Business 9, Lesson 170 – Things I Learned From Business I

For the past 170 lessons I have been learning a lot of different things about how to run/start a business.  But out of the many things I have learned this year, three things about starting a Business has stuck out in my memory.  In this essay, I am going to be talking about those three things.

Planning

Planning is an essential part of starting a business. 

When you have a business idea, you may be tempted to jump into it without much thought.  Dr. North says that a lot of young entrepreneurs get excited and start right away without thinking about how they are going to do it.  They think “I’ll start the business now and figure the rest out later”, but that is the wrong approach.

My business, which is an e-book, requires a lot of planning.  I cannot simply jump into it.  First, I need to write the book.  Secondly, find out what is involved when I want to publish my e-book to Amazon Kindle.  Then, find out how to create a cover.  Then, there is the issue of how I am going to advertise.  Only after I have figured all of that out can I start the process.

The good thing about writing a book is that it buys me time to do the research on the things I have listed.

Your plan does not need to perfect the first time you create it.  It does not even have to be good, it only has to exist. 

Like Dr. North says, a bad plan is better than no plan.

Setting Goals

You may be thinking, “setting goals is the same as planning,” and you would be somewhat correct.  In my mind, setting goals is a way of planning and should come after you have launched your business.

Setting goals are extremely important when doing anything, especially when you are starting a business.  For many people, they may read this and think “well you obviously need to set goals.”  But do you know how to?

When I first started the Ron Paul Curriculum at the age of ten, it was challenging for me to take full control of my school at first.  My Dad and I started to sit down every Sunday before the week started and plan what subjects I had to do during the week and what lesson I need to have completed by Friday.  As I have gotten older, I started to take more control of the planning.  Now, at age 13, my Dad and I still sit down every Sunday, but it is me telling him what I plan to do during the week so he knows what I am doing.

A lot of adults might not know how to set realistic goals when they have to do something.  I learned that it is better to set small goals instead of huge ones.

For example, let’s say that I launch my business on January 1st.  I can set small goals like, by January 31st, I will have ten customers.  Or, by the end of year I have made a minimum of $1000 from my business.

Smaller is better in this situation.

The Younger You Are the Better

In business it is better to start young instead of when you are older.  When you are young, it is safer to take calculated risks in your business compared to when you are older.  The young are tough, we can recover easily and we do not have much to lose.  You can also gain experience and learn things you did not know before.

Conclusion

As you can see, the Business I course had taught be a lot about how to start a small business.  Before I started the course, I already had a vague idea of how to start one.  But now, I feel that I know enough to start trying to begin a small business.

Thanks for reading!

Business 9, Lesson 165 – Advertising a Small Business

This week in Business, Dr. North talked a lot about how to convince a small businessman who uses Yellow Pages to switch to online marketing.  However, this piece of the course is outdated.  I do not know of a single business, big or small, that still uses Yellow Pages.  Today’s essay was supposed to be my plan for helping a small businessman switch from Yellow Pages to Google AdWords.  But seeing how this would be pointless as I will never use this plan, I will be talking about how I would advertise my business.

In this situation, my ‘business’ will be my self-published e-book that I am currently writing and I am the businesswoman who needs to advertise her business.

My plan for advertising is to go on social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok to promote my book.  Since my book is YA (young adult), and the target audience are teenagers, I feel that social media is the best way to reach them.  I intend to emulate other authors who have done similar things for their books like Chloe Gong, author of YA book These Violent Delights.

On my account, my videos will be about my writing process, little snippets from my book to get people interested, character aesthetics (I have noticed that people like videos like these), and many other different types of videos to get people interested in my book.  From an article I read, you can find it here, they mentioned to take advantage of any audios or hashtags that are trending at the moment.

As you can see, I already have a plan for how I want to advertise my e-book even though I have not finished writing it yet.  While Dr. North talks a lot about using Google AdWords, I feel that if I did that I would not be able to reach my target audience or get much attention.

