Starting a business is not just about your passion, it is about running a business.

Carol Roth has worked with hundreds of companies, ranging from a single entrepreneur with an idea to Fortune 500 businesses, on all aspects of business and financial strategy.

She pioneered the FIRED-UP™ entrepreneurship assessment, a proprietary five-step methodology for assessing if someone has what it takes to be an entrepreneur. By assessing whether someone has the appropriate Finances, Inspiration, Responsibility profile, Experience and Dedication & Unbridled Passion for entrepreneurship, she gives those with the true fire in their bellies the confidence to pursue their dreams and tells those who have no business being entrepreneurs not to quit their day jobs.

Read what 10 business owners had to share, including me.

http://www.carolroth.com/unsolicited-business-advice/?p=621

Check out the canvas wall gallery on Page 6.  This is a GREAT way to inexpensively add color to any room, especially is you are renting and not allowed to paint.

For those in the design industry, go to page 18 and read about their FREE online course, “Centuries in Color.” 

Have a Colorful day!

http://www.benjaminmoorenuance.com/en/issue5/index.php

I’m a Certified Dewey Color Instructor and have been teaching a Certified Dewey Color Consultant class for 4 years and my students are shocked every time they take it, how acurate the results are.   Read the article and try it our yourself.  And if you’re interetsed in a class, here’s more information about the class and my schedule..   

Favorite colors test shows CEOs are different; take the test

By Del Jones, USA TODAY

Ask CEOs to pick their favorite color and what they select will often be very different than what most people would pick.

For example, when 877 members of USA TODAY’s CEO panel took an online personality color test, they were three times more likely to favor magenta than the public at large, three times less likely to select red, and 3½ times less likely to choose yellow.

COLOR TEST: Take the free aptitude test

This, it turns out, is more than a curiosity. Psychiatry professor Rense Lange, an expert on tests for everyone from students to job hunters to those with early signs of Alzheimer’s disease, has been looking hard at color tests and he has reached the conclusion that the results all but prove that CEOs are wired differently.

They are often wired in counterintuitive ways. For example, the color test shows that the typical CEO is more sensitive and private than the typical person and is less likely to be a perfectionist or to be dominant and more likely to be emotionally unstable. CEOs, it turns out, are not as self-assured as the public at large, and they are more cooperative and less forceful than the typical person, says Dewey Sadka, who has spent the last 15 years refining the color test completed by the 877 current and retired CEOs and chairmen. The heavy response from USA TODAY’s CEO panel provided a significant database that was then examined against 750,000 others who have taken the online test.

A 60-second test

The test takes about 60 seconds. It is almost entirely visual and asks people to click on colors, sometimes ordering as many as 15 colors from favorite to least favorite. The results turn out a personality profile that is far from perfect, but is proving to be as valid as more established and lengthy verbal tests such as Myers-Briggs and the Gallup StrengthsFinder. The results can steer people toward a career that matches their personality and strengths with jobs they might find enjoyable.

Unsurprisingly, the CEOs as a group were suited for jobs in upper management, but they also were better suited than the average person to be social workers, artists and teachers. Lange said that made sense because the ability to motivate is important to both teaching and running a corporation.

“CEOs see the big, bold and colorful picture and help others see the vision as well,” said test-taker Edward Jennings, CEO of Copanion, which provides tax professionals with Web-based applications. “Leaders are storytellers, teachers and investors.”

Administrative assistants might be surprised to learn that the color test indicates that the typical CEO is well-suited to be an administrative assistant. Jake Geleerd, CEO of Chicago real estate company Terrapin Properties, offers an explanation: It’s because CEOs probably had their assistants take the test for them, he jokes.

But Marion Sandler, a former Fortune 500 CEO at Golden West Financial, took the test for herself and learned that she might enjoy a job as secretary, paralegal, clerical worker or bank cashier.

