North Texas Black Business Blog
Four Ways You Can Start a Business from Home
by Mark Courts on 08/25/18
Special Guest writer Amy Collett from Bizwell.org
If you're looking to start a home-based business, you might be unsure where to begin. There is a lot of information out there, and it can be hard to know where to begin. Don't get overwhelmed. Here is what you need to know to start your home-based consultancy business.
Find Your Niche
Consultancy businesses vary, but they all offer the means to realize a dream. If you have experience in your chosen field, you can use this to give your startup a solid foundation. However, if that's not the case, it's important to do research and set goals. The great thing about being a consultant is that it's something that allows you to harness existing knowledge and skills. When it's backed up by a range of entrepreneurial characteristics, you have an advantage as you set up a business.
Show tenacity in how you run your business. Don't shy away from promotion, or going the extra mile for a client. Always be ready to resolve problems, as consulting thrives on solutions. In the same vein, be ready to be adaptable and take risks. With these attributes, you can flesh out whatever experience you have and make yourself a compelling prospect for clients.
Attract Clients
The basis of any business is customers. Growing a client base requires a multifaceted strategy. Firstly, you need to have an attractive price range. Compare the scope of your startup to others. Competitive pricing can be pivotal in securing clients, but to raise awareness of your services, you also need to market yourself through social media. It's an effective way to connect with potential customers and keep a broader community up-to-date.
Secondly, you'll need a well-presented website as it will detail your business and offer insights into your personality, skills and record of delivering quality work. An important part of any work is image and perception, and by building up your online presence, you can help define how people see your business.
Maintain Structure
It's essential to have an environment that allows you to flourish. Your home is a place of comfort, but can be full of distractions that may divert your focus. Without structure, it can be easy for a business to become overwhelming. Look to apply the mindset of a traditional 9 to 5 job. In any line of work, would you be available 24/7? It isn't tenable over the long-term and can cause burnout.
With that in mind, look to set a schedule that gives you predictable work times to protect you from overworking. Equally, lay down boundaries for those you live with. While it's a fantastic opportunity to build a business from home, interruptions are not conducive to productivity. Remind everyone, including yourself, that you are at work now. Creating a business-friendly home may require change, but it can be beneficial to your success.
Create A Work Area
Sometimes, it's easy to just take your work to the couch. However, this is likely not to be viable over the long-term for a successful home-based business. Support your venture by creating a workspace where you can dedicate yourself to your consulting. This should be a place that can allow you to get online or take a call without interruptions. Your computer and phone will be central to your work, and they can benefit from the installation of a range of business tools and software. These can be invaluable in organizing your time and helping your business grow. Tools can help you identify keywords to optimize your presence online, or to assist you in managing your social media.
It may seem like a lot of work, and it is. However, being able to start and grow a home-based business will be worth all the effort. Working on your own terms, with your own hours, is something that cannot be replaced. Running your own business will open you to a new way of living, so be prepared and make the plunge.
Amy Collett is creator of Bizwell.org, a website that helps
professionals and entrepreneurs build and strengthen their personal brand. She
is author of the upcoming book, You,
Exemplified: The Role of Personal Branding in Your Professional Life.
When she isn’t helping clients boost their careers or businesses, she enjoys
coaching her daughter’s soccer team and training to become a yoga instructor.
How to Talk to Your Co-workers About Race
by Mark Courts on 07/01/17
Seven tips for navigating this complex conversation
There isn't a more sensitive, front-running topic in the nation right now than race--it's inescapable. The topic can be emotional, all-consuming, daunting, frustrating, and irritating, but it can also liberate, educate, inspire, and unite.
The workplace is generally where egg shells are walked on when facing complex, emotional issues such as racial sensitivity. However, given today's social climate, this issue is increasingly harder to ignore or escape, even during those hours spent at work. Race is the elephant in the room.
To find out what we can do to safely address this elephant, BlackEnterprise.com reached out to Sofia Santiago, an expert in intercultural communication and co-author of the book Difficult Conversations Just for Women: Kill the Anxiety, Get What You Want. Here is her advice:
1. Start With "Why?"
Why are you having this conversation? If it's clear to all parties that the purpose is to have a respectful exchange of ideas that could end in someone saying "let's agree to disagree," a handshake, and maybe even a beer after work, then proceed. If someone is more interested in proving he or she is right and whoever disagrees is wrong, then choose to talk about a sport you both like instead.
2. Also Begin by Agreeing to Recognize Ethnic Differences
Recognizing means admitting that people from a variety ethnic groups ultimately present cultural differences; it's not the same as judging. Judging implies the belief that one group is inherently superior to others. If all participants in the conversation can agree on maintaining this approach, they'll be off to a good start.
3. Try to Understand Where the Other Person's Perspective
When it comes to racial conversations, people present varying levels of intercultural development. Bennett's Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS) lists them as follows:
- Denial: People are only able to experience differences via extremely simplistic ways (black people literally have black colored skin and Latinos like salsa).
- Defense: People tend to exaggerate the positives of their own culture, believing it is the most "evolved" and the best way to live. They have a polarized perspective; us and them.
