For a couple days it became my hectic days since I got to make good preparation of English Competition for elementary in Mojokerto. If there was proverb said size is not matter, it might also happen to me and my friend Mr Alaik but in this case is not size that I am talking about but many number of members is not matter. I can say like that coz we gotta manage almost everything dealing with this competition.

A team which was formed seemed not run its function well. Well..actually I can't blame them cause they also have family and job to take care moreover most of team members are women. So..let it be, as long as the competition success, it will give us satisfaction.

There are some of important things that people should notice in starting business in order to get success in his/her own business. Learning from Leah Larson, young and successful business girl, it will bring you new wave of business era.

1. Notice a Niche

Try to find something that isn't exist yet, just like Leah Larson 17 years old girl who succeed to make magazine like Yaldah. As soon as the first issue came out from that magazine, word of mouth spread quickly and she soon had hundreds of subscribers. A business has to fill a need, and who's a better person to identify what you need than yourself?

2. Act on a Dream

The hardest part is to act on your dream, even when everyone else doubts you can do it. As a twelve-year-old girl like Leah and no experience in the publishing business, people had valid reason for thinking that it was impossible for her to succeed. But she kept her dream in mind and her goal in sight and moved forward, learning from her mistakes. Sometimes to everyone else your brilliant idea is just impractical and, well, just a dream. Believe in your idea and you can make it happen.

3. Value Time

Don't trust your memory any more, you have to make to do list just to know which priority task that must to do and spend on the most important task.

4. Network

Networking happens everywhere, not just at official conferences or business functions. Carry business cards, brochures, or samples with you everywhere. You never know who you'll meet at a dentist appointment, family party, or even in the grocery store. You may also meet someone who knows someone. Many people are eager to share their advice and ideas with you. Carry around a notebook to jot down the advice people share - it just might come in handy in the future!

5. Think Positive

I believe that thinking positive is the key to a successful business, or at least enjoying what you're doing. Realize that there will be challenges and setbacks to overcome, but they are just bumps in the road leading to your final goal. Keep your goal in sight. Whenever there's an option to worry or to hope for the best, definitely hope for the best. Positive thinking will bring positivity to you and your business, enabling you to succeed. When people see you believe in yourself, they'll believe in you too.

Who doesn't know this man..Bill Gates. Name who become inspiration to all people in the world. Let's just check some of his thought about business.

He's redefined wealth, technology, information and society. So what comes next? Watch out, 2999! This one may just repeat.

Few entrepreneurs survive the transition from start-up to conglomerate. Of those, only a fraction go on to lead their company past the billion-dollar mark.

And of those, only one man has directed a company to publicly traded worth of about half a trillion dollars - when compared to nations, his company boasts the ninth largest economy in the world. At 44, he may be the richest man in history, worth approximately $77 billion. He's also created more millionaires than anyone in the history of business, both directly through stock options ($10,000 invested in his company's IPO is worth $4.8 million today, the most successful stock of the century) and indirectly by making computers part of daily life.

When it came time for us to pick the "Entrepreneur of the Millennium," no one else even came close to William Henry Gates III, founder, chairman and CEO of Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft Corp.

Although he arouses as much animosity as admiration for his hardball tactics (there's even a book about his mortal enemies: Gary. Rivlin's The Plot to Get Bill Gates, Times Books), everyone, friend or foe recognizes Gates as the rightful Usher-in-Chief of the Information Age. It all started when, at age 25, Gates persuaded IBM to let him keep the rights to the DOS operating system they had him develop for something called the personal computer (he actually bought the program from another company and adapted it, with considerable retailoring for the PC). Thinking the program would be quickly replaced anyway, IBM agreed to pay for a license to use it rather than purchase it outright. Now Microsoft software operates 90 percent of the world's desktop computers.

Since then, Microsoft has increased its net profits at a rate of 40 percent per year, all while sticking its fingers in an astonishing array of pies, from an online entertainment magazine to cars (1 percent of all U.S. auto sales are now made through its CarPoint Web site).

