My 2¢ Worth

 have an idea. It's not really my idea though. I stole this idea from Susan Nichols at Vector Central Marketing. She also publishes a fine E-zine. More about that in a bit.

he idea I mention is for a contest. The winner will receive one free ad in the ad box #2 position. This is a $10 value! I'll try this once and if it goes over pretty good, I'll keep doing it off and on.

ere is the contest question. What is "The Concept" of a business plan? The answer can be found in this issue. Submit you answer here. I will select the winner at random from all entries received. In other words, I'll draw the winner out of my cowboy hat. Good luck.

 mentioned Susan Nichols whose idea I stole. I also mentioned that she publishes a fine E-zine. I am subscribed to many E-zines, however, Susan's "Interactive Marketing Ezine" is the only one I read religiously.

f you aren't already a subscriber, I urge to go subscribe now at www.vectorcentral.com/subscribe-ezine.html. You won't be disappointed.

orry for stealing your idea Susan!

Feature Article

Do You Have a Plan?

by: Dirk Wagner Team4Success.biz

Writing a business plan for a home based business is every bit as important as writing a business plan for a conventional outside the home business. The lack of a concrete plan can be linked to many businesses failing before they realize their goals.

There are numerous software programs available online for creating business plans or you may want to consult an attorney or accountant. However, if you intend on doing it yourself there are some general guidelines for you to follow.

So Just What is a Business Plan?

A business plan is a document that you create to determine what type of business you intend to run and how it will become profitable. You can think of it as a recipe to ensure your profitability. A business plan should be a list of strategies (ingredients) you use to become a successful home business owner.

Writing out your Business Plan.

Get yourself a loose-leaf binder or notebook, a pencil, and get to work. You will find that you will be writing and erasing a lot of information as you start to think about your business plan. The actual number of pages is up to you, but you want to be as thorough as possible when writing your plan. Most business plans run anywhere between 15-20 pages. Remember this is your business and you want to make it successful, so keep writing until you get tired, and then write another page! You don't need to finish it all in one day, but if you are on a roll then keep going, those answers may not be there tomorrow.

General Guidelines for Writing a Business Plan.

Listed below are some general guidelines to use when putting your business plan down to paper. These guidelines are by no means a definitive list, just suggestions for getting you started with writing a business plan for your home business. Note: If you are trying to raise money from investors or trying to secure a loan through a bank, your business plan will differ from writing a business plan for a self funded business.

The Concept:

You will write about what your business is all about. Your products and/or service and how it relates to the marketplace.

Play the name game:

Obviously you will need to pick a name for your business, if you have not already done so, the name should be relevant to what product or service you are promoting. Use search engines to do a check for similar products and services, so you do not duplicate the domain name of another online/offline business. Your name should be brand-able with your product or service.

Mission Statement:

This should describe what your business stands for. What about your business is unique in comparison to your competition. How does your product and/or service help your customers.

Goals with Vision:

Here you need to clearly define your goals for the success of your business. Make short and long term goals. Set time frames and set goals with vision, how do you want your business to look in 5 years, 10 years, etc.

Market Analysis:

Clearly define whom your clients and competition will be. You will need to look at foreseeable changes in your chosen industry in the future, whether it be with new technology or new opportunities to grow your business. Research and networking is the key to finding out how your business may change, if at all.

Action Plan:

Probably the most important page in your business plan! Here is where you will write about your sales and marketing strategies for building your successful home business. You will have to create a marketing plan that includes online and offline promotion strategies for building your client base.

Financial Plan:

A few home businesses operate without a budget, however when you get that visa statement at the end of the month and find out your broke, then you will have a problem. Clearly a budget is just good business practice and makes sense. You will need to break it down to what's coming in and what's going out. Some important information that should be included in your financial plan are:

• Advertising costs on a monthly basis.
• Cost analysis to produce your product and/or service.
• Cost of getting your product and/or service to your customers.
• Expected cash flow to be received (sales during that period)
• Dates of expected pay outs. You need to make sure you keep up with any payments you may have such as hosting fees for your website, auto responder fees, etc.

As stated earlier, this is a general guideline to writing a business plan. Doing research and consulting with others is good way to find out what types of information you should include in your business plan. Good luck!

**************

Dirk Wagner is CEO and owner of team4success.biz and the free, easy to install #1 home business toolbar with automated updates.A website dedicated to helping the home-based business entrepreneur start and succeed with there very own home-based business.

Source Code & Image Protection

While there is no way to completely block others from taking your source code and images, here are a couple tricks you can use to make code/ image-snatching a little more difficult. Although not fool-proof, it will deter most visitors from seeing your code and/ or stealing your images. Both of these tricks disable the right-click function, however, your visitors can still go in their browser under View\Source.

