Moreover, we’re take pride in what we’ve accomplished and as a result tend to also be somewhat control freaks.

But there’s something that are just worth paying for – at least once. Bringing in a new perspective and a new approach helps keep things fresh.

Work in trade or pay cash outright, it’s worth doing for each of these sections at least once.

1) Great Photography
I own a Canon rebel. I’ve shot a few product shots for my website. But I’ve never ever matched the quality of the pros. I’ve had product shots done by both Lithium Picnic and Lavonne Images (like the stunning image of amazing comic book artist Fiona Staples as above).

Most of us can take a good picture – but amazing product shots can turn a tide. A great photograph can sell product like mad, and sometimes it’s worth the splurge.

Moreover, I have photos I wouldn’t hesitate running in a magazine ad like Gothic Beauty or Coilhouse. It’s hard to do that on your own. Great photos are an asset.

2) Website Design
In 2005 I paid a girl by the name of malloreigh to redesign my website. I gave her carte blanche and when it was almost done she sent me an email with one simple sentence; “How do you feel about yellow?”

I now have a visual brand nobody else in my industry has.

It’s so easy to build a website on our own nowadays, but that just means the level for great design has also stepped up. Great designers aren’t hard to find and if we could do what they do, they’d be out of work. Simply put, a great looking website is definately worth the investment.

3) Accounting
I keep meticulous records. But come tax time for my business, I take all those meticulously kept records and I hand them over to a proper accountant. Why? Because I’m not one. I don’t ever want to be stuck with the short leash stating that I failed to pay my taxes properly. That’s actually a criminal offense where I am.

Moreover, it’d take me HOURS – instead, I take a break, drive over my reciepts and let them handle it. What’s it worth to you to have the time to focus on the parts of your business you can actually do well, rather than taxes?

4) Your own webspace
Yes, your ISP offers you free hosting. Sure, etsy lets you run your business on their site. But both those things detract from your brand – everything about the customer experience – from your URL to the visual design of your site needs to be about your business – that’s how long lasting brands are built.

Here’s a easy rule – when what you sell in an average week exceeds the cost of the domain and webhosting of a year (which online is about 6-10 dollars a month), you’re ready to invest in your own webspace.

5) A Paypal account
When you first start out, it’s hard to justify accepting online payments. People can send money orders and cash – and let’s face it, when you’re small potatoes, it’s fine.

But you want to start doing volume sales, you NEED a Paypal account.

When I first got a Paypal account, they were an upstart that people found sketchy and were suspicious about. Now, they’re backed by eBay and trusted as a safe, reliable way to send money online. While people who are new to the internet may not know who Paypal is and how reliable they are, the savvy online shopper as a well-used Paypal account and those are the people you want to sell to.

Sure, they charge fees, but they’re nominal and can be written off as a business expense. And the fees you pay help cover you in the case of illegitimate charge backs.

(And yes, I know I listed Paypal as a cheap/free must-have in one of my inaugural posts, but Paypal is free if you’re small potatoes or just starting out. If you’re starting to have an established customer base, or want to immediately to be recognized as a business, the business/premier account, with the fees, is the way to go.)

6) Advertising
The point of the majority of advertising isn’t to sell product, it’s to establish a brand. Targeted ads where your buyers are can really help establish you in the mind of your customer, such that if they do look for a product you make, they may look to your first or Google it and recognize you.

The pitfall of advertising is that nowadays we’re bombarded by it that we’ve now begun to filter and ignore it, particularly on the sites we frequent the most (like Facebook).

Advertising the the last thing on this list I’d suggest you try, but if the price is right, it can reward you many times over.
(As an aside, never, EVER buy Google Adwords. They do nothing for your brand – as a small business, there are so very many other places that are leagues better.)

Next Tuesday: How Your Network Connections can Help You (A Personal Story)

With all that said, youth isn’t taken as seriously in business.

This post is part two of an ongoing series with a focus on why being young is a real advantage to you in business. This post wlll talk about you, your network of friends online, and how that’s a huge advantage when you’re starting up your own little business.

My mom is “new to the computer”. Maybe your mom is too. With moms just getting their e-mails set up, or inaugurating their new Facebook account with a non-sarcastic “is on Facebook” status update, I’m pretty sure that they weren’t our mothers, we’d call the newbies. My mom’s friends probably don’t know how to “work the internet” let alone have an email account.

