DON'T DAWDLE. Jim "Griff" Griffith, author of The eBay Bible and dean of eBay Education, says many new sellers feel overwhelmed at first. "A lot of new sellers spend too much time studying the site, and that's a mistake, as you can easily get hung up on 'paralysis by analysis,'" he says. Griff advises you to start small and slow, research the market on eBay, and then put one item up to get started. "If you do it methodically and slowly, you can list your first item in an hour or so and be up and running."
For more ideas on where to find product sources, go to www.entrepreneur.com/ebay/productsources.
Step 3: Manage the Auction Process
There are several types of eBay auctions. In a basic auction, you post your item with a starting price and wait for bidders to drive the price up until a closing time, which can be three, five, seven or lo days later, when the auction ends. You are then obligated to sell to the highest bidder.
You can also set a reserve price, which is a hidden minimum price that is the lowest amount you're willing to accept. Buyers are not shown the reserve price, and if it is not met, you are not obligated to sell the item.
If you have two or more identical items for sale, you can post them in the same auction by using a Dutch (or Multiple Item) Auction.
If you don't like auctions, eBay also has a "Buy It Now" feature that gives bidders the option to buy your item immediately for a set price. Or you can choose a fixed-price listing, which simply puts the item up for sale at a set price, with no bidding allowed.
To sell on eBay, you'll pay a listing fee to post your merchandise and a final value fee (a small percentage of the sale price) when the item sells. These fees change from time to time, so be sure to check the eBay site to make sure you can pay all the fees and still make a profit.
A number of books offer advice on reducing the amount of time and effort necessary to create eBay auction pages, such as Marsha Collier's eBay Timesaving Techniques For Dummies, Janelle Elms' eBay Your Business and Joseph T. Sinclair's eBay Business the Smart Way. Entrepreneur magazine's Startup Guide #1824, How to Start a Business on eBay, is available at www.smallbizbooks.com.
Software can also help you streamline the auction management process. Listing programs, such as Turbo-Lister (available for free from eBay) and Zdrop (www.ztradingpost.com), enable you to create multiple auction pages on your PC and upload them as a "batch" to eBay. Full-service auction-management programs like AuctionHelper (www.auctionhelper.com) and Zoovy (www.zoovy.com) handle almost everything, from inventory management to label printing.
Step 4: Provide Great Customer Service
Buyers will ask you questions about your merchandise, and if you don't respond promptly, they won't bid. Top-notch service also means shipping your goods to the winning buyer within two to three days after the auction closes, or as soon as you receive payment.
When an eBay auction is completed, the goods shipped and payment made, you and your buyer can comment on each other in eBay's Feedback Forum. Buyers rely on the Feedback Forum to determine how reliable a seller is. But watch out: If buyers aren't happy with your customer service or your merchandise, they will post negative or neutral feedback. Many buyers will not deal with a seller who has less than a specified number of positive feedback postings in the forum, or a seller who has too many negative feedback postings.
Unfortunately, some customers will threaten to leave negative feedback if you don't do what they want, even if they are being unreasonable. Most of the time, you're best advised to meet their demands because "the customer is always right," and because you want to avoid negative feedback on eBay at all costs.
In cases where a buyer posts negative feedback that is inaccurate or unfair, eBay affords you a limited opportunity to respond to the negative posting and tell buyers your side of the story. In extreme cases, eBay's SquareTrade service helps mediate disputes between eBay buyers and sellers.
Step 5: Build a Brand on eBay On eBay, sellers are offered a number of tools to help establish their brand identities, including:
* ABOUT ME: A free page that enables you to describe your business and any relevant information that would make buyers feel more comfortable buying from you.
* EBAY STORES: A virtual storefront that puts all of your current auctions together in one place, so buyers can see everything you're selling at a glance. You'll pay a monthly fee based on the level of store services you want, plus additional fees for items listed and sold.
* CUSTOMIZING TOOLS; A number of features (accessible from your "My eBay" page) that enable you to make your pages stand out from others offering similar merchandise.
Like any marketplace, eBay is constantly changing. "A lot of people get set in a comfort zone, especially if they have an initial rush of success," says Griff. "If you get to the point that you really feel comfortable you know what you're doing on eBay, I guarantee you there's a brick flying at the side of your head at 80 miles an hour that you're not seeing because you're not looking in that direction."
You can expect pricing and demand on eBay to change over time. As more and more people start operating on eBay, competition will increase and prices may decline slightly. Still, keep in mind that eBay has reached only a small fraction of its potential worldwide market. And it will continue to grow even faster as internet access becomes more readily available worldwide. "EBay is the leader in internet auctions," says Morphy. "It has such a strong hold on the market and such a huge following, you can't beat it."
ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: For more information on starting a business on eBay, log on to our eBay Business Center at www.entrepreneur.com/ebay. If you're new to doing business online, we've got you covered. Check out our free downloadable PDF, "The Entrepreneur's Guide to Doing Business Online" by Rieva Lesonsky, at www. entrepreneur.com/ebay/paypalguide. It discusses marketing, customer service, shipping charges, payment methods, helpful resources and more.
