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The law of supply states that the quantity of supply is related to price. So of course the smaller the supply the higher the price. When we deal with the law of demand we have the opposite effect, the larger the supply the lower the price. This is a simple enough rule but often one that is ignored. When you first start looking into what type of business you would like to start you need to consider this rule. Otherwise you could find yourself in a business that has too much competition for too few customers. Or maybe it is going the way of the horse and buggy and becoming extinct.

When considering a business to start you need to determine what the existing demand is for that product or service and also whether the demand is growing, beginning to level off or in fact already declining. One way to tell is by how many new businesses have entered the field within the last few years. You will also want to avoid seemingly hot businesses where you might find yourself entering the field late. When a market is new and growing it is easier to get in on it but if the field has already become saturated with new businesses then you’ll probably be squeezed out.

A good example of supply overcoming demand is the microbrewery beer business. While this is still a strong business for existing companies it has been much harder in recent years for new businesses to enter the field. But at one time it was a lot easier as the trend was just catching fire in the United States. Many entrepreneurs opened pubs and launched beer labels during the 1990’s with great success. But eventually the market reached that saturation point and new businesses began to fail.

Supply and demand also covers many other aspects of business that you need to consider. The space you lease for example. Hot shopping centers will be more in demand and will cost you more to get in as a result. Wages in a particular industry are subject to change based on the market.

When you consider introducing a new product to market you have to consider the possibility of there being a demand shortfall. This situation would occur if the demand that you projected there would be isn’t realized when your product of service is introduced. All of these factors related to supply and demand will have an impact on your business whether now or in the future.

The law of supply and demand can be seen as the great equalizer in business. If you enter into a business with not enough demand you are likely to fail. Whether you are starting a new business or launching a new product or service. Finding out exactly what the demand is as well as the current supply for the venture you are considering is critical to your ability to succeed. If you do not you may find yourself a victim of the law of supply and demand.

Cash Miller is an experienced entrepreneur and speaker who has spent over a decade as a small business owner. His years of experience in small business cover a variety of topics. If you are looking for more small business help please check out http://www.smallbusinessdelivered.com

Is your email inbox a mess?

I learn a lot about a person from a glance at their email inbox or file management system. I recently worked with a client whose email inbox was, quite frankly, a mess. I define ‘mess’ by one or both of the following: too many unread messages and/or messages that are never deleted. If you fall into either of these categories, you are not alone. However, failure to delete your emails or at least create and move them into folders puts you at risk of missing out on potential new business. Worse, if you allow your messages to pile up without reviewing them, a lack of response may signal to existing customers that you’ve forgotten about them. It is not uncommon to receive 100 or more emails in your inbox in the course of a day’s work.

Here are two simple rules that can help you manage the high volume of emails.

RULE #1: Read the email once and file, flag, delete or reply.
RULE #2: Delete emails that do not contain important information.

Are you bewildered about file management?

It’s equally important to keep the files on your computer organized and up-to-date. The goal of computer file management is to ensure that you can always find what you’re looking for, even years after its creation. What good is all your hard work if you can’t find where you stored your file?

These file management tips will help you keep your files accessible:

1. Organize by file types. Make applications easier to find by creating a folder called Program Files on your drive and keeping all your applications there. For instance, the executables for Word, PowerPoint, QuickBooks, and WinZip should all reside in the Program Files folder.

2. One place for all. Place all documents in the My Documents folder and nowhere else. Whether it’s a spreadsheet, a business letter or a PowerPoint presentation, make sure to save it there. This will make it easier to locate your files and to run backups.

3. Create folders in My Documents. Having trouble naming your folders? Envision your folders as the drawers of your computer’s filing cabinet. Use plain language to name your folders. Otherwise, you may be looking at this list of folders in the future and wonder what ‘rtm’ or some other invented abbreviation means. Create file and folder names that are meaningful to you. Keep business and personal folders separate.

4. Nest folders within folders. Create other folders within these main folders as need arises. For instance, a folder called ‘invoices’ might contain folders called “2007″, and “2008″. A folder named for a client might include the folders “customerdata” and “correspondence”. The goal is to have every file in a folder rather than having a bunch of orphan files listed.

5. Follow the file naming conventions. Do not use spaces in file names, keep file names under 27 characters, and use all lower case. So a file named for a client should be “susansmith” rather than “Susan Smith”. If you break any of these rules, be consistent about it.

6. Be specific. Give files logical, specific names and include dates in file names if possible. The goal when naming files is to be able to tell what the file is about without having to open it and review. So if the document is a letter to a customer reminding him that payment is overdue, call it “overdue091207″ rather than “letter”. This allows you to know to whom the letter was written without opening it.

