Business Information for Entrepreneurs by an Entrepreneur

What do the following countries have in common?

• Equatorial Guinea
• Bosnia
• Liberia
• China
• Myanmar
• Ireland
• Mozambique
• Armenia
• Vietnam
• Bhutan

This list, with the exception of China, may be a "Who's Who" of countries that barely make the news today.

However, according to The Economist, these are the top ten countries in the world with the highest economic growth between 1993 and 2003 as measured by the average annual increase in GDP. Equatorial Guinea's average annual GDP was the highest at 25.9% each year over that decade while Bhutan's was 7.1% each year over that decade. Everyone else fell somewhere in between.

By comparison, the United States average was 3.3% and the world average was 3.6% during the same period.

What does that tell you? While there are many factors that can contribute to massive growth (or average growth, or mediocre growth), the reality is that there's growth. Growth can mean opportunity for the savvy business owner, including:

• Construction
• Infrastructure
• Computers/IT development
• Helping entrepreneurs market to the world

You might not be able to find half of these places on a map but they do have money. Do some research on them and consider the opportunities.

Everything we do in business is sales. Even if you're just handing out your business card - what you say, the way you say it, the way you pass your card, and what your card says about you - are all parts of that process.

Does all of your sales material work for you? Here's an interesting way to find out.

http://www.glyphius.com/

Now, I'm not mathematician but this software is supposed to help you write better sales content. It analyzes the content of the sales message — whether its' a sales page, a website, or whatever — and assigns it an effectiveness percentage. Many of us are not writers and (to be honest) that's reflected in many websites. Business owners want to be perceived as coherent and well-spoken so they should use any tools in their power to create well-written and effective sales messages.

It's important to be on the lookout for trends so that you can plan for the impact they may have on your existing business or the opportunities they could provide for a new one. Trendguide projects the popularity of new products and ideas by conducting online polls. So you can see what's popular based on how other visitors voted.

Trends Ideas contains thousands of articles on various industrial designs, consumer products, and architectural trends.

Google Trends shows a little of their search trends, including some powerful information about search trends by city. In addition, you can compare two or more searches to see which is more popular. (For example, type “cat, dog” into the search engine and see the difference.)

Every aspiring business owner should bookmark and review FedStats. This site collects statistics from other government agencies and displays them in one place. Put your tax dollars to work for you by reading the stats, interpreting, and cashing in on them!