How to Maintain a Professional Image for Your Home Business

How To Maintain A Professional Image For Your Home Business To Make Money Instantly

The idea of working from home seems completely unattainable to many people. You should note that familiarity with effective business methods increases the likelihood of running a successful home business. The guidelines in this article will be a useful starting point for building your home business.

Try a side of comedy with your lunch! Laughing has a lot of benefits, including calming you down, reducing stress, working out the respiratory system and making you feel joyful. Find humorous videos on YouTube, and then prepare to dive into your work again after you have had a good giggle.

You volume of phone calls will increase dramatically when you start your home business. The money you invest in phone lines will pay off with increased sales. When your business is not operating, silence the ringer or turn the phone off.

You can participate in online home business owner forums. This will allow you to interact with others in the same position. People who work at home deal with the same thing and you can compare notes and share concerns.

Use your business plan as a road map leading to your success. Even if you don't have outside investors, you should have a business plan. A business plan forces you to clearly formulate your long and short term goals and helps you to identify the steps to reach them.

Have a support system comprised of your loved ones when starting your own business. When you own your own home business, it can sometimes be difficult and stressful. If your family isn't on board, they will constantly interfere with your efforts to succeed.

Clearly mark products that aren't in stock. It's extremely upsetting for customers when they learn that delivery on their order is going to be delayed for an extended time. Let your customers know beforehand if a product is on back order, that way they can pick out a different product.

If you want to make big money as a home business owner, it is important to occasionally experiment and take chances. Experimenting with new ideas is a way to attract new people to your business, and can eventually lead to greatly increased profits. If you never change your routine or strategies, your business may stagnate rather than growing and improving.

You should keep sufficient records of what you spend each day and what must be spent for your home business. Keeping track of your finances will make it simple to file your taxes, and will help prevent any problems if you were to get audited.

To fully tap into the your home business potential, you want to use the Internet to market it. Make sure the strategies you employ are effective. Marketing your business by writing articles, blogging, participating in discussion forums and sending out e-mails to help to increase the number of people that are aware of your business and this, in turn, will lead to big profits.

Make a rule that during work hours you should not be interrupted by your family or friends unless it is important. Politely inform uninvited or early guests that you must finish your work. Persistent visitors should be made to wait until you are done working.

When selecting a brand name, choose one that means something to both you and the customer. Since your name will represent your products, you need to have a name which is recognizable and easy for customers to remember. You might have an interesting or quirky story that is the reason behind your business name or brand. This gives your products a recognizable direction that will help in building your clients loyalty over time.

When choosing a product to sell from home, find one that addresses one of your needs. People are more likely to purchase products that address a particular need that they have. If you can find a way to address a common problem, your product will succeed.

Being the sole proprietor of a home business includes being the sole financial officer of your business. Giving your spouse your business credit card may not seem like a bad idea, but if they go to buy business supplies and end up buying other items as well, you may lose the right to write off that purchase.

Consider starting a membership with an online forum to get great ideas and advice for your home business. There is good information available on the internet, and a quick search will result in a number of good sites. Blogs can be a great source of information as well.

Before you try selling, you need to understand the price range in the market for the items you want to sell. Look at your competitors' offerings, and try to beat their prices. Never talk negatively about your competition, focus on marketing your good qualities.

Whenever your business makes a profit, set some of it aside so you are able to pay taxes at year-end. Taxes usually run somewhere around 15% to 20% of your income. Setting aside a portion prevents unnecessary scrambling at the end of the year to meet your obligations.

You should keep your contact lists together with your notes on your clients for easy reference during correspondence. Keep all other important contracts that are essential to running your home business in the same location.

Issues That Ail a Business For Sale

Selling a business is no easy business. In fact, more often than we would like, a business for sale gets all the way through escrow... only to fall out right toward the end, for a variety of reasons. Sometimes the reasons are legit; others times they are downright silly.

Here we will address the top issues that stop a business from selling:

1. An overpriced business: This should be as obvious as the morning sun, but it is the number one overarching reason businesses do not get sold. The sellers are asking more than the business is worth. A broker should be able to get a fairly accurate idea of what a business is worth based on the gross sales, the expenses, the assets, and the market. But a lot of brokers either fail to tell the seller the bad news, namely that "the business is not worth what you are asking", or they don't really know how to find out and let the seller determine the price, where higher is always assumed better. For whatever the reason, overpricing kills a sale. Buyers either won't offer on something they think is grossly overpriced - or - in reaction to an unrealistic price they compensate by making an offensively low offer.

2. An unmotivated seller: If a seller really doesn't care if the business sells or not, and is just throwing out a hook to see if something bites, chances are the property or business is going to be a tough sale. People find ways to make things happen when they are motivated; conversely, they will look for ways to avoid making things happen if they are not motivated. A seller of a business must WANT to sell a business.

3. Poor books and record keeping: Businesses for sale can look great on the advertisements and attract a lot of interested buyers, but if the books are messy or non-existent a buyer with a brain probably will not want to lay down cash on a measly promise. If a business claims to make money, the books better show it. If they don't, why don't they? It amazes me how some business sellers think buyers should simply believe them. Buyers are no different than sellers, and need to see the numbers to make an intelligent decision.

