Archive for the ‘Work Tips’ Category

Thanks to the Internet (and a still faltering economy) more people than ever before are working from home and hundreds of new home businesses spring up around the globe every day. Unfortunately about 80% of them fail within the first few years. Most of the time when a home business fails it is because the person running it just was not cut out for the unique demands and challenges that have to be faced by home business owners.

If you are considering starting a home business do not let the statistics put you off, but make sure that you answer these questions  - the four W’s – to get off to the best possible start.

WHO – Who are you doing this for exactly? Are you truly committed to the idea of running a home business that enriches and empowers you or are you simply doing it because your bank balance is looking a little sad? If you are not sure who you are doing this for, you will have a very difficult time maintaining the motivation to achieve the level of success you desire.

WHAT – Do you have a clear idea of what you hope to achieve by starting a home business? Do you want to be able to quit the 9 to 5 rat race and support yourself with the profits from your home based endeavors? Or are you simply looking for enough extra income to have the ability to buy some of those big ticket items you can’t quite afford right now? Once you figure out what you are hoping to achieve you can set goals accordingly.

WHERE – As in where to start. There are hundreds of different work at home opportunities, some good, some great and unfortunately some are outright scams. Take the time to actually study what is being offered. How much is it going to cost you? Is it a one off, monthly or yearly cost? What is the actual product or service that you are receiving, and is there something else out there that may better serve your needs. Can you come up with some better ideas of your own?

WHEN – Knowing when the right time is to officially launch your new home business is essential too. Before you have that website go live have you double checked it for grammar errors, pages that don’t load or badly worded content? Do you have the proper systems in place to ensure that you can ship products to your customers in a secure and efficient manner ? Do you even have a good payment system in place? Do not open for business until you are quite sure you are fully prepared.

Many home business owners spend a good deal of their time working on the content of their website/blog/internet marketing efforts. Whatever your niche having a strong internet presence is essential and in the world of Web 2.0 that often means a blog, a Facebook page, a Twitter account, Ezines articles, and the list goes on.

Whatever online trends come and go original, engaging content that informs, entertains and educates your potential  customers is essential. But how do you do that when you’re already slammed trying to  run a home business? There are ways to create a lot of good internet content with far less effort than you might imagine. Here are some ways you take a single article or blog post and make it work extra hard to promote your home business:

Youtube it – There are two ways you can turn a single article into a promotional video to upload to YouTube and other video sites. First if you are comfortable being the star of the show invest in one of the new FLIP video cameras and record yourself reading your article. These little wonders are practically idiot proof and uploading your final product takes just a few minutes.

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Most home businesses rely on a website for generating income which makes it a number one priority. The site’s attractiveness and ease of use is quite important to potential customers and clients. Unfortunately, there are some techniques being used today on the internet that are actually more likely to drive customers away from your site rather than draw them in. Here are a few:

Pop Ups – Many home business owners seem to think that pop ups are great and that filling their site with them is a good idea. For many people though pop ups are nothing but a nuisance and a turn off (after all why are there so many pop up blockers available?) Some appear before the user has even had a chance to view the first page of a site, others before the average person can get half way through reading the first few paragraphs. It’s a little like that old fashioned door to door salesman who wouldn’t take his foot out of the door, annoying and counterproductive.

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Anyone who tells you that working from home is easy obviously does not do so themselves. Amid all the emailing, the phone calls, and the all-important marketing organization can got lost along the way and one morning you find yourself walking into your home office and thinking “What am I going to do about all this mess?”

Some people are born organizers, with a file folder for every need, a stack of pristine white notepaper at their side and a fully stocked and sorted office supplies drawer full of sharpened pencils and extra printer ink refills. Then there are the rest of us. But who has the time to clean when there are so many other things to be accomplished and not enough hours in the day as it is?

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Many home business owners rely upon their computer for almost everything and without the business would cease to exist. This is why investing in a good computer is quite important. However no matter the price tag, a once blazing fast computer will eventually start to run slower leaving you quite frustrated.

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