Despite the difficult economy — and in many ways because of it — entrepreneurship in America is alive and well. Take a look around you, on Main Street and on the Web. Even when unemployment is high and consumer confidence is low, there are new businesses opening as fast as others are closing. Many of them are being launched by people who lost their jobs and either didn’t want to, or could not, find another.

If you’re thinking of taking the entrepreneurial plunge, it’s important to know to what it takes to be successful before you make what could be the biggest financial and emotional commitment of your life.

Here are some ways to know if entrepreneurship may be right for you.

Are You Running Away from a Problem or Running Toward a Vision?

Some people feel they have no choice but to start a business when all they really want is to find a good job. A few of these so-called “forced entrepreneurs” may come up with the next big thing, but many don’t have the heart to be in a business for the long run. So do some soul-searching and figure out if you’re running toward a defining vision of your future as a business owner, or away from a problem. And if all you really want is a great job, you can learn how to find one much more easily than you can find success as an entrepreneur.

Do You Have Support?

Hillary Clinton was right. It takes a village — not just to raise a child, but to start a business. Before you start a business, you need to have a strong support network in place. It starts with your family. If your spouse/partner and children aren’t fully behind your idea, you have more work to do. If you can’t “make the sale” to them, how are you going to convince customers to buy from you, partners to do business with you, a supply chain to give you credit, and a bank to give you financing? Entrepreneurship starts at home.

Do You Have Deep Reserves?

Convention wisdom says you should have 6-12 months of living expenses in the bank to live on until your business becomes cash flow positive. That is not nearly enough. But most business failures happen because the owner runs out of cash, just at the time when in another few months they may have seen daylight. So have as much of a bankroll as you can to allow for unforeseen contingencies.

Do You Have Good Entrepreneur Role Models?

When you were a kid playing in Little League, what major leaguer’s batting stance did you imitate? Children always look for cues for modeling their behavior. Smart adults do, too. Look around your circle of family and friends for successful entrepreneurs and figure out what makes them tick. Do you have the same stuff? If not, can you get it? If you don’t know anyone personally who you can study, hit the library bookshelf and study up on people like Ray Kroc (founder of McDonald’s), Donald Trump, Walt Disney, Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates, Mary Kay, Howard Schultz (founder of Starbuck’s) and Michael Dell. Read their memoirs and biographies about them and understand the commonalities of all the greats.

There are hundreds of things you need to know how to do to be a successful entrepreneur, but the most important ones are these:

High Risk Tolerance: You have to be able to stare into the abyss of entrepreneurial uncertainty and not falter.

Excellent Salesmanship: You absolutely have to have at least a little Steve Ballmer in you to be successful as an entrepreneur. You may have the greatest invention in the world, but if you can’t communicate its importance to a variety of constituencies (customers, employees, suppliers, lenders), you’re not going to succeed.

An Independent Temperament: Entrepreneurs consistently go against the tide. They start companies when others are retrenching; they don’t care about being rejected time and time again; and they trust their gut.

Great Negotiating Ability: If you negotiate well for everything from a store lease to contracting services to website design, you’ll realize that every dollar saved keeps your business in business through the peaks and valleys of cash flow.

Emotional Intelligence: This is a term coined by behaviorist and author Daniel Goleman. “EI,” as it’s often referred to, is a set of skills that allows you to understand and influence the behavior of yourself and others. Being able to listen, reason with and persuade is different from being a good negotiator but just as important.

A good hedge against the risks of starting your own business is to start up while you still have a job that pays a regular salary and benefits. If you’re in a position to do that, you’ll have the best of both worlds. There are some simple Do’s and Don’ts that can guide you as you walk a sometimes fine line between your career and entrepreneurship.

Do’s

1. Do consider running your business as a part-time operation alongside your current job. This is a great model because you’ll continue to have income and benefits.

2. Do understand and follow your employment contract to the letter, especially if it makes reference to inventions and intellectual property (IP) that you develop as part of your job. Almost always, anything developed on company time and using company property belongs to the company. If you do not have an employment contract, you’re still not in the clear. Check the company’s Employee Manual for references to ownership of inventions and IP. No manual? Ask your Human Resources manager or someone functioning in that role to explain the policy.

