A New Economic Revolution - Utopia!

By British Writer & Entrepreneur Tina Jesson www.tinajesson.com

I have had the luxury of working from home for the last 10 years, even when I was corporately employed, before setting up my own businesses. I’m certainly 100% more efficient than working from an office and there are other benefits...

It seems to me that with technology being so widely available it doesn’t matter what continent you are on, let along what building you are in, to switch on the laptop or answer the mobile phone.

As more and more people are leaving corporate world and choosing to start up their new business rather than face months on benefits, the environmental benefits will become ever more noticeable.

No more pre packaged lunches, or paper coffee cups or water buts required here, when everything is at hand in the home kitchen. To save costs, home based businesses will automatically reduce the paper in the system as they choose to work online. Web 2.0 technologies means more and more information is stored off site on hosted solutions, taking way the overhead of printing everything out hard copy.

It’s the corporations that will get left behind. Maybe they should be thinking more about right sizing than downsizing and taking the lead from those of us, whose whole way of life needs to change for pure survival.

When you think about it, this new breed of home based business and home based worker means that there’s less over-crowding in our cities, so you can start to get the lifestyle you want and move out of town. It’s like the cottage industries of the pre industrial revolution. With such a movement happening by osmosis, this back to basic living, we may well develop a new utopia. Becoming more self sufficient, not lonely, but part of a truly worldwide community, growing our own veg and having chicken in the run and the windmill in the yard creating energy to feedback in to the grid.

Using technologies and our collective knowledge in a much more cost efficient, energy efficient, global community way. This new economic revolution as President Obama called it. Life will never be quite the same again.

Who says miracles don’t happen?

"www.tinajesson.com - Tina Jesson is the ONLY British female speaker, writer & trainer who helps solo-preneurial businesses to equip them to achieve maximum visibility, in the fastest and most cost efficient way possible."
Author of 'How to Play the Property Game' and 'The Solo-preneurial Marketeer' and founder of the British Academy of Solo-preneurs

Life before the banking system – the art of bartering

Businesses are deciding to trade with each other in a totally new and inventive way - by trading skills and services. Stage left the act of bartering, last seen before coinage and the banking system was even invented. Contra deals and the new practise of swishing is how many small businesses, solo-preneurs and individuals are surviving in a weak economy where the $dollar is illusive.

There have been reports of Website developers are trading website development in exchange of the services of their clients, such as singing lessons or access to a client database; hair dressers swopping a expensive hair treatments for advertising and groups of women trading nearly new outfits with each other.

Shows and events are starting to use conta deals to fill last minute booths, as they find it harder to fill the space by conventional means. A contra deal is based on the whole idea of swapping out one ‘this’ that the other wants needs and values.

Barter Groups are springing up everywhere as companies club together and place a value on time, product and service, to establish a common valuation system which can be traded across the group rather than just one on one so that if they don’t find a direct match for what they want in return, it can be facilitated through the group as a whole.

Using a barter or swapping strategy means that businesses can continue to develop and grow and stay in the running where they might have otherwise fallen along the way side, ceased trading or been prevented from evolving to meet the new economy.

The great thing about the small solo-prereneurial business is the ability to modify the way the business works to accommodate this model in the act of the survival. “Life will find a way" as Jeff Goldblum's character knew too well in Jurassic Park. Business will find a way of sustaining a livelihood.

Give bartering and contra deals, a go. You'll keep busy, get you more growth opportunities AND build some very strong business relationships along the way. The stronger your bond with your potential clients and advocates, the more business you will win. The business with the strongest relationships will take it all.

Tina Jesson - The Visibility Creator
www.tinajesson.com and www.whatthemediawants.com

"Tina Jesson is the ONLY British female speaker, writer & trainer who helps solo-preneurial businesses to equip them to achieve maximum 'million dollar visibility', in the fastest and most cost efficient way possible, to achieve ‘client magnet’ status & create more wealth. Don't be the best kept secret - get The Visibility Creator."

Author of 'How to Play the Property Game' and 'The Solo-preneurial Marketeer'
Founder of www.homestagerstoday.com & www.homestagers.co.uk
Tina Jesson Enterprises LLC

Personal Case Study Wanted

I'm looking for women aged 35+ who have started their own food production business - i.e. women who grow or make their own food products - it could be an organic veg company, make their own cakes, jams, to sell.



The key is that this has to be a relatively new career for them and that they were doing something different before.



Please respond below with the following details:



Why did you start the business?



Why did you choose this product?



What's been your most challenging issue?



What do you love the most?



How do you promote and advertise?



Remember to add your contact details and website, so we can link back to you



Tina

Please share your viewsTina Jesson - The Visibility Creator http://www.whatthemediawants.com/ for free promotion of your businesshttp://www.tianjesson.com/

Home Office Energy & Cost Saving Ideas

With more and more people working from their home office, I am looking at ways to keep costs to a minimum. This includes the best computers, laptops, printers, scanners, routers and office consumables. I am interested in energy saving ideas as well.


Please share your views

Tina Jesson - The Visibility Creator http://www.whatthemediawants.com/ for free promotion of your business
http://www.tianjesson.com/

Part of Indiana Green Pages, http://www.myhomegreenpages.com/ a consumer web site the most comprehensive source of information and customer reviews of local green products and services. Green pages directory is a statewide community effort to help Hoosiers products and services that are health conscious, socially responsible and safe for the environment.

Small Business owners and 'selling' value of 'green'

Business owners of construction and construction-related industry contractors are convincing customers that you can go green while not getting into the red.

How are you marketing 'green' to customers?