4. Seller wants all cash: Here is another deal killer - the seller needs all cash. No seller carry, and no loan. The problem here is pretty obvious: not too many people are sitting on tens to hundreds of thousands in cash, and ready to spend it. Usually those people are interested in buying bigger businesses, and using their cash as down payments. When sellers get demanding on terms, especially in these leans times, their business for sale doesn't demand much attention.

5. The owner is primal to the business: A lifestyle business that leans heavily (if not entirely) on the personality or connections or skills of the owner, is going to be a hard sell. This reality may come out in due diligence, when buyers begin to realize all the income is based on the woman selling the company, her skills and talents and attraction factors... and they can't duplicate her.

6. The product or service is obsolete: the seller wants to sell because his market is drying up. Of course. Why not sell your business before you have to close up shop? Well, here again is where sellers need to think like buyers. The Golden Rule applies in business as it does everywhere else. Do unto others... When a buyer investigates the market for the product or service and sees it is going the way of typewriters and video cassettes, he's not going to shell out some big money merely to watch it burn. He'll walk, just as the seller would.

7. The business requires a license: many businesses necessitate licensing, especially in California, where someday you may need a permit just to use the toilet. The trades, the professional services, the selling of certain products, certain services... all require licenses and permits. There actually is a good aspect of licensing, in that they give some uniformity and standards to businesses. But the bad aspect of licensing is that they cost money, and... they can be exclusive. A building license can't just be paid for with money, it must be earned. A liquor license has restrictions on who can take it over; a criminal record can ruin that possibility. So while some licenses represent a dollar amount, such as a franchise fee, others are more specific, and limit who can acquire it, and therefore limit who can acquire the business that makes use of it.

8. Uncooperative landlords: this is one of those reasons that shouldn't be a reason, but it is. Grumpy landlords who don't want to help. The variations are limitless, but suffice it to say that if a landlord won't make some adjustments for a new tenant to take over a lease or start a new one, it can make the deal go south very quickly. And nothing can be done about it.

The reasons most businesses do not sell are not very complicated, and can be remedied. It takes some work, but addressing these issues before they become deal breakers is a worth use of one's time.

Great Tips to Help Your Home Business Succeed To Make Money Instantly

Having A Plan For Your Home Business

Getting your own home-based business up and running is much easier when you have good guidance. This article will give you some practical tips for making your home business profitable.

Deposit your payments as soon as they are received. Don't wait for an accumulation of payments over weeks; deposit your earnings daily if feasible. You are less likely to lose money if you don't let the check sit too long. By depositing your cash with a teller rather than using an ATM machine, you can ensure your money is deposited into the account without additional questions or concerns.

Your website needs a banner page. Not only do these banners add interest to a page, but they also give you an opportunity to trade links with complementary businesses. It is a simple way of improving your search engine ratings and ensuring that others will be able to find your web page and your product more easily.

Take a break during your work day to have a good laugh. A good laugh invigorates your respiratory system, calms your mind and reinvigorate you with feelings of joy and love. Find humorous videos on YouTube, and then prepare to dive into your work again after you have had a good giggle.

Business trips can be a legitimate and welcome diversion. Unlike leisure trips, business vacations are tax-deductible, at least partly. Want to go on a trip? Choose a location, then find and attend a conference or seminar there that is relevant to your business. That way you can still legally deduct the trip with no trouble from the IRS.

Immediate success is not prevalent in even the companies that guarantee their business program. Creating a successful home business requires an investment of time. Stay dedicated and wait for that big payoff that's down the road.

You can deduct certain expenses like meals and entertainment for clients from your earnings when filing your taxes. Such meetings would be considered legitimate business expenses. Make sure that the clients are going to remain clients, because otherwise these outings aren't tax deductible.

Keep proper files for your spending in regards to your business, no matter how small. This will come in very helpful when it comes tax time, or if you face an audit by the IRS.

You should set aside a percentage of all income earned towards your taxes. You should put aside 20% of your income earned in order to have it when it comes time to pay your taxes.

Be brief when writing the objective of your business. Ideally, your statement should tell a bit about your business goals, why you started the business and any other mission related information. Be sure to explain what makes your company unique and its goals in these sentences.

Be sure to do your best to hire competent people by conducting the proper research before hiring employees for your home business. The key is to ensure their suitability for the position for which you are hiring them, or else you may doom yourself to failure.

Begin a meal or other service catering to people who are busy. Many options exist for assisting the people around you.

Sit down and work out a schedule. It is necessary to have a time allocated to actually sit down and work. Sometimes working overtime is necessary, but you want balance your work with your life as much as possible. When you are with your family, keep work out of your mind to try and help reduce your stress levels.

Determine any and all fees for your services up front and stick with them, even when it might be tempting to give people 'deals'. Every business needs to make money in order to succeed, and yours is no exception. This is why the payment terms on the invoices should be clear. They should have a moderate penalty that is above the amount of the invoice, if the total amount that is owed is not paid by the end of the payment terms.

