Since I began my time on this blog, I have (for the most part) always tried to take the optimistic view. And with good reason, as that's how I feel. You are going to succeed. It is not a matter of if, it is simply a matter of when. But I like my optimism with a healthy dose of pragmatism, and that's something we'll touch on a bit today. After...

We live in fast-paced world with plenty to keep you distracted. What's more, we evolved to crave the instant, the immediate response or sensation. It's an instinct to which society now caters nearly absolutely. The internet presents you with information at the click of a button, TV delivers on-demand content to your screen, and modern games are nothing but instant gratification. Financially speaking, credit cards deliver instant purchases with deferred...

This is going to be a touchy subject for some. I will do my absolute best to be as sensitive on this subject as possible, but I am not a perfect human being (none of us are), so I may inadvertently word something in a way that some might consider offensive. For this, I apologize. I assure you, it is not my intention. I would also like to add that...

I've spoken a lot about various personality traits over the course of my time writing this blog. It takes a certain kind of person to cast off the shackles of the 9-5 world and strike out on their own on the path to PIE. You need to be motivated. Confident. Professional. Intelligent. Creative. But one specific personality trait I haven't really touched on, and will today, is patience. And in...

I want to try a little experiment with you all. If you own a smartphone (and you should), pick it up, and go to your phone's application store (Blackberry App World, Google Play, Apple's App Store, etc). Now take a look at the most downloaded apps. More specifically, take a look at the prices. Notice anything? Apps generally fall into three categories. Free, which is, well, pretty obvious. Premium, which...

Hopefully, you don’t know what it’s like to be in prison and have your options tightly constrained by an outside agency. But that doesn't mean you don’t have any constraints. Laws, other people, responsibilities… these all constrain your actions by reducing your options for activity. And that’s a good thing – the restraints you’re under also constrain other people, ensuring that you’re protected from the actions of other people. There...

The title really says it all, doesn't it? There have been numerous studies done over the years that people are more likely to listen to someone who exudes an air of confidence. This is actually proven scientific fact. So it should be a bit of a no-brainer that this is something you should be doing at all times, to go along with your consummate professionalism, leadership skills, sense of timing, organizational...

There are a lot of choices available to today's entrepreneur. In fact, in many situations, the available choices can be so numerous as to be overwhelming. It's not uncommon to be stressed about making the best choices and wind up making a terrible choice. So how do you avoid that? After all, you do still want to make the best choice possible. The answer, it turns out, is to recognize...

When starting up a business and coming up with a plan of attack, there are numerous factors you have to take into account. Many of these have a dollar figure involved, such as operating costs, manufacturing, design, website upkeep, and so on and so forth. But there's one factor that I've noticed a lot of people don't take into account. For some, it's simply because it never really comes up....

For all I like to talk about social media and how it's a huge part of online marketing, there is some older technology out there  that can also play a huge part in how you market your business. I speak of course of the good old fashioned email mailing list. I'm sure you're all familiar with them. You only really need to take a look at your email inbox, and...