NOW UNDER THIS TITLE YOU FIND THE HOW ARE IMPORTANT COMPUTER KNOWLEDGE AT THIS TIME IN THE WORLD .
COMPUTER EDUCATION IS A MOST EFFECTIVE AND NECCESARY IN THIS TIME.
SO WE CAN DISCUSS ON THE COMPUTER KNOWLEDGE AND EDUCATION
HOW IS IT MORE IMPORTANT AT THIS TIME IN THE WORLD.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Effectiving Sales and Closing
After you have done the difficult part, which is really prospecting, then you need to close, which is not as hard but is the most important step. The final close happens when you ask your prospect to make a decision. One problem people sometimes have is they go on way too long without going to a final close and so they lose the sale. If it is difficult to tell whether or not your prospect is ready for the final close, one effective method to find out is to ask a "Test Close" question such as: "How are you feeling so far about our obusiness pportunity?" or "How are you feeling so far about the Product or service?" or you could simply say "I am going to do a general temperature check. On a scale of one to ten, with ten being you are red hot about our business opportunity, how would you rate this opportunity?" If your prospect hesitates, then you can easily draw out any concerns by asking him or her, "Are there any other concerns or questions you have that would keep you from signing up as a Rep with us today?" or "Are there any concerns you have about starting Rocky on our Product or Service?" If your prospect has a concern or question, then address it at that time. If If a prospect says he/she is interested, but the tone of their voice is somewhat flat, simply say "Grab a pen and take a look at my web site. If it's something you're interested in, give me a call If your prospect tells you he or she is feeling good, it's time to do the final close and ask for the sign up or for the sale, depending on what your pitching.
You just have to ask -- the primary reason why customers do not buy is that they feel they were never asked. In reality, you should always be closing. All and all, there is nothing particularly magical about closing, but it does take practice -- the more you do it, the more comfortable and confident you will become! If you keep practicing, closing will become second nature to you. Believe me, you definately do not need to be Zig Ziglar to master closing, you really just need to adhere to several principles. Please note that some of the information from this article and the previous sales article on this website was taken from "Sales Closing for Dummies" by Tom Hopkins, an expert in this field. This is a must read for all!
You just have to ask -- the primary reason why customers do not buy is that they feel they were never asked. In reality, you should always be closing. All and all, there is nothing particularly magical about closing, but it does take practice -- the more you do it, the more comfortable and confident you will become! If you keep practicing, closing will become second nature to you. Believe me, you definately do not need to be Zig Ziglar to master closing, you really just need to adhere to several principles. Please note that some of the information from this article and the previous sales article on this website was taken from "Sales Closing for Dummies" by Tom Hopkins, an expert in this field. This is a must read for all!
Effective Sales and Closing
Perhaps the most important aspect of being a successful salesperson is to be able to close the sale effectively. You do not have to be a salesperson to run your own Home Business, but you do need to put some of your focus on sales to be successful, whether it is you are someone you hire who does the selling. Selling and marketing, as you may know, are two different things. Closing is not a magical feat, as Zig Ziglar himself might tell you. Yet the majority of people do not realize that closing is actually a process, not a single action at the end of a presentation. And during the sales process, you should steadily move your prospect towards the close. Every time you get a prospect to advance or to agree to take the next step (such as agreeing to a 3-way call, going to your web site, having lunch with you or trying the products), you move your prospect towards the close. It is critical that you understand the overall process, not just a single technical aspect. A lot of people are so frightened by "closing" that they never "ask for the sale" or the "sign up" when it comes down to it and that is quite silly. People want to own things -- be it a product or a service or business. If you are not closing, you're wasting your time and your prospect's time. It is kind of like a story with no ending. Today, many sales people "relationship" their prospects too much. In other words, they are so afraid of being aggresive, they never actually ask for the sale. If you truly believe in the products, the opportunity and/or the company, then helping your prospect through this whole process should feel natural. Selling should not be hard. If it is then you may want change your approach.
Some people get nervous when their prospects ask questions. While this is natural, instead, you should celebrate the fact that your prospect is interested enough to ask questions. Especially if it is a "technical question" such as "How long have you been in business?" Technical questions let you know your prospect is interested in purchasing products or getting into your business, if your business also recruits. Answer the questions in an honest and straightforward way without being defensive. If you don't have the answer to a question, don't be afraid to let your prospect know that you don't have the answer, but you will get the answer and follow up right away. Practice these steps and they will come to you without thinking. Once you have mastered these steps, you will then be ready to go to the "final close". Always remeber that you are doing your prospect a favore, that you are essentially educating them. You are really offering them a service, and at some point, now or later, they will be thankful for it. Do not feel that you are being too assertive by simply asking for the sale, you would be doing them a disservice if you did not. Remember, selling should be fun and mutually beneficial. See the article entitled "The Final Close" to conclude this lesson.
Some people get nervous when their prospects ask questions. While this is natural, instead, you should celebrate the fact that your prospect is interested enough to ask questions. Especially if it is a "technical question" such as "How long have you been in business?" Technical questions let you know your prospect is interested in purchasing products or getting into your business, if your business also recruits. Answer the questions in an honest and straightforward way without being defensive. If you don't have the answer to a question, don't be afraid to let your prospect know that you don't have the answer, but you will get the answer and follow up right away. Practice these steps and they will come to you without thinking. Once you have mastered these steps, you will then be ready to go to the "final close". Always remeber that you are doing your prospect a favore, that you are essentially educating them. You are really offering them a service, and at some point, now or later, they will be thankful for it. Do not feel that you are being too assertive by simply asking for the sale, you would be doing them a disservice if you did not. Remember, selling should be fun and mutually beneficial. See the article entitled "The Final Close" to conclude this lesson.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
How to deal with Customer Complaints
If you have been involved in a Home Business venture for any length of time, chances are that you have had some customer complaints regardless of how good your product or service is. Many factors are simply out of your control, such as shipping or employee interaction (if you have them), and it is a given that you will take the blame from time to time whether you were at fault or not. A good Home Business entrepreneur, however, learns to see these complaints as an opportunity rather than as a curse. This is because your character is revealed to your customer more when things go wrong than when things go right. So you can actually turn a disgruntled customer into a lifelong customer if you handle the complaint properly.
The main thing you should do when you get a complaint is to acknowledge the error and apologize for the failure that the customer has noticed. It is very helpful at this point to listen to the customer. Whatever you do, do not get defensive at this point. This is not an ideal time to correct the customer’s perception of the situation. It is essential that the apology appears genuine and not merely an empty exercise. This means giving the customer your undivided attention. An apology basically shows the customer that you care about their experience and it will usually neutralize their anger.
After you apologize,you should then empathize with the customer and the customer’s frustration. You are essentially putting yourself in their shoes at this point. We need to verify our understanding of both the customer service breakdown in whatever form it manifested, and its effect on the customer. As a general rule, the expression of empathy to the customer should come right after the apology. Although these 2 initial steps should do the job of making the customer feel valued. they do not in and of themselves prove to the customer that your home business is worthy of further patronage and may not yet be convinced whether or not additional experiences will be better than the last one. For this reason, you should next assure the customer that you are going to do something about the customer’s disappointing experience with you. You should then assure them that you are taking specific steps in response to this experience to upgrade or modify your policy or service structure in such a way to make sure that the unpleasant experience will never be repeated. This assurance validates the customer's concerns, and shows that you will not allow the negative situation to repeat itself in the future. Whatever you do, do not decline to take full responsibility for the problem, even if others were more to blame than you. Every single employee represents the business equally, and are all responsible to the same degree.