Take care of your home business, but make sure you take care of you as well. Running a home business has the potential to be fulfilling, but if you prioritize work over yourself, your self esteem could surface. Take time to exercise, don't snack too much and shower every morning. Your self-esteem will always be important, no matter where you work. So maintain that high image you have always set for yourself.

Draw up a workable schedule so your business doesn't interfere with your personal life or vice versa. Decide at what point each day you are going to stop taking business calls. Make room for friends, family and for your own personal time.

You must be realistic in regards to your expectations when starting a business at home. Is your product high quality, and will customers continue to be interested in it? Do you have what it takes to run an honest business?

Make sure you keep records of all business expenses as this can help you save money. These expenses include car mileage, gas and internet service. When you're a business owner, you can use many of your business-related expenses as tax deductions. All of these little costs, can really add up to a lot of money. There is no sense in letting the government have money that you are entitled to.

Marketing your services or products online is a great way to get your business known. Write articles, blog, contribute to discussion forums, and send emails to make more people aware of your company. All these strategies will combine to lead to profitability.

Where Social Networking for Business Is Going In The Future

Social networking or social media is heading towards a more business friendly environment. The bigger social media sites were generated with the individual in mind. The features of the current social media networks may not only be ineffective for businesses but also detrimental to developing strong business contacts. These social networks may cause businesses to lose money because they may be too open for businesses to use for everyday business.

A business networking system must be close ended. For a business social network to be effective, it must be like a real Rolodex. When a business meets another business for the first time, they do not want to show off their whole Rolodex on the first meeting. Unfortunately, this is how most of the bigger social networks have built their platform.

Most of the users can see each other in their "friends" and "followers" areas. This can cause some businesses to lose their competitive advantage based on the relationship they have with another one of their business associates. For example, a business may have spent months searching for a wholesale distributor of a certain product. This distributor may be delivering that product at an unbelievable discount that the business can use to generate a great amount of revenue. It would not make sense for a business to reveal who that distributor is to everyone they meet. However, this is exactly what happens in most social networking sites. The full contact, "friends," and "followers" list is revealed to anyone who becomes a friend or follower of a business.

Generally, any update that any person makes on the regular social media networking systems will push down the updates from any other user (this includes other business entities and potential consumers). This fact alone can mean that a business may miss an important piece of information from a vendor or even a client who wants to make a buying decision. Any information by any person can and will be pushed down by any update in the major social media networks and this is a massive problem for businesses. A business needs a clean social network where contacts cannot see each other unless designated by the business and the stream of communication can be controlled to the point where only pertinent information is seen by the business and not mixed with personal information from personal contacts.

A business owner will likely own more than one business. This means that having one social media or social network profile is not an option for most businesses. Every business needs to be treated as a separate business and have its own profile. This allows a business to avoid a phenomenon called "piercing of the corporate veil" where a business is legally associated to each other by not properly maintaining the borders between two or more businesses. This means more assets can be at stake when a company has legal troubles. Having separate accounts for social media can be very useful for this boundary between businesses and avoids future problems that have to do with litigation.

In the future, social networks will be created with business use in mind and personal use as an afterthought. This change will allow businesses to make better use of the social media systems and allow them to have different profiles and keep contacts from seeing each other on the systems. These businesses will be better prepared for developing contacts through the internet and create a global marketplace that is better suited for the needs of business owners everywhere.

Writing an Effective Business Plan For Your Small Business

Plans are Useless; Planning is Indispensable

"Plans are useless; planning is indispensable," according to Dwight D. Eisenhower, then Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe during WWII. Now, you may be in total agreement with the first part of that statement, but you are really not convinced of the truth of the second part.

At this point, you may be tempted to skip writing a business plan altogether, viewing it as an unnecessary exercise in jumping-through-the-hoops, suggested by some old business professor who probably never held down a "real" job anyway. Maybe it's okay as an assignment for an MBA class, but it would be just too confining and irrelevant for today's fast-paced business environment. Anyway, you're ready! You've thought about this business venture for a long time and talked it over with friends and everybody agrees it's a great idea. Best to strike while the iron is hot!

Press for Success

Far be it from me to dampen your enthusiasm, but you should give yourself every opportunity for success. That's what the planning part of the process of creating your business plan will do. By the time you have pressed your way through it, you will not merely have some neatly arranged document to keep on file, you will have a working tool that addresses the essential factors that influence your future.

Besides, your friends may be 100% behind you in your new venture, but, in case you are hoping to involve others who have actual money to invest, you may need to be able to make a convincing case. Wouldn't it be nice to have anticipated possible questions and be ready with plausible answers? If you are risking your own money, that is perhaps even a stronger reason to do some indispensable planning.

Easy Writer

If you are one who is intimidated by the blank page, never fear! There are several good software packages that will guide you through the process, such as Business Plan Pro Complete from PaloAltoSoftware. Business Plan Pro Complete walks you through the entire planning process and generates a complete, professional and ready to distribute plan with a proven formula for success. The planning wizard makes it a snap to get started since you simply answer yes or no questions to create your custom business plan framework. Bplans.com offers free business plan samples and how-to articles as well as a wealth of other information. It is definitely worth taking the time to checkout. Microsoft Office Online Templates also has a variety of free templates to use with their products. The wizard indicates the information you need and you fill it in as you go.

