Small Home Based Business Opportunity

Are you one of the many looking for a small home based business opportunity but not sure what to do? Don’t fret! There are ways to do this.Some people get side tracked when they go online and look for a business opportunity. They start out looking for a small home based opportunity but get taken in by the flashing lights and the promises of earning tons of money. What happens next? They realize they have gotten caught up in a scam and write off the hope of finding a legitimate home based business.Owning your own small business can be very rewarding. It not only allows you to do something you love, but also offers flexibility and freedom in the hours you work. And being your own boss is great!A small business can either be locally based or internet based. The advantage of the second option is that you can take your business with you if you move. So, you can live wherever you want and still be earning money while you’re moving and getting settled in.A few ideas for starting a home based business:Offer a Service – this could be something like dog walking or doing some editing work or transcription online.Sell a Product – this can be your own product or you can sell other people’s products through affiliate marketing. It can all be done online if you choose. You can also sell through buying wholesale and reselling at retail.eBay – sell on the worldwide marketplace of eBay. There is a huge group of people searching to buy things!Start a membership site – find a niche topic where people are searching for information and resources (and willing to pay for them) and then offer it to them for a monthly fee. This is a nice way to build up a steady monthly income.Starting a small home based business can add purpose to your life. It is especially good to do as you are nearing the retirement years where you normally have extra time on your hands and also are in need of some supplemental income.There are many ways to start a business but always do your research before entering into a business opportunity. Make sure there is a market out there who is looking for what you want to offer and is willing to spend money on it. Avoid markets that attract those seeking everything for free.Check out the business opportunity you are considering with the Better Business Bureau and also do a Google search and read multiple reviews on the opportunity. What is the general consensus?The right small home based business opportunity is just waiting for you! Take the step and start a whole new venture.

How To Find Home Based Business Leads

Working from home has become the goal for many individuals. They want to get away from the every day office job. They want to be their own bosses. Before they can quit their jobs, though, they need to have a job lined up. This is where knowing where to find legitimate home based business leads can come in handy. This short guide will give you the tools you need to make it in the home business world.

Before you can start looking for leads, you need to know what kind of businesses are out there. For almost every interest you will have, there will be at home business to match it. Writers, and those interested in the medical field have a head start, as there are many home jobs available in those fields. That does not mean you won’t find something for you. Take the time out to do some researching. It’s certain you will find something that will interest you.

Now you need to figure out what businesses are legitimate. This a two step process. The first thing you want to do is talk to someone who is already successful at a home business. They can provide a wealth of knowledge that will be useful in your own search for a career to succeed at from home. They will be able to guide you past the scams, and straight to the top successes.

Then you are going to want to do your own research on the subject. Check the Better Business Bureau or other agencies that keep records on legitimate businesses. This is your first step to weeding out the scams out there. Once you have done that, you can search through the remaining jobs to see if anything catches your interest.

You can also find legitimate job leads through various sources. One of the major sources these days are social networking sites. These sites attract thousands of users all over the world. Many of these people are recruiters, looking for people to work on things from home. This is a great place to start.

You can also check out blogs on the topic. Many people write blogs about their work experiences with various companies. These are the blogs to visit. They will be sure to mention the good and bad points about working for various people and agencies. You can get brilliant insight from these individuals.

Finding home based business leads is fairly simple if you follow these tips. Many people have found success in the home. They are their own bosses, and the set their own hours. It just takes a little bit of time and patience to get started. Once you have gotten set up, your success will depend solely on you.

Education and the Learning Revolution

It sometimes seems to be the case that education in the UK often becomes a bit of a political football – so much so that there is a danger that we lose the essence of what learning is all about.

Many commentators have spoken of the need for not simply educational reform but for educational revolution.

In the 1980′s  the authors  Dryden and Vos made the observation that we were teaching young people to face a future in which they will have to solve problems that we do not know will be problems yet,  with technologies that do not exist yet and undertake roles and jobs which we have no concept of – yet.

A few years ago a presentation called SHIFT HAPPENS highlighted some of the ways in which change is happening exponentially – what we know, what we think we know – what we understand, what we think we understand – is all in a state of flux. In short technological and scientific developments are redefining the skills that we will need to engage fully in our futures.

