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I think a lot of people have false ideas about what entrepreneurship is all about. Apparently, so does Carol Roth. In her book, The Entrepreneur Equation: Evaluating the Realities, Risks and Rewards of Having Your Own Business, she lays it all down for anyone considering starting a business. Roth covers all the reasons people want to start a business:

• Itll make me rich
• I want to be my own boss
• I want to do more of what I love
• I can work when and where I want

Then she essentially shatters these myths. Think youll be your own boss? Think again. You have to answer to your employees, customers and vendors. Getting rich? Very few strike oil in their first year (or three).  The book is designed to scare the bejesus out of you, and if you finish it without screaming off into the sunset, you just might be cut out to be an entrepreneur.

The Honeymoon Period

Roth covers what she calls the honeymoon period. T

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Everywhere you turn on the interwebs people will give you advice about getting found in Google. One of the keys to being successful is to ensure you have links coming into your website. Thats a pretty tall order when you consider the web grows by leaps and bounds every single day.

There are many tools that have been created to help you with this task. One of them is the Link Builder tool created by the good people at WordTracker. I havent tried this tool, but it looks like it may be helpful with reaching your link building goals. Right now they are offering a risk-free 7-day trial of Link Builder if you want to take it for a spin.

Ken McGaffin, the CMO of WordTracker recorded a helpful webinar on How to Build Links To Your Website that would be worth your while to watch. Ive included it below so you can see what hes talking about.

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Low-rate cards are not just more simple, but they can even be cheaper than 0% cards!

Anyone who gets a 0% card and then sticks with it after the introductory deal expires will typically pay around 18% interest thereafter. If you can’t picture how expensive that is, let me tell you that it is a very expensive debt indeed!

Yet there are those who can’t be bothered to hop around from card to card, chasing the best interest rates all the time. They just want a single, fair rate for both purchases and transfers, with no fees, combined with the usual benefits of a credit card: the ability to borrow and repay flexibly.

And those are just some of the benefits that low-rate credit cards can offer. Another is that low-rate cards can be even cheaper than 0% cards, but I’ll come to that later.

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Daily deal site BuyWithMe is offering this week. The city is Houston but you can use them nationwide. This isn’t as good as previous deals, but if you’re going to watch those summer blockbusters at non-matinee times, these can still save some bucks. Selected fine print:

Limit 1 voucher per person; limited quantity available. Valid for 2 tickets with a value of up to $13 each; all Fandango fees are included in the price of your voucher. If two tickets exceed $26 prior to entering your promo code (for IMAX and 3D), you will be responsible for paying the difference in price. Promotional value expires 09/22/2011

Last decade, it was all about going green to differentiate your company in the hearts and minds of consumers. Today, it’s social entrepreneurship that’s the nice new thing that can make your company stand out.

The 2010 Edelman goodpurpose global study (PDF), found that 87 percent of American consumers expected businesses to consider societal interests at least as much as their own interests. And 62 percent said that it was no longer enough for corporations to give money to good causes; they needed to integrate those causes into their businesses.

Edelman cites declining trust that the government can solve our social issues as one explanation for this call to businesses and individuals to step up. In its March/April brief, TrendWatching suggests that practicing Random Acts of Kindness is a winning strategy for businesses. While this may seem like the kind of thing only big corporations can afford, there are many small businesses taking advantage of this cultural shift to differentiate their businesses and make a difference in their communities. (We

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1. “Complaining will cost you dearly.”

When Richard Laermer and his partner moved into a Manhattan co-op, his next door neighbor invited them over to dinner. “We had a lovely wine-infused time,” recalls Laermer, a PR executive. But those good times didn’t last. A few short weeks after breaking bread, Laermer left a Post-It note on the neighbor’s door asking if her kids could be quieter in the mornings. The neighbor responded by cutting off all contact.

Falling out with your neighbors can mean more than just uncomfortable meetings in the hallway or front yard, added stress and sleepless nights. A bitter neighbor has the power to block renovations that could improve the value of your home and sue you over anything from a barking dog to street parking. When Laermer, for example, wanted to change the position of his apartment’s front door to create an alcove, his neighbor threatened to sue because it would infringe on her privacy. “It would have added $75,000 to the value of our home,” he says.

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I don’t know about you, but a few years ago, I noticed an alarming trend.  My family sees a lot of movies in the summer.  At an average of about $65 per visit for our family of four, that’s one hell of an entertainment expense.

Why the movies? Well, three or four hours in air conditioning. You see, most of us Northwesterners don’t have air conditioners installed in our homes.  On the few days that it’s so hot that we don’t want to be home, we head for the cool dark air of our local cinema.

If you’re working on getting out of debt, it goes without saying that films arent the best place to be spending your time or money.  The key to surviving summers hottest days without succumbing to costly entertainment options is to have a plan.  We found that keeping a handy list of what we could do on the warmest days kept us from falling prey to convenience.

We created a go-to list of places to hang out when it’s too hot to be home.  Here’s a sample of

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Many investors participate in futures trading, the markets especially future. This type of treatment is widely used because of greater liquidity on the market. Often, the actual delivery of products is rarely taken at the conclusion of the contract period. You need to know more about this type of investment and trade, if you want to be succeeded.

Futures contracts are not cash income, they have a limited lifetime. Simply put, this means that as a buyer, you consent to pay a price at a date fixed for the underlying commodity. Gains and losses are based on the actual price and the fixed price consented. The operator will forward a small fraction of the underlying market, in general 10-15% margin. This is not a deposit, it acts as a performance bond. Read more…