Category: Run a Home Business

    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: ,

    Writing Content for your Business

    The content of your site tells a whole lot about your website. They will basically describe what your site is about and also tell people what your site has to offer. Articles and website content makes a whole lot of difference in your site because they can catch the attention of your website visitors and keep them in there.

    With good website content you get the benefit of clearly depicting what it is you want to share with people. Also, good content and articles can lead people to your site. With more traffic, you get to earn more from your site making it profitable. A sites success, be it for profit or not, is the number of the flow of traffic in your site.

    SEO Enhanced Website

    So how does good content and great articles get you traffic? Well, many search engines rely on the keyword and keyword phrases of a site to put it in their results list. If your content contains a good number of keywords and keywords phrases, it may be chosen to be a part of the top listed sites in the search result pages.

    But before you think of just plastering your site with all the keywords and keyword phrases it could hold, search engines also filter out that abuse. You must have good well written articles that incorporate the keywords and keyword phrases properly in their content and articles.

    There are many of those who cannot afford the time to write their own website contents and articles. While writing content and articles specifically designed for the internet may take some getting used to and some researching and learning, there are many writers that can be found all over the world who could do it for you.

    Outsourcing your Web Content

    Many of us do not have the time to learn web content writing and article writing designed for the internet. There are writers who have great experience in doing this and charge only a minimal fee for such work. Writers like this can be regarded as experts in this style of writing and can greatly help your website to get that coveted spot in the search engine rankings.

    Other than getting your site in the web results page of search engines, they can also provide your site with meaningful articles and content that can impress your website visitors and entice others to view your site. Every website could use the extra traffic website visitors could invite.

    Outsourcing your Writing in Your Business

    Then there are those who need papers to be done either for their school or office work. Top writers around the world are very knowledgeable and do extreme researching to get a job done right. They are also very adept in many writing styles that are needed to best suit the client’s need.

    Many writers around the world charge a minimal fee depending on the type of writing job needed and the number of words needed in the content. Usually, a two hundred fifty worded article would cost from 4 to 8 dollars depending on the writers experience and ability. This is a small price to pay for having a content rich site or for a well researched and written paper.

    Finding a Good Writer

    There are also many sites that can offer you these services with their team of well trained and experienced writers. They offer many writing services to cover any writing needs. A writer can be based anywhere in the world and are guaranteed to offer good contents and articles. Each one are doubly checked, edited and proofread so that you would get your money’s worth.

    Finding a good writer or a site that offers these kinds of services is simply done by searching for them in search engines. Type down your keyword or keyword phrase (e.g. Content Writers, Article Writers) and you will see a long list of sites that offer these services.

    The services site include:

    Upwork.com

    Freelancer.com 

    The top sites would probably be the best since they have done a good job of keeping their content at a high quality to get them high rankings. But you may also want to shop around and read some of their sample work to get an idea of how much it will cost you.

    Writing content is a skill that can reflect well your business or not reflect well if the content is less than grammatically correct or it is not easy to read. So, make sure you get samples of someone’s work from them before you hire them to write your content. They should be able to give you a $ per page or $ per 1000 words rate so you can budget your money for outsourcing some writing.

    Categories: Content, Grow a Home Business, Outsourcing, SEO, Website Tags: Tags: , , , , , , ,

    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

    An Entrepreneur Never Hesitates

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    Never hesitate.

    Always taking action is how you should frame it in your mind because that’s a positive instead of a negative.

    You should eliminate hesitation from your mindset.

    This is the most important thing I can tell you about this. It’s easier to correct a wrong decision than indecision, because a wrong decision will tell you at least, “This way doesn’t work. You should probably look at these other alternatives instead.”

    Indecision doesn’t tell you anything. You have absolutely no idea. So it’s easier to correct a wrong decision than it is to correct indecision. It’s actually easier to make a wrong decision right than to get the right decision right off the bat, because you’re usually never right right away. You’re usually close, and then you correct the rest of it to get right on the money.

    And speaking of money, money is very attracted to speed.

    Money loves speed.

    It’s so seductive.