BECOME AN EBAY EDUCATION SPECIALIST
For those of you who already know all about eBay and are looking for a new way to make money with it, eBay University offers an Education Specialist program that will train you to teach eBay's "Selling Basics" course to others. Upon completing the $149 online training program, you'll be able to advertise your own training events in eBay's Education Specialist directory, have access to official student-training materials from ebay, be able to use the "Education Specialist--Trained by ebay" logo on your business cards and more. For details, log on to http://pages.ebay.com/university/specialist.
CLIFF ENNICO (www.cliffennico.com), best known as co-host of the PBS TV series Money Hunt, is author of Small Business Survival Guide and a faculty member of eBay University (www.ebay.com/university/), where he teaches the legal and tax aspects of starting an eBay business.
COPYRIGHT 2005 Entrepreneur Media, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning
Friday, December 19, 2008
eBay made easy: ready to start an eBay business? Part 1
May, 2005 by Cliff Ennico
Ten years after being formed in 1995, eBay has become the world's leading online marketplace for all sorts of goods. At any given time, 29 million items are available worldwide on eBay, with more than 3.5 million new items added every day and $1,000 worth of merchandise sold every second. The online auction site has 135 million registered users in 32 international markets, and more than 430,000 people in the United States alone make a full- or part-time living on eBay.
If you think eBay is just about bobblehead dolls and Pez dispensers, think again. While $2.2 billion worth of goods in collectibles were sold on eBay in 2004, antiques and collectibles ranked only No. 6 among eBay's sales categories. The five highest were: automobiles and auto supplies ($11.1 billion); consumer electronics ($3-5 billion); computers ($3.0 billion); clothes and accessories ($2.9 billion); and books, movies and music ($2.4 billion).
Real people are making big bucks on eBay--and thousands have even reached PowerSeller status by maintaining at least $1,000 per month in sales for three consecutive months. Case in point: Angle Cash, 37, a stay-at-home mom who started selling on eBay nearly six years ago because it was "something I could do and watch the kids at the same time." Today, her Kennesaw, Georgia, company, Cashco1000 Inc. (www. cashco1000.com), sells thousands of home-decoration and other items each month on eBay and expects to break $500,000 in sales on eBay this year.
Even owners of existing businesses have found success on eBay by using it as an adjunct to their brick-and-mortar operations. Dan Morphy, 33, runs the Adamstown Antique Gallery (www.aagal.com), a 10,000-square-foot antiques mall in Denver, Pennsylvania. After a few successful eBay auctions, he started offering the antiques vendors who rent space in his gallery the opportunity to sell five items a month on eBay, at no charge other than out-of-pocket expenses. Within two years, Morphy not only had a full gallery of dealers, but was also listing 700 pieces a month and had exceeded $2.5 million in eBay sales.
If you dream of building your own eBay business, it's easier than you think. We've distilled what you need to know into five basic steps.
Step 1: Register Your Business
Getting set up as an eBay seller is a simple process that takes just a few minutes. You'll be required to provide your name, address, e-mail and phone number, as well as a credit card number and your checking account information. This information is used to confirm your identity--which protects the integrity of eBay's operation--and to collect auction fees.
Since every eBay business is a retail business, you should also register your business with federal, state and local tax authorities and consider forming a corporation or an LLC to protect you against legal liability. (For more legal issues you should know about before you start, go to www.entrepreneur.com/ebay/legaltips.)
Most eBay sellers are also encouraged to open an account with PayPal, an online payment service owned by eBay that enables buyers to pay you by credit card or by debiting their checking accounts, without you having to obtain merchant card accounts.
Step 2: Find Stuff to Sell
This can be the biggest challenge in setting up an eBay business. Keep these points in mind:
* PICK THE RIGHT PRODUCT. Select something you'll enjoy selling and that stands a good chance of making a profit. Avoid merchandise you know absolutely nothing about, that's difficult to describe in a short paragraph, that won't photograph well or that's tricky to ship without damage.
* CONSIDER COST AND SALE PRICE. "Buyers and sellers on eBay set the price--you don't," says Melissa Sands, 35, who started selling on eBay in 1999 to help her husband, a comic-book dealer, get rid of excess inventory. Today, Sands runs Sands-o-Time (www. sands-o-time.com), an eBay store selling pottery, porcelain, glass, silver, costume jewelry and more with sales averaging $8,000 to $12,000 per month. Before you buy anything, find out what other similar items have sold for on eBay and ask yourself if there's a good chance you will make money.
* SELL RELATED MERCHANDISE. "If you make it easy for people to buy something, they will want to buy more from you--and you have to have related merchandise in stock," advises Cash. "So, for example, if you're selling collectibles, you should also carry the display racks, books and other accessories those particular collectors will want to have."