Thanks for reading!

Business 9, Lesson 160 – A Bob Bly Style Advertisement

THE TRUTH ABOUT GOOGLE ADWORDS

Dear Reader,

Many businessmen try and fail to use Google AdWords for their small businesses. 

Does this mean that Google AdWords is a horrible program to use?  No!  These businessmen simply do not know how to utilize it.

Do not make the same mistake as them.  I highly advise you to give the program a chance.

Here is why:

  • Google is the biggest search engine in the world, making it the best option for marketing your business.
  • It is possible to use multiple keywords at the same time.
  • Your ads will appear at the top of the page, allowing it to get seen immediately.
  • Can reach viewers through their Gmail inboxes.
  • Monitoring who clicked on your ad and which keywords generate the most traffic is easy with Google AdWords.
  • You can see how long a visitor stayed on your page and how many pages they went to.
  • All of the work can be done from the comfort of your home.

Are you convinced yet?  Or do you want to start but don’t know where to begin?  Worry not, because I have the perfect solution for you!

I ask you to read Ultimate Guide to Local Business Marketing by Perry Marshall and Talor Zamir.  Click here to see their book.

Still not convinced?  Here are five more reasons to start using Google AdWords today.

  • You can limit how far your ad will go (eg. 10 – 20 miles from your location).
  • The design of the ad is entirely under your control. 
  • Google AdWords is one of the most inexpensive platforms out there.
  • Running the ad by yourself is easy and simple.
  • You have the ability to instantly alter or pause your campaign.  Regardless of the time of day, you can change keywords, designs, or anything else you might want modify.

Don’t wait!  Start your free Google AdWords account today!

~Sophia Elahi

English 9, Lesson 175 – “So What?” In an Autobiography

This week I finished reading my last autobiography for the 9th Grade English course.  After watching all of Dr. North’s video lessons and reading the assigned autobiographies, I learnt one very important thing about writing autobiographies.  In this essay, I am going to talk about what that thing is.

When writing an autobiography the author must always have one question in mind.  “So what?”  Whenever they decide to talk about a certain event they must always be thinking “so what?”  What’s the point of this story?  Will it be interesting to the reader?  Authors that keep these questions in mind produce the best and most enjoyable autobiographies.

For example, when I had to read Henry David Thoreau’s autobiography about his time living on Walden’s Pond, it was tedious.   Thoreau would spend paragraphs upon paragraphs talking about insignificant topics that do not interest the reader.

But while reading Jim Lehrer’s autobiography in the beginning of the year, it was fun to read his book.  The stories he told was entertaining and had meaning to later parts of the book.  The stories he would tell from his childhood were so entertaining that I doubt the reader would mind if the story did not relate to a later topic.  For example, in the first chapter of his book he told the story of how he accidently wet himself as a young boy while playing on a pinball machine.  Once the incident happened, he panicked and ran to hide in the bathroom, where his father found him.

As you can see, writing an autobiography is not as simple as writing anything and everything from your life onto a page.  The writer always has to keep the reader in mind.  By always thinking “so what?” the writer will not only keep the reader’s attention, but will also make their stories unforgettable.

Business 9, Lesson 155 – Marketing Advantages

This week I started reading The Ultimate Guide To Local Business Marketing by Perry Marshall and Talor Zamir and analysing Bob Bly’s landing pages for his books.  In today’s essay, I am going to talk about what I learnt from reading Bob Bly’s landing pages.

Before I begin, here is a link to one of the pages I had to analyse this week.  You do not have to read it, but I would advise skimming through it for a few seconds so you know what I am going to be talking about.

Number one, small paragraphs and lists are easy on the eyes.  One of the main characteristics of Bly’s landing pages is how short the paragraphs are.  I know that short paragraphs are easy on the eyes and entice readers to continue reading.  I also noticed how he consistently lists of all the information his book offers and cites the pages where he talks about the certain topic.  People do not want to read long, dry paragraphs.  They want quick and easy.  Bob Bly knows this, which is why his pages are enjoyable to read and analyse.

