Author: jgardner

Economy is bright for Entrepreneurs

Some bright news from the Economy that a recession and pandemic will not stop the Entrepreneurial spirit!  IMAGCo  had a problem and they are creating a solution.

Being a deaf substititute teacher, with the pandemic, she couldn’t read lips with children having masks. So, she couldn’t do that so she figured out that an app may be great for transcribing speech in a text visual on a phone so transcription instanteously is what her business is working on in a startup workshop.  What a great idea freeing deaf people from having to interpret speech.

Age Doesn’t Define an Entrepreneur Anymore

24 years ago,according to a Kaufmann Institute poll, only 14% of new entrepreneurs were between the age of 50 and 64. In 2019 over 25% of new entrepreneurs are 55 to 64 which is the same % as the younger entrepreneurs they surveyed. Being older does not stop the entrepreneurial spirit in 2020.

Now the internet and computers have helped the accessibility of all age groups to being an entrepreneur. There is a trend for telecommuting and working from home which has given people interested in being an entrepreneur, the freedom to provide products or services without having to have an office or retail store in order to do business.

With the demands of life and expenses increasing there is almost a necessity for getting a cash flow in other than your retirement funds. Now with the pandemic stopping all work and getting more people unemployed regardless of age, there is a real drive to not be dependent on a career and take control of your life.

Now there may be some re-training needed to get the skills for the business you want to have or even to learn the machinations of how to run a business but age shouldn’t stop anyone from taking control of their finances and find a new business to give them the life they want.  Now is the time while  you stay at home to research plan and even get started on a new business parttime .

The internet provides the freedom to connect with others all over the world.  There is software for communication like Skype and Zoom and Google Meet to connect.  There are  universities and Learning platforms for any skill you might need to start a business like Udemy or Coursera or Skillshare (search in Google).

I am passionate about helping others start a home business because age shouldn’t stop you from starting.  The passion to help others with their business is why I created the Business of At Home Business membership!  During the pandemic, I am offering a $1 membership to come in and learn about what it takes to start a home business. You can see more about the Membership and all the assets inside and courses to implement like the Psychology of Marketing and How to build an eTribe  here at the membership page.

Categories: Run a Home Business

Be prepared for Emergencies in your Home Business

HOW PAST CRISIS CAN PREPARE BUSINESSES TO FACE NEW ONES

The impact that a crisis whether it is a pandemic, market downturn or unexpected catastrophic event like earthquakes or hurricanes , has on individuals psychologically, socially, and financially can be devastating. Understanding past crisis and their adverse effects on people’s lives, as well as the economy, can help us learn from these past events.

You can survive the crisis by avoiding making the same mistakes made in the past. You can also come out sane by adopting some of the preventative measures taken in the past and adopting the right attitudes and reflexes.

One example of a global crisis that had devastating impacts on the economy and people’s lives, in general, is the 1918 Spanish flu. Many lessons can be drawn from the global crisis that had severe economic and psychological consequences on businesses and individuals.

SOME OF THE LESSONS YOU CAN LEARN FROM PAST CRISIS

The importance of containment

During a crisis, the number one priority for yourself, your family and your business is to listen to government experts whether it is a pandemic, earthquake or other unexpected events because they have Emergency measure in effect that you need to follow for you and your family safety.
Rules or instructions given should be obeyed to prevent panicking as well as further complications. Staying at home, refraining from certain activities, using certain products, and self-isolating are some of the most important instructions that must be observed.

The main reason why most people died from the 1918 Spanish flu is the same reason that is likely to cause more deaths in any other global crisis. Many deaths were caused by the people ignoring the advice of health experts.

The need for businesses to prepare for the impact of the crisis

The consequences that the Spanish flu had included labor shortages and increased rates of physical disability, among other things. Most effects rose from the panic surrounding the crisis. The panicking also worsened as businesses were temporarily closed, public gatherings banned, and sporting events canceled. Luckily, we can avoid going down the same route and facing similar consequences. Knowing and preparing for the economic consequences of a crisis can help minimize the impact that the crisis has. It can also aid in helping you remain sane during the crisis.

Closing businesses during the period of self-isolation of a pandemic, which normally lasts for 14 days or more, will doubtlessly have a toll on the economy. Nonetheless, preparing in advance for the negative economic and psychological impact will help in recovering more rapidly.