* MAKE SURE YOU HAVE ENOUGH STORAGE SPACE FOR YOUR MERCHANDISE. Don't start ordering pallets of large items if your basement or garage is small, or if your front door isn't big enough to squeeze the crates through.
* LEARN HOW TO PACK AND SHIP GOODS. Calculating shipping costs properly is also important. To help you with this, eBay, FedEx, UPS and the U.S. Postal Service all offer shipping calculators on their websites. Buyers really hate it if they think you're gouging them on the shipping and handling fees.
Ten years after being formed in 1995, eBay has become the world's leading online marketplace for all sorts of goods. At any given time, 29 million items are available worldwide on eBay, with more than 3.5 million new items added every day and $1,000 worth of merchandise sold every second. The online auction site has 135 million registered users in 32 international markets, and more than 430,000 people in the United States alone make a full- or part-time living on eBay.
If you think eBay is just about bobblehead dolls and Pez dispensers, think again. While $2.2 billion worth of goods in collectibles were sold on eBay in 2004, antiques and collectibles ranked only No. 6 among eBay's sales categories. The five highest were: automobiles and auto supplies ($11.1 billion); consumer electronics ($3-5 billion); computers ($3.0 billion); clothes and accessories ($2.9 billion); and books, movies and music ($2.4 billion).
Real people are making big bucks on eBay--and thousands have even reached PowerSeller status by maintaining at least $1,000 per month in sales for three consecutive months. Case in point: Angle Cash, 37, a stay-at-home mom who started selling on eBay nearly six years ago because it was "something I could do and watch the kids at the same time." Today, her Kennesaw, Georgia, company, Cashco1000 Inc. (www. cashco1000.com), sells thousands of home-decoration and other items each month on eBay and expects to break $500,000 in sales on eBay this year.
Even owners of existing businesses have found success on eBay by using it as an adjunct to their brick-and-mortar operations. Dan Morphy, 33, runs the Adamstown Antique Gallery (www.aagal.com), a 10,000-square-foot antiques mall in Denver, Pennsylvania. After a few successful eBay auctions, he started offering the antiques vendors who rent space in his gallery the opportunity to sell five items a month on eBay, at no charge other than out-of-pocket expenses. Within two years, Morphy not only had a full gallery of dealers, but was also listing 700 pieces a month and had exceeded $2.5 million in eBay sales.
If you dream of building your own eBay business, it's easier than you think. We've distilled what you need to know into five basic steps.
Step 1: Register Your Business
Getting set up as an eBay seller is a simple process that takes just a few minutes. You'll be required to provide your name, address, e-mail and phone number, as well as a credit card number and your checking account information. This information is used to confirm your identity--which protects the integrity of eBay's operation--and to collect auction fees.
Since every eBay business is a retail business, you should also register your business with federal, state and local tax authorities and consider forming a corporation or an LLC to protect you against legal liability. (For more legal issues you should know about before you start, go to www.entrepreneur.com/ebay/legaltips.)
Most eBay sellers are also encouraged to open an account with PayPal, an online payment service owned by eBay that enables buyers to pay you by credit card or by debiting their checking accounts, without you having to obtain merchant card accounts.
Step 2: Find Stuff to Sell
This can be the biggest challenge in setting up an eBay business. Keep these points in mind:
* PICK THE RIGHT PRODUCT. Select something you'll enjoy selling and that stands a good chance of making a profit. Avoid merchandise you know absolutely nothing about, that's difficult to describe in a short paragraph, that won't photograph well or that's tricky to ship without damage.
* CONSIDER COST AND SALE PRICE. "Buyers and sellers on eBay set the price--you don't," says Melissa Sands, 35, who started selling on eBay in 1999 to help her husband, a comic-book dealer, get rid of excess inventory. Today, Sands runs Sands-o-Time (www. sands-o-time.com), an eBay store selling pottery, porcelain, glass, silver, costume jewelry and more with sales averaging $8,000 to $12,000 per month. Before you buy anything, find out what other similar items have sold for on eBay and ask yourself if there's a good chance you will make money.
* SELL RELATED MERCHANDISE. "If you make it easy for people to buy something, they will want to buy more from you--and you have to have related merchandise in stock," advises Cash. "So, for example, if you're selling collectibles, you should also carry the display racks, books and other accessories those particular collectors will want to have."
* MAKE SURE YOU HAVE ENOUGH STORAGE SPACE FOR YOUR MERCHANDISE. Don't start ordering pallets of large items if your basement or garage is small, or if your front door isn't big enough to squeeze the crates through.
* LEARN HOW TO PACK AND SHIP GOODS. Calculating shipping costs properly is also important. To help you with this, eBay, FedEx, UPS and the U.S. Postal Service all offer shipping calculators on their websites. Buyers really hate it if they think you're gouging them on the shipping and handling fees.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Raising Start Up Funds
If your home business is such that you require outside financing to start your business, you will have use some ingenuity in finding funding sources. The most difficult type of funding to acquire is bank financing. Banks, unless you have a very good relationship, have collateral and a high credit rating with a bank, will be most difficult. Your chances may be slim to none in getting any funding from your neighborhood bank. If after applying for a loan at a bank and you are rejected, if you own property or a house, you may be able to get a home equity loan or a line of credit which can be used to jump start your home business.