You should not take any corrective action prior to apologizing, whether or not the apology is for your own acts or the acts of another employee. The apology creates an atmosphere in which the relationship can be repaired and sets the stage to redeem your business and to hopefully retain the customer. If additional corrective action is required, proceed only after delivering a genuine apology.
The main thing you should do when you get a complaint is to acknowledge the error and apologize for the failure that the customer has noticed. It is very helpful at this point to listen to the customer. Whatever you do, do not get defensive at this point. This is not an ideal time to correct the customer’s perception of the situation. It is essential that the apology appears genuine and not merely an empty exercise. This means giving the customer your undivided attention. An apology basically shows the customer that you care about their experience and it will usually neutralize their anger.
After you apologize,you should then empathize with the customer and the customer’s frustration. You are essentially putting yourself in their shoes at this point. We need to verify our understanding of both the customer service breakdown in whatever form it manifested, and its effect on the customer. As a general rule, the expression of empathy to the customer should come right after the apology. Although these 2 initial steps should do the job of making the customer feel valued. they do not in and of themselves prove to the customer that your home business is worthy of further patronage and may not yet be convinced whether or not additional experiences will be better than the last one. For this reason, you should next assure the customer that you are going to do something about the customer’s disappointing experience with you. You should then assure them that you are taking specific steps in response to this experience to upgrade or modify your policy or service structure in such a way to make sure that the unpleasant experience will never be repeated. This assurance validates the customer's concerns, and shows that you will not allow the negative situation to repeat itself in the future. Whatever you do, do not decline to take full responsibility for the problem, even if others were more to blame than you. Every single employee represents the business equally, and are all responsible to the same degree.
You should not take any corrective action prior to apologizing, whether or not the apology is for your own acts or the acts of another employee. The apology creates an atmosphere in which the relationship can be repaired and sets the stage to redeem your business and to hopefully retain the customer. If additional corrective action is required, proceed only after delivering a genuine apology.
The 4 Cornerstones of A Successful Home-Based Business
The success of your home business is built on four important cornerstones,
Skills - Mindset - Relationships - Environments
As you prepare for the journey ahead, set goals for yourself in each of these areas to ensure your business is built on a solid foundation and grows at an even keel.
1. Skills
What skills do you need to develop? Do you need to learn about marketing, sales, copywriting, communicating, technology, networking, organizing, presenting, leading or prioritizing?
Business leaders are master marketers and sales people. Regardless of your chosen field of endeavor, developing those two skills is absolutely critical to your success.
Of course, they don't complete the recipe. Identify other important skills you'll need and create a plan to start acquiring them.
2. Mindset
What disempowering beliefs block you from taking action, making decisions, having confidence and giving everything you've got to create the success and happiness you deserve?
You're not alone if you're fighting internal battles. Corporate executives, successful business owners and many professionals sabotage their potential to enjoy true happiness in all areas of life.
These challenges affect virtually everyone regardless of gender, nationality, religion, family status, socio-economic background or financial status, and more often than not link back to experiences from our youth.
How often have you sabotaged your efforts to grow beyond your wildest dreams or reach your higher vision for yourself?
It could be traced back to a statement made by an authority figure or someone you loved and could have been taken out of context because of your youth, or it may have been malicious in intent, but never dealt with completely because you haven't had the tools to do it.
Mindset may be the biggest challenge to overcome, yet has the greatest impact on whether or not you achieve your goals and dreams.
3. Relationships
How are your relationships with yourself, family, friends, co-workers, customers and others?
Are you comfortable in intimate conversation or do you prefer groups? Do you have the confidence to approach a stranger and begin a conversation or do you try to become one with a nearby plant or wallpaper pattern hoping not to be noticed?
Do people know they can count on you to keep your word, make appointments on time and complete tasks as promised or do you over commit and under deliver?
Do people know they can trust you to keep conversations private and speak positively about them when they're not present, or do you criticize others in conversation when they're not there to defend themselves?
Battles with a spouse, siblings, parents, kids and friends can eat up mental ram and take your focus away from business. Sometimes these battles are with someone who has passed on, yet you keep the battle raging in your mind.
Positive relationships support you. Negative relationships, real or imagined create harm.
4. Environments
How are your environments supporting you?
Is your physical environment clear of clutter? This includes your home, office and vehicles. Are you surrounded by unhealthy foods or toxic substances? Do you have toxic people in your life who drain your energy?
What about your financial environment?
Can you accurately state how much cash flow you have, how much you bring in each month and how much is spent each month and on what?
Can you forecast upcoming expenditures and do you have a plan to meet them?
Do you know how to correctly interpret an income statement or balance sheet?
You may choose to have someone take care of your bookkeeping and accounting, but as a responsible business owner, it is imperative you understand what's going on.
Your body is also an environment.
Does it receive adequate fuel (sleep and healthy food) and exercise? This environment provides energy, clear thinking, stamina, and mobility. Without this vehicle, you would not have a business ... or life. Do you treat it with the respect and appreciation it deserves?
Do you need to learn about healthy eating, yoga, meditation, strength or stamina building exercises? Do you withhold visiting a doctor even though you're experiencing discomfort or obvious symptoms of a health issue?
Without your body, the game is over.
The degree of your business (and life) success directly relates to the degree you invest in all four cornerstones.
Choosing to focus only on one, two or three leads to a lop-sided result -- much like a four-legged chair with a missing leg. It can't stand on its own.
In order to address these four cornerstones, you may have to read books, take courses or programs, join organizations, seek out mentors or coaches, find mastermind partners, and surround yourself with people who can provide you with what you need.
If cost is an issue, start with your local library and Internet searches. You'll find plenty of helpful resources at zero cost. Tap into the minds of brilliant entrepreneurs and industry leaders. Learn about their challenges and follow their journey to success.
Contact a local business person you respect and ask if you can interview him. Most people say yes to this request because people generally like to help others.
You don't have to try to eat the whole elephant in one bite. Start simple by selecting one or two areas to focus your attention on and create an action plan that allows you to spread your efforts evenly across the four cornerstones.
For example, you can start cleaning up your physical environment while checking a book out from the library on the subject of sales, marketing or improving personal relationships.
Or, you can enroll in a night course at your community college on the subject of financial intelligence and volunteer for a local organization once or twice a month to start building new relationships.
Your possibilities are limited only by your imagination and if you need help with that, find others to assist. Brainstorming is a powerful exercise.
Focus on these four cornerstones, commit to giving necessary attention and energy to each and your business will be built on a solid foundation and capable of exponential growth.
Skills - Mindset - Relationships - Environments
As you prepare for the journey ahead, set goals for yourself in each of these areas to ensure your business is built on a solid foundation and grows at an even keel.
1. Skills
What skills do you need to develop? Do you need to learn about marketing, sales, copywriting, communicating, technology, networking, organizing, presenting, leading or prioritizing?
Business leaders are master marketers and sales people. Regardless of your chosen field of endeavor, developing those two skills is absolutely critical to your success.
Of course, they don't complete the recipe. Identify other important skills you'll need and create a plan to start acquiring them.
2. Mindset
What disempowering beliefs block you from taking action, making decisions, having confidence and giving everything you've got to create the success and happiness you deserve?
You're not alone if you're fighting internal battles. Corporate executives, successful business owners and many professionals sabotage their potential to enjoy true happiness in all areas of life.
These challenges affect virtually everyone regardless of gender, nationality, religion, family status, socio-economic background or financial status, and more often than not link back to experiences from our youth.
How often have you sabotaged your efforts to grow beyond your wildest dreams or reach your higher vision for yourself?