You may find that the easiest part is the actual writing of the plan. The real work comes in the data-gathering, which may take you a hundred hours or more, depending on what you already know or have researched. If your new venture is in an area where you've been working, you may already know about your customers, your suppliers, your marketing plan, your organizational structure, your financial and cash flow needs, equipment, inventory, and so on. If you know all of these except for Marketing, say, then this is where you will need to invest some time and effort. You can find a wealth of information by utilizing the traditional data sources such as chambers of commerce, major cities' websites, trade associations, the US Census Bureau, trade journals, magazine and online articles and advertising, etc. Performing keyword searches on Google, or Ask will bring up websites to check out. Following are some places to start:

James J. Hill Reference Library (jjhill.org): One of the nation's premier business libraries to bring you FREE and affordably priced tools and resources you can use to create a better business plan based on relevant and credible data.

U.S. Census Bureau (census.gov): A source for a variety of useful statistics, especially the Economic Census that comes out every 5 years.

American Demographics (adage.com/americandemographics): Just as the title suggests, numerous free reports about consumer demographics in the U.S. nationally and by statistical area.

Internet Public Library - The Census Data and Demographics (ipl.org)/: An especially useful site that has links to information about countries other than the U.S.

Corporate Information (corporateinformation.com): Features information summaries on over 350,000 companies in the U.S. and abroad for competitive analysis.

You can find a variety of companies online to help you with your market research. For example: Sundale Research's (sundaleresearch.com) primary goal is to provide new and mature businesses with objective, accurate industry data and market analysis on a wide range of topics. Their market research is intended to save you time and money while keeping up with industry trends.

But your idea may be so new that you may also need to talk to potential customers, host some focus groups, talk to an ad agency, or maybe even make a prototype and float it past some people. Be prepared to spend the time. Remember, it's not about the Plan but the Planning.

Build It on Paper First

Whether you decide to use business plan writing software or to just follow this guide and create your plan with your word processor, here are the sections of a good plan and the questions that need to be addressed:

Cover Page - Show the name of the company, your name, and the date.

Introduction - What is the name and address of the business? Who are the principals, their titles, and their addresses? What is the nature or purpose of the business? What is your launch date? How much start-up and/or operating capital is needed?

Executive Summary - One to three pages that summarize all the information to follow; come back and write this last.

Industry Analysis - How does your product or service compare with what is currently on the market? What is the trend in the overall industry? What have been the total sales in this industry over the previous 3 to 5 years? What new products or technologies have had the biggest impact on this industry recently? What is the future outlook for these and what trends are emerging? Who are the competitors, where are they located, and how are they doing? What advantage do you offer over them? Who is buying this product or service now? Describe the typical customer for this product or service. Are there emerging markets or market segments? Where does this product or service currently perform best? Possible Data Sources: trade associations; trade journals; attorneys & accountants dealing with the industry; industry salespeople; state business websites; focus groups.

Description - What product(s) or service(s) are you offering specifically? Are any patents, copyrights, or trademarks needed? Have they been acquired/filed? What is the size of your business? Where will it be located? Will this require purchasing or building a facility? Will this require leasing a facility? At what cost? Has a lease been negotiated? What personnel will you need? Where will you find suitable employees? What equipment do you need? Will it be purchased or leased? What are the qualifications of your principals? How do their backgrounds promote the success of this venture? Why do they think this will be a successful venture? Possible Data Sources: local Chamber of Commerce; community colleges & local universities; local employee leasing company; real estate agents; US Patent & Trademark Office; US Copyright Office.

Production Operation - If a product must be manufactured, what is the process? Will the work be done on-site or subcontracted? Who are the subcontractor(s)? If on-site, what space, equipment, machinery, production employees are needed? What suppliers are needed? Who are they? How will quality be assured? What is the anticipated production output? What established credit lines do you have? Possible Data Sources: local Chamber of Commerce; yellow pages; trade associations.

Service Operation - If a service is offered, describe it. Will the work be done by company personnel or subcontracted? Who are the subcontractor(s)? If on-site or in cyberspace, what employee qualifications, equipment, and technologies are needed? How will quality be assured? What performance levels are anticipated per employee? Possible Data Sources: local Chamber of Commerce; yellow pages; trade associations.

Marketing - How is the product or service priced? How will it be distributed? How will it be promoted? Will it be promoted by the venture or an outside agency? What agency? How have you determined what amount to set aside for marketing? How have you determined product or service forecasts? Possible Data Sources: on-line searches; Amazon; local outlets; trade journals; industry attorneys & accountants; salespeople.

Organization

How is the business structured? Who are the principals and the principal shareholders? What authority does each principal have in the venture? What are management's qualifications? What is the job description for each position? What does the organizational chart look like? Possible Data Sources: on-line templates for job descriptions & organizational chart.

