Selling Downloadable Software Online - 3 Resources

You can list and sell your software through websites like PayLoadz.com. Besides selling software, you can sell other downloadable items such as ebooks, music, manuals, forms, certificates, etc.

They operate using payment systems PayPal and Google Checkout, and the digital product is automatically delivered to your customer when they submit payment. This means instant gratification for customers and much less work for sellers. Use their service for free the first month.

See also Trade Bit and Share-it! by Digital River.

Cool Business Names - How Do You Find One?

Having a good business can be a great tactic for grabbing people's attention, getting them to remember you and bringing them in as clients.

You don't want a dull name, and it's a good idea to use a business name that somehow displays your company's personality - but you don't want to go overboard, be silly and scare away clients.

Here are 5 tips for brainstorming good business names, free online name generator tools, domain name ideas and more tips for making this task easier.
Get the tips: How to Name a Business 

Cupcake Business: How to Start One

Like baking - with a knack for cupcakes? There are several options you have when starting a cupcake business. Gourmet cupcake shops are opening up in every major city and are quickly becoming a popular treat.

But what about baby shower cupcakes, wedding cupcakes, children's birthday cupcakes and cupcake bouquets? You guessed it - pretty much any event that would have a cake or cookies would surely enjoy cupcakes too.

There is also a growing market for gluten-free products, organic baked goods and healthier desserts. With a cupcake business, you can start small, from your kitchen or other baking establishment. You can make deliveries to customers or sell to retail stores or markets. As your business grows, and if you choose, you can open a cupcake shop and sell your cupcakes direct to customers.

The permits and licenses you'll need will depend on the city, county and state your business operates. Each state has its own requirements. Your cooking space will be required to pass an inspection by the Department of Health. Upon approval, they will license you. You may also be required to maintain a standard recipe for product labeling purposes.

Buying or Selling a Business? Helpful Online Tools

Websites to Buy or Sell a Business
BizBuySell is a popular site to list a business for sale. Their advertising rates start at $60 for a 2 month listing. You can also compare rates and services with Business Broker.net ($100 for 2 months) and BusinessMart ($35 for 1 month).

Helpful article for selling a business: "12 Crucial Steps to Selling a Small Business"


Websites for Small Business Valuations and Valuation Calculators
Before advertising a business for sale, it may be beneficial to get a business valuation by an appraiser or business valuation service. If the business has a website, general business valuations are provided for free with ebizvaluations.com and fastbusinessvaluations.com free online business valuation calculators.

If you need a professional business valuation report, Strategic Valuation Associates offers this service. You can see a sample report on their website. If you have real estate, business machinery or other equipment that you need to have valued, Cbiz Valuation Group offers a variety of different valuation services for businesses.

Tree Trimming Business Start-Up: 8 Steps

In a specialized field like tree trimming, you have the advantage that there are few. do-it-yourselfers. People who need tree trimming done usually have to hire someone to do it. In addition, there are utility companies and government agencies who hire tree trimmers on a regular basis for work that needs to be done.

You don't need an office or a storefront to start, but you will need a good chainsaw, safety climbing equipment and a large truck. You'll also need a business license and insurance.

Marketing is traditionally done with yellow page ads and neighborhood flyers. If you can step your advertising up a notch with professional business cards, information brochures and a website, you'll stand out from your competition and can attract clients more easily.

Include your website address in all ads and on all company literature and business cards. Then, on your website, use "before and after" photos of your previous jobs to show your skills and experience. Pictures are a great selling tool, and you'll come across very professional.

8 Steps to Starting a Tree Trimming Business + Start-up Guide

The Superfood Vitamin

Now there's a headline you probably didn't expect!

I'm just putting the finishing touches on a new website for a few clients on a subject I actually love - natural health. It was a fun site to work on, partly because of the content, but it was also challenging keeping the layout clean and simple while including a lot of content.

Check it out: The Superfood Vitamin

3 Steps to Make Money with Forex

The key to success with Forex is learning from experienced traders who know what they're doing. You also don't want to start trading real money right away.
There are 3 things you want to do:

1. Start with a free trading account where you can practice and learn the ropes without investing any cash.

2. Take advantage of free training programs and learn from professional Forex Traders for free who are willing to share their secrets to success.