It could be traced back to a statement made by an authority figure or someone you loved and could have been taken out of context because of your youth, or it may have been malicious in intent, but never dealt with completely because you haven't had the tools to do it.
Mindset may be the biggest challenge to overcome, yet has the greatest impact on whether or not you achieve your goals and dreams.
3. Relationships
How are your relationships with yourself, family, friends, co-workers, customers and others?
Are you comfortable in intimate conversation or do you prefer groups? Do you have the confidence to approach a stranger and begin a conversation or do you try to become one with a nearby plant or wallpaper pattern hoping not to be noticed?
Do people know they can count on you to keep your word, make appointments on time and complete tasks as promised or do you over commit and under deliver?
Do people know they can trust you to keep conversations private and speak positively about them when they're not present, or do you criticize others in conversation when they're not there to defend themselves?
Battles with a spouse, siblings, parents, kids and friends can eat up mental ram and take your focus away from business. Sometimes these battles are with someone who has passed on, yet you keep the battle raging in your mind.
Positive relationships support you. Negative relationships, real or imagined create harm.
4. Environments
How are your environments supporting you?
Is your physical environment clear of clutter? This includes your home, office and vehicles. Are you surrounded by unhealthy foods or toxic substances? Do you have toxic people in your life who drain your energy?
What about your financial environment?
Can you accurately state how much cash flow you have, how much you bring in each month and how much is spent each month and on what?
Can you forecast upcoming expenditures and do you have a plan to meet them?
Do you know how to correctly interpret an income statement or balance sheet?
You may choose to have someone take care of your bookkeeping and accounting, but as a responsible business owner, it is imperative you understand what's going on.
Your body is also an environment.
Does it receive adequate fuel (sleep and healthy food) and exercise? This environment provides energy, clear thinking, stamina, and mobility. Without this vehicle, you would not have a business ... or life. Do you treat it with the respect and appreciation it deserves?
Do you need to learn about healthy eating, yoga, meditation, strength or stamina building exercises? Do you withhold visiting a doctor even though you're experiencing discomfort or obvious symptoms of a health issue?
Without your body, the game is over.
The degree of your business (and life) success directly relates to the degree you invest in all four cornerstones.
Choosing to focus only on one, two or three leads to a lop-sided result -- much like a four-legged chair with a missing leg. It can't stand on its own.
In order to address these four cornerstones, you may have to read books, take courses or programs, join organizations, seek out mentors or coaches, find mastermind partners, and surround yourself with people who can provide you with what you need.
If cost is an issue, start with your local library and Internet searches. You'll find plenty of helpful resources at zero cost. Tap into the minds of brilliant entrepreneurs and industry leaders. Learn about their challenges and follow their journey to success.
Contact a local business person you respect and ask if you can interview him. Most people say yes to this request because people generally like to help others.
You don't have to try to eat the whole elephant in one bite. Start simple by selecting one or two areas to focus your attention on and create an action plan that allows you to spread your efforts evenly across the four cornerstones.
For example, you can start cleaning up your physical environment while checking a book out from the library on the subject of sales, marketing or improving personal relationships.
Or, you can enroll in a night course at your community college on the subject of financial intelligence and volunteer for a local organization once or twice a month to start building new relationships.
Your possibilities are limited only by your imagination and if you need help with that, find others to assist. Brainstorming is a powerful exercise.
Focus on these four cornerstones, commit to giving necessary attention and energy to each and your business will be built on a solid foundation and capable of exponential growth.
Home Based Business Development is a Marathon, Not a Sprint
During the last several years, in the course of helping thousands of people start up home based businesses, I have seen the same situation occur over and over again.
Once a person makes the decision to start a home based business it's usually a time of high enthusiasm along with high, and frequently unrealistic, expectations. As time marches on, the enthusiasm begins to wane if they are not making as much money as they had hoped as quickly as they wished. Often it's only after a few weeks or months that I see people start to become discouraged and, with that, their energy level declines and they start slacking off on the work that is actually required to develop a successful home based business.
It is a known fact that a majority of the people that undertake a work at home business do not achieve real success. There are several reasons for this, but I am firmly convinced that one of the primary reasons is that these people get frustrated and do not allow themselves sufficient time to become successful.
In the early going, one of the most difficult things about developing a new home based business is dealing with the emotional roller coaster that can result from the highs (successes) and lows
(temporary setbacks) you are almost certain to experience. Once you have done the research and decided on a particular home based business opportunity, you really need to focus on persistence and
realize that any real business will not just automatically become successful in a matter of days or weeks. You should be prepared to give it your best sustained effort for a minimum of 6 to 12 months
in order to begin to build a solid business base and start to realize some good income.
Highs and lows were something that I began to notice when I first started a home based business. I have many years of top level management experience in "traditional" corporations and have
experienced lots of business cycles (corporate "ups and downs"), but the natural "ups and downs" that occur in a home business (particularly in the early stages) can be brutal from an emotional standpoint if you don't prepare yourself in advance for the fact that it is a basic law of nature...it will be a rocky
road until you have spent enough time and effort to build your business to a level that sort of smoothes out the peaks and valleys.
The impact of the highs and lows you will probably experience in developing your home based business is amplified by the fact that you are now in business on your own. You are the boss and get to make all the decisions, but you are also on your own in dealing with the frustrations that will occur along the way while you are developing your business.
When working at home a person can, at times, experience a feeling of isolation which is probably brought on by the lack of interaction of a work force environment.
There can also be periods of doubt in the early going...gee, did I pick a viable business opportunity?...am I doing the right things to develop my business?...when will I start making a profit?, and so on.
You are most likely going to experience the "two steps forward and one step backward" syndrome and the ever-looming temptation to become discouraged. However, keep in mind that as long as you have more steps going forward than backward, you will eventually get ahead! Simple, but often overlooked.
Relatively minor setbacks can seem huge in the early stages of developing a work at home business and can really contribute to some noticeable "mood swings". For example, if you are just starting out and you have four customers/clients and you happen to lose one...that's a 25% drop! However, if you fast-forward in time to the point where you have hundreds of customers/clients and you lose one...that's just a mere fraction of 1%! Exactly the same event, just at a different point in time.
Hang in there and just keep on keepin' on. If you have chosen a viable home business opportunity (one that has been around for awhile and in which some other people are having success) you will achieve success, but it takes time and there will be ups and downs along the way. Remember the old saying..."it takes a long time to become an overnight success".
Once a person makes the decision to start a home based business it's usually a time of high enthusiasm along with high, and frequently unrealistic, expectations. As time marches on, the enthusiasm begins to wane if they are not making as much money as they had hoped as quickly as they wished. Often it's only after a few weeks or months that I see people start to become discouraged and, with that, their energy level declines and they start slacking off on the work that is actually required to develop a successful home based business.
It is a known fact that a majority of the people that undertake a work at home business do not achieve real success. There are several reasons for this, but I am firmly convinced that one of the primary reasons is that these people get frustrated and do not allow themselves sufficient time to become successful.
In the early going, one of the most difficult things about developing a new home based business is dealing with the emotional roller coaster that can result from the highs (successes) and lows
(temporary setbacks) you are almost certain to experience. Once you have done the research and decided on a particular home based business opportunity, you really need to focus on persistence and
realize that any real business will not just automatically become successful in a matter of days or weeks. You should be prepared to give it your best sustained effort for a minimum of 6 to 12 months
in order to begin to build a solid business base and start to realize some good income.