The first method requires you paste the following JavaScript into the <head> of your document. You can customize the text in red to display whatever alert message you want.

<script language="JavaScript"> // No rightclick script function click() { if (event.button==2) { alert('right-clicking is not allowed on this page') } } document.onmousedown=click </script>

The next method is much easier, but will not give an alert message. Simply format your <body> tag as follows:

<body oncontextmenu="return false">

* Get these syndicated tip feeds for yourweb site, free. *

Second Article

10 CD Burning Tips For the Computer-Savvy

by: Mark Goggin CD Sleeves.com

1. The #1 thing you never want to do is put a CD-R or CD-RW in direct sunlight. Unlike CD-ROMs, CD-Rs and CD-RWs are light sensitive. In some tests, CD-Rs left out in the sun for as little as 2 hours, were completely erased of the music, data and photo files on the CD-Rs. This is especially important if you listen to CDs in your car. Putting a CD-R on the dashboard in the summertime, or in the direct sunlight can quickly destroy a CD.



2. If you are going to burn a CD that you want to last for years, you need to use an archival quality CD. If you only have a short-term use in mind for the CDs you are burning, almost any CD you buy that works with your computer will be fine.



3. In labeling a CD for a short-term use, almost anything will suffice. Paper labels are fine; but at times, a bit tricky to apply. If the paper labels are not applied perfectly, they can unbalance the CD, delaminate the CD, or even damage the CD Reader. However, if you want a CD to endure for years, your choices are more limited. The most cost-effective option is to use a CD Marker. There are several of these out on the market, and their inks have been specifically formulated for CD use. Markers with alcohol in their formula are not recommended, such as a permanent marker or even a ballpoint pen.



4. When you burn a CD-R or CD-RW, always do a quality check to make sure it contains all the information you wanted burned onto the CD. Never assume that your CD Burner will always burn properly.



5. Short-term storage of CD-Rs and CD-RWs is very forgiving; vinyl and paper sleeves are fine to use. For the long-term use, the only storage options I recommend are the Tyvek sleeves and Jewel Cases. Only these two media will be benign and chemically inert over time. Jewel cases are especially recommended because they protect against accidentally dropping as CD or something being dropped on a CD, which let’s face it, happened to us all.



6. When mailing CDs, you need to be aware that the U.S. Post Office can easily damage CDs. With the new regulations as of July 2002, the U.S. Post Office now imposes a surcharge on all CDs. One possible way around this is to mail one or two CDs at time. Hand addressing mailers containing CDs is also likely to get them processed so that they are not sent through the OCR sorting machines where most of the damage happens. But, if you are sending a large number of CDs or you simply want to be sure that nothing happens to your CDs, you have to use a stiff cardboard mailer. These cost more than ordinary envelopes, but they do get the job done. I have a customer who mails religious CDs to 143 countries using one of my very rigid mailers, and as a result they all get through to his customers intact.



7. Catalog your CDs as you burn them. By cataloging your CDs, you will know: when you burned your CDs, what was on your CDs, what program you used to burn your CDs, and anything else that will make your CDs easy to retrieve. It doesn’t take long to have so many CDs burned that you lose track of what’s what-trust me. That’s why we offer a number of CD Freeware and Shareware cataloging programs as part of a book we‘ve put together, that is available for download on our website.



8. Always update any CD you’ve burned when you install a new version of any program you used to first create the CD. It doesn’t take long for a program "migrate" to the point where you cannot open a CD you burned with an earlier version.



9. Be sensitive to the environment in which you store CDs. I had a customer from Boston write me when I was creating my book on CD handling and storage. He said he’d burned some music onto CDs and brought them onto his boat. Within something like 6 weeks the sea air had delaminated the CD. This could have been the fault of the CD brand he was using, however it points out the general principle that in order to keep data, music and photos files on CDs that you burn, you have to be aware that they should be stored in a reasonably stable environment, which includes a stable temperature and stable humidity levels. Extreme vibration is also recommended against.



10. Finally, be aware of the "human error" factor. Human error can constitute for a high percentage of mistakes made when burning CDs. Be sure to always have a backup CD if the data on the CD is important. Also be sure to keep a copy of the original program used to create the CD.

**************

Mark Goggin is the owner of CD Sleeves.com.
Mark has been in business for over 28 years, 5 of which have been with CD Sleeves.com. Mark is an expert in the area of storage, archival and burning of CDs. Because of his expertise, Mark has written articles for publications such as Target Magazine, Studio Photography & Design, Rangefinder, REPRO Report, amongst others. Mark loves to speak to those wanting more information on his articles at the following number: (818) 865-7942

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