Other options are applying for a secured loan backed by any current collateral you have(savings, checking account, property) that is acceptable by the bank. Of course during this time of financial recession and the Wall Street Bailout and bank’s freeze on loans, this may be a hard road to travel. If you are able to obtain an unsecured loan, be careful, these type of loans usually come with very high interest payments.
There are another type of loan and they are called “private loans.” And one place to find these type of loans is the internet. Most of these loans are for up to a maximum of $25,000. The downside is that most of these loans come with extremely high interest rates up to around 29%. www.prosper.com is an online service that matches up people seeking loans with private individuals who are will to loan money. When you sign up for a loan on prosper.com, you supply all necessary information, such as your bank accounts and additional personal information as well as agree to a credit check. Then you are allowed to post your loan request(why you need to borrow the money). Private lenders will then bid on your posting, and if someone agrees to loan you the money, you make payments for a specified amount of time at an interest rate determined by the lender. Lenders and borrowers pay Prosper.com a small percentage of the loan amount.
Other businesses that operate much the same way as prosper.com, such as E-Loan, operate as a broker and lender to find business loans, equipment financing and other types of funding.
Another online method that can be used to connect you with knowledgeable people who might be able to help you connect with people who may be able to arrange a business loan for you is to use internet sites like www.linkedin.com and www.MeetUp.com. These two internet sites are useful in connecting your with other entrepreneurs who can offer advice, make introductions and point you to possible funding sources. There are also good business groups on www.myspace.com as well.
And as we know, a well thought out, well developed business plan will take you a long way in impressing potential lenders.
Other options are applying for a secured loan backed by any current collateral you have(savings, checking account, property) that is acceptable by the bank. Of course during this time of financial recession and the Wall Street Bailout and bank’s freeze on loans, this may be a hard road to travel. If you are able to obtain an unsecured loan, be careful, these type of loans usually come with very high interest payments.
There are another type of loan and they are called “private loans.” And one place to find these type of loans is the internet. Most of these loans are for up to a maximum of $25,000. The downside is that most of these loans come with extremely high interest rates up to around 29%. www.prosper.com is an online service that matches up people seeking loans with private individuals who are will to loan money. When you sign up for a loan on prosper.com, you supply all necessary information, such as your bank accounts and additional personal information as well as agree to a credit check. Then you are allowed to post your loan request(why you need to borrow the money). Private lenders will then bid on your posting, and if someone agrees to loan you the money, you make payments for a specified amount of time at an interest rate determined by the lender. Lenders and borrowers pay Prosper.com a small percentage of the loan amount.
Other businesses that operate much the same way as prosper.com, such as E-Loan, operate as a broker and lender to find business loans, equipment financing and other types of funding.
Another online method that can be used to connect you with knowledgeable people who might be able to help you connect with people who may be able to arrange a business loan for you is to use internet sites like www.linkedin.com and www.MeetUp.com. These two internet sites are useful in connecting your with other entrepreneurs who can offer advice, make introductions and point you to possible funding sources. There are also good business groups on www.myspace.com as well.
And as we know, a well thought out, well developed business plan will take you a long way in impressing potential lenders.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Marketing a Home Based Business
Operating and owning a small home business web skin care store can be extremely profitable. The key to a successful web store in the wellness industry is to market your entire web store. Knowing the tricks and tips for marketing will help you be the most successful that you can with your new small home business web skin care store. Here are a few tips to get you started with successful marketing.
One factor that many entrepreneurs overlook is marketing. Make certain you write your business plan and do your business budget that you allow weekly and monthly money in the budget for marketing and advertising. Locating funds to market and advertise will help you in the long run. Additionally, if you don't use all of the funds set aside each week and month, you can roll them over to the following month for when you are ready to launch a large marketing and advertising campaign.
No-one can buy your skin care products if they have no idea that you have a web store on the Internet. It is imperative to get the word out. One way that is relatively inexpensive to market and advertise your new web store is through links on the Internet. The more large sites on the Internet that are linked to your web store will help your over-all listing in search engine rankings. Basically, the search engines pick up that a ton of sites have linked to you and this tells the search engines that your site is good and popular. Go to people's blogs, internet forums, chat rooms and even guest books and leave a non-spam message and link back to your small home business web store.
Sub-domains are counted as regular domains in the search engines. A sub-domain is a like a branch on a tree. You want to be certain to add links back to your web store from sub-domains as well. This will further ensure that the search engines think that your site is popular. Not only that but with sub-domains and domain linking, it lets others know that you are on the Internet and that you have a popular product that is in high demand.