Highs and lows were something that I began to notice when I first started a home based business. I have many years of top level management experience in "traditional" corporations and have
experienced lots of business cycles (corporate "ups and downs"), but the natural "ups and downs" that occur in a home business (particularly in the early stages) can be brutal from an emotional standpoint if you don't prepare yourself in advance for the fact that it is a basic law of nature...it will be a rocky
road until you have spent enough time and effort to build your business to a level that sort of smoothes out the peaks and valleys.
The impact of the highs and lows you will probably experience in developing your home based business is amplified by the fact that you are now in business on your own. You are the boss and get to make all the decisions, but you are also on your own in dealing with the frustrations that will occur along the way while you are developing your business.
When working at home a person can, at times, experience a feeling of isolation which is probably brought on by the lack of interaction of a work force environment.
There can also be periods of doubt in the early going...gee, did I pick a viable business opportunity?...am I doing the right things to develop my business?...when will I start making a profit?, and so on.
You are most likely going to experience the "two steps forward and one step backward" syndrome and the ever-looming temptation to become discouraged. However, keep in mind that as long as you have more steps going forward than backward, you will eventually get ahead! Simple, but often overlooked.
Relatively minor setbacks can seem huge in the early stages of developing a work at home business and can really contribute to some noticeable "mood swings". For example, if you are just starting out and you have four customers/clients and you happen to lose one...that's a 25% drop! However, if you fast-forward in time to the point where you have hundreds of customers/clients and you lose one...that's just a mere fraction of 1%! Exactly the same event, just at a different point in time.
Hang in there and just keep on keepin' on. If you have chosen a viable home business opportunity (one that has been around for awhile and in which some other people are having success) you will achieve success, but it takes time and there will be ups and downs along the way. Remember the old saying..."it takes a long time to become an overnight success".
Friday, February 22, 2008
Expenses related to your Home Business
Because most Home Business owners will want to incorporate, whether it be an s-corp, c-corp or limited liability company, the first expenses associated with your Home Business venture may very well be the costs of incorporation. In addition to the corporate fees themselves, there will also be legal fees if you choose to incorporate your Home Business with the help of an attorney. Although you can probably incorporate on your own, you will likely want to the assistance of an attorney because if you proceed without one, you may very well make an error that could mean that your corporation would not hold up under legal scrutiny. This is often called "lifting the corporate veil" and can be done if any number of steps is done incorrectly or not done at all, such as meetings or corporate minutes. And since one of the primary reasons you incorporate, if not the primary reason, is to protect yourself from legal liability, this can be a major shortcoming indeed. The majority of business related legal firms charge a flat rate to help you incorporate your Home Business, perhaps $500 on average. They will assist you in filling out the necessary paperwork such as corporate minutes and stock shares, as well as assisting you in setting up the necessary first shareholder meeting. Bear in mind that, as a general rule, the attorney fee's will be more if your Home Business has more than 1 shareholder. Add another $400 or $500 in this case. And add about $500 more $500 to $1,000 if you are going to sell shares to more than 1 shareholder, because your attorney will need to do paperwork for a shareholder´s agreement. As a matter of fact, you will pay more the more shareholders you designate. However, you can also cut your attorney costs down somewhat by you can save money by completing some or all of the pertinent paperwork such as certificates and articles of incorporation by yourself. Your local State´s office will probably carry the needed forms. If you go online, companycorporation.com can help.
In addition to attorney fees, you also have to pay filing fees: Secretary of State offices charge fees in the two hundred dollar zone, depending on which state you incorporate in. There could also be another couple of hundred dollars in other government filing fees. There is also first year franchise tax payments that every state charges corporations. These particular taxes might run you between eight and nine hundred dollars on average.
After you set up you corporation you will also have your accounting fees. In some cases the firm that helped you incorporate can also handle your taxes. You will probably have to pay general excise tax, which is a quarterly state tax on the earnings of your Home Business, and of course annual corporate taxes. The costs of these accounting fees vary so much that a reliable estimate can not be given since the costs vary tremendously depending on the number of employees(if any), corporate structure, state tax issues and many other factors.
In addition to attorney fees, you also have to pay filing fees: Secretary of State offices charge fees in the two hundred dollar zone, depending on which state you incorporate in. There could also be another couple of hundred dollars in other government filing fees. There is also first year franchise tax payments that every state charges corporations. These particular taxes might run you between eight and nine hundred dollars on average.
After you set up you corporation you will also have your accounting fees. In some cases the firm that helped you incorporate can also handle your taxes. You will probably have to pay general excise tax, which is a quarterly state tax on the earnings of your Home Business, and of course annual corporate taxes. The costs of these accounting fees vary so much that a reliable estimate can not be given since the costs vary tremendously depending on the number of employees(if any), corporate structure, state tax issues and many other factors.
Your Home Business and Newsgroup promotion
After you have gone throught the usual promotion avenues and submitted your home business website to the main search engines and directories, submitted to online classified ads and message boards, opt in lists and other free resources, it may be time to begin promoting on the newsgroups, also known as the usenet. A newsgroup is basically a kind of text only message board where users discuss very specific topics of mutual interest. Newsgroups are free if you use google groups or one of the other free services. Most e-mail clients also have newsreader. As many as ten million individuals have regular access to the Newsgroups. As a general rule, newsgroup subscribers are a different animal than the typical web surfer. They have often been around before the web became mainstream, and can be more cynical and jaded than other internet users. Not always, but often this is the case, With that in mind, you want to approach the newsgroups a little differently than other internet venues. For one thing, you do not want to be sloppy, and you certainly want to use proper netiquette. Do not cross-post (submit to more than one newsgroup at a time), for example. And you should only promote your site using the sig file or e-mail signature in a brief resource box at the end of your messages. You should only post commercial announcements in newsgroups that expressly allow it. On that note, you should read the individual charter of each newsgroup that you post to. There are literally thousands of newsgroups on every conceivable topic, from broad categories like business and home issues to specific groups such as New Jersey biking or dogs and cats.
It is a good idea to "lurk" in a newsgroup for a certain period of time, perhaps two weeks, before posting. During that time you should read the posts of others and try to just get the feel of that particular newsgroup. You want to be seen as an expert in your field, not an amateur. Note that some newsgroups are moderated (posts are monitored for content before publishing to prevent spam) and some are not. The ones that are not will often have plenty of ads, so be forewarned. To build a reputation as an expert, post relevant facts in your Newsgroup and reply to posted questions. Subscribers will soon begin to see you as an expert in your field, and you will get more new visitors looking at your home business website, which should be listed in in the signature file of all your messages. Used properly, the newsgroups can be an important weapon in your overall internet marketing attack, and will give you an advantage over other home business entrepreneurs who are not using it.
It is a good idea to "lurk" in a newsgroup for a certain period of time, perhaps two weeks, before posting. During that time you should read the posts of others and try to just get the feel of that particular newsgroup. You want to be seen as an expert in your field, not an amateur. Note that some newsgroups are moderated (posts are monitored for content before publishing to prevent spam) and some are not. The ones that are not will often have plenty of ads, so be forewarned. To build a reputation as an expert, post relevant facts in your Newsgroup and reply to posted questions. Subscribers will soon begin to see you as an expert in your field, and you will get more new visitors looking at your home business website, which should be listed in in the signature file of all your messages. Used properly, the newsgroups can be an important weapon in your overall internet marketing attack, and will give you an advantage over other home business entrepreneurs who are not using it.
