determine how much of a gamble you’re willing and able to take.

Match the physical demands of your chosen business to your energy level. A business that requires putting in long hours every day, or hard physical labor, may not suit you at this point in your life. On the other hand, if you love the outdoors, planning and planting landscaping or working in one of the building trades, by all means dig further into the possible business opportunities, but be honest about the sustained physical stamina that will be demanded to earn a steady income.

If day-to-day variety is important to you, rule out businesses that involve doing the very same thing for each customer. The idea here is to find something that will keep you passionately interested. Not every detail of running a business is equally interesting, but you want to assure that your business offers enough different experiences so that you remain eager to get up every day and run your business.

Do you love or hate technology? While most businesses require some computer use, consider the extent to which you’ll need to use other technologies – like wireless gadgets, the Internet, and various types of software – to help you manage your business. If you hate technology and would rather not bother with it, can you afford to hire technical help?

Consider if you’re ready to learn a complete new set of skills or primarily wish to build off of skills you already possess. Every new business owner has to learn some new skills, such as office administration or Internet marketing. But, it’s very important that you honestly assess how well you know the “nuts and bolts” of your prospective business idea, otherwise you face a steep learning curve your first year in business, at the same time you face the daily demands of selling your product or service.

If you find you’re drawn to a franchise opportunity, make sure you determine the total expected investment for the first two years. Be aware that, with a franchise, you will always have a business partner – the franchiser – who takes part of your income. Proceed with caution when considering a franchise: Talk with others who have bought outlets from the same company; make sure you understand everything the franchiser will expect from you (including how disputes, if any, will be resolved); and hire an attorney who specializes in franchising to explain the franchise agreement to you in detail.

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Business News Articles

Online Home Business Tools You Will Need to Know About

There are several online home business tools you will need to begin research ideas online and to have your home business in quality standings. If you are just looking for information to begin here are some topics you might want to know about:
You should know about Keyword tool
Keyword tools are system design to check the availability of phrases search online and it provides some useful reports and stats pertain to user query. These are searches of online users who are probably looking for information on a specific business topic. As you begin to do research, you are going to better understand these terms. Marketers use keyword tools to select profitable market niche that is feasible. By using this marketing tool you can choose a suitable domain name base on some search phrases.
You will need to know about Domain name
You will need your own business address. You do not have to register a domain name to make money online but to every dominant force there is authority. When you register a domain, you have more rights to publish your work on a wide-scale marketing. You will have more privileges getting target links with your own business address.
You will need to know about your own website
You can use a website editor to make web-page for your website and this is the cool tool that is absolutely free online. You don’t have to worry about being an advance user just someone who is willing to take steps and follow instructions.
A website is a tool that provides you with an internet presence and you will need one to market online. Your website is the structure of your online business. You can begin using single page websites to distribute your ideas and as the journey picks up, you can continually added relevant contents to your online website business.
Some additional online business tools you will need to know about
A home business allows you the freedom to be in control of your destiny. In order for your long survival online you should take a look at the automation system tools like an auto responder; also some safe guard tools like link cloaking, link tracking, stats counter, error message tools, etc…
An auto responder is a marketing tool that uses technological innovation that is design to capture customer’s information and communication among marketers. This will help to automated your business process and it can use to distribute a marketer’s newsletter with ease of delivery.
Link cloaking is deign to hide affiliate links from commission theft and it can also use to customize an affiliate link.
Link tracking software tool keeps a compilation of most of your ad campaign while stats counter record the number of visitors to your site and the error message tool can redirect your customer to an affiliate link if you made any mistakes when setting your links. this latter tool can differentiate and locate site links that are broken and would be impossible to find with having this software tool.
You cannot always assure of all the business ideas and tools you might need but if you can do research on a regular basis and update your business strategy then you will come to use some of these important marketing tools. Business online requires research and implementation of business ideas that are profitable. You will need some online tools such as keyword analytic; website with your own domain name; and software marketing tools.

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Business Letter

Ways To Locate The Best Work From Home Business Idea For You

Are you searching for the best work from home business idea for you, but are not having any luck finding it? There are some things that you need to do that will help you easily locate the best business without any problems.
One of the first things that you need to do is to make a list. A list will give you the chance to narrow down your choices so you can easily locate the best idea.
What you want to put onto your list is your interests, hobbies and skills. This will help you find an idea that you enjoy, which is very vital to making money and being successful.
Once you have your list, the next step is to go online and start researching different business ideas. Start with the most enjoyable thing for you that is on your list.
For example, if you like golfing, then you would start a general search for golfing business ideas or golfing business opportunities. This will bring up a lot of different ideas that you can start wading through in search of the best idea for you.
This will take time to do, but it is one of the best ways to get an idea of what businesses are available to start from home.
Once you know what some of the different options are, you can start narrowing down your choices to the ones that you believe would help you earn money.
It is important to save each of the ideas that interest you in your favorites or somewhere. The reason this is essential is because you have to go over each idea thoroughly to be sure of a few things.
Here are the few things you are researching for each idea:
1. That it is the best idea for you.
2. If the company and idea are legitimate.
3. So that you get paid what you deserve, you need to make sure they have good compensation for your business building efforts.
4. That the company is reliable, trustworthy and has good customer service.
5. Last, you need to find out if they will give you all that you need to get started right away.
Again, researching thoroughly will take time, but it is so vital to choosing the best business for you.
Don’t just assume that a business is legitimate and right for you without first checking it out because this is the mistake a lot of people make and then they struggle endlessly to succeed with the idea they chose.
You have to do these things if you are really serious about choosing the best work from home business idea for you. Once you have done these steps, you will not have any difficulty in locating the right one and before you know it, you will be earning money with it and on the road to success.

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Business Plan

What Are Good Business Ideas for Someone That Doesn’t Want a High Pressure Lifestyle?

Are you sick of the pressure?
Do you want a better lifestyle?
Do you prefer a good business to just a job? If your answer is yes to one or more of the above, then read on!
So you’ve got the basic decision made; now you need to research some good business ideas. The kind of business that provides a great lifestyle depends on your idea of what that means. Does your idea of a great lifestyle mean working a small number of hours for a nice profit, working in a field about which you are passionate, helping others, having fun, doing something at the edge of world’s best practice, fulfilling a dream or just having more time for family, friends and your community?
Because work and lifestyle don’t have to be mutually exclusive, your best business idea might be to choose something you love doing, surround yourself with awesome collaborators and add an element of contribution to the community.
The paradigm of swapping time for money certainly needs to disappear, so passive income is a term that’s becoming widely understood. Who would like to wake up gently each morning, take a leisurely breakfast, perhaps a walk with the dog and eventually open up the laptop just to see how much more money has flowed into your account?
The single biggest impediment to living any of these scenarios has been you… and you probably knew it already!
Whilst I’m sure you’ve spent time lusting a better lifestyle, how much time have you allocated to finding the business idea that suits you? Do you know exactly what return you need to cover current living expenses? What research have you done to determine the specific requirements of putting your idea into practice? Have you built an awesome team of professionals to help you identify the best prospects?
If you really want to pursue a business that helps you develop the lifestyle you would prefer, you’re going to have to get off the couch. Find a block of time and regularly use it to discover the best business idea for you. Research what’s required, bounce the idea off the team of professionals you’ve gathered to help you, brainstorm the possibilities, headhunt your preferred colleagues – in other words – BEGIN!
And remember, you are never alone in business. You will always find someone willing to help you out, create a JV with you, work with you or even promote you even before you have a good business idea or a product. Be confident being yourself and your business will skyrocket from here on!