3. Do set aside cash reserves from the income your startup creates that can sustain you when and if you decide to leave your job.

4. Do be as open with your employer as possible. In fact, if your business is not competitive with theirs, see if you can turn them into a customer or client. You may even be able to get your employer to invest in your startup, or allow you to hold equity in a joint venture. If you think you might go the route of having an employer as a customer, investor or partner, get input from a trusted advisor such as an attorney on how to proceed.

5. Do clear the decks. If you are going to do your day job and your part-time business, that doesn’t leave much time for non-essential activities. Decide what’s really important and dump the rest.

Don’ts

1. Don’t use corporate computers or email systems to send any emails related to your business. Even if you log into your webmail account to send email, you still have problems: you are using their property to further your own business, which could present a legal challenge later. They may have the right to read whatever keystrokes you’ve entered, even if your emails were not entered on the company’s email system.

2. Don’t feel pressured to leave your job as your business starts to gain traction. New businesses go through life cycles and some early wins do not necessarily mean you have a sustainable enterprise.

3. Don’t choose a business that doesn’t lend itself to part-time involvement if you can only do it part-time to start. For example, opening a retail food store can be an all-consuming endeavor. If you are not reachable and not hands-on at the beginning stages, you are setting yourself up for potential failure.

4. Don’t talk about your part-time business to other employees around the proverbial water-cooler. This could be construed as promoting your business on company time. The silence rule extends to discussions on company time with your employer’s clients and suppliers.

5. Don’t be afraid to take the leap to full-time entrepreneurship when the time is right. Running a business part-time can be partly successful, but unless you are going to be a passive investor, the business will grow only up to a certain point without the full-time commitment of the owner.

It may sound incredible but 90% of single men give up online dating after 3 months of trying. This gives the 10% that are not actually trying, and are having a good go at it, rich pickings of all the single women available to them. So where do these single men go wrong?

A free trial is exactly that

One of the first mistakes single men make when they start online dating is treating their free trial as a lifetime membership. A free trial means a free trial. You get to try out a few of the online dating service’s features to see what they offer you, but it isn’t the way to get yourself on a date.

Sending flirts

The problem with a free trial is the only form of communication you can have with another member of the online dating web site is by sending them a flirt. This is a good way to show interest in another single woman, and she will take it as you are showing interest, but to get her to start replying to your interest you’ll need to send her an email. Flirts and winks have a very low response rate, and is the reason why you get to send them on your free trial. If they were an excellent form of communication you would have to pay to use them.

An email shows another women that you’re confident, and want to start a conversation with her. That’s why she’s joined the internet dating service, to communicate with other single men. If a woman sees that another man can’t pay $25 for a months membership she’s not going to expect to be wined and dined on her first date.

Their online dating profile

When most single men set up their free trial they treat their profile as a free trial as well. Setting up a profile to start using the online dating service takes a few minutes. Setting up a profile that is going to show another online dater that you’re serious about online dating takes nearer to half an hour. The profile in a few minutes is a much easier option, and is the option that gets chosen over 90% of the time.

The easier option also includes creating a profile without a photo attached to it. Most single women won’t reply to an email to someone without a photo on their profile even if the single man has paid for a membership.

Conclusion

Single men need top pay for at least one months membership to meet another women at an online dating web site. These single women are waiting to be contacted, and they want to be contacted with emails that show you have a personality.

All of the short cuts to romance mentioned above just lead to single men not getting anywhere, which makes them think online dating doesn’t work then they give up.

It’s the same as meeting someone in a bar. Single women want to be approached, and then spoken too. Just showing interest from the other side of the bar wouldn’t get most single men a date.

At the end of the day dating will cost you money online and offline. $25 a month is a small price to pay if it means you’ll meet someone to spend the rest of your life with.

Men make this mistake in the real world all the time when they want to meet an attractive woman. Most of us start out naturally this way.