“It made me laugh,” Sandler said. “When I was 8 years old, I aspired to be a sales clerk, but then I grew up.”

If CEOs might make good teachers and administrative assistants, might teachers and administrative assistants make good CEOs? “I wouldn’t be surprised,” Lange says. However, the test warns that people will find job recommendations below or beyond their capabilities.

Lange says no one knows why so much can be learned about a person by the colors they choose. Those answers are buried deep in neuroscience, he says, but it’s just a matter of time before marketers will be able to target products to consumers based on color preferences. Color tests are much easier to administer than something like Myers-Briggs, and color tests aren’t easy to influence. For example, someone applying for a job as a police officer might attempt to game a Myers-Briggs test by guessing the correct answers, but they would have no idea how to rank colors.

Color tests can also be quickly expanded worldwide. Vijay Eswaran, the Malaysian executive chairman of QI Group in Hong Kong, took the test for USA TODAY and said that it accurately described his personality, though he was taken aback by potential jobs he would be good at: mechanic, emergency room supervisor and telephone technician.

“The suggestion that I might have made a good dental assistant made me pine for lost opportunities,” said Phil Libin, CEO of technology company Evernote.

CEOs were promised that their individual results would remain anonymous, and it’s unknown what percentage believe the test accurately reflected their personalities. Some who volunteered comments said they were unconvinced. Bruce Clarke, CEO of consultancy Capital Associated Industries, likened the color test to a “horoscope or astrological sign analysis.”

Some CEOs sold on results

But most CEOs who provided feedback said the test was eerily accurate, including Greg Babe, CEO of Bayer, and Hamish Dodds, CEO of Hard Rock International. “I was floored,” Dodds said.

“I must say I was very skeptical, but it does a darn good job of summing me up,” says David Haffner, CEO of manufacturer Leggett & Platt. “I wonder what I’d be like if I liked lime green and purple?”

“It identifies the tension in my personality between facts and creativity,” said James Fugitte, CEO Wind Energy.

Of the CEOs who took the test, four men and one woman said they are colorblind or partially colorblind. Those include former Southwest Airlines CEO Howard Putnam and Brian Scudamore, who founded 1-800-Got-Junk 20 years ago and now has 300 locations in three countries. “I’m colorblind, yet the results were still bang on,” he said.

Dewey Color Class Schedule

http://www.toiletpaperentrepreneur.com/blog/entrepreneurs-tell-us-whats-the-worst-that-can-happen

Employment is expected to grow faster than average; however, keen competition for jobs is expected.

Employment change. Employment of interior designers is expected to grow 19 percent from 2008 to 2018, faster than the average for all occupations. An increasing interest in interior design and awareness of its benefits will increase demand for designers. As businesses realize the improvements that can be made to worker and customer satisfaction through good design, they will use interior designers to redesign their offices and stores.

Homeowners are increasingly using the services of interior designers when they plan new additions, remodel aging kitchens and bathrooms, and update the general décor of their home. Many homeowners also have requested design help in creating year-round outdoor living spaces and home theater systems.

To read the full report, click here.

Surfaces 2010, the leading floor covering show will be in Las Veags at the Sands Expo & Convention Center from February 2nd to the 4th with Educational Sessions starting on February 1st.

Exhibitor Profile
More than 700 of the largest manufacturers and suppliers representing products in every major category: carpet, tile, hardwood, rugs, laminate, resilient stone and marble.

SURFACES Education
Learn, Network and Succeed with more than 40 workshops, seminars and mini sessions led by industry experts in the fields of business, sales, marketing, installation and design. Attendees can earn AIA, NKBA, AIBD, IICRC, AIA/CES industry designation.

Click here to register.  Surfaces

Las Vegas World Market Center

The 2010 Las Vegas World Market Week starts February 1 until the 5th.

They will be having over 40 seminars and events, 1500 Exhibitors in over 5 Million square feet, so make sure to wear comfortable shoes.

