Read this, “She sells sea shells on the Sea Shore”, how does it feel to speak all this words at one go in a sentence, some might have tumbled upon or some might have even read it half way and then repeated the sentence. It’s a common phenomena where we often come across such words which are mind confusing, although the sounds might be the same, the words mean different, spellings are different, grammatically they are used in different contexts and so on. The language English have many such words in its dictionary, even if you are a highly English literate person, you are sure to make the mistakes in selecting the perfect use of such words. These words actually change the whole meaning to what the author is trying to say in his/her writings.

As per the research, it’s a human nature that while reading a word in a sentence a person browses through the whole sentence so as to mentally prepare the mind of spelling out the next few words, it often happens while someone is writing, there is often misuse of similar types of words like then-than, this-these, she-sea, to-too, sells-shells, etc. even if the reader might come across such mistakes, in 99% of cases, he wouldn’t be able to make out the mistake the reason being it sounds so similar with actual meanings of the sentences. Today, we are going to discuss few of these misspelt words in English dictionary and try to find out how to make our English better.

Then-Than – these are the most misused words I have come across, the word “then” is used for reference to time or to portray something that results in some action. Most of the time you might have noticed the word “then” is used after “and”,

the example of such sequence is, “he robbed the bag and then he entered the departmental store”. The word “than” is used to replace instead of or meaning a preference, the example is, “I had rather party with my friends than my enemies”. The correct proofreading in your document will help you make use of the correct “then” or “than”, you have to think wisely.

This-These – the word “this” is mostly used to state a particular object or a thing, mostly used for singular objects and “these” are used to state a group of, or the herd, or more than few things together.

For example: 1) this bag belongs to me, 2) are these books yours? The words this and these are quite confusing to spell, when it comes to spoken words but that largely depends on the writer how he wants to say something, the correct usage will never lead to any confusion.

She-Sea – there are very confused names in English language, to study English grammatically is not an easy job, especially when it gets difficult to pronounce the words sounding so similar having different meanings. The above words, she and sea might not be difficult for a person who speaks English but for non English speakers, it might coz a serious sleep of tongue, do you agree with me?

The examples are: 1) she is my best friend; 2) I could see the vast treasure below inside the sea.

To-Too – it is simple the word “too” refers to the number 2, this word is used to imply as something similar or same types. It also means something which is in excess. The word “to” is used normally as to speak of some action, of giving, taking, bringing, going, etc. it is the most often used word, the examples are: 1) you gave me too much of drinks yesterday night, 2) I am going to market.

Sells-Shells – just one glance and you would understand the difference between the two words but they are often misused in the type of example I stated at the starting of my blog. Both of these words are simple to understand although meanings takes you to another world of English diction,

the examples are: 1) he sells cookies by the roadside, 2) the hard core shells are being sold at the outlet.

Affect-Effect – these are the most difficult for people to interpret and use them in sentences, each of these words are used differently as noun and a verb. When the word “effect” is used as a noun, it means result and when used as a verb means bring about. The word “Affect” means to influence,

the examples are: 1) your suggestion was very effective as it affected many lives, 2) the challenge might effect or serve a good reason for working of the whole company.

Farther-further – the word “farther” means a distance and the word “further” refers to quantity or time, for example: 1) how much farther do we walk? 2) You can do your further studies abroad, 3) try to get further knowledge on your degree.

Cents-Since-Sense – cents are the coins, since is used for saying the time reference and sense means intelligence or feelings,

the examples are: 1) how many cents you want? 2) I can do anything, since you are here 3) do you have any common sense?

The above mentioned are just few of the words which are often misused and as a result there is a huge communication gap between people and often there are mistakes and misunderstandings happening. But with perfect knowledge and use of words as required, you can make your sentences perfect.

I propose to my readers, to send in more such words which might be helpful to other people online.

As i have promised last week that i will share my experience with regards to Traffic, Keywords & Income from Kontera, for the website on Africa Travel niche which i had developed before around 7 to 8 months & then i was optimizing the website until june 1st week. This week website got around 55,000 Impressions & Earnings of $44.77 according to Kontera & as per awstats around 25,000 unique visitors have come on the website from various search engines. I was surprised to see around 11800 keywords were being searched in just 7 days, don’t you think it’s amazing ?? Now i am heading towards 2nd week let’s see what happens.