Number two, the Order Now button.  Earlier in the week Dr. North stated that when writing a landing page you should bring up the order now option frequently.  At the time, I did not like that idea.  In my mind, it felt like I would be forcing the ordering option down my reader’s throat, but Bly showed me how to do this without seeming forceful. 

If you clicked on the link I gave, you would see that his page is very long, but he shows the Order Now button multiple times throughout the page.  By doing this, your reader can click the link and skip the rest of the extensive advertisement.  This brings me to the final thing I learnt from him.

Number three, there is nothing wrong with lengthy advertisements.  At first, I was convinced that good advertisements are short and concise, but persuasive.  But Bob Bly showed me that you can have long advertisements and still be persuasive.  I personally think that the only reasons Bly’s long pages work is because of how often he gives the Order Now button.

As you can see, Bob Bly’s landing pages taught me a lot about marketing this week.  After reading his marketing pages this week, I can see why he is as successful as he is.

English 9, Lesson 170 – Equiano’s Attitude to the Navy

This week I started reading Olaudah Equiano’s autobiography.  Equiano was a man who was kidnapped from his home in Africa and sold into slavery.  In one of the chapters he talked a lot about his experience in the Navy.  In this essay, I am going to talk about his attitude towards the Navy.

Before I begin, here is some background on Equiano.  When he was 11 years old, Equiano and his sister were kidnapped from their village in Africa.  The two were taken together, but eventually separated from one another.  Equiano was placed on a slave ship heading for Virginia while his sister’s fate remained unknown to him.  He described this ordeal in great detail.  He talked about how bad the conditions were and how many people died on the journey.  He recalled how a few slaves even committed suicide by jumping off the ship and into the sea.  Equiano talked about his anxieties and fears of his future.  He knew that he would not be treated well, and that scared him.

When he arrived in Virginia, he was sold to a man who was in the British Navy.  This event changed his life.

Equiano was miserable on the slave ship, but on the Navy ships he was happy and content.  He loved the daily adventures that came with being part of the Navy, and like many young boys, he longed to go to war.  In his childlike mind, war was exciting and he wanted to do something exciting.  His fears and worries from the slave ship were still present, but considerably lessened.  He stopped dwelling so much on the future and focused more on the present.

As you can see, Equiano was still a young tween when he joined the Navy, meaning that he could be easily distracted.  In this case, the excitement of the Navy and his new surroundings distracted him from his fears of his unknown future.  He was able to find contentment on the ship, even if he was a slave.

English 9, Lesson 165 – Descriptive Note-Taking

This week, I finished reading Frederick Douglass’s autobiography.  One of the things that amazed me while reading the book was how Douglass was able to give a vivid description of events.  He wrote the book seven years after he escaped, meaning that he made lots of mental notes while the event was happening.  Today, I am going to talk about how I can take descriptive notes.

There are many ways to take descriptive notes, the most classic being journaling.  The idea sounds easy, but as a person who has tried journaling many times, it is not.  At first, you will get really excited about it and journal almost every day.  But over time, you will get lazy and try to come up with excuses to not write anymore.  Eventually, you will stop writing altogether and your journal will remain incomplete to the end of time.

That may be a little overdramatic, but you get the idea.  Now with all of the technology we have available to us, it is a lot easier to take descriptive notes.  One of my personal favorite ways is to take pictures or videos of the moment if possible.  Later on, I can look back at the pictures or videos and I can write a descriptive summary of the event.  I can even record a voice message of myself talking as a reference for a later time.

One of the most important things about writing descriptive notes is the details.  After all, descriptive usually means adding a lot of details to make the story vivid.  For this, there is no app (that I know of) that can help you.  The only thing that you can do is pay attention to the things around you.  Use all five of your senses, and then write them down later on.

As you can see, writing descriptive notes can be quite easy.  You only need the motivation and time to do it.

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