Risk Assessment - What weaknesses are inherent in this venture? What vulnerabilities face this type of venture? What impact will these have? What new technologies may affect this venture over the next 1 to 3 years? What contingency plans are in place? What level of liability insurance is required? What does it cost? Who is the carrier? Possible Data Sources: trade associations; trade journals; Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE); industry salespeople; customers; focus groups.

Financial Plan - What is the anticipated income? What are the cash flow projections? What is the anticipated budget over the next 3 years? What is the break even point? When is it anticipated to be met? What funding is needed and where will it come from? What funding is currently available? What collateral is available? What is the net worth of the principals, if applicable? Possible Data Sources: accountant; accounting software; Small Business Administration; Small Business Development Center; SCORE; banks; venture capitalists.

Appendix - Resumes of principals/management; letters of recommendation from current business associates/customers/suppliers; marketing research data; demographic data; leases or contracts in place or as promised; business licenses; price lists from suppliers; trade or industry articles or data; floor plans; information on subcontractors; liability insurance policies.

Impress for Success - Now you have to admit, this is going to make an impressive package! Put it in a binder and you have built something to be proud of - the first of your many business accomplishments. Your potential investors will appreciate the depth of your analysis, but this tool will prove helpful in describing your venture to your employees, customers, and suppliers, as well. After you have been up and running for a few months, you will find that the planning that you have done will sensitize your inner "business compass" and allow you to flexibly adjust to contingencies. And that is indispensable!

How To Make Money Online From Home With A Home Based Business

Make sure that you always dress for success. If you want to make money online from home, you may wish to work while in your pj's. Try to dress professionally as you would for an external business. This can improve focus and productivity.

Working solely from the comfort of your own home has its charms, but soon you will miss interacting with people in a face-to-face environment. Try going to different places every week to maintain personal relationships.

If you start a business from home, you may find yourself using your home phone line to conduct a lot of your business. You should probably get an extra phone line or two. When your business is not operating, silence the ringer or turn the phone off.

It is important that you do not get your hopes up with business programs that promise quick success. Every opportunity from making money online from home business requires an investment of time before results can be achieved. If you stay dedicated and exercise patience, one day it will be as successful as you have hoped.

Check out make money online from home business forums online, and join a couple. Being a member of this kind of forum gives you the opportunity to communicate with other home business owners. You can all compare strategies and share your concerns.

Think about what the objective is for your business. It needs to be short and concise but should thoroughly describe what your business is going to do. This way you have a ready response when someone asks what your business does. A prepared statement will help you speak articulately and make a good first impression on potential customers.

Ask other people who make money online from home business owners to advertise your business on their web sites, and return the favor. Partnering up with other sites will help to bring traffic to your site, and the additional links will boost your rankings with the search engines. Your customers will understand what they are clicking on if you advertise properly.

Most people would not suggest borrowing money, in order to start your own make money online from home-based business. Is your business venture worth risking your personal relationships over? Is it wise to use your home as collateral on a bank loan?

If you have a make money online from home business, you may want to hire an accountant when tax season arrives. They will know much more about tax law than you and your time is better devoted to the overall management of your business.

Only use these sites to promote your business. You can create a lot of wasted work hours if you get caught up in the social aspect of these sites. Save the Facebook socializing for after work hours.

People that run their own businesses at home benefit from a strong peer support group. You may need to begin a network and actively seek others to join. These people might not work in a similar industry, but they possess the drive and motivation to achieve a successful home business.

If you want your make money online from home business to be successful, you have to be constantly aware of changes in competitor pricing. Doing so will make sure you're still competitive in your market compared to other companies.

Determination and a proactive outlook are required for operating a home business successfully. Since many regulations apply to buildings and businesses, check with your county to make sure the set-up you have in mind for your make money online from home business doesn't create any legal conflict. You may find a separate office building on your property to be most suitable. This can also help separate your professional life from your personal life!

Be sure the layout of your office is comfortable and ergonomically correct. Pay close attention to where and how you set up your computer equipment. If you have to sit in an uncomfortable position to view your computer, you will end up in pain and discomfort. This could lead to permanent problems. Buy a good desk chair if you're going to be sitting in it a lot. This is also true of keyboards, mice and other computer accessories. Spending $200 on these things can really improve your work space.

A key home business suggestions is to look professional whenever possible. An unprofessional website is the fastest way to lose customers. Study the layout, design and components of existing websites with a professional appearance. This will assist you in developing your own professional site.

You may need help if your business is a daycare and you have several children. There is so much that goes into running a daycare, from feeding the kids to giving them nap time, to just simply keeping an eye on them. Not having enough help will be enough to drive you nuts.

Try earning additional sales through membership fees. It is highly likely that you could increase profits by utilizing a membership subscription for your website.

Design your business's website to sell products. If you only sell from your physical location you are missing out on a large amount of your profit- web based profit. If you register at different sites you can do so cheaply.

It is important that you remain employed during the early stages of your new business. Don't quit your day job too quickly; it takes time for new venture to start turning a profit. Having money in your pocket while waiting for profits to build from your new venture is always advantageous.

