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The Changing Course Newsletter
Issue 105 December 8th, 2004
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The free newsletter from http://www.ChangingCourse.com
Dedicated to helping you:
~ Live Life on Purpose
~ Work at What You Love
~ Follow Your Own Road
In This Issue:
1. Featured Article: Hot Small Business Ideas and Trends for 2005
2. Great Gift Giving Ideas
3. Guest Article: Take Responsibility for Your Life
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TODAY’S WISE WORDS
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If you don't risk anything, you risk even more. ~ Erica Jong
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1. Featured Article
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Hot Small Business Ideas and Trends for 2005
By Valerie Young
By far my favorite issue of Entrepreneur magazine is their annual “hot list” of best businesses, markets, trends, and ideas. The list is too long to summarize in a single article so instead I’ve featured a few of the more interesting ideas. I’ve also added my own two cents here and there including some additional business ideas to help jumpstart your imagination.
Hot Business 1: eBay Drop-Off Stores
Like all the examples cited here, this idea grew out of a problem. For example, lots of people would love to sell their unwanted stuff on eBay but they don’t have the time, digital camera, technological know-how, or patience to do so. Solution: eBay drop-off stores that take the hassle out of selling on eBay. For a percentage of the selling price, store owners take care of the photography, product description, and financial transaction.
Val’s Two Cents
Unless you live in or near a city you probably haven’t run into an eBay drop off store. With franchises like QuikDrop cropping up, you’ll probably see these stores in suburban areas soon.
This opens up an opportunity for people living in these areas to get there ahead of any franchise. And since the volume wouldn’t be worth a big operation in relatively rural areas this presents a niche opportunity, particularly for the customer service-oriented individual who is willing to pick up items at clients homes.
Hot Business Idea 2: Financial Planning
There’s nothing new about financial planners. What is new is that the baby boomer generation is entering retirement (all 77 million of them). Survey’s show relatively few spend any significant amount of time planning to live out their old age in comfort. This same generation will also have to make decisions about handling money from inheritance. Although there is competition out there, the article says those who are willing to provide the kind of service baby boomers demand can do very well in this field.
Val’s Two Cents
National Public Radio featured a story about how the average person (myself included) is baffled by the array of mutual funds into which to invest their 401k retirement savings. Plus as the economy shifts, few know what, if any, investment shifts they should make. Overwhelmed, many choose to do nothing.
The show told about an enterprising company called Financial Engines that offers objective third party advice and portfolio management to employees and individuals. Since the company does not receive any commissions on investments, their advice is free from conflicts of interest. After an initial analysis they’ll make investment recommendations and monitor your portfolio four times a year.
Financial Engines mostly serve corporate clients like J.C. Penny’s, Aetna, or 3M where interested employees can opt to pay half a percent of assets for the service. Individuals can also sign on for as little as $39 a quarter depending on the level of service they select. I was intrigued (not to mention number-impaired) enough to sign up myself.
It’s an interesting business model for current financial planners or anyone interested in becoming one. And it’s a great example for all of us of how a company saw a problem and found a unique way to solve it.
You can listen to the original NPR segment at
http://www.NPR.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4136179 or visit http://www.FinancialEngines.com
Hot Business Idea 3: Teen Hang Outs
According to the article, “Teens across the nation, especially those far from metropolitan areas, are starved for hip places, and the opportunity for entrepreneurs is huge.” Step one is to figure out what makes the teens in your community tick and then give them what they want.
Hot Business Idea 4: Niche Health and Fitness
Anyone can join a gym. But the reason the fitness franchise Curves has seen such explosive growth is that they offer something busy women want, a 30-minute workout in an environment that isn’t a meat market.
Other niches include options that allow the whole family to work out as a group, options that include alternative health practices like yoga, acupuncture, and massage, and even health, healing, and fitness options for animals.
Val’s Two Cents
Another trend some of you may find interesting is corporate support for your goal of mind-body fitness. Balance Bar is currently accepting applications for grants to help support your passion for mind/body sport or other physical activity.
Grants provide financial support for enthusiasts and amateur athletes over the age of 18 who prioritize balancing mind and body and vary in sums ranging from $500 to $10,000 depending on how much you request.
Using the online application you’ll need to explain how a grant from Balance Bar will help you better integrate your mind and body. In addition you’ll need to send in two photographs showing yourself participating in the proposed mind/body activity.
