Now is the time for you to set up your own business. It really is. With the economy showing signs of slow recovery, and the job market changing beyond all recognition, now is the time to take the plunge – if you’ve always harboured the desire to work for yourself and generate your own income.

It doesn’t even need to cost you anything to get started. The rise of the internet makes this possible. In fact you can cast your net (to use a fishing analogy) and see what bites. You can even do this while working in a job if necessary. You might have an outside hobby or interest that you’re wondering if you could make any money out of.

Our top tip is create yourself a business profile on a site such as HotFrog. It is completely free and you can add searchwords and build your own business listing.  Follow the link http://www.hotfroguk.co.uk/ So if you’d like to try your hand at jam making, or buying and selling cameras or floristry or palmistry, you can do all this for free. Then of course if you start to get some responses it will tell you whether you have a viable business idea.

Never has the opportunity for starting out on your own been so good. Most markets are likely to get more buoyant so if you can build an effective small scale business model that works now, your prospects should grow over time.

Everyone has skills, things they’re good at. Now is the opportunity to tap into your entrepreneurial spirit and give it a go. Best of luck !

We should still be focused on how we can be going for growth in these challenging times – with help from these wise words.

I came across a quote from Theodore Roosevelt the other day, and while he may have said it in the last century, it still holds true today.

“In any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.”

This is a salutory lesson for all of us in these challenging times. To beat the recession, we may have to radically alter our business model, and the time honoured phrase “but that’s the way, we’ve always done it” no longer holds much credibility.

Be prepared to think outside the existing model. Talk to others, get opinions, listen to advice, get networking, have a coffee with like minded people. Whatever it is, get out there and do something. As Teddy R said doing nothing is the worst option, doing something and it being the wrong thing is still preferable. It provides learning and the chance to explore other ideas.

Tap into the intellect and creativity of others, and spend at least once a week with a blank sheet of paper and pen in the quiet working on ideas. It can be motivating and may give future focus for your business.

There are many ways you can gather great business growth ideas at the moment. And many of the best ones are free !

You are surrounded all day, every day by people willing to share their wisdom with you. So have a coffee with someone who has a business idea or a product or service that you could learn something from.

There are an increasing number of free seminars being run at the moment. Apart from a little time, what do you have to lose ? 

And networking meetings – a great device for meeting new people – some of whom will know of people who could benefit from your services. You may be thinking that you can’t devote regular time to a networking group, or you can’t afford it at the moment. However most groups are always interested in attracting new members so it is always easy to attend as a guest. You can even stand in for regular members often. This will merely cost you your breakfast.

So get out there and circulate and you’ll be amazed how many new ideas you can pick up easily.

Here’s something you don’t see every day : some funded marketing training from the Ideal Marketing Company of Market Harborough.

Our friends over at the Ideal Marketing Company are running a programme titled the Marketing Mentor which is aimed at owners and directors of organisations of small to medium sized organisations in the Leicester, Northampton, Market Harborough area. And the great thing is that on account of the government putting grants and funding money into training at the moment they have secured funding which means that you could end up with the training programme fully funded through Train to Gain.

Free marketing training – there won’t be a better offer than that this year will there ?! Whilst you’re welcome to register interest through us here info@associatedlearningsystems.co.uk , you can alternatively contact the Ideal Marketing Company back directly by following this link http://themarketingmentor.co.uk/?page_id=2 but do remember to tell them you saw details here at Associated Learning Systems – it may just get us a coffee !