Lately I have been feeling a bit bored with life. So today I just really want to find some extra excitement, without getting into too much trouble of course.

Only the day will reveal what kind of fun and excitement will come my way, but I am hoping to get into something just a little bit risky maybe. So here are some things I could try to spice up my time today just to get me started:

• Go run in the pouring rain for 3 miles (OK, maybe that is just crazy!)
• Go on a stakeout – I would love the thrill of waiting to catch a criminal in the act.
• Turn the lights out and watch a really scary horror flick up close to the big screen TV.
• Go explore - Drive around the town to discover new places. There are still tons of areas I have not seen in my town, and I have lived here almost 3 years now.
• Find a new way to make some money – It is always exciting to make money, especially when you discover a brand new way.

How about you all? What will you do today to build some excitement? Leave some comments, I love to read them all!

Today I will try to learn the most I can about Microsoft Excel. Using Excel can boost productivity in your personal life or business world exponentially. I have already found one spreadsheet online that will keep track of stock investments automatically through the net and formulas.

I want to be able to create new spreadsheets that will take care of my budget, do my checkbook, track my bill schedule, and maybe even shoot me email reminders about paying those bills.

Being able to create Excel Spreadsheets can become a way of earning passive income as well. If you create one that has not been created yet (which I don’t know if it is possible to do), then you might be able to sell it online and collect royalties. Those are payments to you that never stop coming as long as people are buying.

That is my goal for the day. I don’t fully expect to become an expert in one day, but merely learn the basics that will probably spark a new interest for me to keep building on my knowledge.

Has anyone out there made some money from Excel or other spreadsheets? Tell us your story by commenting below, and as always, thanks for reading.

Day 10 – How to market your business.

There are several methods to market your business or e-business. The two main categories are online and of course offline. In this article, we will discuss a few points about each method of marketing.

Let’s first discuss the online method of marketing.

There are several ways to market you business on the Internet to drive tons of customers your way. Online marketing has a unique advantage over offline because it offers cheap instant advertising that you rarely find in the offline world.

Here are a few ways to get it done:

• Build a website- Many brick and mortar stores and businesses create websites to handle orders and customer service, but you could also use it to market to new potential customers.
• Buy ad space on popular websites- Find similar types of businesses on the web and purchase ad space on those sites. Some of the most popular ad services are: Google Adwords, Chitika, Adbrite, and Yahoo publisher’s Advision.
• Sponsor contests- Use your company’s name on contests around the net. You will have to provide the prize or money to the website holding the contest.
• Forums- Post questions and answers on your trades online forum. Do Not blatantly spam these sites or they will kick you right off! But, there are ways of gracefully working in your business name.
• Service directories- There are online directories that exist solely for the purpose to display companies and what they can do for you.
• Email- Make sure you display your company’s name and info on every email you send out, the rest is viral.

There are many other ways to market your business on the Internet that I didn’t discuss here today, but that should get you started. Now let’s look at the ways to market outside the web.

Offline Marketing methods:

• Vehicle stickers- Slap a magnet or sticker to the back window showing your company’s name and info on it. This can work pretty well depending on how much you drive, the traffic amount near you, and how creative you can get with it’s design.
• Pens, stationary, and letterhead- Make sure you display company info on anything and everything you can. You could even hand this stuff out at a trade show, everyone loves free stuff.
• TV, radio, and magazines- These are all very expensive generally speaking. There are ways to cut cost such as time of day, low cost stations, and choosing a smaller size advertisement. Also, Google Adwords offers a relatively cheap local radio advertising option.
• Billboards- Again, this method is very expensive but effective. People love to read things as they drive due to boredom. Come up with a creative billboard ad and you could drive thousands of customers to your company.
• Sponsor sporting events- You don’t have to sponsor NFL games or the like, just start with small venues like your local high school football game.
• Product placement- This is another method that will cost some real dough, but you will get good results. This works well for gadgets and technology firms. Basically, you approach a television program and ask for the chance to include your product on a popular TV show. For example, if you sell a new CT scan machine, maybe you would ask the powers to be from the TV show “House” to include it on the next episode. They would get a realistic prop, and you would get your logo out there.

Ideally you will want a mixture of online and offline marketing to create the perfect campaign. Test and try different methods to see what will work for your particular business.

Day 9 – The art of the sale.

Chances are that if you are starting a business or are already a seasoned veteran you will soon need to learn how to make a sale. Even if your business is online only, you will probably still have to make a sale at some point, including the sale of your website someday.

The first thing to remember when making sales is that you need to be prepared for rejection, and a lot of it! It is how you receive the rejection that will matter in the long run. Here are a few tips to cope with sales rejection:

• Don’t take it personally- Chances are, the buyer (or non-buyer) doesn’t have anything against you personally, they just weren’t interested.
• Believe in your product- If you believe in your product, rejection will be brushed off easier. You believe your product is the best, and settle for nothing less as you move on to the next potential buyer.
• Welcome rejection- If you expect rejection, it will be easier to take when it comes. It’s like hoping for the best but preparing for the worst.
• Learn from rejection- Use each instance as a learning model. What could you have done better in the sale? What strong points and weak points were there? Learn and make improvements.
• Know your rejection rate- If you know how many rejections compared to sales your field typically gets, then it will be easy to believe that you are one step closer to the sale. Think of it as knocking out all the rejections to get to the sale.

When you go into a sale, know your product in and out, this way you will have complete confidence in the sale. Remember that most of the people you are selling to will have to see a need for your product, so create that need any way you can, just stick to your morals though.

Practice! Practice! Practice! Like anything else, practice makes perfect. After years of sales, it will come as second nature, just stick with it.

Read! Read! Read! There is no way I can give you all the tips or facts here for the art of selling. Head to your library or Amazon.com and start reading on sales. A great start would be the “Little Red Book of Selling.”

Remember, no matter what happens with you as a salesman, it is not the end of the world if you don’t make the sale. Keep trying, and you will get it right, good luck!