Offer rebates for your products with a rebate code. You can have people put in the code and automatically take off the amount that they're getting for a discount. Another method is to have a rebate coupon they can snail mail to you. The money will already have been made when they purchase the product. People love sales and rebates and this is a very effective marketing tool.
Advertise with an inexpensive paid to click email company. You can reach a lot of real people that could potentially buy from your small home business web skin care store. These are people that are interested in your products and will more than likely buy. Skin care is unisex and men are as likely to purchase as women if your product line is extremely varied.
Purchase Google Awards and market your new web store through them. Google has a strong reputation for helping companies market and advertise. There is also a company called Bidvertiser that operates similar to Google and you can make money through advertising with them as well. Plus, you can really market your profit if you set up your web store to accept affiliates through a program such as Click Bank or through a good programmer to set up the store for direct affiliates.
One factor that many entrepreneurs overlook is marketing. Make certain you write your business plan and do your business budget that you allow weekly and monthly money in the budget for marketing and advertising. Locating funds to market and advertise will help you in the long run. Additionally, if you don't use all of the funds set aside each week and month, you can roll them over to the following month for when you are ready to launch a large marketing and advertising campaign.
No-one can buy your skin care products if they have no idea that you have a web store on the Internet. It is imperative to get the word out. One way that is relatively inexpensive to market and advertise your new web store is through links on the Internet. The more large sites on the Internet that are linked to your web store will help your over-all listing in search engine rankings. Basically, the search engines pick up that a ton of sites have linked to you and this tells the search engines that your site is good and popular. Go to people's blogs, internet forums, chat rooms and even guest books and leave a non-spam message and link back to your small home business web store.
Sub-domains are counted as regular domains in the search engines. A sub-domain is a like a branch on a tree. You want to be certain to add links back to your web store from sub-domains as well. This will further ensure that the search engines think that your site is popular. Not only that but with sub-domains and domain linking, it lets others know that you are on the Internet and that you have a popular product that is in high demand.
Offer rebates for your products with a rebate code. You can have people put in the code and automatically take off the amount that they're getting for a discount. Another method is to have a rebate coupon they can snail mail to you. The money will already have been made when they purchase the product. People love sales and rebates and this is a very effective marketing tool.
Advertise with an inexpensive paid to click email company. You can reach a lot of real people that could potentially buy from your small home business web skin care store. These are people that are interested in your products and will more than likely buy. Skin care is unisex and men are as likely to purchase as women if your product line is extremely varied.
Purchase Google Awards and market your new web store through them. Google has a strong reputation for helping companies market and advertise. There is also a company called Bidvertiser that operates similar to Google and you can make money through advertising with them as well. Plus, you can really market your profit if you set up your web store to accept affiliates through a program such as Click Bank or through a good programmer to set up the store for direct affiliates.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Schedule Yourself For Work At Home Productivity
Being productive is one of working at home's greatest challenges. There are so many distractions, especially when the kids are younger. Productivity isn't so much a given as it is a habit you need to build.
All the things that can get in the way of being productive at home are a lot of why so many people fail when they try to work from home. They just don't have the focus or the drive to make themselves productive. All the fun stuff at home as well as all the work around the house that could be done are allowed to pull them away from the work they know they should be doing in order to succeed.
The best thing to do is to come up with some sort of schedule you can keep to. How specific this is will depend on several factors, such as the age of your kids, when you focus best and your other obligations. But I can give you some basic tips to get started.
The very first things you need to look at are the things you absolutely have to do at certain times. This can be things such as picking the kids up from school, taking them to activities, any classes you may be taking, any meetings you may have. These are the times you know you can't work on anything else and you shouldn't try to plan around them.
Another consideration may be the non-work things you need to do around the house. This may include things like cleaning and preparing meals. Hopefully these will be more flexible, aside from the fact that dinner must be served sometime before the children declare that they are starving to death. But you may be able to get some help with that, depending on how your family is run. Do be sure that everyone is pulling their weight in keeping the home and family running.
Now it's time to think about when you are most likely to be productive. For me it's late evenings into the night. I'm just not an early riser. But others will prefer early mornings and some will do best in the middle of the day.
Next consider any times that your home business will need you to be working. If you're calling people on the telephone, the middle of the night or extremely early in the morning won't do for that aspect of your work. You're going to need some work hours at times that meet the needs of your customers or clients.
And of course consider how many hours a week you plan on working. Not everyone pulls a 40 hour week from home. Some only want part time while others will go at it as many hours as possible, and have to be reminded to stop.
Combine these various factors into something of a work schedule. As much as possible have your best working hours be when you plan on working. Write it out if that helps you. Many people do well with a daily to-do list.
Babies and toddlers will generally make sticking to your schedule quite challenging, of course. You do have to be more flexible when your children are of an age that they need you more. And at any age kids are prone to emergencies that may require your attention. Just be glad that working at home often makes responding easier.
Do not force yourself to stick to a schedule that just is not working for you. If it's making you miserable, see if you can identify the problem and move things around.
