Posts Tagged ‘home business tips’

People young and old can earn money while working from home. Usually your experience determines your amount of income made. Ask yourself what services you can provide. Working from home can be as successful, if not more than punching the time clock from 9-5. One example of a successful work from home job is writing articles from the comfort of your home office.

Article writing is probably one of the fastest growing at home job. Being a Freelance writer you have the opportunity to write articles for magazines, online blogs, and for news paper columns. Work at home freelance articles are used for many purposes. Many freelance column editors do most of their work from the comfort of their own home. Then they send it via email when finished. When magazine companies hire writers they have the opportunity to hire from all over the world. This way they have views from other cultures, views and ideas.

Online blogging has become very popular among men and women who work at home. With the interest of blogging on the rise, many of the blog host look for people who blog from home. Keeping in mind that people who blog from home are not paid highly. This technique is based on people who want to be exposed of their writing ability. In fact many writers blog for free to get their writing noticed.


There are many advantages to working from home and more pros than cons. For one, which is a big issue in this day’s economy, is saving money on gas expenses driving to and from work. Whatever the job may be. If someone has to drive to work to make their profession available then a work at home job just might work as well.

Below are some tips that you may find useful when working from home.

Budget:
First: Figure out your client’s budget. When you initially talk to clients, very few will volunteer a budget because they want to hire you for the least amount possible. Imagine yourself in their position. You’d want to do the same thing. It’s good business. To try to find out more you can try using a preliminary worksheet. Have this worksheet ask questions regarding the goals of their projects, time-frame, and budget. When being more straight-forward many clients will tend to be more straight-forward with you as well.
It’s as simple as developing a rapport.

Proposal:
Spend as much time as necessary on your job proposal. As nice and agreeable as a potential client may seem in your communications, you still need to create a proposal. Always put in enough time to cover everything. Don’t start without it, even if the client seems to be hurried. A lot of clients with give you a dead-line just to see if you can meet it at first. It’s a great way for them to learn your capabilities. Make sure your proposal covers both client and contractor responsibilities, requirements, expectations, payment agreement and terms for all charges that may fall outside your proposal. Include anything else you can think of that you feel applies to the job. Clients as often as not have a much larger scope in mind than they communicate. Spend a couple hours on this and it could save you many more later.

Hourly Rates & Charges:
It’s always a good idea to charge by the hour. Rather than providing a fixed price for your project, and finding out later that you misquoted which will cost you time and money, you need only tie your quote to an estimated rate and time-frame (i.e.: 20 hr for 30 hours). Not only does this make the quoting process much easier, but clients understand that they are buying your time- enough to finish the project. Thus the chances are increased that your client will be more lenient if you need more hours. You’ll be able to show them what you’ve accomplished, explain what you’d like to do next, and find out how they’d like you to move forward. You can up your estimated cost by ten-percent if you like. When starting out as a free-lancer, it is natural to want to impress your client with a rosy scenario and quote that are lower than your competitors. But you never want to be put in a position where you have to cut corners- producing a bad effort- in order to achieve a quote that you give without giving it proper thought.

Not only that but there is time that you’ll spend communicating, collection assets, and in administration-duties. This doesn’t include snags and problems that may incur outside your control. Therefore, do yourself a huge favor and be deliberate in the quoting and estimation process so that you produce realistic expectations. That doesn’t mean you won’t still be on the lower end of what your client typically receives from other buyers. Keep in mind they also care as much as results as quotes.

Expectations:
Set and manage expectations. If you’re quoting by project, let them know the cost and time-frame for additional changes. If you are quoting by the hour and giving them a total time estimate, let them know when you’re getting close to that quoted total time and whether you will be able to hit it. It may be helpful to have a clause that says if your total time is within 10% of your time quote, you will not charge more (this gives you extra money for finishing quicker and saves them money if you take a bit longer). Clients don’t like surprises: keep them informed on your current time status and let them know at proposal time the possibility of “run-over” and charges associated with extra changes.

Collecting Up Front:
Collecting up front of often a good idea. Aside from recurring maintenance work/costs for smaller projects (projects whose totals are under one ro two thousand), it can be a good idea to collect a portion up front. This will show your client that you are serious and far less likely to bail on them- leaving the process uncompleted. You should not have an issue being given 50% up front on most projects. If the project is large- exceeding over 1000 dollars- you may want to lower the percentage you collect up front so that it doesn’t scare the buyer off. Then at another milestone you can collect more. Use this process only when you feel it is absolutely necessary and the money will be going back into the job. Otherwise it isn’t needed and your clients will know this immediately and- chances are- find a more reasonable buyer.

Milestones:
FINALLY- set a last payment milestone that will get you through to the completion of the job. For instances, if your job is to create websites you’ll need to invoice the final payment the moment the site is complete and 100% live. For a print job: invoice when the goods are delivered. These particular invoices the client will know are coming. Use shorter payment terms as well. If you are not precise and have a proper business-like manner in regards to your payment schedule, most- if not all- clients will ride up as much debt as you’ll allow them. While most are reputable, it’s not a good business practice to let this happen.

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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Taking the leap and starting your own at home business takes fortitude, strength and determination. However, all of things can be bolstered with a mentor to guide you along the way. A mentor is an individual who serves as an advisor, an example, a sometime sound board and possibly a friend.

Finding someone who has already walked the path you intend to tread can prove invaluable, both from a business and a personal standpoint. Finding such a person may take a little while but making the effort to do so will pay off big dividends for the newbie home business owner.

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