    Speed seduces money and says, “Hey baby, want to go out on a date with me?” Money goes to those who act quickly, and so knowing that’s a money magnet you should say, “If money loves to be around people who are quick to act, maybe I should be quick to act. And if I can’t, I have to create a strategy that will then allow me to.”

    I like to ask people, “Has there been a time in your life where you absolutely acted immediately and you never hesitated?” And they’re like, “Absolutely.” And I’m like, “OK, so you can do that. Now we just gotta figure out your strategy that gets you in that state of mind so you can take action,” and then we do that.

    Do you want to be a waiter? Or do you want to be a receiver? Getting it done and getting some stuff from it.

    So don’t hesitate, because you just won’t get anything from it.

    The biggest difference between successful people and the norm is their speed of implementation like we were talking about earlier. There’s only a handful of differences that separate the winners from the losers. There’s only those two or three or four daily tasks and their approaches to those, and one of those tasks is winners are very quick to take an idea and turn it into something tangible.

    Work harder on yourself than you do on your business; meaning that if these are problems for you, you should be setting aside some time every single day where you’re doing this stuff to

    become better at taking action;

    to be better at learning how to handle criticism;

    to be better at creating undeniable and insatiable desire.

    If these are problems for you, you have to handle them. You have to set aside time every single day where you become better as a person with your qualities. So work harder on yourself than you do on your business until you get those qualities that you want. Then you can do anything you want in any business.

    The Entrepreneurial Mindset is one of the topics in The Business of At Home Business Membership 

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

    What Is The Biggest Obstacle You Face When Starting A Home Business?

    So you want to start a home business?

    When you look at starting a home business as a new entrepreneur, you look at all the things you need to do to get started.

    Website

    Sales Pages

    Traffic

    Product creation

    Design graphics

    Social media

    Funnels – what are funnels?!

    All the other requirements like taxes, books, government regulations and so on ..

    All you want to do is find the customers who need your solution to their problem or what they desire…..

    All the equipment or technology you need to create a functioning business can seem like the biggest obstacle to starting a home business but it is not the biggest obstacle.

    The biggest obstacle to starting a home business is YOU!

    Paralysis

    Your brain will get overwhelmed by all the “things” you have to do in your business.

    Your Mind is powerful and it is great at collecting knowledge from here, there and everywhere.

    But that can be overwhelming and cause “Paralysis Analysis.”  You will become overwhelmed by all the information and get STUCK. What should I do next?!

    Well… take a deep breath ..and make a step by step checklist of what you need to do and cross it off as you do it.

    Perfectionism

    Don’t try to be Perfect.

    Perfectionism can also cause paralysis in terms of “waiting” till I get this done and it takes longer than you thought and suddenly, it has been three months of you trying to perfect a sales page.

    Imperfect Action is better than no Action.

    Perfect is unattainable so don’t even try for Perfect. Just Perfect Enough to get moving!

    The Next Best Thing

    There is no quick way to make money with a home business. It is about building a business that has systems in it to keep the cash flowing. So always following the newest idea on how to make the cash flow will get you into chasing the quick money instead of a business. It is called the “Bright Shiny Object” syndrome and the promise of the “NEW” has always moved people to buy but you don’t want to move “off your path” chasing rainbows, you want to be focused on a path to your business such that you can see how it works.

    The Business of At Home Business Membership

    As an entrepreneur working in home business, I have (and still know) known the challenges of being in home business so I have developed a Membership to help others get their home business started quicker and easier.

    Check it out at  The Business of At Home Business here.

    Categories: Be Your Own Boss, Knowledge, Mindset, Run a Home Business Tags: Tags: , , , , ,

    7 ways to get the time to start a home business?

    Are you stuck in overwhelm wondering how to start your own home business?

    Do you find that your days are filled with your job, commuting and family chores that you don’t know how you can find the time to think about starting a home business let alone actually having the time to do it!

    Ask yourself just how committed are you to starting a business that can improve your life?

    You can find the time if you REALLY want to have your own business.

    Here are 7 ways to find the time to start your own home business

    1. Stop watching T.V.

    Television is such a time waste when you think of what you could be doing in that hour to take action in your business. If you “have to be social” with the family then at least bring out the laptop or phone to work on your business while you are there.

