Having your own business is a great ambition to work toward. Many people dream of having their very own rewarding enterprise so that they can enjoy the perks of working for themselves. Owning a business of your own can create the freedom you have always dreamed of, but it is a lot of hard work and determination. Being your own boss means having to put a lot of long hours in, especially in the beginning. Coming up with the finances to get your business going can be a challenging prospect. Assuming that you are not paying out of pocket for your strat up you’re going to want to create a great business plan to get the attention of possible investors. Your first bet personally is to make sure that you are fully cleared of any personal debt; business cash advances, student loans and credit cards. The reason being that owning a business takes a lot of money and if you are already in debt, I’m sorry to say, but it most likely will not work out for you. This venture will require you to know and understand how to manage funds properly; it’s one of the biggest parts of a successful business. Actually it is the only part to a successful business in the end. If you’re not bringing in the money, then you can’t stay open. There are many types of different businesses out there, and some cost less than others, but whether you are an actual store front business or an internet business, you will need some form of advertising. Next to having start up money, proper advertising is the greatest factor in your success, without it, how will people know you exist? Location is also an important aspect in getting business, but we will focus on the advertising portion today.

Once you are firmly in place with your financing options, you will want to focus on a good marketing scheme, whether you hire someone to do it or do it on your own, is your own choice, but hiring a marketing agency could help you save with time, and believe it or not money in the long run. Marketing firms understand what it takes to make a business successful, I’m not saying you don’t, but if you put your money in the wrong place, you’re the one that ends up losing. Some things in life are better left to professionals. These professionals can take care of everything from logos, to business cards, to ad prints, to TV. commercials or radio ads. They usually also offer some pretty

innovative ideas to the overall picture of your success. If you were a business student, you are quite familiar (or should be at least) with the world marketing and advertising, even just as an entrepreneur, you should have the basic knowledge of the concept. But in case you don’t (I highly doubt) it is essentially the process of selling, promoting, and distributing your product or service. A good marketing and advertising strategy is the key to your ultimate success. It is the foundation upon which you will begin to build your business.

Your goal when starting up should be getting your business out there and known, eventually with a great product and service, word will spread (hopefully) and you will get the greatest free advertising there is, word of mouth. Just be diligent in making sure that it’s positive, and you can do
that by being on top of your employees and product to ensure they are delivering at their best. Well that is all the advice I have for today. Good luck in our adventures!

Do you know what are the biggest companies on earth? Well, Forbes.com once again made a huge list of the The Global 2000 from 60 countries. The composite ranking is simply based on sales, profits, assets and market value. This is important because one metric alone can give a false impression about corporate size.
In total, the global 2000 companies now account for $30 trillion in revenues, $2.4 trillion in profits, $119 trillion in assets and $39 trillion in market value. Around the world, 72 million people work for these companies.
So, here are the top 10 companies in 2008 from The Global 2000 list by Forbes.com

On February 1st, 2008 Microsoft offered 44,6 Billion USD to buy Yahoo. The timing was right because just one day before Yahoo announced a significant profit decline (- 25 % to 206 Mio. USD in Q3 2007). The company also announced the fact, that 1000 jobs, which makes 7 % of all 14300 employees, have to be cut down.

But was that really a clever gambit of Microsoft? Is the fight against the big competitor Google not even long lost yet? This question refers to September 2006, when Yahoo offered 1 Billion USD to buy Facebook, a social network which was founded by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004. Mark rejected, but Yahoo and the other search engine providers knew, that there is a high risk of loosing many clients, if Facebook would integrate a search function, which is used by all of its members.

One year later, Microsoft bought 1,6 % of Facebook (worth 240 Mio. USD) and set the price for the company up to 15 Billion USD. If you recognise the fact, that Facebook earns 150 Million USD a year - this is quite a lot of money. The “240 Million Dollar” trick was, that now Yahoo or Google would have to pay too much for Facebook, so that this risk was “temporarily” banned. But the war between Google, Yahoo and Microsoft went on and has achieved a new height because now, Google is also interested in Yahoo.

However, its very unlikely that Google gets the surcharge because of antitrust law problems. Altogether, I think that Microsoft will get the company, which leads to an exciting showdown between Google and Microsoft.