Tomorrow i will be posting about how my First Kontera website performed for last month, after earning about $1105 in First, Second & Third week of July 2009.

Many people set out doing business at very young age and they do really well in their life, there are many people who envy them but that doesn’t stop them from achieving their life goals, what do you think, what makes that X factor running behind them to be that successful in life that no one can stop them? Is it a sheer hard work, luck, or just the zeal to be ahead in life? I feel it’s the combination of all and plus the right attitude and right mannerisms that they apply to their business that does the batting! Today I am going to discuss with you whole set of ideas and different ways to become the best entrepreneur to get the maximum output for the work you put in and tips that will let you stay ahead in the competition.

We all know success is not easy; some may distract you from taking the path of hard work because they well know it’s going to pay you in future, those are not your best friends, so follow the path which seems to be hard and you will get to the top in no time. Let go off the obstacles in your business like some red signal, stay cool and calm, decide on the path which you want to take while you are still waiting at red signal and go ahead when it turns green. There are some useful steps given below which will help you to be the best entrepreneur you can:

1. In business, everyone has a purpose, a purpose to make money, before you set out on your path to go to your office today, think of the money you want to make. It is not going to take you more than 5 minutes to decide as to how much money you need to live a lifestyle you really need. Day in and day out you must have seen yourself, rush-in and hush-out to make ends meet, when you think over from life’s point of view, you will know that it takes only some money to fulfill your requirements, what drives you crazy is to stay ahead in competition. I advice you to take a break and have a meaningful purpose in making money, for some of you the amount of money you calculate for living with all the luxuries must be much more than you are earning now. The best way to design your finances are to write them down, think over what you need to buy and the total money you will buy with, it could be anything and everything, may be a good luxury home, a dream holiday, some good sports car, or enough money to do some more shopping for home. No person would like to spend more than what he actually earns, if you set up your finances well at the beginning, nothing should stop you from buying the luxuries in life.
2. Some people are well satisfied with their earnings, you don’t need a million dollar home to live with all the luxuries in life. Sitting back in a small cottage home is more than enough for someone to enjoy life with all its pleasures. The best way to do a relaxed business is to stop innovating and start copying others in the field, don’t copy someone to the extent people will call you COPYCAT, take ideas from other businesses but use your own creativity. Bring that entrepreneur quality in you. Earning a decent money is no big deal, provided you are ready to work for the work given to you, a couple of my friends, I know, had started with trash, selling cookies and now they are earning million dollars each month. Look out for the work you will really enjoy doing it and not thinking over making million dollars directly, start with small whatever you can and make a difference in your living style. And if you are already in a business line then think over the ways you can change your current situation that will bring about a change in the amount of money you make.
3. There are circumstances in life where nothing works as per your choices, some times we experience that something good happens for something bad that happened in past so for every loss there is an equal amount of profit. You might not be bringing around the perfect product for your customers, but your customers might be well satisfied with what you are serving. In such circumstances, you might just not want to change your current settings, if something goes wrong you might loose totally of it, so it’s better to keep track of the path that is being followed in your company and the style of doing business remains same unless something modern stuff comes up. You can take online interviews of your customers to know their opinion about the products, what exactly they are looking out for, etc. there are times when you may fall out on providing the best service, but that shouldn’t stop you, try to adapt to changes quickly and serve your customers.
4. If you are very sure of achieving something in life, it is best advised not to deviate yourselves from the goals of life. Don’t get distracted if something doesn’t work as per your wishes or some new business opportunity arise, new opportunities are going to come your way, “if one door closes, another opens up”, I truly believe and live by this statement which has made businesses work and to fulfill your life goals, concentrate on one thing at a time. Resist the temptation of moving out to new business offers, even if they seem to be very profitable, follow first what you have already taken up and work consciously to achieve your life targets. Consuming everything that is available on a platter will cause you indigestion the same applies to business line; don’t keep on jumping from one track to another.
5. Always be ready to learn something new in life, don’t stop just because you have already achieved your targets for the month, try new things after achieving the older targets. If something new comes up, don’t stop yourself from learning it. No matter if you are the master in your field, remember that each generation brings in something new for the older generation to learn and adapt to. Be open to make changes in your business, don’t stick by the old rules and regulations or the methods of working. When you get modern stuff working in your business, it will attract the talented younger generations to work for you.
6. Whoever said it, said it right, “work hard and party harder”, as much as you are earning, you need to relax and enjoy with the amount of wealth you have earned. If you keep dragging yourself on and on, one day you might feel exhausted and feel like not continuing at all. Don’t keep on working for a full 12 hours at a stretch, even when you are loving the work, you need to take steady breaks that will relax and calm your mind of all the clutters happening in office. The best you can follow on this is:
   1. To take break while working on longer projects, taking breaks in middle will help you refresh your mind and help you work more enthusiastically and more efficiently.
   2. Do extra ordinary work out of ordinary; it need not be something out of the box or going out of your way spending money to achieve something, arrange for small party, a family get together or office picnic that will freshen up everyone in your circle. The end thing is to reduce your stress levels.
   3. Develop the work style in you and create an energetic work environment around you that will motivate everybody to work. You can start with small things like planting flowers that will create a colorful environment, putting up motivational posters, setting up a help center for the needy, etc.