7. File as you go. The best time to file a document is when you first create it. So get in the habit of using the “Save As” dialogue box to file and name your document. Put it in the right place in the first place.

8. Order your files for your convenience. If there are folders or files that you use a lot, force them to the top of the file list by renaming them with a “1″ or an “aa” at the beginning of the file name.

9. Clear out your files regularly. Sometimes what’s old is obvious as in the example of the folder named “invoices” above. If it’s not, keep your folders uncluttered by clearing out the old files. Do NOT delete business related files unless you are absolutely certain that you will never need the file again. Instead, in your main collection of folders in
Documents, create a folder called “old” or “inactive” and move old files into it as you come across them.

10. Back up your files regularly. Whether you’re copying your files onto a flash drive, a disk, or an online storage site, it’s important to set up and follow a regular back up regimen. Protect your files from loss due to viruses, hackers, and damage.

Save often but know where you’re saving. There is a place for everything and everything in its place.

Digital Coach, Robin Matuk addresses the needs of entrepreneurs and business owners looking to maximize the use of the Internet to build, manage, and grow their businesses. Check out her website My Digital Coach and her blog Creating with Impact.

In designing new business models from successful tests, respect is the most valuable currency you can use with stakeholders. Providing respect begins with asking for and listening to reactions to what you are thinking about doing . . . before you make a decision.

In many cases, respect will also mean making major changes in the direction you finally choose to reflect the reactions of stakeholders. Should you make such changes to respond to what you have heard, you must be sure that all stakeholders realize why you made the changes, and why these changes serve everyone better.

But before launching those discussions, you would do well to identify business models that maximize the benefits of stakeholders cooperating with each other, while minimizing the potential conflicts. That sounds easy to do, but is actually quite challenging. Here are some helpful steps to take:

(1) Test each potential business model for how rapidly it will grow the pie of benefits for all stakeholders as compared to the costs they will incur and burdens they will carry. Most companies look only to the financial results for the company, without considering the costs to and rewards for other stakeholders.

What is being suggested here is to look at the potential financial results last, instead of first. For example, many new business model ideas require extraordinary sacrifices in time and effort by partners, suppliers, employees, and distributors. While people are often willing to make such sacrifices, it is unlikely that they wish to do so permanently. Give them a business model that requires that sort of permanent sacrifice, and the foundation of your company’s support will erode over time.

A better choice would be a business model that provides sustainable progress relative to competitors without extraordinary sacrifice. In the long run, the financial results for the company will also be higher from choosing this path.

(2) Consider how the better business models can be further improved to provide greater benefits and lower costs for the stakeholders who will be least advantaged.

For example, it may be that your business model choices will mean that the place where rewards will grow fastest is through ownership in the company. In that case, you should look at more ways to spread the benefits of ownership to more stakeholder groups than just the current shareholders.

Or, a business model may mean that employees have to make by far the greatest sacrifices. Can these sacrifices be reduced by relying more on partners and suppliers? If the community is going to be disadvantaged by needing to cover major dislocations in employment from a new business model, can the focus and timing of the business model’s implementation be shifted to reduce those burdens?

In any case, is there some major new beneficiary of the new business model who should be asked to share in supporting the investment in bringing the model into existence?

For example, Cytyc’s Pap smear test is much more expensive to provide than the old test. The company was able to encourage physicians to use and insurers to reimburse more for the new method, even though it took a little longer and was priced higher, because of everyone’s appreciation that the ultimate solution was better for every stakeholder group. This improved sharing of economic resources allowed Cytyc to make the test available faster to more women than would otherwise have happened.

(3) Evaluate business models for how well they eliminate the appearance of conflicts between the interests of different stakeholder groups with each other and the company. A business model can be perfectly fair, but if it seems like it isn’t, that reality will be undercut by the misperceptions of unfairness.

Many companies now suffer from a perceived split between the interests of executives and the rest of the company’s workers. A firm may have large layoffs and salary cuts, while the top brass receive large salaries, bonuses, and stock options. Reductions in employment costs may be necessary. How can the pain be spread equitably? How can the resulting benefits be shared fairly?

(4) Eliminate any business models that will have destructive, long-term impacts on any stakeholder group.

If after making all the improvements you can think of, someone will still feel or be victimized by the new business model, you should not even propose it. To do so undermines your moral authority to help set a path that everyone can be excited about supporting.

Before you give up on a potential business model, be sure to think through your choices one more time. A leading oil and gas producer once decided it couldn’t make certain changes to leave certain businesses because so much unemployment would follow. The economic value of each job lost to the company through this change was over five million dollars.