As technology and scientific discoveries shape and mold our understanding of the world they bring with them new and different moral and ethical questions which will need to be addressed.

The real question is whether or not our current education systems, which Sir Ken Robinson maintains stifles creativity and are really ‘one long university application process’, can meet the challenge of the future.

For the most part education systems are linear, attempting to homogenize learning experiences by creating academic targets that are based upon chronological age and not social-emotional-intellectual readiness. At the same time teachers are being presented with a host of  ‘learning initiatives’ that are often little more than coverings for a crumbling system;  hence they are met with cynicism promoting a real lack of joined-up thinking.

This is not about the teachers and the quality of their work. It is more about the structures within which they are working or are expected to work.

Talk to teachers about teaching and learning and one of their first observations will be about the ‘crowded curriculum’ followed by a disheartening reflection that “admin work” is taking them away from the process of engaging with young people in learning challenges and conversations.

At the start of this academic term I was invited to talk to a group of parents and eager Year 10 students about the ‘fresh start’ they could make on their chosen examination subjects. The focus of my talk was about being emotionally engaged, and therefore, motivated by their own learning.  All went well and my presentation was well received, but perhaps would have been so much more ‘real’ if had not been preceded by a senior member of staff in the school talking about ‘target levels’,  ‘projected’ and ‘expected’ grades and the need to ensure that grades were in need of constant improvement in order to ensure that colleges of further and higher education looked favourably on future applications.

Surely there are several questions here…

The first is the motivational nature of  ‘targets’ in the first place. There is a world of difference between having targets ‘imposed’ and having targets developing from personal goals and interests.

Secondly is the assumption that further or higher academic education, based upon GCSE or A level grades, is the right path for all.

So much for personalised learning!

Of course a cynic could say that the subtext for such targets, and the striving for ‘good grades’ is not about the education of our young people, but about the political hoops that need to be jumped through in order to be recognised as a ‘good’ school or ‘excellent teacher’.

Many of those working at the ‘chalk face’ are aware of the tension that can exist between ‘teaching and learning’, as a philosophical ideal, and ‘education’ as a political agenda where funding and performance are so often linked.

Any Education Authority, School or Teacher daring to take revolutionary view of teaching and learning, must not only face the challenges dictated by central government, where academic progress (i.e. examination performance) is ‘king’, but also the perceptions of parents who cling to more traditional approaches to teaching and learning with the honest intention of wanting their children to ‘do the best they can’.

The truth of the matter is that, in terms of subject knowledge and personal skills, what was valuable in the past may not be that relevant in the future.

In essence, perhaps, there are only four key skill areas in which revolutionary educators need to focus.

1) The Ability to Access and Assess Information

2) The Ability o Communicate Effectively in a Variety of Ways

3) The Ability to Manage and Lead Self

4) The Ability to Manage Chang

Each of these areas have within them other, more generic skills, and the issue is that all can be developed within the framework of a curriculum that is not necessarily divided by ‘subjects’ but linked through ‘context’.

I heard Richard Dawkins comment recently on the decline in the standards of scientific literacy in our society, and the fact that science itself may have been marginalised by a more egalitarian education system wherein personal opinion was perhaps more valued than collective understanding based upon empiricism and reasoned argument.

In many respects I echo this sentiment.

We need to address deficits in critical thinking and encourage the fundamental question ‘how do we know’?

But this cannot be done at the expense of creativity and personal expression.

Artists do not have the monopoly on creativity and personal expression in the same way that scientists do not have the sole rights to analysis and rationality.

The Learning Revolution, the one that has stalled several times, demands that young people are asked questions about what they THINK and how the FEEL in equal measure – and be given the skills to REFLECT upon those questions.

It insists upon encouraging young people to identify their TALENTS and their PASSIONS, which may have little to do with university entrance or academic results.

It requires parents, teachers and politicians to recognise that the skills and knowledge that served them for the NOW may not be the same as those demanded by a society of the FUTURE

“A student can win twelve letters at a university without learning how to write one” – Robert Maynard Hutchins