Joey Pomerenke is a pet industry professional and a young internet entrepreneur. He is a member of the YoungGoGetter.com Board of Advisors and founder of PetEcommerce.com, an all-in-one e-commerce solution for pet industry professionals.

While studying business management and entrepreneurial studies at Iowa State University I knew that being an Internet entrepreneur was the only professional route for me. There was only one problem – I did not know a damn thing about web development, or programming, nor did I have the time to learn. I knew there was only one thing I could do if I wanted to succeed as an Internet entrepreneur. Outsource everything!

So in 2004, JP eTail Group LLC, a network of pet supply online stores, was formed and my outsourcing journey began. Outsourcing became the only profitable way for me to run an e-commerce business by myself that was doing 100 orders a day. Below is some, but not all, of the major business development and day-to-day operations that I outsourced to have a smooth running e-commerce business.

Website Design and Development: I did not know anything about web development, design or shopping cart solutions. I needed someone that could develop “cheap”? high quality e-commerce sites and with ongoing support. We ended up selecting a Malaysian design firm that only charged us $250 per e-commerce store designed. Their design work was some of the best I had seen and their support was even better.

more

Monica O’Brien is a guest writer from Twenty Set, a blog about personal and professional development for millennials.

With the US and world pending an economic recession, smart business owners are looking to their own businesses to see how they are going to minimize its impact in 2008. Here are some things to consider in case of an economic recession:

Less Consumer Spending

Depending on your industry, your business may be hit when consumers spend less due to financial troubles. This doesn't affect just expendable products, but also “nice-to-have” services that companies think they can go without, like marketing research or consulting services.

Tip: Make your products and services indispensible by solving problems with your products and services and by developing relationships with your customers.

Less Business Growth

Again, this depends on the industry, as some industries like the food industry will stay constant and a few industries, such as tourism in the US, will grow. Most businesses, however, will experience a loss of sales and have stagnate or declining business growth.

Tip: Prepare now just in case by reevaluating your business budget and cutting back as needed. Consider if you can grow your business by diversifyin

g your customer base. Try moving some business to other industries or other countries that haven't been hit by recession to make up for losses.

more

Aaron Kuroiwa is a Young Go Getter member and owner of a LeTranslator a business and legal language translation service that offers professional website translation services.

How to Get Things Done
One of the major factors of success is your ability to get things done. Billionaire Mark Cuban agrees. Recently he wrote a blog post about “Effort�. Now we all know that Mark can sometimes go on rants and be a little crazy but this time he is dead on. No matter what happens the one thing we can control is how much effort we dedicate to achieving our goals and creating success.
However, just exerting a lot of effort doesn’t mean that you are getting things done. You have to have focus and discipline to make sure that the efforts you are making are worthwhile and effective. Mark is right Effort is paramount but let’s take it a bit further and talk about getting things done. When I say things I mean important goals or even small seemingly insignificant tasks that we don’t like but ultimately lead to success.

Productivity Basics:
80/20 rule: 80% of our success comes from 20% of our efforts or clients. So identify that 20% that is making 80% of your success and focus on it. If the other areas show potential, great, make them a second tier priority and everything else 3rd or 4th tier.
Priorities: If you want to get things done you have to have priorities. Otherwise you’ve got a pile of things to do and no order. This comes back to the 80-20 rule. If you don’t know the priority of a work item then you could be doing all of the meaningless task first and the important ones are left neglected and still sitting in your to do list unfinished.

Application:
Alright so all of this theory is great but how do you put it into practice.
1. Identify: First you want to identify your responsibilities, goals and tasks.
2. Get organized: It doesn’t matter how or if you use a system. Simply find what works for you and stick to it. Have a system for keeping track of all of the things you have to do. I like to use index cards and just cross things off as they get done.
3. Plan: If you don’t plan succeed you plan to fail. I know it’s a corny old saying but it’s true. Prioritize and Plan your efforts. Look over your to do list and goals. Separate them into levels of priority based on 2 things. Time and Effectiveness.
a. Time

: First, how soon does this task or goal need to be completed?
b. Effectiveness: Next does this task fall into my most important 20% or is it an 80% task?