You may also want to consider scheduling the kind of work you do by day. My own work routine varies by day of the week as well as of the month. It allows me to focus on particular activities regularly. Many things are easier to do if you can work on them without interruption or feeling like you should be working on something else. Other times you want that break.
Just taking the time to work out even a partial schedule can really help you to be more productive. It takes one of the excuses for being unproductive out of the way, and sometimes that's all you really need.
All the things that can get in the way of being productive at home are a lot of why so many people fail when they try to work from home. They just don't have the focus or the drive to make themselves productive. All the fun stuff at home as well as all the work around the house that could be done are allowed to pull them away from the work they know they should be doing in order to succeed.
The best thing to do is to come up with some sort of schedule you can keep to. How specific this is will depend on several factors, such as the age of your kids, when you focus best and your other obligations. But I can give you some basic tips to get started.
The very first things you need to look at are the things you absolutely have to do at certain times. This can be things such as picking the kids up from school, taking them to activities, any classes you may be taking, any meetings you may have. These are the times you know you can't work on anything else and you shouldn't try to plan around them.
Another consideration may be the non-work things you need to do around the house. This may include things like cleaning and preparing meals. Hopefully these will be more flexible, aside from the fact that dinner must be served sometime before the children declare that they are starving to death. But you may be able to get some help with that, depending on how your family is run. Do be sure that everyone is pulling their weight in keeping the home and family running.
Now it's time to think about when you are most likely to be productive. For me it's late evenings into the night. I'm just not an early riser. But others will prefer early mornings and some will do best in the middle of the day.
Next consider any times that your home business will need you to be working. If you're calling people on the telephone, the middle of the night or extremely early in the morning won't do for that aspect of your work. You're going to need some work hours at times that meet the needs of your customers or clients.
And of course consider how many hours a week you plan on working. Not everyone pulls a 40 hour week from home. Some only want part time while others will go at it as many hours as possible, and have to be reminded to stop.
Combine these various factors into something of a work schedule. As much as possible have your best working hours be when you plan on working. Write it out if that helps you. Many people do well with a daily to-do list.
Babies and toddlers will generally make sticking to your schedule quite challenging, of course. You do have to be more flexible when your children are of an age that they need you more. And at any age kids are prone to emergencies that may require your attention. Just be glad that working at home often makes responding easier.
Do not force yourself to stick to a schedule that just is not working for you. If it's making you miserable, see if you can identify the problem and move things around.
You may also want to consider scheduling the kind of work you do by day. My own work routine varies by day of the week as well as of the month. It allows me to focus on particular activities regularly. Many things are easier to do if you can work on them without interruption or feeling like you should be working on something else. Other times you want that break.
Just taking the time to work out even a partial schedule can really help you to be more productive. It takes one of the excuses for being unproductive out of the way, and sometimes that's all you really need.
Friday, December 5, 2008
Home Business-You Need A Website
There’s just no way to mince words about it. If you have a home based, work at home business, in order to increase your visibility and expand your business to an almost unlimited market-You need a website! No two ways about it. A company website can increase your business beyond your initial aspirations.
Now the biggest problem with many people, running a work home business, regarding their website creation, is that they don’t know what to put on it. Too many people focus entirely on making a website look cool and in your face instead of making it an effective sales tool. And that is exactly what your website should be-An effective sales tool that brings you more customers and more business which equals more profits.
In the time before websites and having personal computers in our homes, businesses got their message out about who they were, what their company was about and what they sold or what services they offered by different means to entice customers. Be it brochures, flyers, advertising in the Yellow Pages, Newspaper ads, etc. With the advent of the home computer and later the creation of the website, even a small home based business can compete with the big boys. A website is your calling card, your introduction to potential customers of who and what your business is.
To better utilize your website to either sell your products or whatever service your provide, keep the following in mind:
1. On your home page describe who you are and what you provide to potential customers.
2. Do your sales pitch. Describe for your potential customers what your product or service can do for them. Why they should do business with you and not some other company. Play up all your home businesses positive points. Give your web viewers a good story. Personalize your product or service for them. Really sell your product or service.
3. Create a signup widget on your website for a free email newsletter that informs the about new products or continuous updates on your service. If you are operating a chiropractic service from your home and have recently purchased a new piece of equipment that no other chiropractor offers and can relieve nagging back pain, let potential patients know in your newsletter. 40% to 60% of web browsers may look at your website and never return. If they sign up for your free newsletter, they will have a constant reminder of you and your home based business which may entice them to re-exam your website when the need arises.