The upcoming application deadline is January 17, 2004 for the grant period from March 10, 2005 through March 11, 2006. For specific grant guidelines go to http://www.Balance.com/grants/rules.asp
Hot Business Idea 5: Products and Services for Seniors
It wasn’t until Julie Ruhlander took care of her elderly grandmother and aunt that she realized how hard it can sometimes be for seniors to dress themselves. When you’re older or otherwise physically challenged, pulling something over your head or putting your arms back to get something on that opens in the front can be difficult or even painful. So Ruhlander started a catalog company called Clothing Solutions that offers front and side opening clothing as well as modesty jumpsuits for Alzheimer’s and dementia patients prone to undressing.
Here’s another interesting problem-solution. At 50 I’m blessed to have not one but two grandmothers living! One has a house full of antiques.
At least once a week she vows to bring her old coins, antique dolls, vintage clocks, and the like to a local auction house to have appraised. At 92 though she doesn’t get around all that well, so the likelihood of this happening is basically nil.
Do you hear opportunity knocking? I do. So did antiques hobbyist Karen J. Martin from Farmington, Connecticut. Karen started a business helping seniors take inventory of, appraise, and liquidate their possessions.
Val’s Two Cents
The aging population is a huge trend in the U.S. Anything that helps aging Boomers either feel or look younger, or that makes the lives of seniors or caretaker children easier, has the makings of a winning business. To flex your entrepreneurial muscles, try generating a list of at least 10 business ideas that address this trend and population.
Hot Business Idea 6: Kids Plus-Size Clothing
According to the National Center for Health Statistics 16 percent of children and teens aged 6 to 19 are overweight with another 15 percent considered at risk. So it only makes sense there would be a growing market for trendy plus-size clothing for kids.
Enter Ruth “Penny” Smith the mother of an overweight child who often complained to his mother that he couldn’t find hip clothes that fit. Recognizing an opportunity when she saw one, Smith teamed up with her former boss (I love it!) to launch http://www.HeyMomItFits.com
Val’s Two Cents
With most trends you can further zero in on a particular trend of demographic group to find an even more unique and potentially lucrative niche. For example, what kind of unique products or services might you offer obese Latin or African Americans? What about new mothers who are having difficulty taking off weight? Or plus-sized travelers? Two very cool examples of the later are Freedom Paradise, a size-friendly vacation club in Mexico, and Big Adventure, a company specializing in scuba diving excursions for XXL sized people.
If you’re serious about escaping the job world and creating the life you really want, you’ll need to start tuning into the opportunities all around you. One small step you can take this minute is to subscribe to Entrepreneur or another magazine aimed at small business owners. You’ll find a large assortment, including Entrepreneur at MagaZania at http://TinyURL.com/5ypuh
If you’re not ready to subscribe then at least pick up the December 2005 Hot List issue of Entrepreneur. Use the complete list of hot businesses, markets, trends, and ideas as a springboard to start actively thinking about how you too can realize your dream of changing course.
Off the beaten path career counselor, Valerie Young, abandoned her corporate cubicle to become the Dreamer in Residence at http://www.ChangingCourse.com, offering free resources to help you discover your life mission and live it. An expert on the Imposter Syndrome, she’s presented her How to Feel as Bright and Capable as Everyone Seems to Think You Are program to over 30,000 people. Find more articles written by Valerie at http://www.ChangingCourse.com/articles/
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12 Great Gift Giving Ideas for the Holidays!
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Help yourself or someone you love “change course” this holiday season with these great gift ideas… including gifts for under $35!
