Entrepreneur Magazine has released its list of the top 500 franchises for 2011.  If you want to start a business but the home business route isn’t for then this list may help decide where to go. According to the article the franchise landscape has reflected the general economic one which has resulted in some shakeups to this year’s list.  Some of my favorites are Dunkin Donuts, Subway, and 7 Eleven (notice a trend?).  I am surprised at the number one pick.  Check up the full list here and leave me comment and let me know which franchise you would be interested in opening (and why).

From knitting to skydiving, most of us have an interest or hobby that fills us with enthusiasm. Your passion may be the key to extra income or an entirely new career; many businesses–small and large–began with an enthusiast who turned a passion into a profitable enterprise. Leveraging a passion for profit may take some initial time, effort, and strategic thinking; but you have the advantage of expertise in your product or interest to carry you forward. Here are four ways in which you can turn your passion into cash:

1. Sell it

If other people love your handcrafted articles, you may consider selling them locally or online. Local outlets include home sales or demonstrations, fairs, shows and conventions, or retail businesses that accept articles on consignment. There are also a number of websites that sell handmade articles; they generally charge a small fee for posting the article, and/or a percentage of the selling price. For these, good photography is necessary.

2. Teach it

It is often more profitable to teach other people how to make things than to sell the things themselves. You can hold classes at your home or at a local community center. You can also look through the catalogs of community colleges and high school districts to see if they offer courses in your field of interest. If no instructor’s name is given, it is possible that the organization has not yet hired someone to teach the subject and there is a job opening for you. You may be able to demonstrate your passion at a special event and teach a short introductory lesson to encourage people to sign up, or have your products available for sale.

3. Write about it

If you’re good with words, writing about your passion may be profitable. Magazines and websites like to publish well-written, lively pieces that demonstrate how to make attractive or useful articles, or get started in a leisure activity. Professional-quality photos will enhance your written work and make it more likely to sell. Another way to use the written word to make money from your passion is through blogging. This is a long-term strategy, as it takes time and persistence to build up blog traffic. The key to successful blogging is clear, authoritative writing, authenticity, consistency (posting frequently at regular times) and being responsive to people who comment on your blog posts or ask questions. Money can be made through blogs either by selling your own products or by attracting advertising revenue.

4. Team up

Finding a business partner whose passions complement yours can be the start of a whole new synergy. This could be someone who offers similar products or services to your own, so that you can effectively double your output and share administrative tasks. Or it could be someone whose product or service can be used in conjunction with yours. Look out for possible partners online, at trade shows and at your local retail outlets, and take your time to find the right fit.

Louise Baker writes about online degrees for Zen College Life. She most recently wrote about getting an online criminal justice degree.

Historically October is usually a bad month for the stock market. Today is the anniversary of the crash in 1929 the led to the Great Depression. And back in 1987 the Dow took another nose dive in October. This year, the October crash happened to my motivation. Yes this month was a tough one. I still managed to produce quality blog posts, but it took alot to get them out. And I got concerned. This blog and it’s mission is my passion and I never want it to  feel like its a chore to do this work. Fortunately, I decided to write about difficulties and posted an article titled Staying Motivated is Bitch. I got some really positive feedback from that post and it has reignited my engines.I’m back to having fun trying to help people figure what’s the best best opportunity for them. I decided to make another post about being motivated because I’m sure I’m not the only one facing this battle. For this article I thought I would be good to give a boarder perspective on how people can stay motivate to achieve their goals. Here’s a few videos that I think offer solid advice:

How To Stay Motivated to Reach your Goals

How to Stay Motivated or Inspired to Reach any Goal

How to get Motivated and Stay Motivated

Jonathan Sprinkles-Getting and Staying Motivated Pt.1

First off, let me apologize upfront for my use of profanity. It’s not something that I make a habit of in my professional life. But there is a point where you just have to keep it real. It’s tough to stay motivated when you’re trying to build a business. I haven’t posted a business review in weeks. Posting unbiased business reviews was whole point of this blog. I wanted to help people find legitimate business opportunities. I’m still committed to that goal. So why haven’t I posted in weeks? Because of all the other crap that goes on in life that takes time and focus away from doing what I love to do. Just the back office stuff I do for the blog takes up so much time. Stuff like SEO and marketing work, looking for other blogs to build friendships with, and a host of other things that little to with researching top business opportunities.

And then there’s all the offline stuff that goes on around you. Family issues, job issues, personal issues—just issues, issues, issues! Who has the time work on your business and work out, or hang out with friends, or just relax and chill out?  And all of these ‘distractions’ serve to sap your motivation from your project because you may feel, like I do from time to time, that you’re not getting anything accomplished with respect to your business project. From time to time that quite voice of doubt that whispers in the back of your brain gets louder. And unlike other times you actually to start to wonder, “what am I doing this for? I’ll never make big doing this?” Or, “why am I wasting my time?” Sometimes the things you tell yourself to keep motivated just don’t work.

1. Realizing that this is only temporary.
2. Realizing that I can make through if I continue to believe in myself.
3. Finding a way to channel positive energy.

 Thousands of Home Businesses Are Started Every Year And Most Of Them Fail Within The First Two Years. Don’t Become Another Statistic.

After years of researching various ways to make money from home I have become convinced that the high rate of failure for home businesses has more to do with the types of busunesses people choose rather than the businesses themselves. What I mean by this is many people choose a home business for reasons like how much money they think that can make or how easy it might to run that business while maintaining their full time job. While these are valid considerations they have nothing to do with whether or not they will be successful in that business.  Every theory on being successful in life has at leadst one common theme: Build your business around your passions and success will come to you. Your passions are who you are. They help to make up your personality. So all of those people that fall for the marketing hype and go after whichever home businessses are popular for moment, are setting themselves up for failure. If you want to avoid making the same mistakes thousands of people make each year then you have to find businesses that match your passions and are suited to your personality. I can help you find those businesses. Let me you a little bit about myself.  