3. Use an automated trading robot to reduce your work, minimize your risk and grow your profits faster.

Never traded Forex before? You can open a Forex trading demo account today for free and get a free online course that guides you step-by-step through the basics of trading. It's risk free and costs you nothing.

How to Start a Soap Business Part-Time or Full-Time

Imagine working at home in your own comfortable artist studio making soaps for almost any occasion. This craft business has really taken off with the growing popularity of natural, organic and herbal soaps with therapeutic qualities.

Unique soaps are a popular gift item, and since soaps get used up, you have the opportunity to build a stable source of residual income from satisfied customers. Plus - you can sell soaps year round, another nice benefit.

If you enjoy making soap as a hobby, you can start selling soaps part-time, on consignment to local gift shops and beauty salons. You can also launch an online store for very little money. Offering free samples at local events like farmers markets can get customers hooked on your product. See what techniques work best for you, and then run with it!

More information: How to Start a Soap Business

How to Write a Children's Book in 14 Days

You may have a great talent for writing entertaining stories for children - but how do you get your creation into print and your works published and into the hands of children? If you don't know where to start, don't worry - the booking writing and publishing business may be easier than you think.

How to Write a Children's Book in 14 Days

Children's Book Author Mel McIntyre has been a professional writer for past 20 years - and knows how to write, publish and sell books on Amazon (and more) because he's done it. Now he's got a course that shows you how to do the same - how to complete books in record time AND get a publishing deal.


* Designed for new authors.

Free Business Plans & Start-Up Gifts

Business-Plans-4-You is a business planning company that takes business planning one step further.

They provide a business plan template for you (for 1/10th the price it would cost to get one written for you), they give you a year of free web hosting for your business - and now they're giving away freebies!

Not to mention that fact that you can now get 2-for-1 pricing on business plans (free business plan!).

So what are the freebies?

All sorts of stuff you need to start your business - and now you won't have to pay for:

- Business invoice template
- Purchase order spreadsheet
- Nearly 4 hours of business audio (MP3) sessions from experts
- 50 ways to improve your cash flow [report]
- How to apply for an SBA loan, find grants and prepare a business loan request
- Choosing a business name and buying a domain name for cheap
- Instant tips for start-up businesses [interview of 17 experts]

I'll stop there - there's over 100 freebies included...

Where do You Get Business Checks?

As a small or home-based business, you'll want to set up a separate bank account for business transactions. You'll most likely want checks so that you can pay vendors, employees, monthly bills, leases, etc.

Your bank can supply checks for you, but you can usually get them for much cheaper through a business check supply company. A check supply company specializes in checks, so you'll also have many more options of styles sizes and formats from which you can choose.


Compare prices and products of a few check supply companies to find the right choice for you at the best price.

The more checks you order, the more money you can save. Another way to save money is to order a plain check without any customized printing, and then print checks out from your computer to include your company name, bank account number, etc.

Keep in mind that in order to do this, you'll need special software that can print bank account numbers. check with your current accounting software - you may already have what you need.

"How Do You Register a Business Name?"

When you start a company, the legal name of your business is required on government forms, like your applications for an employer tax ID, business licenses, permits, etc. You will also need a business name for important business tasks such as opening a bank account, signing a business contract, etc.

If you are the sole owner of a business, by default, your personal name becomes the legal name of the business. If your business is a partnership, the legal name of your business is name given in your partnership (or the last names of the partners). If your business is an LLC or corporation, the legal name is that which you registered with the state government.

Many sole proprietor businesses decide to register a fictitious business name, or DBA ("Doing Business As"). For example, if you want to name your grocery store "Apples and Oranges" instead of "Tom Smith", you would file a fictitious business name.

Procedures, requirements and fees for filing a business name vary by state. And some states require that you file at the state level, while others at the city or county level, while others don't require filing of a fictitious business name at all. For this reason, you want to check with your local city or county clerk to see what is required for your location.

The process of filing a fictitious business name generally.... continued

NEW Handbook for Starting an Internet Business

Don't fall into the trap that most internet entrepreneurs fall into.

They try to market the most popular products to everybody - without realizing that thousands of other people are trying to do the same thing.