If you have a product or service that can be sold outside your local area and even to the world market, another way to increase your visibility is to “link” to other successful websites that are somewhat akin to what your business is involved in. Linking to other websites raises your credibility and gives you additional exposure. The way to gain links is to make sure your website is full of well developed, informative information regarding your product(s) or service. Let’s say you’re selling vitamins and weight loss products from your home. You could increase your website hits but linking to websites that deal with health issues. Another method to gain new customers is to join the various online forums that have something in common with your product or service. If you are writing and selling e-books about parenting, you could join some of the countless online forums for parents and make your presence known. Make a few posts about parenting and once you are accepted as a regular member, you will develop a trust with the other people in the forum. Once you are considered a trusted regular, you can then give a link to your website. If you just go on websites without establishing a presence and just start adding your link, you probably will be marked as a “spammer.” One of the important things to remember is that people, whether online or not, want to know that you are legitimate and trustworthy.
Now the biggest problem with many people, running a work home business, regarding their website creation, is that they don’t know what to put on it. Too many people focus entirely on making a website look cool and in your face instead of making it an effective sales tool. And that is exactly what your website should be-An effective sales tool that brings you more customers and more business which equals more profits.
In the time before websites and having personal computers in our homes, businesses got their message out about who they were, what their company was about and what they sold or what services they offered by different means to entice customers. Be it brochures, flyers, advertising in the Yellow Pages, Newspaper ads, etc. With the advent of the home computer and later the creation of the website, even a small home based business can compete with the big boys. A website is your calling card, your introduction to potential customers of who and what your business is.
To better utilize your website to either sell your products or whatever service your provide, keep the following in mind:
1. On your home page describe who you are and what you provide to potential customers.
2. Do your sales pitch. Describe for your potential customers what your product or service can do for them. Why they should do business with you and not some other company. Play up all your home businesses positive points. Give your web viewers a good story. Personalize your product or service for them. Really sell your product or service.
3. Create a signup widget on your website for a free email newsletter that informs the about new products or continuous updates on your service. If you are operating a chiropractic service from your home and have recently purchased a new piece of equipment that no other chiropractor offers and can relieve nagging back pain, let potential patients know in your newsletter. 40% to 60% of web browsers may look at your website and never return. If they sign up for your free newsletter, they will have a constant reminder of you and your home based business which may entice them to re-exam your website when the need arises.
If you have a product or service that can be sold outside your local area and even to the world market, another way to increase your visibility is to “link” to other successful websites that are somewhat akin to what your business is involved in. Linking to other websites raises your credibility and gives you additional exposure. The way to gain links is to make sure your website is full of well developed, informative information regarding your product(s) or service. Let’s say you’re selling vitamins and weight loss products from your home. You could increase your website hits but linking to websites that deal with health issues. Another method to gain new customers is to join the various online forums that have something in common with your product or service. If you are writing and selling e-books about parenting, you could join some of the countless online forums for parents and make your presence known. Make a few posts about parenting and once you are accepted as a regular member, you will develop a trust with the other people in the forum. Once you are considered a trusted regular, you can then give a link to your website. If you just go on websites without establishing a presence and just start adding your link, you probably will be marked as a “spammer.” One of the important things to remember is that people, whether online or not, want to know that you are legitimate and trustworthy.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Online English Courses=High Paying Foreign Clients
Do you speak fluent Korean, Chinese, Japanese, French, German or any other foreign language? If you do, you could start an online-internet business teaching English to foreign speaking students in foreign countries and here in the U.S. Millions of people worldwide, as well as non speaking English people here in the states, who come from foreign countries and have access to a computer, could learn how to speak English from an online English class taught by you. All you need is a teaching plan, a computer, high speed internet and either a webcam or the use of a service such as oovoo.com which is a free online, two way conference where both parties can view each other via the oovoo software. You can also use Skype, the free online calling and person-to-person video service.
There are lots of foreign businessmen, college students, other professionals and just ordinary people who would like to learn how to speak English and would find a one on one class or a group learning class, via the internet, a convenient vehicle to learning how to speak English.
Make no mistake, this could become a very lucrative home based business that you could run from the confines of your home. Not to mention make some very good friendships and foreign business contacts.
A company named Eleutian Technology in Wyoming does just that. Eleutian Technology was started by Kent Holiday who taught English in Korea in the early 1990’s. Taking a risk and quitting a six figure job, Holiday started his company in 2006. The company maintains a roster of almost 300 teachers who are connected via the internet to more than 15,000 students in Korea who are anxious to learn the English language via the internet.
So if you have a background in a foreign language and the ability to use that background to teach foreign nationals how to speak English, this may be the work at home business for you.
There are lots of foreign businessmen, college students, other professionals and just ordinary people who would like to learn how to speak English and would find a one on one class or a group learning class, via the internet, a convenient vehicle to learning how to speak English.
Make no mistake, this could become a very lucrative home based business that you could run from the confines of your home. Not to mention make some very good friendships and foreign business contacts.
A company named Eleutian Technology in Wyoming does just that. Eleutian Technology was started by Kent Holiday who taught English in Korea in the early 1990’s. Taking a risk and quitting a six figure job, Holiday started his company in 2006. The company maintains a roster of almost 300 teachers who are connected via the internet to more than 15,000 students in Korea who are anxious to learn the English language via the internet.
