Did you know that there are many types of businesses that are strictly regulated and controlled by the government?

(Once there was a lady whose great idea was to make croutons from her house. Needless to say, that didn’t last long when the inspector heard about it.)

If you think you’ve got an idea that’s going to make you big money, there might be a reason why everyone else isn’t doing it and that reason could be related to the law.

Examples on of when you may need a license:

FOOD LICENSE: As I mentioned above if you are going to sell food, you will need to license and register for hygiene and safety inspections. For many reasons most local government agencies are especially strict if you plan to handle food especially raw meat. Food licenses aren’t too hard to get provided you are willing to have your kitchen and products inspected at regular intervals.

DAYCARE LICENSE: An in home daycare will need a license. There are all sorts of courses to take and regular inspections to go through. If you ever wonder why there’s a shortage of in home childcare providers it’s because it’s so hard to keep up with the rules and make a profit.

ALCOHOL LICENSE: You will need a license if you plan to serve alcohol. Getting an alcohol license for your home, unless it’s for some kind of special event and the drinking is just incidental is pretty much out of the question. Alcohol licenses are subject to appeals from people who live near you. So unless your whole neighborhood is ok with it you may have trouble.

MEDICAL LICENSE: Anything medical will probably need a license. When I say medical, I mean doctors, dentists, opticians, and even vets. You might think it is a great idea to turn your home into an animal hospital, but you need to be qualified and licensed. Of course, if you’ve previously been a doctor, dentist, or whatever, then you shouldn’t have too much trouble getting licensed to do the same thing from home.

This just covers some of the most common businesses that need licensing. The best idea is to check your local laws and make sure your home- or small  business is properly licensed.

Web Server Guardian Anti-Virus Edition

I don’t want to alarm you but this message is really important! Your online business could be the next victim of this terrible virus. If you’re in a hurry, please just go straight to:

Web Server Guardian

Recently,  Jonathan Teng an online business owner,  got three of his web servers infected by a terrible virus called Gumblar. I’m not sure if you already heard about it or may be you’re one of the million victims out there but let me tell you quickly what happened to Jonathan’s sites.

In just 2 days, Gumblar spreads throughout his 3 web severs and infected 117 of his websites. His entire web business was severely hit overnight! He lost thousands of dollars in potential sales over a 6 day period.

Everyone browsing his sites using Chrome and Firefox got an alert message saying: “Warning: Visiting this site may harm your computer!”

(And those who were using other browsers didn’t get that message and got their PCs infected as well.)  Though he incessantly argued with his web hosting providers to help clean his sites, they didn’t care much about it.

First, here is a video showing how the Gumblar virus works

The video below shows that Websense Security Labs’ software has detected that the Fox Sports site has been compromised and injected with malicious code.

Fox Sports is a division of the Fox Broadcasting Company.  It specializes in the latest sports news and world sports updates. Fox Sports has an Alexa ranking of 330.

Their research shows that the site has been injected with two pieces of malicious code. One of them is the latest Gumblar campaign, and the other redirects individuals to a malicious web site, whose link was unreachable at the time of this alert.

The software has also detected that thousands of other web sites have been compromised by the latest Gumblar campaign. The Gumblar uses PDF and Flash exploits to run malware in order to control a victim’s computer. In addition, a script is executed to download malware.

Now, how bad was it for Jonathan’s sites then?

• He suddenly wasn’t making money at all from his sites.
• Years of hard work evaporated in a matter of days!
• His sites were blacklisted by Google and other search engines.
• His sites were propagating the virus to other PCs.
• His credibility was suddenly at stake and he was labelled a virus spreader!

That was one of the toughest nightmares he ever faced. You can watch how frustrated he was when that happened and also how he managed to secure everything back for good:

Web Server Guardian

This makes me realize how volatile our web businesses are! It could be making you a ton of money today, but in just a blink of an eye, they could be completely wiped out the next day!

This can happen to me and… this can happen to you as well!

I’m not wishing for this to happen to anyone of us but, prevention is better than cure! Taking precautionary measures to secure our web businesses is a real must if you do not want all our hard work gone into smoke! So I urge you to watch how Jonathan managed to solve this problem by using the Web Server Guardian and how you can do the same for your online business!

Check it out here:  Web Server Guardian

Note:  Jonathan Teng will also offer you a way to get hacker protection for your server or web sites, so watch out for that one too!

Originally posted 2010-02-04 15:59:18.

Today Charles Belmore, a reader of this blog asked me:

“I want to get involved in writing a blog also and I currently write a blog with WordPress, but it is very confusing for me to  make and I would like to try to get several  training materials or courses (hopefully ones that are free) that can hopefully assist me in making use of Word Press correctly. As a WordPress web master yourself, do you perhaps maybe know where i can find online tutorials to be able to do this? Thanks!”

And I thought, well maybe this guy is right and there really are more people “out there” that would like to learn more about how to publish their web content using WordPress.  So, here follows two tips — one completely free, but to quote Charles a bit, “a little more confusing” and that would be the with a link to a page on WordPress.org about how to getting started with WordPress and much more.  (This is absolutely free information.)