The result? A website lost in internet space, and money lost down the drain.

You've probably heard of the Internet Marketing Center. They've been helping people successfully start businesses online for almost 15 years. They've just come out with a new Ebusiness StartUp Handbook, which helps anyone overcome the biggest obstacle to starting a profitable internet business.

They include their step-by-step formula for quickly uncovering untapped markets with minimal competition. **The key to success online right now**

Find out where these untapped markets are and find the perfect products to promote (without guessing) within hours. Basically, you get to avoid the mistakes everyone else is making and start turning profits faster.

If you are starting or struggling with an internet business, this tool will help your business. If nothing else - subscribe to their free internet marketing newsletter to get the latest tips on how to get customers.

Get Your Business Listed on Google, Yahoo & Bing - Free

Besides submitting your website to the big search engines, you can now easily submit a "Local" listing for your business, including address, phone number and information about your company.

Prospective customers now have another means of finding your business, but in addition, people can find you who weren't even looking for you to begin with. Let me explain...

For example, with a Google local listing, you get your business location marked on Google maps. This appears when someone views the map area where your business is located - even if they are looking for another nearby business.

You can submit for free here:

Google Local Listing

Yahoo Local Listing

Bing Local Listing

Best of the Web Local Listing

7 Questions Answered About Starting a Tutoring Business

Do you like to teach?

Are you looking for work you can do from home, a part-time business or work that offers a little more challenge than just teaching alone?

Supplemental education providers is a growing market, and a tutoring business gives you the opportunity to make a living while giving back. Tutoring can be very rewarding, and you can feel good at the end of each day knowing that you've helped someone.

Even if you have experience teaching, many people entering the tutoring field have questions about working for themselves - how much money can I make? How long will it take to get started? What does starting a tutoring business involve? etc..

Here are the answers: How to Start a Tutoring Business

Selling Homemade Goodies from Home - Legally

Are you thinking about entering the gourmet food business - making and selling homemade food items from your home?

Here's an article you may want to read about licensing, permits and the local Board of Health.

How to Start a Tea Room or Tea Shop 1-2-3

With your own tea room, you can work in a relaxed, creative environment and mingle with some very well-educated, well-traveled people.

You have lots of profitable options with tea shops - traditional Victorian or English tea room, Asian-inspired tea room, sophisticated tea bar or lounge, specialty tea cafe, etc.

Learn how to open your own tea shop with help from Famous Tea Room Business Owners and Sommeliers Pane Pettigrew, Mark Ukra, Cynthia Gold, Maria Uspenski and others. Not only have they run successful tea room businesses, they have experience training others.

See how: Start a Tea Business

"How Do I Start a Pet Salon or Pet Spa?"

A Pet Spa, also known as a Luxury Pet Grooming Business or Pet Grooming Salon, is ideal for pet lovers who want to also enjoy a higher income. With a pet services business like a pet spa, you can continually grow your business and income simply by offering additional services and hiring more employees. You are far from limited.

On the other hand, you can keep your pet salon business small, enjoying the freedom and flexibility that a smaller business offers. Mobile pet grooming services are also popular, which you may find better suits your interests.

In any case, working with pets tends to be a more "personal" business, and there are certain business and marketing strategies that will bring in more clients and increase your profits. Following advice from an experienced professional in the pet grooming field can be especially helpful.

Read more: How to Start a Pet Salon or Pet Spa

"How Do I Open My Own Chocolate Store?"

There are lots of business opportunities in the field of chocolate. Not only is it a traditionally popular gift item, now it is quickly becoming a highly-sought after health food.

There is a market for both individual and business chocolate buyers. Chocolate can be purchased as an end product - or as an ingredient for another item. Although chocolate is purchased year-round, this food offers the benefit of being especially popular around holidays.

You can start a profitable chocolate business at the retail or wholesale level. Sell online from home, start a mail-order business or open a gourmet chocolate shop. You can print your own business cards or brochures to get started.

Get creative and make your own homemade chocolates or become a reseller of chocolate products made by another company.

Chocolate is a widely popular product - but like any business, involves a changing market. When you start your chocolate business, you want to be on the cutting edge and stay on top of the latest gourmet food trends in order to stay competitive with the market.

