Author: jgardner

    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. 

    Categories: Customer Engagement, Customer Service Tags: Tags: ,

    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

    Categories: Start a Home Business Tags: Tags: , ,

    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

    What Home Business can a College Graduate start out of College?

    1 Comment


    As the question is from a college graduate then whatever you have learned in college, you should be able to share with the world part-time while working fulltime in a job. Being a Freelance sharing your skills should be fairly economical.

    For example, if you graduated with a Liberal Arts Degree, I believe you have training in English, literature and other liberal arts. Well, there is always a demand for writing for the internet whether it is for blogging, sales pages, white pages or any english skill. There is Upwork or Fiver where you can write up your skills for others to hire. The demand for people who can narrate video or do audio in good clear English is always in demand. You work as the proposals come in so you don’t have to take work if you are too busy in your job. You are hiring yourself out and your skills so there would be small commission for the internet platform but it wouldn’t require much time or money as all you would need is a mobile phone video skills to make your bio etc.

    To learn more about starting a home business go to The Business of AT Home Business membership and check it out!

    Categories: Home Business Ideas

    Just WHO is your Competition?

    The first step of the competitive analysis is to determine who is your local competition whether offline or online.  This can be done quite simply by driving around and observing and by searching through a telephone directory or searching in Google for similar businesses.

    The main question will be one of range and determining just how far customers are prepared to travel to obtain your competitors goods and services. As well as local competitors some businesses also have non-local competitors such as in the form of mail order companies for example.

    To analyze the competition, it is necessary to determine what market or market segments they serve and what benefits they offer. It is necessary to determine why customers buy from them and also to gather information about their products and or services, their pricing and promotion.

    Gathering information could be done by physically visiting a business or checking their website. Several physical visits to a business will enable a person to determine information about their product and the company’s treatment of customers. Invest in a course or product of your competition to see how they deliver their goods and how is their customer service.

    Good sources of information about a company come from the company’s vendors, suppliers and employees. Attending a trade fair where the competitors are exhibiting is another excellent way of gathering information.

    Once the information has been gathered it needs to be analyzed. By analyzing what a competitor does offer it is then possible to determine a niche market that can be targeted by offering something that the competitor does not.

    The goal of the analysis is to identify and expand your competitive advantage by focusing on the benefits your business can offer that the competitor can’t or won’t offer.

    Categories: Business plan

    What is #1 Priority when starting a home business?

    The #1 Priority for any business whether home based or brick and mortar is Cash Flow!

    The biggest concern with any business is cash flow.
    At all times you have to be marketing, selling and
    fulfilling the service of your home business.

    You need a minimum cash flow every month just to cover your business
    expenses and living expenses.
    You can start by looking at your own bank account and
    see what are your expenses to live every month.
    Then do an analysis of the expenses needed in order to do your business
    (by doing a business plan).
    Add all the expenses together and that will be the income minimum
    you need to make just to cover your expenses.

    In most businesses you don’t make a profit which is income above
    what you need for expenses for a few months or more.
    So, you need to have some startup funding (whether savings or family support etc.) in the first year.

    At all times, it is cash flow which can make a business profitable or a loss.
    At all times as an owner you have to have three hats on:

    The Marketer Cat

    Cat wearing felt hat with feather

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    The Marketer Hat where you go out and make people aware of your business. Okay, yes, I am not a cat but doesn’t he look like a marketer cat! 🙂

     

    The Seller Cat

    Portrait of cat wearing straw hat

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    The Seller Hat where you close the sale when you have someone asking about your business. This is where you are serious and know what you want to say just like the Seller Cat.

     

    The Business Cat

    Cat wearing red hat

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    The Business Hat where you fulfill the promise of the sale that you made
    whether to fulfill a service or produce a product. The Business Cat is professional at all times in fullfilling the promise!

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    My husband and I have had a home based business for 20 years.
    Just like any business, we have to have cash flow.
    In one day, you can be meeting a potential client to fulfill a service
    by a deadline while fulfilling another promised service
    in the 8 hour time period
    and responding to enquires with quotes over the internet.
    At all times, you have to be a marketer, salesperson and service provider.
    That is common to any business, homebased or otherwise,
    if you don’t have the cashflow needed for your business,
    you will get into serious trouble.

    #1 Priority for Any Business is Creating the Cash Flow!
    For more go to http://boahb.com on how to start run and grow a home business!

    Categories: Run a Home Business Tags: Tags: , , , ,

    Home Business Startup Checklist

    Who is your target market?
     What products or services will you be offering?
     Who is your main competition?
     What is your value proposition?
     How will you deliver your products or services?
     What will you name your business?
    Administration
     Where will you work? Determine where your office space will be.
     Purchase or set up your office equipment and supplies (eg, desk and good chair, computer, printer, phone line, software, basic supplies, etc.)
     Set up a separate business address for correspondence.
     Set up a separate business email address.
     What kind of legal entity will you create? Complete the legal requirements and registration. Identify a lawyer or accountant to help you.
     Obtain an Employee Identification Number (EIN). If you are a sole proprietor, this may be your social security number.
     Register your name and buy the matching domain name.
     Purchase web hosting, if you are going to have a website.
     Order business cards.

    Home Business Start-Up Checklist (continued)
    Finances
     Set up a separate banking account for your business. Obtain a separate business credit card.
     Determine how you will pay and get paid. Set up the systems you will use (eg, Paypal and/or credit cards).
     Set up a system for tracking your finances.
     Prepare an initial budget and financial forecast.
     Set your initial business and financial goals.
    Support
     Identify relevant industry websites and forums. Start networking.
     Identify and join a mastermind group.
     Decide which training you will use, if needed. Get started.
     Find people who can perform the tasks you will not be doing yourself. (e.g., website design and development, accounting).
    Promotion
     Create your marketing plan and calendar.
     Create an action plan with deadlines.

    Take a deep breath and get started!!
    Come and get resources, support and action moving forward in your home business at http://boahb.com/

    Categories: Run a Home Business, Start a Home Business