Hints And Helpful Ideas For The Home Business Owner

Running a home business is an exciting venture. It can be a little scary, too. There are so many things to learn and to coordinate. You have to figure out a daily routine, keep improving your skills, and take care of lots of paperwork.

The helpful tips in this article can make these tasks and many others a lot easier for you.

You should be able to talk about your business plan and goals in a few sentences. If you're able to tell others what your business is about in a couple of sentences, you can impress people when you're speaking with them.

3 Benefits of Social Networking

Social networking is an advertising method that uses social networks to build ones business presence on the internet. Although, social networking has been around since the stone ages, it is still in its first stages of development on the internet; it is here to stay.

It can be a very powerful tool to an internet business user if it is used correctly. There are quite a few benefits to social network advertising but the more common ones will be listed here.

1. Cost

It is a lot cheaper for a business owner to advertise in social networks than paying for advertising. This is because social networks are free to join and interact. This is a great benefit for those that are just starting out and do not have a lot of money to use for advertising.

Also when you use social networks you can prescreen potential customers and create a customer profile. This would cost a lot of money if you would do this outside the social network community.

Also the personal relationship that you create with your new potential customer is more valuable than any other advertising campaign.

Too many business owners today still believe in the old advertising philosophy that one size fits all. This belief is no longer true with all the new methods available and if you are following this method you stand to lose a lot of money in the future.

2. Trust

Connecting with your potential clients on some personal level builds trust and credibility. A good rule of thumb for a business owner to follow, especially in social networking, is to offer your services, expertise, or help before a person asks you for it. This will gain trust with the potential client.

You should only offer your product or service only if your client asks. Do not try to jam your product or service in their face as you will lose their trust and you will lose your credibility.

If you are not careful when offering your product or service, you could get into trouble for spamming which will also cause you to lose the trust and credibility factor. Instead, you need to follow the practice of waiting till the opportunity to promote is brought to you.

3. Whom you know

When you interact in social networking, you meet people who know people and on down the line. Social networking should benefit both parties so never take more than you are willing to give. If the opportunity presents itself never hesitate to ask for any potential leads from your contact. More often than not you will get a whole list from your contact.

There are many other benefits to using social networking as a marketing tool. To get results from these benefits you need to be sure that you have the time to spend. It takes time to build trust, credibility and relationships.

Sell Online Products through Affiliate Marketing Strategies

Do you want to sell online products?  It is actually not all that difficult to get started selling products online.

You don’t even have to create or develop your own product to sell online products.

Affiliate marketing is a strategy where you sell other people’s products.

Start a Computer Business in Your Spare Time

There’s never been a better time to start a computer business.

While the overall economy is in the tank, advertising expenditures on the internet are constantly going up.

The internet is sucking all of the advertising from print and television.

What is even better is that it is incredibly easy to start a computer business.  There’s very little cost involved and you can get started in your spare time without leaving your job.

Change Your Social Media Marketing Outlook With These Excellent Pointers

Social networking is absolutely everywhere. You can tweet a large corporation, visit the Facebook page for your local dentist, and even instant message an old friend at the same time. If you find yourself checking your social media accounts often, consider adding a page for your business.

Why It Seems So Hard to Get Hired for Your Services!

To answer this question let’s first take a look at the difference between promoting products VS services.

Products often have cool features that show results quickly.

Talk about the benefits of a feature and how it’ll make your customer’s life easier and you’ll probably get a sale.  

Services on the other hand, are intangible.

There are no buttons to push or “before and after” pictures to see. Services often get categorized as “luxury items” we can usually survive without.  They are more challenging to sell because the “results” of a service can be difficult to quantify measure or prove.

Many “hard sell” sales trainers shy away from working with service providers. It is easier to train someone to sell products with features you can see and results you can prove.  

After four years in the corporate world selling products (Electronic telephone systems), I transferred into yellow pages advertising.  Many of the “sales” techniques we used to sell telephones wouldn’t work at all in advertising!

I quickly found out that I needed new sales techniques to promote the intangible results of advertising.