So if you have a background in a foreign language and the ability to use that background to teach foreign nationals how to speak English, this may be the work at home business for you.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Start A Home Based Learning Center
Do you have a special skill, expertise or knowledge of a subject that other people would like to learn? Are you good with people? A good speaker? Are you a natural born teacher at heart. If you have the above qualities then you may be on the threshold of launching your own home based business. What business you ask? I’m talking about running a home based instructional class from your home or running an actual a series of home based classes in different homes in your local area.
How does having certain marketable skills translate into starting a home business? Well if you are say, an experienced handyman, you could run a class for the average person who would like to know how to acquire basic knowledge in plumbing, electrical and home repair that could save them money by doing simple repairs themselves. If you happen to be a talented musician, you could give music lessons out of your home. Maybe you’re a very good gourmet cook in your kitchen and have talent in preparing very special and exotic dishes. You may be able to teach gourmet cooking right in your home. Or perhaps you well versed in financial matters and could teach a class on investing for your financial future. I think you kind of get the idea. If you have any skill or talent that someone would like to learn, this may prove to be a good part time or full time opportunity for you to teach out of your home.
Years ago, when I lived in New York City learning about filmmaking, there was an business called Apple. Apple operated as an educational agency that hired various individuals throughout New York City who had various skills and were willing to teach those skills out of their apartments in NYC. I took a film sound recording course from a very talented, professional, female, sound mixer-recordist. We would meet once a week in her apartment and for two hours she would teach us all about the basic operation of the use of a Nagra Tape Recorder, the different type of microphones used in film production as well as theory of sound recording. Classes lasted for about four weeks. I also took a four week, basic photography course from Apple.
The thing I’m trying to show is that the people who were running Apple did not actually teach any classes themselves. They hired professional people, in various fields, who were open to teaching from their homes. Apple did all the advertising for students, marketing and printing of a catalog that listed all courses available. They then collected all course fees of which they shared with each individual instructors. You could also do this as a home business. Find a group of people willing to teach from their homes and act as the middle person, enrolling the students, collecting their tuition and paying the instructors.
Another money maker is to operate a home based tutoring business. From your home, you could tutor school students having trouble with certain subjects in school or students who are preparing for their SAT scores and other courses they would need to get into college. This could be a good business for retired elementary or high school teachers who would like to start a home business and who enjoy teaching.
Even though teaching from your home could become an ongoing, profitable work at home business, always remember that you are letting strangers into your home. So be very careful of who has access to your home. And do not leave anything valuable or personal in the bathroom. You’d be surprised how many students will need to possibly use your home bathroom. Try to get as much information about your potential student as possible and ask for ID. And if you are a woman, take all safety precautions to protect yourself from possible suspicious enrollees in your course.
How does having certain marketable skills translate into starting a home business? Well if you are say, an experienced handyman, you could run a class for the average person who would like to know how to acquire basic knowledge in plumbing, electrical and home repair that could save them money by doing simple repairs themselves. If you happen to be a talented musician, you could give music lessons out of your home. Maybe you’re a very good gourmet cook in your kitchen and have talent in preparing very special and exotic dishes. You may be able to teach gourmet cooking right in your home. Or perhaps you well versed in financial matters and could teach a class on investing for your financial future. I think you kind of get the idea. If you have any skill or talent that someone would like to learn, this may prove to be a good part time or full time opportunity for you to teach out of your home.
Years ago, when I lived in New York City learning about filmmaking, there was an business called Apple. Apple operated as an educational agency that hired various individuals throughout New York City who had various skills and were willing to teach those skills out of their apartments in NYC. I took a film sound recording course from a very talented, professional, female, sound mixer-recordist. We would meet once a week in her apartment and for two hours she would teach us all about the basic operation of the use of a Nagra Tape Recorder, the different type of microphones used in film production as well as theory of sound recording. Classes lasted for about four weeks. I also took a four week, basic photography course from Apple.
The thing I’m trying to show is that the people who were running Apple did not actually teach any classes themselves. They hired professional people, in various fields, who were open to teaching from their homes. Apple did all the advertising for students, marketing and printing of a catalog that listed all courses available. They then collected all course fees of which they shared with each individual instructors. You could also do this as a home business. Find a group of people willing to teach from their homes and act as the middle person, enrolling the students, collecting their tuition and paying the instructors.
Another money maker is to operate a home based tutoring business. From your home, you could tutor school students having trouble with certain subjects in school or students who are preparing for their SAT scores and other courses they would need to get into college. This could be a good business for retired elementary or high school teachers who would like to start a home business and who enjoy teaching.
Even though teaching from your home could become an ongoing, profitable work at home business, always remember that you are letting strangers into your home. So be very careful of who has access to your home. And do not leave anything valuable or personal in the bathroom. You’d be surprised how many students will need to possibly use your home bathroom. Try to get as much information about your potential student as possible and ask for ID. And if you are a woman, take all safety precautions to protect yourself from possible suspicious enrollees in your course.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)