The conclusion of "Tracking your Home Business visitors to get more sales" from Working At Home Business
Just because you think 1 headline is better than another doesn't mean that your visitors will respond better to it. In fact, it usually works out exactly the opposite - the headline you think is best will probably generate LESS of a response than the one you were using before! Say you have a simple three-page direct sales web site. On the homepage you have a headline, some introductory sales copy, and a link to the next page which contains your main sales letter. Your main sales letter really "sells" your product or service, and then links to your order form. After awhile you notice that you are not getting nearly as many orders as you think you should be getting based on the amount of targeted traffic your site receives. The problem could be with your homepage, your sales letter, your order form, or a combination of any of these. How in the world are you going to figure out where the problem lies?
You could do what many people do - guess - and base your changes on that. But chances are you will not guess correctly, and your sales and profits will still be slim. Even worse, you might end up making things worse, in which case your sales and profits would actually decrease! Guessing is no way to run a home business. It is what most people do, and it's one of the big reasons that most people are not making much money. Basing your marketing decisions on your own opinions is a certain way to go broke. Now, on the other hand, if you had a proper tracking system in place it would be quite easy to solve the problem. Starting with the homepage, you could focus on tweaking one page at a time until your sales were where they ought to be. Perhaps your tracking system tells you that for every 100 visitors to your homepage, only 5 of them are clicking the link that takes them to your main sales page. This is a serious problem! But since you have an exact baseline figure to work with, it wouldn't be too hard to improve upon. Simply tweak your headline, copy, etc. and then reset your tracking system to see what the results are. If after your changes more than five out of every one hundred visitors is going to your sales letter, then your changes helped and you can repeat the process again. What if this time only one out of one hundred visitors clicks to your sales site? Undo the changes and start over. Maybe after doing this for a week you're now seeing that for every 100 visitors, 42 are now clicking to your sales letter. That's much better, and you are probably happy with that. Great! Move on to the sales letter and repeat the process. If only 5 out of 100 people that reads your sales letter actually clicks to the order form, you need to tweak your sales letter. It may take a little while, but as long as you are tracking everything you will know what is working and what is not. Finally, work on your order form the same way.
When all is said and done, the average site will probably be able to increase it's profits by at least one hundred to five hundred percent. Think what that would do to your bottom line if you could increase your profits one hundred to five hundred percent with your existing traffic! This example is actually just the tip of the iceberg. With a good tracking system you can track and improve the response to almost anything this way - downloads of your ebook, ezine subscriptions, software downloads, a general lead generation system, surveys, etc. etc.
You could do what many people do - guess - and base your changes on that. But chances are you will not guess correctly, and your sales and profits will still be slim. Even worse, you might end up making things worse, in which case your sales and profits would actually decrease! Guessing is no way to run a home business. It is what most people do, and it's one of the big reasons that most people are not making much money. Basing your marketing decisions on your own opinions is a certain way to go broke. Now, on the other hand, if you had a proper tracking system in place it would be quite easy to solve the problem. Starting with the homepage, you could focus on tweaking one page at a time until your sales were where they ought to be. Perhaps your tracking system tells you that for every 100 visitors to your homepage, only 5 of them are clicking the link that takes them to your main sales page. This is a serious problem! But since you have an exact baseline figure to work with, it wouldn't be too hard to improve upon. Simply tweak your headline, copy, etc. and then reset your tracking system to see what the results are. If after your changes more than five out of every one hundred visitors is going to your sales letter, then your changes helped and you can repeat the process again. What if this time only one out of one hundred visitors clicks to your sales site? Undo the changes and start over. Maybe after doing this for a week you're now seeing that for every 100 visitors, 42 are now clicking to your sales letter. That's much better, and you are probably happy with that. Great! Move on to the sales letter and repeat the process. If only 5 out of 100 people that reads your sales letter actually clicks to the order form, you need to tweak your sales letter. It may take a little while, but as long as you are tracking everything you will know what is working and what is not. Finally, work on your order form the same way.
When all is said and done, the average site will probably be able to increase it's profits by at least one hundred to five hundred percent. Think what that would do to your bottom line if you could increase your profits one hundred to five hundred percent with your existing traffic! This example is actually just the tip of the iceberg. With a good tracking system you can track and improve the response to almost anything this way - downloads of your ebook, ezine subscriptions, software downloads, a general lead generation system, surveys, etc. etc.
Tracking your Home Business visitors to get more sales
Tracking the visitors to your Home Business site is a vital part of your overall sales strategy. The life or death of your home business could be decided by this factor so take it seriously. Tracking is so important because it allows you to constantly improve your Home Business site based on the actual browsing behavior of your potential customers. This is business intelligence at it's most basic. Each change to your site which results from this tracking could mean thousands of dollars in business when measured over a long period of time. For detailed information about this vital topic I have included a slightly edited Home Business article below from the Working at Home Business site. More information about them is provided at the end of the article:
Say a person arrives at your home page, reads a paragraph or 2, then leaves. Then another visitor arrives and does the same thing. 10 min. later another visitor shows up and pokes around for a few minutes but they also leave without exploring too much. You probably do not realize it, but chances are that this is going on a lot more than you may think. For 1 reason or another, most of the visitors to your site are probably leaving without doing whatever it is that you want them to do. As Internet marketers we often think that everyone who arrives at our web site is going to read each word on every single page. Then they will download our free e-book, subscribe to our e-zine, or do whatever else it is we want them to do. After all, who in their right mind is not going to be interested in what we're offering. Right? But that is simply not the case. some people just will not be interested in what you are offering at your home business site. Even if you are attracting "targeted" visitors to your web site, not every dog owner is going to buy your book on dog training.
The real problem however, is when people who ARE interested in what you're doing don't take the action you want them to take once they arrive at your web site. Maybe they got lost, maybe they got confused, maybe they were about to order your product but bailed out at the last minute when they saw your order form, or maybe there was some other problem. Trust me, you are losing money right now for no reason other than the fact that your web site is not as good as it could be. And this applies to every single site on the internet. A site is never really "finished" and that is why good marketers are always tweaking their web sites to try to improve the response to their particular offerings. Tweaking headlines, re-writing sales copy, removing graphics, adding graphics ... these are all things that the majority of webmasters are doing virtually every day to convert visitors into more profit.
Say a person arrives at your home page, reads a paragraph or 2, then leaves. Then another visitor arrives and does the same thing. 10 min. later another visitor shows up and pokes around for a few minutes but they also leave without exploring too much. You probably do not realize it, but chances are that this is going on a lot more than you may think. For 1 reason or another, most of the visitors to your site are probably leaving without doing whatever it is that you want them to do. As Internet marketers we often think that everyone who arrives at our web site is going to read each word on every single page. Then they will download our free e-book, subscribe to our e-zine, or do whatever else it is we want them to do. After all, who in their right mind is not going to be interested in what we're offering. Right? But that is simply not the case. some people just will not be interested in what you are offering at your home business site. Even if you are attracting "targeted" visitors to your web site, not every dog owner is going to buy your book on dog training.
The real problem however, is when people who ARE interested in what you're doing don't take the action you want them to take once they arrive at your web site. Maybe they got lost, maybe they got confused, maybe they were about to order your product but bailed out at the last minute when they saw your order form, or maybe there was some other problem. Trust me, you are losing money right now for no reason other than the fact that your web site is not as good as it could be. And this applies to every single site on the internet. A site is never really "finished" and that is why good marketers are always tweaking their web sites to try to improve the response to their particular offerings. Tweaking headlines, re-writing sales copy, removing graphics, adding graphics ... these are all things that the majority of webmasters are doing virtually every day to convert visitors into more profit.