Authors, Coaches, Consultants, etc. produce results that improve the human side of life and business and “Alternative Healers” deal with subtle energies that may take longer to produce quantifiable results.  To the average consumer, these are luxuries that, although desirable and beneficial, can be “done without” if money is tight.

Most of my clients haven’t got a clue how to tell people about the benefits and results of their good services. They feel frustrated and wonder why clients are so hard to get. Many are good at explaining how they work and what tools they use.

The problem is that most consumers couldn’t care less about how you work. We care more about the benefits we’ll experience after hiring you. We want to be clear on what results you can deliver in exchange for our hard-earned money.  

“What’s in it for me?” your customers are asking. It is time to stop feature-dumping!  Features only imply that a “process” is beneficial, or a “technique” is going to help…. As service providers we must be able to describe clear results to potential clients.

Success Story:

One client arrived in despair.  She had a great service as a professional organizer and sadly, few customers to show for it.

I asked her to give me the top 10 benefits of her good service…alas she (like many others responding to this request) provided a list of top 10 features instead.

She listed “features” that describe how she gets to a result. Features like:
  - Customized quotes
  - Office flow organization tweaking
  - Created new filing systems
  - Ergonomic layouts for offices, etc.

Sound pretty good, don’t’ they?  Sure, and her customers seemed interested and keen, BUT they were not following through and hiring her.  

I helped her articulate a more effective sales list of the benefits and results of her good work. Results like:
   - Added value of charging only her client’s specific needs
   - Improved and streamlined office procedures
   - To save time and decrease frustrations
   - Ability to provide better customer service
   - Increased efficiency with improved filing structure
   - Less time wasted due to poor office layout
   - Resulting in increased productivity all around.

We created a list of 6 good questions she can ask to uncover if a client needs organizational help.  Why waste time telling clients all about our services if they don’t need them?

Now, my client will always ask questions to find out first if someone seriously needs her service. If they do, she tells them with confidence about the results she can provide and is more secure asking for their business.

By following these guidelines you too can get hired faster with more confidence practically every time!  

"Anna Kanary's Sales class was exactly what I needed! As someone with very little sales background and who struggles to close the deal with potential clients, this class gave me the format, confidence, clarity and momentum I needed to get out there and get more clients!

Anna's expertise combined with her warmth makes this class not only exceptional but necessary...you will get more than you ever expected!"

Sarah O. Bloomquist, Personal Life Coach, Innermost Coaching, www.innermostcoaching.com

5 Low Cost High Profit Businesses You Can Start From Home While Working In Your Pajamas

There are two type of people in the world. Those who see the glass half empty and those who see it half full.

This experience was heightened for me when I had lunch with an old colleague from work and he began to complain about how only rich people could start a business.

I thought he was joking.

As I sat and listened he ranted for almost ten minutes giving all the reasons he could not start his own business and get out of the rat race. He talked about the high cost of start ups, franchising and real estate development.

When he finally came up for air I decided to ask simply ask him one question. Mark, “Have you every asked yourself what kind of low cost businesses with high profit margins are out there?”

He looked like he had been run over by a truck. I went on to say, “You are just asking the wrong question.” He sat for a minute and said, “Ok, if you’re so smart give me some ideas.”

I said, “Great. Oh and by the way let's make it fun and focus on the ones you can work from home in your pajamas.”

7 Habits of Outrageously Successful Work At Home Businesses

You’'ve read the ads or seen the infomercials. “Build a six or seven figure income while lounging in your pyjamas in your work at home business.” For many people who hear this, their scam detector goes up and they become defensive.

Why? Because they have heard countless horror stories of people who have lost their shirt trying to create a business from home.

However, the truth is there are thousands of home based entrepreneurs around the country who have cracked the code, created their place in the world and taking it to the bank.

Be Vocal With Your Goals

Whether you’'re trying to make more time for yourself or whether you’'re trying to lose weight, one thing you’'ll often find yourself wondering is whether or not you should tell your friends your new goals.