 Are There Any Legit Home Businesses?

A few years ago I decided that I wanted out of corporate life. It just wasn’t for me anymore.  I wanted to make a living doing something that I was passionate about, which was helping people.  But like many of the other ‘wage slaves’ I still needed a steady income to support my family. So I started looking for something that I could do part time to bring in additional income.  I’m sure you can image what I was confronted with; hundreds of sites promising to make help me GET RICH QUICK WITHOUT ANY KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, OR MONEY TO INVEST. All of this while I sat back in a beach chair and waited for the mailman to bring me checks.  I knew these were scams and  I paid little attention to them. But I was amazed at how many sites were dedicated to these types of marketing scams. What was even more amazing was the number of "legitimate, unbiased" review sites that promised to give fair and balanced information and they turned out to be another marketing ploy.  

The AHA Moment

But even staying away from the scams I still found little success with the ‘legit’ part time ventures I tried.  Things like eBay, Network Marketing products, and one on one computer coaching. I even tried being a real estate investor at the height of the real estate boom. And although I had some successes (I made some money) I never felt like a success. It was frustrating because I saw other people not as talented as myself making money doing the same things I was struggling with and I couldn’t understand why.  And then I had my AHA moment! I was still trying to do things I was not passionate about  and I did not suit my personality.  I realized that in order to be successful I had to find something that felt right to me. Something that I was so passionate about that I would do it for free. Shortly after that realization I started my blog, the Home Business Private Eye. And I stated helping people to find and start their own home businesses.  And now I ready to take it a step further. 

I’ve This Heard It All Before

Right now I’m going to stop because I can image what you might be thinking. "Yeah, Dakim, remember those hundreds of Get Rich Quick sites you mentioned earlier? Well, I’ve visited them too. And I’ve heard all of the promises that they make. And right now, you’re starting to sound alot like them!" Let me tell you what I am NOT trying to do here:

• Make you rich overnight
• Give you a secret formula that only the richest of people know
• Sell you a product, real or electronic, that you have to then turn around and sell to other people.
• Get you to join my team and then have you go out and get others to join your team. And so on, and so on.

No, what I am offering is much more simple.  I’m offering to help you find the types of business opportunities that your personality is suited for. Why is it important to find a business opportunity that matches you personality? Think about your life. I’m sure there are things that you can do well but you have no real interest in them.  It could be a sport or an activity like cooking. It could even be the job that you hate but it pays the bills.  Now really think about these activities.  Do you excel at them? The answer may very well be yes.  But I bet that it takes effort to accomplish this.  Probably more effort than you really care to give. And I also bet that you get bored or frustrated with these activities quickly.  The reason this happens is simple, they don’t suit you personally. Now there are people you may know that can do the same activities from sun up to sun down and love every minute of it.  They make it look effortless. These people are not abnormal.  Everyone has some skill or interest that they possess that they are passionate about.  The ‘secret’ to being successful is to match these interests with the ability to make money doing them. And that’s where I can help you.

The Home Business Private Eye Business Matching Service.

Like I stated before the Home Business Private Eye site is about helping people find and start their own businesses.  The site gives truly unbiased reviews of business opportunities and a host of other resources to motivate and educate a would be entrepreneur.  The Business Matching service I am introducing takes it to the next level. I have developed a questionnaire that will help me to find the type of business opportunities that match YOUR  personality and interests. And when you are truly passionate about what you are doing you have a much better chance at excelling at it. Now, you may have come across other services that seem similar to what I am offering. Let me point few unique benefits of my service:

• This is not ‘feeder’ program for a particular service or product. I am not trying to steer you to one service or another. I do not benefit financially from any of the matches I provide to you.
• This is not a computer generated match service. Just don’t match you with whatever businesses are in your zip code. I handle all of the matches personally.  So it’s an organic match
• Each match is based on your unique responses.   

And probably the best feature of this service is that I’m introducing it at a very low price,  $49.95 $25.00 (Limited Introductory Offer for the 1st 100 customers) for 5 matches.  Why only $25? Because I am trying to gauge the market demand for this service. Believe it or not, there aren’t many services like the one I offering. In fact, I couldn’t find one the does it exactly like I am doing it. If you know of one please let me know about it. I want to offer the best service that I can so I would like see if there is something that someone is offering that I am not. So until I can get a better handle on the market, I’m offering to match you for a very nominal amount. To take advantage of this great offer all you have to do is click on this link to the Questionnaire Page and fill it out.  Once I receive your questionnaire I will analyze it and begin searching my database of businesses to find your matches.  You should receive your matches in your email inbox with in 3 business days. That’s it.  The rest will be up to you.

Normally, Friday posts are reserved for something fun and light. But after the lost of entertainment legend Michael Jackson, I think it’s better to take the time to honor Michael and to illustrate an important lesson. This post is part tribute and part teachable moment. 

No One Did It Better

The best way to celebrate the life and career of such an icon like Michael Jackson is to appreciate what he accomplished.

 Start With The Person In The Mirror

If this blog accomplishes nothing else, I will consider it a success if I can say that I helped my readers to make changes in their lives.  But no amount of information I bring to the table is going to help you reach your goals, if you don’t first commit to making the right changes in your life. The majority of people that say they want to own their own business never follow through because the don’t change their minset or their behaviors. I will delve into this more in a future post. I don’t want to stray too far from the main point of this post… R.I.P. Michael Jackson.

Replay the video and listen closely to the lyrics.

I’m starting with the man in mirror. I’m asking him to change his ways. And no message could’ve any clearer; if you want make the world a better place take a look at yourself and make that change.