    2. Get up one hour earlier every day

    If you were to get up at 5 a.m instead of 6 a.m. just think of the action you could take planning your business in the quiet of the morning. Staying up late to work isn’t recommended as you aren’t getting the sleep your body needs to work during the day.

    3. Take 15 minutes a day for you

    Fifteen minutes for 30 days is equal to 450 minutes or over 7 hours you have spent to move your business forward. I use a small book to write in my ideas and next action steps.

    4. Take the time while commuting or waiting at appointments

    Just think of the minutes and hours you spend just travelling or waiting in life that you could do something productive towards planning and taking action to start your business. I like writing down ideas and next steps in my Moleskine notebook because I like the visceral feel of the book and paper but you can just write on your phone or record your thoughts.

    5. Get a Mentor

    Find someone who already has a business and ask if you could ask questions of him or her about starting a home business by email or on the phone. A mentor can help you save time by preventing you from making common mistakes and helping you take action.

    6. Allow yourself to take baby steps of action.

    You have to celebrate whatever small action you may take every day to move forward. If you celebrate rather than counting the number of things you need to do that will help with overwhelm.

     

    7. Read a book about business instead of a novel at bedtime

    If you don’t know someone successful in business, you can read about entrepreneurs and starting a home business to absorb the lessons they have learned whether it is “The Reluctant Entrepreneur” by Michael Masterson or “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie.

     

    If you want to learn about starting, running or growing a home business all in one place, you should join “The Business of At Home Business” membership where you can learn and implement about what it takes to start an online or offline home business all in one place!

    Categories: Be Your Own Boss, Run a Home Business Tags: Tags: , , ,

    Guerilla Marketing to Grow Your Business

    It’s about growing your own home business by using some offline tactics to do your marketing that are traditional but have been working for ever. So for those of you who have never tried to grow your home business, there are three point six billion people online. So remember to get your Web site up there like I mentioned on Thursday so that you connect with those people.

    If you want at first start connecting with your local community. Believe it or not,  yes, Yellow Pages is a great way to start. Get your advertising info into Yellow Pages and that does cost money but that will last you a lifetime in order of “word of mouth.” Once people start to get to know that you’re in the Yellow Pages in the directory, they can look you up easily and get your phone number and your address also maybe depending on the Yellow Pages. And of course, it is put up in the Yellow Pages on the Internet. And once they have your web site, you have a Web site up and an address. You can put that Web site and your phone number and e-mail and your mobile phone on business cards. On your Web site, have a contact form to “contact us” form as they say on your Web site that they could fill in and contact you for more information about your business.

    You can actually pay for the domain and pay for the hosting for a web site and it is certainly less than a hundred dollars You could easily learn WordPress. I know you don’t want to but obviously you could and that would be also free. Once you have that, you could put up a few blog posts and you have a Web site or you could hire someone to do that or get a free Web site as long as they allow you to attach a email auto-responder that will make a list of the people who contact you. Once they get onto your e-mail address list then you are in business with possible customers because that’s a very simple way for you to start your business growing is by getting on the Internet.

    But anyway, for those of you who are local businesses, you have to do some marketing for your business. There are still direct mailers out there depending on your community they could be reasonable. Send out a press release saying that you’re in town and available or you could do some ads in your local paper.

    You could also network out there in your community. There’s a lot of business networking groups. I’m not sure if they’re free to join in your community. The Chamber of Commerce in our community you pay a yearly fee but you have a lot of free networking by being in the chamber. Go out and volunteer in your community at a local food bank or any local business entrepreneurial type group. Go to a Meetup networking event. Meetups are free and create your own Meetup where you provide information and people can come and learn about your business or service depending on what you actually do and you could actually be there and meet up with others who are in business. Those are just a few of the ways that you have to be able to get out into the community so people get to know about you as you have to network.

    You have to market your business. So obviously you could also do a press release send it to your local newspapers saying that you’re in business. They’re always interested in profiling new businesses this community. Those are some of the traditional ways that Jay Levinson of the Guerilla Marketing book series has for you and let me just get his Web site because of course everybody has a Web site now and you can go and get some more guerilla marketing hacks for your local business that you don’t have to cost too much money to spend to get them.