The tips that is much less confusing is called The WordPress ClassRoom. The pricetag for its massive and easy to understand video-lessons is just a one-time fee of $67 USD. If you feel that learning WordPress is a stressful and time-consuming chore, then do take a closer look at what Matt Wolfe has to offer.

The WordPress ClassRoom will not only guide you safely (with the help of 54 videos!) through the basics of installing WordPress on a domain of your own and tweaking it to improve its performance, but also show you how to use it in order to make some additional money, if that is want you would like to do.  And, he also teaches about how to get blog visitors…

(Included in his offer there will be custom made WordPress themes that you can use to get the appearance that you want for your blog.)

Matt Wolfe tries to help his students on a one-on-one basis whenever they need help. So, he is limiting his WordPress ClassRoom spots  to 200 or something like that. If you would like one of those spots with your name on it, it would be a good idea to act swiftly.

As Per Request: -The WordPress ClassRoom!

Originally posted 2010-02-06 19:30:10.

Fueling up for larger commission checks? Image: Pumping Fuel, by Michelle Meiklejohn / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

As a person who reads the Grass-Root Business Advisor blog I wanted you to get the chance to pre-join into a brand new program called Commission Seekers.

It is in fact a program that will be able to teach you all you require to be familiar with in order to make a terrific income online in as little as maybe 10 –15 hours of work per week.

This membership site directs its content to marketers and networkers that aspire to increase their commission.

It is also equally great for those people (newbies) that “just” would like to learn how to earn money online.

One advantage with this system is that it enables for you to collect leads for your own business… And, at the same time get an extra income stream. Would you like that? Then, read on!

Some of the advantages with a Commission Seekers membership will be access to:

• Live trainings and case analyses: How to earn good in a very time-effecive manner!
  
• Additional “impressive content” as how to generate quality traffic, build a website…
  
• Built-in prospecting techniques — allows you to collect leads to your own business!
  
• And, as a platium member you will get your hands on an advanced phone marketing service! – It is just like having your own personal tele marketing equipment.
  

In addition to it all, the ability to make up to $179 for every one of your referrals, which will be rewarded directly to you, instantaneously in nearly all cases.

You will really require to check this out and it is possible for you to pre-enroll at this point and doing so will not cost you anything. This will make it possible for you to make up your mind a little bit later about whether you would like to develop into a full-blown member (and affiliate ) and that way be taught how to increase your paycheck, or not.

The owner of this membership program is Bram Smith, an American Web businessman who is specialized in promoting on the Internet.

What can a guy like Bram Smith teach you?

• Copywriting… (He has worked as a copy writer.)
  
• How to make online website traffic deals  (He has experience of making traffic deals.)
  
• How to build large MLM organizations (downlines) He’s proven to be very able to do that!
  
• How he manages to minimize the time he spends with all this, in favor to family quality time    and outdoor activities…

I’ve had my eyes on some of his online business activities for some time now and my opinion is that this is certainly worth looking into.

- So, go join Commission Seekers right now (as a pre-enrollee) and take your time to thoroughly check it out.

Here is video showing a sneek peek of a Commission Seekers gold member back-office which I thought could be interesting for you to see:

- But, off course do contact me  if you’ve got questions:  Just write a comment on this blogpost or on Twitter!

Originally posted 2010-03-28 03:59:51.

You have to pick a business name that says something about you and your business that people in your target market will remember easily. It is in fact the very first thing your custormers will see!

- Here is a few business names ideas:

• A good basic idea is to use your last name followed by what you do. Like Walton’s Feed and Supply or Anderson’s Plumbing. You could also add the town where you live in to the name like Anderson’s Little Rock Plumbing.

• You can also leave out your name and simply because Little Rock Feed and Supply. This makes you sound like the first choice locally and will help target your local area.

• If you are going to be dealing with the big companies you may want to consider a more corporated sounding name. Think of a word to describe your business then add the word “consulting”.

• Sometimes creative business names are completely right. For example if you’re going for a trendier market you might want a less formal name. You may want to name your business after an animal, and use that animal in your logo too. If you don’t have a big marketing budget, this is a good way to get started branding your business. For example take Geico. They use that gecko lizard on everything. What do you remember when you think of car insurance?

• Try a short name. Take two or three words that describe your business then shorten them to make it one word. So you end up with IHOP (International House of Pancakes) this is a great way to express what you do without having long hard to remember name.

• And when nothing else seems to fit make up a name. Just play with your words until you come up with a name that sounds right and the best part is it will be completely unique to your business.

• Whatever you do make sure your business name is easy to pronounce, spell and remember.

• Once you have a few names picked out make sure you check to make no one else is using them. You don’t want to get your business started then find out that the name you want is taken.

If you want further help or assistance in finding the perfect name for your business or your business domain names then, take a closer look at this business name generator. Using a name generator can help you unleash your creative juices in a “brainstorming” process…

NOTE: The generator is an “incredibly powerful and complex program that will generate thousands of  business name ideas or company name ideas. Enter a little information about your company, product, or business and this program gives you hundreds of relevant business, company, and domain name ideas.”

Originally posted 2009-10-27 17:45:54.