If you’re in the design industry and haven’t already registered, here’s a link to their web site. Registertation is free. Las Vegas World Market.

If you are thinking about starting your own business, it is natural to be hounded by some sort of fear-fear of failure, fear to lose money, fear of fear etc. Questions like “I am not good at selling” or “will people buy from me” make you re-think entrepreneurship, preventing you from moving forward. If you find yourself in such kind of situation, read on for some powerful tips to help you overcome your fear of starting a business.

Change your attitude: – Focus on your positive qualities and trust on your skills. In normal life, we are so used to searching for negative qualities that we often ignore our strengths. Change your way of viewing things by accepting failures and learning from them. The ability to use failures to optimize and monetize your strengths and launch your business can be one of your most important tools for success.

Start while you are employed: – The easiest way to overcome your fear is to launch your startup when you are already employed. Do not leave your regular job until your startup is not generating enough revenue to sustain yourself and your family.

Do market research: – The more you research and try to learn about your niche, the more confident and prepared you will be. Learning more and more about your niche will help you to take correct decisions and lift the chances of your success.

Contact organizations: – Contact start up experts and organizations in your area with a proper business plan. These organizations help new entrepreneurs by providing them with the advice and support that can help you overcome initial fears or doubts, and develop an action plan to kick start results.

Play it safe: – Do not invest all your savings in your startup if you are afraid of losing your cash. Start a small scale business in alignment with your finances and time. Bootstrap for funding your startup by reinvesting profits for its growth.

Business exit strategy: – Develop a business exit strategy, a backup plan you can execute when you do not want to run your startup anymore. A plan that will help you minimize losses. Creating an effective business exit strategy which can reduce your losses will help you to overcome your fear of losses to great extent.

Start Executing: – The more you think, the more you hesitate, the more afraid or stuck you will become. Don’t wait for the right time to start your business, plan for success by taking the aforementioned steps and work YOUR plan! Many entrepreneurs who started their business with thousands of dollars of debt are now very successful.

Motivational Surroundings: – Surround yourself with successful entrepreneurs and mentors who can motivate you when you are feeling low and help you to overcome your fear. Develop an informal Board of Advisors who can motivate, guide and challenge you to the apex of your potential.

Trust yourself: – Have trust in your skills and maintain an optimistic attitude. You know more about your capabilities than others. If you think that your goals are achievable with the skills you have then act upon them. Trusting your instincts will make you a much better entrepreneur.

Rudo Malequin is working for Fortepromo which create high quality Promotional Products that help companies to promote their brands.

To put a link on your web site to your LinkedIn profile

http://www.linkedin.com/answers/using-linkedIn/ULI/613046-25317774

Thanks to Demont Daniel  http://www.linkedin.com/in/demontdaniel

To link your blog to your Facebook Fan Page

http://www.bloggerplugins.org/2009/10/facebook-fan-page-for-blogger-blogs.html

4. Interior redesigners

What they do: Instead of spending $500 on a new couch, why not use that money to hire an interior redesigner who will find new ways to decorate with items you already own? Interior redesigners remodel your home using the things you already have, either repurposing them for other uses or putting them in other rooms, etc.

If you’re interested in becoming an Interior Redesigner, here a link to my 5 Day Interior Redesign & Real Estate Staging Class and to IRIS, The Interior Redesign Industry Specialists, who I’m a Certified Instructor for.

6. Senior move management

What they do: Senior move management companies help older adults and families with the physical and emotional demands of downsizing, relocating or modifying their homes.

This is an up and coming business and you may have heard about “Aging In Place.” 

Check out the National Aging in Place Council.  http://www.ageinplace.org/

As well as the certification training to become a Certified Aging-In-Place Specialist (CAPS) National Association Home Builders Training. 

To read about the other 8 careers, here’s the link to the article. MSN Career Builder – Interior Redesign – A Career that didn’t exist 10 years ago.