By now, I hope you have already made your choices regarding the business and next time you will be more open to adapt to changes around you and stick by the rules you have made for yourself, don’t get distracted or diverted from what you are already doing. It’s a human nature to get attracted to new things which will make more money, but remember to fulfill first the existing requirements.

Businesses are developed with some planning in mind, when you see big businesses around you, not all probably started as you did it, some might have stumbled along the way, some might have got ready built empire and yet some might have worked really hard to achieve their targets or make money. In business, everything works on trust worthiness, if you are worth of any rewards you are going to get them in no time than expected. There were hell lots of mistakes I made in my first few business assignments; but those have not stopped me from being where I stand today. You can well imagine how it feels when starting your own business unit. I was a little nervous and little excited, it’s a mix of enthusiasm and willingness that you are going to put in your business. Today I am going to share few things that you, as a young entrepreneur should keep in mind before heading out on a road to success:

1. The first and foremost I had like to advice you is to pick a real intelligent name for your company, I have seen many an instances where I started with my business that didn’t really work because of the faulty, stupid names I had put as. Your company’s name should necessarily conjoin the business you are doing, forgetting what looks well or bad. Your company name should match with the service that you are providing but at the same time remember not to keep some lengthy names which people wouldn’t be able to remember.
2. Some of my close pals, I have noticed they mostly went for an “A”, to start the business with, the reason being that they would be listed first in whatever the listings, it is a good practice from business’s point of view but make sure they carry weight and people would know what exactly you are into. Sometimes, people do make mistakes in keeping stupid names and they carry on with the same identity for years, later they make this big mistake of changing their company names after years of being realized as the earlier stupid name, it is best to make something good out of bad, already people know you as some company so rather live with it than going through all the process of building a new brand value in market.
3. Don’t forget to hire a good law firm for doing all business legal proceedings, even if you get a good well known law firm there are chances you might as well find some best lawyers who will do your work relating to corporate tax, litigation, income tax returns, etc. remember, lawyers work for you and not the company they are working for, so its best to tie up with some well known company who will give you the best lawyers as per your requirements.
4. There were times, when I had faced bad situation because of these stupid lawyers, the proceedings were delayed in some cases, some were too lazy doing the tasks at quicker pace, etc. I wanted someone who is active and treat my business as his own so the best advice I got from someone, my guru, is to look out for good law firm. The law firms have to carry their reputation, so in no doubt they are going to give you the best they have.
5. This is one of the advices I keep giving to everyone I come across, to hire some big company even if that costs you a little more but go for professionalism and ethic based lawyers.
6. In new enterprises, you don’t necessarily be having a huge staff to represent your company. It is only the work that you do is going to count and so you make money accordingly, there were some idiotic mistakes I did while hiring people for some of my first few companies, the companies that didn’t really made to A lists and I feel, it is the workers who make a company and not the company who makes them, so get the best professional people working for you. Some faults I made were:
   1. Don’t hire a person in your company, just because he was a super master in his earlier job or earned varied certificates in previous job. He might be an expert in the earlier job but not the current job so think over his qualifications, his capabilities and what things he can do for company as a person.
   2. Some people feel, hiring more employees will solve their problems, it is not the case, in fact, you can save lots of money by cutting down on the salaries of employees by doing some work on your own. Go and sell it yourself, this way you will get the real experience of the market and get to know people personally.
   3. Other than employee salaries, there are lots of other expenses incurred to run a company, these costing includes, computer maintenance, electricity bills, employee insurance, office space, etc. so manage your finances well.