Home Business marketing techniques
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Marketing, as contrasted to advertising, is essentially a long-term effort. It mandates a huge amount of time and effort compared to some other programs but is perhaps the most important, depending on which product or service is featured in your particular Home Business. The first step in your marketing efforts should be a business plan. And the center of your plans is a specific goal your Home Business is trying to achieve. Marketing is the vehicle that will propel your Home Business toward your goal and make the best possible use of your budget as well as the most effective use of your time.
When you work as an independent consultant or home business, you alone are the sole marketer for your entity. In other words, there is not really a team to call upon for your marketing needs. And yet, you seek the exact same result, which is expanded awareness of the product or service offered by your Home Business. This being the case, then obviously a certain degree of salesmanship is essential in this ultra-competitive marketplace we are currently in, whether you business involves fly fishing in South Dakota or sailing off the South Carolina coastline.
Perhaps the most overlooked aspect of this marketing and salesmanship is the follow-up. Essentially, there is follow up with your current base and second, there is follow up with your potential customers. The fact is many businesses do not consistently follow up with their current customer base. When following up with your potential customers, or prospects, you should get a much better conversion ratio that when you first contacted them. And by no means should you neglect to follow up more than once, if necessary.
You will need to decide how often you would like to follow up with your customers or prospects. You basically want your prospect to not forget about you and to have enouph time to analyze your offer. You should also have some type of tracking system in place. Be ready to send in additional information when a prospect requests it.
Marketing, as contrasted to advertising, is essentially a long-term effort. It mandates a huge amount of time and effort compared to some other programs but is perhaps the most important, depending on which product or service is featured in your particular Home Business. The first step in your marketing efforts should be a business plan. And the center of your plans is a specific goal your Home Business is trying to achieve. Marketing is the vehicle that will propel your Home Business toward your goal and make the best possible use of your budget as well as the most effective use of your time.
When you work as an independent consultant or home business, you alone are the sole marketer for your entity. In other words, there is not really a team to call upon for your marketing needs. And yet, you seek the exact same result, which is expanded awareness of the product or service offered by your Home Business. This being the case, then obviously a certain degree of salesmanship is essential in this ultra-competitive marketplace we are currently in, whether you business involves fly fishing in South Dakota or sailing off the South Carolina coastline.
Perhaps the most overlooked aspect of this marketing and salesmanship is the follow-up. Essentially, there is follow up with your current base and second, there is follow up with your potential customers. The fact is many businesses do not consistently follow up with their current customer base. When following up with your potential customers, or prospects, you should get a much better conversion ratio that when you first contacted them. And by no means should you neglect to follow up more than once, if necessary.
You will need to decide how often you would like to follow up with your customers or prospects. You basically want your prospect to not forget about you and to have enouph time to analyze your offer. You should also have some type of tracking system in place. Be ready to send in additional information when a prospect requests it.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Why Internet Business Cannot Escape from the Clutches of Search Engine
Whether you like it or not, the search engine will always remain the number ONE way for people to find your internet business website. There are practically no way any website can escape from the clutches of the search engine even in the future to come. After so many century of research, researchers still can't find a good replacement for petrol which cars still rely on and that explain why oil will keep rising in the future to come.
Yes, you may write FREE articles and submit it to the various ezine website and get traffic via your article resource box but ask yourself these questions:
In the first place, how do you find those ezine website to submit your article?
The majority of ezine writers still rely on the "Search Engine" to find ezine site to submit their articles by searching for keywords such as "article bank", "article directory" etc. Imagine the kind of time and effort required if you tried to find these ezine site without the "Search Engine".
How do MOST people find the relevant ezine site for information that they are looking for?
Again, the majority of us still rely on the "Search Engine" to find the relevant information that we need. Without the "Search Engine", information finders will not be able to find your articles that are listed on the various ezine website. With the help of powerful "Search Engine" like google, your relevant article will appear to the user in seconds.
As you can see from the above, the search engine act as a bridge for all internet website as it will be very difficult for someone to find information without a common ground such as the Search Engine.
Therefore, as an Internet Business Entrepreneur, it is VERY important for you to allocate part of your time to learn and understand the Search Engine. For example, Google has introduced some measured to fight Domain Spamming. If you are not aware of its changes and still register your Internet Business Domain with a short time span of one or two years, then don't wonder WHY you still did not received any Search Engine traffics even after staying in the Google Sandbox for nine to twelve months which has become the normal period before any NEW website is release as search results from the Google Search Engine.
Keeping your Internet Website within the Search Engine requirement allows you to receive FREE Search Engine traffics which will lead to increase customers for your Internet Business.
Of course, don't focus too much on your Search Engine Ranking Algorithm as it is something which keep changing and is beyond your control. Instead, seek to understand by creating a Search Engine Friendly website that make it easy for the Search Engine to indexed your web page. For e.g. creating relevant Title, Alt Text for Images, Getting only Highly Targeted Relevant Links, Estimate Numbers of Correct Keyword Density on Each Page etc.
However, do continue with your Article Marketing as it is a Good Marketing Strategy and include Search Engine Marketing as your second source of FREE traffics which at time when you tweak it correctly, your TRAFFICS can really double or triple of what you can get from your Article Marketing method.
Wishing all Internet Business Owner success in getting High Traffics from the "Search". Engine
Yes, you may write FREE articles and submit it to the various ezine website and get traffic via your article resource box but ask yourself these questions:
In the first place, how do you find those ezine website to submit your article?
The majority of ezine writers still rely on the "Search Engine" to find ezine site to submit their articles by searching for keywords such as "article bank", "article directory" etc. Imagine the kind of time and effort required if you tried to find these ezine site without the "Search Engine".
How do MOST people find the relevant ezine site for information that they are looking for?
Again, the majority of us still rely on the "Search Engine" to find the relevant information that we need. Without the "Search Engine", information finders will not be able to find your articles that are listed on the various ezine website. With the help of powerful "Search Engine" like google, your relevant article will appear to the user in seconds.
As you can see from the above, the search engine act as a bridge for all internet website as it will be very difficult for someone to find information without a common ground such as the Search Engine.
Therefore, as an Internet Business Entrepreneur, it is VERY important for you to allocate part of your time to learn and understand the Search Engine. For example, Google has introduced some measured to fight Domain Spamming. If you are not aware of its changes and still register your Internet Business Domain with a short time span of one or two years, then don't wonder WHY you still did not received any Search Engine traffics even after staying in the Google Sandbox for nine to twelve months which has become the normal period before any NEW website is release as search results from the Google Search Engine.
Keeping your Internet Website within the Search Engine requirement allows you to receive FREE Search Engine traffics which will lead to increase customers for your Internet Business.
Of course, don't focus too much on your Search Engine Ranking Algorithm as it is something which keep changing and is beyond your control. Instead, seek to understand by creating a Search Engine Friendly website that make it easy for the Search Engine to indexed your web page. For e.g. creating relevant Title, Alt Text for Images, Getting only Highly Targeted Relevant Links, Estimate Numbers of Correct Keyword Density on Each Page etc.
However, do continue with your Article Marketing as it is a Good Marketing Strategy and include Search Engine Marketing as your second source of FREE traffics which at time when you tweak it correctly, your TRAFFICS can really double or triple of what you can get from your Article Marketing method.
Wishing all Internet Business Owner success in getting High Traffics from the "Search". Engine
10 Affordable Ways to Promote Your Business
We all need ways to promote our businesses, and most of us would prefer not to spend a fortune in the process. There are so many methods, both online and offline, but I have decided to list ten of my favorites in this article.
Some of these methods are free, and the others cost very little. Why should anyone spend a great deal of money promoting a business when it is just not necessary? Some would argue that the more money you spend, the better results you will see. I just don’t agree. Anything that gets your business name out there is valuable, no matter what it costs.