On the one hand, telling friends goals is a great conversation topic, it’s fun to share things that are going on in our lives and we might be able to get advice from them – especially if they have recently given up smoking!

Having your friends and family in your corner ensures that they’re not going to inadvertently make your life more difficult – by offering you that cigarette for instance or by inviting you out to lots of events when you’re trying to cut back.

7 Reasons Why an MLM Business is the Best Kind to Own

A lot of people are down on network marketing businesses (also know as multi-level marketing or MLM), but I’d like to give you 7 reasons why a network marketing business is the best kind of business to own.

1. Your chances for success are better in network marketing. 

Yes, some people fail at it. In MLM or network marketing, you will often find that 20% of the people are making 80% of the money. Do you know what? That is exactly the same as the church I belong to-- 20% of the people who attend are actively involved and do 80% of the work that needs to be done.

I’m not surprised that it is similar in MLM. People are people. Some of the people who fail at network marketing are not motivated, some aren’t cut out for self employment, some are in the wrong company for them, and some are just not properly trained. But a motivated and trained person in a good company has a great chance of succeeding in their business.

On the other hand, if you start a “traditional” business your odds of success are much lower. According to the SBA, at least 50% of small businesses fail in their first year and 95% fail within the first five years. So, after 5 years of 12 hour days, in debt up to your eyeballs, you only have a 5% chance of succeeding. For some reason that just doesn’t do it for me.


2. The costs are much less to get into a network marketing business. 

Most network marketing companies ask for a monthly minimum order to keep an active distributor status, it is true. This is part of what keeps the machine running. It is part of the business operating costs. It may be as much as $100, depending on the company.

Now compare that to the costs of traditional business ownership, like rent, utilities, inventory, insurance, taxes, employees, marketing and advertising, and much more. I think you get the idea.

You don’t have to be rich or go deep in debt to have your own home based network marketing business. It truly is an equalizer, giving everyone a fair chance at succeeding, no matter what the financial background or credit history is.


3. A network marketing business is simpler to run. 

If you had your own business hopefully you could afford to hire an accountant and a secretary who would keep all your red-tape, paperwork, receipts, bookkeeping and such. If not, you would spend much of your time doing this.

With MLM, the company you are with handles most of the paperwork. You just need to keep your own financial records for your income taxes. This frees you up to spend your time and energy making money.


4. A network marketing business is easier to market and promote. 

Most people who have their own “traditional” business are on their own when it comes to marketing and advertising. They usually try a little of everything to see if something will actually work. Often desperate business owners get taken in by slick sales people who promise results with their newest expensive advertising scheme.

A network marketing company has a proven marketing system that has been tested and used by many people. They will usually have their own marketing material that can be purchased at a lower cost because they can order in larger quantities.


5. You get the business training you need to succeed network marketing. 

You don’t need to know anything about business to be successful in MLM. Your company has done all the work and research. They often hire the best marketers in the business to help them develop a training program because really want you to succeed and will do everything in their power to help you.

In traditional business you have to find the training you need on your own.


6. With a home based network marketing business, taxes are on your side. 

There are many deductions you can take with a home based network marketing business that will help you reduce your taxes.

On the other hand, the government (federal, state, and local) all seem to have it in for traditional small businesses. And if you have employees, you are really paying much more for them than their salary, as any employer can tell you.


7. Network marketing is the future. 

Some people say that network marketing or MLM is a pyramid scheme. That is not true. A pyramid scheme is illegal because it doesn’t work. There is no product, and thus no value to it. The people at the bottom put money in but the value doesn’t flow down to them. It is a scam because only the people who got in at the top make any money. Most of the people get ripped off. A good example of this is chain letters or the airplane game.

A pyramid the natural shape of structure for all businesses, including governments. A network marketing organization is no exception. Network marketing is just a new way to distribute and market goods and services. It is the way of the future. Even many huge traditional companies see this and are jumping on board.

Are you ready to give it a try? There are a lot of great network marketing companies out there. Do some research and try find the company that is right for you.