1. Making Dreams Happen Audio Program
http://www.ChangingCourse.com/makingdreamshappen.htm
2. Mark Victor Hansen’s Building Your Mega Speaking Empire.
http://ChangingCourse.com/recommends/mvhspeaking
3. Barbara Sher’s “Dare To Live Your Dream” Audio Program http://www.ChangingCourse.com/yourdreams.htm
4. Sign up for a Personal Creative Career Consultation with Valerie Young http://www.ChangingCourse.com/careeradvice.htm
5. Mark Victor Hansen’s Mega Book University http://ChangingCourse.com/recommends/bookuniversity
~~~~~ GREAT GIFTS FOR UNDER $35 ~~~~~
6. Finding Your True Calling
http://www.ChangingCourse.com/findcalling.htm
7. Yes You Can! http://www.ChangingCourse.com/yesyoucan.htm
8-9. How to Feel As Bright and Capable As Everyone Seems to Think You
Are: What Every Woman (and Man) Needs to Know About Competence, the Impostor Syndrome, and the Art of Winging It Handbook or CD http://www.ChangingCourse.com/impostor.htm
10. Ten Steps to Escaping the Job World and Creating the Life You Really Want (CD). http://www.changingcourse.com
11. Winning Ways: How to Profit from Your Passions http://www.ChangingCourse.com/winningways.htm
12. The Caretaker Gazette: Live Rent Free http://www.ChangingCourse.com/caretaker.htm
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INSPIRATION TO FOLLOW YOUR BLISS
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The biggest mistake people make in life is not trying to make a living at doing what they most enjoy. ~ Malcolm S. Forbes
If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door. ~ Milton Berle
The thing you set your mind on is the thing you ultimately become.
~ Nathaniel Hawthorne
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3. GUEST ARTICLE
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Take Responsibility For Your Life
By Anne Chile
One of the most important ingredients in your personal development is taking real responsibility for your actions. This requires consciously becoming the cause of the results you desire. Responsibility is a choice; the more responsibility you bear, the more personal independence you enjoy. The key you require to gain this personal independence is accepting full responsibility for your own life. When you take up the challenge of inserting this key in the portal to your ultimate freedom, you not only gain liberty, but control over your life also. Your future can be all you want it to be. You were created to achieve absolutely anything and provided with remarkable powers especially for this purpose. To reach your full potential, you need to take responsibility for your actions in meaningful ways.
Often in life, when things don’t go the your way, as a normal human reflex, you are likely to blame someone else. The "blame game" goes back to the beginning of man’s existence. Relinquishing responsibility for your actions, and therefore your results in life, and casting the blame for failures and mistakes on other people, is a hostile behavior known as “Scapegoating”, an age-old trend found in almost every social context, which can bring about at lot of misery and anxiety. Your beliefs and thoughts form your circumstances. Casting blame is guilt dispersion in which you display the wish to be absolved from culpability, especially when you feel your behavior is unacceptable to the world or to yourself. Blame casting is an outlet often used in an attempt to avoid punishment for defective behavior and is responsible for mistrust, dishonesty and other negative emotions. Learn not to act on every emotional urge. It’s not "his fault, her fault, their fault or its fault"; your life is your responsibility. Acceptance of responsibility for the actions you take leads to thoughtfulness, less impulsiveness, and ultimately, better results.
In taking responsibility for your own life, and consequently, responsibility for good or bad results you achieve the only person you can blame is you. Blaming others for your failures is foolishness; it puts you in a mental prison of your own making, which can be far worse than a physical one. The torment endured there can destroy almost all of the attributes of a meaningful life: your self-respect, relationships, health and your ability to function as a normal human being. If you find yourself in such a place, escape is possible. Responsibility is the key to the prison doors. It’s within your reach.
You can’t change one iota of another person's life, but you can change yours. When you become accountable for your own life, blame is eliminated and this frees you to fling the prison doors open wide.
A major cause of unhappiness or frustration is imagining that someone will come along to "rescue" you, to solve your problems. However, believing your happiness is in your own hands gives you enormous power. Don't wait for events or other people to make you happy. If something is wrong, don’t respond with "Something should be done about this! Who is going to do it?” but rather think, "What can I do?" Your attitude can have a tremendous impact on life. The remarkable thing is you have a choice in every situation; what attitude will you embrace?
You cannot change your past; you cannot change the way people act. The only thing you can do is play the instrument you have, and that is your attitude. Life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you react to it. Practice consciously setting the intention for your actions. When you do this, you take the time to actively and thoughtfully choose what you desire. Clearly, this is essential for growth and happiness.
Anne Child started her own Internet business, Life Stepping Stones, in 2004 from a desire to inspire and encourage others to create reality from their dreams. Having followed a Pharmacy career for 27 years, and working in natural health promotion for 10 years, she progressed into Personal Development. She has now branched out into Internet consultation on health and lifestyle. You can find her online at http://www.LifeSteppingStones.com
live life on purpose 