Look at the following free and affordable methods that many people use:
1. Email signatures (free)
2. Flyers (inexpensive)
3. Magnetic car signs (nominal cost)
4. Business cards (inexpensive)
5. Article writing (free)
6. Forums (free)
7. Classified ads (both free and nominal cost)
8. Websites (nominal cost)
9. Brochures (inexpensive)
10. Bumper stickers (inexpensive)
Let’s look at these individually. Each time you send an email, which is then forwarded to each recipient’s address list, and so on; consider how many sets of eyes are seeing your email signature, which includes your website address or business information.
When you leave flyers on public bulletin boards or restroom stall doors, imagine how many people are looking at your business information.
In the course of your daily activities, numerous people see your car sign advertising your business.
If you leave your business card at every business that you enter, send them out with each bill you pay, and leave one with every tip for every meal, you could be advertising to dozens of people each day.
When you submit a well-written, informative article to the article directories, your article may be picked up and re-printed by someone else on their website, with your resource box information attached, which of course lists your website address.
Participating in forums and providing valuable input makes you appear very knowledgeable and lends credibility to you and your business.
Classified ads, both online and offline, are seen daily by tons of people.
Some say that a business website is not necessary, but it is the best way to market yourself, and not your opportunity, first.
Business brochures left in each business that you enter, especially those with waiting rooms, is a great way to advertise. After all, what else do people in waiting rooms have to do?
Placing a business bumper sticker on your vehicle ensures that everyone behind you in traffic sees the ad for your business.
All of these methods used together give your business a lot of exposure. Of course, you may not be comfortable using all of them. You could select just a few of the ten listed here and still be promoting your business effectively.
About half of the promotion methods that I mention in this article are online, the other half are offline methods. Whether you prefer to use only online methods, or to advertise only in the offline world, there are plenty of free and low-cost ways to do it. If you use your imagination, I am sure you could come up with some great ideas of your own.
The bottom line is you don’t have to spend a lot of money to get the word out. Each of these free and inexpensive methods works just as well, in my humble opinion. If you are looking for ways to let others know about you, I recommend that you try some of these ideas before spending your hard-earned money on expensive advertising.
Some of these methods are free, and the others cost very little. Why should anyone spend a great deal of money promoting a business when it is just not necessary? Some would argue that the more money you spend, the better results you will see. I just don’t agree. Anything that gets your business name out there is valuable, no matter what it costs.
Look at the following free and affordable methods that many people use:
1. Email signatures (free)
2. Flyers (inexpensive)
3. Magnetic car signs (nominal cost)
4. Business cards (inexpensive)
5. Article writing (free)
6. Forums (free)
7. Classified ads (both free and nominal cost)
8. Websites (nominal cost)
9. Brochures (inexpensive)
10. Bumper stickers (inexpensive)
Let’s look at these individually. Each time you send an email, which is then forwarded to each recipient’s address list, and so on; consider how many sets of eyes are seeing your email signature, which includes your website address or business information.
When you leave flyers on public bulletin boards or restroom stall doors, imagine how many people are looking at your business information.
In the course of your daily activities, numerous people see your car sign advertising your business.
If you leave your business card at every business that you enter, send them out with each bill you pay, and leave one with every tip for every meal, you could be advertising to dozens of people each day.
When you submit a well-written, informative article to the article directories, your article may be picked up and re-printed by someone else on their website, with your resource box information attached, which of course lists your website address.
Participating in forums and providing valuable input makes you appear very knowledgeable and lends credibility to you and your business.
Classified ads, both online and offline, are seen daily by tons of people.
Some say that a business website is not necessary, but it is the best way to market yourself, and not your opportunity, first.
Business brochures left in each business that you enter, especially those with waiting rooms, is a great way to advertise. After all, what else do people in waiting rooms have to do?
Placing a business bumper sticker on your vehicle ensures that everyone behind you in traffic sees the ad for your business.
All of these methods used together give your business a lot of exposure. Of course, you may not be comfortable using all of them. You could select just a few of the ten listed here and still be promoting your business effectively.
About half of the promotion methods that I mention in this article are online, the other half are offline methods. Whether you prefer to use only online methods, or to advertise only in the offline world, there are plenty of free and low-cost ways to do it. If you use your imagination, I am sure you could come up with some great ideas of your own.
The bottom line is you don’t have to spend a lot of money to get the word out. Each of these free and inexpensive methods works just as well, in my humble opinion. If you are looking for ways to let others know about you, I recommend that you try some of these ideas before spending your hard-earned money on expensive advertising.
Monday, February 18, 2008
Marketing your Home Business Venture
There are a plethera of ways that you may market your Home Business, many of which are either free or very inexpensive. Effectively marketing your Home Business is crucial to your ultimate success. As a matter of fact, the key to growing a business, and especially a new Home Business, is marketing. One cheap, and sometimes free method for promoting your Home Business is the World Wide Web. Once you have a domain name (which can be bought for as little as $6 nowadays) and a reliable webhost (as little as $7 a month for reliable one, even less for a budget host), you may get going on promoting your business online. Contrary to popular belief, this may be done for free in some cases if you are willing to spend the extra time on the project. If you are unwilling to do this, you can pay someone to optimize your site and promote it for you, which is generally cost effective. It is possible, however to promote your business online with no marketing budget at all. The key is to market it aggressively, guerilla marketing style. This means using every free marketing resource at your disposal, like free classifieds, newsgroups, search engine promotion, niche directories, press releases, forums, articles and free mailing lists and ezines, to name just a few. Just pleasedo not spam. There are many free resources throughout the web covering these free resources. You can sign up for their free newsletters or look for their websites using your favorite search engine. Speaking of search engines, most of the traffic on the internet still comes from the free engines such as Google, despite a recent influx of pay per click or pay per performance search engines such as Overture and adwords. Offline marketing methods are generally covered in the "starter kit" of your Home Business and includes such methods such as distributing newsletters with your product or service and contact number listed inside, trade shows, brochures, flyers, advertising in either local or regional newspapers and/or "penny savers", and passing out audio cassetes about your product or business to others who might be interested. The potential marketing techniques are almost limitless and it may be best to look to your "starter kit" or starter guide as it will probably go into great detail about which offline marketing methods have been proven to work best in that particular product or line of business. The bottom line is, action always beats inaction, as you gain experience and create a synergy that push your Home Business to your goals.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Growing your Home Business Venture
Now that you have left the regular job world to start your Home Business, It should be dawning on you that your success depends on you and you alone. Your Home Business is thus more than likely run on a shoestring budget. All of this means that you are doing essentially everything yourself. You are now CEO, the customer service rep, sales manager and gopher. Basically, you are wearing all of the hats. Think of it as being a Movie Star who decides to direct, produce and edit the movie himself, so that their complete vision makes it on the screen or because their limited budget necessitates it. Just as well since when you start your Home Business you will rarely have many options. Eventually, however, if you continue to do everything yourself you will limit your growth. Early on, do not launch a full scale marketing campaign until you have the business resources to satisfy the demand available to you. Allow your advertising to grow at the natural pace of your business. As you are starting out, put your profit right back into your business to upgrade infrastructure and service or advertising, etc. This is where your expansion money during the next growth phase of your business will come from. Do not use your Home Business's profits to pay for your personal expenses. Instead, pay yourself a simple salary and then put every penny of profits right back in the business. It takes some discipline to do this, but it will allow business growth. In the early days of your Home Business, you should probably go with low cost alternatives before incurring sizeable expenditure. So do not buy a new fax machine, answering machine or computer if you can get by with a cheaper used one. Use an accounting software program rather than hiring an accountant if you can. You can also hire temporary help from a temp service, if necessary. Of course there are numerous things you can do yourself in the beginning that take time but will save you much needed capital. Instead of hiring a Search Engine Optimization firm for your website, for example, you can take a free online tutorial and optimize your site and submit it to the search engines yourself. You can distribute flyers and brochures by hand wherever you can before paying for space.