So what is this blatant mistake?

We tend to idolize beautiful or otherwise attractive women. We look past all the personality flaws for a moment or even forget to judge personality. Some of us simply freeze up in self-conscious astonishment. Some of us suddenly shower them with overboard compliments about their beauty or some other readily perceived quality.

Not here’s the real problem.

She feels this vibe from men at least ten times a day already. She’s bombarded with idolizing attention. That means whether she’s at work, out at the grocery store, or at a bar or social gathering.

So what do you do instead?

The first thing is to stop making attractive women feel like untouchable goddesses to you. This is a mental process that will take some practice but once done, you’ll be a more attractive man naturally.

First recall a woman in your life that is known to be attractive to the outside world. Yet, you clearly do not idolize her. You know her flaws and appreciate the various aspects of who she really is. You may even know she is deeply insecure.

This can be a relative, a sibling, a long-time female friend, or even your mother. Now recognize this consciously and then whenever you meet attractive women, consciously look for their flaws, too. Know that there are flaws and imagine them for the moment if need be. Ask yourself… “What will completely annoy or gross me if I hung out with her for a long time?”

Also, learn to see through the veneer that is her outside beauty if that is the quality about women that influences you. Try to visualize her underneath her makeup.

Try this exercise for a week or so consciously. I guarantee you’ll feel a perceptible difference.

Now what does this have to do with online dating?

The problem magnifies and deafens her to you even more. Because you can’t convey your voice and body language on most dating sites readily, the computer screen text looks completely like every other man hitting on her or virtually worshipping her.

Once you destroy that idolizing mindset, your communication online will become different and you will be looking for different things in a woman. This will make you recognizably different from all the clutter she sees in online dating.

The art of hypnosis, especially that of conversational hypnosis has become much less mysterious and much more widely accepted as the scientific community has started to accept the benefits of hypnosis techniques. For those of you who wish to learn how to hypnotize you will be pleased to hear that you don’t need any specific skills or talents – everything can be learned and taught.

Below you will find five easy-to-follow and effective steps that will teach you how to hypnotize almost anybody.

1. The person you wish to hypnotize must be relaxed and seated in a comfortable position. The surroundings that you and the “subject” are in should be quiet and reasonably dark – especially make sure that it is free of unnatural light. Ensure that you will not be disturbed by anything.

2. The next step to learning how to hypnotize is to instruct the subject to focus with all of their concentration on an object located on the opposite side of the room. Any object will do, provided it is not below the subject’s line of sight. Next, tell the subject how relaxed they are feeling and how heavy their eyelids are. The secret to this step is to use soft, relaxing and soothing tone of voice.

3. It is important to encourage the subject to breathe in a relaxed but deep manner. Instruct them to breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth. Each breath should be held for between five to ten seconds. Whilst this is occurring, constantly remind them how relaxed they are feeling.

4. Ask the subject to imagine his/herself walking down a flight of stairs in an expensive hotel or maybe even a palace. Stress the fact that these are no ordinary stairs, but are in fact beautiful, richly carpeted stairs that help whoever walks on them to relax. Tell them that with every step they descend down, they need to count down from ten to one. Constantly remind them that they are feeling more and more relaxed with every step they take.

5. Finally, talk positively to the subject about whatever was agreed on before they were hypnotized. This could be something like gaining the willpower to stop smoking or being more confident in business. The key here is to reassure the subject that they will succeed in whatever they are concerned with. After this step is complete, tell the subject that as you count backwards from five to one they will progressively wake up from their state of relaxation.

Congratulations, you now know how to hypnotize someone!

However, this form of more traditional hypnosis isn’t the most powerful as the subject is actually aware of the fact that they are being hypnotized. Instead, the techniques of conversational hypnosis are far more powerful. These involve hypnotizing people during normal conversation without them being at all aware of it. Although the steps I have shown you today that have taught you how to hypnotize are powerful, you would be advised to learn conversational hypnosis if you wish to master the art of hypnosis completely.