As solar panel installations, energy-efficient appliances/renovations, etc., cost money, how do you quantifiably justify and market jobs so customers can see the benefits of savings over time? What cost concerns from customers which you need to overcome to make the sale?
Do you only sell in if the return on investment (ROI) is less than 2 years and what kind of energy saving percentage can you expect to achieve?

Are you finding ‘selling green’ more difficult in this market or are more people green aware and want to consider a greener build?

Please share your views


Tina Jesson - The Visibility Creator
http://www.whatthemediawants.com/ for free promotion of your business
http://www.tianjesson.com/

Part of Indiana Green Pages, http://www.myhomegreenpages.com/ a consumer web site the most comprehensive source of information and customer reviews of local green products and services. Green pages directory is a statewide community effort to help Hoosiers products and services that are health conscious, socially responsible and safe for the environment.

Can this Entrepreneur save the postal service?

http://www.ukpostbox.com

A 30% sell-off. Huge pension deficits. The use of email rising to unimaginable levels. All signs point to a faltering Royal Mail, and a troubled postal service.

However, a light at the end of the tunnel has emerged, in the form of a revolutionary new concept from Canadian-born entrepreneur, Allan Chester, who lives and works in the United Kingdom. Frustrated by his inability to control his post whilst away, Allan started UKPostBox.com, for UK residents who needed a way of sending and receiving their mail without actually being in the country. His members may be travelling across all four corners of the earth, but Allan believes his site provides a safe and affordable means of controlling their post.

To some, paper mail is going the way of the dinosaur – but to Allan, it is very much alive. “There will always be a need,” Allan said. “I don’t think that we will ever see a time when we rely completely on email. What about documents that need to be sent via recorded/signed for items, business, financial and legal papers? I believe that my company's services will change the way we all view and respond to our postal mail, alongside our email." Allan finds that people who sign up for a UKPostBox account are able to manage their mail easily and effectively. By harnessing the availability of the Internet, members can view all of their incoming post online, from their homes, offices, cafes and even mobile phones. If desired, their UKPostBox account also allows the customer to read, recycle, shred or respond to the letter from anywhere in the world. Allan said: “This is a postal service that allows people to travel and move freely around the globe, without restriction. It’s completely secure and I know that it will save traditional post from becoming extinct. After all, I have seen the way that this concept has completely changed the way my customers live, do business and keep in touch with their families.” For more information about setting up a UKPostBox account, or the other services the company offers, visit http://www.ukpostbox.com


ENDS________________________________________________________________ Notes for Editors: 1. Allan Chester is Canadian-born, but lives and works in the United Kingdom. He holds dual nationality. 2. UKPoxBox.com is an exclusive service in the UK. 3. The company is already well established and will soon me moving to new, bigger premises. 4. The company is growing rapidly, and new staff will soon be recruited. All press queries should be directed toward: UK Postbox Limited PO Box 7169Poole BH15 4EL Tel: (+44) 0845 474 0817

Booming in a Recession?

The technology and communications revolution!

So what types of businesses are booming in a recession and where are companies focusing their resources?

Certainly in the UK the Government is ploughing millions of pounds in to training to save the economy and Obama’s $825 billion plan to jump-start the economy and create or save up to 4 million jobs with an additional $102 billion going to help victims of the recession with unemployment insurance, health care, food stamps and job training. (USA Today 15/1/09)

Tina's Training

This backs up my view that with output falling and some firms having to lay-off or go to the shorter working week, companies and individuals will need to spend their free time on education and training so they can keep their heads above water let alone get ahead.

This is good news for training and education businesses. I know of a number of trainers and training companies who, funded through government indicatives, are seeing an increase in business as they attempt to train people back in to jobs.

Even small businesses, entrepreneurial business and consultants are spending their free time in getting as much education as they can while times are tough. It’s the only real way to stand any chance of getting ahead. Everyone seems to be looking for the ‘magic bullet’ that will win the next order and as investment in your own learning is just that – an investment – those who do have a little savings are spending it in this way in the hope it will make them more appealing to companies and clients alike.

As a result this recession will fuel a massive leap forward ‘tomorrows technology’ and in the way people communicate and use technology. More and more people are becoming expert in blogging, social media marketing and use of tools such as YouTube and Second Life for training, marketing and consultancy based businesses.

With small entrepreneurial businesses needing to keep overheads to a minimum, many will choose to work from home and have virtual offices on the web instead of actual premise. I expect that Second Life will be used in a much more business savvy way. The creation of virtual training rooms will be available for staff in large companies to work on at slow times, to suit their companies or to take training in their spare time from the benefit of their own homes.

This will be a technology and communications revolution.

But face to face will still have its place and I predict an increase in local networking groups seeing a rise in membership. Small business owners will come together and work the leads and connections that are available. I have joined 2 new groups in one week alone, and the turn out for these groups is much higher than in previous years. Where in the past, you might become TOO busy to attend, now, with more time being available, people are getting out and making those contacts and forming longstanding relationships with a view to gaining more business. Business is becoming harder to come by and takes more work to find it, targeting and win it.

Another strategy being adopted by many consultants is, ‘let me do the work and pay me AFTER I get you the results’. That takes away the cash flow problem that might be preventing companies from doing things in a new way and only when new business comes in, does the company then pay the consultant for their input. I can see this approach being taken on by many entrepreneurial businesses who work from home and have the advantage of no/low overheads which makes it an option they are able to offer.

Be interesting to get your thoughts on this. Are you an entrepreneurial business or a consultancy that is having to find new ways of doing things. Are you a company who is working with trainers and consultants to get the edge? Please give your views below

Tina Jesson - The Visibility Creator
Author, business growth & markting consultant, trainer and speaker. www.tinajesson.com