Does this task need to get done today or can it wait until tomorrow, next week or a month from now? Alright now you’ve organized to days to do list and put off the things that are not immediately important. You start with your 20% tasks and work done. If you get through the 20% tasks then you start the 80% tasks. If you get through those then you start on the next days or any other extra projects you need to get done.

more

Monica O’Brien is a guest writer from Twenty Set, a blog about personal and professional development for millennials. This is her first of hopefully many articles on YGG.

About a week ago my dad send me this email:

Subject: Riot! by Paramore

Message: Get a copy of this CD. There are at least 6 good songs it. My son lent me his copy.

Two things intrigued me about this email: 1) my father rarely recommends products and 2) my brother is 18 years old. So how in the world did my baby boomer father like music written by teenagers so much he sent an email to about 40 of his closest friends and family (of all ages) recommending this CD?

It turns out my dad isn't the only person over 35 who enjoys Paramore. The group has as many parents at the show as they have kids, and the parents love every minute of it. Intrigued, I went to Paramore's MySpace page and listened to some of their sampler music. It didn't take me long to realize this was the same band I'd heard (and liked) on the MTV reality show, The Hills. I also vaguely remember some of the songs from riding in my brother's car over Christmas break.

I checked out their list of hit singles on Wikipedia and noticed they've been gaining speed since the middle of 2007. Judging from their sold-out shows in the UK, I'm predicting they will continue to gain fans and hit super stardom in 2008. There are a few things I believe has contributed to Paramore's snowballing popularity that will serve all musicians (and businesses) well in the future:

more

It is very interesting how much we rely on technology in our everyday businesses lives, from computers to cell phones to PDA’s. It has been increasingly more available to keep in touch, or share data and even using to make yourself money. But it is really amazing how far wireless communications has come in the last 5 years. It has come all the way from backpack sized phones to devices smaller than the palm of your hand. I want to discuss all the new advances in wireless technology, and how they can help you in your business life.

I am probably as connected as any person out there today. There is no possible way that you cannot get a hold of me at anytime of the business day, and even after it. If I don’t have my laptop hooked up anywhere I go I also use a device called a Blackberry that allows my e-mail to be sent to me anytime of the day. Then there is the phone I always carry with me wherever I go. They are my lifeline for my business. There has been many deals that could have been lost if clients could not get a hold of me right away.

more

This is the start of a series of post's based on this subject. It came to be out of many conversations with colleagues and businessmen over coffee. I hope you find some inspiration from this!

Not Involving your Employees in you Business

What I talk about in this series are things I have experienced first hand from a company that I used to work for, who will be referred to as Company X from here on. They are the prime example for this set of articles as how not to adjust and do business in the new millennium. They paid for all their vital mistakes and now no longer do business.

There is quite the obvious correlation between ignoring your employees and a slow moving, close to death organization. This is a bi-product of the industrial age, where employees ran there tasks by the orders of a few, competition was scarce so they could get away with being slow to change and react and the consumer had little choice. Well globilization has changed all of this, but the mindframe still exists through a lot of large well established companies and the people that have grown up with these ideals.

But what most businesses are realizing that positive business power comes from communities rather than one mind. By using the ingenuity of many minds to accomplish a task you will more than likely come up with a much better solution than one mind. The dialog that opens up between c

olleagues can provide different perspectives that open up new doors that may have remained shut without a team working on it.

By not listening and including your employees you run a great risk of missing great opportunities and becoming a stagnant business.

more

Monica O’Brien is a guest writer from Twenty Set, a blog about personal and professional development for millennials. This is her first of hopefully many articles on YGG.

As consumers, we are careful of the type of personal information we give out and who we give it to. As an entrepreneur trying to market a new product or service, however, understanding your customers' needs is essential. In an age where identity theft is rampant and telemarketers and spam mail are avoided at all costs, there are many consumers who would rather take their business elsewhere than risk privacy invasion. So how can you do marketing research on buyers' purchases without alienating saavy consumers?

I believe there are two key characteristics of companies who will be able to collect useful marketing data without losing the trust of their customers - customer anonymity and company transparency.

Allowing the Customer to Keep Anonymity

Seth Godin recently wrote a post on his blog about how consumers don't actually care about data collection as much as is believed. In it, he writes:

more