"Gates and his partner, Paul Allen, were the first to realize that software was not just an adjunct of hardware, and that it would, indeed, ultimately prove more valuable," says Paul Andrews, author of a Gates biography and the book How the Web Was Won (Broadway Books). "This simple principle ushered in the Information Age faster than all the hardware advances put together. Gates was also a major force in standardizing the technology, with DOS spurring the PC boom."

Despite its vast tentacles, Microsoft is perhaps the only major corporation still run like a start-up, with simple lines of authority and its 31,396 employees organized into small teams with frugal budgets. Everyone pretty much has offices of the same size, no one has secretaries and the work schedule is whatever employees decide it needs to be to get their projects done. This entrepreneurial approach to leadership is Gates' hallmark. "We cannot think like a big company or we are dead," he has said.

Where will Gates go from here? In the next millennium, he may again redefine himself as a renaissance entrepreneur. "People have only begun to see the impact of his wealth on education medicine, poverty and social causes, a legacy that may overshadow his technological contributions," says Andrews.

In this interview with Entrepreneur feature writer Scott S. Smith, Gates discusses his management philosophy, career lessons and future as an entrepreneur of the next millennium:

Scott S. Smith: What hiring and managing practices most differentiate Microsoft from other companies?

Bill Gates: Hiring smart people has been the single most important thing we've done as a company from the very beginning. Paul Allen and I started out hiring our friends, but always with an eye to people who had a lot of passion for what they were doing and who were very, very bright. Our recruiting department works very hard to find the right people for our culture here. We also offer our employees a way to share in the company's long-term success and we encourage people to look around the company for new challenges. When you have smart people working for you, you want to keep them stimulated and engaged. We've worked hard to make that possible at Microsoft.

Smith: What do big companies do that small firms should emulate?

Gates: I actually believe there are a lot of areas where big business and small business can learn from one another. Large companies recognize that effective use of technology is a strategic weapon. This is an area where small business can be overwhelmed and, as a result, may not take advantage of the power of technology available to them. Small businesses currently sit in a very influential spot. Look at the great tools developed specifically for this customer segment. We've worked hard to develop solutions that allow small companies to worry less about technology and focus on their business and their customers.

Barisan - barisan pendekar entrepreneur semakin panjang berderet. Baru saja saya membaca lagi dan lagi seorang teman yang bekerja sebagai seorang profesional muda yang berprofesi sebagai project manager di sebuah perusahaan resign atau mengundurkan diri untuk lebih bebas berinovasi maupun mengatur waktu. Sungguh luar biasa, kekuatan yang menggerakkan mereka. Saya kita tidak cukup hanya skill saja yang di andalkan tapi butuh mentalitas baja untuk mengawalinya, terutama yang sudah ternina bobokkan oleh dunia kerja dengan fasilitas serta gaji yang sudah pasti tiap bulan.

Tapi lagi - lagi alam logika kita di hentakkan dengan kenyataan, ternyata mereka lebih sukses menjadi entrepreneur, lebih bergelimang dengan ratusan omzet milik kita sendiri tiap bulannya. Memang segala hal tidak bisa di ukur oleh kekuatan logika. There's something behind it who manage it.

Salam Dasyaatt......

Melihat perkembangan dunia usaha yang dari hari ke hari bulan ke bulan yang semakin ketat dan bertumbuh kembang, sejenak membuat saya sedikit terinspirasi untuk menuliskan ini. Seiring juga dengan munculnya para entrepreneur-entrepreneur baru yang semakin bertebaran di negeri kita tercinta ini yang seolah tiada henti memberikan inovasi dan kreasi dalam berkarya.

Terlepas dari itu, seorang entrepreneur ibaratnya adalah seperti seorang nelayan yang sedang menebarkan jalanya. Bisa jadi dia menebarkan jalanya di lokasi yang penuh dengan ikan sehingga dia tidak perlu susah payah untuk mendapatkan hasil.

Ada juga yang menebar jala lebih dari satu, dengan harapan satu jala tanpa ikan maka jala lain ada kemungkinan terisi, dst.......