TAKING AND IMPLEMENTING BUSINESS ADVICE FROM EXPERTS HELPS KEEP YOUR BUSINESS AFLOAT

One major concern that most businesses and freelancers have during a crisis is how to keep business processes flowing. Fortunately, there are steps that you can take to continue operating your business or even venture into new business ideas. Expert advice can help you retain your sanity and keep your business going in a crisis. Expert billionaire entrepreneurs are offering their expert advice on social media.
Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban for example has given valuable business advice on LinkedIn. Mark Cuban provides some of the tips for keeping your professional life going. These include:
• Reaching out to potential clients as well as trying new business ideas.
• If you cannot carry out some of the work you do at the office while at home you can always try getting a new job or diversifying your market by finding potential clients or opportunities.
• You can also start perfecting work or working on neglected work as well as unfinished work.
The billionaire entrepreneur also advises that you try out new ideas, for example, begin offering other services apart from the leading service you provide if you can. In our engineering company we survived the 2008 economic downturn by working in diverse markets so that when one market dried up we still had work in other markets. Never be dependent on one client or one market for your business

PREPARE FOR A BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLAN

It is of utmost importance that a business puts in place a risk management committee consisting of experts in various fields (IT, security, Human resource, Finance etc..) which will identify key personnel and allocate specific tasks during a crisis. A crisis planning and coordination must be thoroughly prepared. It must identify the various risk elements which the crisis will pose against the business. This could include human resource risks, supply chain risks, IT risks, process risks, economic risks etc.

Once a plan is set up, it must be tested and rehearsed regularly. Staff training and educational workshop must be conducted to ensure that everyone in the business knows his duty and responsibility when such event happens. The heart of the business in such instance would be the IT infrastructure which should be robust enough to allow for staff to work from home, while maintaining a secure environment to prevent data breaches or communication down time.

As well there should be plans in place if power grid or water systems will be down for several days such as making sure you have a few battery run landline phones and radio for communication and a stock of water supply filled bottles. Some of the standard Earthquake or Hurricane Kits should be kept in the office at all times in case of a catastrophic event.

In a business you should always have backups, backups of your data and an Operating Procedures Binder which details all the systems in the business. You can check out my Systems Saturday series on Solopreneur Success Strategies which details some of the Systems you can have in your business to make your life easier and give you more time in your business getting clients instead of filing papers at http://jgtips.com/SSat

Categories: Run a Home Business

Where are you most productive?

Have you ever felt like the most banal place can be your most productive place? I have realized having spent hours waiting for an X-ray and jotting in my notebook which that doctor’s office and waiting rooms get me into planning and to -do list mode. It must be the quiet with no distraction and people busy texting means there is nothing else to do or look at so my brain goes into productive mode. Four pages of notes planning out my future at my last appointment! Bring it on, hospital, I’m in the productive zone! What about you ? Do you get the coffee shop productive zone or where? hashtagproductivity hashtagtimemanagement

Categories: Run a Home Business

How to Make $1000 in a week in an online business

So you want to make a $1000 in a week and you don’t know what to do to start making some money. Well, if you are desperate, I would sell something I own like a car or some furniture but I don’t think that is what is being asked. 🙂

So, you want to make money and you don’t want to invest in tools or software to create some product or do a service to sell.

So, with no money, you can use your brain and your writing skills to write some how-to documents to sell with private label rights. So, you would write some how-to create a … or how to do step by step documents and put them up on Fiverr to sell at 0.50 a page or (whatever the market currently charges). It is taking me 10 minutes to write this article and so if I was to write for 40 minutes, how many pages would I have to sell? If it was a good how-to make $1000 a week from home information and I sold it with private label rights so that anyone could put their name on it and use on their websites and I sold it for $5 then I would only need 200 people to buy it in a week to get my $1000.

But of course, you have to first find out what people really want to buy as it might be in more demand to buy a private label rights document on how to build a mailing list using Aweber or it might be in more demand to write a document on the Step by Step to sell on Amazon. It all depends on your market and what they are struggling with so you have to do some research on social media like Facebook or Twitter.

So, you have writing skills but you want to be paid before you start and finish a document then go to Upwork or other freelance sites to find proposals of writing work you can do that you might be able to do from your experience. Even if you are a mom you have experience in care-giving that might be of value to other moms that you could share.

There are 4 billion people on the internet at various stages of experience from newbie to internet marketer to crafter to coach to major organizations who need content and you just have to find the people who want your wisdom.