By contrast, we as a generation are heavily networked. Technology has allowed us to make contacts with more people online than we could interact with in person. It’s easy to follow 200 classmates on twitter than it is meet each one every day and give them a “what’s up?”.

Moreover, there isn’t a question about whether they’re on Facebook or have email. I don’t know anyone in my circle of peers who doesn’t log on to the ‘net daily. It’s all old hat to us.

So why is having all your friends hooked up a big deal? It means that if you have something to sell, you already have a network to sell to.

Selling to your peers has so many advantages. You know your demographic because you’re likely to be your own demographic. You know where you hang out online, how much money your friends have to spend, and what’s cool and new. Big corporations pay big money to marketers to research information you already have and to make connections you’ve already made.

Moreover, you’re there first. How many years had you been using Myspace before you started seeing big movies and music artists get their own Myspace pages? The big boys are chasing the trends you already know about.

On top of all that, you have a network of people who know you and are willing to vouch for you. If you tell your network that you’ve started selling a particular type of product, some people will buy, some people will let others know about who you are and what you’re doing. Because they know you, they’re more willing to recommend you. Personal recommendations like that are impossible to put a dollar value to.

The lesson: broadcast what you’re doing to your network. Tell people what you’re selling and ask them to spread the word. You’ll be surprised how great the results are.

What do you think? Would you tell your myspace/facebook friends that you’re starting a new venture?

Thursday’s post: How to price your products to sell (without starving yourself!)

I understand the appeal. These days, you can walk into most fast-food joints with a resume and walk out with a job. Despite what you may think, however, it’s not all that much harder to start an online business. The beauty of the internet is that it’s demolished barriers to entry. You can start a business with virtually no money, you don’t need to pay rent for a sales space, and you don’t need to have a ton (or much of any) stock.

Moreover, if you’re under 30, you’re probably built for it. As a generation, we all are. In this post I’m going to talk about why it is that those of us under 30 (born after 1980) are perfectly suited to being entrepreneurs.

They call us all sorts of things; Generation Y. Millenials. Echo Boomers. It doesn’t really matter the name. What sets us apart is how we use technology, particularly in contrast to how our parents use it. We are the first generation of digital natives. Where our parents immigrated to a world of technology, we’ve grown up with it institutionalized in our education. My parents peck at the keyboard with their index fingers; Mavis Beacon ensured I could touchtype when I was 13. They reach for a phonebook, I immediately search Google.

I’ve heard speakers at leadership forums talk about our generation as requiring special approaches to managing. Ours is the generation who makes corporate managers scratch their heads. We work fast and independently, share willingly and openly, are tech-savvy and adapt to change. But here’s the catch: apparently we’re hard to manage.

We have short attention spans, get bored easily, and are willing to make mistakes. We expect to be treated differently than generations past – we like demand flexiblity. We understand the world in terms of versions and reiterations and think of tasks with the mindset that “done is better than perfect” (like Microsoft’s Windows). Because we’re the early adopters of new technology, we’ve set the protocols for behavior in that media. We’ve been conditioned to ask for forgiveness after the fact, not permission before. That, in particular, drives managers crazy. Moreover, it’s what makes us perfect entrepreneurs. We’re trailblazers and pioneers, unafraid of the unknown or of making mistakes.

The rules don’t apply to us because they haven’t been written yet (or rather, we haven’t written them). That’s ok – we’re used to the wilderness social networks like Twitter and Facebook and we’ve tamed them. We’ve set the tone of communication in this era. We’ll let people know what the rules are as we go along. As such, we learn fast.

We’re adaptable, and so we can wear the many hats an entrepreneur has to wear; project manager, marketer, artisan and workhorse. The times are ripe; there isn’t anything we can’t learn with a library card and an internet connection these days.

Being young is not an excuse to avoid going into business for yourself – it’s the perfect reason to. As a generation, we’re suited to it.

Leave me a comment! I’d love to hear what you think of this topic and series! Do you disagree? Agree?

This post is the first part of a series – Why Being Young Makes You a Great Entrepreneur. Posts will appear every Tuesday for the next few weeks. Thursday posts will continue to be on various practical and timely topics.

Next Thursday’s post: Free – How it can be beneficial, detrimental and even costly