Sebagai seorang nelayan..eh, entrepreneur tentu kita juga mengharapkan produk - produk kita bisa di serap oleh pasar dengan baik. Strategi pemasaran tentu saja menjadi salah satu tumpuan dalam hal ini. Tanpa adanya marketing stategy yang mumpuni, sebagus apapun produk kita tentu saja kurang dapat di serap oleh pasar (baca : orang yang tidak tahu produk kita).

Nah, pertanyaannya sekarang adalah bagaimana membuat jala yang menarik dan besar sekaligus di banyak tempat, sehingga banyak ikan yang di bawa pulang oleh nelayan ?

Anda bingung dengan ulasan saya ?
Semoga tidak

In a job market where the economy is strong and unemployment is low, finding qualified employees may be difficult. Think about the type of employees that you want to hire. The skill level and experience requirements you set will determine the best search method for you. You should consider recommendations from friends, family members, and business associates. You may also find help through professional, government, community, and religious organizations. Check your yellow pages under employment or career for more information.

Do you need someone to make deliveries or wait on customers? Try posting flyers at the local high school or college campus. Find out if local colleges and technical high schools have training programs in your business (e.g., culinary arts or computer skills).

Most prospective candidates do their job hunting on weekends. This is important to keep in mind if you decide to run a newspaper advertisement. Placing an ad in the Sunday edition of a local or national newspaper will allow you to reach a wider audience than you could reach with the same ad on any other day. Choose a paper that has a wide circulation, but remember to keep your target audience in mind. You probably don't want to run an ad for a party planner in a newspaper geared to financial planners.

You can start your search in the Sunday paper, but you may get better results from career-oriented websites. These sites are typically user-friendly and full of qualified job seekers looking for the right opportunity. Some sites can even manage your search by keeping a list of candidates you're interested in or not interested in, those you've contacted, those who've contacted you, and so forth--all with the click of a button. You can find a list of these sites by typing "job," "career," or "employment" into your favorite search engine. Most sites charge a flat rate for their services.

Are you looking for a project manager for your technical team? Do you need someone with experience and specialized skills? You may want to hire a professional headhunter or search firm to assist you in finding the right employees. If you want someone else to do the legwork for you (e.g., sift through resumes and conduct initial interviews), enlist the aid of a headhunter or professional search firm. Keep in mind, though, that these firms can be expensive. Most will charge a percentage of an employee's first-year salary as a fee. If you have a small business and funds are tight, you may be better off conducting your own search. The money you save can be used to attract new employees or hold on to the good ones you already have.

Beberapa komunitas entrepreneur seringkali mendengungkan adanya istilah zona nyaman. Entah darimana mereka mendapatkan istilah ini, yang jelas zona ini merupakan pantangan bagi mereka yang ingin lebih berkembang dari sebelumnya (baca : penghasilan lebih besar). Oleh karena itu banyak para pebisnis menyarankan untuk mulai menambah kredit usaha atau bahkan sampai keluar dari lingkungan pekerjaan tetap.

Sudah banyak para pebisnis yang mempraktekkan dan membuktikan ‘keampuhan’ metode ini (kebetulan yang saya baca dan saya temukan yang sukses saja), tapi lepas dari itu (menurut pendapat saya) kita tidak bisa semena-mena langsung melakukan metode tersebut karena jika kita melakukannya tanpa di dahului atau di barengi dengan persiapan yang bagus, maka ibaratnya seperti terjun ke jurang yang dalam dan terjal (memangnya bungee jumping ^_^).

Saat para pebisnis yang telah sukses membaca tulisan saya ini, mungkin mereka berpendapat bahwa saya lebih banyak menggunakan otak kiri saya dalam menentukan keputusan seperti itu, bisa jadi mungkin seperti itu. Tapi yang jelas, saya pun punya mimpi untuk menjadi pengusaha dengan omzet 1 milyar tiap bulan dan saya tetap focus kearah situ dengan persiapan – persiapan menjadi full TDA.

Bagaimana dengan Anda ?

