You may have heard the sayings before: All you need is one big idea.  Ideas can be more powerful than guns.  Ideas can change the world.

Naturally, you may feel the same applies to your business idea.  It may be a genius idea that solves a problem or something that has never been done before.  Maybe there is a key aspect that makes your idea different from the rest.  It can be a very exciting feeling.

What should you do with that idea?  You may have been told or assume you require what is called a non-disclosure agreement, which sounds pretty powerful, professional and glamorous in itself.

A non-disclosure agreement is a legal contract that protects the confidentiality of ideas, knowledge and information between two parties.  This sounds and seems pretty necessary.

The ironic downside is, requesting one is an obvious sign of inexperience and may even encourage business relations to fizzle fast.  Why is this?

Professionals know the weight of a non-disclosure agreement and frankly, it is no more than the paper that is signed.  For one, it is nearly impossible to prove who has leaked your idea.  Even so, you will have to spend time and money fighting a legal battle for years – time and money that could be devoted to your idea in the first place.

So knowing this, why wouldn’t they be signed anyway just to make you happy and feel secure?  They probably could, but let’s put it this way:If you were going on a first date, would you ask them to sign a prenuptial?  On top of declaring the elephant in the room (trust issues), your date would probably run away!

If anyone were to sign an agreement, they would then be legally bound to your idea – and any others they may hear like it in the present or future.  If ideas or even approaches ever overlap, you are a risk. Why should a company take this risk?  You may have a great idea, but they do not know how it will be implemented yet.  They do not have anything concrete to validate the reason for their own risk.  The most important aspect of an idea is not the actual idea, but how it can or will be executed.  You will not be able to prove or show this before discussing your idea.

The benefits of discussing your idea far outweigh the possible negatives.  The goal is for people to be excited.  By discussing your idea, you can see reactions to it. You may gain valuable feedback, opinions and facts you did not have knowledge of previously.  In turn, this will also allow you to build future business relationships and even a team.  These are precious valuables for the future any business.

If you are just getting started, you cannot afford to keep secrets.  Keep in mind your focus should not be threats.  You need to have a successful business first in order to have anything worth protecting.  Concentrate on business plans and relationship building; those are the next steps to focus on after you think the idea you have is something to put effort into.

Are entrepreneurs born or made? Whether you believe in nature or nurture, there are common traits that business owners tend to share.  Some naturally have what it takes and others work hard on expanding them.  What are the most common traits?

Optimism.  Persistence.  Confidence.  Passion.

If you are holding a shriek of glory because this sounds like you (or pouting because it sounds more like a friend of yours), just hold the smartphone for a minute and realize that there can be a flip side to this coin. If someone is born with these traits, it doesn’t mean that Easy Street is just around the bend.  In fact, for some there may be an even tougher obstacle to face ahead. If a confident and passionate risk-taker is not making smart or premeditated decisions, any business can easily transform into a risk itself.

Where can some pitfalls be?  Reflect on these points:

Are You Not Entertained? — What you put in is what you get out.  To receive personal and financial gain, you have to enjoy what you are doing.  If your heart is half there, it will be reflected in your business.

Why So Serious? — There are some times and situations you must take things seriously. Getting sidetracked or losing motivation can be a tremendous killer. Just as athletes train for sports, you will have to think of this endeavor as your own personal Olympics and wear multiple hats.  When you first start out, there may be many times when you have to do many things alone because you do not have the means or financial ability to hire or ask someone else.  In these times, you must have the motivation and the will to get it done.

No Dough, No Show — One of the main reasons for your business is profitability.  Make sure you have a concrete realization of your expenses and a realistic view of income.  What are the expenses for maintaining your business until you begin to see income?

Dreams Feel Real While We’re in Them — This is critical. You need to analyze your own business standpoint, locate and dissect data, and develop conclusions from your own research. The best part is, if you follow and stick to your own plan, you can also revisit them later and track your own decisions. Is there a market for your product or service? Who are your competitors? What makes you different? How will you attract an audience?  Is your business dependent on anyone or anything else? It is important to invest time in this process and develop a business plan.  You may have a great idea, but to make that idea a practical reality, you will have to utilize your own foresight and planning skills.

You Had Me at Hello — Know your customer.  Who is it? Can you picture this person? What do they value? What would a conversation be like? If you can’t connect with this person and offer personalized attention in some way, your business efforts sure won’t.  If they go ahead and walk, you will be left holding your own product or service and they will be looking at your competitor.