Upon more consideration, the company realized that if it was much more generous in sharing part of that five million dollars with those who lost their jobs, everyone could come out ahead. Most of the employees involved could not expect to earn more than another $500,000 from those jobs during a normal career.

Older workers might be just as glad to get enriched pensions and retire earlier. Younger workers might welcome the opportunity to get substantial education, retraining, and a salary while they were getting ready for a new career.

Upon further investigation, a suitable way of making the business model shift was developed that was welcomed by the affected employees, many of whom saw their careers and retirements blossom in unexpectedly positive ways.

(5) Look for and share the most exciting overall purpose behind each business model.

Surveys show that many people today find that their work fails to provide the meaning they want. As a result, volunteers are often attracted to organizations like the Girl and Boy Scouts, Habitat for Humanity, literacy groups, the Salvation Army, and the Red Cross that serve important humanitarian concerns. One of the best psychological rewards any company can provide for stakeholders is to be part of such a heart-warming humanitarian purpose.

How can an ordinary business attach that significance to what it does? You have to begin by looking more closely at the implications of what you do well.

Southwest Airlines offers low fares to passengers as part of its business model. The company’s stakeholders have been encouraged to think of this service as a way to bring families closer together and to allow people to see parts of the United States they could not otherwise afford to visit.

Rather than seeing a plane full of low-fare passengers, a Southwest flight attendant is likely to be pleased by thinking about helping people on their way to reunions, birthdays, and weddings. A shipping company could think of itself as providing timely delivery of products and parts needed to make life run smoothly and safely for everyone. A publishing company could see a role in advancing knowledge and human progress. An entertainment firm could see itself as enriching the lives of those who have few material benefits and the morale of all. A retailer could see how its offerings allow customers to enjoy a better quality of life.

After you have considered such implications, you next need to reexamine your business model choices in order to refine the models to better match your most appealing purposes. In making these adjustments, feel free to ask stakeholders to tell you what purposes would be most exciting to them.

Feel even freer to ask how the company’s direction could be shifted to enhance that excitement. In listening to this feedback, however, be sure to constrain yourself to what your business models can actually deliver. For many people, idealistic directions that are highly appealing may led to blind alleys for the company and its stakeholders, because the company is not yet in a position to accomplish the necessary improvements.

Donald Mitchell is an author of seven books including Adventures of an Optimist, The 2,000 Percent Squared Solution, The 2,000 Percent Solution, The 2,000 Percent Solution Workbook, The Irresistible Growth Enterprise, and The Ultimate Competitive Advantage. Read about creating breakthroughs through and receive tips by e-mail through registering for free at

http://www.fastforward400.com .

The average home-based worker will lose their free work at home job within 3 weeks. Free work at home jobs are highly competitive and most candidates lack the most essential skill needed to keep their job the ability to network like a madman.

Its important to understand that free work at home jobs do require some investment. Even if you managed to avoid setting down any initial capital for your work at home job you will have to invest time and effort into marketing and promotion if you want to uphold it.

Im not talking about placing a banner on your blog, but real marketing, the kind that takes getting out of your comfort zone and getting in front of people.

It doesnt cost a lot to network for your free work at home job, nor does it take hours, but it does take time. However, think of it as a necessary investment. Do the hard work now, so you can save a lot of time later.

People who have built huge lists, business owners who make a substantial amount of money from their free work at home job, didnt get to where they are by hoping that others would eventually find them.

No matter the industry or at the type of home-based business you operate you need to be able to sell yourself.

Freelancing, for example, is a great free work at home job that you can start if you have the skills. However, most people who start this type of career are out of work within a year. They just dont have the go-getter attitude it takes to keep their business afloat.

You may be thinking there are plenty of free work at home jobs where I dont have to sell myself. But in reality these types of jobs pay about as much you spent to get the job.

Free paid surveys for example are a home-based job that people with little money turn to. While you may earn 10 dollars here and there for taking surveys, those who have made a real income with this free work at home job usually join the affiliate program offered by the company, and that takes some form of promotion.

Hobbies dont pay; businesses do. But if youre fearfully attempting to earn a living with your free work at home job then all your operating is a hobby. You are never going to earn the kind of money youre capable (which can be millions online) unless you get out of your comfort zone and start making an effort to network.

Sign up for forums related to your free work at home job. Respond to posts you read online. Join social networking sites and regularly participate in them. Make it a point to attend at least two events each month and go with business cards.

Networking is fun, it doesnt cost a lot and its the greatest thing you can do for your free work at home job.

Jeff Casmer is a leading legitimate work at home expert and is a work from home business owner. His “Top Ranked” Free Work at Home Jobs Directory gives you all the information you need to Work at Home in the 21st century.