For more on starting a home business go to The Business of At Home Business Community where I share wisdom, resources and ideas on starting a home business.

What are some of the secrets that no one tells you when starting a home business

When starting your own business there are few myths that have to be dispelled and a few Elephants in the Room that need to be discussed to help you be successful in your business.

The Elephant is the Idea of Getting Rich, Quick on the Internet

There is no “get rich quick ideas” that are legal and work for a long time. **You can be the first** to open a legal marijuana selling business in your community that follows all the rules and pays all the fees needed to open but at some point there will be competitors who will be opening stores nearby. On the internet, there are business ideas that have made money quickly but it doesn’t last as either competitors come in the same field or Google decides to change its algorithm and your “secret get rich idea” suddenly doesn’t work anymore.

Say you find a business idea that everyone loves and pays you for in an sudden instant of money. So you then go spend the money on cars or house and you realize that “the idea isn’t as hot as it used to be” so you have to bring others into your business to expand your market. Well, you do a campaign and once you have paid your employees and affiliates who helped you make $200000 in sales but know the net profit is $50,000. Suddenly it is a business that needs staff, more investment in advertising and time and outreach and its not a “get rich quick idea” anymore.

Being in Business you have to Work!

Having been in home business with husband for 20 years, we know that owning a business is not all laptop free time and working only when we want to. We have clients who we promise to get the work done to a certain deadline so you work till 2 in the morning if you need to get it done for 8 a.m. in the morning. If the work isn’t done, you have an unhappy client and you don’t get paid on deadline. There is a myth going round that you can work 20 hours a week and make a $100,000 but you have to have automations and outsourcing some of your work for you to make that kind of money only doing 20 hours a week.

The Secret is Persistence

It isn’t a glamourous answer on the *secret to success in business* but it is being persistent even when you fail and moving forward and adapting to the current business climate to keep on as a successful entrepreneur.

The other secret is to come into The Business of At Home Business Community and get some great advice, resources, training and ideas on starting a home business (but you knew that already. 🙂 )

Business of At Home Business Community Open and Founder’s Special!!

Home Business Startup Checklist

The Business of At Home Business Community is now open!
Check out what you get as a Founder here

So Here’s Exactly What You’re Going To Get With

“The Business Of At Home Business Community”

 This Amazing Community Includes:

  1. Member Directory

  2. Member Forum

  3. Business Trainings inside Community

  4. New Training every month

  5. Private FB group

  6. Open Office Hours every month for Q and A.

  7. PDF cheat sheets

  8. PDF workbooks and checklist for courses

You can:

* Escape being overwhelmed at all the things you need in your business to grow it
* Sidestep spending money on a variety of courses you may or may not need
Save yourself from struggling to do it all on their own
* While quickly creating and starting a home business with lots of tools to help you grow
* And leverage the skills learned in the Community to create a real business       online or offline
You can:
*be part of  a community of like-minded people
* Save time and money by finding resources all in one place instead of all over the internet
* Understand what you need to know about getting the foundations of your home business planned.
* Discover The Real Secret to create the foundations for a home business quickly so you can grow.
* See how you can easily get sales quickly (so you don’t have to deal with having to try to do it by yourself).
* Realize how when starting a home business you can quickly get customers…
* Effortlessly get the tools to create a homebiz quickly
* Enjoy short and long-term solutions for your home business
*Be part of a community to integrate or share your business to make each other stronger
* And, as a special bonus, you’ll also discover how to automate and add processes to your business so it works for you when it sleeps!
For an incredible Founders rate and get the support and implementation you need to get your business growing quickly!
Get your free Home Business Checklist free here , no signup just giving it away with Steps you need to do to get Started in your Business just click on the picture and it will download immediately.

Categories: Announcements Tags: Tags: ,

Are you Focused on your Customers?

On today’s episode of Solopreneur Success Strategies, it is all about the customer. Are you focused on your current customers?  Developing your customer retention rate can increase your bottom line easily. If you focus on your current customers rather than trying to get new customers ever day, you can recommend or upsell new products or services to your current customers.

It is 10X harder to acquire a new customer than to sell new products or services to your existing customers.  Connect and follow up with your current customers to make sure they are happy with your customer service or there are ways to improve your customer service.

By spending more time on your current customers, you can increase your profits without extra advertising.

For more on customer acquistion and retention, join The Business of At Home Business community at http://boahbtips.com/members. 