Meditation has many important benefits, and meditation and pranayama can help us live longer, happier and more productive lives. It is important to understand just what these terms mean, but first a few of the important benefits of pranayama and meditation.

• Meditation and pranayama can help improve breathing and reduce respiratory ailments.
• Meditation and pranayama can help to lower blood pressure
• Meditation and pranayama can help the organs of the body, like the lungs and the heart, work more efficiently
• Meditation and pranayama can help us gain control over the mind, improve memory and concentration.
• Meditation and pranayama can calm our thoughts, relieve tension and reduce feelings of frustration.

What is Pranayama? It would be wrong to call pranayama a technique, since the word technique tends to lessen the importance of this important practice. Pranayama is derived from two words – prana and ayama. Prana means “breath” and ayama means “dimension”, thus pranayama is a conscious way to breathe in order to achieve the desired results. The breathing cycle of pranayama is divided into three steps:

1. Puraka
2. Kumbhaka (divided into anta-kumbhaka and bahya-kumbhaka)
3. Rechaka

The first part is the puraka step. During this step the inhalation is slow enough for the practitioner to feel the air filling the lungs and nourishing the body. During normal breathing we do not typically experience this, since the breaths we take are shallow. During pranayama, however, we consciously attempt to fill our lungs completely and deeply, and we see our lungs expand to their maximum dimension. The inhalation is peaceful and complete.

Rechaka is the exhalation portion of the breathing exercise. The rechaka is equally slow and deliberate, and the practitioner will feel his or her lungs contracting.

Retention, or kumbhaka has two types – internal retention (antar-kumbhaka) and external retention (bahya-kumbhaka). The first one is very important, since it gives the alveoli plenty of time to exchange the oxygen the inhalation has brought into the lungs, and plenty of time for the lungs to take the carbon dioxide out of the lungs during the exhalation. It is important to retain the breath in the lungs in order to give them plenty of time to make this important exchange.

The normal volume of air exchanged during a normal breathing cycle is between 200ml and 300ml. However, with careful and conscious breathing during pranayama, it is possible to increase this volume of air up to as much as 500ml for a healthy adult practitioner.

During the typical pranayama session, the practitioner should chant the mantra “Om” for 10 to 12 seconds while performing the breathing exercises. The chant can be

The normal volume of air handled per cycle of breathing is measured and is around 200 – 300 ml. But with the watchful and conscious pranayama, it is found to increase up to 500 ml in healthy adults.

During the practice of pranayama, the mantra “Om” should be chanted for 10 to 12 seconds, while you inhale and exhale completely. This time can be extended depending on the comfort level of the practitioner.

In order to get a feel for the effectiveness of this technique, place your palm flat on your diaphragm as you start chanting and move to your

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mid chest and finally to the top of your lung.

Eat At Least 6 Mini Meals a DayFrequent meals tame the beast of hunger.Each mini meal should consist of a mix of lean protein and fiber rich complex carbohydrates! The key – controlling hunger shrinks your gut.

Embrace FatMaking the choice to buy and eat low fat foods is recommended. Best still, fat is filling and adds flavor to your meals, so it helps you avoid feeling deprived. But you can’t eat more than you normally would as fat free foods can pack on the pounds. Let’s face it – if you eat too much of the low calorie meals in a day,

you will still gain weight.

Cheat a LittleRepetitive meals can torpedo your diet – so cheat a little if you need

to on the weekend.

The occasional slice of pizza or a bowl of ice cream is good for your diet. It just breaks the boredom of the meals, and adds much needed variety and motivation. But make sure the next day, you get back to the normal routine of eating sensibly.

Don’t Slack OffEven if you don’t feel like working out, tell yourself you’ll do at least 10 minutes.

When those minutes are up, your endorphines will be pumping and it’ll be easier to continue.

Strength TrainingPerforming multi muscle movements at high intensities, and using a variety of repetition ranges stimulates maximum growth.

Why?

Because, those lifts involves larger muscle masses. Hence bigger moves like the squat release more of the key hormones that increase strength and muscle — and slash body fat.

Interval TrainingThis is an exercise that consists of periods of short hard exercise followed by short periods of recovery – which works better for fat loss.