    Gmarketing.com or his book “Guerrilla Marketing” by Jay Conrad Levinson.

    But anyway , so guerrilla marketing is a great way to save money in order to grow your business when you’re offline. Obviously there is some cost to be an offline business in people finding you in your local community. Tell all your family and friends that’s an inexpensive way. Hand out cards to your family and friends note cards to anyone you know. So for our offline business it’s now of course you can get online and get more business from the Internet. That’s why you need a web site. So as I mentioned get your Web site up there. Then you’re going to have to go and participate in social media.It doesn’t cost money to get on to social media and just chat and add your social media pages.  So that’s another hack is to get your Web site up and then get connected on some of the social media that might be of interest to you.

    So we’ll be talking about some of them that we’ve talked about in season one like Facebook and Instagram and Pinterest  and  Twitter .  Then you can see that it is possible even if you have a shipping company to be successful on his Instagram or even of course company like Ikea it can be very successful on Facebook. So hopefully you’ve got a few ideas today and I’ll give you some more when I get Guerrilla marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson out!

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

    Your Website Is Your Online Hub

    I’d like to talk about running your own business and some of the systems that you need to put in in order to have a home business whether it’s offline or on. I wanted to emphasize the importance of having a Web site for your business. So today I wanted to talk about your ONLINE HUB.

    I like to call it the ONLINE HUB which is your Web site on the Internet. It will have its own unique address. You will have it on your business cards for people to go to whether you’re offline or online.  Visitors can click on and go to your business there and your web site will be important in your business for running it. It will be the place where you can actually talk to them about your business by talking about your product or service on your blog. And if you don’t know what a blog is we’ll be talking about that later. And then also it will be the place where you can get them to subscribe. Any of your visitors who come to your Web site, they will be interested in your business and maybe they want to get a newsletter from you. You should have a place called a lead page where they can sign up for either your newsletter or your emails that you send out weekly or monthly depending on your business As well your web site can be the online hub for where you can sell to them if you wish.

    So ,for example, you can have a page on your Web site which talks about your product or your service and it gives all these details about it even if they are interested in learning more than they can read about it.

    Obviously you could put your phone number on the page or you could also give them a button to click and sign up by e-mail to contact you with information about your product or service. You can even have a sales page which you can link up to a payment button service that will actually sell to any visitors that come to your business website.

    So, the ONLINE HUB  is what I like to call the and that is your Web site has a unique location on the internet. Whether you’re an off line or an online business, you should have a Web site that is easy to navigate easy to read and simple enough that they can figure out where to go when they have a question. Also, have a place where they can search and find information if they need to have your phone number, your contact e-mail and you have a place where they can sign up for their e-mail newsletter if they wish. It could be right on your front page of your website or it could be on a separate page that you will send them to if they click on or gotten that kind of thing.

    So your ONLINE HUB is your Web site. It’s important to have in your running of your business because it can be the place that you send visitors whether it’s from a business card or from on the Internet. You send them through social media to check out your product or service on your website. It is an important part of your business and it should be running efficiently quickly and be an easy place for them to contact you for them to buy. Of course, also, to get on a list to learn more about your business and get information from you.

    So if you haven’t thought of- your offline business should have a Web site and it should be running efficiently.

    So we’ll be talking a bit more about your Web site in the next episode in some of the ways that you can make it easier for them to find you and to connect to you and to buy from you.

    Get your Web site up!

     It’s a great place now for people to check you out.

    Mobile Responsive

    A lot of people now are using their mobile phone to search for products or services. So it’s time to get your web site to be mobile responsive. You know where to find out if your Web site is mobile or responsive. All you have to do is get a phone out and find the browser that you’re going to use and use it to search for your search for your own business if you haven’t done that yet. See how it looks on mobile in order to be a mobile responsive web site.

    For mobile responsive , the look of your web site changes so that it has a navigation which is easy to use with buttons to push and to go and to sign up etc.. It actually looks a bit different from your actual Web site on the desktop.

    For a non-mobile responsive website on your phone will have all the text, all the buttons, all the pages, all menus small and very hard to access. So you need to be able to get a mobile responsive web site. At some point, we’ll be talking about how you should make sure you have the priority of having a mobile responsive web site.