People have different values, preferences, beliefs, attitudes and abilities.  Some of these also change over time. Regardless of nature or nurture, they both shape us as individuals. Your business will reflect your own entrepreneurial spirit and success will be dependent upon these basic but important factors. This is also why iScripts offers a wide range of software, as well as customizations.

The best realization is there isn’t only one type of person that can succeed.  If you set the bar high and invest in yourself, you will in turn be laying optimum foundation for yourself and your business.

BlingLights.com, is a division of BlingLights LLC that is dedicated to selling the finest performance parts available for all vehicles – regardless of type or model.

Used with the same technology developed for successful campaigns in IMSA, SCCA and Indy racing, BlingLights offers impressive lamps important for visibility, safety and appearance purposes.

In pairing with iScripts, BlingLights has now established a two tier affiliate program.

This multifunctional system allows the admin, affiliates and sub-affiliates to organize and collaborate payment and shipping processes with the warehouse.

We were happy to bring BlingLights a more productive and efficient system catered towards their specific business needs!  If your site needs custom programming or other customizations, visit our Customizations page.

Those who have not lost data before should consider themselves lucky.  Equipment failure, misplaced disks, computer viruses, fires and floods are common ways of losing valuable, important and irreplaceable data.

Offer users a way to back up their data in case of a hard drive or computer failure. With iScripts Backuper, you can keep their information safe in the event something tragic happens to original data.

You can now start an online data backup service similar to Carbonite, CrashPlan, Backblaze or Mozy. This software is the perfect opportunity for IT companies, MSPs, hosting companies, ISPs, and entrepreneurs to become successful online.

iScripts Backuper has a private labeled client application along with the server software. The server software supports billing, account management, backup management and much more. See the live demo for yourself!

U.S. shoppers spent 15% more in online holiday buying compared to last year.  2011 holiday online retail spending is already approaching the 2010 online holiday season total of $32.6 billion – with nearly two weeks left in the season to go. This has clearly been an outstanding season for online retailers!

The Monday after Thanksgiving, “Cyber Monday,” is still the heaviest online shipping day on record, with $1.25 billion in sales. As we predicted earlier in the season, free shipping was a big incentive this year, applying to at least half of all transactions.  What are consumers looking for?  Online sales data points to personal computers, tablets and smartphones.

With only a few more days until Christmas, late season holiday shopping will now shift to brick-and-mortar retail, although some procrastinators will still be able to take advantage of expedited shipping and buy online up to Christmas Eve with the guarantee on-time delivery.

Take advantage of this and create your own online store with iScripts MultiCart 2.4!  The software offers dynamic product options, PayPal adaptive payments, slide shows, multiple image options, online gift cards and coupon offers. Get started on your own unique marketplace and make sure you benefit from next season’s sales!  Try the live demo today.

We are very excited to announce to you the latest iScripts product! iScripts DailyDeals allows you to start your own group buying website, similar to Groupon and other well-known daily deal sites at the top of the market. Our software package includes an impressive toolset, allowing you to create a stand-alone solution and possess full site control with no experience necessary.

Attract users and businesses on a national or local scale with typical group buying site features and mass media possibilities. Deal campaigns run with start and end date countdowns, editable minimum and maximum orders per deal, integrated payments such as PayPal and Authorize.net, credit cards and site credits equipped with SSL support.

Your site will also provide location specifics to users with Google maps while providing you clear insight with Google Analytics. Follow the performance and profit of campaigns easily with a robust statistics dashboard included in the admin area and keep clients up-to-date with their own view of stats and payment logs.

Top tier social networking features include:

•    Email and Facebook integration
•    Live Twitter posts
•    Friend referral offers and incentives
•    Deal discussions and comments
•    “Get for a Friend” options
•    Editable email templates
•    Automated newsletters
•    Site promocode ability (to use on top of deals)

All product purchases come with one year of updates and support and our 30-day unconditional money-back return policy. We invite you to install the software on your personal server or hosting account and give it a thorough test.  We will happily refund the listed price for letting us help you start and build your business. Try the live demo now and check it out yourself!
Host the platform on a popular hosting plan of your choice, allow the simple and fast installation wizard to complete, and begin your new daily deals site today!

Based upon your feedback, we have chosen to reform our current data backup software solution. We are delighted to bring to you the new iScripts Backuper 2.2!