Getting started on Your Home Business Venture
The difference between a pipe dream and a great idea is simply persistence. Here are few tips to get started on your Home Based Business right away and get on the path to your ultimate goal, beat procrastination and hours of indecision: (1) Get leverage on yourself - tell enough people what your goal is (2) Understand your standard excuses and do not listen to them anymore. (3) Break the goal into bite size chunks and reward yourself on the journey (4) Take a fork in the road and simply get started. This is according according to leading Business Coach Brad Tonini who has just released his latest book "Make It Happen Now!" Brad says that procrastination is paralyzing to peak performance, and it comes from these key reasons: (1) The task is just plain overwhelming (2) You may have a fear of failure or fear of success (3) You seek perfection and so never get started (4) You fear a lack of control (5) You haven't associated sufficient pleasure or pain to the task to get you moving. It is really remarkable how we can talk ourselves right out of things, we create self-doubt in our mind and then we then translate this to negative self talk. The more we make decisive decisions and get started on a new path or one that we have desired, we begin to feel empowered, excited or enthused about making the goal come to fruition. But the opposite of procrastination is commitment. According to the esteemed James Womack, commitment unlocks the doors to imagination, allows for vision, and gives us the "right stuff" to turn our dreams into reality. Mack R. Douglas was quoted as saying "The achievement of your goal is gauranteed the moment you commit yourself to it". Powerful Stuff indeed. In that same vein, Pearl Buck said, " don't wait for moods. You accomplish nothing if you do that. Your mind must know it has to get down to work". And Albert Einstein said, "Three rules of work (1) out of clutter, find simplicity, (2) from discord, find harmony and (3) in the middle of difficulty, lies opportunity". Remember to always be persistent, that is truly a key. Just do the work everyday and refuse to ever let up. And when you need help, ask for it. Then Keep the momentum going! Don't give up or take anything personally. And speaking of commitment, to be successful in a Home Business, you have to be nothing less than a fanatic who is completely committed to making your Home Business not only a successful venture, but a profound commitment for your entire life. You will only fail if you quit. Keep in mind that this is all about independence from the drudgery of working for someone else your entire life. Work for yourself! Your health may depend on it.
Friday, February 15, 2008
shakti-net
STARTING HOME BUSINESS
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Starting a home business is a very important decision, and there are some typical home business resources you will need to have in order for you to succeed. Home business resources are assets, services and systems you will need to make your home business run smoothly; and also other steps you will need to take to make sure that you will succeed with your business.So, to start a successful home business, what resources and steps do you need to take?? A clearly laid out business plan. Without a business plan and goals to achieve, then you can not get anywhere. A business plan will map out what you need to succeed and how you will achieve your goals.? Good research. Whatever your business will need, you will need to be well informed about it. So you will need to do me research so that you become an expert on the niche, product or service. Knowledge about the business is an important home business resource, so you must do the necessary research to be well-informed about the industry or product/service.? A well set-up office. Your office is another important home business resource. You will need to be productive while working from home. You will therefore need an office that has all you will need to run a smooth business; a computer, printer, internet access, fax, telephone, business cards and a conducive work environment. A suitable desk and appropriate lighting in your office is also an important resource that is often underestimated in its importance. You will sometimes work for many hours in a day, and your work space needs to be comfortable. Allocate some money towards setting up a working environment you will enjoy working from everyday!? Some money to cover capital outlay and running costs is an important home business resource which you will need. Any business requires some form of investment, and you will need to know how much you have, and how much investments and ongoing marketing your business will need for it to succeed. It is therefore recommended that you start your business while you are still employed, so that you have some income to live on while you are still building your business.? Support system. This can be a mentor; someone who has succeeded with a similar business, or simply your family and friends. You need to have people close to you who will encourage you and give you any support you need. You can also join a forum of people with the same business like yours. A good support network is a very important home business resource.? Business leads and clients are a crucial home business resource. Making and creating contacts and networking is very important - you need to start building your potential clients base before you launch your business. Start marketing your business by giving away some products and services. By creating a relationship with your potential customers, you build trust with them, and when you launch your business, it will be easy for them to buy from you.? Be professional! The way you run your business and relate to your customers is very important. Be prepared to 'go the extra mile' with your customers. Care about your customers, and provide all the information they may need. ? Hire any professional help you may need. Treat your business professionally, and if you need the services of a lawyer or accountant, hire/outsource it. It is more productive and effective to get experts to do what you can not do, leaving you time to focus on your business. You will want to do the best for your business; so if there are any home business resources you do not have, outsource them.If you have the home business resources outlined above, then your business will succeed. Although your home business may only be a small venture, treat it like a real business, and get all the home business resources any business will need in order to be successful.
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Starting a home business is a very important decision, and there are some typical home business resources you will need to have in order for you to succeed. Home business resources are assets, services and systems you will need to make your home business run smoothly; and also other steps you will need to take to make sure that you will succeed with your business.So, to start a successful home business, what resources and steps do you need to take?? A clearly laid out business plan. Without a business plan and goals to achieve, then you can not get anywhere. A business plan will map out what you need to succeed and how you will achieve your goals.? Good research. Whatever your business will need, you will need to be well informed about it. So you will need to do me research so that you become an expert on the niche, product or service. Knowledge about the business is an important home business resource, so you must do the necessary research to be well-informed about the industry or product/service.? A well set-up office. Your office is another important home business resource. You will need to be productive while working from home. You will therefore need an office that has all you will need to run a smooth business; a computer, printer, internet access, fax, telephone, business cards and a conducive work environment. A suitable desk and appropriate lighting in your office is also an important resource that is often underestimated in its importance. You will sometimes work for many hours in a day, and your work space needs to be comfortable. Allocate some money towards setting up a working environment you will enjoy working from everyday!? Some money to cover capital outlay and running costs is an important home business resource which you will need. Any business requires some form of investment, and you will need to know how much you have, and how much investments and ongoing marketing your business will need for it to succeed. It is therefore recommended that you start your business while you are still employed, so that you have some income to live on while you are still building your business.? Support system. This can be a mentor; someone who has succeeded with a similar business, or simply your family and friends. You need to have people close to you who will encourage you and give you any support you need. You can also join a forum of people with the same business like yours. A good support network is a very important home business resource.? Business leads and clients are a crucial home business resource. Making and creating contacts and networking is very important - you need to start building your potential clients base before you launch your business. Start marketing your business by giving away some products and services. By creating a relationship with your potential customers, you build trust with them, and when you launch your business, it will be easy for them to buy from you.? Be professional! The way you run your business and relate to your customers is very important. Be prepared to 'go the extra mile' with your customers. Care about your customers, and provide all the information they may need. ? Hire any professional help you may need. Treat your business professionally, and if you need the services of a lawyer or accountant, hire/outsource it. It is more productive and effective to get experts to do what you can not do, leaving you time to focus on your business. You will want to do the best for your business; so if there are any home business resources you do not have, outsource them.If you have the home business resources outlined above, then your business will succeed. Although your home business may only be a small venture, treat it like a real business, and get all the home business resources any business will need in order to be successful.
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