It is far more effective than a diet of steady state cardio and it gets more results in less time.

Workout With A Pal or TwoThis is a great way to stay motivated but make sure the focus is on the workout, not on chatting about last weekend.

So partner up with someone to get help and get their success to rub off on you.

Not doing too much, getting enough rest and sleep

There you have it –the key here is to get your nutrition in order, then focus your workouts on brief, intense strength and interval training workouts that increase your metabolism for the next 24 hours. This is how to lose 10 pounds fast, and keep it off for good.

And you thought butter was bad for you? Silly people!

One of the most healthy whole foods you can include in your diet is butter. “What?!” I can hear many of you saying, “Isn’t butter bad for you? I thought margarine and spreads were better because they’re low in saturated fat and cholesterol?” Be not deceived folks! Butter is truly better than margarine or other vegetable spreads. Despite unjustified warnings about saturated fat from well-meaning, but misinformed, nutritionists, the list of butter’s benefits is impressive indeed:

Vitamins
Butter is a rich source of easily absorbed vitamin A, needed for a wide range of functions in the body, from maintaining good vision, to keeping the endocrine system in top shape. Butter also contains all the other fat-soluble vitamins (E, K, and D).

Minerals
Butter is rich in trace minerals, especially selenium, a powerful antioxidant. Ounce for ounce, butter has more selenium per gram than either whole wheat or garlic. Butter also supplies iodine, needed by the thyroid gland (as well as vitamin A, also needed by the thyroid gland).

Fatty Acids
Butter has appreciable amounts of butyric acid, used by the colon as an energy source. This fatty acid is also a known anti-carcinogen. Lauric acid, a medium chain fatty acid, is a potent antimicrobial and antifungal substance. Butter also contains conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) which gives excellent protection against cancer. Range-fed cows produce especially high levels of CLA as opposed to “stall fed” cattle. It pays, then, to get your butter from a cow that has been fed properly. Butter also has small, but equal, amounts of omega 3 and 6 fatty acids, the so-called essential fatty acids.

Glycospingolipids
These are a special category of fatty acids that protect against gastrointestinal infections, especially in the very young and the elderly. Children, therefore, should not drink skim or low fat milk. Those that do have higher rates of diarrhea than those that drink whole milk.

Cholesterol
Despite all of the misinformation you may have heard, cholesterol is needed to maintain intestinal health, but is also needed for brain and nervous system development in the young. Again, this emphasizes the need for cholesterol-rich foods for children. Human breast milk is extremely high in saturated fat and cholesterol.

Standing in direct opposition to all of these healthful qualities stands margarine and assorted “vegetable oil spreads.” While these may be cheaper, you’d never eat them again if you knew how they were made. All margarines are made from assorted vegetable oils that have been heated to extremely high temperatures. This insures that the oils will become rancid. After that, a nickel catalyst is added, along with hydrogen atoms, to solidify it. Nickel is a toxic heavy metal and amounts always remain in the finished product. Finally, deodorants and colorings are added to remove margarine’s horrible smell (from the rancid oils) and unappetizing grey color.

And if that is not enough, in the solidification process, harmful trans-fatty acids are created which are carcinogenic and mutagenic. What would you rather have: a real food with an abundance of healthful qualities or a stick of carcinogenic, bleached, and deodorized slop? Some of you might be watching your weight and be rather hesitant to add butter into your diet. Have no fear. About 15% of the fatty acids in butter are of the short and medium chain variety which are NOT stored as fat in the body, but are used by the vital organs for energy. (Fats you should watch, though, are all vegetable oils and olive oil.)

When looking for good quality butter, raw and cultured is best. This might be hard to find, however. Organic butter is your next best thing, with store-bought butter being at the bottom. Remember what we’ve said about commercially-raised cows; its worth a few extra cents to get high quality butter for you and your family. A brand of butter available in many markets is Anchor, imported from New Zealand. In this country, all cattle are grass-fed, thus insuring a high nutrient content of their milk, butter, and meat.

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