Use this software as your standalone online data backup service. iScripts Backuper is your comprehensive, private labeled online data backup platform, containing two main components: server software and a desktop client.

Give your users a way to back up their data in case of a hard drive or computer failure.  iScripts Backuper has a private labeled client application along with the server software. The server software supports: billing, account management, backup management, plus much more!  See the demo for yourself!

We are very proud to unveil to you the latest version web hosting business management software, iScripts AutoHoster 2.4!

iScripts AutoHoster comes with an integrated Help Desk (SupportPRO SupportDesk) and the new power-packed web site builder (iScripts EasyCreate) – at no extra cost to you!

This exceptional product includes everything you need to run your own hosting business, such as, account management, online billing, domain registration, and signup.  The software also supports various payment gateways and unlimited accounts, domains and servers! The changes include a file and image manager, gallery manager, form plug-ins and revamped aesthetics.  Offer your users more freedom within site creation, the option to create visuals, manipulate images, and add feedback forms or a guest book!  The new look makes AutoHoster visually crisp and easier to navigate.

Use iScripts AutoHoster 2.4 to provide website building services to clients while maintaining complete control. Clients may create stand-alone web sites and upload them via FTP or publish them as a zip file. Users do not need any HTML skills and they can modify their web pages at any time by utilizing a wide array of tools provided – which also includes promotional tools.  Try it here!

As with all iScripts products, your software is created as a standalone solution and is also completely customizable to your specific business model.  Reach your short term and long term business goals effectively and affordably on your own terms with iScripts AutoHoster!

This month we are proud to announce Surgical Product Solutions.com, a site catering specifically to the healthcare industry.

Surgical Product Solutions (SPS) proactively identifies product that has been orphaned, overstocked, or otherwise unusable by that practice.  When products are identified, SPS takes control and offers it to the secondary medical supply market while providing 20-35% of list price back to the hospital. This service is performed free of charge to the hospital. The site offers medical practitioners, O.R. teams and hospitals the ability to search and purchase these products directly. Users may search by brand and narrow down products by medical field.

Have an idea of your own? Combine your business ideas with our software and make it a reality. iScripts.com offers stand-alone software that can easily suit the most common needs of any idea, much like this site. If your niche market or concept needs additional features to meet your client’s needs, we can also customize the software to create the perfect website.

Check out the new iScripts MultiCart 2.4 and our Customization options to see why SPS chose us to create their start-up!

iScripts MultiCart is feature-packed software that supports an unlimited number of sellers, categories and products. Start your totally automated, trouble-free multi store e-commerce marketplace today.

Consumers will be logging on ecommerce sites searching for holiday gifts and deals very soon. The traditional kickoff for holiday buying is Black Friday – the day after Thanksgiving. Last year, Black Friday sales through the following Monday, “Cyber Monday”, accounted for 18% of total online holiday sales. U.S. online sales topped $1 billion on Cyber Monday alone.

Perfect your marketing and delivery plans as the year’s most lucrative shopping season draws near. Here we have created a few tips to be get the most from this season:

1. Consider Free Shipping – Users are more inclined to buy, especially around the holiday season, if shipping is free. Many people are expecting to pay a few dollars more for shipping, but they will show their thanks for free shipping by taking advantage of the promotion and buying a few extra items.
   
2. Send Holiday Themed Email – Try sending newsletters with holiday-oriented content. Timely, holiday-oriented content is generally well-received by the general public. This is a way for you to showcase features products and give customers additional visual gift ideas. Inform them the promotions are available for a limited time and don’t forget to mention the gift cards!
   
3. Deck the Halls – Be sure your homepage is attractive and featured products are displayed. Consider fresh, seasonal holiday banners! Keep your holiday look consistent within all forms of communication with your audience.
   
4. Functionality – Consumers expect a page to load within two seconds and find what they are looking for quickly. Accommodate the anticipated spike in traffic by ensuring your site’s speed and functionality is up to par.
   
5. Quality Service – Give customers the best service you can especially around this time of year. It is important for small businesses to give quality service and attention to make a lasting impression. Take care in the details and increase profits by growing your customer base.
   

We want you to succeed this holiday season. If you feel stuck in one of these areas, do not hesitate to call us. The iScripts team also offers experienced SEO, design and customization services along with qualified web hosting providers and other resources available to you. Contact us at 1-800-569-5538 for more information or to speak with us directly. Check out the full list of available iScripts services.