   4. You might feel great about someone working for you from seven seas, but it is not really a good idea as there are chances of misleading and you don’t really know the efficiency of the person or if he/she has done the work, in such cases, you can make use of varied software to keep track about the work time and break time.
7. If you are in yesteryears, following old sayings, mind you, you are not going to be always successful, old habits help but not always, stick by the motto, “be faster and getting things done”. I remember the times when I started out with my first few set of companies, it was all a total mess all because of my fault. As your very first venture, you will nurture your new baby business with all the finest possible inputs you can, if you had been feeling the same all this while, don’t worry as these are the symptoms of anxiety every new entrepreneur will face. Instead of taking logical steps which are good for business, you kind of move towards emotional needs of the company so I advice you to take quick steps in whatever decisions you need to take, if you don’t change it now you will be forced to change or take steps in future.
8. If you are a go getter then you cannot forget to put all the inputs, what it takes to build a successful business network by successful networking you can conquer all odds in life whether you are new or old to business, whether you are making money or loss in business, whether you are located in the same continent or farthest of locations. When you have perfect networking connections, you are at it and you have already won the half, the match.
9. Success follows Network, if you network well in business terms, you are bound to get good business proposals, and no one likes to do business with someone who is not aligned in the group of networks. So be there always at a position where people will pick you, make sure to attend all the industrial networking events next time.
10. In business circles, I have often noticed how people treat someone who has given them huge businesses as someone who is GOD like, I really cannot digest this fact that how can someone treat someone as God when everything has been achieved due to his own hard work and determination. When I started with my business, I used to take advice from the people who were already successful in particular field, but sooner I noticed, those advices were not quite working for my business and instead of making profits I made huge loses, this was the time I realized that if I want to run my business I will have to think on my own and proceed by taking major decisions on my own. What I am trying to portray here is, that take advices from people but look over pros and cons before accepting those advices in your business.
11. No matter how much ever successful you may be in your business, you should always be ready to take new inputs from your followers. You might never know when you get some of the best fabulous ideas to run your business, it may come in any form through suggestions, from partners, from business colleagues, etc. when you are running a partnership business, having a partner is a bliss as your partner would always be there to stop you when something might seem un-adjustable.
12. No one is perfect, unless you make a mistake you are not going to learn something new so making mistakes are good to the extent that you don’t keep repeating them. If at all you happen to make mistakes, your partner will help you sort out things through different perceptions. Over and above, having a business partner helps you to come out of adversity. You never know in what form the help may come through, your partner may be an expert in the field you are finding difficult so its best to take advice from them.
13. If you are new to business, don’t fear if something doesn’t work as per your planning. New entrepreneurs often fall under this dilemma of facing the failure, unless you try on something, you will never know of being successful in any particular business endeavors. I have had few instances in my life where I was really fearful of taking on some new business challenge, but after a while I got used to overcoming it and being successful. If you are not sure of taking up something, don’t fear, take it up and blow it away, the worst that can happen is your failure, that failure is not going to eat you up but rather make you steady along the way.

At the end, I would just advice you, young, hot blooded entrepreneurs to accept challenges as they come and not to make any silly mistakes that will ruin your business venture. Learn from your mistakes, don’t repeat them and do each of your business assignments as excitedly you had done the very first one and please avoid the mistakes I made.