Running a make money online from home based business requires some considerations, that other business must follow as well, in regards to safety. In order to do this you may need to enlist a set of rules and boundaries. Purchasing the correct equipment may also be required to secure your make money online from home business. That way, you can rest assured that your loved ones are safe and that the danger of accidents stays low. Home businesses can be inspected as well.

Secrets to Finding a Legitimate Work at Home Business The Average Person Can Do

What are the secrets to finding a legitimate work at home business the average person can really benefit from. There are at least 16 secrets to finding a legitimate work at home business for women or men. If you're just starting to look into the work at home world or have some experience; don't launch into something with all your heart and effort to later be disappointed.

A good checklist will help you avoid a lot of wasted time, money, energy and nightmares.

This checklist will help you to make most of the crucial decisions before launching your work from home business. In fact some of these secrets you will remember for the rest of your home business or Internet business career.

Money can be made on the Internet, and lots of it! In fact unlimited! When I began doing my investigating of home businesses; I was able to rub shoulders and visit the homes of home business marketers making anywhere between $20,000 a month and up to $50,000 a month. They are generally those who have become very experienced, but you can find programs that you can get into right away and make $1000 to $10,000 a month or more which can be accomplished by women or men despite education or time constraints.

"Someone said, you can work for a living or you can work part time for a Fortune."

If you will study these home business secrets, you will discover the principles you will need to make a part-time fortune.

1. Tangible Product That Is Needed in Today's World. Concentrate on programs or products that are needed by most people in today's world. The best product is one that needs to be purchased monthly! Think of a product that most people need to replace, re-use or purchase on a monthly basis. For example, toilet paper. You definitely need that every day. I often wonder how many wealthy toilet paper tycoons there are?

There are many great products and services to promote in a home business. You can earn big commissions to sell them. HOWEVER, would it be better to make a $39 profit just one time, or a $10 profit over and over again indefinitely?

It has been well said, that when you sell a product that will pay you only once, you are making money that is going to benefit the company more than yourself. But, if you sell a product over and over again, month after month you are making an income that is going to benefit you.

Let's use weight loss as an example since I myself promote a weight loss and health product. If you're selling a number one weight loss product in North America and it needs to be purchased every month you only need to make one sale and reap the benefits over and over again. When you gain a customer, you have a monthly reoccurring sale for the effort of the initial sale.

2. The Truth about Free Home Businesses. There is no such thing as a free business!

Despite all the hogwash you read about making $1 million and never spending a dime; ladies and gentlemen, it might happen once in a million years! But don't hold your breath!

It's always going to take some money to make money on the Internet or with a legitimate home business that you can be proud of working. The good thing is it takes a whole lot less to start a work from home job. Also, even though you can join almost any Internet program FREE; realize it only gets you in the door; and without benefits to actually make a financial profit. Normally, you get what you pay for.

The Internet world is so jam packed with opportunities, if you look around you can find most of the components that you would need for successful business. But it takes some work. You have to know WHERE to look, WHAT to look for and HOW to put it together. Often times than not, the learning curve can be very involved.

So whatever you do, you're going to have to invest some money in the form of cash or time. Cash can help you shorten the time and time can help you use less cash. You will have to determine where to balance the time and money you put in.

3. Do Not to Put All Your Investments in One "Boat."

The best home businesses entrepreneurs will diversify their businesses. Getting involved in a program or selling a product with multiple sources of income is what you want to have! If your business has more avenues of income, it will be more stable and you will be less likely to go under.

Can you imagine if you invested all your time and effort in an Internet program and after one year it disappeared! But if you learn the proper way to diversify your investments, then you may only lose one arm of your business instead of the whole thing!

Considering the condition of the economy; where would it be better to place your 10 gold nuggets?

Would you put your 10 gold nuggets in one bank or would you put it in three different banks? The answer is obvious. Three banks would be the best prevention from being wiped out financially all at one time.

If you were promoting the best weight loss program in America and all of a sudden the company goes down. What do you do? Make sure you diversify and also have a plan to quickly recover any loss of monthly income

4. Why Multilevel Marketing?

Multilevel marketing, network marketing and what we have often heard as "pyramid schemes" have given home businesses a bad rap. Really, multilevel and network marketing is a concept that happens in almost every business and social organization in existence.

Project Phases for Business Analysts

This article is focused on enabling better performance in business analysts and aspiring business analyst professionals. In this regard, I thought knowing the basics of project phases may be a useful read. Basically I'm hoping to touch upon the various aspects of a technology project that achieves a specific business outcome in which business analysts play a vital role.

Why choose technology projects for business analyst discussion?

Our world today is governed by technology. From the time we wake up in the morning to the time we hit the sack in the night we are in a way ruled by technology. A business analyst role in a way is better appreciated when there is technology involved. As mentioned earlier in my posts, anyplace in this world, that combines people, process and technology would result in a problem.

If there is a business analyst, who is working exclusively on process without any impact to technology or without any aspect of technology involved, I would like to meet him or her. So coming to our topic - let us try to understand from a business analyst and consulting stand point in a simple way the different phases of a functional business project that involves technology.

Note - Please note that I'm refraining from getting into Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) or Agile. I would like to keep the context of this post brief and not specific to a particular project management style though what I do state would align to most methodologies.