- Minimization: People feel as if they have already arrived at intercultural sensitivity.
- Acceptance: People want to learn about other cultures, not to confirm prejudices, but to learn.
- Adaptation: At this level, people have the ability to empathize with another worldview.
- Integration: People usually have a wide repertoire of cultural perspectives they can draw upon, and they can move in and out of different cultural worldviews rather smoothly.
Just from the descriptions, it's easy to anticipate the outcome of racial conversations, once one has identified the stages at which the parties are.
4. Agree on Focusing on Content, Rather Than on the Process
Imagine that you want to have a conversation about another sensitive issue--such as gay marriage, abortion, or politics--and you don't know in advance whether the other person agrees with you or not. Now, imagine that you are quiet and like discussions that are unattached and unemotional. You like using logic to present a topic, regardless of any feelings you may have about it. In contrast, the other person likes to argue, feels passionate about the topic, is sometimes loud, highly expressive, and insists that you take a stand. He or she feels uncomfortable with silence, and if you don't reply, they interpret it as if you're holding back.
Have you noticed that I haven't even told you what each party believes, and we are already focusing on the differences approaches each has to the conversation, rather than on the issue at hand? That's what focusing on process rather than on content means.
5. Confirm the Meaning of Terms; Don't Assume They Mean the Same Thing for Each of You
Effective communicators know assuming is never a good idea, and in delicate situations, it's even more important to avoid taking definitions for granted.
6. Balance the Ethnic Backgrounds of Those in the Conversation
Imagine a group of ten black employees having a conversation about race with one white employee. Now, imagine a group of five blacks and five whites. The group dynamics will be different just because of the balance.
7. Have an Exit Line
Use exit lines to leave a conversation gracefully, like:
- "I hear you <insert the other person's name>."
- "I need some time to think about what you've said."
- "Let's resume this conversation <insert when you propose to resume the conversation, such as first thing the next morning>."
- Depending on the circumstances and who the other person is, you may choose a less firm and more collaborative approach. For instance, "How about we resume this conversation <say when>?"
What makes an exit line effective is your ability to use it before a conflict escalates
by Safon Floyd
www.blackenterprise.com/career/career-advice/how-to-talk-to-your-co-workers-about-race/
11 Rules you will never learn in School
by Mark Courts on 07/01/17
1. Life's not fair, get used to it. (Stop expecting life to hand you the things you think you deserve.)
2. The world doesn't care about your self esteem. (Start making something of your life today) Right Now
3. You will not make a six figure salary right after school. (You will have to work hard for what you get)
4. If you think the teacher is tough, wait til you meet the boss. (Instead of chewing you out in front of a classroom, it's the whole office now)
5. Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. (Swallow your pride and take that job you think is beneath you as a stepping stone.)
6. If you mess up, it's not your parents fault. (Stop spreading the blame around and take responsibility for your failures.)
7. Your parents know something you don't. (Perhaps, before you were born, you parents weren't as boring as they are now.)
8. Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life has not. (The results of an exam do not justify the means. It doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to anything in real life)
9. Life is not divided into semesters. (Once life starts, it just goes on and on. So spend your time doing something worthwhile.)
10. What you see on television is not real life. (In real life, people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.)
11. Be nice to nerds. (Chances are you'll end up working for one.)
Are You A Reason, A Season, Or A Lifetime?
by Mark Courts on 12/10/15
People come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime. When
you figure out which one it is, you will know what to do for each
person.
When someone is in your life for a REASON. . . It is usually to
meet a need you have expressed. They have come to assist you through a
difficulty, to provide you with guidance and support, to aid you physically,
emotionally, or spiritually. They may seem like a godsend, and they
are! They are there for the reason you need them to be. Then, without
any wrongdoing on your part, or at an inconvenient time, this person
will say or do something to bring the relationship to an end. Sometimes
they die. Sometimes they walk away. Sometimes they act up and force you
to take a stand. What we must realize is that our need has been met, our
desire fulfilled, their work is done. The prayer you sent up has been
answered. And now it is time to move on.
Then people come into your life for a SEASON. Because your turn has
come to share, grow, or learn. They bring you an experience of peace, or
make you laugh. They may teach you something you have never done. They
usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy. Believe it! It is real!
But, only for a season.
LIFETIME relationships teach you lifetime lessons: things you must
build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation. Your job is to
accept the lesson, love the person, and put what you have learned to
use in all other relationships and areas of your life. It is said that
love is blind but friendship is clairvoyant.
Eagle and the snake
by Mark Courts on 12/10/15
The Eagle does not fight the snake on the ground. It picks it up into
the sky and changes the battle ground, and then it releases the snake
into the sky.
The snake has no
stamina, no power and no balance in the air. It is useless, weak and
vulnerable unlike on the ground where it is powerful wise and deadly.
Take your fight into the spiritual realm by praying and when you are in the spiritual realm God takes over your battles.
Don't fight the enemy in his comfort zone, change the battle grounds
like the Eagle and let God take charge through your earnest prayer.
You'll be assured of clean victory.
Pray without ceasing.