Will The New Business Fail?

As the phrase goes, “there is no guarantee in life” but there are certain steps you can take to make sure your new business doesn’t fail.

Step 1. Research research research

Do your research before you even start your new business as to whether there is a market out there for your business. There are many ways to research whether anyone wants your new business by looking at your ideal customer and the demographics of the audience.

You can check if there are any competitors in your market which can be a good thing because it means there are people buying but dig deep to make sure they are a viable business or holding it all together with smoke and mirrors. There are many Internet marketers who “make a million” one year and crash the next because they don’t put in the foundations of a good business.

Now, if there are competitors and they have a sustainable business, what makes your business unique from their business so you can stand out from your competitors. For example, when this auto repair shop fixes a repair, they also wash the car whereas you could be the auto repair shop that fixes repair, washes car, rotates tires and installs new window wiper blades. Who doesn’t love free window wiper blades!

Whether you want to or not, it is good practice to do a business plan for your new business before you start because once you look at the expenses vs. income, market research, marketing plan and obstacles to your success, you will be able to see before you spend a penny whether your business will fail.

Step 2. Start your new business part-time

I’m not a believer in quitting your job without knowing whether your new business is going to be successful so you should do it part-time while you are working at your job. Any business whether it is internet-based, production or offline , you can do it part-time. Steve Jobs worked in his parent’s garage while creating the Mac. So, even a cleaning company you could start part-time and clean in evening offices that are closed. You could go to weekend trade shows or events to display your product to see whether people will buy or they are interested enough to invest. You can join your local Chamber of Commerce and talk about your business to see what feedback might be from other local business entrepreneurs. You could create a Meet-up with the title “Internet Marketing Success” or if you are an artisan, “
Crafting Business made Easy” and share free information and make connections with others to form collaborations on a part-time basis. With your first sale, celebrate but don’t quit your job until you are getting enough money to replace your monthly expenses. You could be a part-time consultant for other companies and work from contract to contract.

Step 3. Start your business

So, you have been working part-time at your business and you’ve made the sales that have been consistent or got the contracts to fulfill that could give you the income per month to start your business. You have done your research and you have been marketing to your ideal customers who have given you repeat business. You have reviewed your business plan and made adjustments needed from doing the work part-time. You have done future projections of income and how you will increase it once you work at it full-time.

For our structural engineering home office, we worked part-time weekends and evening doing design and putting in hours to finish work to deadline while commuting back and forth to a job. We had three to four regular clients who gave us regular work so when we got laid off from work, we could easily go full-time in our home office.

You have all your government required licenses and you are set for making your business into a system with foundations to make the business grow. You are ready and there may not be any guarantees but you have done all you can to make your business a success!

For more on starting a home business, go to The Business of At Home Business Community at http://boahbtips.com/member

What is a Lifestyle Business?

A Lifestyle Business is defined by what you want your lifestyle to be while you are in business.

If you want to travel the world while running a business then there are certain requirements you need to take with you to run your business.

You are going to have to have a laptop computer, Wi-Fi access and smartphone so you can communicate with your home office, Skype or check your email or create your product or service on the computer. You need to be flexible with your time but prioritize it so when bumps in the schedule from delayed ferries or power outage or no access to computer happens, it isn’t critical to your business.

If you want to spend 80% of your time with your family and 20% on the business then it is a matter of prioritizing your time. The same requirements for tools like laptop, smartphone and Wi-Fi so while you wait for your child to finish soccer practice, you can write up that document you need to get done in the car.

For these lifestyle businesses, you have to ask the important question “ How much money can I bring in from the business which makes it a viable lifestyle business?”

If you want to only work at your business 2 hours per day x 5 days a week = 10 hours.

What can you do in those 10 hours to get the business income you need?

To make $100,000 a year, you need to make $8333 a month. So, 40 hours a month means you would have to make $208 an hour. There are professionals who make that hourly rate so it is possible if they decided to take a year off and only consult 40 hours a month. But what about you and your imagined revenue in your business.

It depends on your skills, of course, as if you have computer programming skills working on software creation you are going to make higher income that a person who blogs about their adventures.

For example, let’s say you are travelling the world and you want to blog about your adventures while making money. So, your blog is going to be making money by you getting commissions from any products you might promote on your blog. You won’t make millions but maybe you will make $50 or more a month to cover some expenses.

 

Categories: Be Your Own Boss

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