Start Your Business With $10,000 Or Less!

You think I'm kidding? I'm not. You really can start your business with $10,000 or even less. Here's how:

1. Start A Home Based Business. Cutting the overhead is the key. No office rent. No retail space. No triple net leases. And this isn't just for crocheting doilies. Very powerful, and very successful consultants run home based businesses. in all fields. Even a team of three or four professionals can very effectively operate from their homes. Phone and internet communications are so readily available, and so cheap, that you can easily work with clients and partners all over the globe.

2. Start An eCommerce Business. Selling on a website is waaaaaay up from a year or two ago. Online merchant sales are increasing 200-300% annually, with no end in sight. Sell anything, from silk ties to diamond studs to hand made doggie hats. (No kidding -- there is a big market for pet clothing!)

3. Start A Part Time Business. Like catering. Or pet care. Let it grow until you are literally forced to give up your day job.

4. Get Creative. Need ideas for a home based business? Here are about 50 of them. All are great ideas in the right hands.

Small is IN. Personal is IN. Creativity is IN. The huge impersonal behemoth of a startup is OUT. Now is the time that real people can capture a corner of the entrepreneurial market for themselves. NOW is YOUR time to start your business!

Women Entrepreneurs With Great Ideas -- Step Up!

Not quite ready to create your own business plan for your scientific idea? Does the notion of having a big company behind you appeal to you? Then there is a solution for you: Go to Kauffman Labs.

Kaufmann Labs is looking for women scientists and engineers with ideas to change the world. If you are a female, a scientist or engineer and living in the U.S., Kauffman wants to hear from you.

This is not a business plan competition. This is about letting breakthrough ideas be heard, and identifying the people who will make them a reality. No idea is too early stage and no dream is too big.

The winning woman will receive an all-expense-paid trip to TED 2011 in Long Beach, California, as a guest of the Kauffman Labs. The annual TED conference brings together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives. Kauffman Labs provides a new approach to developing the next generation of high-growth firms.

Business Plans For Top Businesses of 2011

Well, we've been saying it for quite some time now, so it is good to see that the venerable Wall Street Journal sees it too: recruiting firms of all ilk will be among the top companies as we nudge out of the recession.

The logic is obvious. Companies probably won't just rehire previous employees. The best will have found other jobs by now. And, honestly, most companies have changed dramatically the past couple of years. So as the companies grow, they will be filling new slots with new people. New skills will be needed. New energy will be essential.

And it is recruiting firms that are in the best position to find these new employees and contractors.

So polish up your business plan for recruiting, or your business plan for an employment agency. Be ready for a burst of growth as your niche kicks into gear.

This is one of the businesses that can begin relatively small, with only one or two people in the beginning. A recruiting business can even be started at home, especially since a lot of the work can be accomplished online and via phone. An employment agency will likely want a small office to start, and there are excellent offices available at record low prices right now.

The important part about starting this type of business is to position yourself in a niche that you know well. Don't try to be everything for everyone, or you will end up being nothin' to nobody. Target. Promote. It's a winner.