Is a business analyst actively involved in the project sub phases?

Business project that involves technology are often split into 2 large phases in the consulting world. The first phase is called Scoping and the second phase is called Delivery. Both these phases contain multiple sub phases in which a business analyst plays a vital role. We will look at them in detail.

The sub phases of a the Scoping phase of a consulting project are usually split into Scope Definition, Analysis and Functional Design.

The sub phases of a Delivery effort in a consulting assignment includes Technical Design, Construction / Build, Test phase that includes System Integration Testing (SIT) and User Acceptance Testing.

Scope definition - From my experience, I have noted than often the scope definition of the project is prior to a business analyst being assigned to the project. In some cases, the business analyst might get lucky and stand to be included in the scope definition of the project. But usually in this phase a project / functional manager, the program manager and subject matter experts play a major role. In some cases, this phase is also called blue printing.

In certain instances the scope phase include the requirements gathering process while in some cases, it gets pushed into the analysis phase of the project.

Analysis phase - Again while the term Analysis strictly refers to analyzing the business requirements gathered, more often the requirements gathering process start in this phase. The analysis phase of the project actively involves the business analyst interfacing with the stakeholder and gathering the business requirements and analyzing the requirements to better understand which requirements fit into the scope area defined and which doesn't.

It is a big challenge that in some instances business requirements often exceed the given project scope and may need to be identified by the business analyst and De-scoped. To the contrary in some cases, there is scope creeps and a lot of the business requirements are missed being documented. The analysis phase is definitely an area where a business analyst plays a critical role.

Functional Design - In the consulting world, the design phase is split into functional design and technical design. The function design is the phase where design elements with respect to data flows, requirements mapping to data flows, requirement functions that can be met through the design etc will be documented.

Technical Design - Technical design as the name suggests is the design document that provides the technology that defines the systems that will specifically be used to meet the functional business requirements documented by the business analyst. While the functional design document details the functions that would be met as a part of the design implementation, the technical design sticks on to the technology used, type of server to be used (Windows vs Linux), the type of database to used etc.

A lot of times in organizations these two documents are combined together to house a single design document. The usefulness of the comprehensive design document is completely contingent on the methodology followed by the organization. In some cases, where the business analyst is more functional some parts of the comprehensive design document becomes a challenge to understand.

A business analyst in the design phase plays the role of a solution expert. The business analyst is required to validate that the design document and the solution proposed meets the project objectives and the specific business requirements that have been captured.

Build / Construction - While in a strict sense a functional business analyst role would be restricted to requirements planning, requirements gathering and documentation until hand off to the IT teams, organizations today take a holistic view of the business analyst function. A business analyst might not play a very active role in the construction phase of the project. That certainly does not mean that a business analyst moves on to another project at this stage or has a relaxing time. While the IT team works on the construction phase of the project, a business analyst may be required to work on supporting the Testing preparation along with the project manager.

Starting Your Own Business - The Pros and Cons You Must Consider

Starting your own business...

Just the sound of that phrase conjures up pictures in the mind of the entrepreneur. Freedom. Money. Fulfillment. Starting your own business is an opportunity available to millions in the great nation of America in which we live, but with every opportunity there come liabilities. As wise business people, we are compelled to consider the advantages... and disadvantages, of a start up business.

To begin, let's look at the pros.

1. Freedom. Is there anything more valuable than freedom? Since the presence of freedom allows for all the other benefits we find in life, it stands to reason freedom would have to be at the top of the list of pros for starting your own business. If you can pick your own trade or service, do it in the manner in which you choose (with few limitations), do it for as long as you choose, and then sell that business to someone else when you choose... you have freedom, and freedom is not only the platform from which all other business benefits spring from, it is the greatest single benefit.

Freedom to make your own choices, work when you want to, vacation when you want to... what price freedom?

2. Money. More money has been made and can be made by self-directed enterprise than any other way of work. If you need proof of this, look to history. Read stories of entrepreneurs. You can go back hundreds of years, or you can look to your parent's generation. Either way, you will find the fortunes of this country have been built on the foundation of small business. There are massive fortunes in big business, to be sure, but every big business began as a small business; one or several individuals identifying needs and wants and seeking out ways to fill those needs and wants in a profitable manner. You may be able to secure a decent salary at a good company, but the money you can make in private enterprise dwarfs it many times over.

3. Fulfillment. Fulfillment is harder to define than the other more tangible aspects of business enterprise. While running a business can bring huge financial rewards, deeper and more meaningful are the personal development gains that come from it. Whether or not one makes a lot of money, if he or she can experience personal development and growth as a result of their business venture, they have profited. Some entrepreneurs find ways to build a lifestyle business, based upon what they love most and are talented at doing. Others find the very process of building a company of any kind brings out qualities in themselves they were not even aware of.

Starting your own business is a journey of personal fulfillment. There is more satisfaction in creating your own enterprise than in developing someone else's, because your business is of you, and about you, and for you.

Now, we take a look at some cons, the downsides to starting your own business.