Tulisan berikut bukan untuk memojokkan atau menghakimi seseorang yang berinvestasi lewat deposito tapi lebih ke arah sharing saja antara dua aktifitas berinvestasi keuangan. Saya tidak tahu secara pasti bunga deposito sekarang ini (sebenarnya bisa saja googling tapi Anda saja deh yang melakukan ^_^).

Yang jelas dari segi perolehan tentu saja bidang usaha mempunyai peluang pendapatan lebih besar dari deposito. Bukannya menggurui Anda tapi berdasarkan pengalaman saya di lapangan, ketika saya mempunyai uang katakanlah satu juta dan saya mempergunakan uang tersebut untuk kulakan barang untuk di jual kembali saya bisa mendapatkan laba bersih sekitar Rp.200.000 sampai Rp.250.000. Dan usaha saya itupun bukan saya lakukan sendiri atau saya sudah bagi hasil dengan orang lain.

Memang sepertinya menggiurkan sekali tapi memang begitulah adanya. Semoga Anda bisa mengambil manfaat dari tulisan ini.

Entrepreneur world can't be separated with negotiate actifity. Good negotiator means good price of product that we want to buy.

Here are some techniques to be good negotiator :

Don't talk too much. Be terse. The less you say, the less you reveal about your own position. The less you say, the more you can listen for weaknesses or opportunities.

Use the power of silence-it tends to make the other side uncomfortable. In fact, many would rather tell you where the treasure is buried than tolerate these awkward moments.
Be stingy with your concessions. It can really grind your opponents down. Make them work for their supper. They may tire or skip dessert, the appetizer or even the main course altogether.

If you must give, give just a little, and get something back in return-even if it's their agreement to take an issue off the table.
Be firm. No means no. As they say in the movies, "Resistance is futile." If you don't want to give a point, make your opponents feel like they just hit the wall. You will not be perceived as a jerk, so long as you offer a plausible explanation for your position.

Stake out issues that are non-negotiable.
This is classic. By framing an issue this way, you make it twice as hard on the other side. Before you even address their concern, they must first persuade you to entertain it.

Don't care too much. Desire is the fulcrum at the bargaining table. Persuading your opponents that their deal just ain't that important is the ultimate attitude adjustment.They will not pester you with unending demands if they sense you're 30 seconds away from blowing them off.

Keep things moving. Don't let your opponents backtrack on you. Once an issue is settled, it's settled. Be supremely efficient and businesslike. Your opponents must feel that your time is precious and that you do not suffer fools at all.
Play to your advantage. If you've got more experience, make sure your opponents know it. If you can crush them with your card file, drop a few names. If you know your opponents are in a hurry, take your time.

Stay focused. In detailed negotiations, mental stamina is a tremendous asset. Victory goes to the dogged. It's just like sports. Stay strong through the finish. The last person standing at the bargaining table is the one with the greatest power of concentration.

Luar biasa..ini satu kata yang bisa saya ucapkan saat ada seorang pesaing kue brownies di tempat saya. Selama ini saya tergolong cukup lumayan dan stabil dalam mengambil kue dari seorang teman untuk di pasarkan kembali dengan sistem konsinyasi di warung ataupun sekolahan. Dengan pengambilan sekitar 20 boks tiap harinya (dulu pernah sih 40 boks tiap harinya), ternyata ada seorang pemain baru yang mengambil atau order jumlah kue sekitar 4000 biji kue brownis tiap harinya.

Kalau dalam satu boks kue berjumlah 40 biji maka kalau di hitung dalam boks maka orang tersebut mengambil sekitar 100 boks tiap harinya. Kalau dalam satu boks keuntungan di dapat sekitar Rp2000, maka dalam sehari orang tersebut mendapatkan keuntungan sebesar Rp200.000/hari atau 6 juta dalam satu bulan.

Saya menganggap jumlah ini lumayan besar juga untuk pemain baru seperti dia. Penghasilan yang jarang di dapat dari seorang pegawai pabrik atau kantoran yang menghabiskan waktunya hampir seharian di tempat kerja. Sedang pemain baru tersebut cuma sampai siang saja...lumayan bukan ?