Whether you decide to focus on organic chocolates, flavored cocoa mixes, imported truffles, fair trade chocolates, health chocolates or gourmet nuts - you want to follow advice from an expert in the chocolate business field. Getting insider advice can put you a step ahead of other entrepreneurs and help you launch your business faster - and more importantly, successfully!

Read more How to Open a Chocolate Store

Want to Become a Life Coach? Get The Life Coaching Course

Industry Expert Bradley Thompson says that anyone can become a Life Coach. The problem is that most people never even get around to starting their life coaching business.

If you are a "people person" who has the ability to connect with and motivate people, life coaching could be the ideal field for you - and it doesn't require extensive training.

Get the Life Coaching Course from the Advanced Life Coaching Institute

20-year veteran Life Coach Bradley Thompson and owner of the Advanced Life Coaching Institute has developed an online course that can get you from novice to professional life coach in under a month.

Course comes complete with scripts you can use, client techniques you must know and actual products you can give to your customers to help motivate them.

4 Free Invoicing Tools for Your Small Business

1. Intuit offers a free online invoice tool called Billing Manager. It's an easy way to manage your invoicing online. Through their website, you can create customized, professional invoices. You can also email them to clients and track payment history right from the site.

2. Invoice Journal is also a web-based tool that you can access anywhere in the world. Invoices are professional and even customizable with your business logo or design. Create unlimited invoices for free

3. Billing Boss is a simple, fast invoice tool, also free. Take their 2-minute tour to see how to use the program. They've kept it simple and haven't added lots of complicated features that you probably wouldn't use anyway.

4. Simple Invoices is an open source program that you download to your server. The program also lets you track past invoices and email invoices in PDF format to your clients.

How to Open a Candy Shop 1-2-3

Ever wonder how you could make money selling candy?

Opening your own candy shop may be easier that you think, especially with advice on how to buy supplies and inventory, how to get licenses, permits, manage a shop find customers and more.

With these tips, a downloadable candy business plan template and a $19 shop start-up guide, you could be well on your way your launching your own profitable candy business.

How to Start a Lawn Care Business

Drive around most neighborhoods, and you'll see a lot of lawns. Many people have then, but most don't want to take care of them. There is lot of opportunity, but there is a right way and a wrong way to go about starting your business.

Mowing grass is one thing, but maintaining a beautiful, lush lawn is something people will pay money for. That's where you come in... as a Lawn Care Professional.

With a lawn care business, you don't have to develop a complicated business plan or hire an expensive business plan writer to compile a plan for you. If you are starting a lawn service business as a one-person operation, a simple plan will suffice, and there are free tools online that will help you.

Get Kevin Whiteside's free business tips on starting your own successful lawn care business from home.

Need a Mailing List?

Pircipio is an online data base of mailing list companies. They provide access to over 4,000 lists, covering 1,900 categories. They help home-based businesses, startups and small businesses quickly and inexpensively find and attract new clients and customers.

Annual membership costs $49.95 and gives access to all mailing lists in the database. The member can then view the mailing list information and proceed to contact the mailing list provider if they decide to purchase a particular list.

"How can UGC Boost Your Website Rankings?"

One of the main things that website owners struggle with is getting customers to their sites.

The top search engines like Google Yahoo and Bing can drive a ton of traffic to your website, and optimizing your site well can get your higher rankings, and in turn - tons of traffic.

Optimizing your website can be a time-consuming and tedious chore, however. Why not let your website visitors help you do the work? A website with constant activity, updates and changes (like user comments) drives up website rankings quickly.


Yes! Make your website interactive so other people can comment and share ideas. This simple idea builds interest, trust and encourages users to return for more ideas.

You don't have to hire a designer or be a website pro yourself. Get a free report that shows you 31 different ways you can UGC on your website now.

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Make Your Own Web Page Headers - Free

XHeader is a graphic design tool that enables you to make cool-looking headers for your web pages. It's easy to use, so you don't have to know website code or graphic design.

XHeader is ideal for small businesses who want their web pages to look professional, but they don't want to spend a lot of money.

With this program, you don't have to hire an expensive designer, you can get headers completed in minutes - and you can create unlimited designs.

Do you have multiple websites or landing pages? Think of all the money you'll save!