1. Time. The precious, irreplaceable commodity of time. There is an overabundance of time shortage, and it's never gonna change. Unfortunately, starting your own business requires lots of time: time to create the perfect plan, time to investigate the market, time to build relationships with suppliers and subcontractors and affiliates, time to find workers and employees, time to market your goods...

When something takes time from your life, it means something (or someone) else is not getting it. This aspect of starting your own business keeps many people out of the venture. It's a high cost to pay.

2. Stress. Working for someone else can bring on plenty of stress: meeting the boss's expectations, dealing with annoying co-workers, following someone else's schedule for you. All of these and more are a reality to people every day in the workforce. But the stress of starting your own business and running it successfully can be hellish. When you are boss, you pay the bills, you pay the suppliers, you pay the fees, and you have to make sure YOU get paid so you can pay everyone else. It isn't easy.

Stress is as much a part of starting your own business as is the freedom you gain. In life, there's no having your cake and eating it too. To have the benefits, one must be willing to deal with the costs.

3. Insecurity. The advantages of small business are many, but security is not one of them. Why? The lack of security is a cost you pay to gain a benefit: adventure (aka freedom). I have yet to find anything in life where you have adventure and security at the same time.

Think about it. When all is set, and every plan fulfilled, and every debt paid, and every loose end secured, where is the adventure? When we are medicated, fed, and comfortable, we are BORED. Yes, its true, whether people admit it or not. There is no adventure in having everything perfect and secure.

You can see starting your own business creates a lack of security that a solid position at another company might not. When you are the captain, you know that if you don't perform and make it happen, the ship goes down. And no one else will plug the hole and make it float again. It's on your shoulders alone. That lack of security is a cost to pay when having your own business.

Starting your own business has great benefits, and great costs. People throughout history have scaled the rocky cliffs of challenge and difficulty and reached the summit of business success. This is capitalism, and it rests upon the willingness of entrepreneurs. You can be a part of this fulfilling adventure but you must weigh the pros against the cons to make sure you consider the payoff - worth the payout.

Steps To Getting Your Business Loans And Government Grants Approved

My business had not been in luck especially when it came to securing loans and I usually thought that I was never going to get any relief. I came however to discover some really great way around my stumbling block in the form of 13 tips to getting my business back to loan eligibility. The tips highlighted the main things that I had not been keen to implement in my business and gave me the best directive ever! Besides just getting the opportunity to secure loans and grants, these points gave me an opportunity to get money in the form of grants free of charge.

Choosing these tips is the best possible benefit my business could ever get especially with the quickly changing lending policies and grant programs. I also appreciated the fact that the ideas were basically open for any age of business because I used to think my business was still very young. They have quite significantly helped me bypass the high charges by brokers and insane charges I would never have managed to repay. I therefore would like to share these tips to open up the opportunities for other entrepreneurs who may want to get the relief I have been lucky to benefit from. They include;

High Priority Items

#1: Website:

Grants are particularly awarded to low financial risk businesses and most of which are those that show seriousness and stability. The only way to ensure that a business appeals for grant allocation is by having its own website. This is a direct implication that the business is not just taking chances but is serious to implement radical elements to the operations using the grants and loans. A recommended website needs to be at least 3 years old but younger sites can also gain relevance using media press releases

#2: Web Ranking:

The website's rank needs to be significant and organic because internet has become the main platform for searching and connecting to business. This means that there is need for the site to feature at the top of search engines to really matter in allocation of grants and loans.

#3: Credit Profile from Dun and Bradstreet:

The D&B report is very important in any grant application. More so, the business should also rank over 80 in the score and have all important information outlined correctly.

#4: Web Traffic:

The site furthermore needs to be attractive and feature a substantial number of visitors so that it gets the right attention for purchase and business relevance.

#5: Strong Credit profile:

Lenders will also have to confirm that the business is not a risk and will give priority to companies that have their profiles in order.

#6: Business Plan:

This is a proper way to define the business in terms of what it's focussed on and how it intends to achieve its goals. This is important in convincing any lending institution of the credit worthiness of the business.

Medium Priority Items

(ALTHOUGH SIGNIFICANT FOR NEW BUSINESSES)

#7: Response System:

This is important in establishing the business and taking care of customer services so that the business generates a significantly important supporting document for the grant. This is will necessitate the business to have a connection to clients in the form of emails and subscriptions.

#8: Social Networks:

The business needs to have a worthy following in that it is relevant and interesting to people in the respective niche. It is vital also that the business does not just get flooded with followers but stays realistically ahead of the competition.

#9: Credit for the Business:

This is important in building of worthy portfolios for businesses and creating the impression of financial accountability to the respective lending institutions.

#10: Press Release:

For a business to be credible to banks and grant offices, its press releases need to flock media outlets and be visible on search engines.

Low Priority Items

#11: YouTube:

A channel is also relevant such that there is a substantial following and an established presence in the specific business segment.

#12: Ranking of the Channel:

The YouTube account more so should be well placed in search engines just like the website itself so that there are frequent video fans.

#13: Live Chat:

This is very important in detailing the online presence of the company and the customer support level.

These tips if followed precisely are very effective, because they turned around my business from what was imminent failure.