    But for now, let’s just go next week have a look at some of the things you should have on your Web site that are important to your visitors, your leads and who will become your customers.

    Yes, you better get your website up there on the internet even if you are an offline business!

    Join “The Business of At Home Business” to learn more!

     

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

    What Is Your Solution For Your Customer

     

    It is all about selling and your customers. And as I mentioned previously in the other episode we’re going to start at the very basics of looking at who is your customer. Before we even talk about selling because if you haven’t defined who your customer is then you won’t be able to find them in order to sell to them.

    Because not everyone is your customer.

    Not everyone wants your gadget.

    No everyone wants your information

    Not everyone wants your newest Plumbing apparatus.

    So you have to decide. what are you selling.

    That’s the first step.

    What is the outcome that your customers will get from buying your solution?

    Is it something they desire?

    Is it the newest golf club?

    Is it something that is a solution to their problem?

    What is your solution?

    So first of all, you should really actually define what your outcome is as a result of using your product or service.

    If someone was to actually use your product or service, what is their outcome and how will it improve their life? 

    What is the end results?

    Will they have more money at the end of using your solution or are you just solving one little problem in their life?Maybe it’s time to define that little problem as to how small it is and decide if you can help by adding a few more other solutions to get it into a bigger solution and bigger results.

    So first off, you’ve got to decide what you’re going to be selling as a solution.

    What is that solution and what is the end results of that solution?

    Next question.

    Who would want that solution?

    So you’d be surprised who wants your solution. At one point, I thought the coaches would want my solution for someone who is thinking of starting a home business in general. But actually I’ve found that for one of my products, I could actually have real estate agents who would be more interested in my solution. So that’s from doing the research and finding out that there aren’t that demand and the audience.

    For example, I’ve found out on Facebook that the majority of people there in my audience are from 45 to 65. There are a lot of people out there at 45 to 65 who are starting another business in their life because they want to have the freedom and control of their own life in terms of having a business, so that was a big surprise. I thought it was just teenagers and young people who are on Facebook.

    But then I’m not usually on Facebook. 

    So, what I’m trying to say is first you got to figure out what your solution is and what is the end result for that solution.

    What is the outcome for anyone who might happen to use that solution?

    And then go and do research on your social media in trade publications in your industry go out and talk to people in your industry about what kind of problems they have and see if they actually NEED YOUR solution. They may not need it because they already have a quicker way to solve what they want so that you’re going to have to find a way to have a solution that is a different, unique way of solving that problem.

    So really before you can even start selling or even defining who your customers are, you have to decide what your solution is and what is the end result.

    What is the process that you go through to use your solution and get a better outcome?

    They always want to buy something for a better outcome, quicker outcome or a more fun outcome of all kinds of outcomes that are positive.

    So before you can start even defining your customers, which we will do next time, are you even selling to the right customers. You have to know what your solution is that you have that your product or service solves in terms of what the problems might be or what do they desire.

    So, start with the basics and decide what it is that is the outcome for your product or service. And then go and research with a few examples on customers and what they need and who they are and finding out who they are.

    Now I’ll tell you bluntly, with our structural engineering firm, we didn’t have to do any of this research because basically people when you want to build and renovate a house and they need an engineer then we are the solution. Obviously, the only thing that is really required in terms of our solution is how we could be quicker; how we can be more responsive; on how we can be on call; for your client and get a good reputation. So we didn’t have to do too much research on what the market was because we have a pretty large market. So the competition was not too fierce in our area.

    So just so you know I’m talking right now about online.

    But of course we’ll also define offline research but before we can do any of that out, figure out what your solution is whether it’s a product or service that you want to sell.

    What is it solving?

    What is the end result for your client?

    why would they want to buy it?

    So have a look at that this week and see what you think about your solution for your business. Maybe look at what you’re going to be doing and see what is the end result of your solution.

    That’s a very important task.

    And then the next phase, very important, is defining your customer and who they are and where they are. So we’ll do that next week.

     

    Categories: Run a Home Business, Sales, Solopreneur Success Strategies podcast Tags: Tags: , , ,

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