Get XHeader free here

"How Do I Design a Logo?"

You can create a logo for $19 when you design it yourself. With an online tool called LogoMaker, you can develop a professional, high-quality logo in minutes for a fraction of the cost of a custom logo.

On the other hand, you can have a logo designed for you. Place your logo order online, and within 24 hours from the time you submit your order, you can have a professionally-designed logo ready-to-use. Prices are low at LogoDesignPros, starting at $198 for a professional logo package.

LogoWorks also has a discounted offer at $299, which includes logo designs from multiple artists. Turnaround time is 3 days.

How to Design Your Own Logo

How Do I Get a Federal Tax ID Number?

You get a Federal Tax ID Number, or Employer ID Number (EIN), from the IRS. You can apply through their website, by phone, fax or mail. For fastest service, apply online. It can take up to five weeks to get your EIN if you apply by mail.

The EIN you receive is your permanent number and can be used for business tasks such as opening a business bank account, applying for a business license or filing a tax return.

If you don't know if you need a Federal Tax ID Number for your business, answer these questions.

If you already have a Tax ID Number, but have misplaced it, you can call the Business and Specialty Tax Line at (800) 829-4933 and have them look it up for you.

Apply for an EIN

The 2 Best Ways to Sell on eBay

Selling products on eBay can be a very lucrative business, and starting an eBay business is fairly simple and affordable. So why do so many people fail? It is not WHAT they sell - it is HOW they sell it.

New sellers do what everybody else is doing. They blend in with the crowd of other sellers and do not stand out. They invest in hot-selling products but never get noticed by buyers to sell anything or make any money.

So how do you stand out? There are two main ways.

1. Sell the most popular eBay products at deeply discounted prices or offer higher value "package deals".

2. Sell unique or hard-to-find products that cannot be found at your local store.

Popular Products:

So first, if you decide to sell the hot-selling products on eBay, you are going to have lots of competition. The way to stand out is to offer a lower price than everyone else or put together a multiple product package which offers more value than the other competing products for auction.

A. By offering a lower price, you will attract more buyers and can easily start a bidding war. The excitement and interest that a bidding war creates will generally give you a selling price that is higher than it would be if you had originally listed the product for sale at a high price. Once people have started bidding, they do not want to stop. Your goal is to get them started.

B. If you put together a package with multiple products, make sure that the products relate to each other or can be used together so that they add value to your offer. (Is your buyer likely to want both of these products?)

Keeping your shipping price low will increase the value even more, and you can get many more buyers this way. You stand out because you are delivering more value and added convenience to your buyers. They can make one purchase instead of several.

eBay Pulse is a resource on the eBay website that shows you which products are selling the most. It is updated daily, so it is a good place to find out the types of products that people are buying right now. Another helpful tool is the World Wide Brands newsletter. It is free at their website, and you can get lots of success tips about selling on eBay as well.

Unique Products:

On the other hand, if you choose to sell hard-to-find products, you can demand more money simply because you will have less sellers to compete against - maybe even none!

This does not mean that you should list your unique products at an expensive price, because eBay buyers are looking for deals. This simply means that you do not have to discount your products, because buyers will be happy to have found your hard-to-find products at all, that they are willing to pay full price.

In either case, you want to include a variety of product photos and a detailed product description for each item. Customers are much more likely to buy something when they can see it.

Also include keywords in both the listing title and description so that buyers can find your listing more often when they search for it on eBay. This means brand names, model numbers, color, size and even common misspellings as well.

Where to Find Products:

To find products to sell, you can get great discounts from wholesalers. You can find a large number of wholesalers online using a wholesale search engine.

You may also decide to minimize your workload by working with a drop shipper. Drop shippers charge a fee in exchange for their service of packaging and shipping products for you. You benefit by not having to purchase inventory up front or having to do the work of packing and shipping.

There are also some membership sites which give you access to multiple drop shippers in one location. This is a good option for sellers who want to sell multiple product types or brands.

For more information on finding and selling products on eBay, visit how to make money on eBay.

Home Office Pics

Need some inspiration from home office space? What's your style? Here are some really cool pics:

If you like white

For your backyard

If you don't have much space

My favorite

A little bit of color

Natural and simple